Publicists and the PR Industry

Much of the PR role  of celebrities focuses on promotion, publicity  and medial relations. In the UK, Max Clifford is the leading publicists and he claims to have broken more tabloid front page stories than any other journalist.
Edward Bernays like Max Clifford, used the techniques of the publicists to create headlines for his clients kin the early 1900's. This has led to the celebrity PR and the publicists often being highlighted by the tabloid media as examples of the PR industry. In reality, although celebrity PR and the publicists are influential, they form only a small part of the global PR Industry.

Max Clifford may be unpopular and his role seen as a dark art but nonetheless, he has great power and influence and is undeniably in the making of mordern day celebrities.

Social Marketing and Activism

Social Marketing and Activisim


For this topic, we were given a presentation by an NGO activist. We learnt how Ngo’s have increased significantly and are now huge, powerful and deserve to be looked at with a critical eye.
NGO's mainly aim to create change and put a lot of pressure to obtain this change.
Some of the tactics used are social marketing and activism. Social marketing focuses on motivating individual change.
Most public health issues involve availability of resources and public policy decisions regarding restrictions on industry practice (as in the case of smoking) or access to health resources (as in the case of cancer and other forms of screening).
Concentrating public health resources and public funds on social marketing efforts deflects attention from the public policy decisions that would make the larger public health impacts. Worse, the focus on changing individual behaviour rather than public policy in a sense blames victims of public policy. By focusing on the need of the at-risk population to change their behaviour , the need for public policy change is obscured.


Social marketing has a short life span. Without sustained support it is unlikely that the full potential of such social marketing or health promotion efforts can be realised.
It does not work/change would not occur where persons do not recognise , or deny a health issue in their own lives thus the need for activism. Such adoption however requires political interventions
to support these efforts. Often, the most important interventions involve political decisions such as the willingness to enforce alcohol beverage control regulations or laws regarding youth access to tobacco products.

Political PR

Political PR begun in the 1900's as the media intensified its role in the conduct of political dialogue. Many politicians including Ronald Regan, Magaret Thatcher, Tony Blair have used public relations to manage the media, their image, for internal communications and information management.

Tony Blair was noted to have used Alistair Darling to manipulate the media to get across information to the public.
 In politics, not only is what you say important but how it is said and image is key in politics. So much so, that Magaret Thatcher changed her image to appeal favourably to the public.
In more recent times, political pr helped to make history by electing Barrack Obama as the first black president in the USA.
The public however has become increasingly aware of the PR battle for their hearts and minds and its misuse in the form of control, manipulation and influence and having become sceptical.

In the UK's forthcoming elections Gordon Brown and David Cameron have been using all in their power from their wives to family to David cameron's love for Take That and visiting popular radio stations such as Heart 106.2 to win the hearts of the nation. Next month will determine how effective the  PR war has been in choosing the next British Prime Minister.

GINOLA PR AGENCY TRANSFORMING BUSINESSES WITH SOCIAL MEDIA WEBCAST

Ginola PR Agency launched a social media webcast today 5th March 2010 on Jayne Boachie's blog , showing clients and potential clients how use social media to engage with customers and potential customers to better position their business, boost their brand and maximise profit.

The webcast shows clients and potential clients how to use social media sites such as Facebook, Youtube, twitter, google,flickr, and many other tools to engage with their customers and attract millions of potential customers to your business resulting in profit maximisation.

Key issues addressed in the webcast are what social media is and why it is so called, what are the sociological and cultural concepts behind social media and their relevance to PR. It shows clients and potential clients how Ginola PR will be using social media for businesses, the benefits to the client and any negatives to clients and how to deal with them.

The effort to create this webcast has been guided by forward thinking Ginola PR specialists who have the expertise and are leaders in the social media field.

Quote
Bob Wild, chairman of the CIPR said "social media is a new revolution which is changing businesses. Ginola PR are the leading experts in this field and I have great confidence in their ability to show business how to succeed with social media."

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"Ginola PR Agency are the leading eperts in social media and can transfirm your business with their expertise" -Maggie May, vice president and general manager for Ronkito Uk.

 Ends


Editors Notes

Ginola PR was founded in 1995 and specializes in social media PR, SEO, digital marketing and creative services.


It has offices in USA, Asia, Europe, and Africa.

For the full SMPR go to pitchengine.


