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