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.

Textbook Chapter 7

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Seven - Public Relations Management in Organisations

In this chapter, I learnt how public relations serve as a link between organisations and their environments. This chapter introduced the systems theory as a basis for my understanding in applying public relations into context. Developed from the study of biological systems, systems theory is established as a framework for organisations to adhere to in order to adapt to their environments. It is used to explain how the public relations officers are responsible in managing the organisations' relationships with its stakeholders, governments, customers, competitors, and the surrounding environment that make up its environment (Sainthouse, 2009).

I feel that it is important for an organisation to function according to the conditions set by its environment. This is because the environment helps to facilitate the operations of the organisation including the constant influx of revenue and profits as a basis of its survival. As Modaff, Delvine, and Butler (2008) states, organisations are highly encouraged to look at the bigger picture by taking into consideration its environment for it could provide the organisation with several more perspectives. I particularly like how the textbook mentioned that adjustment and adaptation is beneficial for organisations to improve on their relationships with the environment. This brings me to my next point on the importance of open systems.

As the name suggests, an organisation with an open system views the environment as important to their survival. This includes the need to listen to feedbacks from customers in order to improve on their operations. Seeking informations from the environment as a form of input helps to identify potential challenges that the organisation may face in future and minimize the damages. For example, if a company foresees the possibility of emerging number of competitors, and that its consumers are not entirely satisfied with their output, the company is able to salvage the situation on time by improvising on their operations before they lose their source of revenue. It is therefore important that organisations respond to the environmental changes and keep in track on what is happening around them. I feel that it is unhealthy for an organisation to adopt a closed system as its operations may create certain conflicts with its environment due to conflicting interests and this is detrimental to its reputation and survival in the industry.

References

Chia, J. and Synnott, G. (2009), An Introduction to Public Relations: From Theory to Practice,Public Relations Management in Organisations, Oxford University Press, Australia, New Zealand.

Sainthouse, P. (2009), The Role of PR Within the Organisation, viewed on 04 March 2011, from http://www.suite101.com/content/the-role-of-pr-within-the-organisation-a147383

Textbook Chapter 6

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Six - Public Relations Practice

I find this chapter rather similar to chapter four where the issue "ethics" was brought into the context of public relations. Coy and Synnott (2009) state that a public relations practitioner draws on communications skills to help organisations solve problems, assist change, and build relationships that would improve how the organisation is perceived and at the same time, increase understanding and awareness. This means that public relations practitioner ought to come up with effective management skills and solutions to enable mutual benefits for the organisations that they work for.

One aspect of this chapter that I agree with is the fact that public relations practitioners ought to behave according to the various cultural context they are being exposed to. This could largely be referred to the five cultural dimensions by Geert Hofstede where different cultures and ethnic groups behave, think, and interpret things differently. For instance, if public relations practitioners are exposed to a country with high masculinity index, say Japan, it would be more effective if their strategies and angles are aimed towards men since they are the ones who make the decisions. As supported by Coy and Synnott (2009), cultural values are important because they provide public relations practitioners strategic choices for their professions and the organisations they work with.

This chapter has also provided me with insights on the challenges and daily pressures that public relations practitioners are exposed to. I feel that some of the most challenging aspects are how one could keep his or her clients happy. This may sound easy but I notice that there were times public relations practitioners may face certain conflicting interests that may result in dissatisfaction from their clients. For example, your methodology in dealing with a certain crisis may be effective but it may exceed the budgetting constraints set by your client that may result in certain financial loss. Even though the campaign was effective, your client may not be happy as there could be alternate solutions that could bring equally effective results.

In addition, I would also like to highlight that public relations practitioners ought to keep their clients and managers happy before they could fulfil other aspects of their challenge - good relationships, keeping good records, and building good networks. This means that keeping your clients happy is a crucial factor in maintaining a positive image and overall reputation of you and your agency.

Week 7 Reflections and Textbook Chapter 5

Lecture's Response

Today's lecture was a little different from the previous lectures. We went in depth to a particular case study that enabled me to understand better about the framework of public relations. This case study, that focuses in promoting a particular brand of sports shoes called Reebok, has shown how important it is for us to understand our target market and consumers' preferences in creating a successful marketing campaign.

In this campaign, Reebok has made clever use of celebrity endorsements that could help to push up the popularity of the campaign. They have engaged UK's original fluoro-wearing aerobics guru, Mr Motivator to help promote the launch of the new product and to increase public awareness of this brand. This includes organizing television show talks and radio interview where the celebrity would provide tips and health advices to the audience in staying healthy. Observations made in this campaign showed the number of times the celebrity mentioned Reebok in promotional shows that helped to boost consumer confidence. A dance workout party at Zirca has also increased public awareness especially among the ladies who are vying for the title "Singapore's most Motivated Girl".

