Some interesting things that I learned in Chapter 11.

• Print is the most effective medium for delivering messages that require absorption of details and contmeplation by the receiver.

• Teens usually gain their trust from relationships.

• About 75 percent of Americans have internet access.

• The electronic media delivery system will eventually overtake print media.

• Television is a medium where the communicator likely has the most influence.

• Households in the gay community have a median income of $65,000 a year.

• Women make more than 80 percent of the households purchse decisions.

Public opinion is the collective expression of opinion of many individuals bound into a group by common aims, aspirations, needs, and ideals.

Opinion Leaders and Catalyst

• Types of Leaders
• Formal opinion leaders (power leaders)
• Informal opinion leaders (role models)

The Role of Mass Media

• Information from  a public relations sourece can be efficiently and rapidly disseminated to millions of people.

Persuasion: Pervasive in Our Lives

• The dominant view of public relations is one of persuasive communication actions performed on behalf of clients.
• Uses of persuasion :  change or neutralize hostile opinions, crystallize latent opinions and positve attitudes, and conserve favorable opinions.

The Purpose of Evalauation

• Evaluation is the measurement of results against objectives.
• Evaluation can enhance future performance and establish whether the goals of management by objective have been met

Objectives

• Before any public relations program can be properly evaluated, it must have a clearly established set of objectives.
• Public relations personnel and management should agree on the criteria that will be used to evaluate success in attaining objectives.
• Don’t wait until the end of the public relations program to determine how it will be evaluated.
• There are Informational and Motivational objectives.

Measurement of Production

• One elementary form of evaluation is to simply count how many news releases, feature stories, photos, letters, and the like are produced in a given time period.

Measurement of Message Exposure

• The most widely practiced form of evaluating public relations programs is the compilation of print and broadcast mentions.

Measurement of Audience Awareness

• Determine whether the audience actually became aware of the message and understood it.

Measurement of Audience Attitudes

• Baseline study – a mesurement of audience attitudes and opinions before , during, and after a public relations campaign.

Measurement of Audience Action

Measurement of Supplemental Activities

• Communication Audits
• Pilot Tests and Split Messages
• Meeting and Event Attendance
• Newsletter Readership

• Audience attention is highest at the beginning of the message.

• Word of mouth campaigns are often controversial for their stealth nature.

• Everett Rogers’ famous work is “Diffusions of Innovation”.

• The theory/ perspcetive that focuses largely on messages contrary to one’s dispositions is Cognitive Dissonance.

• When there is a decreased tendency over time to reject material presented by an untrustworthy souce the “sleeper effect” has occured.

• Passive audiences need mesages that have style and creativity.

• Mass media have the most influence in the awareness and interest stages of the adoption process.

• Staff time and out-of-pocket expenses are usually the two categories budgets are divided into.

• Approximately 10% of a public relations budget should be allocated toward contingencies or unexpected costs.

• MBO stands for Management By Objective

• The timing of a campaign, calendar compilation, and scheduling tactics are significant aspects for establishing a calendar and timetable for a program.

• A program plan includes: Situation, Objectives, Audience, Strategy, Tactics, Calendar/Timetable, Budget, and Evalutation.

• The best approach to planning in public relations is strategic and systematic.

• A strategy statement refers to how objectives are met and achieved.

• Objectives are usually stated in terms of program outcomes.

The Importance Of Research

• It is the basic ground work of any public relations program.
• It involes the gathering and interpretation of info.

Secondary Research

• Often begins by doing archival research, which reviews the organization’s data on sales, profile of customers, and so on.
• It also includes information from the library and the internet.

Qualitative Research

• Used to gain insights into how individuals behave, think, and make decisions.
• Also used to ascertain whether key messages were communicated by the media.

Quantitative Research

• Uses scientific rigor and proper sampling procedures so that info can be representative of the general population.
• Random sampling allows everyone in the target audience the chance to be in the sample.

Importance in Today’s World

• Executives increasingly see public relations not as publicity and one way communication, but as a complex and dynamic process of negotiation and compromise with a number of key publics.

Importance of Organizational Structure

• The most admired Fortune 500 coorporations, in terms of reputation, tend to think of public relatiosn as more of a strategic management tool.

Names of Departments

• Coorporate communications, communications, corporate relations, markteting and corporate affairs, investor relations, public affairs, and external affairs.

Line and Staff Functions

• A line manager, such as a vice president of maunfacturing, can delegate authority, set production goals, hire employees, and directly influence the work of others.
• Staff people in contrast, have little or no direct authority. They indirectly influence the the work of others through suggestions, recommendations, and advice.

Sources of Friction

• Legal – concerned with the possible effect of any public statement on current or potential litigation.
• Human Resources – beleive they should control the flow of information.
• Advertising – compete  with funds to communicate with external audiences. “Will it increase sale?”
• Marketing- Tends to think only of customers or potential buyers.

Public Relations Firms (Services They Provide)

• Marketing communications – promotion of products.
• Executive speech training – Top executives are coached on public affairs activities.
• Research and evaluation – Measure public attitudes and perceptions.
• Media analysis – examined for targeting specific messages to key audiences.

Ethics

• Ethics refers to a person’s value system and how he or she determines right or wrong.
• There a re three basic value orientations: (1) Absolutist, (2) Existentialist, (3) Situationalist

Ethical Advocate

• Because of the concept of role differentiation, society understands that the advocate os operating within an assigned role.

Professional Organizations

• Most professional oraganizations have published codes of conduct and educational programs.

Professionalism

• True public relations professionals have a loyalty to a higher standard and to the public interest.

Accredidation

• Practitioners voluntarily go through a process in which they are “certified” by a national organization that they are competent, qualified professionals.

Ethical Dealings in the Media

• Achieving trust is the aim of all practitioners, and it can only be achieved through highly professional and ethical behavior.
• It is for this reason that public relations practitioners should not undermine the trust of the media by providing junkets of doubtful news value, extravagant parties, expensive gifts, and personal favors for media representatives.

• The first element of the public relations process is research.
• The changing focus of public relations includes the long-standing  notion that practitioners should primarily be trained as journalists.
• The majority of public relations professionals are employed in corporations.
• Journalists write primarily for mass audiences, while public relations professionals segment into publics.
• Communication is the “end” activity in journalism, while public relations uses communication as a means to an end.

Early Beginnings – “Common Sense”, Thomas Paine; The Boston Tea Party

Press Agentry & Hype- Used PR to get people to travel out West on the railroads;  Hum Thumb

PR Pioneers- Bernays Campaign (Father of PR); Elanor Lambert (Successful in fashion PR)

PR Comes of Age- Fast growing occupation; Women become more predominant.

Evolution Era- Feminization (Women’s percentage moves from 41% to 70%); Two-Way Symmetric (Grunig states there should be feedback from the company to the audience and form the audience to the company.); referred to as Relationship Management in 2000.

Next 50 years- More multi-cultural; Cater to older people: “babyboom” generation is aging.