Cyber-Relations

I once heard someone describe the development of humanity by comparing it to a coin that you throw into those big spiral wishing wells, where the coin goes around and around quite slowly at first, and then gradually it begins to pick up speed, moving faster and faster until, when it’s right at the bottom, it’s spinning so fast you can barely see it. I can’t say I know exactly where society is headed, but I do feel like we are moving at a fast rate of change. 

Sometimes I find myself blown away by the fact that the internet even exists.  In a very short period of time, our methods of communication evolved into something far more instant than ever before. The rate of advancement in terms of technological developments in our society seem rapid and I wonder what kind of impact this will have on professions such as PR, marketing and advertising. The government has attempted to start making some big changes in the way the Internet exists - with more regulation and corporate domination since old media industries are dying. 

New media is a powerful tool and one that’s constantly evolving. I think it’s a great development for PR and marketing communications. I don't know what it implies for the individual, but I’m interested to see where it goes from here. 

Crisis Communication...

... at Champlain College

The chapter on Crisis Communications reminded me about the pamphlets in each Champlain classroom that walk you through the steps to take given an emergency of any kind. I find these little pamphlets to be kind of amusing, because in all honesty, if there actually WAS a crisis or emergency situation, I highly doubt anyone would take the time to thumb through a bunch of papers tacked onto a wall next to the door. It’s too bulky and time consuming to read in a situation like that.

It’s my fourth year here at Champlain and I can’t ever remember having any sort of “crisis management” seminar where the school talks about steps to take during an actual emergency. There may have been some sort of precursor speech my freshman year during orientation, but I can’t really remember, so it must not have been very poignant if such a thing did take place.

Preparing for a crisis beforehand will make everything flow smoother if something does happen

As Champlain is a privately owned university, I’d be curious to know what kind of precautionary measurements have been taken outside of the pamphlets in each classroom. Surely there must be a master plan in regards to approaching stakeholders, donors and the media. But as a student, I think it would be beneficial if Champlain were to revise their emergency information by simplifying it into an easy-to read poster or image that is quickly read just by glancing at it, instead of having to stop and leaf through to the appropriate section. 

Political and Public Policy Communication

Politics has long been like a foreign language to me. I always felt that as I got older, it would all start to make more sense, but unfortunately that just isn't the case. The more I try to pay attention and educate myself about things like legislation and public policy in our country, the more confused I become.

From what I see online and read about in the news, politics seems simply like a weird, dirty game. People cheat, lie and steal their way into positions of power. Everyone claims that our individual votes matter, and that "government officials pay close attention to public opinion" as the chapter states, but I find this very hard to believe.

From a communications standpoint, I really don't think I'd be able to handle any sort of position where I was involved in a political organization. It's not that I don't believe politics are important, because they most certainly are, but I feel that at this stage in our society's development, we've veered so far from the path we should be on that it feels as if all hope is nearly lost.

I've recently started watching a new show on Hulu called Battleground. It sounds sort of hokey and cliche but as someone who watches far too much television, this show is extremely well-executed and engaging to watch.  It follows the campaign of a democratic dark horse candidate who is running for US Senate for Wisconsin. I think I've learned more about politics and public relations by watching this show than in school, as pathetic as that sounds. It explores all the facets involved in a political campaign, from the fundraising activities, to speechwriting, to writing press releases and attending press conferences, to making televised statements and hosting events, and so on.

Battleground

It's one thing to hear about these things through news media outlets, where the stories are carefully crafted by powerful people looking to spin a certain message, but to see it all happen from a behind-the-scenes mockumentary point of view is intriguing to me. It's actually helped me see the brighter side of politics, even if it is just a fictional show on the internet.

Ethics and Social Responsibility in Public Relations

In reading about ethics in PR, the most important concept I took away from the chapter is the fact that ethics are ACTIVE, not passive. To me, this is very important because it means ethics are about what you do, not what you say you are going to do.

Navigating the ethical waters of business and public relations can be tricky because ethics are derived from our values, and values clearly differ from culture to culture. Because of this, I think many corporations and organizations can find themselves in situations that might be ethically compromising. While an organization as a whole might have a defined set of ethics, their ethical beliefs may or may not equate to the ethical beliefs of their employees, or their clientele.

Because ethics can be such a grey area, I wanted to see what the PRSA had to say about this issue. I know that in prior classes we've discussed case studies about ethical problems and for the most part these situations weren't necessarily black or white, and the class discussions had a lot of varied opinions about how the incidents should have been handled.

