Post #14: Reading Response on Chapter Thirteen (Chia and Synott, 2009).

Chapter Thirteen: Focus on Asian Public Relations Management

Public Relations from the perspectives of Asian countries (defined as the ASEAN countries plus South Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan) is discussed in this chapter. Since we live in an Asian country, this chapter is no doubt of great importance to framing our understanding of PR in a local context.

The main points of this chapter are as follows:

- to identify the various cultural issues relevant to PR practice in Asia

- the various aspects of PR as applied to the different Asian countries

- importance of identifying variables in PR => this is a particularly important point because no two Asian countries are identical; even neighbouring Asian countries can have different mindsets. Thus, the PR variables are situational in this regard.

I have mentioned in Post #2 about guanxi, or the term describing business or interpersonal relations that form part of the Chinese psyche. guanxi returns in this chapter, and Chia & Synnott (2009) describe various other similar terms that shape thinking in other Asian countries, such as cheong and no-cheong in Korea. The text draws a parallel between these and Bourdieu's social capital, which I found interesting and agreeable because the value of one's personal networks and relationships can come in handy at times. The simplest examples would be to get a newsworthy media release (that puts the organisation in a good light) published in print media because the PR practitioner is on good terms with the journalist covering the related beat.

The bulk of my reflection, however, will stem from PR practice in Singapore, with a case study similar to that presented in the book: Singapore's bid for the 1st Youth Olympic Games. The journey began in October 2007 when Singapore made its official bid to host a sporting event for 14 to 18 year olds around the world, the first such event of its magnitude.

Its objectives, like that of Incheon in South Korea for the Asian Games (Chia & Synnott, 2009), were to raise its profile as the best possible host city, and also to drum up support and awareness within the country for this bid, a demonstration of "collective will".

Publics and audiences included the voters at the IOC (International Olympic Committee) evaluation committee, the sporting and general media as well as the general public in  Singapore. Details of the bid can be found here. Singapore touted its high-technology, education and connectivity with the world, as well as its youthful vibrance and racial harmony as reasons for the right to host the inaugural Games.

With that, I believe the strategy of Singapore's bid team was to convince the IOC that Singapore was ready to host the games, in terms of budget, infrastructure, environment, standards of living, community support, and the key point: a culture of fostering inter-ethnic knowledge and a sporting atmosphere. The tactics of the Singapore Government's PR campaign are not immediately observable, but with regular news coverage in the sports section (from media releases, definitely - in this case I suppose government control of media is advantageous in this aspect), full government support, and outreach efforts conducted in schools at all levels nationwide, it is in my contention that the PR effects should be quite considerable. In addition, it is possible that Ng Ser Miang, who was on board the Bid Committee, used some of his personal relationships to influence his peers at the IOC to vote in favour of Singapore - this is PR working at the unit level: human to human.

With the buzz generated within the country about the bid, and all other considerations in place, Singapore finally defeated Moscow 53-44 to secure the rights to host the 1st Youth Olympic Games. We have therefore seen in this case study how a small country like Singapore can raise its profile when dealing with a supranational institution such as the IOC, demonstrating the potential of public relations and the will of the collective. 

Our journey through an introduction of public relations thus comes to an end, but this is only the beginning. For now though, I shall end this week's reflection, and my final post for this blog.

Post #13: Reading Response on Chapter Twelve (Chia and Synott, 2009).

Chapter Twelve: New Media and Public Relations

The idea of using new media as a PR tool is finally discussed in this chapter, which covers five main points. Firstly, an understanding of emerging new media concepts and theories are provided, followed by an overview of the technological impact on PR practices. Next, how the PR profession is challenged by new media is discussed together with some academic discourse on the use of social media as dialogue opportunities. We look at ethical practices in relation to new media and PR in the last part of the chapter.

Definitely, new media has gradually come to take a very important place in society. We have always been talking about the Internet and related computer technologies, and it is indeed true that the fast pace of development in this sector has led to a need for us PR practitioners to sit up and look at these new media platforms as a way of engaging the public.

Chia and Synnott (2009) mention discussions from academics about the unequal penetration of the Internet in different countries, ultimately a holistic mix of traditional and new media is needed to reach out to as many people as possible. While this is a valid concern and argument, for the sake of this blog entry I shall discount this fact and focus solely on new media and those who have access to it.

My reflection for this entry is based on two of the five tools of new media applications as discussed in our text, namely: blogs and game worlds like Second Life. The textbook describes blogs as a relatively new, yet powerful tool for PR, especially in researching the sentiments of the consumers "on the ground". An example to cement this point was related to me by my friend. Back in mid-2010, he faced a problem with overseas postage using SpeedPost.Written complaints to the organisation failed to have any effect, but the company got back to him within a day or two after he blogged about his troubles online, and linked the blog entry on Facebook (Chua, personal communication, 2010). This small little example does prove that blogs (in this case, of a personal nature) are a good tool for corporations to gauge responses from the public, and it shows that some organisations are actively trawling the Internet for any comments related to their organisation.

As we have seen in the "Wal-Marting Across America" example (Chia & Synnott, 2009), corporate blogs need to be transparent and honest; however there will always be the existence of cynical netizens (also termed "keyboard warriors") who will dismiss messages from corporations as propaganda and rely more on comments from the man-in-the-street. Even so, if done properly, the PR effects of blogging can be quite powerful, especially if an opinion leader gives good praise of a product or service after he has tried it out. A good example in the local context can be found in this newsletter, of which some mention is made of the collaboration between Nokia and Mr Brown (also known as Lee Kin Mun), a popular local blogger.

The other point, as mentioned above, would be the opportunities presented by mediated, virtual worlds. Chia & Synnott (2009) cite Second Life as an example, where many nations, corporations, companies, and even people, have a presence there. I believe that this sort of media, which also spans gaming worlds (both online and offline - although it becomes more akin to advertising in this sense), represents a huge chance for companies to pursue PR efforts through public outreach campaigns. The gaming equivalent might then be for the player to perform a task that is in line with the real-life goals of the organisation represented in-game. While it is indeed risky, a good portrayal of themselves (or even their in-game analogs) would no doubt raise their familiarity and profile among the participants of these virtual worlds.

Faced with the constant barrage of new media technologies and their spread around the world (even Singapore's politicians have been blogging, Facebooking, and tweeting for some time, now), the future for PR in this field seems especially exciting, and I thus end my reflection for this week on an upbeat note.

Post #12: Reading Response on Chapter Eleven (Chia and Synott, 2009).

