week ten

What we see and hear from the media are issues that are properly framed and organized from numerous pieces of information. These framed issues help to make complex issues comprehensible. How we understand the issue has to do with how it is being framed. PR practitioners make use of the media to frame issues and news in ways that would stand out from their competitors and attract the crowd. This leads the public towards a certain viewpoint, and encourages them to believe what they see or hear to be true (Gross & D’Ambrosio, 2004).

Apart from language, understanding the culture of the country and organisation that the PR practitioner has to lisase with is important to effectively transmit the message across. This reduces the chances of miscommunication and misunderstandings. Personal interaction and relationship building between the PR practitioner and the client is also important to effectively persuade stakeholders to the organisation's point-of-view.

As stated by Stanton (2008), “In Singapore, the primary purpose of public relations is government propaganda”. This indicates that public relations serve mainly the purposes of the government in order to achieve constant successes economically and socially. Singapore has acknowledged the importance of public relations and has an institutional organisation, the Institute of Public Relations of Singapore (IPRS), to facilitate the growth of this area in Singapore through the acquirement of knowledge and networking skills in this field. However, many of the PR practitioners in Singapore lack the explicit understanding of the meaning of public relations, and this department is often confused with the advertising, marketing and publicity department. PR practitioners serve as the link in communicating with other organizations and the public, while advertising is the promoting of the organisation through paid advertisments, marketing refers to increasing awareness among the public through free advertisments, and publicity refers to the gaining media coverage. Although these fields appear the same at first look, they have their own individual targets to reach and should not be complicated together to achieve optimized effect in increasing awareness and gaining publicity for the organisation.


Effective media releases contain information covering the 5Ws (Who, What When Where, Why) and 1H (How). Apart from simply providing information, media releases have to stand out from the rest and attract first the editor's attention to enable its publishing and next the public, to retain their attention and read through the rest of the article. This is usually done through a catchy headline or lead sentence. Other framing techniques include kickers, subheads, photographs, photo captions, selection of sources or affiliations, selection of quotes, pull quotes, logos, statistics, charts and graphs and concluding statements or paragraphs of articles (Reese, et al., 2001). Media framing in media releases serve to simplify complicated issues and are presented in a manner that the audience can relate to (Gans, 1979; Shoemaker & Reese, 1996). Thus, they would be more receptive and willing to take on similar perspectives as those presented in the media release. Therefore, media releases are important bridges between the organisation and the public, and need to be written concisely and effectively to facilitate the transfer of information.

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week nine

With rapid advancements in technology, there has been increased connectivity and communication with people all around the world. The internet is the platform for people to share and receive any information that they want. In most developed countries, internet penetration is more than 60%, like in Australia, and the United States of America (internetworldstats, 2010). This percentage is significantly greater when compared to the internet penetration for developing countries like South Africa, at 4.6% (internetworldstats, 2010). Nevertheless, with rising literacy levels, internet connection in the developing countries will eventually reach those of developed countries. Only at that point in time, can the world be considered a global nation.

However, when information can be transferred so freely between people, nothing on the internet can truly be considered safe, especially with the rising number of hackers and scams online. In addition, the free transfer of information has made piracy an important issue for governments. Thus, anyone can be anybody else on the internet platform. There is then great need to ensure that security on important sites of companies and governments are safeguarded from scams and hackers, to retain credibility and reliability in the public. This two-way transfer of information and communication serves to transmit information to the public and receive feedback from them more easily (Weaver et al., 2003). Conversely, many PR practitioners prefer to use traditional forms of media and not new media technologies to communicate to the public, perceiving it to simply being an extension of conventional forms of communication (Holtz, 2002). This could be due to the lack of training in new media technologies and thus the lack of confidence in using them (Theaker, 2008).

Glocalisation – the process of thinking globally and acting locally, serves to indicate the importance of considering the world as a single nation, but yet acting locally to serve their individual purposes. PR practitioners can make use of social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, Blogs to publicise their organisation. This method serves to increase awareness of the company worldwide, but yet targeting local communities and to facilitate the company’s expansion into other countries in future. However, there is need to take note to not disclose one’s professional status when posting on blogs and not be propagandistic, and come off as a mere promotional and advertising gimmick.

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week eight

Crisis occurs when issues are not well-managed, and this is up to the PR practitioner to revert the situation to the company's advantage. How the PR practitioner handles the situation will determine how the public will be receptive to the organisation, and thus determines the survival of the organisation.

The media provides PR practitioners with various channels to effectively transmit their ideas and perspectives to the public. The internet serves as the platform for organizations to communicate issues to the public and ensures that important information is always available to the public on its main website (Heath, 1998). PR practitioners have to be diligent and the alert for vile news about the organisation and be always prepared to handle critical situations. In addition, organizations are more successful when they are corporate socially responsible and are able to anticipate situations before they occur and be prepared for it, to meet the public demands (Buchholz, 1982; Heath, 1997).

According to Howell and Miller (2006), they indicated five phases of crisis life cycle and media coverage over time. At the first phase, the organisation experiences issues that can lead to a crisis, which can be avoided if carefully handled. Phase 2 indicates that crisis can be avoided through the use of the media to transmit message and information to the public to clarify the situation and allay their fears. At the next phase reflects an uncontained situation that has evolved into a crisis. PR practitioners have to be prepared to communicate through the various media outlets and explain the situation carefully and effectively, to do damage control. The forth phase indicates that when in face of lawsuits and complaints, the organisation has to reflect on its past activities, learn from them and adopt a different set of management techniques. Lastly, there is great need to clarify the situation with the public and explain future routes adopted by the organisation to alleviate their fears and start regaining their trust.

