Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Week 11 - A moment of quietness

6
So, today will be our last blog entry as, in Friday (according to the course outline), our blogs will be marked. I will miss this, writing a journal of what we learnt in an online blog. This is fun, different. We had an assignment like this last semester, to make a learning journal, but it was in hardcopy and we had to decorate it like a scrapbook. It was weird -how do you scrapbook a series of serious theories? Not to mention it was a waste of money and space.

Anyway, back to this week. There's nothing much going on, but you know what they say, it's always calmest before the storm. We still have the PR Communication Plan to submit in few weeks --along with all the assignments from other courses. Can you feel the tension rising?

In the tutorial today, Ms. Tanya specially discuss about our PR Communication Plan. I think it helps a lot, because I didn't know what are the differences between Strategy and Tactics. They sound the same, and the search in Google didn't really help. But now I understand a lot more, thus I can peacefully continue doing my plan. So...

This will mark the end of my blogs, then
[maybe I'll continue it, though, if I decide to work in PR line ;)]
.
See ya around!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Week 10 - Closer to the edge..

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It's the end of the semester. As usual, it's ending with a neck-breaking speed. Ok, I'm exaggerating. It just feels like it. This blog must be complete by next week. And we have to work on the PR plan halfway, or more, by then.
No lecture and no debate today. On to our readings, then... v


-:-

Reading for week 11: Writing a Media Release by Candy Tymson
Seems to me that in order to be able to write a good media release, we have to understand the media first. This is again where I feel that PR course is a combination of many things. One of them is journalism.
In the article, the writer mentions the elements that'd make a news story (journalism jargon, which mean a news piece) interesting for the readers (which in this case, is the media). A media release to a journalist is like a news story to the public, that's the concept.
I feel the elements mentioned are related to the 5W1H concept:
Who: Is the story about someone famous?
When: Is it recent, or far too long in the past?
Where: Is it anywhere near the reader?
What: Is the story different? Unique? Or just a bland one?
Why: Why should the readers pay attention? Is it useful? Is it an achievement? A record-breaking?
How: How does it affects the readers' feelings?

And one important thing to deal with the media is: honesty. You don't want to be caught lying by a journalist (and worse, to a journalist).
The timing for media release/publication is also important. We shouldn't announce something that is ordinary or can be found everyday. Otherwise, readers would be turned of and lose interest even before they read about anything. [It's like The Art of War, Sun Tzu said, "The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim."]
Small (but crucial) details to be remembered: get your facts right, use only one side of the paper, don't forget the date stamp and page number(s), keep it short,
Lastly, like any other literature, in a media release's: BE ORIGINAL. Don't use cliches.

and Ch. 13 Focus on Asian Public Relations Management by Richard Stanton
Well, when I started to read this chapter, I wonder: Why should we differentiate the PR practice in Western countries and in Asia? It turned out, however, that what the reading means by 'Asia' is the countries in which freedom of speech is not so free (pg.359: "..the relationship each country has to processes of capitalism and democracy.").
I also realized that the different cultures play important parts in making the PR practice different in Asia and Western countries, especially because in PR human interaction is the main point. For example, Asians are not so direct in speaking up their mind (pg.364) so PR practitioners need to be aware of this when doing campaign or presenting something for the public in Asia.

The reading also discuss about public relations practice in many countries: China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam.
As an Indonesian, and my boyfriend is Vietnamese, I particularly interested in the statement that: "As in Vietnam, Indonesia is in a state of primary engagement with public relations for the purposes of nation building." (pg.371) Really? We can use PR for nation building as well?
It is also surprising to hear that there is actually PR practices in Indonesia. I've never heard of it as long as I live there. It is indeed "practice narrowly" there.

I'll just keep it short for this reading... the case study at the end of the chapter talks about a campaign to persuade voters to pick Incheon (a South Korean city) over Delhi, India, as the host city of 17th Asian Games in 2014. A public relations campaign. Just what we need to understand more about our final project. It's only an example, but good enough. Sweet!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Week 9 - Let the debates begin..

