Professionalism

• CPRE recommends 5 content areas. Which is missing from your curriculum?

Ethics

• Morals and beliefs — personal standards
• Ethics — shared community standards
• Trust and reputation — are the outcomes if you act ethically
• Quotations:
  • “There is a pervading crisis of confidence and trust in the global corporate culture. Trust has been ruptured between many organizations and their constituencies. Yet trust is at the basis of every relationship. The loss of trust leads to the loss of reputation and, ultimately, to the loss of business.”
    –Ruder Finn
  • “Trust is something business can’t do without…It isn’t some fuzzy nice-to-have; it’s the lubricant without which the City and Wall Street are as frozen as a rusted motor. If there is debt or credit, there has to be trust.” –Simon Caulkin, The Guardian
• Ethical behavior is the right thing to do. It’s also the foundation of long-term business success and profitability.
• Code of Ethics:
• Code of Athens from the International Public Relations Association
  https://www.ipra.org/static/media/uploads/pdfs/ipra_code_of_athens.pdf
• PRSA Code of Ethics Principles
  • Honesty: Adhere to the highest standards of accuracy and truth in advancing the interests of those you represent and in communicating with the public.  Maintain the integrity of relationships with the media, government officials, and the public. To ensure honesty, investigate the accuracy of information given to you. Reveal sponsors for causes/interests. Disclose financial interests.
  • Expertise: Advance your profession through your continued professional development, research, and education. Build mutual understanding, credibility and relationships among a wide array of institutions and audience.
  • Independence: Provide objective counsel to those you represent. Avoid real, potential or perceived conflicts of interest you will build the trust of clients, employers and the public.
  • Advocacy: Serve the public interest by acting as responsible advocates for those you represent. Provide a voice for the organization through ideas, facts and viewpoints to aid informed public debate.
  • Fairness: Deal fairly with clients, employers, competitors, peers, vendors, the media, and the general public. Respect all opinions and support the right of free expression. Build trust with the public by revealing all information needed for responsible decision making.
• The Page Principles
  • Tell the truth.
  • Prove it with action.
  • Listen to the customer.
  • Manage for tomorrow.
  • Conduct public relations as if the whole company depends on it.
  • Realize a company’s true character is expressed by its people.
  • Remain calm, patient and good-humored.

Putting Ethics into Action

The following guide, which is adapted to meet the specific needs of public relations professionals, is offered as one approach that PRSA members
may find helpful in addressing ethical dilemmas:
1. Define the specific ethical issue/conflict.
2. Identify internal/external factors (e.g., legal, political, social, economic) that may
influence the decision.
3. Identify key values.
4. Identify the parties who will be affected by the decision and define the public
relations professional’s obligation to each.
5. Select ethical principles to guide the decision-making process.
6. Make a decision and justify it.

In-class example:
You are the public relations professional for a housing developer. Your company’s next
project is multi-family housing for middle-income families. In gathering information
related to the project, you find that the land for the complex was the site of a landfill. An
EPA report shows very low levels of contaminants that are not life-threatening hazards.
You discuss this information with your supervising boss, who is not a public relations
professional, and recommend ways to explain the landfill history in promotional
materials. Your boss tells you that the landfill information is not to be included in the
materials. He does not want this issue proactively discussed. What do you do?
1. Define the specific ethical issue/conflict.
2. Identify internal/external factors (e.g., legal, political, social, economic) that may
influence the decision.
3. Identify key values.
4. Identify the parties who will be affected by the decision and define the public
relations professional’s obligation to each.
5. Select ethical principles to guide the decision-making process.
6. Make a decision and justify it.

Videos

Professionalism and challenges:

Melanie McNaughton (ethics and PR):

Thank You for Smoking Merchants of Death:

Edelman Trust Barometer

Dan Edelman on ethical decision making

IPR: how people identify truth and fact online

In-Class Activities
1. Do some thinking about your own personal value system and how it will drive your ethical choices in the professional world. Which one of the standards in the PRSA Codes of Ethics best exemplifies your approach to the profession?

