Reflections on Blogging

Since we've started this blog I've been thinking about subjects I could blog about.  I came up with one idea right away, and then a little later I thought of one more.  I thought I wouldn't have a problem coming up with six blogs at all.  But then I had trouble thinking of another idea for a while, and when i finally did I was busy and had to put it off. I ended up putting off until it was no longer relevant, so I tried to think of a new idea, but again I had trouble.  The point of all of this is that I had a very difficult time with something that should be simple.  Creating content for a blog is a difficult task that requires a great deal of thought.  This experience has taught me a great deal about what to expect in the future when creating content for social media. I now know that a blog can only be productive if there is engaging content presented in a timely manner.

How Can Ron Paul Still Not Be Getting News Coverage?

Ron Paul has been consistently third place in the primaries for the past few weeks, but for some reason no one will talk about him.  I find this particularly confusing now because Cain dropped out.  So Ron Paul as the third highest ranked candidate should be the topic of discussion as the second highest ranked candidate, but for some reason all the media attention has gone to Gingrich.   What are the people who handle Ron Paul's campaign doing?  How have they not gotten more discussion about Ron Paul going on.  With Paul's consistent message and long history of participation in the presidential primaries he should be able to get some kind of media attention.  I don't know what they could do to get the attention to Paul, but they should definitely be using this opportunity to gain Paul more attention.

My day as a journalist

This semester I took a journalism course.  All PR major are required to take a journalism course, but this has been the only class that required me to be published as part of my grade.  As a result I've reported on a number of events.  All of them were pretty low impact with the exception of one.  On Sunday I covered the construction of the worlds tallest Lego Menorah, and much to my surprise it was receiving legitimate news coverage from Long Island outlets like Newsday and News 12 as well as myself. The event which was by far the most complete management of the stories I've covered.  When I arrived I mentioned that I was covering the story I was immediately led to the person in charge who introduced me to the person who was handling the media.  As you can imagine this was an awkward experience for me. As someone who does not feel like a journalist or plan on ever being one, to call myself a journalist felt almost like lying.  But I was in fact acting as a journalist in this situation so I introduced myself as a journalist with the Long Island report.  At which point the woman handling the media gave me a skeptical look.  Once I mentioned that the Long Island report was a website she gave skeptical look and immediately looked it up on her phone when she couldn't find it (she put .com Long Island Report is .org) she informed me that she couldn't find it not quite rudely, but certainly in a way that made me a little uncomfortable.  Once she found the website she was a slightly more helpful, but I still felt a little bit out of place.  What I discovered during this experience is that the way you respond to any journalist is important even if you have never heard of them or there organization. The Long Island Report isn't the most well known news source on the Island but it is a completely free news source that serves Long Island.  So if you want your story to be seen on Long Island it is a good source to have.  But even if a source is only read by 10 people, 10 more people is  10 more than you would have without them so every journalist should be made to feel comfortable regardless of the size of their establishment.

Why Can't Good Work be PR

Starbucks has launched a campaign to put money in the hands of small businesses as a way to fix the unemployment problem, but it only seems to be okay if its not PR.  The CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz went on Today to talk about the new plan and for some reason Matt Lauer was giving him a really hard time.  The interview, which only lasted about 4 minutes, spent the first two minutes describing the program its benefits and why Starbucks has decided to start the program, and the rest of the time Schultz spent defending himself by stating "this is nothing about marketing."  Lauer really goes at the CEO in the video saying analysts say it looks like a PR campaign and so on, and Schultz calls those comments "arrows."
   I don't see why the projects PR status would somehow make it not good work in the community.  Lauer really puts on his hard-hitting-journalist hat for somehting that seems like a non-issue to me.  The program is PR plain and simple, flat out it just is, yet Schultz is forced to say it isn't because that somehow makes it less valuable to the community. I think? I don't get it.
  Starbucks is an American company they started in Seatlle they have locations mostly in America so when they do somehting to improve the status of America, it is a way of relating to their public.  Somewhere along the way PR came to mean things that are only done to get a profit and that therefore it is evil. But not-for-profit agencies have PR teams as well, and there only job is to inform the people of the work that the organization is doing as a way to do more of their chosen work. So why when Starbucks creates a campaign to do good is it viewed as an "evil PR ploy to make money and therefore bad"? (these quotes are ironic not an actual quote)
 The Starbucks campaign is a PR campaign in the sense that they are relating to the public and I think Starbucks will make more money off of this. I know I'm going to go in and donate and wear my braclet and buy a coffee, and I'm going to keep buing coffee from Starbucks because I get the feeling their not evil.  I hope that this project does works and I want them to make money, because they seem to get that America is one of their publics and they are trying to help all of us. As long as they keep trying to do something good I'm going to keep buying from them even if they did it to look good and help their business.