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bad day
It's the debate day today. There are two groups contending: group 3 (that's ours!) and group 4, each with their own topic.
Our topic is, "Blogs established by PR practitioners on behalf of clients/organisations facilitate two-way symmetrical communication between organisations and their publics." While the topic for group 4 is, "Community events invariably benefit from securing corporate sponsorship."

Kinda scary at first, but it's not so bad, after all. Turned out that what I fear didn't happen: We didn't talk about two completely different things.

We've also started our plan for our final project -the OCD PR plan. I already have few ideas for the publication, but keep thinking that they're ludicrous -maybe they're not so relevant for real life. Will contemplate more on it.

-:-

Reading for week 10: Ch. 12 New Media and Public Relations by Kate Fitch I think this week's reading the topic closest to our heart (my classmates and me) as it talks about the thing dearest to us: the internet. I realized that this topic is closely related to my debate topic. If only I read it a week earlier -_-"
Talking about the internet is always controversial. Some people seems to be unable to accept the fact that we can send and receive information in real-time, yet. Talking about the use of internet of Public Relations is even more complex.


There are two seemingly different views on the relation of new media technology with public relation practice. However, in my opinion, these views seem to conclude the same thing: right now, internet has yet successful in carrying out two-way communication between organization/company with its audience.
The first view hinted that "the potential of the internet to promote two-way communication continues to remain unrealized", while the second suggested "while technology can potentially enchance two-way communication... this may mean that information flow is not controllled or even generated by organizations and gatekeepers".
Conclusion: Either because of the potential is yet being used to the maximum or there is an influx of information on the internet, a two-way communication through it isn't realized yet.
This is what makes the use of internet in public relations is still "controversial".

I don't think I'll discuss more on the reading as it mostly going around about the different form of new media. Plus about ethical issues, but we already talk about that in chapter 4.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Week 8 - No clas =/= no assignment

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Huaaaah.. still haven't found the book to copy. I will have a lot of reading debt to pay, next week. And, I think I'll change the format of the blog, combining the thoughts on lecture with the reading review below it. Should be better that way, less confusing.

There's no PR class today, but the assignments must go on.
I will have my debate next week. Already started to do my research, but I realized that the topic is to wide, too general. Asked the opposition party -I mean, group, but they said they haven't started yet *jaw-dropped*
But I guess it should be alright. We'll just present what we think it is. Can't differ that much, can it?


-:-

Reading for week 9: Ch. 8 Reputation Management: A Driving Force for Action by Nigel De Bussy


and Ch. 10 An Issues–Crisis perspective by Gwyneth Howell

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Week 7 - In the search of Holy Grail.. I mean, book

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There's no lecture this week as it is the Lunar New Year break that is clothed with the name Midterm break.
And I still haven't continued my reading. See, the book is already available in our campus' Popular, but it's $60 for a book! Honestly, for students like me, it's very expensive.
I was hoping to catch people who have bought it, then photocopy only the chapters that we need. But I guess everyone is home at their countries now, enjoying the break..

Btw, Happy Lunar New Year, and belated Valentine's Day!

-:-

Reading for week 8: Ch. 7 Public Relations Management in Organisations by Amisha Mehta and Robina Xavier

Monday, February 15, 2010

Readings according to the schedule - catching up (pt.2)

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Reading for week 6: Ch. 11 Engaging with the Media by Hamish McLean and Richard Phillips
This chapter sounds more like journalism course than PR course. But, anyway, both of them are closely related. So this chapter talks more about the things we'll need to understand the media more. There's even a section about writing news story (which we learn intensively in Introduction to Journalism course, but it's always good to have more information from other sources) and media release.

