Textbook Chapter 13

In this chapter, I learnt about how different Asian nations have different public relations ideologies. As different countries have different cultures, their public relations ideologies would not be the same. Thus, it would be difficult to classify all aspects of Asian public relations into one theoretical model.

As a result, communications have to be framed within the boundaries of cultural, religious and social norms of each community and public. I feel that this is especially important for practitioners dealing with international campaigns within Asia. If a public relations practitioner has little understanding of a nation’s culture, he or she may end up offending the community unintentionally.

For instance, a public relations campaign for an international refugee resettlement programme involved encouraging Vietnamese boat people to take up aided pig farming as a livelihood. While this programme was feasible and could benefit the refugees in the long run, it did not go down well with Malaysia and Indonesia. The promotional videos on pig farming had offended the Muslim-majority communities in these nations.

Public relations practitioners have also tweaked the same campaign into different versions to suit varying tastes in different countries. South Korea’s tourism campaign in 2009 had different promotional videos for broadcasting in different countries. The public relations team had strategically used the celebrities’ varying popularity in different countries to maximise the campaign’s potential. For instance, the Japanese version of the promotional video made use of a pop group which had a steady foothold in the Japanese music market, while the Chinese version featured celebrities who have a strong fan base in China.

Thus, I feel that a public relations practitioner has to be sensitive to foreign culture and social norms and trends when handling international campaigns, especially in Asia. I also think that practitioners should do extensive research on a country’s background and demographics when planning an international public relations campaign.

Textbook Chapter 12

In this chapter, I learnt about the effects of technological advancement on the relationships and communication between organisation and publics, and audiences and communities. With the rise of new media, public relations practitioners have more options when attempting to disseminate its intended communication message in a campaign.

The Internet has become a useful medium in many public relations campaigns. Several online public relations campaigns have enjoyed success in the recent years. For instance, IKEA’s public relations campaign on Facebook not only managed to reach out to international audiences, it also drew praise from many. The campaign utilised one of Facebook’s basic functions: adding tags to photos. Photographs of IKEA’s showrooms were uploaded to its Facebook profile and users were encouraged to tag products in the photos with their names for a chance to win that item. This promotional campaign went viral and Facebook users promoted it through their news feed and profiles.

I was particularly impressed with this campaign as it did not incur high costs and took relatively little effort to implement, but it successfully managed to grab the attention of netizens worldwide. From this, it is evident that new media can be a powerful tool for public relations campaign.

However, the rise of new media has also created more ethical and legal issues for public relations practitioners to consider. The anonymity of the Internet makes it easy for users to fall prey to unethical or even illegal practices. For businesspeople, also increases the temptation to engage in unethical behaviour to reap more profits.

While it can be lucrative to utilise the Internet to promote a public relations campaign, I feel that it is important for organisations and practitioners to ensure that all aspects of their campaigns are above board, even if it is at the expense of some benefits.

Textbook Chapter 11

This chapter gave me some insight on how public relations practitioners work with the media to disseminate the organisation's intended communication message. Media relations are an important aspect of public relations practice.

The media and public relations practitioners have an interdependent relationship. The media is reliant on public relations practitioners to keep them updated and provide news resources through media releases as time constraints do not allow them to follow up on every new lead.

Besides helping to fill journalists in on the latest news, public relations practitioners also rely on the media to disseminate the organisation’s message in a PR campaign. The media is a powerful communication tool as it has a large outreach and has some influence over its audience. Thus, I feel that the media is the most efficient way for public relations practitioners to market their campaigns.

I learnt that in any public relations campaign, it is better to err on the side of caution and under-promise. Losing the media’s trust has adverse effects on the public relations practitioner and client thus it is unwise to over-promise and be unable to meet expectations.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the media has significant control over an organisation’s reputation. Thus, I feel that it is important for public relations practitioners to foster good relations with the media as it is beneficial to both parties in the long run.

Textbook Chapter 10

Chapter 10 sheds light on issues and crisis management in public relations practice. As organisations function in an open environment, they have to be responsive to changing opinions and expectations from the public. Thus, it is important for public relations practitioners to be well-versed in issues and crisis management so that they can deal with such matters effectively.

As mentioned in Chapter 8, a public relations practitioner is responsible for reputation management in the organisation. This chapter gave me more insight on how reputation management is related to public relations. When a public relations practitioner is able to manage a crisis effectively, this helps in salvaging the organisation’s reputation, which may have been damaged when problems arose.

MasterFoods faced a crisis in 2005 when it received extortion letters from an unidentified source, where it threatened to contaminate MasterFood’s food products. As MasterFoods was able to settle the crisis effectively by placing public interest as its priority, it received praise from the public. This even resulted in a reputation enhancement for MasterFoods when it won several best practice awards for its crisis management campaign.

Conversely, poor crisis management can cause substantial damage to an organisation’s reputation. In 2010, Johnson and Johnson’s reputation took a severe beating when it failed to properly manage a product scandal. Several of its drugs had to be pulled off the shelves as people were reported to have suffered adverse effects after consuming them. The root of the problem was traced to contamination during shipping to its distributors. Johnson and Johnson was widely criticised for its slow response to complaints and failure to inform the Food and Drug Administration promptly.