I was impressed by the overwhelming response that Reebok got from this campaign and I have learnt that it is essential for companies to understand the demographics and characteristics of their consumers. By doing so, they are able to target their consumers effectively by focusing on the key points of the campaigns. In the case of Reebok, the knowledge that their target group are health conscious gives them the advantage of initiating the campaign with an interesting angle - staying healthy. Hence, public relations also requires one to have marketing skills in addition to that of management skills.

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Five - Public Relations Research

As public relations practitioners, it is essential that we conduct a thorough research on our clients' information as well as the nature of the industry to ensure that accurate information is disseminated to the public. Such measures also bring minimize media speculations about discrepancies in information. Research enables us to plan and execute proper strategies that are effective for the management of campaigns for our clients.

Conducting a proper research provides public relations practitioners a good framework for their strategies. As supported in the textbook by Coy and Synnott (2009), research "enables us to create programs based on a better understanding of issues and with a better appreciation of context" (p. 126). I feel that research provides public relations practitioners with clues and additional information that are deemed useful for further analysis of their clients' situation. It is like how Wilcox et. al. (2006) puts, "putting together a jigsaw puzzle... about where to place the individual pieces" (quoted from Coy and Synnott, 2009, p. 126).

A researcher has to be clear of what type of information is needed and how will it be used. This includes the need to know the type of questions that are relevant for their clients. For example, if your client wants to bring about awareness that there are increasing incidence of traffic accidents among 20-30 year old driver, it is important to make sense of what is happening. In this case, you'll need to communicate to your target audience with information about traffic accidents. This includes statistics that highlights the danger of such accidents. Once the objectives are achieved, you could enable them to understand the potential problem followed by suitable solutions that are relevant for them to take note of. You could then analyze the effectiveness of the problem by conducting a research of whether the level of awareness has changed, by how much, and what the audience now know about the problem, issue, or opportunity as a result of the communication program.

I believe my above mentioned example provides a degree of relevance on how useful research is for public relations to conduct successful campaigns. It is therefore important to conduct research to give us an idea on the nature of our clients' industry and the demographics of our target audience. By doing so, it helps us to effectively target our audience with the correct angles that they would be interested in engaging with.

References

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

Case Study - CLEO Bachelor Of The Year

The ACP Magazines has created a set of objectives of which one of the top most priority is to achieve maximum media interests throughout the process of this campaign. In addition, some of the main challenges that the ACP Magazines is facing are the ability to maintain media interests and to leverage on its prestigious history to attract public's interests as well.

Having set aside their target group for this campaign, the ACP Magazines seemed well geared by engaging in several tactics such as getting celebrities to judge the event to gain further attention and to adopt catchy phrases as angles to get readers and the public to vote for the participants involved in the campaign. ACP Magazines obviously did not let off any factor that is deemed useful for publicity of the campaign. This is evident when they made use of seasonal occasions such as Valentine's Day to link it up to the media to create better angles for the campaign. Such measure has enabled the company to open up various opportunities for the publicity of the campaign. The readers would thus be exposed to a variety of perspectives that would either way give them incentives to tune into the campaign.

The overwhelming response received by the event has clearly shown how effective the ACP Magazines are in strategizing their campaigns and angles to attract interests from the public. The company has also demonstrated the ability to maintain media interests through the clever use of celebrities and seasonal hooks to create new perspectives for the campaign. The firm's flexibility has also enabled the media to tap into the live event such that they are able to conduct interviews with the participants and the winner of the event. This has also created incentives for reporters to follow the campaign to capture maximum coverage.

However, I feel that these tactics are somehow outdated as there are several companies that conduct campaigns using such tactics. Even though these tactics are effective as seen from the public's response, it is important for ACP Magazines to think of more creative ideas to maintain the crowd's interests. For instance, I feel that it would be good if the ACP Magazines to get the crowd involve in this campaign. Aside from voting, the company could get the public to participate in the competition such as being entitled to interview the participants themselves. Hence, this is not limited to the media's participation but also the public in generating greater responses.

Week 6 Reflections and Textbook Chapter 4

Lecture Response

In today's lecture, I was taught about how PR practitioners have to interpret and choose a suitable angle according to the different sources that they are being exposed to. This meant that PR practitioners have to study materials given by their client and identify a certain pattern that enables them to write a press release in a specific approach. This could pose as a challenge for them as PR practitioners have to understand their clients' target market and how some angles do not suit the audiences.

For instance, in promoting a certain set of sneakers for a particular brand, if the publishing medium and target market happens to be a teenage magazine that targets between 16 - 22 years old, one would need to understand the nature of such age groups. Since these group of people are still students who are in the midst of their studies, PR practitioners may have to decide that the suitable angle could be along the line of affordability of these sneakers instead of how useful these sneakers are. Yes we have to talk about how effective these sneakers are but the emphasis should revolve around the affordability since it is not working adults we are talking about.

