Commenting week 11

This week I will be commenting on Monique and Brianna's blog.

Week 11

This weeks reading is chapter 6, 'Research and evaluation' from the course text book 'Public Relations - Theory and Practice', by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. This is the final reading for this course this year which is exciting. This reading is critical to the understanding of the importance of evaluation and research in a pr campaign, a factor that I think is extremely important to not only measuring the effectiveness of a campaign but also a useful tool to recognise effective implementation of tactics in the future. The points that I found most interesting and important from the reading include:

• Before a campaign, research provides "...input into the planning of a communication program." Research during the development and implementation stages of a strategy contributes to more effective outputs." At the end of a campaign research provides information about the outcomes of the entire campaign effort.


• The researcher has a choice of different methodologies of research, including making the choice between taking a qualitatice or quantitative approach. From these choices, the researcher must then make a choice from the many research techniques that are offered.


• Research needs to be ongoing throughout a campaign to be effective, establishing the program and progress and evaluating the success of campaign tactics.


• "In most cases, public relations research focuses on understanding the environment in within which the organisation operates." This includes the public, competitors and stakeholders. In other words the PR practitioner needs to do some research into the "current situation" of the organisation in relation to it's target audience.


• The challenges of an organisations decision to implement a research tactic into their PR campaign includes money, access to human resources and time. Although research can be potentially beneficial in the long run, in short term research can be seen as too timely and take too much of the campaign budget.


• "Conceptualising public relations as a process that, once set in motion, is ongoing is extremely important for the public relations professional." This point again emphasises the importance of implementing a research plan and maintaining it throughout the campaign, otherwise the success rates of the research will be diminished.


• "Inputs determine what does into the project of program, outputs are the actual elements of the program or campaign, and outcomes are the result of those outputs on the target public or audience." Research is needed to find out what the inputs, outputs and outcomes are for a pr campaign, thus research is needed to measure the success of the program.


• Input research allows practitioners to identify what problems and opportunities exist for an organisation, how the public view an organisation and what tactics would be most useful to create an effective pr program. "Input research thus informs strategy and research." This level of research involves finding information about the organisation, their situation and the target audience.


• "Output research gather information on the appropriateness of the message and activity content, and the quality of message and activity presentations." The information found through output research allows a pr practitioner to modify a plan or message during the implementation phase so that it will heighten a campaigns success rate.


• "Outcome research not only indicates the level of success or failure of the strategy but can also demonstrate how effective planning and communication have been." Results from this research can aid the input phase of a following campaign program as practitioners can identify what tactics were effective and what were not.


• There are a wide range of methods used to condct effective research. Neccessary information can be gathered through both "...formal and informal research, using qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Additionally, the practitioner may make use of primary research, which is original research conducted by or for an organisation; or secondary research, which utilises others' findings or material."


• Personally, I found the definition of research provided by Broom and Dozier in the text, to be more useful to my understanding. They define research as "...'the controlled, objective and systematic gathering of information for the purposes of describing and understanding' (1990:4)."


• Leedy recognises that "...formal research is characterised by scientific procedures, methodologies and analysis....goals must be set for what is expected of the research." In contrast "Informal research has no agreed rules and procedures, and is cheaer and more immediate than formal research...It is....less reliable."


• Qualitative and quantitative research are components of formal research. The text states that "Qualitative research is descriptive and informative, with the emphasis on the analysis and synthesis of information." Quantitative research is used to "...verify situations that the organisation may already be aware of, but is without any information to substantiate these beliefs, thoughts, feelings or opinions." Types of qualitative and quantitative research techniques include in-depth interviews, focus groups, ethnographic studies, case studies, analysis of existing data, organisational culture study, feedback analysis, media monitoring, content analysis, benchmark research, statistical analysis, enviornmental monitoring, communication audits, corporate communication archives, testimonials, expert reviews, internet monitoring, measurement of online prescence, advertising value equivalents and secondary information sources (each outlined in the course text book).