Chapter Eleven: Engaging with the media

Chapter Eleven deals primarily with media relations. In this chapter, the various types of traditional media that we can use are mentioned, followed by a short description of news values and framing, something we have already touched upon in our journalism modules. Theoretical and ethical practice of media relations come next, together with a tutorial on writing media releases and assembling media kits. This chapter also provides advice on news conferences and media interviews, as well as how to evaluate traditional media campaigns.

With that, I would like to dive in straight into some of the tips this chapter provides on how to succeed in building relationsips with journalists (in the words of the textbook, "under-promising and over-delivering"). I think building PERSONAL relationships is a given, what with face-to-face contacts, networking, following their careers, and providing them quality material (Chia & Synnott, 2009). This is probably the basic tip that we all PR practitioners should keep in mind.

Considering the above, I posed this question to the CEO of PSB Academy (Dr. Steve Lai) during a lunch session with him. I wondered about the state of the Academy's media relations, because apart from paid advertisements/advertorials about PSB that I see in the papers, I don't see any other coverage of the school in any of the major print and broadcast media. For example, when asked to comment on, say, unscrupulous private education institutions, the media tends to go to the chief executive of  SIM, or other institutes, for comment.

It is thus in my contention that their appearance, however small, in this regard does help to build a subconscious effect of their presence in the public mind. An example of what I see as credibility-building can be found in this article (requires subscription) (The Straits Times, 2011). In this regard I believe PSB Academy is lacking, because when giving expert commentary on issues faced by others, that which is verified by the journalist, the credibility of the institution increases.

Dr Lai responded that they do have good contacts with Sandra Davie, who's the Education Correspondent over at The Straits Times. But he firmly believes in appearing in the news only when the coverage is worth it. I overlooked that to a certain extent, and now, reviewing this chapter, I see that this is exactly the point raised in Chia & Synnott (2009)'s text about "Knowing what is news and what is not". A media release with newsworthy comment (according to the news values we have learnt) is better for visibility, he said. For example, a media release informing the journalist of the availability of scholarships for students who are financially needy, yet determined to succeed, would be an impactful news article that would likely find its way to the papers, and boost the Academy's visibility.

I think in this regard, the communication flow works both ways. While we can possibly generate good news releases for the media attention, I believe that if we are on good terms with the media (who often tend to write stories contradictory to the intended angle - this was what a UoN alumni, now a journalist, told me) (Kok, personal communication, 2011), they are then more likely to see us as good source of information from which quotes can be attributed to. As long as it puts us in a good light, our visibility is increased and ultimately, there would be a gain for PR.

With that, I end my reflection for this week.

Post #11: Reading Response on Chapter Ten (Chia and Synott, 2009).

Chapter Ten: An issues-crisis perspective

The tenth chapter of our textbook revolves around issues and crises (plural form of 'crisis', if you didn't already know). A summary of the main points of this chapter follows:



- how PR practitioners respond to, and manage issues.

- the differences between an issue and a crisis; proactive issues management can therefore help to avert a crisis.

- the roles of PR practitioners during crisis situations as they break out

- the various types of crises, and the crisis life cycle

- how new media has impacted issues management and crisis PR.

We are therefore thrust into what is perhaps my favourite part of public relations, for this chapter finally allows me to understand issues and crises in greater detail. According to Chia & Synnott (2009), an issue occurs when there is a difference between the publics' expectations and an organisation's actions. If this issue is not managed well and is allowed to fester (much like a wound left untreated) then it will escalate into a crisis, which can then affect the organisation's viability, credibility and reputation. Sometimes, however, things are not so clear-cut and crisis occurrences can be unpredictable. 

With that, I would like to delve into a crisis that has happened in recent days: The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant incidents and the resulting events that have since become a PR crisis for both the Japanese government as well as the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). This has happened as a result of the 2011 Tohoku region earthquake and tsunami, which resulted in damage to several of the nuclear reactors at the nuclear power plant, which has since caused localised environmental contamination. While it seems that this is one of those "unpredictable events" that turned into a crisis, I will further elaborate on how it might have been the result of several issues that have since escalated.

Firstly, using Pauchant and Mitroff (1992)'s classification of crises, we can identify the clusters in which the above crisis lies in. It is plainly obvious that the reactor explosions have led to radiation contamination of the environment, thus the crisis falls under the "Megadamage" cluster. In addition, reports have surfaced on cover-ups and negligence in plant operations (The Straits Times, 2011) (refer to relevant reports over the past few days in The Straits Times), and there will certainly be occupational health problems for the brave souls who have volunteered to help repair the reactor and to ascertain and contain the damage. For TEPCO, and also the government, this is therefore a severe crisis with additional areas that need to be addressed.

With an idea of what category this incident falls under, we can now look at the stages of the crisis life cycle and analyse what has happened (Howard & Miller, 2006, as cited in Chia & Synnott, 2009). The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear accidents escalated quickly from the prodromal phase. By this time, the reactors already suffered varying degrees of physical damage due to the combined effects of the earthquake and the tsunami. The preparation phase was basically passed over. However, if reports on TEPCO's earlier mismanagement (e.g. the falsification of safety records, inspection failures as well as government-sanctioned extensions [The Straits Times, 2011]) were to be believed, then it would be that the entire incident was just waiting to happen. Had TEPCO come clean about these issues and actively managed and resolved them when it could, the situation might not have been this bad today. Then again, no one would have expected a disaster of this magnitude. A learning point from this would be that even the smallest of issues can result in potentially damaging consequences in the future.

The crisis is actually in Phase Three, or the acute phase, now. Media coverage of the crippled reactors (e.g. pictures and images of smoke rising from the various containment buildings, reports of the 180 workers who stayed behind to assist in containment efforts, the inconveniences brought about by the accidents, etc.) has been especially intense, and both TEPCO and the government PR practitioners must have been working overtime to manage the flow of information. Much of the information appears to come from the government-designated spokesperson, the Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano Yukio, and TEPCO, although its president has been criticised heavily for their poor management of the situation and limited information flow initially (see here). Our role, of course, is to make sure that honesty is adhered to in times like this and any worthwhile information should be made known immediately. Senior company executives might disagree, but in this ethics versus economics struggle, I do believe (however ideal it may be) that coming clean is better for everyone.

