PR Flashcards
what is PR
the management of communication between an organisation and groups that are important to the organisation
- AKA corporate communication, public affairs, reputation management, publicity etc.
all organisations need a PR team
- Government agencies
- Non-profit organisations
- Non-government organisations (NGOs)
- Public listed companies
- Commercial companies
PR vs advertising
PR practitioners do not pay for the space or time that they receive
PR activity typically hides its presence and its sponsor
PR activities supply ideas to media for stories
role of the PR department
information, activities, and policies by which corporations and other organisations seek to create attitudes favourable to themselves and their work, and to counter adverse attitudes
- e.g. countering negative media impressions of the client that were created by others
- NOT just publicity, which is the practice of getting companies, people, or products mentioned in the news and entertainment media in order to get members of the public interested in them
- Media relations, Branding and corporate reputation, Event management, Corporate relations, Corporate marketing, Crisis communications, Community relations, Social media management, Investor relations, Corporate social responsibility, Video production, Research and evaluation
PR tactics
- Media release/ pitch
- Social media campaigns
- Visuals: publicity photos, videos, animations, graphics, photo opportunities
- Events: pseudo events, diary events
- Online newsroom
- Corporate website
- Customised publishing
- Video news release
- Satellite media tours
- Talk shows/ magazine shows
- Guest editorials/ commentaries
- Annual reports
- Product placements
four models of PR
press agentry – describes a programme that does little other than strive for publicity in the mass media
public information model – uses “journalists-in-residence” to disseminate relatively objective information through the mass media and controlled media such as newsletters, brochures, and direct mail
- E.g. government agencies’ press releases to give details of committee decisions, policies etc.
two-way asymmetrical model (also known as persuasive communication) – Uses research to develop messages that are most likely to persuade the public to behave as the organisation wants
- Its purpose is to change the public’s attitudes or behaviour rather than the organisation
- E.g. health campaigns, marketing campaigns
two-way symmetrical model – Reciprocal relationship
- Public relations efforts based on research and that use communication to manage conflict and to improve understanding with strategic publics
- Facilitate mutual understanding
- Understanding is the beginning of approving
strategic vs operational PR
- Strategic public relations – Planning, managing and evaluating public relations programmes to meet the organisation’s strategic objectives
- Operational public relations –Doing PR according to a set of communications tactics supplied by communication technicians
situational theory of publics
four aspects:
Active: understand a problem, organised to act on it, high level of involvement
Aware: know the problem, not very involved but monitoring the problem
Latent: not involved, not interested
Inactive: not organised, not interested to process complex information
- Membership in these publics is constantly shifting and each person is a member of many publics
- When organizations fail to communicate with active publics, members of those publics frequently join
activist groups to pressure the organization for change
- Thus, activist groups constitute the most important part of an organization’s environment and its most strategic publics
Steps in strategic management of PR
- Research: Development of realistic and measurable objectives
- Action: Planning of programme
- Communications: Implementation of programme
- Evaluation: Measuring and analysing how well it went
Information Subsidies
the time and money that PR people provide media practitioners that helps the latter get their work done
- Explains why print and TV journalist use material provided by PR even though the material are likely to be biased
- Save costs in terms of monetary expense and amount of time involved in writing a story (time which they do not have because of deadlines)
- Danger of information subsidies from a client’s standpoint is that they may not be used – news organisations receive many more offerings from PR firms than they have room for, and journalists can be quite selective → which is why connections are so important
Marketing Communications
a type of PR, the goal of which is to blend/integrate advertising and PR to communicate to an organisation’s various audiences and markets
- Branded entertainment: the act of linking the firm or product’s name (and personality) with an activity that the target audience enjoys
- Event marketing: creating compelling circumstances that command attention in ways that are relevant to the product or firm
- Typically take place at sports or entertainment venues, by way of mobile trailers or road shows that publicize products and on college campuses, in malls, in bars
- Companies pay nonprofessionals to set up parties or other meetings that promote the items
- Product is the focus of the activity
Event sponsorship: situation in which companies pay money to be associated with particular
activities that target audiences enjoy or value
- Usually happens a lot with sports, concerts and charity
- Product placement: takes place when a firm manages to insert its brand in a positive way into fiction or nonfiction content
- E.g. use of Reese’s pieces in the movie E.T.
- Barter: process by which products used in movies and TV shows are provided by the
manufacturer to the producers for free in exchange for the publicity
- Product integration: the act of building plot lines or discussions for talk shows and
reality TV around specific brands
Corporate communications
a set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and external communications aimed at creating favourable point of view among stakeholders on which the company depends
- Play a key role in how investors, employees and the general public perceive a company
- Often report directly to a company’s CEO and serve as advisers in managing a company’s reputation
- Media relations: all dealings with reporters and other members of media organisations who might
tell a story about a client
- Employees typically handle calls and emails from journalists looking for information or
wanting to speak to particular executives → provide the answers and coordinate the
interviews with executives
- May teach the executives the best ways to act on camera or with a journalist
- External relations: involves presenting the views of the company to people and organisations outside of the firm
Foundations of Communication Studies
28
- Internal relations: involves presenting the views of the company to people and organisations within the firm
Crisis management:
the process by which a business or other organization deals with a sudden disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders
- Three elements are common to a crisis: (a) a threat to the organization, (b) the element of surprise, and (c) a short decision time
- Three steps: Crisis prevention, crisis assessment, crisis handling and crisis termination
- The aim is to be well prepared for crisis, ensure a rapid and adequate response to the crisis,
maintaining clear lines of reporting and communication in the event of crisis and agreeing rules for
crisis termination
- Types of crises
- Natural disaster
- Technological crises (e.g. software failures, industrial accidents, oil spills)
- Confrontation – occur when discontented individuals and/or groups fight businesses,
government, and various interest groups to win acceptance of their demands and
expectations
- Malevolence – when opponents or miscreant individuals use criminal means or other
extreme tactics for the purpose of expressing hostility or anger toward, or seeking gain from,
a company, perhaps with the aim of destabilizing or destroying it (e.g. product tampering)
- Organizational Misdeeds – occur when management takes actions it knows will harm or
place stakeholders at risk for harm without adequate precautions
- Workplace Violence
- Rumours – False information about an organization or its products creates crises hurting the
organization’s reputation
- Terrorist attacks/man-made disasters
