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.