Feed: PR REFLECTIONS - AggScore: 49.4

In any profession, one needs a qualification to add to the experience gained in order to prosper in a career. Personally, I decided to purse an MA in PR because I know it adds value to my way up in my career and gives me a better understanding of PR. There has been a debate on whether it was absolutely necessary to have specific PR qualifications in order to break in to the industry.

Our last class was marked with a debate on the relevance of PR qualifications, whether success in Public relations is driven by contact and personal qualities or not. Some of my colleagues argued that experience and contacts counted more than the qualification. To some extent, I would agree with them, but then again at the end of the day one needs to understand the theoretical part of the subject of work he or she is doing. Stuart Bruce founder and managing director of Wolfstar, a specialist in PR, says that studying and accreditation are essential for: "first, basic principles and fundamentals. That is the history and ethics of public relations and how it works as a management function."

Also, to have a PR qualification may be significant to help professionalise the industry, as there have been debates that the PR industry is not professional. The qualification may help to boost the reputation of the PR profession which many tend to be perceived as negative, or in other words spin.

However, many job adverts would emphasize on personal qualities and capabilities of doing the job, with less emphasis on a PR qualification. It could be for this reason many people have worked in professions they are not qualified for, but simply because their credentials and personality match the job descriptions, they are selected to do the work.

In some countries like Kenya and many others, one may only need to have a Journalism or communication qualification to work in the PR industry. This is because only one university in the country offers PR as a full course, where as others offer it as a module/subject. Yet those, PR professionals have been able to carry out their duties with such qualification professionally and successfully.

But, I think if having a PR qualification as mandatory for what one requires to work in the industry, will help create boundaries and people from confusing PR for jobs such as marketing or advertising. Currently, PR is going through massive transition and there is no doubt that in future it will be difficult to break into the industry without a PR qualification.

Finally, I must say that I have learnt a great deal from the course and this was an interesting class. I wish all my colleagues success in their job search.

Ainsworth Maguire which deals with PR programmes in UK and Ireland has set out below some free tips and explained how to handle a crisis.

Ten things to do:
1. Get the facts -- know what happened rather than speculate.
2. Be honest in relaying the known facts openly -- If some facts have not been established explain what you are doing about it. Don't lie.
3. Show humanity and concern for any injured or aggrieved parties -- Before making any public announcements, ensure relatives and those directly concerned are informed.
4. Offer practical help if you can -- Lawyers may argue that to offer money to an injured party is to admit guilt. But to show concern is a sign of humanity.
5. Co-operate with regulatory authorities or investigators --They are doing their job and being obstructive will be interpreted as 'something to hide'.
6. Have a senior person as your authoritative spokesperson -- The person is briefed continuously and sticks to one consistent message.
7. Brief all stakeholders -- Employees and unions, shareholders, investors and brokers, trade bodies, the community, the media will all need to know the facts as soon as is possible.
8. Have a dossier of relevant facts to hand that could support your case -- Health and safety records, training practices, quality systems and accreditation's, test reports and so on can help refute any early claims of negligence.
9. Issue regular updates as more facts emerge - Inform media on when to expect updates on information available.
10. Monitor the media and the web -- It will help you see how the issue is being discussed.

Reference: Ainsworth Maguire, Public Relations - Free PR: Advice and Tips. [online]:Available from http://www.free-pr-advice.co.uk/handlingacrisis.htm. [Accessed 13 March 2009]

Crisis management is a critical area for public relations. It requires one to be well prepared when there is a crisis, and be able to identify a crisis before it occurs as it might get out of hand if not careful. The way an organisation handles a crisis and communicates when there is a problem makes a real difference.

We had an exercise in class that involved different groups in a crisis. And the different groups had different roles. They included the media, a school, a hospital, a food company, education authority and parents. After the exercise which proved tough to some of the groups, it was clear that good communications during a crisis can help to limit damage and so place an organisation or company in a better position to recover from bad reputation.

What one says at the first few hours of a crisis matters. This may determine what the outcome would be. Remember a good PR crisis management can save a company's image, lives and money.

However, research shows that "there is no guaranteed recipe for success in crisis management, but there are key ingredients which are: knowledge preparation, calmness, control and communication which will see an organisation secure the best possible outcome." (Tech &Yeomans, 2006: p. 413).

