Public Relations And Social Media

Today we live in a society where it is acceptable for a white and black family to be neighbors, even close friends. This situation has not always been the case. During the 1950’s, the time that the Younger family was living in Chicago, whites and blacks were living completely separate lives and a majority of the blacks were living in poverty. Although there are significant improvements we have made, there are still things that remain the same. Many African Americans in Chicago today are still living in poverty, just like they were over 50 years ago. Two important changes have occurred during these years. Our race relations between whites and blacks have improved tremendously. Today it is completely acceptable for two different colored families to be living next door to each other. The second significant change is not as positive. The homicide rates per 100,000 people have gone up by almost 10 times the amount it was in the 50’s. Many sociologist believe that the cycle of multigenerational poverty causes violence in the mostly black communities, therefore raising the homicide rates. Even though as a city we have improved our race relations there are still problems such as the rising homicide rates and percent of people living in poverty.

This paper was prepared during the Spring Semester of 2016 for COMM 226-003 - Introduction to Public Relations.

During the twentieth century public relations operated with a ‘thin’ understanding of ethics, which caused complex problems for society. To understand why and how this happened we must first understand what ethics and public relations are and how they work together. Public relations is ‘the management of communication between an organization and its publics’ (Tench & Yeomans 2009, p. 5)); its role is to establish a positive relationship between an organisation (or individual) and society. Public relations has power – with that power comes a responsibility to be ethical, accurate and aware. Ethics is ‘the study of individual and collective moral awareness’ (Grassian 1992, p. 3); ethics allow people to identify what is ‘right and wrong, good and bad’ (Breit 2007, p. 309). Making ethical choices in public relations means to have honesty, loyalty, respect and integrity. Throughout this essay I will discuss why public relations has been perceived as unethical and examples of unethical communication; I will then

During this semester we attended a lecture hosted by a special guest, Chris Gray. Mr Gray is the managing director for ICON International Communications Australia and spoke to us about what the field of public relations is actually about and how it has been evolving over time. He explained that it is one of the most misunderstood professions. Similarly, White and Park (2010) researched the media’s common perceptions of the field, which included, covering up information, doing damage control, and pushing the company’s agenda. The field covers a countless number of activities and can be defined as “the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation (or individual) and its publics”

Laura Salciuviene, Lancaster University, UK Pervez N. Ghauri, Kings College London, UK Ruth Salomea Streder, Lewis-Global Public Relations, UK Claudio De Mattos, Manchester Business School, UK

Over the past decade, social media use has been increasing at an expeditious rate. According to Pew Research Center, 86% of Americans are active internet users, and the number of active social media users is increasing daily. As of 2016, Facebook has 1.6 billion users, Instagram has 430 million users, LinkedIn has 429 million users, and Twitter has 325 million users. With those numbers in mind, why wouldn 't the public relations agency utilize these free platforms as a way to gain publicity? My digital project raises the question of “how has the public relations industry changed over the past decade, due to the increase in use of social media?” Patricia Swann (2014), states that “public relations is the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success and failure depends” (p. 2). Strategy is a large aspect of public relations, and gives us reasoning behind all the communication activities done throughout the work day. Having a set strategy allows us to target specific missions, goals, audiences. Public relations practitioners rely on their audience to support their missions and goals. Gaining another way to put forth these strategies—via social media, has the ability to change the field of public relations in a prodigious way. With the rise of social media, some may argue that it is now easier for practitioners to communicate more effectively and timely with their

The implementation of communication theories and models to a public relations campaign is imperative to its success. Aligning with the advancements of the media, more specifically social media and the rise of citizen journalism, the press agentry or publicity model is fundamental to any campaign. Based around the requirement for free media, this model outlines the technique of orchestrating public stunts to gain media attention (Johnston & Sheehan, 2014). In order to execute this model successfully, a PR professional must have thorough knowledge of media choices, what kinds of events make news headlines and the campaigns target audience. Understanding

The most recent definition of public relations, according to the Public Relations Society of America (2012), states that “Public Relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” Through the rapid advancement of modern media and technology, there have never been more outlets and opportunities available for accomplishing the goals of public relations. Believing the development of social media has not created serious changes in the way public relations practitioners go about their duties would be foolish and a fast track to falling behind in this rapid world of communication. The main goals of public relations are “to

This essay aims to highlight the contributions of public relations at the strategic level. J L Thompson (1995) defined strategy as a means to an end, and he writes,” The ends concern the purposes and objectives of the organization. There is a broad strategy for the whole organization and a competitive strategy for each activity.” The significance of strategy is allowing practitioners to set their work in the wider organizational context. The concept of strategy is made clearer by Mintzberg et al (1982) who offer five uses for the word strategy, there are plan, ploy, pattern, position and perspective. On the contrary, these five uses do not operate in isolation, but are intertwined to generate more benefits. Position is important

Parents all want what is best for their child. However, sometimes knowing what is best for them is not always easy. For instance, sports. Parents hate to see their child get hurt, so most sports are not “ideal”, but most also realize that their child may need sports to help their child develop motor skills and socialization skills. This makes things complicated at times. The one exception to this rule is that soccer is both non-violent and perfect for kids of all ages. There are also those who feel that soccer and motor skills go hand in hand.

The theory explains that the value of public relations in organization and society lies in socially responsible managerial decisions and quality organization to public relations. Organisations must behave in ways that solve the problems and satisfy the goals of the stakeholders as well as the management in order to be effective. Good relationship with organisation’s strategic publics is helpful in developing and achieving goals desired by both the organization and its publics, reducing costs of negative publicity, and increasing revenue by providing products and services needed by stakeholders. Practitioners identify publics who are affected by or affect organizational decisions and communicate symmetrically with them to build high quality long term relations.

But various parts of the world still do not have built up forensic anthropologists as a component of the medicolegal system. Unfortunately, in many systems, a few pathologists acquainted with osteological techniques make their own anthropological analysis of an obscure skeleton. In recent years, physicians trained in forensic anthropology have been taking an interest in both research and practice [20].

Contemporary public relations is a twentieth-century phenomenon that evolved from the press gentry of the 1800s. These old-time press agents played upon the credulity of the public in its desire to be entertained, whether or not they were deceived. Advertisements and press releases were often exaggerated to the point of being complete falsifications. In promoting an attraction, press agents dropped multitudes of tickets on the newspaper editors desk along with the releases. Voluminous publicity for the attraction usually resulted, and reporters, editors, and their families flocked to the free entertainment with scant regard for any ethical constraints (Wilcox, Ault, & Agee

Many are unclear on the differences between public relations, advertisement, and marketing. They are very different and each has distinct characteristics that define their roles in the workforce. When public relations, marketing, and advertisement are used together they can be used to form a very successful plan if used to their full advantages.

The perceived ‘cantankerous’ relationship that characterises the exchanges between public relations professionals and media practitioner’s has been rife since the birth of public relations. The pair is, in its simplest term ‘frenemies’, they do work together, albeit covertly, and are usually hesitant to admit (on the media side) their cooperation. However, there is no absolute trust held between the two since there is a shifting power of control and influence that continually changes, which Fletcher (as cited in Hobsbawn, 2010, p. 64) believes is due to the market value of the particular product that public relations is representing. Media practitioners are often called the ‘watchdogs’ of