Agency Contact: Jayne Boachie

Tel:00442079876

Mobile: 0044795749274

Email: jayneboachie@hotmail.com

Global PR

The growth of technology, international media, global business and global politics has strengthened the role of global public relations. The olympics, football, music, film industry, Coca-cola, and McDonalds are a few examples of how globalisation has come about resulting in the need for PR.
Global PR practioners have to communicate across different time zones, cultures, languages and different communication delivery systems.
In order for successful global PR, communication is grouped into low and high context communication where context has to do with how much one has to know before one can communicate effectively.
High-context means that “most of the information is either in the physical context or initialized in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message.” (Hall, 1976, p 79). In comparison to the meaning of low-context communication is “the mass of information is vested in the explicit code” (p 70).
China and France are examples of high-context cultures and USA and Germany, low context cultures. China and France place great importance on ambience, decorum, the relative status of the participants in a communication and the manner of massage’s delivery whereas the USA and Germany sometimes ignore these differences.
The Germans for example try to hide information which is sacrificed even within a company or department whereas the French assume that the listener knows everything.
Knowing and being aware of the differences of high- and low-context cultures helps to avoid misunderstandings and creates a better basis for further discussions.





 

Feminisation Of PR and the Glass Ceiling

About 20 years ago, the PR industry changed from a male dominated industry to female, and at one stage the ratio of women to men in the PR industry in the UK was 65:35. In the MA in Public Relations class at the university of Westminster for example about 88 per cent of the class are women and are  the majority on most undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
Some  reasons for this dominance are

• The  industry is flexible for women up to a certain point,
• Women are more capable and better at communication than men, 
• Women are  naturally good multitaskers and therefore able to perform everyday PR tasks better than men.

As the number of women increased, so the men diminished and the stigma formed that the PR industry is a woman’s world and tagged the pink collar profession. Despite this  dominance of women however, the top positions are held by the few men in the industry!


Why is this the case and can women ever break the barriers? Lets find out.

Women lack the "M factor"

M factor being management qualities- apparently women are excellent at running a home, as well as working at marriage and having a career. When it comes to running a business however, "women do not have the capabilities to do so".

Family Affairs

Women at some point in their lives, take a break away from careers to start and run a family. The break away from work and upon their return to work the need to balance work with family life means that they are excluded from the top squad which demands total commitment and therefore the other sex.

Culture

In some cultures, such as in Africa and in some Arab states, it is the men who lead and therefore have the senior positions in companies. Women’s roles are deemed to be at home and therefore very difficult for women to get to the top.

Power Struggle
Getting to the top involves a power struggle which men can do easily and would fight for whereas women are more content to leave the men to have that fight. Those women who tend to are seen as bitches.

Fast forward twenty years on and is this still the case? Yes although more women can be found at the top than before. Why, because women are still women and are the ones still having babies. Although the testosterone levels in women have increased, the increase not significantly so to make women take part in the power struggle.

But this is changing.
Some women are

• Deciding not to have families at all in which case one obstacle removed and are able to take on the management function
• Some women ar delaying starting families hence can have the career, get to the top and then start their families at which point they can decide to retire.
• Combining careers with families and although not easy are able to do so very well

Women not getting to the top therefore is not about them not being capable it is about the choice women make.

More information on this topic can be found in Grunig, L, Toth, E and Hon, L’s book Women in Public Relations: How Gender Influences Practice.

Ethical PR

When sociologist Raymond Baumhart asked business people, "What does ethics mean to you?" Among their replies were the following:


"Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong."

"Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs."

"Being ethical is doing what the law requires."

"Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts."

"I don't know what the word means."

 As can be seen from the answers above, it is a grey area and there are no legal consequences if one were to behave unethically.
Ethics however is very important to an organisation's reputation as Shell found out with the Brent Spar issue and as PR is about managing reputations, it is very important for PR.
Does it simply mean abiding with the codes of conduct of an organisation? As employess do not even know the details of the codes of conducts in most organisations, and it only serves as a guide and as already mentioned has no legal implications, it is not sufficient just to do so.
Ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. It also means, the continuous effort of studying one's own moral beliefs and  moral conduct, and striving to ensure that the institutions we help to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly-based.

Social Media Webcast

This webcast answers five key questions about social media, and demonstrates how businesses can be transformed by it.

• What is social media
• Why is it called social media
• What are the sociological and cultural concepts behind social media and its relvance to PR
• How will Ginola PR be using social media to help businesses
•  Benefits and negatives to businesses and how they will be dealt with.

These are all the important issues that are dealt with in this webcast to encourage businesses who are not already engaging in social media to do so to transform their business.

Crisis Management

Crisis in today's business environment is very rampant and organisations have to be very vigilant to nip in the bud any issues they have before it turns into a crisis and ruins one's hard earned reputation.

From corporate scandals to whistleblowers and leaks to the press, to the ever ready and watchful eyes of pressure groups to, as Toyota learned the hard way " a bow that wasn't a bow enough" could land an organisation in a crisis situation and a hefty price tag (fall in share prices and damage to reputation etc).

In recent years, the development of technology in the form of social media means that any crisis is brought to the publics attention instantaneously and spread so quickly reputations are marred immediately.
However the good news about these technological changes is that just at it is quick to out a crisis, it can also be used to monitor or identify issues befor turning into a crisis.

