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.

with love,
cookie biscuit.
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(='.'=) V

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.

with love,
cookie biscuit.
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(='.'=) V

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.

with love,
cookie biscuit.
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(='.'=) V