As the crisis slowly comes under control, we will then see Phases Four and Five emerge. We already know how the reactors came to explode and almost melt down, this phase will see heads roll. The reactor will definitely not be used again, and the surrounding area likely to be quarantined, but TEPCO must, at this stage, be prepared to suffer legal consequences and make restitutions to the community at large. For PR practitioners, now would be the time to clarify all the facts as presented and stave off any malicious rumours that may be brought up.  In Phase Five, TEPCO (and by extension, the Japanese government), must close the chapter on this crisis properly and learn from the lessons of this disaster. I believe the very least that would come from this is the tightening of regulations on nuclear reactors across the country and shoring defences against yet another natural disaster of this scale. It is in our interest as PR practitioners not to let the shadow of nuclear catastrophe loom over once again, and any other mistakes MUST be corrected right now before it is too late.

With that, I end this week's reflection.

Post #10: Reading Response on Chapter Nine (Chia and Synott, 2009).

Chapter Nine: Strategies to Proactively Manage Activity

One inspiring quote from this chapter's "Practitioner Profile" before we begin:

"Work harder on yourself than you do on your job... Great professionals... get there because they know their values, strengths and ethics, they stick to them and build on them with gritty determination."

- Heidi Alexandra Pollard (as cited in Chia & Synnott, 2009).

Anyway, this chapter describes how strategy is a very important part of PR practice, and introduces concepts of meaning construction in a contested space, intentional representation, and intended meaning. We also learn about planning models, about how to conduct a  campaign from research to evaluation, developing the startegies needed to reach specified objectives. Lastly, certain major PR tactics and their usefulness are discussed at the end of this chapter.

For this post, I would like to look at the concept of the contested space, intentional representation, and the intended meaning. Firstly, 'contested space' is an idea that has only come about with newer models of communcation; for example, Shannon and Weaver's transmission model fails to account for a space in which the meaning of a message is constructed, and where varying messages compete for attention (Chia & Synnott, 2009). As such, this concept tells us that there is no one absolute meaning to everything, but a set of interpretations that different communities possess and deem useful to them. The 'contest' element comes from the fact that society today is actually saturated with many similar messages from organisations of all sorts, for example, the newspaper which has limited editorial space - to be featured in the newspaper the PR practitioner would have to take steps to ensure that what he is proposing to the journalist is more interesting than what other organisations are doing, such as through product samples, media kits, media releases, personal ties and even using the journalism skills such as framing and angling certain pitches to target specific journalists (Chia & Synnott, 2009). Only then can we help our organisations stake a claim in this contested space.

Intentional representation and intended meaning are similar - in simple terms, intended representation is the action that is carried out by the organisation in order to shape perception and intended meaning refers to the end-result where the public interprets the representation as intended. A recent case study follows: Mediacorp, the local state-controlled media company (the other being Singapore Press Holdings) intends to represent itself to the general public as Asia's top media company, with their mission being to deliver 'valued content to the world'. This much can be gathered from their mission statement as seen on their webpage.

However, this intended representation failed to generate its intended meaning in light of a recent email, made public from Mediacorp's Marketing Communications department, which sought to canvass for advertisements on Channel NewsAsia during their coverage of the 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami. Many netizens condemned Mediacorp when news of this broke, forcing Mediacorp to issue a statement on the 12th of March (see here) in apology. In my opinion this is only a routine measure, what remains to be seen is if Mediacorp can repair the damage caused by this email leak, perhaps by directly assisting in relief efforts as a sign of goodwill. It does not matter if they have won many awards at the broadcaster level, small things like these can actually cause an organisation harm if not handled properly. In reflection, I once again realise that a good reputation and intended representation requires a lot of effort to build and to shape the audience into receiving the intended meaning, but all it takes is a series of minor incidents to undo the work done. This is a challenging field indeed and with that, I end my post for this week.

Post #9: Reading Response on Chapter Eight (Chia and Synott, 2009).

Chapter Eight: Reputation Management: A Driving Force for Action

Chapter 8 looks at how important the management of reputation is to the organisation and how corporate PR practitioners fit in in modern organisations. The stakeholder concept is introduced, something I mentioned in my debate a while back, and corporate reputation, image, brand and identity are placed side-by-side and compared (Chia & Synnott, 2009). This much summarises the scope of the chapter.

With that, in this short reflection I would like to zoom in on the differences between reputation and image as mentioned in our text. Initially, I thought that image was similar to reputation, but the text does mention a bit of difference between the two. For one, reputation is someone's estimation of another person, organisation, or issue. In Mandarin, the term 名誉 (ming yu) would come the closest to this; and shows that its dependent on one's name (名) and honour (誉) and is related to what the person or organisation does.

The textbook lists the problems of measuring it, and cites Enron as a very good example of how reputation measures can fail. Enron was supposedly tops in innovation and second for quality management in 2011 but collapsed under the weight of its internal management malpractices less than a year later (Chia & Synnott, 2009). Those who rated Enron highly for reputation earlier on could not possibly have known what was going on inside the company, they only saw its good results on the outside and hence assumed that the company had a good reputation. Thus, without any significant personal interaction and direct ties to the organisation, person, or issue, reputation (hence referred to as 'entity') is actually superficial. In this case, relationships are actually more relevant, because the entity is now judge by the quality of its interaction with its publics.

Image, on the other hand, translates to 形象(xing xiang) in Mandarin. This shows that it is related to form (形) and symbology (象), more of visual elements of which the construction of meaning is handled by human cognition. Solely working on a positive image does not make the organisation appear any better, because whatever its efforts may be, it will certainly be regarded with suspicion by some (the publics are not stupid, to say the least). Grunig (1993, as cited in Chia & Synnott, 2009) declares that such symbolism should go hand in hand with boosting relationships that actually have substance so as to actually contribute meaningfully to the company. Thus, maintaining a positive image the right way actually contributes to the company's reputation!

On a side note, I found the bit on corporate identity structures interesting, which the text says is partially a function of the structure of the organisation itself and can be used to analyse what the organisation's strategy (in building reputation and also marketing). We are introduced to three approaches: the monolithic approach, the endorsed approach, and the branded approach.

The monolithic approach is based on using a single corporate identity in whatever activity the organisation is involved in. The example mentioned in the book, about Virgin Group, which espouses its brand values of fun, innovation and value for money in all of its industries. I believe Sir Richard Branson himself is also part of the monolith, as can be seen from reports on his actions from time to time - the most recent being his loss of a bet to AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes and having to dress up as a air stewardess to serve on board an AirAsia flight. That's fun, isn't it? (View the article here).

Endorsement, on the other hand, is to feature the parent company's logo on each brand it produces but to put the spotlight on the individual brand itself. Nestlé is the example cited here, with its brand products Milo, KitKat, Carnation milk and so on. Since each of these products (packaged food) are well known and of quality, it also implies Nestlé's status as a premier producer of said items and its commitment to continue doing so. This seems like the strategy for divisionalised organisations to follow.