One of the things that captured me the most is that, the timing choice to release a news is crucial. Now I know, when we need to inform public about a bad news, wait till there's another big news, so the public's attention will be divided. That's new. It sounds like Sun Tzu's Art of War, too.
Somehow, this point reminds me of Jack Neo's scandal. Many people think it's a publicity stunt for his new movie, "Being Human" (released on March 4). Kind of makes sense, seeing the timing of the scandal was revealed (three days after the release of the movie). But, looking from PR practitioner's perspective, is it worth risking his career by gaining attention with negative news?

There's a section that discus how to minimize the media attention. Simple: by giving one particular media outlet an exclusive story. That way, only one media will talk about it; others will only have second-hand information, thus, will be more questionable.

-:-

Reading for week 7: Ch. 9 Strategies to Proactively Manage Activity by Melanie James

Friday, February 12, 2010

Readings according to the schedule - catching up (pt.1)

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Reading for week 4: Ch. 4 Public Relations Ethics by Elspeth Tilley
The topic for this week's reading is interesting: ethics. 'Ethics' is usually defined "motivation based on ideas of right and wrong." But, how do we define what's 'right' and what's 'wrong'? In the reading itself, ethics is defined as "standarts of behaviour, spesifically, concern for 'good' behaviour and condsideration of our behaviour".
The example that comes to my mind regarding ethics in Public Relations, is the product placement in movies. Now, is that ethical? It's like hidden advertisement. While people decide to watch movie, so they are not bothered by advertisements. The placement of products in movies subtly force people to remember the brands. But then again, it makes the movies realistic. So, again, the question of ethics is a complex one. The answer is even more so.

The ethics pyramid as seen in the book, pg. 113
Image taken from http://praxis.massey.ac.nz/ethics_pyramid.html

Back to the reading, there are 3 things that we need to have and keep in mind to stay ethically competent (pg.96): Willingness to be ethical, knowledge (find out what are the ethical things accepted by public, what are not), skill (put the knowledge into actions).
There are also 3 school of thoughts regarding ethics: virtue theorists, deontologists, and consequentialists. The three of them represent three different philosophical questions.
[Indeed, the topic of ethics is more to philosophical discussion as the idea of 'ethics' was first developed by the great Greek philosopher, Aristotle.]
Each school of thoughts has its own strengths and weaknesses. It comes back to each PR practitioner which one they want to follow. But the bottom line is, do not live without following ethical codes, both for living and for working.

"..Get experience by volunterring for causes you believe in." -Fiona Cassidy.

-:-

Reading for week 5: Ch. 5 Public Relations Research by Gae Synnott
"..it's pardonable to be defeated, but not to be surprised." -Ron Kawalilak.
It takes me some time to understand what the quote means, but I don't have to wait long because at the same paragraph, it was explained: In PR, you can't help it if sometimes your campaign is not as successful as you want it to be. But, if the failure is because of "lack of research or evaluation", it's just such a pity.
So, that's what the reading is about in this chapter: doing research ("the process of gathering information" p.127) for PR practice. This sounds like a sub-topic for PR Strategy.
There are three steps explained to think like a PR professional (pg.129). It generally helps me to understand more about doing a research, how to know the right questions to ask and how to get the information I need.

At first, the chapter talks about hierarchy-of-effects model that could help us understand more on how to lead "people from knowing nothing about a product to becoming a customer" (p.128). The explanation is not clear, however. The usual terms are simpler: Awareness > Knowledge > Liking > Preferance > Conviction > Purchase (see picture).

Next, the stages of research is further explain: the input stage, the implementation stage, presentation of research findings and research applications.

