Tenth Week.

After reading the given chapters and articles, I think the key points of week 10’s lectures are that research and evaluation are huge parts of PR as it determines what goes into the PR project/programmes, finding out the actual elements of the programme/campaign and finding out the results of the outputs on the target audience/public. These steps help ensure that the following campaign would be better than the last, learning from past mistakes made.

It is important to identify the skills and resources available and the desired outcomes before you choose the methodology and later on the research techniques. There are roughly about 25 different informal and formal research techniques that are stated in the text which indirectly showed that there is no hard and fast rule in doing research.

This chapter showed a great link between business marketing and public relations, the common factor being, the need to research and evaluate before deciding on a campaign/programme/project.

The readings made me think and realize that research is the base of every campaign, programme and projects. Before reading the chapter, it did not occur to me that research was that important in a public practitioner’s world. Public relations to me, was basically about interaction with the public, true enough, research is just that: public relations practitioners had to interact with the public using different mediums to get the information that they need.

Ninth Week.

After reading the given chapters and articles, I think the key points of week 9’s lectures are that, as stated in the conclusion, there are no right or wrong sets of tactics used by public relations practitioners and there are no specific sets of tactics that would defiantly bring about success. Also, the ability to differentiate strategies and tactics is essential as well as understanding their importance.

Claiming that one tactic is better than the other is redundant because it has nothing to do with which tactic is better. It all eventually leads to which tactic is used for what kind of situations and whether this tactic was used appropriately and correctly. Also, it is best that the tactics are used together as a set so as to achieve the best outcome for the public relation goals. There are no specific tactics that should be in a set, instead the public relations practitioners should pick the few that would benefit and help in achieving the goal.

The readings made me think and realize that it is really demanding to have to stick to the budgets and yet at the same time have an impact on the public, making it even harder to pick the right tactics which such limited choices. Also, strategies plays a larger role than what we credit it to be.

Eighth Week.

After reading the given chapters and articles, I think the key points of week 8’s lectures are that effective and extensive planning are two factors event management and sponsorships can not do without. Nothing in the world is free, it obviously applies to sponsorships as well; sponsorships all expects returns.

There are three types of sponsorship stated in the text: philanthropic sponsorship, corporate sponsorship and marketing sponsorship. These three each target different companies and the most popular one is marketing sponsorship because companies of all sizes would want to generate profit and that is exactly what marketing sponsorship brings about.

We see that in both sponsorship and event management, media is an important factor. A good event and a good sponsored project brings about media coverage which is important to any company as it would also generate revenue.

A good example would be Coca-cola. In one of my marketing lesson, my tutor mentioned Coca-cola and asked us why they are such a success. He answered and told us that one of the many reason is cause they do things big. Coca-cola takes the opportunity to become a sponsor for a particular event, but not as a sub-sponsor, but instead the one and only sponsor. With this comes large media coverage as well as attention on Coca-cola. This example highlights the effects that sponsorship could bring about.

The readings made me think and realize that one (public relations practitioner) actually has to be very tactful when it comes to writing the sponsorship proposal as it is difficult to get picked through one measly report. Also, event management is not as easy as it seem, it involves planning, planning and more planning.

Seventh Week.

After reading the given chapters and articles, i think the key points of week 7's readings are the importance for practioners to infuse interpersonal efficiency with written articulation to achieve optimum collaboration with journalists. Practioners need the proficiency in both handling actual contact with journalists and constructing their subsidies if they hope to get their stories out through the media.

Although a practitioner's job criteria did not initially involve the need for proper journalism training, they must realise that journalists themselves already have a hard time choosing stories and writing them. They definitely do not need to be burdened with amateur journalism.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that practitioners and journalists are not two separate parties. They have come to notably depend on each other despite the dissatisfaction resulting from differences in approaches and purposes.

There is really no complete solution to perfecting practitioner-journalist relations, only improvement. Practitioners just have to keep in mind that in order to make a successful media pitch, they have to take into consideration each and every journalists individual preferences. It does not make sense for a practitioner to be wholeheartedly unbiased when it comes to their represented company. So it is inevitable that not all journalists will be agreeable with certain pitches.

As commonly said, you really can't please everybody.

Sixth Week.

I think that the key points to remember from this week’s readings were that dealing with the media is synonymous to publicity. It incorporates the technical aspect in writing media releases and compiling media kits. It is an essential part of public relations activity as it creates a huge impact to the masses due to great power and influence it provides.

The relationship between the media and public relations practitioners should be a two way relationship. They provide information to each other. This can be easily done through media monitoring. It means to be up to date with issues, events and changes that occur in one’s industry, nationally and globally too.

Knowing one’s audiences is extremely important as this would relate to the appropriate media tools and media kits to be used for the organization of media releases.

Holding media conferences is part and parcel of being in this industry and knowing how to hold one itself is a skill. The 5 Ws and 1 H are important and helpful in being a guideline when holding one. For example, knowing when, who and how to invite, the location (where) and the other set up considerations.