Well, this is just a very direct example but I am sure there are many products out there that targets a wider age group and PR practitioners would have to understand how these group of people have something in common. In the case of the sneakers, a suitable angle could also be one that is about maintaining one's health.

What do you think?

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Four - Public Relations Ethics

In any business operations or investment, it is essential to prioritize ethics over interests since it involves reputation and image building about a firm or organization. As defined by Chia and Synnott (2009), "ethics involves morals (our sense of what is just or unjust, often called our conscience) and values (the principles, standards, or qualities we consider worthwhile or valuable in ourselves and others, such as truthfulness or dependability)". This means that in considering ethics, we have to make decisions that takes into account into our physical, social, and economical environment.

I strongly feel behaving ethically is of utmost importance in upholding a positive image of an individual. The word "ethics" reminded me of the case of Michael Jackson's death where his physician Dr Conrad Murray, who was in huge financial debts, administered a high arsenal of drugs to the pop singer even though it is not ethically correct. In doing so, Dr Conrad Murray has failed to differentiate profession and personal interests as it was evident how he prioritize his personal interests over other factors.

Even though the above mentioned example has no relevance to public relations, it has highlighted the importance of ethics as without the administration of these drugs, the pop star's situation would have been avoided and salvaged. I agree with how Howard and Mathews (1988) stated that behaving ethically has to be something "as normal and unconscious as shaking hands" (quoted from Coy and Synnott, 2009, p. 93). As public relations practitioners, we have to educate our clients in making responsible decisions that will not compromise the society's welfare and this includes being unselfish and truthful. Therefore, I feel that our responsibilities are not confined to just crisis management but also in helping our clients to improve on their organizational and ethical behaviours. In doing so, we are fulfilling our objectives in maintaining our clients' interests and image in the public.

References

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

Week 4 Reflections and Textbook Chapter 3

Lecture Response

As mentioned in the earlier entries, the job scope of a public relations officer may not be as easy as it sounds. It requires skills and proper expertise in ensuring that all things are managed and dealt with in the utmost professional manner. In today's lecture, I was taught about how one should learn to strategize his or her own tactics in making things work according to the company's objectives and goals.

The acronym SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, can be used as a tactic to evaluate a company's strategy for a particular campaign. It enables companies to identify various aspects of their strategies such as their competitors to work towards improving their competitiveness and in bringing about a competitive advantage to their campaign. I feel that this is a useful analysis in providing respective companies a framework for their strategy. However, adopting such analysis requires one to ensure that they have identified the correct competitors as well as established a specific and well-defined goal. In other words, companies need to have full knowledge about the industry that they are operating in, their position in the market, as well as other factors such as their target audience (which in this case, would be useful for their strategy and tactics).

A series of steps is also required for one to adopt to for a public relations plan - Research, Analysis, Goal Setting, Objectives, Developing Strategies, Devising and Implementing Tactics, Monitoring, and Evaluation. In my opinion, it is essential for one to establish a proper set of research questions and objectives to ensure that the results derived are useful to determine proper strategical plans. In addition, companies should try to expand their research by involving both internal and external research as discussed in the lecture to so that results derived are accurate and covered in all areas.

Therefore, I would highly recommend companies to adopt a crucial approach in their initial stages of planning to achieve an efficient plan and outcome towards their goals and objectives.

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Three - Theoretical Contexts

In this chapter, I was able to understand the various theoretical contexts that public relations practitioners apply to their daily work. I also realized the importance of key communication and organisational theories that have influenced public relations. By understanding the various theoretical concepts, public relations practitioners are able to contextualize and predict outcomes. At the same time, they are able to understand why certain strategies and tactics are not effectively implemented in campaigns. These theoretical concepts also enable public relations practitioners to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their strategies which could be an added advantage to organisations.

Among the various theories studied, I find systems theory an interesting and essential concept for public relations practitioners. Systems theory is subdivided into various components - cybernetics, requisite variety, and boundary spanning. This theory thus emphasizes on the importance of having an open system by interacting with the environment such as the audience or publics. By doing so, public relations practitioners are able to get feedbacks about the products or campaigns that will enable them to improve on.

I also like how the textbook explained a particular organization as a system that consists of several components. This means that an organization could only conduct a successful campaign if it has the full cooperation of the subsystems that it is made up of. As the saying goes, every member is important in the company. Needless to say, teamwork is something that many would emphasize on. It is therefore important that organizations ensure that their various components are well taken care of before they could successfully implement their operations.

