Textbook Chapter 14

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Fourteen - Careers and Expanding Horizons

This chapter focuses on the various factors that one should take into consideration before embarking onto the profession of public relations. I find this rather insightful as I was able to understand the various steps that are essential for me to take before I prepare myself for a successful career. There are various points that are being highlighted in the chapter.

1) Gain some experience

I agree with this point as I feel that having adequate working experience gives one an insight on the operations of a public relations practitioner. Having work experience also meant that the applicant would have an advantage over the others who may not be familiar with the job scopes of the public relations industry. In fact, I feel that gaining experience does not solely apply to the area of public relations as I believe many companies out there would prefer hiring staff who are more experienced and knowledgeable in the line they are working in.

2) Attend more international events and schools' exchange programmes

I feel that such opportunities are hard to come by and should I be given a chance to gain overseas exposure, I will be more than willing to accept that offer. This is because having an overseas exposure gives one the ability to socialize with various cultural groups and such invaluable experience would give one the advantage of gaining a deeper understanding of different cultures. Public relations practitioners would also be able to handle public relations at an international level since they managed to learn from their own overseas experience. In addition, exchange programmes are often than not offered to students only. This means that an applicant who has graduated and have not gone for an exchange program may lose out as he or she is competing with several other applicants who may have gone for more than one exchange programmes.

3) Always apply public relations theory in your work

I feel that this statement is not necessarily true. Theories are often designed with a set of assumptions involved. It is difficult to apply theories in reality when the assumptions does not necessarily apply to all situations. This means that some discrepancies may result in the process of management such that inaccuracies would occur. I feel that it is essential for public relations practitioners to constantly analyze the situation and assess the possibility of fitting the various theoretical concepts into the situation before they proceed with the plan.

4) Read and Research online

This is an important aspect especially in the case of public relations practitioners. It is important that one conducts his or her own proper research to ensure that there would be no discrepancies of information released to the public. Such discrepancies may result in the doubts raised by the clients' customers and shareholders and would also lead to countless queries from the media as well. Aside from that, I feel that having a proper research and knowledge on the issue of concern would enable public relations practitioners to handle the event or crisis in a proper manner and this would help to minimize damages to the reputation of their clients.

Through this chapter, I realized that it is important that we keep ourselves updated because as public relations practitioners, we need to handle and manage our clients reputation regardless of the line that they are working in. We need to be prepared to work for any organisations and that means we would need to be as well informed as our clients are. After all, what is the point of hiring us if our clients know better than we do?

Textbook Chapter 13

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Thirteen - Focus on Asian Public Relations Management

This chapter is different from the previous ones as it has narrowed down to the framework of public relations in Asia. It explores how public relations is shaped and applied in the countries that comprise the region, and provide various aspects that are being applied to different locations. I realized that there is no universal code of practice in the profession of public relations and different countries have different barriers and culture to follow. Therefore, this explains why some countries choose to differ their way of operations from the western style.

In this chapter, it mentioned a point that I would like to elaborate on: public relations in Asia mainly focuses on relationship building and framing. This means that public relations practitioners have to think about the issue or event of concern in a particular angle such that they could frame such ideologies within a certain framework. I feel that this point could be explained with the recent earthquake tragedy at Japan where the government had to deal with several public enquiries on the situation and their measures to improve the situation. In such circumstances, it is important the public relations practitioners understand the ideological positions of the government so the frame they build around the issue or event matches the agenda embedded within the ideology. At the same time, this also highlights the need for public relations practitioners to constantly consider the objectives of their clients before they set out the framework of their strategies.

This chapter also highlighted that trade is an important factor in Asia that led to the importance of public relations in the region. It was mentioned that trade is especially important not just in Asia as it is a factor used to determine a country's economic wellbeing. Let's use the Japan earthquake for instance, the nuclear crisis has led to concerns over the issue of radioactive iodine and caesium in various food products. Such consequences meant that trade would decline in Japan as there would be less demand for their exports and this would in turn result in a fall in the economic growth. Therefore, the process of framing the government's ideologies about health concerns has to be strategized in the best manner possible to ensure that minimal damage is done to the country's development.