• The research techniques enable practitioners to gather opinion and understanding from the public. Techniques can include surveys (there are a number of different types, including "omnibus surveys" and "pilot questionnaires"), mail, telephone, face-to-face and the internet, each providing different advantages and disadvantages as tactics for researching public opinion towards a company and it's situation. Surveys are the most frequently used technique and they require alot of thought towards design and question structure (for example, whether to incluse closed or open-ended questions).


• As outlined in the PRIA's Code of Ethics, a practitioner must be "...conscious of coercion, dishonesty, hurtful manner and manipulation of data to meet any other ends than the stated objectives or hypothesis." As we have already learnt from the course so far, the outline for the PRIA Code of Ethics is very important to successful, legal and honest pr practice. I think that it is crucial for all practitioners to come to know the legislation outlined within this code in relation to their campaigns.


• There are a number of "private and public organisations in Australia" that provide information that may assist the reaserch of a certain group in relevance to pr campaign. Such sources include the Australian Bureau of Statistics, including their website which I have personally often used for assignments and have found to be beneficial and effective.


• The textbook effectively concludes the use of research in pr campaigns through the comment "The style of research adopted by an organisation depends upon the system under which it operates, its environment and the requirments of the program being undertaken....". Therefore it is important that practitioners recognise and create a research model that is solely for the effectiveness of one specific campaign, learning from their mistakes in the input, output and outcomes so to develop a more appropriate mixture of tactics for the next campaign.

This reading has made me think more about public relations in connection to evaluation and research. It is now apparent that research is an extremely important tactic for successful communications and without it we would not develop our skills and move foward in our ability to appropriate campaign tactics. I was suprised that informal research should be a component of this research as I thought it would not be dependable enough to be used in a campaign. I find that evaluation is perhaps one of the most important components of a campaign, because as I have empahsised, it allows a practitioner to move foward in their work through recognising mistakes and successful tactics, thus assisting them in the future.

Well that's the last blog for this course, thanks for reading everyone!

Alyssa

Week 10

This weeks readings are chapters 7 'Strategy, planning and scheduling' and 8 'Tactics' from the course text 'Public Relations - Theory and Practice' by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. I think these chapters were really important to the development of an understanding of the practice of public relations. The important points from chapter seven include:

• Strategy is "...a series of planned activities designed and intergrated to achieve a stated organisational goal."


• A public relations strategy is defined as a "...process by which the leadership of an organisation deliberately manages its communications proactively so that they are open, candid and primarily focused on the marketplace and the customer as the first cause." Public relations campaigns are proactive.


• The first tactic is internal, pr practitioners first need to educate their management and CEO about the value of strategic public relations. This will involve becoming directly involved with communication with top management or being part of the governing board. The priority of the operation is to communicate to the public.


• A survey conducted by Professor James Grunig found that in "...a typical public relations department provided an average 185 per cent return on investment to the organisation. The return was even higher - about 300 per cent on investment - when the chief executive officer (CEO) supported a well-performing public relations department." I feel that this is evidence enough that through careful strategic planning for a campaign, investing in a public relations practitioner can really help an organisations development and profit generation.


• The PR practitioner needs to be informed about the mission, values, direction and objectives of an organisation prior to creating the campaign.


• The vision statement (describing the "...future state of the organisation at a selected time." It is ideally developed through group participation.) and the mission statement (this assists in closing the gap between the "...unsatisfactory present and the more perfect future." It outlines the broad steps that are suggested that will lead to the creation of the vision)


• Key Performance indicators (KPI's) or key result areas (KRA's) act as measurable indicators of the progress of an organisation towards the goal outlined in their vision statement. They measure the most important performance results, for example profit. These may not be all that useful to public relations because alot of public relations work is not measurable. They can be used to measure the most quantifiable areas of public relations, for example the number of media releases sent out.


