Definitions of public relations
Of the definitions listed in Chapter 1, select the one you find most
satisfying and discuss the reasons for your preference.
Essential elements of public relations
Common words found in definitions of public relations include
deliberate, planned, performance, public interest, two-way
communication, management function, research, evaluation, boundary
spanning, and linking agents. In your own words, describe how these are
essential elements of public relations.
Basic components of public relations practice
Of the 15 components of public relations (listed on pages 8 and 9),
which one sounds the most interesting as a career specialty for you?
Why would you consider a career in that area?
What is "spin"?
To some, spin has negative connotations that conjure up manipulation
and dishonesty. To others, it's simply a slang term for telling
an organization's perspective on an event or issue. What do you
think? Support your viewpoint with examples.
Firestone's tire recall
The PR Casebook study on Firestone's tire recall and its subsequent
public relations battle with Ford Motor Company raises some issues
regarding the role of public relations in a crisis situation where
corporate credibility and reputation are at stake. In your view,
do you think Firestone or Ford "won" the public relations battle?
Journalism, Advertising and Marketing
Describe the relationship of public relations to journalism,
advertising, and marketing.
Public relations pioneers
Of the pioneers of public relations, who do you think made the most
significant contribution to public relations? Justify your
response.
Best practices
Best practices can be described as principles of public
relations. Describe some of the best practices of some of the
pioneers of public relations.
National and global issues
What would you consider are the most significant national and global
issues confronting public relations practitioners? Justify your answer.
Unit 2: Organization of Public Relations
Personal attributes
What personal attributes do you think are important to have a
successful career in public relations? (Wilcox et al., 2003, p. 97)
Transition to public relations
Many people come to public relations after having training and
experience in other fields, such as journalism, politics,
management. What additional skills would they need to work in
public relations? (Wilcox et al., 2003, p. 82)
Fundamental skills
Public relations practitioners should develop four fundamental skills;
writing, research, planning and problem solving. What kinds of
things can you do to develop these abilities? (Wilcox et al., 2003, pp.
85-87)
The profit motive
How can public relations practitioners reconcile the business need to
make a profit with the goal of being open and honest? (Wilcox et al.,
2003, pp. 88-89)
Internships
What benefits do students get from completing an internship in
college? Why is it important to do an internship? (Wilcox et al.,
2003, p.90)
Women in public relations
Labor statistics indicate that the percentage of women is public
relations is about 70%. Why do you think women find public
relations so attractive? (Wilcox et al., 2003, pp. 92-94)
Entry-level positions in public relations
What entry-level position would you like to have in public
relations? Why? (Wilcox et al., 2003, p. 122)
Functions of PR departments
How have the role and function of public relations departments in
organizations changed in recent years? Where do you see public
relations going from now on? (Wilcox et al., 2003, pp. 100-102)
Corporate communications
Many departments are called “corporate communications” instead of
“public relations.” Do you think the first term is more
appropriate? Why or why not? (Wilcox et al., 2003, pp. 102-103)
Line and staff functions
Line functions in an organization make products or provide customers
services. Staff functions provide support for the line functions
in the organization. To which function does public relations
belong, and why? Does it ever belong the other function? (Wilcox
et al., 2003, pp. 103-105)
Potential friction
What areas of organizations cause the most potential for friction with
public relations? Why do you think so? (Wilcox et al., 2003, pp.
107-108)
Seven services
The text lists seven services that a public relations firm offers
clients. If you were hired by a public relations firm, what
service area would you like to be involved in. Why? What skills would
you need to bring to this particular position?
(Wilcox et al., 2003, pp. 113-114)
Unit 3: Research and Planning
Purpose of research
When developing a campaign strategy, what would you hope to get from
doing research?
Research methodology
What research methodology do you see as being most effective in getting
the kind of information you need for your campaign?
Strategies and objectives
What is the difference between a “strategy” and an “objective”?
Illustrate your explanation with an example of an objective and an
example of a strategy that you might use in your campaign.
Informational and motivational objectives
Objectives can be either “informational” or “motivational” (Wilcox et
al., 2003, pp. 150-151). Describe a situation and then write an
informational and motivational objective for the situation.
To give you an idea of what a situation might look like here is an
example. A computer software company has developed educational
programs for children and adults. Company officers believe their
products represent the next generation of software in terms of
graphics, ease of use, and versatility. Your PR firm has been
asked to propose a consumer publicity program.
Issues management
Give an example where effective issues management has prevented an
organizational crisis. How did issues management avert the
crisis? Can you identify any of the five steps in the issues
management process in the example you provided?
Levis Jeans
Review the Levis Jean company’s strategies and tactics for reversing
Levi’s stodgy image. Do you think it is a well-conceived campaign?
