THE CONCEPT OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
ORIGINS AND CONTEMPORARY STRUCTURE OF PR
HISTORY
THE FOUR MODELS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY
PROFESSIONALISM IN PUBLIC RELATIONS
Four levels of professional competence:
ELEMENTS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGEMENT
Roles of the practitioner:
The Systems concept of management:
Research:
Terms:
DEFINING AND CHOOSING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
IDENTIFYING ORGANIZATIONAL LINKAGES TO PUBLICS
Types of Linkages:
Defining "Pubtics
EVALUATION RESEARCH
Stages of evaluation:
Applying evaluation results:
Methods:
Measurement:
MEDIA RELATIONS
What helps and what hurts media relations:
EMPLOYEE AND MEMBER RELATIONS
Regarding internal relations, management's job is to:
Five kinds of internal communication:
COMMUNITY RELATIONS
What is the purpose of CR?
FINANCIAL PUBLIC RELATIONS
Four groups of financial publics:
Objectives of Financial PR:
Objectives of PR vis-a-vis Financial PR:
PART 2: PUBLIC RELATIONS TECHNIQUES
PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITING
Writing objectives
Objectivity vs.
Source review
Long-range implications and consistency
NEWS RELEASES
Writing the lead
A checklist
BROADCAST RELEASES / PSAs
TIP SHEETS
Developing solid ideas
FINANCIAL WRITING
How does it differ?
WORKING WITH THE MEDIA
CONDUCTING A NEWS CONFERENCE
PREPARING A MEDIA KIT
PREPARING THE CONFERENCE ROOM
PREPARING A MEDIA ROOM
PITCHING STORIES
Print
Broadcast
VIDEO NEWS RELEASES - VNR
MULTI-MEDIA
WWW
Corporate Videos
CD-ROMs
CORPORATE VISUAL IDENTITY
MANAGING CORPORATE COLLATERAL
Collateral
Outsourcing
Brochures
DIRECT MAIL
NEWSLETTERS, NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES
Desktop publishing
PRODUCING THE ANNUAL REPORT
Developing the theme
Avoiding cliches and "fluff'
PUBLIC RELATIONS ADVERTISING
Visual consistency
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ESSAY QUESTIONS (10 points each. Use the paper provided. There is no need to repeat the question in your answer. Just put the number of the question, then your answer.)
· Why is a good Corporate Visual Identity plan important?
· In your own words, describe how a financial writer can develop his or her skills.
· Situation: You have to pitch a story concerning your organization's stock price fluctuations in recent months. The best place to send your release or to make your pitch is to the reporter at the daily newspaper who regularly writes about management issues. True or False? Why?
· List some common-sense things to think about when organizing a news conference.
· What goes into a good media kit?
· Please give a working definition of Public Relations.
· Give three ways to help your direct mail piece be more effective.
· Give three questions you can ask yourself when developing a newsletter:
· How can Desktop Publishing done in-house save an organization time and money?
FILL-IN-THE-BLANKS & Multiple Choice (4 points each)
1 - What is the meaning of VNR? – Video News Releases
2 - One of the best places for story ideas is the Research department, if there is one in the organization.
3 - The "father of Public Relations" is widely considered to be Edward Bernays
4 - Any published material that supports the organization's strategic goals and objectives - brochures, annual reports, direct marketing pieces, video tapes, CD Roms, the Website - is known as collaterate
5 – Persuasion is the driving force of public relations and many of the tactics that modern PR people use to persuade have been used by the leaders of society for thousands of years.
6 - The most important publics to consider when developing an annual report are shareholders and community served by the organisation.
7 - All advertising - whether corporate or sales-marketing oriented, should be mindful of the organization's objectives.
8 - How much time does the average recipient spend reviewing the annual report
A - 104 minutes B - 32 minutes C - 17 seconds
TRUE-FALSE (2 points each)
F 1 - Cost is usually not a factor to consider when organizations choose to advertise.
T 2 - The PR pracfitioner customarily shows drafts of stories to the source or sources of information
used.
T 3 - A PR writer should try and tell a story by sending out a number of releases that add up to a complete account of the organization's message over time.
F 4 - The lead paragraph in a news story will always include Who, What, When, Where, Why,
and How - in that order.
T 5 - The most common PR advertisements are designed to support crisis management strategies.
F 6 - Producing the Annual Report is an enjoyable task, usually ranking at or near the top of their "favorite tasks" list, according to most PR practitioners.
F 7 - In an emergency situation, there is not enough time to plan as thoroughly, so the most important thing to do when planning a news conference is to write o good news release.
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The "father of public relations" Edward Bernays, in 1922, distinguished between public relations and press agentry and publicity for the first time. Introduced in his book Crystallizing Public Opinion, the new profession of the public relations counsel. These counselors were to be ethical, professional and socially responsible; use knowledge generated by social science to understand public opinion, public motivation, public relations techniques and methods for modifying group points of view.