Textbook Chapter 12

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Twelve - New Media and Public Relations

As discussed earlier, the emergence of technology has made the Internet an integral part of our lives. People are generally tapping onto the advantages of the Internet to bring about effective communication and to spread the message to the mass population. In this chapter, it focuses on the dimensions of the new media and how it has affected and brought about advances to the profession of public relations.

One aspect that I agree with this chapter is that with the development of the Internet, information flow is no longer controlled or generated by organisations and gatekeepers. This is because everyone who logs onto the Internet can generate and publish their own information on the website, and express their own identity to other netizens yet at the same time, have the option of remaining anonymous. Therefore, with several users generating information at the same time, it has made communication more complex for organisations especially when information published are fast and instantaneous. It has thus created a challenge for public relations professionals to verify the information generated as the public may question the rationality behind such information that clearly was not produced by the respective organisations. Therefore, even though the Internet has enabled a two-way communication between the public and the organisations, it may result in the lack of credibility.

However, one thing to note about the new media is that it has enabled organisations to achieve public awareness. For instance, the increasing reports of animal cruelty in Singapore has led to the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to set up a facebook page to post pictures and videos of inhumane acts that would increase an awareness that animal cruelty is prevalent in this country. As a result, it has led to an increasing number of volunteers joining the organisation to support the shelter's cause, as well as an increase in the number of volunteers who are willing to a sign a petition to combat animal cruelty in neighbouring countries like Malaysia. Such examples clearly demonstrate that the use of new media applications such as Facebook and Twitter are effective in making a message known such that solutions and help are provided instantaneously. We have to take note that at the end of the day, public relations practitioners aim to help increase public awareness for the respective organisations and such forms of communication have been proven to be effective.

Textbook Chapter 11

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Eleven - Engaging with the Media

This chapter is very similar to that of the framework of a journalist. It highlights the importance of writing good media releases that contain news values (Proximity, Impact, Timeliness, Human Interest, The Unusual, Prominence, Conflict) are worthy enough to appear in the headlines of the newspapers or magazines. I was also able to understand the ideology behind news framing in ensuring that the readers are able to understand the articles' perspectives.

One aspect that I found interesting about this chapter is most journalists tend to slant towards news stories that are on the negative side, especially in the case of politics. Even though statistics show that bad news tend to be the centre of the attraction on the newspapers, it does not mean that good news are not equally important. Look at several cases like the announcement of the hosting country of the world olympics. These are good news that generally reflect on the achievements and success of individual countries. It definitely fulfills the news value of "impact" and so I think journalists should have a balance between both types of news instead of being bias towards the negative side.

I would also like to add on that in writing a media release, it is important to consider various aspects that most gatekeepers are on a lookout for. These include the need to write articles that are exclusive and exciting such that your article would gain a competitive edge since it is different from news that the publications already have. That is probably one of the reasons why we have a set of news value that we could follow to ensure that our articles belong to any of these values.

However, in consideration of the issue of news values, I think it is important that we prioritize certain news values over the other. This is because with the advent of technology and the changing environment, certain news values may no longer be as important as the other. For example, I personally feel that the news value "proximity" may not be relevant because readers would want to know what is happening around the world even though they are not located within close proximity. Therefore, the earthquake in Japan still concerns the citizens in countries like the United States or Australia because of their bilateral relations with each other. It is therefore important that we constantly revise our list of news values such that we are able to report on stories that are more relevant in today's context.

Textbook Chapter 10

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Ten - An Issues-Crisis Perspective

This chapter goes into details about the relationship between crisis, issue, and public relations management. It gave me an understanding on how public relations practitioners respond to and manage issues, and I was able to explore how proactive issues management can avert a crisis for an organisation.

One aspect that I agree with this chapter is the increasing popularity and importance of online management. The advent of technology makes it inevitable for one to tap onto the advantage of the Internet to connect to the population. As mentioned in the textbook, several companies and organisations are using website to build relationships with the publics because through the web, they are able to provide information on the organisations' structure as well as the services it performs for the public. As such, the public would be able to understand the operations of the respective companies. A popular form of online management would be the use of social networking sites such as facebook and twitter where people are constantly using these mediums for communication and updates. The use of such information technologies is so extensive that the communication environment changes and public relations practitioners change their operations by working from such online webpages. In addition, I would also like to highlight that by communicating to the public via online websites, the company's display of information would give the public the impression that the company is open and honest because information is readily made available for all to look at. As supported by Heath (1998), this will therefore become as major tool for emerging issues because it is a communication channel used by individuals who are issues-oriented.