The last approach is the branded approach, which focuses solely on the individual brands itself with few or no links to the parent company. Procter & Gamble and its various brands in various industries (hair care, shavers, food, etc.) is cited, and I believe this approach is usually followed by conglomerates which own businesses in many sectors; it would make it difficult to fit a particular identity of the parent company to the different industries which are not related to one another.

Thus ends the ninth post.

Post #8: Reading Response on Chapter Seven (Chia and Synott, 2009).

Chapter Seven: Public Relations Management in Organisations

Again, following up from Chapter Six, this chapter now looks at how PR is managed in organisations. The theoretical aspect for this study is that of systems theory, of which an open system is the way to go in this day and age, because organisations do need to interact with their internal and external environments so as to identify and remove and problems (Morgan, 1998, as cited in Chia & Synnott, 2009), as well as to selectively adapt to changes in the environment (Chia & Synnott, 2009).

We then take a look at the different parts that a PR team can play and their areas of focus, before going into the differences between internal and external publics (inclusive of audiences, in my opinion, because the 'audience' aspect does seem to imply one-way communication). Lastly, the chapter identifies external forces that can affect PR practice such as activism and CSR. This sums up the main points of this chapter.

This time around I'd like to look at the characteristics of excellent public relations programs as listed in the table on page 202 (Grunig, 1992, as cited in Synnott, 2009). I believe this table does need a little updating, because in a University of Southern California study of 500 (American) PR departments, 13 other best practices for the departments were listed. Three main points of this study that I found lacking in Grunig's 1992 table were:

1. Establish an effective social responsibility strategy for your organization.
2. Establish an effective digital-media strategy for your organization.
3. Establish an effective issues-management strategy for your organization

In this day and age, when the general public are becoming more and more educated and aware of the various social and environmental issues, (corporate) social responsibility has become a very important area for the organisation to look at. It is given a brief mention towards the end of this chapter, where it is mentioned that CSR was integrated into organisations through acts of philantrophy and care for the environment (Chia & Synnott, 2009). Thus, PR at the department level does need to take into account this and come up with suitable CSR programmes to enhance the reputation of the organisation, such as when PSB Academy adopted Singapore Children's Society as its charity partner early last year and held a charity bazaar which raised a total of (the memory is vague here) approximately two to three thousand dollars.

Digital media is also fast becoming the way in which every sector of the demographic (most commonly among the youth/working class, who have greater spending power) gets their information. As such, online newspapers, forums or blogs can easily sway the perceptions of said public and without jumping on the bandwagon an organisation is certainly to lose out. PR departments therefore need to come up with proper digital media strategies to implement in programs as a form of outreach to widespread publics. I thought that the WhyOhGee digital platform (this has unfortunately been  deactivated: http://www.singapore2010.sg/whyohgee) for the Youth Olympic Games was quite a good PR tactic to draw in young people to create a positive image about the Games, it included information and several up-close-and-personals with athletes from Team Singapore.

Lastly, issues-management. Yes, I know I like to harp a lot on this, but in my opinion this is a very important part of what consitutes an excellent PR program at the departmental level. Definitely along the way some issues or crises will come up, be it internal or external. The PR department needs to be wary for all these and be able to respond as soon as possible. There is a section on managing internal and external relations in this chapter, that which I shall not dwell upon too much, but the fact remains that this is should be a primary concern of the PR department. Internal issues might arise from matters like organisational change or sweeping pay cuts, which the PR (also corporate communications) department must address, or external ones like those I have highlighted in the previous posts that seriously damage reputations.

This ends my post for the week.

Post #7: Reading Response on Chapter Six (Chia and Synott, 2009).

Chapter Six: Public Relations Practice

Following the previous chapter on research methods used in the PR industry, the current chapter takes a look at the PR industry itself. Firstly, we are presented with the categories of PR effectiveness (Synnott, 2002, as cited in Chia & Synnott, 2009), afterwhich an elaboration of the role of PR in different types of organisations is presented. A section on community engagement was also included before the chapter ended with an overview of the challenges in this industry.

For the purposes of this reflection I would like to focus on the eight categories of PR effectiveness and the role of public relations within some organisations. As we have seen in the textbook on pages 131-132, the eight characteristics and what role models should exhibit under these characteristics are listed. As budding (is this even the term I should use on ourselves?) students of public relations, which of these characteristics are more important to us should we choose to enter the industry?

I would think that having sound work practices and approaches matter first and foremost. To be responsible for and committed to your work, having high standards, not being ashamed to seek advice (even from peers or juniors) and being objective; these are like the foundations of not just the PR practitioner, but also the journalist.  This is also related to having sound personal attributes such as being professional, creative, people-oriented and passionate about your work. With these core behaviours soundly lodged in our minds, it is in my contention that we have taken the first step towards becoming a successful PR practitioner: by shaping up our attitudes.

The other characteristic that is listed in our textbook, that I feel is important to us right now is the "Works for the profession" ideal. Wanting the build the profession and contribute, protecting its image and reputation are very noble callings to follow, and I feel it's good to keep that in our minds (if) we are to enter the industry. With that down, this makes three the number of characteristics I have determined to be important. Of course, that's not to say that the others aren't important, but I think those other characters mostly come with experience and continual training.

Now, on to the role of PR in the different organisations. Having worked in the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) as an intern, before transiting to the volunteer stage at games-time, I've seen just how important PR practitioners can be. I believe that SYOGOC, being a government entity responsible for bringing the Games to fruition, would come under the "not-for-profit" sector and "public" sector as described in Chia and Synnott (2009).

Certainly, there were lots of volunteers to manage and the various events I participated in and helped organise certainly assisted in driving home the impression that the Games were coming, and that it'd be as best as Singapore can make it to be. I may not have realised it then, but looking back on my experiences, the reputation of SYOGOC before games-time was still pretty credible, with frequent media coverage, however big or small, of the precursor programmes that were happening, including the Asian Youth Games, which was a test-event for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) itself. It was also during this period that I learnt how to be more diplomatic to volunteers since I was responsible for drawing up the roster for the language services volunteers as part of my duties as an intern.