These are some bullet points the PRSA points out for dealing with ethics:

The majority of these suggestions are straightforward and understandable, but there are a couple that I find vague and confusing. For example, "Work to strengthen the public's trust in the profession." How is this an ethical concern? The public should just inherently be able to trust that the profession is performing ethically, it should not have to try and persuade people and defend it's existence. If this is the case perhaps the PR profession should be re-defined. 

Additionally, "Act in the best interest of clients or employers" also raised a red flag for me. If you are acting in your employer's best interest, you may or may not be acting ethically. But if it's in their best interest it's justifiable? I think this list could be misinterpreted by many people working in PR. Public Relations, to me, is about how you can best serve the PUBLIC, not corporations or organizations, no matter what these groups agendas are. 

How to Remove Ads on Hulu

Frustrated with the increasing number of advertisments being aired on Hulu and other video hosting websites? The AdBlock Plus extension for Google Chrome blocks all commercials.

 I thought it was a fluke at first but sure enough, it's legit.

Instead of commercials, you'll just a see a black screen with white text that says something like, "Sorry, we're unable to display advertisements at this time."

In my opinion this is waaayyy better than being bombarded with obnoxious marketing messages mid-viewing.

I don't use Safari or Firefox but I read in this article that there is an AdBlock Video extension for Firefox that will do the same thing!

Cross-Cultural Communications

I read a blog post a few days ago by a friend who is studying abroad in Paris. The title of her post was "Lost in Translation."  


She said: 
"Here, the word "date" means nothing. Literally, there's no translation. Rendez-vous is probably the closest thing you can say to "date". but it still doesn't have the same meaning. You can Rendez-vous with your boss, teacher and grandparents. The word I am looking for has nothing to do with my grandparents, ya dig?"


I found this to be so interesting! I think it relates quite nicely to cross-cultural communications. Even though the book says that "globalization has narrowed the cultural divide" and that "cross-cultural faux pas are no longer deal-killers," I still believe that it's important for organizations to understand all aspects of not only their current customers, but also smaller segmented groups of customers they may or may not be communicating with. 

There are so many innuendos of other cultures that organizations fail to recognize, and these can hugely inhibit the success of their business affairs.  As the "global village" continues to expand, we will probably being to see less and less differences between cultures. Nevertheless, there will still most likely be very obvious barriers like language, customs and traditions that are imperative to understanding how a culture works, thinks and communicates.    

I found a handy chart that suggests ways in which to enhance cross-cultural communications. It goes along with the tactics listed in the book like awareness, commitment, research, partnerships, testing and evaluation. I think it epitomizes the steps that need to be taken in order to fully understand a different culture in a business or publica relations setting. 

To me, the most important would be to ask questions, distinguish perspectives, and respect differences.  

Adventures in PR: Consumer Relations

As our country's economy continues to weaken, what effect is it having on the American consumer? If money is the tool that allows people to exchange goods and services, what will happen as less and less people are able to acquire money?

According to chapter 8, the middle and upper classes control the majority of consumer spending power in our country. But as we are well aware of today, the middle class is quickly shrinking as jobs are becoming more scarce due to companies hiring less employees.

The section titled "Surging Demand for Luxury Goods" talked about how luxury items have evolved to become necessity. "These lifestyle and expenditure norms have risen pretty dramatically for the middle class and the upper middle class." But can it keep on rising? How much longer until the whole thing just collapses in on itself?

From a PR perspective, sure, consumer relations is crucial to the continuation of the profession and for companies and corporations to remain in existence. But what responsibilities, if any, do these entities have  in ensuring the continuation of an actual physical economic environment to continue this way of life? Banks (who are controlled, of course, by corporations) just keep printing more and more money, sending the value of the dollar directly into the toilet, all while the American "consumer" is worked to the bone so he can afford "necessities" like new cars, cell phones and flat screen TVs. And, while all this is going on, our global environment is being destroyed just so these gadgets can exist. It's an entirely screwed up and unsustainable situation.

I guess this is more of a rant than a journal entry, but it's just what's on my mind at this point.

Also, don't you think it'd be nice if Champlain re-named their "Mass Communications" major to "Integrated Marketing Communications"? It has a more succinct ring to it. "Mass Communications" is too generic and I always have to explain what it means when people ask me what my major is.