The readings made me think and realize that the link between journalist and PR are quite prominent in the angle where the media releases are written similar to certain news stories.

Fifth Week.

After reading the given chapters and articles, I think the key points of week 5’s lectures are that the best ethical framework is for public relations practitioners observe their professional association’s code and the code of conduct wherever they work. Not forgetting, to be able to make quality decisions, one must select a legal practitioner responsibly and carefully as dealing with the law is no small matter.

I feel that a public relations practitioner must be trustworthy, responsible, respectful and have strong personal values so that his/her ethics would not be easily swayed by anyone or by any organization.

The readings made me think and realize that the legal environment in the industry of public relations is tricky. One might actually offend another through words, pictures, cartoons, graphics, effigies, signs, and even human gestures/actions without even realizing it. Also, law is a very important part of public relations, one wrong move would bring about serious aftermath.

Another point to note: A legal win ( in the case of MacDonalds), does not equally mean a PR win. Choosing a legal practitioner that does not lack professionalism would bring out the best results; the best outcome from both legal and public relations perspective.

Fourth Week.

After reading the given chapters and articles, I think the key points of week 4’s lectures are that planning, budgeting and scheduling are important to help organize and make their strategies effective. The stages of the strategic process in public relations are also important as it is a framework/template for achieving the company’s objectives.

In a public relations point of view, strategies need to be designed for communication with all target groups. Example of target groups are: employees, government, pressure groups and local community. Public Relations strategic planning in social, economic and political contexts are influenced by culture, ideology, values and beliefs, systems and business processes. It is also important to always remain conscious of the principals of effective communication especially if you are a writer of an effective strategic communication plan. These strategies that are discussed shows that much organizational skills are needed when dealing with public relations and achieving the company’s goals.

The readings made me think and realize that the planning stages, as well as the strategies of public relations are very important.

Third Week.

After reading the given chapters and articles, I think the key points of week 3’s lectures are that values of trust, honesty, goodwill and community are very important for public relations practitioners. It is also good to know that with strong internal relations, the organization’s overall operations and outcomes will be greatly enhanced.

Here you see that in a company, two-way communication is inevitable; it is now recognized that one unhappy employee has the potential to damage a company’s well-built reputation. Therefore, good and positive interpersonal relationships are then enforced within an organization/company.

“The notion of goodwill has been often underrated, when in fact most public relations practise is based on the goodwill emerging from relationships with publics.” This sentence from the text stood out the most to me as it explained and related goodwill and public relations.

The readings made me think and realize that employees in a company play a bigger and more important role, without even realising it. Businesses can no longer stay uncaring towards their employees, they have to genuinely care.

Second Week.

After reading the given chapters and articles, I think the key points of week 2’s lectures are that these theories are important knowledge to anybody who wishes to practice Public Relations. Also, all the theories mentioned in the chapters are very different yet applicable.

The theory that appeared to be most accepted and recent would be the Grunig and Hunt’s four model approach, the excellence theory. The four models; press agency, public information, two-way asymmetric and two-way symmetric, is a reflection on the progress of Public Relation industry over the past two decades but yet, they still attract much criticism.

Two-way asymmetric and two-way symmetric are the most ideal models. However, the two-way symmetric triumphs over the others as it seeks equal benefits for both the company/organization as well as the public/targeted audiences.

Regarding SARS crisis by Mark Chong, I believe that Singapore did do a great job with the crisis handling and like Denise has mentioned, a point to note would be that Singapore is a small country which makes dissemination of information a lot easier.

The readings made me think and realize that the theory part of Public Relations is very important. These theories have provided some sort of frame work and guidance for all future Public Relations practitioners.

First Week.

After reading the given chapters, i think the key points of week 1's readings are that Public Relations practitioners do more than what they are given credit for and that they play vital roles in the company, handling all sorts of situations such as crisis management, fund raising, sponsorship, press agentry.

Marketing (Adveritising) and Public Relations, are similar only in certain aspects and i admit i initially assumed they carried the same job scope. One relates to buying and selling of products and services to the public while the other establishes and promotes favorable relationship with the public. "Advertising is visibility, public relations is credibility."

Building relationships with the different/various publics and maintaining them is an essential part of this industry. Like the text has mentioned, "the ethical and strategic management of communication and relationships in order to build and develop coalitions and policy, identify and manage issues and create and direct messages to achieve sound outcomes within a socially responsible framework."

The readings made me think and realize that Public Relations is not as glamorous as the media portrays it to be. Behind a sucessful event/project, lies the numourous hours of hard work and dedication. Like Miss James mentioned during the first lecture, even minute details such as flowers placed at the press conference were made by Public Relations practitioners.

I came into this course with the aims of practising Public Relations in the future and after learning more about this industry, i still stand by decision.