VUT: MEDIA STUDIES II: 2010 CHAPTER 1

MEDIA STUDIES II

2010CHAPTER 1

PUBLIC RELATIONS AND THE WRITER

PR: PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITING FROM AND STYLE 7TH EDITION.

DOUGH NEWSOM AND JIM HAYNES: ISBN 0-534-61296-2

THOMSON WADSWORTH: CANADA

You will need to have a You will need to have a BROAD BROAD educational background, expertise in educational background, expertise in MANYMANY fields, and most of all fields, and most of all GOOD GOOD

JUDGMENT.JUDGMENT.

ADDITIONAL READING: SOCIAL MEDIA

• http://mediaupdate.co.za/?IDStory=21445• http://www.recruiter.co.uk/social-media-recruiting-%

E2%80%94-the-first-six-steps/1003769.article• http://www.directnews.co.uk/news/online-marketing

/social-networking/social-media-offers-more-seo-opportunities--$1347083.htm

• http://vator.tv/news/show/2009-12-14-top-ten-biggest-social-media-stories-of-2009

• http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm

ADDITIONAL READING: SOCIAL MEDIA

• http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm

WRITING IN PR

• NOT SPIN – its about tailoring messages for particular media and publics

• Writing for PR takes on many forms• Please read up up more about Public Relations

and Social Media – Facebook will have links for you. Media Studies II: 2010

• There is a demand for versatile writers, greater understanding of the requirements of different media and increased competence in using visuals and sounds to help convey the message.

WRITING IN PR

• A writer has to be genuinely good at the task of researching information, learning its meaning and communicating information effectively

• What makes PR writing different? They have to prepare messages for any medium that can convey information – in most cases nowadays electronically – thus can be received anywhere in the world

• The difference also lies in the power and responsibility of the public relations person. Who is in the position of brokering goodwill between an institution and its publics.

WRITING IN PR

• Strategically PR involves the ways an organization's operations and policies affect people:

• The face-to-face interactions of employees with customers or clients

• The organization's participation in the affairs of the community

• The heart of public relations remains in communication, particularly writing

WRITING IN PR

• Good PR requires communication skills, expertise in dealing with news media and a knowledge of mass communication, the dynamics of public opinion and the principles of persuasion

• PR must know when and where to communicate – involves analysis, judgment, counseling and planning – in addition to and prior to communicating

DEFINING PR

• Public relations is the art and science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organization leaders, and implementing planned programmes of action which will serve both the organization's and the public interest

ANALYZING, PREDICTING AND COUNSELING

• PR staff help to frame, implement, adjust and communicate the policies that govern how an institution interacts with its publics.

• Its through PR that a company acts with responsibility and responsiveness – in policy and information – to the best. Interests of the institution and its publics

• You will need to have a BROAD educational background, expertise in MANY fields, and most of all GOOD JUDGMENTS.

ANALYZING, PREDICTING AND COUNSELING

• PR staff help to frame, implement, adjust and communicate the policies that govern how an institution interacts with its publics.

• Its through PR that a company acts with responsibility and responsiveness – in policy and information – to the best. Interests of the institution and its publics

• You will need to have a BROAD educational background, expertise in MANY fields, and most of all GOOD JUDGMENT.

ANALYZING, PREDICTING AND COUNSELING

• You need to know human behavior, and combine that knowledge with specific information about people within the institution and people outside whom the institution deals with.

• You must need to be alert for signs of change – the right policy today might not be the right one tomorrow.

• A capable PR person notes trends in public opinion and predicts the consequences of such trends of the institution,

ADVERTISING, PUBLICITY AND PR

• Advertising – time or space in a medium, purchased to display a message that has been prepared or approved by the buyer.

• Publicity – is information provided to a public without charge. The supplier controls content but relinquish further control.

• Publicity is a one-way street, PR is a two-way street.

THE TWO-WAY STREET

• PR is not a one-way street in which leadership manipulates the public and public opinion. It is a two-way street in which leadership and the public find integration with each other and in which objectives and goals are predicted on a coincidence of public and private interests.

PUBLICS, CHANNELS AND THE ROLE OF THE WRITER

• As a PR writer you will have a very complex job as there is no single “public” out there – satisfy many different audiences

• A public is any group of people tied together by some common factor.

• There are many such publics out there that the PR writer has to satisfy

THE PUBLIC IN PUBLIC RELATIONS

• Bill Rivers describes the endless variety of publics as follows:

• There are as many publics as there are groups with varying levels of income, education, taste, and civil awareness; as many as there are groups with different political allegiances, different religions and so on. What concerns and convinces one public may seem trivial to others. Furthermore, the definition of each public is never static, it changes as the issues changes.

THE PUBLIC IN PUBLIC RELATIONS

• Each of us belongs to different publics.

• As each individual belongs to many different publics, each institution must communicate with many publics – from customers and suppliers to employees and other stakeholders

• The message may be received by “unintended audiences”

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL PUBLICS

• Please study pages 7 – 8

• Identify both the internal as well as external publics of the PR writer

PRIORITY PUBLICS

• On one project it will be impossible for you to direct attention equally to all publics.

• PR people must select the publics that are most important for the communication effort – that is why you need to read, listen to radio and watch TV – you need to be a specialist in content of different media

• The groups that are considered most important are the TARGET PUBLICS AND THE PRIORITY PUBLICS

TERMS

• DEMOGRAPHICS – general information such as age, religion, culture etc..

• PSYCHOGRAPHICS – classifies people by what they think, how they behave, and what they think about – their special interests

CHANNELS

• To reach different publics, the PR writer must choose channels of communication carefully.

• To get the message across, the channel must be one that the target audience will receive and believe

• The channel must be appropriate for the message• Radio is not a good channel for complex messages,

better for magazines and newspapers or online publications

• PLEASE STUDY PAGE 10: INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL PUBLIC RELATIONS

SPECIALIZED MEDIA

• Media designed for a particular audience care called specialized, to distinguish them from general audiences.

• Internal publication of organizations: Intranet, computerized messages, audio visual presentations etc..

• Electronic information networks for PC users.

MASS MEDIA

• Magazines, books, newspapers, radio, television and the Internet and all its facets

• Circulation and audience not controlled by die institution – mostly for use with external publics

• Reach large audiences

ROLE OF THE WRITER

• PR person must be knowledgeable not only about publics and channels, but about ALL aspects of the institution that they write for.

• Be able to research specific subjects to determine what is and what isn't important

• Be able to borrow ideas from other fields – psychology, social psychology, sociology and political science – to help put their research in perspective

ROLE OF THE WRITER

• Be alert of changing patterns of thought and behavior in society and must fully comprehend the issues of the day

• PR writer must be an expert in communication. • Must know how to write effectively in many

different styles and for all media• Understand the principles of good writing and be

familiar with the vast body of scientific research on communication, persuasion and public opinion.

• Your goal is to be an effective, efficient communicator

CONCLUSIONS

• Please read conclusions on Page 12

EXERCISES: CHAPTER 1

• Mark every week’s work very clearly in your activity book – start each week on a new page

• Use Table 1.1b Discovering and Prioritizing Publics and analyze the following article in your activity book.

• Look at the different comments made by readers as well. This will help you to determine the audience of the article.

EXERCISES: CHAPTER 1

• Table 1.1a Discovering and Prioritizing Publics

• Use the same article to determine the different publics involved in this article. Please use the headings (in bold) in the table on page 7.

• Use the same instructions to do 2 X tasks:

• Zuma article & Death of an Actor