2. Case Activities: A number of situations can raise ethical questions in the public relations business. Resolving these situations often involve sifting through a number of factos including your philosophical orientation, your personal belief system, and your understanding of professional standards. What ethical concerns are raised in the following situations? What would you do in each situation? Follow the 6 steps to identify a resolution:

1. Identify the ethical issues and/or conflicts
2. Determine internal/external factors likely to influence your decision.
3. Choose key values that apply.
4. Consider parties who will be affected by your decision and evaluate the public
   relations professional’s obligation to each one.
5. Select ethical principles to guide your decision making.
6. Make a decision and offer a brief rationale.

Leave your answers as a reply to this blog post.

Case A: You work for Amy’s Baking Company (https://youtu.be/7uPOGxUtZvk?t=1m36s) , and the management wants a higher profile on such consumer review sites such as Amazon and Yelp. The owners believer there are “haters” and bloggers who hate them personally and are taking it out on the restaurant. The owners also have anger management issues and lash out at clients. Several freelance writers contact you with an offer. They will post multiple favorable reviews of your product under various anonymous names and only charge $35 for every posted review. What do you do?

Case B: The president of the company decides it would be “good PR” and visibility for her to have a personal Twitter account and write a weekly column/blog in the local business journal. She, of course, doesn’t have much time for this so she asks you, the public relations intern, to “ghost-write” the tweets and the blogs in her name. What do you do?

Case C: Your public relations firm has a luxury resort hotel in Hawaii as a client. It is important to get an articles about the hotel in various leading travel magazines. One idea is to invite influential travel writers and their families for a one-week stay at the hotel, all expenses paid, with the understanding that they would write a favorable article about their experience. What do you do?

Case D: The agency you work for has been retained by a manufacturer of light-rail and subway cars to monitor public transit funding and identify local and regional government
agencies with plans to develop or expand transportation systems. Among several
strategies, the agency is responsible for organizing and managing citizen groups to
influence the funding and political decision-making process regarding rail cars. The
client does not want to be identified as the funder of Citizens Advocating for Affordable
Transit (CAAT). A reporter who covers transit approaches you at a CAAT meeting and
asks if one of your clients is backing CAAT and the identity of the client. You have a
good and trusted relationship with this reporter but your boss has said that the agency
will lose the client if its association with CAAT is publicly disclosed. What do you do?

1.

Announcements:

• Here is the latest newsletter from the Department of Communication: http://us14.campaign-archive2.com/?u=e00c2710d4e2dbc916761a0ed&id=101905c96e&e=[UNIQID] — Read this if you want to know about internships and events on campus.

Research Notes from the Library Session

You will use both primary and secondary research in this public relations class.

Primary research is “an investigation or the collection of data firsthand, or by a third party contracted specifically for the firsthand party” (Accredited in Public Relations, n.d.). This is research you do yourself that has not been done before.

Secondary research “uses the research findings of others, or collects information secondhand” (Accredited in Public Relations, n.d.). Secondary research is the examination of research previously conducted by others.

Here’s more about primary and secondary research:

Here is a quick video about using the library’s resources for secondary research:

Additional Research Tools:

• Pew Research Center: http://www.pewresearch.org/
• Nielsen Insights: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights.html
• Nielsen ZIP Code Lookup: https://segmentationsolutions.nielsen.com/mybestsegments/Default.jsp?ID=20&pageName=ZIP%2BCode%2BLookup&menuOption=ziplookup
• ESRI Tapestry (psychographics): http://www.esri.com/landing-pages/tapestry
• Institute for Public Relations: http://www.instituteforpr.org/
• U.S. Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/
  • American Fact Finder: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/searchresults.xhtml?refresh=t#none
  • On the Map: https://onthemap.ces.census.gov/
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
  • Time Use Survey: https://www.bls.gov/tus/
  • Consumer Expenditure Survey: https://www.bls.gov/cex/
• Google Insights: https://www.google.com/insights/#/?modal_active=none&insights-tabs_active=categoryinsights
• Google Trends: https://www.google.com/trends/
• VALS (psychographics): http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/scarborough.shtml
• PRISMZ (psychographics): https://segmentationsolutions.nielsen.com/mybestsegments/Default.jsp?ID=30&menuOption=segmentdetails&pageName=Segment%Details
• National Retail Center Retail Insights: http://research.nrffoundation.com/Default.aspx#.WJsv9NArJBw
• Trendwatching: http://trendwatching.com/freepublications/
• YPulse (millennial marketing and insights): https://www.ypulse.com/