• The 'ten-step strategic communication plan' created by Lester Potter provides the following tep steps for strategic planning; "1/executive summary, 2/the communication process, 3/background, 4/situational analysis, 5/main message statement, 6/stakeholders, 7/messages for key stakeholders, 8/implementation, 9/budget, 10/monitoring and evaluating.


• Budgeting is essential in a pr plan. As stated in the text, McElreath describes bugeting as "...a plan for coordinating resources and expenses over a period of time by assigning costs...to goals and objectives for specific activities." Financial budgeting estimates expenditure and income. Operating budgets estimate the "...costs of the goods and services that the organisation will use for specific purposes..."


• Pr consultancies make money through providing adivse and expertise to their clients. Consultancies are defined as income centers, focusing on profit and income.


• In-house public relations departments are defined as expense centers because they don't need to achieve revenue directly.


• Scheduling is important to the production of a plan. This helps to ensure that the outline of the budget is followed, the tactics for the campaign are implemented in the correct order and at the correct time during the campaign.


• Using lists in a campaign assist in the ordering and motion of the campaigns success. They allow pracititoners to keep ontop of the movement of the plan and helps them avoid letting things slip through the cracks.

I've just noticed that we did this reading earlier on this year so I have already commented about the idea of strategic planning prior to this blog on another post. Yay, I've done it twice now. Atleast it should be well drilled into my skull. Well moving on to a chapter I haven't yet looked at, well atleast I hope I haven't; chapter 8 'tactics'. The points I found to be most important from this chapter included:

• Succesful pr campaigns don't neccessarily involve a broad number of tactic types.


