10th Week FINAL (10 Marc 2010)

Focus on Asian Public Relations Management- Richard Stanton

Especially Asia, it is very different in culture and language compared to Western countries. To engage the people, one must understand their culture and accept it that it is part of them that makes them special and respect the culture. For example, the muslims are conservative people and they do not consume pork. The Koreans and Japanese are very well mannered. They respect their superiors and elderly, therefore one must not be rude before an elderly. To make someone from a country accept you as a foreigner, it is best to speak their language. I've been to Korea 2 years ago and I found out that when I spoke to the vendors in English, they just treated me coldly. But when I spoke in basic Korean, the treatment was different. The people were amazed and happy that I took the initiative to learn their native. Then I was able to immerse myself in their culture. As Public Relation officer, we have to be sensitive to other countries' culture and language. Instead of critiquing it or anything, why not take a step back and understand their culture, enjoy being in a foreign land and learn as we seep in the traditions.

9th Week (3 Mar 2010)

New Media and Public Relations- Paull Young

INTERNET TV versus TRADITIONAL TV

We all know how blogs and online media are taking over traditional newspapers, therefore, internet TV taking over traditional TV is not at all surprising. A TV-like screen, located in domestic and other spaces and transmitting signs from other places, will be the future. It may even be that television as a word comes to take over what we now call “new media.” - Toby Miller ( Journal)internet tv is going to be as common as tv and in future new media = television. Many reports shows that new media is taking over traditional media. Text books are written to introduce new media. For example: Literacy in the New Media Age by Gunther Kress. This is to prove that public relations have to move with time and technology.

One of the examples that best show using new media:

In the United States, reports show around nearly 20% of households with internet access use it to watch television broadcasts either via channel sites or YouTube, double the number two years ago. - The Conference Board and TNS, Consumer Internet Barometer, September 2008.

Therefore, Jana Bennet, Director of BBC Vision said during the press release on 19/11/2008 "From 27 November licence fee payers will be able to watch BBC programmes, live, wherever they are in the UK on their computers, mobile phones and other portable devices."Through iPlayer and series stacking, they'll have the option to catch up with them later."

references:

BBC one and BBC two to be simulcast from 27 November 2008. Retrieved March 16, 2010, fromhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/11_november/19/simulcast.shtml

The BBC's international commercial TV channels [Image] 2010. Retrieved March 16, 2010 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/

Miller, T 2000, ' Hullo television studies, bye-bye television?', Television New Media, vol.1, pp.5

8th Week (24 Feb 2010)

An Issues-Crisis Perspective-Gwyneth Howell

reflect and discuss

• There is a range of websites offering information about organizations and individuals all the time. Visit www.truthorfiction.com and http://urbanlegends.about.com. Think about how you would respond if your company appeared in one of these reports.

I've chanced upon this article about Ericsson giving away free laptops. This rumor was circulated in emails asking people to forward this particular email to 8 people in 2 weeks. If you've done that, Ericsson will send you a free T18 Ericsson laptop and if you send it to 20 people, you'll receive a free Ericsson R320. (refer to fig.1)

The truth is that Ericsson is not giving away any laptops, moreover it's a cell phone company.

Standing from a consumer point of view, I would think that Ericsson is making use of this method to gain free publicity by the "word of mouth" which is the email. So if my company were to be in this situation, I would alert the police and hold a press conference. I would highlight that this is not a marketing gimmick and apologize to those who are conned. I will also highlight that if there are such promotions, it will be telecasted over radio, television and the print media. There will also be verification numbers along the vouchers or such. I also encourage if the public were to encounter such an email or via other means, feel free to call my company's customer service line.

fig. 1

references:

Free Ericsson laptops?. Retrieved March 19, 2010, from http://truthorfiction.com/rumors/e/ericsson-laptop.htm

7th Week (17 Feb 2010)

Using social media to find a job

I agree to a certain extant that social media helps us to build our social presence. I believe that social media makes it easier for us to find a job. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MSN allows us to create the ideal profile we want others to know about us. We add people from all walks of life on your account which enable us to have a larger network of friends which might be of help in searching for a job. For example, my cousin posted on his Facebook wall, " Looking for job..any lobang(means connection in malay)?" and people started posting comments such as who and who is hiring, he may try sending in his resume.

However, there are risks for both employers and employees. Some organizations are out there to scam people into joining them and might cheat their money. Other risks such as employees find that the job introduced may not be up to expectation, employers find that employees are not as described on their social media sites.

Social media can be of help to find a job, it also can cause you to lose your job. http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/2323715/Beware-the-Facebook-snitch

Employers are all on the look out for their employees. Employees think that it is safe to comment on anything on their personal page, but many have forgotten that they got employed via social media, meaning their bosses can view their page anytime.

Therefore, we have to be accountable for what we type on our social media sites. It can be a helping tool for us to get a job, it can also help us lose a job.

references:

Teaching PR: Using social media to find a job. Retrieved March 19, 2010, from http://www.teachingpr.org/teaching_pr/2010/03/using-social-media-to-find-a-job.html

Beware the Facebook snitch. Retrieved March 19, 2010, from http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/2323715/Beware-the-Facebook-snitch

6th Week (10 Feb 2010)

Public Relations Practice- Gae Synnot

reflect and discuss

• Think about the values that are important to you.