During the Games itself I was a volunteer, and this was when many unpalatable events came to light. There was the "substandard food" case, and several instances of food poisoning that came to light in the media. I see now that these are again, examples of crisis management. I see now that the need for media relations was especially important, and I remember several Mediacorp-affiliated employees (Mark Richmond - deejay and Huang Zhi Hao - former Channel 8 broadcast journalist) among some of the staffers at SYOGOC. Certainly their links to the media world would have been of good use to manage issues such as these. Of course, the communication efforts also relied on new media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and so on, apart from the official sites that gave updates and information as they came. Internally, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan (Minister MCYS) and Mr Teo Ser Luck (Senior Parliamentary Secretary, MCYS), were on hand to visit volunteers and give them words of encouragement. These too would be classified as PR measures, the benefits to HR notwithstanding.
It is with greater understanding now that I see how some of the various points reflected in our text work in reality, and this marks the end of my post.



Post #6: Reading Response on Chapter Five (Chia and Synott, 2009).

Chapter Five: Public Relations Research

This chapter covers some research methods used in the field of PR and its importance in the various stages. I had a misconception at first when I saw the title of the chapter, thinking of research more in the traditional sense, that is to look into the subject and discover new things about it, much like scientific research. It is only when I read on that I discovered that 'research' here, is more of finding out things from the target publics to gain an insight (as we have learnt a few weeks back, where research => insight) instead of actually advancing the field, in a sense).

Chia and Synnott (2009) first discuss the hierarchy of effects model as a guide to what the PR practitioner can do in a publicity campaign, first by formulating a message, before disseminating it out. The public will receive it, and then begin the process of comprehending it before being able to change their attitudes and hence behaviours. It is noted for the second time since Chapter 3 that behavioural change may occur first instead of attitude change.

We thus see that in this hierarchy, there are at least two timeframes in which to conduct research: before the campaign, and during the campaign. Before-campaign research (also known as input research) is done to know more about the issue at hand and the ground sentiments, this will gain us insight such as the the fact that there was no beer-infused barbecue sauce in the Australian market mention in Post 3(ii), or maybe, that the Australian public generally do not prefer to barbecue food over live coal, but feel that such food is superior in taste (case study located here). In addition, ethical considerations should also come into place here. With these thoughts in place, goals can then be set and strategies, tactics, etc. hammered out.

During-campaign, or output research is done to see how well the campaign has been executed thus far with a view to improve it if necessary. Page 136 of Chia and Synnott (2009) offers a short list of tools and tactics that we can use to perform said research. But there is something missing here: the post-campaign, evaluatory/outcome research which allows the practitioner to evaluate the effects of the campaign to see if the initially-set goals were achieved. I remember now some of the evaluatory means showed to us in our lectures, such as media coverage - the number of mentions and positive reviews of said product in the media, for example. A list of research methods and how they are classified is offered in Figure 6.2, page 146 and 147 of Johnston and Zawawi (2004)'s text.

I personally feel the discussion on other research applications is the next most important part of this chapter. Because much of PR deals with getting the message across to the public, we are heavily reliant on finding out public opinion. Not only must we do this for consumer marketing campaigns, there is also a need to find out what they are thinking especially for crisis management. In this case, the public needs to be monitored to find out any possible issues that require intervention  if necessary. A good example of this would be the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform oil spill (also known as the 'BP oil spil'), where PR practitioners for British Petroleum had to scramble to limit the fallout after the event, especially when public opinion turned against the company after their then-CEO, Tony Hayward's insensitive remarks. He issued an apology later on, but no doubt the damage was done. Among other things, BP's PR campaign after the spill focused on their efforts to clean up the mess, and owning up to their mistake which caused the spill in the first place. You can see a short opinion piece from Brian McDonald (including a YouTube video message from Tony Hayward), a veteran of the PR industry, over here.

The text (Chia & Synnott) also covers some research methods, with a slant towards promoting new media research tools such as online surveys, social networking, and even blogs. In addition, some issues affecting PR research was mentioned. I think that statistical implications is a pretty important issue to be looking at, because choosing an appropriate sample to represent the population, and without bias is fundamental to being able to interpret quantitative results properly and not have a skewed representation. In that regard, I'd have to go back to my statistics textbooks and refresh my knowledge on this.

Else, this ends my reflection on Chapter Five.

Post #5: Reading Response on Chapter Four (Chia and Synnott, 2009)

Chapter 4: Public Relations Ethics

What is ethics? Our text from Chia and Synnott (2009) gives us many theoretical perspectives on the term "ethics", and certain tools to guide us through the ethical decision-making process. Several examples of unethical PR behaviour were given to us in the early stages of the group, and it mostly dealt with misleading the public into thinking that the perpertrators were actually more famous than they were.

That said, I would like to reflect upon the three schools of thought as covered in the textbook:

1. Virtue ethics - It is about the strong sense of ethical values that lie within one's character. In relation, the Golden Mean method was raised, which to me seems like a glorified effort at fence-sitting. Although it is as such, this style of ethics has its appeal to me since a lot of issues is about finding a middle ground and mutual consensus, thus maintaining a balance at all times. However, it would require one to be quite the virtuous person of which I believe I am not. And even so, the concept of "virtue" is subjective, and the whole decision-process might take too much time to go through.

2. Deontology - This is about the concept of "duty". Duty to fellow humans, to clients, to the public, et cetera. They are heavily steepled in following codes and laws, and has resulted in national public relations agencies developing codes of conduct. Looking like it as it is, I guess one good thing that comes out from deontology is that it gives PR practitioners a framework of ethical values to work with so it isn't so subjective any more. We can be on the safe side of the law and thus soothe our own and everyone's consciences. That said, blindly following the law is inflexible and doesn't guanrantee 100% ethical behaviour all the time (Chia & Synnott, 2009). A particular example mentioned in page 109 of our textbook highlights this point, about breaking laws/civil disobedience to bring attention to an issue (likely to be used by activists, protestors and the like) (Cordingley, 2007 as cited in Chia & Synnott, 2009).

3. Consequentialism/Teleology - As it name implies, consequentialism is contingent on the consequences of actions as a deciding factor as to whether an act is ethical or not. Also known as utilitarianism (or in simple terms, "the ends justify the means"), it offers a very flexible approach to ethical behaviour. Evaluating how each situation favours the greater good on a case-by-case basis offers what seems like the perfect solution, however, there are times when going for the greater good might mean sacrifices on a lower level, even the sacrificing of lives, for that matter. So this school of thought is not without its problems. I have added in the term Teleology because the description of it, on Amanda Holt's website, does seem to fit in with what we know.

Ultimately, I suppose, any one PR action that strives to be ethical has to consider a wide range of perspectives from the stakeholders involved. And the best way to do it is through dialogue. Sometimes, however, unilateral decisions do have to be made so it falls back to us ecaluating the "correctnesss" of our actions.