The one that captured me the most in this chapter, however, is the 'issues with PR research' section. Of course, we can roughly guess what might be the challenges in doing PR, but to read it blatantly written on a reading material is kind of weird. So, what is the biggest challenge in PR practice? Yup, you got it. Like in any other part of human life, budget is one of the issues in PR practices (seems like it's always about money, isn't it?).
But this can be tackle with gathering information from existing reports first, do a combine research with other company (or companies), and, if your budget is really small, you can work together with students who are studying market research. We can also use the internet, as the cyber technology doesn't require much funding.

and Ch. 6 Public Relations Practice by Gae Synnott
I wonder why this chapter is at sixth in the chapters sequence rather than the first, as it talks about the general perspective of PR practice.
As most of us already know (or barely do), "PR is one of the critical strategic tools used by an organization to help it achieve its objectives" (p.159).
There are quite a few types of organization in which PR will be very useful: the not-for-profit sector (NFP), like Salvation Army, PETA; the corporate sector (that is, the companies/businesses); the public sector (government campaigns); and the consultancy (that is, agencies or the PR itself as a business).
This chapter talks more about challenges that is faced by PR practitioners in day-to-day basis. More proof that PR is a "a mega-exciting yet talent-light' industry"? I conclude that a PR practitioner need to be -among the others- outgoing, good in time management, know how to pay for things (budgeting), a "journalist" (one that keeps a constant journal), a doer not just a thinker, and of course, good in communicating with people.

"Don't listen to the solution. Find out more about the problem." -Marie Howarth.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Lecture 5 (Week 6) - A remedy for compulsions

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Ok, I know I should read ch. 4 on Ethics before today. But to find the book, or even the article has been a journey. The book is already sold in our Popular bookstore, but to tell you the truth, it's way too expensive for me. So my option now is to borrow the book from my friend, then copy it per chapter. It's cheaper, besides it'd be lighter, so I can carry it around and read it whenever I'm free.

Anyway, today's lecture is very interesting. Ms. Tanya brought a special guest to the class today, to help us in our final project: Ms. Jolyn Chua.
She's a self-confessed OCD (Obsessive-compulsive Disorder sufferer) who turn her weakness into her strength.
Jolyn is a very young woman to have started her own company and call it OCD: Organizing Chaos Daily (a smart pun). Well, to call it a "company" perhaps sounds too grand as she's doing everything alone, or, as she said it, it's a "one-woman show".

What she does is offering people an organizing service. NOT a cleaning service, an organizing service. To tidy up clutters in people's room, house, office, and/or store. And keep it that way by teaching the person how to organize their belongings.
I must say, I'm awed by her. It is a brilliant idea. I mean, my brother is an OCD, but all he does is throwing away my things and yell at me whenever I move his things by a centimeter. Maybe I should suggest him to apply for a job in Jolyn's OCD company.

Jolyn keept repeating the same word during her presentation: organizing.
The thesaurus to organize is put in order, sort out, classify. So I conclude, the key(word) to be neat is to have the ability to classify.
Now I know why I'm such a mess (yes, in both understandings).

Our task now is, to come out with a 1000-word PR communication plan which "meet the brief provided by the organisation" and include research and situational analysis (or SWOT), the goal, strategy, objectives, tactics, budget, and evaluation. We must also submit a media release (300-400 words) and a 1000-word academic essay.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Reading: Theoretial Contexts

2
Reading before week 5: Ch.3 Theoretical Contexts by Marianne D Sison

So, this week's reading talks mostly about the theories that surround Public Relations. Worth to note, though, the profile story at the beginning of the chapter is inspiring. I'd like to quote Richard Amos, when he describes PR as "a mega-exciting yet talent-light' industry". Talking about the roller coaster life ;)

Anyway, I notice that PR shares many theories of communication (at least I recognize the ones that we studied in our Communication Studies course), like the agenda setting, semiotics, transmission models, persuasion. But to think about it, of course PR practitioners must understand these concepts in order to understand the media audience, and in what way the media might influence its audience.

I'm a bit surprised that someone (sometwo?) has actually categorized PR practise. They who have succeeded in doing so were James Grunig and Todd Hunt, thus the model is called Grunig and Hunt's four models. They are:
1. Press Agentry: one-way communication, reflect publicity model, PR as publicity agent.
2. Public Information: one-way communication, sort of informational campaign.
3. Two-Way Asymmetric: use of scientific/factual information to persuade the audience.
4. Two -Way Symmetric: organization and its audience have equal power, for example, a dialog with community groups.