Sunshine Cafe
Read the case description about Sunshine Café on page 162 in the
Wilcox text (2003). What type of communication tools could you
use on campus to promote the café that would cost no
money?
Unit 4: Communication and Evaluation
Case activity on AIDS (Wilcox et al, 2003, p.189)
Communication campaigns throughout the world are informing people about
the dangers of AIDS. These employ a variety of communication
strategies and tactics. Select one area from chapter 8 and apply it to
an information campaign about AIDS. For example, how would you
make a message about AIDS more believable? Or how would you make
it more memorable? Or how would you get people to act on the message?
Crisis management
Coombs' crisis communication strategies (Wilcox et al, 2003,
pp.183-184) can be used to evaluate how organizations handled a
crisis. Choose a crisis situation you know about and use Coombs'
framework as a means of analyzing it. See examples on pages 185
and 186 of the Wilcox text.
Mad cow disease
The first case of mad cow disease was discovered in Canada on May 20,
2003. Immediately, the United States closed its border to imports
of Canadian beef. How do you think Canada should deal with this
crisis? See pages 187 and 188 of the Wilcox textbook for a
description of risk communication and the 1996 mad cow scare in Britain.
Evaluating news stories
Do you think news stories about a product or service should be
evaluated in terms of comparable advertising costs? Why, or why
not? (See textbook page 197)
Evaluation of campaign plan
What strategies would you use to evaluate your campaign plan?
What are some questions that you would ask to evaluate the plan?
Unit 5: Understanding public opinion,
persuasion and audiences
Opinion leaders
Who do you know that is an opinion leader? In what areas is the person
an opinion leader? Are you an opinion leader on any particular
topics? Tell about the topic and who you influence?
Celebrity endorsements
The use of celebrities to sell products is nothing new. However,
there is a trend for entertainers to be more actively involvement in
political issues. A recent example is the number of stars for or
against the war in Iraq. Do you think celebrities should use their
public appeal to endorse candidates or causes? Do you think celebrity
endorsements really persuade the publicor merely focus media attention
on the cause?
Persuasive techniques
Identify a campaign you are familiar with and indicate the persuasive
techniques that were used. (For example, you might discuss the
election of a university student officer or an issue affecting the
university and its students.) How effective were the techniques?
Could anything else have been done to get the message across?
Seniors
Politicians establish a lot of programs for seniors. Why would
you think this is true? Why are seniors so important in the
United States? What are some of the group's
characteristics? How best would you reach a senior audience, if
you had a message or product you wanted to introduce to them?
News events
A good public relations person knows how to create news events.
How would you go about making an event you are planning newsworthy?
Case Study - Morinda Inc.
Morinda Inc. the producers of Tahitian Noni has taken some of their old
products, added some new in order to reach women that are over
40. The program is called Tahiti Trim Plan 40. Look at the
company's web pages located at
http://www.tahitiannoni.com/tt90-melanoni. What do you think the
company could do to reach its particular audience? What media
would you suggest? What communication strategies would you suggest for
getting coverage in at least one of the media? Do you have any
suggestions for improvement to the webpages?
Unit
6: New Technologies
New technologies
Give examples of how you might use the various technologies described
in Chapter 12 in your public relations campaign.
Tailoring of messages to individuals
What impact do you think the tailoring of messages to individual
audience members will have on public relations? (See Wilcox et al.,
2003, p. 275.) Will it make our work more difficult? Noticeably more
effective? Less ethically sound?
Creativity
Do you think that new technologies will facilitate or hamper creativity
in public relations? Give examples.
Unit 7: Corporate Applications
Corporate image
As a corporate public relations director, what actions might you
recommend to top management in order to establish your company's image
as a socially responsible organization? Provide specific examples.
Boycotts
In general, do you feel that boycotts are successful in changing
company policy? Why or why not? Have you ever participated
in a boycott? If so, do you feel the boycott achieved its goal? If it
failed, why did it?
Consumer movement
Do you think the consumer movement has had any effect on the way
companies do business? Support your answer with examples.
Unit 8: Politics and government
Lobbying or Influence Peddling
Webster's New World Dictionary defines lobbyist as "a person ... who
tries to influence the voting on legislation or the decisions of
government administrators." What is your view - does lobbying help
American government and ultimately the American people? When does
lobbying become influence peddling? Should more restrictions be put on
lobbying and lobbyists?
Political Action Committees
Political action committees (PACs) are one way of getting around
campaign finance laws. What are the pros and cons of PACs?
Do political campaigns cost too much? Should there be further
campaign finance reforms? Is there a better way of funding campaigns?
Careers in Politics and Government
If you were to choose a public relations career in politics and
government, what would it be? Why?