Week 3 Reflections and Textbook Chapter 2

Lecture Response

During today's lecture, I was being introduced to the term "experiential marketing". A concept used to involve elements of emotions, logic, and principles in engaging with consumers, marketers aim to establish a connection with consumers by allowing the latter to respond positively to the marketed products as a result of certain emotions that was generated within them.

As compared to traditional marketing, experiential marketing attempts to connect to consumer personally in memorable ways. It should deliver product meaning and benefits to consumers in order to receive positive response from them. Hence experiential marketing is a consumer based approach and as a result tap onto the emotions of the consumers.

However, I felt that such marketing approach may be a little risky as different consumers may respond differently to the products or services being introduced. For instance, a toy may invoke positive feeling from someone who had good childhood memories and as a result receive positive response from these consumers. However, it does not necessarily apply to all as a person with the lack of childhood would never comprehend the benefits of these products and thus respond negatively.

Therefore, marketers should be sensitive when engaging in such approach because consumers may feel emotionally offended and this would be detrimental to the products' popularity.

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Two - Trends and Developments

This chapter discussed how public relations practitioners could adjust to the changing environment. The types of method adopted in the past may no longer serve relevant in today's context and so there is a need to constantly revise our method in dealing with clients, especially when it comes something that extends beyond our culture.

I would like to discuss how public relations practitioners should deal with campaigns that are on an international stage. This means that there would be a myriad of cultures and ethnic groups that we will be exposed to. Public relations practitioners should thus avoid being ethnocentric and think that foreign and unknown cultures are inferior to theirs. It is important the public relations practitioners conduct a thorough research on the background of the respective cultures to ensure that no culture or ethnic group is being offended. For instance, you would not want to campaign a beef burger to a country like India where it is known to avoid beef as a source of food.

In addition, I think that being multinational companies that have tapped onto a variety of cultures in all parts of the region would find themselves suitable to help connect and narrow the gap that exists between foreign operations and top management.

Thus , I can not emphasize any further how important it is for public relations practitioners to understand the respective countries' culture, and ethnic particularities to enable the success of international campaigns.

Week 2 Reflections and Textbook Chapter 1

Lecture Response

I was never sure about the definition of public relations till today's lecture when I was being introduced to the nature and dynamics of this specialization. In my point of view, one may define this term as promoting a set of objectives and image of a person or organization to establish an impression of the said subject.

During lecture, I get to understand the daily operations of a public relations officer. The job scope of a public relations officer may not be as simple as one thought it to be. Not only do they have to be good in their communications skills, but should also excel in writing. This is probably because a public relations officer serves as a representation for the particular organization and thus, the work produced by him or her has to be of excellent quality - something that would tap onto the public's interests. For instance, public relations that are related to consumer goods would need to come out with a good press release to catch the interests and attention of the journalists who would in turn feature the respective products on magazines that the public subscribes to. Hence, one may also infer that a journalist's write up of your products is largely determined by your quality of press releases.

Earlier on, we were asked about the difference between advertising and public relations.
I felt that advertising is a subset of public relations. This means that a public relations officer inculcates advertising in his or her work. This would make a lot of sense as mentioned that public relations officers act as a voice for the respective organizations that they are working with.

Having said that, it is important to note that while image enhancement is a crucial objective for public relations officer, one should mind the ethics that are involved to ensure that no forms of dishonesty or fraud are committed.

Reflections on Textbook Chapter One - Understanding Twenty-First Century Public Relations

People often have the misconception about the job scopes of a public relations practitioner. In this chapter, I was able to understand the dynamics public relations. In fact, there are several responsibilities that a public relations practitioner ought to do and these are some of the few points that people may not know before advancing into the public relations industry.

What does a public relations practitioner ought to do? I strongly feel that regardless of your organizations' objectives, maintaining a certain level of ethical practice is vital to survive in the public relations industry. This is because clients would only trust and respect a public relations practitioner if he or she handles the job in the utmost professional manner. Thus, even if it means not being able to achieve your clients' objectives due to ethical issues, your clients would know that you are doing your job as a professional public relations practitioner who would not go beyond a certain level that exceeds the code of ethics. Even if you are one who would do so in order to obtain your clients' objectives, your clients may have a different impression about you. As supported in the textbook, Chia and Synnott (2009) states that "consultants cannot assume that the client is satisfied with their work, no matter how it is carried out" (p. 19).

In addition, I would also like to highlight how important it is for a public relations practitioner educate the client on certain information such as the code of ethics or research findings to enable the client to understand his or her objectives in embarking on a particular action. In doing so, there would be no gap between the clients expectations and the delivery of the public relations practitioner.

Therefore, it is important that a public relations practitioner takes responsibility in protecting the interests of the client and this includes the educating of clients on proper ethical management and strategies that would not tamper both the public relations practitioner and the clients' reputation in the industry.

References

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