It’s critical that leaders of businesses, nonprofits and associations are proactive with crisis communications and public relations.

If you want know how best to protect yourself and act appropriately, watch this video.

International Public Relations (IPR) is an area that is still at its infancy, but in the future it cannot escape the global influence. The world is already becoming a small village, and what we see now is that public relations communication with international public is steadily becoming a reality both in big and small organisations. The convergence of new technologies, financial markets and globalisation of businesses is opening borders for public relations practice.

Similarly, international PR agencies play a significant role in the practice of IPR. With several networks across the globe, IPR agencies localise international campaigns as well as contributing a great deal to the globalisation of the practice. (Tench & Yeomans, 2006: p.120).

However, globalization has thrust public relations into the limelight providing new opportunities while posing immense challenges as well. There is likely to be a challenge of diverse cultures.
Although the world is becoming more and more interdependent to seek global solutions to problems, cultural diversity may also cause some misunderstandings. All this calls for better communication and it's important for public relations professionals to help organisations and businesses to think and act appropriately beyond the borders. Public relations practitioners must have an understanding of the culture in the country they are operating within and countries they collaborate with so as to be successful.

Wakefield R. (2000) in the book: Handbook of public relations, has outlined new ways of thinking that public relations people would require. In his chapter, Effective Public Relations in the multicultural organization, he quotes (Morley, 1998) as saying that: "what public relations needs is a 'paradigm shift' to reflect its emerging globalisation. This change should replace the misguided choices just described with a more comprehensive integrated approach to PR in the multinational." (P.641).

He goes on to explain that "international practitioners need to understand that it no longer is acceptable for corporations to impose their centralised mandates that do not fit local situations, as per the 'think global, act local' philosophies of the recent past.
Simply, local public relations activities must fit with the local community and still reflect the multinational’s core essence.

First survey reveals new media taking over old media

New York, March 1, 2009

MULTIMEDIA ELEMENTS:

New Media Vs Traditional Media

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a complicated subject, and often dismissed as a public relations tool for corporates or organisations to keep a good image. Does it benefit your business?

According to Mallen Baker, a writer, speaker and strategic advisor on CSR: "Customer satisfaction is where it begins and the bottom line is where it ends?" He explains that customer satisfaction these days in not just about price and service. And he argues that if one thinks CSR is just "only a cost to the bottom line rather than an opportunity then you don't know your business as well as you think you do." mmhh! well said.

To understand CSR, it is important to understand what responsibility means. L'etang. J., (2006), in Public Relations: Critical debates and contemporary practice, notes that responsibility may be used "in different ways in the context of moral responsibility of business, perhaps which is what leads to some confusion over the morality of both practice of CSR and the role of PR in this field."

It therefore would be right to say that, CSR is about how companies manage the business process to produce an overall positive impact on the society in which it operates and keep a good image. It is presented largely as a technique or tool for enhancing reputation.

During this week's session on CSR, discussed from a practitioner's perspective by Adam Garfunkel, he pointed out three core elements of CSR explaining that it should be a voluntary action of business -- which means being beyond compliance, commitment to ethical behaviour and managing processes. Secondly, CSR is about achieving positive social outcomes -- meaning that a company or organisation ensures quality of life improvements for their employees, community and society in the long-term.

Thirdly, Adam noted that whilst benefiting its business objectives -- apart from gaining benefits through CSR, the programme also created wealth among the society where it operates. From lessons learnt in this class and after reading further on this topic, I came across some important points on CSR below.Through an effective CSR programme, companies can:

Those who supported the motion, gave a list of qualities and past theories to justify why women will never run the industry. Some of their arguments included discriminating gender qualities to handling of PR jobs, such as lack of self confidence, occupational stress, soft to be managers and many more.

It was rather sad to hear a fellow female pursuing PR to say that "a lot of women think they have it but they don’t." If we cannot believe in and empower ourselves as women who will do it for us? This puzzled me. Just because there are many men at top positions does not mean that women will never achieve the same. Having many women run the industry is just a matter of time as change is already in the works.