Just in case you’re curious about this assignment, look at these interviews done by students:

Practitioner Interview #1 (Belmont University):

Practitioner Interview #2:

Practitioner Interview #3:

 

Final Interview Questions

1. What is your name?
2. What degree do you have?
   1. What was your major in college? Did you major in PR?
   2. Where did you attend college?
3. How many years of experience do you have in public relations?
   1. Did you do any internships while you were in school? Were those valuable for you?
   2. Where else have you worked?
4. Did you have any professional connections before going into the P.R. Industry?
   1. How did you build your network?
   2. For your network, who should be included in your network?
5. Where do you work now?
6. How long have you worked there?
7. What is your title?
8. What do you enjoy most about working here?
9. What are specific job duties and responsibilities are required of you daily?
   1. What is a typical day look like for you?
10. What type of PR activities do you supervise?
11. What’s the biggest challenge you encounter regarding public relations for this company?
12. What are the pro’s and con’s of the PR profession?
    1. What are the pros and cons of your job?
    2. Why?
13. Can you tell me about a project that you worked on that you are proud of?
14. What is one skill set that you wish you would have focused on before entering your profession?
15. What are some of the most pressing issues facing the industry?
    1. What are your opinions on diversity in public relations?
    2. What are your opinions on the gender salary gap?
    3. What do you think about the increasing number of women in the profession?
16. What advice would you give anyone wanting a career in public relations?
17. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

According to Meg Lamme and Karen Russell, the major motivations for public relations across time have been:

A. Recruitment: getting new volunteers, new members, new hires, and new students
B. Legitimacy: legitimatizing an organization’s position via status conferral
C. Advocacy: promoting persons, organizations and nations; this is the first value of the PRSA Code of Ethics
D. Agitation: activism both online and offline
E. Profit: generating revenue via the promoting of products, services, and ideas for sale

Podcast:

Edward Bernays (Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know): http://www.stufftheydontwantyoutoknow.com/videos/edward-bernays-1-cigarettes-suffragettes-video.htm

Videos:

A Brief History of Public Relations

Public Relations History (Melanie McNaughton):

Questions and Answers: Put your answers to all of the questions below in the “Leave a Reply” section.

a. What is propaganda? Is public relations propaganda?

b. Creativity alert: How would P. T. Barnum use social media (especially given this news)? Provide some specific examples.

c. Asymmetrical public relations is much more common in everyday practice than symmetrical public relations. Does that mean most of the field is inherently unethical? Why or why not?

 

Announcements:

1. Center for Career and Professional Development
2. Lamar University Ambassadors
3. Television Academy Foundation Internships

Guest Speaker: Sandra Borne, Area Director for the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club

Discussion of Chapter 3

• Dr. Tom Kelleher: Public relations as a management function

Discussion of the Practitioner Interview Assignment

In-class Assignment: Taking what you have learned and read so far, draft questions for the practitioner interview assignment. Incorporate material learned in the class and from the readings into the questions.

Write interview questions that will obtain the following information:

• Background information of the person’s educational and professional history.
• Background information on their professional experience
• Information about the company/organization in which the person works, i.e., where is it located, the kind of business it is, number of employees, type of products manufactured or sold, etc.
• Information about the person’s day-to-day activities including specific explanations of job roles, job duties and job responsibilities
• Information about what public relations activities the person does and/or supervises.
• Biggest challenges the person faces doing public relations for the company/organization.
• Identification of the publics of the organization and their importance to the organization
• His or her thoughts on pressing issues in public relations today (e.g., diversity in PR, gender pay gap, “fake news” and “alternative facts”)

In order to make sure you get the information you need for your paper, you must give careful thought to the questions you want to ask the person you interview.