• Tactics are broken up into two groups; controlled (pr practitioner has control over the tactics and the process, eg message creation) and uncontrolled (tactics that can altered or even blocked, eg media relations). It is likely and helpful to choose a variety of controlled and uncontrolled tactics.
• Methods of giving information to a recipient include mail, faxes, news distribution agencies, email, CD-ROMs, couriers, videos, video-conferencing, personal delivery and websites. I think each form of delivery are really inspirational to developing an appropriate method of giving out information to the public and even the media. Although each resource has both negative and positive sides to it, they all provide a positive movement to the motion of a campaign.
• I agree with the text when it states that the internet should be used as a communicative tool to propel the tools already used. I think it is vital to have other forms that will lead to the knowledge of such resources on the internet. For example, a television add may communicate the website that provides further information to propel the organisation. I thought it was good that the text considered both the negative and positive sides to the availability of the internet as a resource. I think that freedom of information on the net would mean that it would be difficult for pr practitioners to accredit their information.
• Research is an important tool/tactic for success.
• The text explores the difficulties of using media relations as a pr tactic. These include the difficulties of having a story that is newsworthy for the organisation, being able to deal with negative responses, the risk that the news message may not always assist the organisation the pr practitioner is working for and some media forms don't offer the space to cover a story completely (for example the radio and the television news).
• Until this chapter I did not realise how important every aspect of adveritising on paper is, including paper size, colours, paper stocks and binding. This suprised me, although it is obvious that particular formatting is important to the development of paper information. I thought it based simply around graphic design, text format and colours.
• As the text states, "Annual reports record the highlights and challenges experiences by an organisation, including financial details, for the financial year." These are required by all public organisations. The annual report can be deemed a critical communication vehicle as it presents the success and development of the organisation. It has become common to post the annual report on the company website as a form of a communication tool.
• Newsleters are an "...ongoing communication, usually aimed at building long-term rapport with a target audience." It facilitates two-way communication through opinion opportunities and competitions. A vertical newsletter is provided throughout an organisation, aimed at all levels of staff. Horizontal newsletters are based towards a readership from a narrow interest group.
• direct mail "...is directed at a specific target audience and demographic group...". I found it interesting that the text stated that "...a campaign will generate a 2-5 per cent response". A piece of direct meal needs to grab the attention of the reader, provide a compelling introductory sentence, ensuring clear information, repeating the offer, compelling action and ensuring easy access to the guarantee/offer. This form of communication has lost ground to the internet.
• Consistency is a key concept in campaign tactics. Each tactic needs to fit together and link like a family. Even those tactics that are different, need to fit into the ultimate scheme and running of the campaign. For example, for documents concerned with the campaign; similar layouts, colour schemes, type font and size, dot point styles, layout, graphics, grammar and icons/graphic design features should be the same to maintain consistency and communicate successfully.
• Branding should be connected to the public relations campaign, similar integrity and positioning should be used for the communicative sources used. The text describes a brand as "...a company wants to be perceived, as communicated through a range of public and internal activities such as its slogan, logo, communication style, company behaviour, culture, products or service pricing." The campaign must be consistent with the image that is intended by the company brand.
• Videos, DVDs and CD-ROMs are used in situations where visuals will give the message more of an impact or where the message involves movement or a "multi-dimensional approach".
• I definetly disagree with the concept that the text explores about photography being the tactic that "'doesn't lie"'. Images are altered to look better, brighter, improve the contrasts, saturation and even cut and move items within the picture. I don't think that photography is any more a reliable objective source as television is. Despite this. photographs can be extremely useful to pr campaigns. The importance of finding a successful and skilled photographer is imense in measuring the success of a campaign. The practitioner needs to deal with copyright laws and the time that the photograph will be under the copyright law. Photographic libraries allow an area where photographs can be brought, instead of relying on your own photographic work. The down side to these is that those photos are available to anyone and may not fit into the style that is dedicated to your particular campaign.
• Speeches are an important skill relying on the skills of a writer and the rhetoric ability of the speaker. "Good speeches are short and to the point." The speech should be written according to the abilities of the speaker, for example in dot points for the confident speaker that can embellish on; or a conversational speach for those that perfer to read a speach then rely on their own memory.
• Presentations allow a number of communication tactics to be implemented. They are used to demonstrate an idea or to provide knowledge or inform a group of people.
• The success of the use of celebrities for public relations campaigns can be summarised by the quote in the text stating that they "...can bring great value through their high public profile, which can cut through communication noise and command immediate attention. Their status also offers implied endorsement of a message so they are often used to spearhead social campaigns...or to endorse products..."
• Advertising is "...one of the most powerful forms of controlled communication, as it uses persuasive messages which can serve as a central pillar for a campaign..." It can be a very targetted and compelling tactic that is extremely effective for pr campaigns. Television is perceived to be the most powerful form for advertising, despite this, it is limited because of time and space constraints.
• Again the text emphasises the importance of sponsorship in the construction of a successful campaign.

The ideas that have really developed my learning about pr from this weeks reading bases around the fact that consistency is necessary in pr campaigns. It is important that pr practitioners create a pattern of tactics that are best suited for that campaigns goals, and that relate to form together. It is also important to note that no mixture of tactics is neccessarily correct. Different mixtures of tactics can be as successful as the next.

Week 9

This week's readings came from the course text book, 'Public Relations - theory and practice', from Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Chapter 13, 'Sponsorship and event management' provided a helpful guide to managing events in concern with Public Relations, and sponsorship to aid organisation campaigns. The points that I felt were most important from the reading included:

• sponsorship is one of the most expensive tactics which can be chosen by an organisation.


• Events range in size and budget. The larger the event is, the more likely that it will need some form of sponsorship to aid the needs of the budget.


• Daniel Boorstin's four characteristics for a media attentive event: 1/ "It is not spontaneous". 2/ It is planned for the purpose of being reported. 3/ Communicates on a number of levels and uses ambiguity to create links. 4/becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.


• The text states that "Sponsorship is the purchase of specific rights and benefits associated with an event, organisation or individual." Sponsorship "...generates goodwill and provides opportunities to enhance the image and reputation of the organisation by association..."


• Benefits include the ability to "...lock out competitors, image association, hospitality for client entertainment, product sampling, signage rights, merchandising, networking with people of importance, media coverage, use of personnel for advertising; and promotions and sales opportunities."