To explain how this process is gradual, we must understand that it's only in recent years we have seen more women in PR. Larissa Grunig in Perspective on Public Relations, explained this in 5 feminist phases showing evolution of how women got accepted in this field. They include:
1. Male scholarship - The field was mainly predominant by men. Despite women's contributions, their roles were ignored.
2. Compensatory -Progress was noticed, women's contribution and experience was accepted.
3. Bifocal - Both men and women perceived to be separate and equal sexes. Women trying to self actualise themselves and overcome sexism at this stage
4. Feminist -- Women were more confident here and their activities became central
5. Multi focal --this phase redefines the field and develops understanding of men's and women's experience to achieve knowledge and practice that's truly inclusive.

This means women have made great strides considering that in the past they had no rights. Currently we can see many associations, groups and organisations exclusively for female PR practitioners such as Washington Women in PR (WWPR) and the Women in PR Group for Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

According to PR Week, articles and other studies, women now account for about 70 per cent in the industry, and many more are enrolling for degree courses in PR to equip themselves to add to the skills they already have. Fewer men are now joining PR. All this means women already have a strong base to fight the stumbling blocks to push their way to the top.

It was interesting to hear classmates name characteristics attributed to Masculine such as: leader, ego, dominant, independent, objective, hunter and assertive. Some of those associated with feminine according to my peers include: emotional, sensitive, tender, soft, creative and adoptable.

The aim behind this was to show how society associates some of these characteristics with different sexes. After deliberations, students realised that some of these characteristics could apply to both female and male. And that stereotypes were very strong, just how peope look at others and perceive them differently.

How could some of these be applied in the PR profession. More of these was deliberated at length during a heated debate which I was taking part in. The motion of the day was "Women will always work in the Public relations industry but will never run it". I was on the opposing side. Firstly, I would like to say I found this statement not to be correct as we already have women running the industry even in the past when the profession was perceived to be male dominated.

I backed this with examples of women heading big PR agencies like Fleischman-Hillard, Edelman and Ogilvy PR Worldwide.

My colleagues pointed out some of the characteristics such as emotional, soft, ...etc to argue that women tend not to have what it takes to be in leadership positions. Ooops! did this actually come from fellow female students!

However, according to Larissa Grunig (2001), she has noted that women were perceived to be better communicators basically because they tend to build relationships, communicate with others, consider feelings of others and empathise with others. check out for more on this in my next post.

In this session, we went through different crisis situations and what the course tutors wanted to see is how we can handle a crisis. One of them a simple one, was: you assume you work for a computer manufacturer. You send some samples of your new super-thin laptops to selected Journalists on a temporary loan for review. A Journalist asks to keep hers permanently before the review is done. What do you do? Different answers were given.
They included:
- Follow the company's policy
- Consult first with the director
- Politely and diplomatically tell the journalist that it would be unfair as others will also want to keep theirs. etc

What do we learn from this small example? Ethical professionalism is important because it minimises risk. Parsons (2004: 21) provides five pillars that's the claims carry the weight of ethical decision-making in public relations. And that is: "Veracity (tell the truth), non-malfeasance(do no harm), beneficence(do good), confidentiality(respect privacy) and fairness(to be fair and socially responsible).

Steps in decision-making
In Exploring Public Relations by Tench and Yeomans, Ralph Potter of Harvard Divinity School has also defined four steps in ethical decision making. That is:
1. Defining the situation -- get all the relevant facts on the situation and those involved.
2. Identify values -- personal values and what values can be drawn from professional codes of practice.
3. Select principles -- choose framework you and your company supports, and finally
Choose loyalties -- prioritise all stakeholders who demand your loyalty.

I would say if you are making decisions for a company or organisation it will be good to inquire and seek professional advise. Separate personal morals and codes of best professional practice.

Tench & Yeomans (2006) note that: "If a public relations practitioner acts ethically and professionally they are likely to be trusted." (p.290). This means if an expert is for instance not fair to others and is immoral in his/her dealing, then the public would regard that practitioner as unreliable.

Obviously, the relation between media and government is definately essential and an obstacle to government communications with citizens. What nare the baarriers to this effective government communucation? Communication pratcitioners are perceived to have questionable ethics.

Too often, government communications is referred to as just PR. Secondly, communicators cannot just target a small segment of public but everybody. Government communucations can be handicapped by the opposition who prevent maximum effectiveness and accurate accounting of function's cost and ascertaining the coroporate value.(Cultip et al,.2006. pp 427).