Public Relations theories serve as a guide for PR managers and practitioners in their decisions. According to Cutlip, Center & Broom (2007), the concept of ecology in Public Relations illustrates the need for people to change and adapt to their environment. The aim of the organisation is to create and accomplish goals that are beneficial to the organisation and the public. The first and foremost aim of a corporate company is to earn money, but at the same time, they need to be watchful that their factories are practicing ethical human laws and regulations and be mindful of their actions on the environment. Be it for the image and reputation for the organinisation, corporations are increasing required to exercise corporate social responsibility. Consumers can choose to shun from goods and services that are produced by unethical companies. For example, consumers can choose to only buy Tuna from brands like Heinz and Fairprice, which pledges to protect the dolphins when they are catching tuna. Reputation is very important for organisations and companies as it reflects on their credibility and reliability.

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week seven

PR practitioners serve as the bridge to communicate ideas and opinions from the public to the company. For example, knowledge that the people of Singapore, especially those from the lower income groups, are unhappy about the new increase in Government Service Tax from 5% to 7% in 2006, the government can come up with plans to especially help those from the lower income groups by providing them with tax rebates at the end of each year. Vice versa, PR practitioners also serve to transfer information from the organisation the public about their company, products and more through various forms of media channels. The most common form would be media releases where people can get some idea on the products, promotions, events and other details. A PR practitioner serves as the link between the company and the public, caught between the two, it can be difficult to resolve conflicting interests for both parties without offending one of them. For example, when knowledge of WalMart factories were emitting excessive carbon emissions and can pose a danger to the lives of people living in the area, the public can choose buy products from other similar brands that are manufactured in a safer manner. In this case, there is need for the PR practitioner to relate the situation at hand to the management to adjust their marketing strategy to retain their consumer base or risk having lower sales.

Operating in a closed system in current day is akin to a slow and painful death for the company, as it is isolated from other organizations and the public and are unwilling to improve to suit the needs of society. Thus, the company is unable to spot problems or improve situations that would be beneficial for the organisation. On the other hand, most organizations are operating as open systems, and there is constant exchange between the company and its environment (Cutlip, Center & Broom; Morgan, 1998). Open systems seeks to operate in a manner where the organizations complement each other and eliminate dysfunctional systems or systems that will affect their feasibility (Morgan, 1998; Witmer, 2006). It must be noted that of all the external pressures that the organisation faces, the PR practitioner has to prioritise and select the more pressing issues to deal with. Public relations serve to work together with the public to come to consensus and a solution, and not simply a reaction the pressures from the external environment.

The department of public relations operates alongside other departments in a company, including marketing, sponsorship, internal affairs and others. In theory, all the departments in a company are equal in a company. However, in reality, the public relations officer is less likely to be a member of the managerial team, but the financial officer would be. It must however be reminded that the role of public relations is important as it serves as a connection between the organisation and the public.

“Organizational or corporate culture is the system of shared actions, values and beliefs that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members” (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2003). With a strong corporate culture in the company, it can establish some control over employees, and control the quantity and quality of output, standardize operating procedures and maintain high performance levels. This is important as it would affect the overall performance level of the company. In a company with a communications culture, language is used to facilitate communication and to “motivate themselves and others” (Cameron, 2000). This enables employees to understand the requirements of the company and know what is expected of them and the chances of miscommunication are lowered. Employers also know the concerns of their employees and can adopt various methods and strategies to allay their fears and lower employee turnover rates.

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week six

Ample research is needed before coming up with strategies to achieve the objectives of the organisation. There is hence need to analyse the research collected to ensure that the plan created will be effective. Research will be analysed based on SWOT, namely Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats(James, 2009). Strategies refer to the methods to be used to achieve specific aims and goals. To achieve them, strategies have to be SMART, namely Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-orientated and Time frame(James, 2009). SWOT and SMART are important acronyms to remember in creating an effective PR plan. However, these pointers serve merely as a guide and is by no means an absolute must to be abided by. Tactics refer to the process undertaken to execute the strategy for the plan to be successful. Critical thinking is important in coming up with tactics for the organisation to stand out from the rest of its competitors and capture the attention of the audience.


Public Relations is an active profession, and PR practitioners can exercise critical thinking to analyze factors and work on them to ensure success for the organisation. Public Relations can be thought of as a plan which leads to actions taken and optimized results due to good planning. PR practitioners are key engineers in making change occur, be it communicating the change to other investors or the public. Although PR practitioners are people representing the company, they still need to be socially responsible, and to work towards achieving maximum benefits for the company as well as the public. The system theory indicates that organizations constantly need to adapt and adjust to the external environment to remain relevant in society and to work towards achieving organizational goals (Synnott, 2008).

There are 8 aspects to effective public relations, namely work practices and approach, skills, abilities and knowledge, experience and background, personal attributes, judgment and ethics, relationship with management, image and reputation and works for the profession (Synnott, 2001). PR practitioners need to be clear of what is required of them, be responsible for their actions and take pride in their work. They need to be adaptable and to provide and seek advice for constant improvement. In addition, experience in this field is valuable to building relationships and managing tacky situations. The 8 aspects are closely related to their actions which are guided by their values and attitudes towards certain issues and situations. Based on the environment that they were brought up in and external factors, their personality, character and attitudes are shaped. Being a PR practitioner is no easy feat as it involves handling interpersonal relationships and it can be difficult to have the best of both worlds for both the organisation and the public. A compromise has to be reached, and this will depend greatly on how the PR practitioner manages the issue. The 8 aspects are by no means the golden rules to being a successful PR practitioner. Depending on the situation at hand, PR practitioners have to exercise their own judgment and do the ‘right’ thing that reaps maximum benefits.

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