Chapter 10 Media Relations

I think this chapter is very much important for our PR study as it is said in the chapter that the media relations is often used synonymously with publicity and it was valued as the best-known elements of public relations.

In my point of view, after finished reading this chapter we should grasp at least some basic concepts as follow. A general overview of the media and its ownership, the relationship between the media and public relations, the basic knowlege of how the media functions as well as the various styles in media operation and the tactics on how to target the audiences. Last but not least, how to organize the media conference, which in my perspect can be seen as the most practical part among them.

I guess we are all clear about the critical relationship between the media and the public relations as nowadays most of the public relation practices are dealing with the media in one way or another.

Media conference as one of the most important tools in the operation of PR practice, its significance should be paid enough attention. The reason why we should do so is media conference is always the most direct interaction with the publicity. PR practioners usually outlet their ultimate desicions, attitude or even solutions to the issues through the media conference. Whether the conference is successfully hold will impose a heavy influence on their overall realization of the PR plan.

In conclusion, like the author said, dealing with the media relations is a critical part of the public relations practioner's profession. It requires integrate skills ranging from writing, organisation, planning, as well as the keen interpersonal skills, up-to-the-minute knowlege of news and current events and the an understanding of the specific nature of media enviornment. However, there is a tendency that these two industries are becoming more independent from each other thus calls for a mutural understanding and respect for each other's roles and responsibilities only by which an effective and strong communication can be achieved.

Chapter 4 and 5

I think these two chapters are talking about the enviornment under which the public reltions should be performed. Here are some of the major points we should bear in mind after reading these two chapters.

For chapter four, the most basic concepts that we should understand should be the concept of legal enviornment, defamation as well as the role of contracts in public relations.

Chapter five mainly discussed about the ethical practice in public relations and the foundmental princles on how to use ethics as public relations strategy. What's more we should pay attention to are the professional association codes and the codes of conduct.

These two chapters makes me think more about the significance of the legal enviornment when comes to a public relations practice, which was so easily negalected by student public relations practioner. Meanwhile, reading these two chapters ulters my previous view on ethics and how it matters in the PR practice. I once read a artcle about how the ethical conflicts imposed influences on the operation of public relations. In the end, the author listed several strategies about how to avoid this ethical conflict making the organization operate in the more profitable way.

In my opinion, for one side we do need to avoid the ethical conflicts in our PR practice, cause most of the time it will affact the efficiency of our PR plan's implimentation. However for another side, there are always examples about how the ethical issues were utilised by some politicans for some veiled purposes. See the infamous Nazi party. Of course, this is just my saying.

Strategy,Planning and Scheduling

Like the author said, this chapter aims to make students aware of the necessity for public relations practioners to think and practise strategically in order to be relevant in today's organisation.

I think the most important part of this chapter is how to plan a public relations strategy. There are three major formats worth attention. one is the Alinta Gas - public affairs mission, the other two are the Zawawi - Johnston strategic public relation plan and Lester Potter's' ten - step strategic communication plan'.

This chapter makes me think more about the significance of making an effective strategic plan when comes to a real public relations practice. PR is a quite practical job, so sometimes we may neglect the necessity of the preparation part. Writing a strategic plan is definitely the most vital part of preparation. It includes at least ten steps from situation analysis, backgroud to budget and monitroting and evaluation. It is like an overall preview of the whole practice. and in my opinion, it to some extent decides whether the whole practice will successed or not.

Among all the ten steps, I figure that budgeting part should be valued more than we thought before as the author mentioned, 'no plan, no matter how strategic , can succeed without successful and efficient budgeting,.' In another word that budgeting is related to the direction, monitoring and control of organisational resources.

In conclusion, an effective public relations management depends on a successful combination of all of these elements.

Internal and Community Relations

Chapter 11 - Internal and Community Relations. I think the main purpose of this chapter is quite obvious. It is all about how and why the internal public relations and community relations are important in public relations practice.

This chapter provides us with a thorough overview of these two increasingly highly valued theories especially for the business leaders. From what i see, the most important element for its increasing value should be the revealence of the relationship between employee communication and job satisfaction and productivity.

Again, the premise of the job satisfaction and productivity is communication. No good communication means no good relationship and if there is no good relationship, the so called productivity is going to be severly damaged.

About how to build an effective communication between the employers and employees, the author lists us several major tools and channels, like newsletters and company newspapers, noticeboards, memos, awards, events, intranets and interpersonal communication. All these tools and channels are useful in conducting a good communication as we can see from the two case studies.

This chapter makes me think again the importance of communication both internal and external in a public relations practice. However, I believe that the process of communicating is not that easy and isolated. We also need some other tactics to embrace a successful communication. For example, when we are tackling with certain crises, in my opinion, the first and for most thing we should do is to correctly identify the problem, to understand the current situation and based on which we can then set a goal and develop correspondent communicative strategies since a false identification of the crises may lead to a totally wrong direction.

I am not sure whether I have made myself clearly understood. What I mean is I agree that internal and community relations are important in a public relations practice, but actually I think all these theories about PR practice are not isolated, they are intertwined and interactive like I said before. They should be integrately applied according to the various situation.