Each group must come up with at least 15 questions. All groups should enter their questions in the comments section of this blog by the end of the class period. Good luck!

 

Videos:

Why PR? The skills you need to succeed (from the Public Relations Society of America): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GReTADrnZGQ

The importance of your resume (from the Public Relations Society of America): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfpIF6SO6Fw

Careers in public relations (from the Public Relations Student Society of America):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDRaU_JV-4U

Fred Cook, the CEO of Golin Harris, speaking about professional success in public relations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br2xBxkQ34o — Key takeaways:

1. Expose yourself. Try something different. Read something different when standing in front of the magazine rack. These are “doors to new worlds…where people are different than you.” Apply to movies, restaurants, religion, etc.
2.  Hit the road. Hitting the road helps you to compete and helps you understand the challenges companies face. (Get a passport. Leave the country. If you can’t do that, leave your state or city. Take a gap year (skip a year and learn about the world); study abroad. Learn another language.)
3. Talk with the senior executives (when you are interning). Ask them a smart question. Take them out for coffee.
4. Volunteer for things in the office.
5. Answer your emails.
6. You need an entourage and a board of directors for your image and your career. Hire a stylist. Find someone to help with your resume. Use your weak ties in your job search.
7. Work for tips. Customer service is at the heart of every business. So, your hospitality jobs count toward your career. Watch and remember the Starbucks story in the video. Make the tips and lessons learned work for you.
8. Get as many internships as you can.
9. Start your own business. Do a lean startup.

Note: Golin Harris has internships available.

Exercises:

1. Look at the characteristics of most PR practitioners and the skills they possess. Devise a matrix that helps you understand how the characteristics relate to the skills.
2. Let’s say you are a strategic thinker. How would you chart your PR career beginning with today? List the steps you would take, and assign deadlines to the things you need to accomplish before graduation.

Case Activity #1:

You have just completed a year as an administrative assistant to the executive director of a small, local nonprofit that assists battered women and children. You worked there two summers as the volunteer PR director, as well. You really want to get into public relations and intend to apply for an entry-level position at a small public relations agency. The online ad states, “one year of professional experience required.” Are you eligible for this position? Should you reflect your PR director position as “professional” experience? With whom should you talk to determine if you should apply for this position?

Case Activity #2:

Is there a gender gap in public relations? Why does the field attract more women than men? How does each gender perceive careers in public relations? Focus groups with majors at three universities provided some themes:

The “people skills” stereotype holds for both genders but more so for women.

• Women are more likely to define public relations as “party planning” and “having fun” primarily as an influence of how television and film portray females in public relations.
• Men are more attracted to the strategy and management side of public relations.
• Both genders expect to be in management positions, but men are more likely to pursue corporate settings.
• Both genders perceive certain female stereotypes as being strengths in the profession.
• Both genders like the variety of the profession. There’s always something new.
• Both genders like the versatility of the educational experience. You can do a lot of different things with the degree.

Working in groups of 5 to 10 students, conduct your own discussion of these themes. Does the group agree or disagree with them and in what way? In the group’s view, why are there so few men studying public relations or, to put it another way, why does the field attract so many women?

 

 

Definitions:

Reputation from the Institute of Public Relations:

• From the perspective of the organization, reputation is an intangible asset that allows the company to better manage the expectations and needs of its various stakeholders, creating differentiation and barriers vis-à-vis its competitors.
• From the perspective of stakeholders, reputation is the intellectual, emotional and behavioral response as to whether or not the communications and actions of an organization resonate with their needs and interests.

Reflective Communication SCRUM and Sprints:

• Scrum is “where the team reviews progress and discusses what will be done before each session.”
• A sprint is “a predetermined period during which actions are developed and implemented. Each sprint is followed by a validation meeting that includes the project owner and possibly stakeholders.”

 

Case Study:

4-H inspires new ice cream from Blue Bell Creameries, a Texas-based company that sells ice cream in 17 states (including Georgia and Florida).