In ending, I would like to offer two sets of quotes here from two different textbooks regarding ethics and public relations. These sum up how one can be ethical, and how it is relevant to us PR practitioners.:

"Aim to bring ethical considerations... in terms of character virtue, relevant rules, and outcomes, and... demonstrate to others your actions were taken in a considered, responsible, inclusive and accountable way, with reference to credible guidelines." (Chia & Synnott, 2009, p. 118).

"...if more practitioners begin to bring a genuine professional approach to public relations, then (it)... will not be something 'out there' with which the practitioner is only abstractly concerned. Instead, public relations practitioners will understand that professional ethics interacts with professional conduct and is part of an overall search for which in no way neglects 'the bottom line', but instead humanises it." (Johnston & Zawawi, 2004, p. 130).

Post #4: Reading Response on Chapter Three (Chia and Synnott, 2009).

Chapter 3: Theoretical Contexts

This chapter discusses the various theoretical concepts that influence the field of public relations. I shall list the various theories and elements covered here before proceeding with anything else.

1. Systems theory

--> Cybernetics, Requisite variety, Boundary spanning.

2. Communications theory

--> Transmission models, Persuasion, Attitude & behaviour change, Source credibility, Two-step/multistep flow, Emotional appeals, Coorientation theory, Agenda setting, Framing.

3. Public Relations theory

--> The Excellence Theory, Grunig and Hunt's four models + variations, situational theory of publics, relationship management.

4. Rhetorical and interpretive perspectives

5. Cultural theory

6. Critical perspectives

I believe we have been introduced to what has been covered here in our Introduction to Communication Studies (CMNS1110) and Managing the Organisation (IRHR1001) modules. That said, there were a few new points that piqued my interest:

Firstly, under Communications theory, where the text introduces us to Newcomb, McLeod and Chaffee (1973)'s coorientation theory. Since different individuals have different opinions on a single issue, coorientation theory allows us to draw up a diagram of the different stakeholders' stand to see whether they are aligned in thought and action. I suppose we can then use it to determine the thrust of the PR campaign/strategy.

Chia and Synnott (2009) lists the four variables in achieving consensus. Firstly, accuracy, which is related to the level of accuracy of two (or more) parties' perception of each other's views. Next is understanding, which is how well both parties know the stiuation. Following that is agreement, explained as the level of similarity between the actual views on the issue at hand for both parties, and lastly, congruence, which is whether the actual view of one party is aligned with his or her perception of the view of the other party.

The example shown in our text, incidentally from PRIA's Golden Target Awards, let me understand how this theory works in a real-life situation. In summary, I think that coorientation theory is about facilitating understanding between different stakeholders; although an excellent campaign will also depend in part on the willingness of all parties involved to be proactive and to listen to the other party, and be ready to make concessions so in the big picture, everybody benefits.

Grunig and Hunt's four models of public relations was finally talked about in this chapter. In today's context, it seems that all four models are in use simultaneously. The first model of PR is press agentry. In this, the mass media is a tool used by organisations (through PR practitoners) to send messages to their audience in a single directional flow of information. I think this is quite easily observable; we can see instances of press agentry everywhere. I dare venture that the media release is an example of this? Since it contains all the information a journalist would need to write a story and thus achieve the PR effect. Media releases are sometimes lifted wholesale and plunked into the papers, even.

The public information model, like press agentry, is also singular in direction, however, according to Chia and Synnott (2009) the information provided here are hard facts and truths, so as to inform the public about certain issues that we need to take note of. This is probably heavily used by government agencies, like in Singapore where the Traffic Police releases accident statistics from time to time to get the public to drive carefully. Perhaps the single biggest example of this model could be during national health crises, such as SARS in 2003 and the H1N1 epidemic in 2009, where the Ministry of Health, as well as hospitals provided daily updates of the situation through the various media and provided information on symptoms and any action to be taken.

Thirdly we have the two-way asymmetric model. It's two-way because not only does the organisation send information to the target audience, the feedback from the audience also makes it back to the organisationand determines the development of the next round of publicity efforts. It is somewhat similar to the reception model of communication which we learnt back in Trimester 3 in 2010. This model allows the organisation to slowly shape the behaviour of the target audience though, and my guess is it raises some issues about ethics. As for examples of this model, could it be that product surveys are part of this? The PR practitioner could design one and go out into the streets to collect data about a certain product or, say, the public impression of the organisation, then use the feedback to create a better product or service that would "manipulate" the public to do business with the organisation in question?

The last model postulated by Grunig and Hunt is the two-way symmetric model. The most ideal model, it discusses mutual understanding between both the organisation as well as the target audiences, where both are of equal stature and are able to influence each other in some way or another. Personally, like what is stated in the textbook, I feel this model is a little irrelevant because a perfect balance of power is close to impossible in real life, the situations are usually give-and-take of some sort, or when one party dominates the other. Perhaps coorientation theory could be used to smooth out the differences between the groups but otherwise, this is very much just an ideal in my opinion.

Chia and Synnott do talk about extra variations to these four models, of which personal influence is quite a lot like the guanxi concept in Chinese culture which I blogged about 2 weeks ago or so. Mixed motive, on the other hand, is rooted in game theory and has the PR practitioner try to steer the organisation towards a Nash equilibrium for both the organisation and the public.

My reflection on some of the theories covered in this chapter thus ends.

Post #3 (ii) Case Study: "Get on the Sauce" - Launching Beerenberg Coopers Ale Barbeque Sauce

The following is a reflection of the case study on the PR campaign for Beerenberg Coopers Ale Barbecue Sauce, nominated for the Golden Target Awards, which is an Australian award recognising "excellence, best practice and professionalism in public relations" (Public Relations Institute of Australia, 2010). This case study can be obtained from: http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/gta/?page=show&id=808


Goals of public relations campaign:
1. To establish Beerenberg Coopers Ale Barbecue Sauce (a product made through the cooperation of Coopers Brewery and Berenberg Farm) as the one and only Australian barbecue sauce.

2. Targeted average sales of 6 bottles/week in Coles supermarket, which already stocks the product.

3. To raise the product's profile so other retailers will also want to sell it.

4. Through this, enhance the reputation of Coopers Brewery and Beerenberg Farm as producers of excellent product.

5. Beerenberg is popular in South Australia; this campaign was to raise its profile so it would become widely accepted throughout the country.

*related to objectives 4 and 5 was a thrust in emphasising upon Beerenberg's heritage and company values.

Insight (gained from research)

An insight gained by Hughes Public Relations, the company contracted for the campaign, was that there were many barbecue sauces on the market, but none used beer as the main ingredient. This was therefore the main differentiating point for Beerenberg Coopers Ale Barbecue Sauce and the strategy for the campaign focused on it and the values of both producers as mentioned above.

