Comparing two organizations and their online newsrooms..

I chose to research Fox News and take a look at their newsroom that is listed on their website. I found the link to their media relations super quick and could easily look at the lists that they have provided which include their own executive vice presidents information. They also have easy access tabs to their media contacts, their press releases, and corporate information. All in all this was an extremely good website to navigate and gather any necessary information needed.

The second organization I chose to research was CNN. Finding CNN’s online newsroom was more difficult. The tab was listed as the news source, and upon clicking this grey colored word, a half page video appeared with different news clips. I spent about ten minutes on this site and I have yet to find the newsroom or any media contacts. Also, there was a plain corporate email listed as the contact info instead of any managers or anyone holding a title.

Please write about your current understanding of the field of Public Relations. How do you see yourself working in this field, if at all, now that you have spent time this term looking at this profession.

The public relations field is huge. There are endless possibilities when looking for different types of PR you want to do like medical, non-profit, corporate, political, hospitality, and many many others.

After spending an entire semester in an Intro to PR class, I absolutely know that this is what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. Working for the GOP is a dream that I want to be living in and kicking butt at it.

We had a guest speaker come in and speak to us a few weeks ago, and man did she convince me that this is what I need in life. She spoke of the fast-paced, always have your phone in your hand and alarms set at all times of the night, lifestyle and that is all I look for when searching for my career. I want that feeling when it’s 2 am and a crisis came up and I have two hours to get a press release written and a plan formed.

The “Got Milk” ad campaign using celebrity endorsers has generated a lot of awareness and media coverage over the years. Think of another celebrity campaign, do a little internet research, and review / discuss the campaign you pick by looking at its failures and success.

My professor gave me this assignment and it has been by far my favorite assignment. I chose to use the ever-known ASPCA commercial featuring our favorite mood killer/singer, Sarah McLachlin. This has got to be one of the most well known commercials in the history of the commercial industry.

I chose this campaign to study because literally EVERYONE hates this commercial. Whoever wrote out ASPCA’s campaign more than likely got an extremely good raise. The biggest success they created was when they put together the tragically gruesome looking video clips of the puppies and kittens looking as sad and sick as humanly possible, and then proceeded to slap you in the face with “In the arms of the angels” lyrics that reach down your throat and essentially rip out your heart.

When watching this commercial you are either one of three people: the first person being the one who immediately makes it their highest priority in life to change the channel, the second is the one who cannot bear to change the channel and so they immediately call and donate and get their “free” t-shirt, or the last one, who has been hardened by watching this heart breaking commercial over and over, and it no longer affects their ability to sleep at night.

Having that ability using just a commercial is absolutely a success. Everyone will remember the commercial for years and years to come, and will be able to hear that song about the freakin’ angels. But, did this commercial also have its own failures? Absolutely.

The biggest fail of this commercial is also coincidently its biggest success, the song. This song is forever burned in our minds (see paragraph 2) with a negative connotation. It is so negative in fact that when people here it, they immediately change it. So if the commercial is being changed every time the song starts, how is any new information going to be shown for the audience to see? This creates a huge downfall for both Sarah McLachlin and the ASPCA.

Why is it an important task for PR Practitioners to manage conflict and smaller problem situations for an organization? What are ways that this monitoring and managing of these issues can be done to be most effective?

Managing crisis can range from being simple and easy to being the most challenging problem an organization has faced. Many organizations do not have the time to face a crisis that has gained attention, and that is were PR comes in.

Practitioners handle a wide variety of cases; whether those are be individual cases or lawsuits filed against global companies. Most do not have the resources, experience, or even time to manage a crisis and keep up with company requirements. We (the practitioners) are trained for four years making sure that crisis can and will be handled. This makes it our job to provide the best crisis coverage that can be found.

The most effective way to monitor and manage a crisis is by constantly staying ahead of the game. If a practitioner knows that a bad publicity story is going to be published or discussed on the evening news then a press release, a crisis management plan will be formed, and actions will already be in place to make as soon as the story surfaces.

This way crisis are never as big as anticipated, and images are not tarnished to the point that they are unsalvageable. Even if a story or problem arises, practitioners will still always be able to act quickly to resolve the issue and keep the audience focused on a different topic.

The power of communicating and techniques used to persuade an audience can be a good thing for society because…

For starters, society’s opinion is formed by the opinion of everyone else. Opinions are influenced by things you see, hear, and observe every single day. Persuasion could be defined as one of the most powerful tools a person could have. Grasping and excelling at the art of persuasion is the key to really getting successful in life.

Through the powers of communication, PR firms can persuade society to completely change their opinions on a group, person, or a business.

It is election season, and that means that people’s opinions are at a very vulnerable state. Attacks are literally being seen almost every second a day, and this makes the viewers really think about different ideals, opinions, and angles.

If people did not have the opportunity to view different angles and views on topics then everything and everyone would be one sided; and that is not how Americans should live their day to day lives. But, being easily persuaded is something that PR practitioners really bank on.