However, I felt that such forms of management are only effective if issues are well managed. There is a need to practice consistency in the management such that policies and company operations are constantly reviewed to ensure that the public would be pleased with the company.

Textbook Chapter 9

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Nine - Strategies To Proactively Manage Activity

This chapter is similar to that of the lecture that I have reflected upon - strategies as part of public relations practice. I learned how the various strategic steps (from research to evaluation) are introduced in fulfilling the three key concept of public relations - contested space, intentional representation, and intended meaning. I was also able to differentiate between the functionalist and constructionist approaches to public relations strategy.

What I like about this chapter is how the concepts could be related to any public relations campaign. This means that it is something that public relations officer got to take note of in ensuring the success of their management or campaign. In this chapter, I learnt that there are 9 steps in developing a proper strategy: research, analysis, goal setting, setting objectives, identifying public or audiences, developing strategies, devising and implementing tactics, monitoring, and evaluation. James (2009) has highlighted several examples to enable the readers to understand the application of such concepts and strategic methods. I personally feel that these concepts are useful for public relations to get an idea on the progress of their management plans. For example, conducting an internal research helps to save time by filtering out information that are deemed relevant to the campaign. Such an approach would give public relations practitioners an idea on what kind of external factors to research on.

However, I felt that there is a need for public relations practitioners to constantly revise their research progress before embarking on the next step. This is because there may be a tendency for them to commit a mistake that they are unaware of and by moving on to the subsequent steps, the likelihood of a campaign failure is high due to the lack of monitoring throughout the plan. In fact, it would be much easier to work from the previous step than to re-do the entire strategic steps which would be more time consuming and ineffective. What do you think?

References

Chia, J. and Synnott, G. (2009), An Introduction to Public Relations: From Theory to Practice, Strategies to Proactively Manage Activity, Oxford University Press, Australia, New Zealand.

Textbook Chapter 8

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Eight - Reputation Management: A Driving Force For Action

As the role of public relations becomes increasingly important, so does the definition. Public relations now involves reputation management as nicely put by The British Chartered Institute of Public Relations, that is is "the discipline which looks after reputation". In this chapter, I learnt the relevance of reputation management for organisations and the importance of stakeholders in maintaining a positive image for for the organisations. I was also able to distinguish the difference between various key concepts such as corporate reputation, image, brand identity, and culture.

I felt that there is a direct relationship between the stakeholders of an organisation and its reputation. Reputation as read from the textbook, is generally referred to a person's character, state of being well reported of, credit, distinction, respectability, or good report. Research shows that positive relationships with stakeholders lead directly to improved financial performance because organisations with satisfied stakeholders enjoy a good reputation. It is therefore important for public relations officers to take their clients' interests into full consideration to ensure a positive overall image perceived by the public. That is why we often discuss about issues such as public relations ethics, and crisis management because these factors help to contribute to the reputation of the respective organisations.

However, I would like to highlight that the public relations could only provide minimal help to organisations in managing their reputation. This is becaue corporate reputation could be tarnished as long as a key factor of the organisation is affected. For instance, Hutton et. al (2001) mentioned that the CEO's personal reputation could affect the overall corporate reputation of the organisation. Unless public relations could help manage the personal image of every managing directors of the organisation, it is difficult to avoid damages to the organisation's reputation. In addition, reputation is the result of consistency of delivering on promises (Bussy, 2009). This means that if an organisation failed to deliver its promise to the public, the damage is already done and there is no point relying on public relations to manage the reputation because the perception of the organisation has long been created by the public.

References

Chia, J. and Synnott, G. (2009), An Introduction to Public Relations: From Theory to Practice, Reputation Management: A Driving Force For Action, Oxford University Press, Australia, New Zealand.