In this class, we learnt some of the political communication tools that politicians use such as advertising, party political broadcasts, leaflets, stunts(demonstrattions), posters and newspapers etc to put their messages across.

What are some of the PR roles in government communications?

Firslty, it works to inform the public about the governments activities, ensuring active cooperation in government programmes, managing information internally, facilitating media relations and image management which is to have style over substance, media training (how to handle media)and voice coaching.
In media management, if you are a politician you need to build relationships with different kinds of media to ensure maximum publicity. The relation between media and government is definately essential and an obstacle to government communications with citizens.

The public relations profession is also evolving and as part of communications, one needs to be up to date with the new technology in order to reach the targeted audience or achieve their mission. As a PR professional/practitioner, you to be aware that traditional media seems to be loosing audience to new media. There is the challenge of timeliness, whereas people want to read first hand information.

The new media is changing the way Journalists disseminate their information to the public and as long as this affects them, it does affect public relations as well. During our Corporate Communications class last week, a guest speaker Euan Semple gave an inspirational presentation on new media and how businesses are embracing themselves with new technology.

However, it's worth noting that at times credibility is an issue. Some people tend to trust traditional media, or word of mouth. The risk is that any one can comment or give their opinion online which may include some negative opinions. But then again, one cannot do without new media. I found this video useful and thought I should share it. It's about what is PR 2.0/Social Media and how can it benefit your business?

It's inevitable and we have to learn the skills if planning to work in the public relations industry. What am I talking about here? PR 2.0. These are not those old days, when almost everybody read information on printed newspapers or listened to radio.

Many people are now turning to get information on the internet. With the advent of the first generation of the web in the 1990’s, and the more recent arrival of the community-centric “new media” phenomenon known as Web 2.0, public relations practitioners have no choice but to incorporate Internet functionality such as blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds and social media into their PR campaigns, as well as adapt to a direct-to-consumer communications environment in an industry-wide movement dubbed PR 2.0.

My second lesson on issues in PR was about the revolution of new media and public relations.In that lesson, the course tutor, Michaela O'brien pointed out that: "If new media is proliferating the kinds of news people are looking for, then you might need to think who your audience is and where to put the news." The internet has drastically changed the way the communications industry works and will continue doing so.

Online sources for news are booming and therefore it also means that new media is creating new channels for public relations in terms of how information or news is disseminated either to the media/journalists or the public. For instance, public relations professionals used to write a news release and print it to send or hand deliver to each media outlets. But, nowardays they can email the news release and pictures accompanying the release on jpeg ..etc making it easy and faster to reach the news desks.

The break is over and we are back to class for the second semester. Ever thought of war as propaganda and Public Relations? Well, the class started with a discussion on war and propaganda.

After deliberations in small groups, most of the groups came up with ideas with strong words such as persuade, military, civilians, convince that are significant in the mission to be achieved.

Some of the interesting tactics included:

- Dehumanising the enemy

- Portraying a negative image of the enemy

- Use of media -- getting messages across and support from media

- Demonstrating that there's a capable military among others.

However, one needs to ask questions like, how much transparency do you need in PR in war and how do you control the media? But things not to forget are that normal rules of credibility still apply and to be careful about exaggeration of messages.

Reflecting on tactics used during war to control the media, it left me wonder if the information Journalists are reporting is true about these wars.

After the discussion, we watched a short film titled ’War Spin: The Media and the Iraq War’. The film is about the rescue of Jessica Lynch story, the U.S. Central Command Media Center in Iraq, and how journalists war embedded in covering the war.

Analysing this film got me thinking about ethics in Journalism as well. Seeing how journalists were embedded with front line troops and only getting briefings from a warehouse. One reporter, Michael Wolf, challenges the system at CentCom and is banned from asking any more questions. Another Journalist in the film who tried to be independent described how he tried to be objective during the war, but media minders manipulated the message and suppressed reports, forbidding pictures.

Some of the rules of spin were reflected in this film. For instance: rule number 1. to keep off certain issues and rule number 2. one message and sticking to it....

After thinking through that first session of the semester and reading some articles on war and propaganda, I wanted to know more. I came across the video below and thought it would be interesting to share it.