• In honor of the Texas 4-H organization’s 100th birthday, Blue Bell Creameries is introducing Centennial Cupcake Ice Cream. To sweeten the deal, the Little Creamery is donating a portion of the sales to promote 4-H educational programs.
• Centennial Cupcake Ice Cream is a delicious cake batter ice cream with pieces of yellow cake, a chocolate icing swirl and four-leaf clover sprinkles.
• “We just finished celebrating our 100th birthday so we understand just how special this is,” said Paul Kruse, Blue Bell CEO and president. “Centennial Cupcake is the perfect ice cream to help commemorate this momentous occasion. It has all the ingredients for a celebration, cake and ice cream. The four-leaf clover sprinkles give it that special touch.”
• 4-H is a national organization which prides itself on teaching young people across America leadership, citizenship and life skills. There are more than 7 million members from eight to 18 years of age involved in 4-H.
• Centennial Cupcake Ice Cream will be sold in Texas and across the company’s 17-state distribution area. “4-H is a national organization that benefits so many young people,” Kruse said. “Our inspiration for the flavor came from the Texas organization’s 100th birthday, but we felt it was important to recognize all 4-H groups.”
• Blue Bell has also created a unique carton for this new flavor. It features four children in 4-H T-shirts and the organization’s widely recognized four-leaf emblem. “We worked with 4-H to create something that symbolizes what they are all about,” Kruse said. “The organization is for the kids. I think the smiling faces capture the spirit of this organization just perfectly.”
• Centennial Cupcake Ice Cream will be available in stores in mid-February 2018.

Your firm has been hired by Blue Bell Ice Cream to launch a three-month campaign to announce this product and generate sales. Your client has suggested a campaign that includes both proactive and reactive strategies because Blue Bell has a damaged reputation among its stakeholders. 

Question 1: What issues and concerns created Blue Bell’s damaged reputation? How long ago did this happen? How did the company communicate these issues?

Question 2: Your client states that reputation doesn’t matter and that all publicity is good publicity. What can you state and demonstrate that will change the client’s mind?

You have a budget of $50,000, and some should be spent on strategies that renew the public’s confidence in the Blue Bell brand and to promote this product to families with heads of households who make food purchasing decisions, aged 25 to 45 with children in the states that carry Blue Bell. What are some other demographics that you need to know about these mothers?  

Your account supervisor has asked to see your suggestions for a proposed campaign addressing the situation by 2:30 p.m. today.  Good luck!

How should we define PR?

Let’s look at these definitions:

Public relations is the strategic management of relationships between an organization and its diverse publics, through the use of communication, to achieve mutual understanding, realize organizational goals, and serve the public interest.

Public relations is the systematic promotion of mutual understanding between an organisation and its public.” Or, as the British express it: “Public relations is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its public.”

The definition of public relations used by the PRIA is “The deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation (or individual) and its (or their) publics.”
However, with the massive change in the communication process brought about by the information era, public relations could be described easily as:

“Helping an organisation and its publics adapt mutually to each other.”

Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics. – Chartered Institute of Public Relations

Public relations is the engineering of public consent.

 

Promoting Beef Jerky as a Healthy Snack

Tom Jones Beef Jerky is naturally high in protein and low in fat, calories, and carbs that make it an ideal snack for active, health-conscious individuals. The only problem is that consumer research shows that many have the perception that jerky is unhealthy.

The company wants to change this perception and to increase sales to men and women, aged 18 to 34, who actively exercise and lead healthy lifestyles.

Your PR firm is hired to:

1. increase awareness of the products through sponsoring an event that would appeal to a “work hard and play hard” audience
2. provide samples at such an event to showcase the brand’s health snack message
3. generate local print, online and broadcast coverage.

There is no budget for advertising.

What would you recommend?

 

before this class, what did you think public relations was?

metaphor for PR:

difference between PR and advertising

marketing and pr

what do people on the street think PR is?

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/public-relations-specialists.htm

Spicer press conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AjjVMAdWm4

skills; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68I-7IINMqc