• Philanthropic sponsorship: often community-based. As close to donation as sponsorship gets.


• Corporate sponsorship: "...sponsorship of an event or activity not normally linked to the sponsoring cpmpany's general business."


• Marketing sponsorship: the most popular form and is used as a marketing strategy. Used to generate prodit predominently through increased sales.


• "Understanding the motives and goals of the target audience is crucial when writing a sponsorship proposal." This is generally the first point of contact. Good practitioners will research the target organisation prior to the proposal.


• "...sell the sizzle (rather than the steak) of the sponsorship..."


• "Ambush marketing occurs when a company misrepresents itself as being associated with an event when it has no official, legal or moral rights to do so." This can destroy the concept of sponsorship. If there are a number of sponsoring organisations involved it is important that each takes ownership of its part of the sponsorship, definining both its benefits and rights.
• It is unlikely that a pr professional will be an expert at all areas of special event management, therefore it is common to contract their specific duties to third parties or committiees.
• Event types include: ..."conferences, sports activities, launches, openings, community or political meetings, breakfasts or dinners, lectures..." etc.
• Events are an opportunity to get a face in the media. Strategy will help choose which event is best for that organisation.
• The reasons for holding an event include "...the generation of media coverage, creating a platform for product demonstration, corporate/client entertainment and revenue generation."
• PR practitioners need to ensure that they grab the attention of the media through the wow (shock) factor before, during and after the event. This can be done through providing the visual, the unusual, human interest, spectacle and/or famous faces.
• Many sponsors feel that media coverage is a crucial component of sponsorship. Therefore it is important that PR practitioners meed these needs by attracting as much media attention as possible. This can be done through writing them a media release, providing media functions throughout the event, distributing a handbook to the media members and giving media members free tickets to the event.
• It is important that a media center be provided at events. It is also neccessary that these centers should be staffed by at least one PR practitioner at all times.
• A product demonstration is an event that provides the perfect forum for the launch or market of a specific product in effort to attract sales and generate publicity.
• Corporate/client entertaining: provides the opportunity to impress clients and further develop business opportunities, it is a valuable sponsorship benefit.
• Revenue generation: special events provide the opportunity to gain revenue for a business.
• Tonge's (1999) points to a successful event: 1/ Feasibility: important to undertake research to determine the "feasibility of the event". 2/ Planning: "The easiest way to determine the time it will take to organise the event is to work backwards from the event date and formulate a list of duties and a time management plan for implementation." It is common practice to form an event committee. 3/ Execution: important that the committee communicate together to ensure everyone knows what they are doing, what their role is. It is important to develop a critical path ("which detailes exactly what should be happening at any time") is important to form an effective event. 4/ Evaluation: this can be achieved through a debriefing meeting, an event assessment and a business activity assessment.
• "Careful budgeting is the backbone of any successful special event." The two main areas of budgeting include income and expenditure.
• Events involve the implementation of strong crisis and issues management practices and also a focus on risk management. It is helpful to foreshadow failure and negative occurrences and creating a plan to solve these.
• The O'Toole and Mikolaitis (2002) model for risk managent:

Identify -----> Evaluate -----> Manage -----> Output: risk response procedure & documents

I found this weeks reading to be really interesting because event management sounds to me like an interesting component of public relations. I have learnt how to best manage the planning of an event and the importance of careful choice of an event type for specific organisations. I also did not know about ambush sponsorship until now and it is suprising to see that organisations attempt to feed off others sponsoring work.

Week 8 commenting

This week I am commenting on Jessica Capper's week 8 blog.

Week 8

Three readings for this week. The focus is on media releases. The key aspects that I gained from the first reading, 'To contact.....or not?: Investigating journalists' assessments of public relations subsidies and contact preferences' by Sallot and Johnson include:

• "More than 160 studies since the 1960s confirm the crux of the news-gathering process is the transactional information exchanges between practitioners and journalists that often become the news of the day." An interesting point at the least, this really demonstrates the influence public relations (PR) practitioners have on journalists as news gatherers and communicators, thus emphasising the necessity of their reliance on each other for their own careers.