Unit
9: International Public Relations
Improving the U.S. image abroad
Why do you think the U.S. is disliked in so many countries around the
world? If you were a PR consultant to a government agency trying
to improve the U.S. image abroad, what would you suggest?
Getting Americans to buy French
France's opposition to U.S. war in Iraq has created a political rift
between the two nations. One result is that travel to France has
decreased; another is that many Americans have boycotted French
products. As a PR professional, what would you advise the French
government do to change the country's image in the U.S. and to get
Americans to travel to France and buy French products? If you were to
suggest a PR campaign, what would you suggest for a campaign theme?
Doing business in another country
What are some of the difficulties that a corporation is likely to
encounter when it conducts business in another country? As a PR
professional, what would you suggest to a corporation that is
interested in beginning business abroad?
Unit 10: Nonprofit Organizations
Vision Council of America
The Vision Council of America (Wilcox et al., 2003, p. 432) is a trade
group representing the optical industry. The group decides to
launch a consumer education program after research reveals a reluctance
to take children for eye exams because parents rely on free school
screenings. Research also shows the 80 % of learning before age
12 is accomplished through vision, yet traditional in-school eye exams
miss between 70 to 80 % of children's vision problems. Your PR
firm is hired to help remedy this problem. What would you suggest?
Right-to-work laws
The state legislature has a bill before it which would enact
right-to-work laws in your state. Right-to-work laws allow employers to
hire workers without their being required to join the labor union or
pay union dues. Many states have laws, where in workplaces which
have organized unions, employees may not be required to join the union;
however, they must pay union dues. As the public affairs
representative for your union, what would you do to educate legislators
about the problems with this law?
Religion on the Internet
A religious research organization estimates that 50 million Americans
will rely only on the Internet for faith-based experiences by 2010. The
trend is reaching around the world. The Vatican (http://www.vatican.va) is currently
searching for an Internet patron saint. The Moscow-based Russian
Orthodox Church (http://www.russian-orthodox-church.org.ru)
offers an interactive feast day and hagiography center. The “Udhiya
Online” feature of http://www.islamicity.com
allows visitors to arrange for a ritual animal sacrifice. The New
York–based Congregation Emanu-El (http://www.emanuelnyc.org)
broadcasts real-time cyberseders during the Jewish holiday of Passover,
which in the last three years have drawn over 1 million participants
from 71 countries. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on
its sites, http://www.lds.org and http://www.mormon.org, offers sacred
texts in dozens of languages and provides information to educate
members and non-members about the Christian faith. In addition, the
world's largest free family history data base is found at
www.familysearch.org and suggestions to help people become more
self-reliant are found on http://www.providentliving.org/
.
Comment on the public relations value of religious websites on the
Internet.
Source: Faith Hillis. May/June 2003. "Click all ye faithful." Foreign
Policy Magazine.
Unit 11: Education
Universities on the World Wide Web
Wilcox et al. (2003, p. 442) describe some ways in which universities
are using the World Wide Web to expand their services to students and
reach larger audiences. Northwest Missouri State University is
innovative in its use of the computer to deliver programs to
students. For example, many courses are being supplemented with
eCompanion sites. How could Northwest improve its use of the
computer in providing educational programs and services? What other
things could Northwest be doing to better serve its various audiences?
University Community Relations
In New England, a small private college is located in a small
town. The college is quite visible in the community--and a number
of townspeople perceive the school is an elitist institution that
doesn't do much in the way of community citizenship. The college
on the other hand feels that the community may not fully recognize the
contribution it is making to the economic and cultural life of the
town. Northwest is similarly situated in a small community.
Do we have any of the same kinds of problems? Describe them. What
can be done to create better university-community relations in a town
like the one in New England or in Maryville?
Alumni relations
How can you get alumni and friends to provide support for your
university? What kind of support would you like to get from them?
What role can the university development office and CASE provide in
getting alumni support? What role could academic departments (like the
Communication, Theatre, and Languages Department) and students play in
getting alumni support?
Unit 12: Entertainment, Sports and Travel
Breaking into the big time
Maren Ord is a young female soloist who has sold several CDs, but just
has not yet made it into the big time. What kind of strategies
would you suggest she use to become better known and accepted as a top
billing female soloist?
Check "Google" for more information about this artist.
Celebrity privacy
Celebrities often want their privacy, and when they get into trouble or
are involved in a scandal, they often try to keep a low profile and not
talk to the press. Our textbook emphasizes the importance of
being open and honest with the press. Do you think it is ever
appropriate or justified for PR advisors to recommend that a client not
talk to the press? Under what circumstances? If you were to recommend a
client talk to the press about their personal or professional troubles,
what suggestions would you give? How would you handle the situation?