Bad PR for PR

             The PR profession ironicly is not immune to bad PR of its own.  PR practicioners can easily make statements and decisions in an attempt to help their client that hurt their client and the profession as a whole.   One such event happened in relation to the Occupy Wall Street protest.
             The Occupy Wall Street Protest have been going on for 21 days now and aren't showing any sign of slowing.  During the past 21 days there have been a number of PR issues that occurred.  The lack of a cohesive message coming out of the protests, the fact that Government and Wall Street need to address the negative attention coming their way, and the NYPD's response tactics are all issues that could be and should be addressed.  But the issue that is the most pressing to any of these groups is definitely the NYPD's response to their sometimes over-zealous tactics.
            The most damning video for the NYPD to come out of the protests was of a senior officer walking up to a group of women macing them, and then casually walking away.  The officer, Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, then had his personal information released such as his address, phone number and the names of  his family members. 
             In response to this an NYPD spokesperson made a statement that claimed that the NYPD was the victim.  A bold statement that could easily lead to a completely different PR nightmare.  Making the claim that a person who was caught on on video macing a group of women, without provocation, is a "victim" is not going to be a successful PR move. In fact this claim was called out by at least one blogger who then lambasted the entire PR industry. The blog said that "This is pure spin—a public relations effort that should be expected from a spokesperson. It is Mr. Browne’s job to distort the story, to paint the NYPD in a positive light—and if that can’t be done, then to claim victimhood."  All of this statement is pretty damning to PR in general,  this blogger views PR as distorters and spin artists.   The quote is very clear in its disdain for the Public Relations profession.  The blogger states the action, which is very clearly viewed as a negative,  is something "that should be expected" and that its the spokesperson's job to "distort the story."  If this is the opinion that is being promoted throughout the media PR is going to be in for some tough times.  In order for PR people to effectively communicate with their publics people need to trust that the messages they are receiving are generally reliable, and that PR practitioners are reputable.  Statements like the one made by the NYPD are not only damaging to them but PR in general.

How Honesty Will Affect Pr's Newest Role

John Sullivan's recent article on the Changing relationship of Journalism and PR has brought an important issue to my attention.  Journalism and PR have one distinct similarity; they both are completely dependent on their credibility and reliability in order to be effective.  This similarity makes Mr. Sullivan's observations about the dangers for journalism being replaced by PR  also important for PR's relationship to its publics.  

Mr. Sullivan is concerned about the fact that if PR firms become the driving force in the media the public will only be getting information that is skewed and only serves specifics interests and not the general public.  This is a legitimate worry for our country as a whole, an independent an unbiased news source is vital to our culture, but the New role that PR could take on has an effect on how PR will function.

              I believe that if PR were to be the main force in the media it would have to alter the way that it performs to prevent a loss of trust.  The general public will not be ignorant of the influence of PR for long, and once they are aware of the influence of Public Relations practitioners a feeling of distrust could develop.  Just as many people feel the Media has a liberal bias and that MSNBC is a “left wing” news Organization and Fox is a “rightwing” news organization the public will also begin to understand that news outlets will be a “Company organization” or a “government organization.”  This will lead to a rift in the relationships that PR people have with the consuming publics.  The trust that is essential between Public Relations professionals and their publics will be strained, which would affect the potency of any PR professional.

 If PR is going to take on this new Role its going to have to be even more strict about its ethical standards in order to not only to serve as a worthy replacement for Journalists, but also so that they can still communicate between organizations and their publics honestly.