Strategy

A few target audiences were selected, and the campaign primed to reach out to these groups:
- Food journalists
- Highly-educated, reasonably wealthy females who are the main grocery buyers

- Male consumers aged 30 and above (likely to use the barbecue sauce at barbecues, with beer)

- Retailers 

(1) Food journalists were the initial target audience of the campaign, whose strategy was to get them to become more aware of the Beerenberg brand, thus accomplishing objective 5. This would pave the way for the launch of the Barbecue Sauce later.

 

(2) To achieve objective 3 and 5, the Barbecue Sauce was launched at the Fine Foods event in Sydney. This was an event for businesses in the food and hospitality industry to gain attention, network and to launch new products.

(3) Beerenberg also set up a stall at the Tasting Australia event in Adelaide. This bi-annual event, open to the public, showcases what Australia has to offer in F&B.  Apart from the food and hospitality industry, local and international media and the public could also participate in this. By participating in Tasting Australia, objectives 1, 2 and 4 were met.

(4) Finally, to cover all objectives and outreach to the media, the Barbecue Sauce had a media launch in three cities (Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide). Many food journalists were based in Melbourne and Sydney so the choice of those two cities was logical. Adelaide was chosen also because both Coopers and Beerenberg had been well-established there, this was to maintain their image in home base.

Tactics

In the two months leading to the launch of the Barbecue Sauce (1), a Beerenberg product and a letter were delivered to the targeted food journalists so as to familiarise them with the brand.

At the Fine Foods event (2), a barbecue was held with food samples served with the Barbecue Sauce. This sampling allowed other industry participants to find out what the new product was like and to decide (for retailers) whether to put this product on their shelves. The Managing Director, Anthony Paech, was personally involved in this event which showed how important this product was to the companies involved.

Being at the Tasting Australia event (3), which over 20000 people visited, was good publicity for the Beerenberg brand and the Barbecue Sauce. It was a great chance for them to reach out to the public regarding this new product. Also, Hughes Public Relations liaised with the Tasting Australia organisers to increase Beerenberg's visibility, through promoting the brand and the Barbecue Sauce at events linked to Tasting Australia, allowing Beerenberg jams to be used at the Hyatt Hotel in Adelaide where members of the media were staying during Tasting Australia and including Beerenberg publicity material as well as a bottle of the Baebecue Sauce in the media packs.

The tactic used for strategy (4) was to have the media launches over a gourmet barbecue lunch where influential food journalists were served with food and the Barbecue Sauce. Guests were thus able to sample the sauce over lunch and even bring home a bottle.  Also, a news release was written for distribution along with CDs containing images of the Coopers Ale Barbeque Sauce.  Media packs, were also sent to those who were unable to attend. In addition, interviews with financial papers such as the Australian Financial Review were provided for; this generated articles with a corporate viewpoint which attracted the interest of retailers.

Evaluation

As a succesful PR campaign nominated for the Golden Target Awards, all objectives were successfully met as can be seen from the case study. More sales were recorded, and Woolsworths, another supermarket chain, has decided to carry the product. The national media coverage generated a lot of positive stories and lifted the profile of Beerenberg (and Cooper) nation-wide. Export discussions were also under way with distributors in America.

From this case study, I have realised that a PR campaign has to be carefully planned and thought out, and works best when as many facets as possible are covered. What Ms. Wilson said about the effects being obtained free/at low cost were particularly evident, because little cost was spent on advertising and the success or failure of the campaign was wholly dependent on the public relations effort. We definitely need more training to be able to succinctly identify the various goals, insights gained, strategies and tactics used in PR campaigns, and must have a good sense of critical thinking to evaluate its effects.

This marks the end of the case study reflection.

Post #3 (i): Reading Response on Chapter Two (Chia and Synnott, 2009).

Chapter 2: Trends and Developments

The reading this week on Chapter Two of our text highlighted the various trends as identified by the authors that are shaping the PR profession (there is even debate about calling it a profession) today. The main focus points come from Harris and Fleisher (2005, as cited in Chia & Synnott, 2009), as well as Report of the Commission on Public Relations Education (2006). 

Harris and Fleisher contend that it is now industry standard for comapnies to be open and transparent when dealing with the public. Due to increasing education and knowledge, we have become better informed and thus demand accountability from all sorts of organisations, such as the corporation, governments, even charities. Two PR disasters, both  results of external efforts to pressure governments and a non-profit organisation to be more accountable, come to mind.

Firstly, the release of diplomatic cables, from routine traffic to highly classified exchanges by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks constituted a major crisis for many governments, especially that of the United States. Singapore was not spared as well, with our Minister Mentor's remarks on Kim Jong-il among those released, prompting our Ministry of Foreign affairs to express concern over the "damaging action" (Channel NewsAsia, 2010). In a bid to force accountability on the United States government, WikiLeaks has likely prompted many diplomats to practice self-censorship in their dealings with other nations, not to mention chilling nation-to-nation ties, in addition to causing the United States government a huge headache.

The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) also suffered a blow to its image back in 2005 when the media exposed its shady dealings at top level. Following that, the profile of NKF reduced significantly for a few years, and only in the recent years has it slowly returned and rebuilt its image, with a housewife recently donating $4.7 million to it (The Straits Times, 2011). PR was likely instrumental in bringing NKF down and also in its return to good graces, as evidenced by the article mentioned (could have been a media release, yes?). Thus, in demanding accountability, we as PR practitioners need to help our organisations become transparent to the public which is also related to ethical practice.

The Commission's report dealt more with issues in educating PR practitioners. The key take-aways from the report's findings (Chia & Synnott, 2009) are that it spans worldwide now and there is a high priority to be culturally sensitive. This reminds me of what we learnt in our module on Managing the Organisation (IRHR1001) in which cultural sensitivity was also mentioned as a key aspect for managers. I suppose then that this is actually a valuable skill that one should have regardless of field.

Apart from this, the report also mentioned the need to look inwards. Internal communication is something I haven't been focusing on much, but it does make sense that it is an integral part of PR that practitioners should be educated on. Each organisation has its own pecularities, its own culture and "rituals", and it is necessary for the PR person to understand them as well so as to assist in managing crises internally, and also in demonstrating transparency and accountability (mentioned before). If even the employee does not know what the organisation's business plans and procedures are, then how would its image in the eyes of the public be? If whatever the senior management did was never made known to the rank and file, would they have faith in their leaders?