Following the eight categories of public relations effectiveness, the values that are important to me falls under the category of work practices and approach, skills abilities and knowledge, personal attributes and judgement and ethics. Individuals have to take responsibility for their work,be committed to getting the job done. Employers and clients will be able to feel the effort in our work if we put in the heart and soul into what we're doing. I feel that we cannot be too selfish with what we know. Meaning, giving and sharing of advice will add value to whatever we are doing. I also feel that being people oriented is important. We should build good connection with people and be genuine with the people around us, so that there are more willing to share their knowledge with us. I believe that honesty is very important, so is being ethical in our work aspect. We have to be a person of integrity, therefore people will have trust in us and see us as a whole.

• Would these values influence you in the type of organization you might choose to work for? In what way?

To a large extent these values will influence the type of organization I'll work for. If the values of the company and mine do not differ much, I'll keep it in consideration. However if the difference in values are large, I would not want to work there as having to work in an environment that is not honest, ethically upright,taking each job with a slip short attitude will affect my personal progress and I would not be proud of my work and would not have a sense of belonging to the company.

• Can you think of an organization that appears to have values you might find difficult to accept?

Instead of suggesting a company that I find difficult to accept, I suggest a company that shares similar values that I have, Ogilvy & Mather.

Watch this video to feel the healthy vibe the company offer to young students.

references:

Plan "C". Retrieved March 19, 2010, from http://thisisogilvy.com/?p=112

5th Week (3 Feb 2010)

Our debate topic was about “ PR agency consultants should always do what the agency's clients want them to do.” [Opposition Team]

Below is be a short summary of what I put forward during the debate as the second speaker representing the Opposition team that the team stands against the notion that PR agency consultants should always do what the agency's clients want them to do.

Splitting the two words, Public and Relations, the Oxford dictionary( Homby 1995, p. 936 & 985) states that Public means “ Concerning people in general.” and Relations means “ Links, contacts or deals between people.” Therefore, having so much concerns with the public, PR consultants have to be SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE (emphasize these two words) towards educating the public.

For example, smoking, littering, racism and despising of certain religion. Are these being socially and morally acceptable? In our opinion, if consultants were to go with the clients' idea of promoting any of the above examples, it is indicating to the public that IT IS OKAY TO SOME, IT IS OKAY TO BE RACIST ( emphasize words)

The next example depicts that in the long run, this will happen if we educate the public wrongly about social and morale views. Not only will the public find themselves getting involve in legal issues, the PR agency will have the risk of being sued too.

Eg 1: SINGAPORE: Blogger arrested for racist post. May 22 2008. It stated that “ Singapore law penalizes anyone who “deliberately wounds the religious or racial feelings of another” with up to three years of jail and a fine.

Eg 2: Youtube user, Nigahiga, Peter Chao.

In conclusion, the opposition team stand against the statement that PR consultants should always do what the agency's clients want them to do. Moreover they are consultants. They provide advice professionally, therefore, they will provide advices that will benefit the society, the PR agency and most importantly maintaining the best possible image of their clients.

Rebuttal*

Thank you.

PERSONAL RESPONSE:

Being the first group to kick of the weekly debate, we definitely have a huge amount of stress as we are the ones that set the benchmark. During the rebuttal section, I felt that the Affirmative team drifted a little from the topic and could not understand that the internet has been and is the leading platform for PR consultants to showcase their projects and how many people from the public are able to have access to it, such example will be the Great Schlep. It is a great example of using new media to broadcast to the public about the “how to win over the Jewish voters” campaign for now President of the United States, Mr Obama.

4th Week (27 Jan 2010)

Media Framing and News Value

Chapter 11 in the “An Introduction to Public Relations: From Theory to Practice” discussed about what news values and framing are about. Remember in the previous trimester of Communication Studies we did an assignment on Media Framing? We discussed about how the media can package the situation into something positive or negative, how this one article the media portray can popularize someone positively or negatively. Just like the Magic Bullet Theory, it injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience.

For example, the flood on the 19 of November 2009 made headlines and history in Singapore. The newspapers were saying that the government had not anticipated such an event to happen while bloggers thought likewise and questioned the oversight and ability of the government. This was the example I used in my assignment to point out and compare the framing techniques used in a mainstream media source to the framing techniques in an alternative media source.

And about News Value,

Truth: The mainstream media and the alternative media source provides truth but it is how the writer frames the story. Mainstream media wrote the articles in a more politically right manner while the alternative media source wrote it in a more straight forward manner.

Timeliness: At that point (19 November 2009), the mainstream media provided more up to date as they have first hand information and were reporting live.

Those were the two considerations of news values. Others such as Proximity, Conflict, Eminence and prominence, Consequence and impact, Human or animal interest, Unusual or remarkable and finally fit the focus of each medium, also play a part in contributing to news values.