From the above incidents, I feel that it is important to place public interest as a priority in issues and crisis management. The public is a primary stakeholder of the organisation. It would be unwise for an organisation to have a poor relationship with the public as it risks damaging its reputation.

In my opinion, public relations practitioners should always be prepared to face crises. In this way, the organisation would be able to respond to problems quickly and effectively to minimise losses.

Textbook Chapter 9

In this chapter, I learnt about strategies in public relations practice. Strategies are developed through analysing research results and assessing the best way to create intended meanings through a contested space. These intended meanings encompass product marketing and reputation management for the organisation.

I feel that creating strategies is an important aspect in any public relations campaign. With a strategy or strategies in place, the organisation would be able to come up with a specific goal which it can work towards. In this way, it reduces the possibility of any sidetracking which can result from the lack of a clearly defined goal.

While having a strategy in place is largely beneficial to the organisation, I feel that it also has some limitations. When a strategy is present, people may feel inclined to strictly follow the initial strategic plan even when circumstances have changed. This can cause the organisation to be unable to reach its goal or it may even suffer losses.

However, having a strategy in public relations practice is still important. As mentioned in the textbook, the lack of a strategy is more likely to cause a public relations campaign to fail. In my opinion, it is important for the organisation to adopt a flexible mindset so that it can achieve its goals in the best way possible.

Textbook Chapter 8

This chapter gave some insight into reputation management for organisations. It is indeed important for an organisation to have a positive reputation as it can make or break a potential client’s first impression of it. These days, reputation management is a part of public relations practitioners’ jobs.

I agree with the textbook’s notion that an organisation’s relationship with its stakeholders plays an important part in determining its reputation. One stakeholder who has a particularly large influence on an organisation’s reputation is its clients. When an organisation has a poor relationship with its client, it would mean that the client is dissatisfied with the organisation. If the client spreads the news about his bad experience, it can cause others to have a poor perception of the organisation too. In this way, the organisation’s reputation would have suffered some damage.

I feel that the media also has significant control over an organisation’s reputation, even though it is not a primary stakeholder. The public relies heavily on mass media for information on international and local affairs. Thus, any information disseminated by the media will have a large outreach.

According to the hypodermic needle communication theory, the media holds significant influence over public opinion. If the media portrays an organisation in a negative light, the public is likely to have a poor perception of the organisation. In this way, the organisation’s reputation would take a beating.

Although reputation management is part of a public relations practitioner’s responsibilities, I feel the organisation cannot solely rely on it. The other corporate functions are also responsible for reputation management. If one department in the organisation is unable to build a satisfactory relationship with its stakeholders, the damage to its reputation is already done and the effort made by the public relations practitioner to build a positive reputation would have been futile.

Textbook Chapter 7

In this chapter, I learnt that public relations practitioners are responsible for building relationships with employees and also the external publics.

In my opinion, it is important for public relations practitioners to be aware of the relationships between the public relations department and other corporate functions.

When the different departments have a clear idea of how they will interact and work with one another, each department’s tasks and responsibilities are clearly defined. In this way, individuals would be able to have better focus on their responsibilities and increase efficiency. When each department’s tasks are clearly defined, it also reduces the possibility of conflict arising from task confusion. The departments will then be able to work together smoothly towards achieving organisational goals.

Besides, when public relations practitioners are aware of the internal relationships in the organisation, they can help to mediate and settle any internal disputes.

In this chapter, I also learnt about open and closed systems in organisations. This part of the chapter was quite similar to Chapter 3, where it gave some insight on the system theory and questioned if it is possible for an organisation to be completely closed.

In my opinion, it is not only impossible for an organisation to be completely closed; it is also unhealthy for the organisation in the long run. Closed organisations have low regard for the environment. As a result, the organisation is unable to identify incongruence with the environment and this can cause a clash of interest with the public or fellow entities. This can damage the organisation’s reputation and affect its survival.

Textbook Chapter 6

In this chapter, I learnt about the standard practices of public relations practitioners. Regardless of the work environment, public relations practitioners are bound to face challenges daily. However, public relations is an important part of any organisation as it is able to create improved understanding, mutual benefits and joint action both internally and externally.

Public relations practitioners aim to foster good working relations between organisations and their stakeholders and communities. They work towards achieving this goal through communication between these entities.

I felt that this chapter is rather similar to chapter 4, where it discussed public relations ethics. In my opinion, public relations practitioners do not just have to behave ethically and maintain communication in order to maintain good relations with fellow entities and the community. They also have to behave diplomatically and be sensitive to others.

This notion can be proven from the recent Mediacorp fiasco, where its public relations officers sent emails to its advertisers, encouraging them to book advertisement slots during news updates on the earthquake and tsunami in Japan as it would have high viewership during those time slots.

While this was a pragmatic business tactic and was not considered unethical, this incident drew a great deal of flak. The public thought that it was "insensitive and tasteless" to draw on a tragedy to increase profit. As a result, Mediacorp had to issue an apology.

The criticism against Mediacorp in relation to this issue had caused some damage to its reputation. I have learnt it is also crucial for PR practitioners to be sensitive towards the public so that the organisation can maintain a positive image and a good reputation.