• The percentage of stories that rely on PR given information is 25-80%. It is obvious that PR aids journalists in their exposure of stories, helping to set the agenda.
  
  
• The text empahises the need for PR practitioners to know about how journalists work, including news values, deadlines and other news styles. One quote that was taken from the research states that a practitioner should "...know the nature of the beast, know the style of journalist, know how they write and what interests them, and the result will be mututally beneficial relationships." It is also important that the stories sent out by PR practitioners, focus on a local angle, thus appealing to the news value of proximity and providing a further relevant story to the publishers audience/readers.



• It is important to be appreciative of any publicity given to your organisation. The text states that non-profit organisations are more likely to credit journalists for inclusion in their papers then profit organisations are. The text expresses that "...absence of a profit motive leads journalists to evaluate practitioners' ethics and subsidies more favourably."



• Excellent news, the text states that it is helpul to have some experience as a journalist to bring into PR. This is good news for me as I am doing both PR and journalism for my degree.



• I found it interesting that 93% of journalists preferred/liked contact through email. I thought that a closer mode of contact such as phone or face-to-face contact would be more appealing as it allows the relationship to build better. I guess that jounalists would not have time to answer phones and have meetings with people all the time when they have important deadlines to meet.



• Probably the key point raised in this text is that practitioners need to know journalistics individually and personally to understand and appeal to their preferences when dealing with media relations. Not all journalists share the same view on appropriate contact techniques and it is important that practitioners do some research into the media outlets they are sending their media kits and media releases to, thus to give them further opportunity to gain from their efforts. I would just like to throw in a quote by Pam and Bob Austin in their text 'Getting Free Publicity'. They state that if you do your research, you will give "...an edge in the useability stakes, because some of the stuff that arrives on editors' desks is so aweful that it can only be described as 'crap copy'".

This text has enlightened my understanding of media relations to a large degree. Although I already knew that it is important for PR practitioners to know how and when to deal with journalists, this text is more detailed in it's approach and has given me insight into methods of dealing with journalists in media releases.

The second reading, Kurt Wise's 'The importance of Writing Skills' also helps PR practitioners understand suitable techniques for media relations. The focus in this text is the importance of writing skills for pr practitioners, quoting Tench 2003) in his statement; "Writing is one of the foundations of a successful public relations practitioner and the ability to communicate messages clealry and concisely is one of their differentiating skills." The text refers to a survey of 200 members of the Public Relations Society of America taken by Hardin and Pompper in 2004 based on the "education of aspiring public relations professionals." The results proved that 71% of their work revolved around writing. Interestingly enough the most common complaint towards PR writing was grammar. The text states that it is as important (maybe even more important) to be able to successfully and effectively write to the clients, because "...Frankly most of our communication is to the client." The key point in terms of writing to suit pr is versatility, to be able to write not just media releases, but front page stories and web pages. This particular test has developed my understanding of writing in pr, especially writing for clients which is probably the most important component of pr writing. I think that this text was included in our prescribed readings to encourage us to undertake more subjects that motivate us to practice writing, especially using grammar.

The third text from the PR News journal, 'How to...ten steps to press release perfection', bringing our study back to the level of media releases and the need for appropriate writing techniques for these when performing successful media relations. The points that I got from this text were that pr practitioners should:

• sell their story through journalistic methods such as the inverted pyramid, as opposed to simply sounding commerical in their release.
• It is important that the release is crafted for each particular audience or media type as one release will not suit a broad range of media outlets, each is different and a practitioner needs to identify the values and formats of each source.
• Make sure the release is short. The text states that the theme of the release should be said in the first sentence, which again draws it back to values of journalists in creating the news through the first sentence of a story, thus appealing to the busy work person.
• The release is often assessed by the heading and subheading, so it needs to be grabbing and appropriate.
• Do as much work for the journalists as possible, find out all the information that you think they would need to write the story. Think not about what they can do for you but what you can do for them.
• Provide a variety of contacts, and be sure to include two for each organisation to aid journalists in getting quotes and coverage of those contacts (just in case one does not respond to the journalists calls and contact.
• Make sure that you check your release after you have written it and before you send it, for grammar mistakes such as pubic relations.