To me, the most interesting thing about public relations and communications is…

PR and communications are both very broad fields. Both require an insane amount of patience and time to discuss with clients, deal with clients, media, and other resources going against you, and effectively do the job required. This difficult of a challenge excites me to the point where I wish I was already graduated and working in the field. Knowing that I will have the challenge of changing the whole face of a company, changing the way a certain community sees a person, and eventually getting to represent all those scandal stricken politicians that make up the GOP.

Now granted, when I think of working PR I automatically go straight to Olivia Pope and all her badass peeps taking on these extreme cases that are do or die. I know that this will not happen as portrayed on the show, because more than likely there will be no love stricken affair with the president, or even getting abducted by terrorist group only to be rescued by a MIA group member with an astonishing beard. But, it is still extremely encouraging enough to get through the program and start being a gladiator in a suit (thank you, Shonda Rhimes).

Even though PR is nothing like what is portrayed in Shondaland, it is still an extremely crazy, non-stop, always moving field and that is what is most interesting to me.

Why is clear communication important in times of crisis and emergency?

When a crisis strikes many people are uniformed of the true nature of the emergency. They may have certain questions or statements they need to get out, or even a problem that they need assistance with. Getting the word out and receiving a reply is a much bigger problem than what most might think. Establishing communication is up to the local, state, and federal governments in a time of crisis or an emergency. This is so that citizen’s problems and questions can be answered, and that information that is vital to keeping citizens safe needs to be distributed quickly and efficiently.

For example, we (the southeast United States) just suffered through a major hurricane. If there was no communication by the local, state, and federal governments then most people wouldn’t know what roads were evacuation routes, when and where the hurricane was hitting, and what supplies people needed to survive the storm. Without that information getting across, many people would have been unprepared and many casualties would have been a result.

Public Relations is a fun, yet challenging, career field because…

I cannot really answer this honestly because I have not worked in the PR world yet. But I completed a hospitality/PR internship over the summer and seeing PR work in the real world instead of on a textbook page is something I will never forget. The challenge with PR is that most people do not know that they are being grouped into a guest characteristic. While working in the rooms division (front desk, concierge, housekeeping, etc.) of this resort I was able to determine the different types of guests that were about to approach me in the hall or at the front desk. This is an invaluable tool to have when looking at potential customers or the potential audience that your campaign or pitch will have. After speaking for a few moments with each guest I could determine what things would keep the guest happy and what would make the guest start to get agitated or have a change in mood. Being able to quickly determine this was key in getting my guests checked in happy, or keeping them happy for the remainder of the stay.

The challenge that PR practitioners face every day is making a customer angry or upset, or insulting the audience by writing a bad press release, creating a bad ad, or even putting the wrong message out with a pitch. Working with an already agitated customer who has a very narrow idea of what they need/want is also a difficult challenge to face because any wrong move could set them off and leave you with nothing. This field is always changing in new ways for practitioners and this keeps things new and fresh.

Why is Research so important for a Public Relations Practitioner?

Research is important for any job in any career. But for a PR practitioner, research can make or break a campaign or pitch. Practitioners spend weeks, months, or even years putting together a campaign for their client, and if they wrote the entire campaign without researching anything about it then it will most likely fail. When making a campaign you have to research the client themselves, the audience, the location, the business, the surrounding areas, numbers, etc. and not researching these things can be disastrous for the firm, campaign, and client.

If you do not have research to back up a claim then the claim would not be taken seriously and all credibility would be lost. A PR practitioner relies on credibility with clients so their good word will bring in more clients and revenue.

 

Comparing and contrasting modern communication tools with traditional communication tools through the eyes of a PR Practitioner

Modern communication tools are tools that are online, cellular, and technology related. Some of these are Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and many many others. Also most, if not all, newspapers have online websites and journals that can be accessed 24/7. This form of communication never stops. Traditional communication tools are newspapers and telecasts or broadcasts.

PR Practitioners who use modern tools have a slight upper hand with working with social media.They can put information and breaking news in an instant which is significantly faster than going through a reporter and having to write a story and then waiting for it to be published. In my personal opinion I believe that modern technology is more efficient but not as reliable as waiting for a published article in a newspaper. Sure, getting information out as soon as it is known is fantastic, but it isn’t always the best way to get information out. If someone saw an arrest happening that doesn’t look like its following protocol and they tweet about it then they have probably sparked some outrage; but if they wait and report back to a reporter or editor of a newspaper and wait for the police to give information also then they can accurately report a story.

Going old school and using a reporter or anchor of a tv station usually means that you have gathered plenty of information before you’ve pitched a story. Using a newspaper reporter generally takes longer for the story to get out but when it does it usually has all the facts needed to present a thorough story. That goes for a broadcaster also. Granted TV takes less time to get on air than it takes to write a story and publish it, but the difference with TV is that the story can continually get updated through breaking news. No one likes breaking news because it always interrupts our tv shows, but it does do some good.

Both modern and traditional tools need PR Practitioners though. Social media needs practitioners so that what they are saying cant be used against them at a later time and newspaper journalists and tv anchors need practitioners to provide them with stories, press releases, and breaking news. So neither would really get very far without a PR Practitioner helping them along the way.