According to Bernays, the objective of the PR counsel was to interpret the organization to the public ant the public to the organization.
A working definition: Public relations is the management of communication between an organisation and its publics. (However, there are literally hundreds of definitions, most touching on similar points.)
ORIGINS AND CONTEMPORARY STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
Worldwide, more than 1,000,000 people practice public relations - under several names. Many call their work public affairs, public information, communications, community relations, promotion, press agentry or publicity.
On a given day, PR practitioners may prepare news releases, help a reporter develop a story, edit an employee publication, prepare an exhibit, interview a government official, conduct a survey of public opinion, counsel management on the public relations impact of a major policy decision, write a speech, raise funds or prepare an annual report (the tip of the iceberg of responsibilities).
Whatever it is called, PR is as old as civilization, because underlying all public relations activity is the effort to persuade. Persuasion is still the driving force of public relations and many of the tactics that modern PR people use to persuade have been used by the leaders of society for thousands of years:
~~~~letins in Iraq to persuade farmers on several techniques, as far back as 1800 BC
· much of the literature and art of antiquity was designed to build support for kings, priests and other leaders
· the walls of Pompeii were inscribed with election appeals
· the word "propaganda" was born in the 17th century when the Catholic Church set up its Congregato de Propaganda, or congregation for propagating the faith
· the formal study of communication probably had its origin with Aristotle, who articulated the art of rhetoric in his classic book, Rhetoric. The ancient Greeks considered rhetoric to be an important tool of statesmanship. Rhetoric is one of the first (if not the first) books written on what is now public relations
· the apostles Paul and Peter used speeches, letters, staged events and similar public relations activities to attract attention, gain followers and establish new churches - therefore, it is not too much of a stretch to claim the success of the apostles in spreading Christianity throughout the known world in the first century AD as one of the great public relations accomplishments of history
· Press Agentry/Publicity (PT Barnum)
· Public Information (Ivy Lee)
· Two-Way Asymmetric (Edward Bernays)
· Two-Way Symmetric (Edward Bemays, educators, professional leaders)
Why should organizations be socially responsible? What's in it for the organization?
Answers: Public responsibility is a basic component of public relations. If the organization does not need to be responsible to its publics, it also does not need a public relations function. Organizations have an obligation to be responsible - even if it is not in their self-interest. However, while altruism (doing good for the good of it) often makes an effective argument, it loses its appeal when it begins to cost money. The more effective argument is that publics that perceive organizations to be.......
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for help. Government usually helps by enforcing regulations and restrictions that can cost an organization a great deal to comply.
Code of Professional Standards for the Practice of Public Relations
o Beginning Professional;
o Staff Professional (18 months to 2 years);
o Professional Manager (5 years);
o Senior Professional (10+ years).
o Communication technician;
o Communication manager;
o Media relations;
o Communication liaison
o The closed system approach;
o the open system approach;
o Assumptions of systems management;
o Concepts of systems management
o Formative takes place before a program or behaviour begins;
o Evaluative takes place after a behaviour.
o Environmental monitoring;
o Social auditing;
o Public relations auditing;
o Communication auditing
The Bottom Line: What have public relations done to make the organization more effective? Of what value is the company magazine? Was that brochure really necessary?
Organizations are "linked" to other systems through consequences - either when the organization has consequences on another system or when another system has consequences on the organization.
Examples: Government agencies that regulate a business firm; publics (groups of people) with common interests who are not always organized into a formal organization
o Enabling linkages;
o functional linkages;
o Normative linkages;
o Diffused linkages
Defining "Pubtics": ...a group of people who 1) are confronted by an issue, 2) are divided in their ideas about how to meet the issue, 3) engage in discussion over the issue
o Specify Objectives;
o Measure the Objectives;
o Collect and Analyze the Data;
o Report the Results;
o Apply the Results to Decisions
o Continue or discontinue the program;
o Improve practices or procedures;
o Add or drop specific program strategies or techniques;
o Institute similar programs elsewhere;
o Allocate resources among competing programs;
o Accept or reject a program approach or theory
o Surveys (personal interviews, telephone interviews, mail questionnaires);
o Experiments; Using secondary data;
o Qualitative analysis (observation, interviews, focus groups).
Sample: The Readership Survey (use overhead; provide handout)
o Fact questions;
o Evaluative questions;
o Information questions;
o Self-perception questions
Friends and Foes: Journalists often call PR people "flacks" who dump unwanted news releases on their desks and push self-serving stories that have little news value. PR people say reporters are often personally biased, are part of a biased newspaper, magazine, etc., are sloppy or too hasty to get their information, and that many are poorly trained. However, both agree, to different degrees, that they need each other to do their jobs.
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