I think that this text just reinforces the information that I have already learnt about media relations from a pr perspective so far in this course. Despite this i did not knos that it was important to have two contacts for each organisation or that the headline and subheading were important for journalists when choosing a release to cover, as I thought that healines were not often included, rather that a simple description of the story was placed there.

Again a tropical gathering of readings that have stimulated my learning experience.

Week 7

aWow, 3 readings for this week... packing them in big time there! But yet again they were well chosen for our understanding. Ok, I'll begin with chapter 10 of the text book, 'Public Relations - Theory and Practice' by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. The points that I found especially interesting/relevant to my personal learning experience included:

• Finally, a reason why public relations is recognised predominently for its work with the media. The text states that this is because we can finally see the work of the practitioners through the media and the outcomes of their efforts.



• Habermas was one of many analysts who noted that the pr industry grew quickly through the demands and influence of the press/media. The text emphasises that the relationship between journalists and pr practitioners is not a one-way relationship. Pr practitioners provide information through media releases, and in return, journalists provide information through media monitoring ("...reading, watching and listening to the media every day") to enhance their scope and role in understanding the publics opinion.



• The point that pr practitioners need to comply to a list of news values is relevant to me personally as I study both a pr and journalist degree. It is funny to see the differing perspectives of such techniques that are used by both careers. For example, in our journalism class, money as a news value is not even explored in the text books.



• Pr practitioners have a responsibility to host their media releases in accordance to the strict deadlines cast by journalists. Therefore it is important that practitoners understand and coordinate with the time restrictions of different media outlets.



• The text states that there are two important components to understanding the news room a practitioner is interested in releasing information to. It is first important to "...understand the personnel make-up of a newsroom..." and to "...know the names and roles of the journalists within the newrooms in your target area...". It is important to know the journalists by name aswell. Practitioners need to consider the media means through which they are providing information to the public as different sources have different customs/layouts/styles/specifications.


• "Selecting the best media for the message is extremely important....Different media target different publics." Practitioners need to evaluate the best media form for their message, this involves staying up to date with media trends.


• Common tools for dealing with the media include the media release (press release, it is important to use appropriate language and format, ie news style, in these otherwise the practitioners release will become one of many rejects. Media releases are assessed according to who you are, the headline and the lead.), a media kit (includes media releases and may also include "...a fact sheet; a backgrounder; a feature article; a newsletter; a biography or profile; a brochure; a map; a calendar of events; a list of key personnel; an annual report; key newspaper clippings; a poster; a keyring; a business card; a media pass; even a t-shirt or cap.") and media conferences (which are held to desseminate news to a wide audience, allow all media sources access to the news at the same time and allow journalists to "ask follow-up questions").


• The text states that media relations involves both technical and magerial roles in pr practice. It also "...calls on the key attributes of writing, organisation and planning, as well as keen interpersonal skills and up-to-the-minute knowledge of news and current events. It also calls for an understanding of the specific nature of the media environment."

I found this reading particularly interesting because it relates to the other course I am doing at university, journalism. The fact that both careers relate and cross-over so often is interesting and allows for enhanced understanding of the role of each professional. This reading has really allowed me to gain insight into the relevance of the information relationship between journalists and PR practitioners.

