J’adore Paris!
Here I am a few days ago on our "American in Paris" scavenger hunt across the city on the 4th of July!
I am currently doing the study abroad program through the University System of Georgia (USG) in Paris, France! I am having so much fun and learning so many things about the European culture. The class I’m taking here is Cross Cultural Communication and it couldn’t be more fitting for this trip because not only am I learning about different cultures in the classroom, I’m actually experiencing it everyday!
The program put together an “American in Paris” 4th of July scavenger hunt for us and my group ended up taking first place! The prize is a hot air ballon ride above the city and we are going as soon as all of our schedules match up! I’ll be sure to take some fantastic pictures and share them with everyone 
Chapter 14 Reading Notes
In chapter fourteen of our Public Relations Writing & Media Techniques textbook we learn all about writing e-mail, memos, and proposals. This deals with communicating on a more personal level rather than reaching a large, impersonal audience. There are a few guidelines to remember when writing personalized letters and reports that I remeber easily by referring to them as the 5 C’s and an R:
- Clarity
- Completeness
- Conciseness
- Correctness
- Courtesy
- Responsibility
Information overload is spreading through our society and this clutter can be reduced by keeping messages short, simple, and to the point. No one wants to read all the “fluff” that goes along with the message you are trying to send, so make sure to clearly state your purpose up front. Text messaging, wikis, and applications such as Twitter (which we are all familiar with after week four) to reduce e-mail bulge to organizations and individuals.
A common misconception made by many PR professionals is that e-mail is a substitute for personal one-on-one communication. Even though e-mail is rapid and cost efficient, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. It is so important to find a balance between coming off as professional and personal but a PR writer must create a happy medium in order to be successful.
Memos should be one page or less and the key message should be stated immediately. The textbook gives us five components of a memo:
- Date
- To
- From
- Subject
- Message
Proposals are prepared to convince management to make a decision about a contract or approve money and resources for a project and they must follow a logical, well-organized format. They are often written after a client gives a Request for Proposal (RFP) which is circulated to various public relations firms.
A position paper, sometimes known as a “white paper,” states the organization’s perspective on a specific trend or industry and they should begin with an overview so the highlights can be read immediately without taking up much time.
Becoming familiar with this chapter will help me build skills that I intend to take with me in my professional career; I now feel more comfortable preparing e-mails and written proposals for not only class, but at work and even communicating with professors and applying for internships.
Chapter 12 Reading Notes
Chapter twelve of the Public Relations Writing & Media Techniques textbook is entitled Tapping the Web and News Media and it deals with writing for online media. The book explains that the media traditionally has had the following characteristics:
- It is centralized, having a top-down heirarchy.
- It costs a lot of money to to become a publisher.
- It is staffed by professional gatekeepers known as editors and publishers.
- It features mostly one-way communication with limited feedback channels.
However the new media, known as the mediasphere and the blogosphere by Cooperkatz and Company, is characterized by:
- Widespread broadband.
- Cheap/free, easy-to-use online publishing tools.
- New distribution channels.
- Mobile devices, such as camera phones.
- New advertising paradigms.
When writing for the web a PR professional must use nonlinear organizaion; instead of a long, linear narrative format, topics should be in index-card format to allow viewers to click on the information that is most appealing to them. These written materials for the web should be in short, easy-to-understand chunks. The ideal length of a news item is two to three paragraphs, which is equivalent to about one screen. Viewers are turned off by long pieces of information because they require too much scrolling.
The majority of organizations use webcasting, which is the streaming of audio and video in real time over a website, for anything from news conferences to employee training. Most internet content is consumer generated, giving rise to “social media” in the second generation of the internet called Web 2.0. This provides public relations professionals the opportunity to get feedback and build relationships through social networking at their fingertips.
Blogs are growing in size and popularity with each day and there are three types of blogs from a public relations standpoint:
- Corporate blogs
- Employee blogs
- Third-party blogs
The most popular social networking sites are MySpace and Facebook and I think that these are excellent ways for not only PR writers and professionals, but everyday people to stay in touch with one another and remain current on what is happening in the world.
Chapter 11 Reading Notes
The eleventh chapter of our Public Relations Writing & Media Techniques textbook is called Getting Along With Journalists. This chapter contains many ways in which public relations professionals can improve upon their professional relationship with journalists; after all the text explains that:
“One survey of 539 large companies by the Public Affairs Group (PAG) found that media relations was the number one job responsibility of their public relations staff. A survey by PR Week found that media relations was the number one activity performed by corporate public relations departments. Similar surveys have indicated that media relations is the primary activity of public relations firms.”
Journalists turn to PR sources for recieving most of their information and PR professionals rely on the media for distribution of information; journalists and PR writers have a dependent relationship on eachother and they must remain professional and courteous to one another in order to keep this relationship going.
There are ways in which PR professionals can get on journalists’ bad sides, the textbook explains that there are five complaints that they have about PR professionals come up the most:
- Lack of familiarity with editorial requirements.
- Poorly written materials.
- Too many unsolicited e-mails and phone calls.
- Lack of knowledge about their product or service.
- Repeated calls and follow-ups.
PR professionals in turn have some problems with the ways in which journalists interact with them and do their work; the most common complaint is that journalists can sometimes be sloppy in their accuracy and often don’t take the time to do their homework.
It is important for the spokespersons of organizations to carefully prepare for media interviews; media training is vital to produce a positive outcome. Retracting statements and setting the record straight should be dealt with among the PR professional and the reporter who originally wrote the story. This chapter provides excellent ways for a PR writer to maintain a good professional relationship with journalists.
