Archive for November 7, 2008

Top 8 PRinciples

{ November 7, 2008 @ 6:26 pm } · { PR Connections }
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Dr. V. has taught us an INCREDIBLE amount about PR through other sources which she has referred us to as well.  I want to sum up all of this information about PR (in no order):

1. Social Media is redefining PR because there is a deep shift in power dynamics.  Old PR there was only one voice that controlled the message and filtered out information.  Now, the new PR consists of conversations and more human voices. (2-way information flow)

2. PR is supposed to give a face to the organization and draw attention to their client.  This comes from the relational perspective which states that public relations should build and maintain mutually beneficial, positive relationships.

3. If you want to cover an issue you should catch it at the dormant phase (where no one has thought about it yet) so you can frame the issue towards your clients’ advantage.

4. The theory of stakeholder salience: In dealing with a mini PR crisis, you should first discuss the stakeholder attributes and decide which public needs to be addressed first.  For example, a public which has power and a legitimate concern would need to be addressed before a  public which  only has urgency.

5. Good strategic PR begins and ends with research.

6.  When making a PR plan, you should focus on goals, objectives, strategies, then tactics.

7. Always evaluate the results of your PR campaign through different types of evaluation.

8.  Because PR can have great effects on a mass amount of people, the most important part of Public Relations is assuming corporate responsibility.  This means caring about the greater good of the public.

Third World Countries: More Needy than any of US’s “needy”

{ November 7, 2008 @ 5:55 pm } · { Personal }
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Needy third world countries have always meant so much to me. As I posted in the Action Day post of Poverty, I have been on one mission trip to Nicaragua, a visit to Guatemala (where my two baby brothers were adopted from) and I will be heading down to Nicaragua this January for a week as well.

This morning I spoke to Dan Rogue, a student in one of my Communications classes who has taken off school for a semester to travel with Invisible Children. Invisible Children is an organization which travels to high schools across the nation talking to students about the terrible things that are occurring to the kids in Africa. Kids getting raped and abused daily without any one capable or willing to help them are rarely brought to anyone’s attention throughout the US, especially not high schoolers. By bringing awareness to students, this team of young people is able to draw people to their cause either through money or service like traveling with them. Instill ideas that we are not the only ones on this planet and some people are suffering

As Dan and I started talking, we discussed the benefits of taking an interest in our world. It benefits not only the people that we are trying to help but it is equally important to our self being. Before I went to Nicaragua I was living in my own selfish world. Sure, I wanted to help friends and family and I gave presents to the “needy” living in Columbia, South Carolina during the holidays. However, what I saw in Nicaragua surpassed any definition of needy I had ever known. I can’t remember if it was the moment when I realized that the kids who we were passing out food to in the landfill (literally stacks of trash) were actually LIVING there or the moment when we walked into one elderly woman’s shack with dirt floors and she got tears in her eyes when we gave her a few t-shirts. Yes, t-shirts which I have at least 50 of and buy at the drop of a hat for nearly every one of my sorority functions are incredibly valuable to such needy people. Nevertheless, there were countless experiences which I had in Nicaragua in one week to make me change my aspect of what I considered to be needy and I think it is important for everyone to, at least once, discover these incredible places around the world that have endured more suffering than most of us will ever come close to knowing.