This chapter also discusses formal recognition of PR as a profession. I agree with the stand mentioned in the text that accreditation should indicate that the PR practitioner is qualified and has been trained by recognised institutions/authorities/specialists in this field. It should be managed and monitored properly otherwise there would be no meaning and value to it. Proper accreditation is like a mark of trust and Chia and Synnott (2009) have described the fact that an increasing number of employers preferring to employ accredited PR practitioners. This would definitely raise the profile of the field of PR, if not settling the argument that it is a profession outright (the field is getting more in-depth, and has prescribed standards of training and education, overseen by governing bodies, so why is not a profession?).

This ends the first part of the third post.

Post #2: Reading Response on Chapter One (Chia and Synnott, 2009).

Chapter 1: Understanding Twenty-First Century Public Relations

We've been tasked to read Chia and Synnott (2009)'s text, so this post shall be a reflection on the first chapter of said text. Firstly, the chapter covers a historical overview of the field of PR, citing its origins in the empires of Rome and Greece (Edwards, 2006, as cited in Chia & Synnott, 2009). Fast forwarding to the 20th century, modern public relations practice was identified to have started from America. Parallels were drawn between development of PR in America as well as that in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia, although the rate at which it does so in these regions differs from that of America, since the local cultures do have a large influence on its development. The text cites China's strict control of media as an example.

Here's something I found on the challenges of public relations in China: Weber Shandwick Worldwide.

Seems like to actually practice PR in China, an aspiring practitioner must understand exactly how the government works and be able to sidestep media controls in order to get the required message out (the article does not elaborate how). The article mentions guanxi, or the Chinese term for "relations", and I think this concept of relations factor in more greatly in the Chinese rather than in Western markets, thus the onus is on us, the PR practitioners, to build excellent, reciprocal guanxi with the media so as to achieve our objectives (Liu & Wu, n.d.).

Some definitions were provided as well as various regional perspectives on PR. Again, government control factored in for the context of PR in Asia as mentioned above. What was interesting, however, was the author's definition of it, which encompasses collaboration with the public, continual research and evaluation to improve on work relations across all sectors of society, and being creative, yet adaptable. It echoes the social responsibility ethos in that the PR practitioner, in order to make a difference, should also include activities that brings about positive benefits to the environment that the client is operating in, killing two birds with one stone.

In the next section, the importance of theory was mentioned, mainly to give us students a basis for application and to know what potential minefields to avoid. It also lays the groundwork for further academic study into this field if we so wish (Chia & Synnott, 2009). It was here that I realised PR theory is quite closely linked to communications theory (which we covered last trimester), because familiar names like Habermas, Foucault and Bourdieu appeared at various points in this chapter. Chia and Synnott (2009) even write about Habermas' idea on framing, reminding me of a simple media framing exercise we did under Introduction to Communication Studies, with news angles and so on.

The final portion of this chapter covered the components of PR practice. From internal communications to external networking, crisis management, research, financial public relations (stakeholder-related) and developing positions, PR is actually a bigger field than I ever imagined, even with the little introduction to it in last week's lecture.

This week we linked marketing and PR, which I believe falls under the networking/relationship building and research components as identified in this reading. Ms. Wilson showed us some case studies of PR campaigns (generating the "free" publicity as opposed to "paid" advertisements, something I mentioned in my previous post), and a major takeaway from the tutorial was that PR campaigns need to have a link to the clients they are being tailored for. For example, a graffiti-themed campaign may not suit G2000 well (better known for its all-business, no-nonsense attires) but may be the perfect way to boost the image of Ecko Unlimited (a more edgy, rebellious brand; also one of the case studies shown to us). In my opinion the "Raffles Place Ghost Sightings" which we examined during tutorial had only a small and weak link to the human resource consultancy group that was the client. Linking ghosts to overwork seems a little far-fetched to me, but that's just my two cents. Despite this, it generated attention, so why not, hmm?

This ends the second post.

Post #1: CMNS1290 Lecture 1

Today was our very first lecture for CMNS1290, the module known as Introduction to Public Relations. We were given an overview of this course as well as a quick brief as to what Public Relations, or PR is about. Jumping directly into the lecture proper, I believe the key points today, as delivered in our lecture, were: 

1. The various definitions of PR from academic as well as institutional sources.

2. The function of PR.

3. The various types of PR.

4. The key difference between PR and advertising.

This particular definition of PR caught my eye, as defined by the Institute of Public Relations Singapore: "Public Relations is a professional discipline that aims to enhance an organisation’s reputation and stakeholder relations, to achieve its objectives through communications and related strategic tools.”

To me, this succinctly states the purpose of Public Relations as I understand it, that is to brand the organisation (or even the individual, as in the case of artistes) and improve or to maintain their positive image in the eyes of the public. This, as explained to us by Ms. Wilson, our lecturer, is done through the use of  communication tools such as media releases (written in such a way as to promote, or as a response to allegations, so as to entice the journalist or magazine writer, for example, to produce an article on said organisation/individual/product in their respective publications, thus achieving an objective of making the target stand out from the rest).

Even so, it was elaborated that PR practitioners perform other functions too, such as to counsel senior management on what to say and action measures to be taken in times of crises. The example of the recall of Mars and Snickers chocolate bars as a major crisis requiring PR intervention was mentioned by Ms. Wilson (personal communication, January 11 , 2011). I also thought back to the training accident in 2006, where a Commando officer of the Singapore Armed Forces  (SAF) died (David Boey's blog, Senang Diri, at http://kementah.blogspot.com/2010/06/court-verdict-on-land-rover-death.html). I suppose the response by the SAF to suspend physical training pending a review of operating procedures and safety standards back then qualifies as a PR response? This also involves the element of ethics in PR and the responsibility to the society at large.

Thus apart from merely serving the purpose of branding (Consumer-Brand PR) and dealing with the public and the press (Corporate PR), there are also other types of PR, such the Business-to-Business PR, which involves getting targeted retailers to carry one's products for sale (Wilson, personal communication, January 11, 2011). 

Lastly, we reflected on some key differences between PR and advertising. Ms Wilson mentioned that PR was approximately 5 times more effective than advertising, the key difference being that advertisements are paid for by the organisation while the effect produced from PR efforts is basically free. She mentioned a hypothetical example of a chef being quoted in an article about KFC's egg tarts being the best - this would be more effective than just an advertisement about KFC's egg tarts in its breakfast set. Perhaps PSB can learn from this as well, and nominate more students for interviews in newspaper features apart from their regular advertisements placed there. 

That summarises my reflections for this lecture and thus ends my post.