The next reading by Becker and Van Emden, 'Speaking as Part of a Group', was extremely useful in relation to public speaking although contrastingly focusing on the group presentation. The points I found to be especially important include:

• The benefits of group presentations include a collection of varying abilities, the opportunity to express abilities towards teamwork, the workload is shared and there is a variety of skill, technique and opinion. I find that the most important advantage of group presentations is that it provides a supportive context for the speakers, each individual are not left on their own, they are supported as a component of a group.
• I found it interesting that the text states that the group should use their stronger speaker at the start of the oration to provide a briefing of the topic. I was suprised to read that the text recognises that peoples confidence changes according to a situation. For example a shy person may come alive in front of an audience.
• Visual aids, a change in pace and volume and a change in speakers are all techniques for keeping the audiences interest.
• The suggestion that speakers wear formal shoes because it encourages them to stand up straight was interesting and a point that I have not heard before.
• "A good introduction gives time for listeners to settle and get themselves ready to hear the speaker, before you start giving the essential information in a way which catches their attention." I found this to be a useful summary of the aim of the introduction.
• The low point is two-thirds into the oration and this is the time in which the speakers need to re-gain the attention of the audience using the techniques I mentioned above, or (as the text states) through humour.
• I was suprised by the relevance of rehearsals to the progression of the speech and also by the fact that people end their orations on an irritable level through words such as "That's it!" as opposed to simply pausing and thanking the audience.
• I personally find question time to be incredibly difficult because it is hard to recognise the information that is neccessary to be able to answer the questions. The text was especially useful here in representing how the group can endeavour such questions that are likely to be asked, and how to handle question time in a successful matter.

Although this text was extremely relevant to the pr course in terms of group presentations/debate, I found it to be irrelevant in some of the information and points it drew on. For example the information on choosing a topic for the debate is irrelevant to our situation. Despite this I found it useful when the text put the oral presentations into a context in which doing them will be relevant to our future careers. The text mentions that group presentations can ultimately aid students in interview processes, because they can draw on the fact that they have teamwork experience, a component that is important to the majority of businesses.

The last reading from Drew, titled 'Oral Presentations' from 'The Student Skills Guide' is another example of an important academic article which provides information and points that need to be considered when dealing with oral presentations in a learning context. The points that I thought were important from this text included:

• The exploration of nerves in a speaking context was helpful in that it provided relaxation techniques or techniques for dealing with nerves (such as breathing and viaulising a "pleasant scene") and recognised that although the speaker may know that they are nervous, often the audience can't tell. I also thought the idea of providing visual aid to draw the audiences attention away from the speaker and onto the visual is especially helpful.
• A presentation longer the 20 minutes can be tedious and therefore it may be neccessary to break it up into activites.
• "Knowing your topic will increase confidence." A short yet extremely important point in speeches. I personally feel that this point is critical and essential to oral presentations.
• The methods of providing yourself with cue cards or points that allow the speaker to talk about the topic in a conversational tone as opposed to a drawing, 20 minute talk, which can become boring for the audience.

This reading is very alike to the one above and therefore I didn't feel the need to repeat the points that were already made by the first text. Despite this I found that the second reading was relevant and essential in enhancing the understanding of the first text as it provided a differing view of the topic.

The focus of both readings on oral presentations bases around the need to hold the attention of the audience through techniques that are appealing to their sences. In particular, Drew's text states that "Thinking about the audience is essential to pitch a presentation correctly." I was suprised to see that both readings placed a large amount of relevance on the room set out, in constructing an effective oration.

Both readings on oral presentations are helpful in different ways. The first reading from Becker and Van Emdem is useful in aiding group presentations and the responsibilities of working as a group through support and attributing different opinions/skills. The second reading from Drew was more relevant in individual approach to presentations in that it provides concise detail in formatting an appropriate oration for the audience. This reading bases around the individuals emotional coping as well as the physical aspects of the speech.

Ultimately the texts this week explore the skills and techniques neccessary to becoming a successful PR practitioner and employee. Although oral presentations are a stressful situation in some cases, both the texts from Drew and that from Becker and Van Emdem ease the pain through rational and insightful advice. Chapter 10 from the course text was especially relevant to PR as it explored the relationship with media professionals and the skills that are needed to use that relationship to aid the role and movement of the practitioners.