Successful Crisis Management Tips

• The organisation's crisis comms manual should be constantly updated and easily accessible to employees  when required
• The internet must be given as much priority as other communication channels since failure to do so may be detrimental due to the influence soical media has
• International markets should also be considered equally to the local markets due to how small the world has became and how easily a crisis can spread to different markets
• A crisis must be dealt with openly rather than opt for legal action which may end up disaster and is not always the best option -being open and genuine can resolve/manage a crisis much better
• Get third parties on your side- public more trusting of  third paties than the organisation concerned in the time of a crisis
• Finally, it is better to prevent a crisis, therefore an organisation's affairs must be put into order such that any issues are spotted early before turning into a crisis

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

In recent years, CSR has become very topical and both scholars and managers have paid greater attention to its notion.


Milton Friedman (1970) an economist declared that the only social responsibility of the corporation is to increase profits which  makes perfect business sense to investors.
For the many other stakeholders such as customers, employees, suppliers and the community however,  businesses are expected to give back to the communities in which they operate.
 Most businesses today however acknowledge the view of other stakeholders, and the most predominant position is an increase in profits in compatibility with social responsibility.
What the majority of approaches to understanding CSR have in common is that they all acknowledge that companies have responsibilities towards the society and environment that go beyond their own interests and legal obligations (de Bakker Groenewegen and den Hond 2005).
There are three levels of impact:


• Basic level - company adheres to societies rules and regulations

• Middle level - companies are perceived to manage their activities so they adhere to their level and go beyond it

• Societal level - makes a significant contribution towards improving the society in which it operates
Corporations need to be demonstrating their positive impact on society and CSR is a means to achieving this goal.


Research shows that key stakeholders such as consumers, employees and investors are increasingly likely to take actions to reward good corporate citizens and punish bad ones.

By being a good corporate citizen, a company can foster consumer loyalty and turn consumers into company/brand ambassadors and champions who engage in advocacy behaviours (such as positive word of mouth, willingness to pay a price premium and resilience to negative company news Du et al 2007).

Not only does CSR result in consumers buying more products but it also encourages other stakeholder behaviours such as employment seeking with the company and investing in the company.

Also companies  increasingly obtain public recognition and visibility for their positive corporate actions.

New Media

PR and Propaganda contd

What is propaganda?

With many definitions one of which is; "the deliberate attempt by some individual or group to form, control or alter the attitudes of other groups by the use of instruments of communication, with the intention that in any given situation the reaction of those so influenced will be that desired by the propagandist" (Qualter, cited in Hazan, 1976:11)

Jacquie L'Etang describes the conceptual relationship between propaganda and public relations as contoversial and difficult.
Why? Firstly because several authors particularly Fawkes(2006:267-287) have noted that many basic definitions of propaganda could be equally well used to describe public relations. Secondly, to some analysts, public relations is propaganda especially as per historical evidence and some intrinsic problems concerned with trying to make public relations activity transparent to memebers of society.

What does all this controversy mean to today's pr student and future practioners? Propaganda as we all know is bad( anything that is deceitful, manipulates others into believing something else and covers up wrongdoing cannot be accepted as good) and the reason for the tainted image of Public Relations. Public relations is about reputation- the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.
With today's pr practioners being widely educated and the notion to be more ethical, hopefully there will be
no mistaking or linkage of public relations with propaganda in the future. This could be sooner rather than later should perpetrators be brought to justice.

Hello and welcome to my blog on Contemporary Theory and Issues in PR. On this journey, I will be sharing with you, learnings from the PR module, Contemporary Theory and Issues. PR being the dynamic and interesting sector it is, let's hope its an exhilarating and rewarding journey for all.

PR and Propaganda

War Propaganda to be precise was the first topic tackled! Pam Williams (our lecturer) started it off by asking us to deliberate in groups,how we would communicate to our audience in time of war. We discussed the various stakeholders to be addressed such as the soldiers, press, population etc and what are objectives and strategy would be.
This was then followed by a documentary War Spin: Media and the Iraq War (2002). A reexamination of the story of Private Jessica Lynch, this documentary revealed some troubling facts about how American news media often spins the truth in an effort to increase war-time morale.
John Kampfner, a political editor for the New Statesman, presented his version on what really happened to Jessica Lynch, and pointed out holes in the familiar stories that were broadcast to the public. By looking at several aspects of the news industry from a critical standpoint, WAR SPIN: THE MEDIA AND THE IRAQ WAR raised questions about the ethics of journalism.
My take on this, complete and utter amazement at how unethical and deceitful the entire communication was. One lesson learnt was that the truth will always out! This discussion on war propaganda will be continued.