There are variations to these groups, however. Like personal influence (an influence depending on one's interpersonal communication skills) and mixed motive (PR practitioners see their organizational behaviours through the public's perspective).

But the one thing that captures me the most in this chapter is the Four Rooms model that was developed through VMIA (Victorian Managed Insurance Authority) and SHJ's (Scaffidi Hugh-Jones) Change Support Pack.
The Four Rooms model of change are the Contentment Room, the Denial Room, the Confusion Room, and the Renewal Room.


http://www.loosetooth.com/Viscom/gf/4rooms.htm

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Lecture 4 (Week 5)- Experiential Marketing: Selling product by "selling" experience

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Yup, we learnt about Experiential Marketing today. Well, not just that, but about every other ways we can advertise something, or influence the mass (don't understimate the power of blogs, people!). Again, very interesting. I love Public Relations topic more and more.
This subject is like psychology: you must understand humans first. Except that in psychology, you don't try to influence their thinking (to buy stuffs or worship a brand).

Okay, back to Experiential Marketing. It might sounds like a fancy word, especially if your mother-tongue isn't English. But it's simple (the explanation, I mean), I'm sure everyone of you have ever gotten in touch with it. When you walk around the mall, have you ever seen some product offers free massage? Free trial? That's Experiential Marketing.

The concept is, it should not be intrusive. Meaning, the customer would be free to try the product, without having to buy it. Or even, without even their noticing that you're selling them something.
(It's not so simple in Singapore, though, if you notice. The "agents" are savage, so it's dangerous if you try their product, but later buy it not)

There are many other creative marketing through PR, like:
~Integrated marketing.
~Guerilla marketing.
~Roach marketing.
Which according to WordSpy.com is "A marketing message delivered by an actor posing as a regular person with the intention of having that message passed along to many other people." NICE.
~Subviral marketing.
~And something about otaku, which is a Japanese word for a feeling between penchant and obsession.

A sidetrack story, my boyfriend is studying marketing. I must say he has a penchant for advertising (it gets annoying sometimes, esp. when he explain how a brand should've advertised its brand instead). After this lesson, I finally know something more than he does. And we'll have one hell of a conversation later.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Reading: Understanding 21st Centruy PR

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Reading before week 4: Ch.1 Understanding Twenty-first Century Public Relations by Joy Chia
and Ch. 2 Trends and Developments by Joy Chia

If in the first lecture I (finally) got to know what Public Relations is, and how it is different from journalism, from the reading I now have in-depth understanding about PR and many things around it.
For example, fun to find out how in PR, there's public (a group of people) and there's stakeholder (public that has an influence to your company).

I find the opening story of the chapter about Tracy Jones, the president of Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA), interesting. Making me think, perhaps it's a good idea to start your carreer as a journalist, when you young, with all the rush and adrenaline. Then as you get older, you move on to a more settled but as challenging carrer in Public Relations.

I should've known that PR's neatherthal is from Greece (p.6) --as many others' are. After all, Greece is the birthplace of many sophists.
At first, t seems to me that PR sounds like marketing: it publicize something, but with the purpose of seeling it. But I realize now that PR is about maintaining reputation (both the reputation of someone, or an organization) and relationship (between PR company and client company, client-public, PR-public, PR-media, client-media).
I cannot completely agree, though, if it's said that PR is "to make a difference to society" (p. 7). Well, at least, I can't see the direct connection.

Just like journalism, PR also prone to govt interverene (p. 7) so maybe it's a good idea if a PR practitioner is under a certain solid organization for Public Relations, like PRIA in Australia.

There are 4 effective ways to do PR: Research, Evaluation, Planning, Communication (RACE) (p.8).

Reading about theories of PR, it occurs to me that PR is not an exclusive practice. I mean, not like medical or engineering practitioners who have these fancy terms that ordinary human can't understand. And you can't go anywhere else when you study medical, or law, for example. You have to stay around the science.
On the other side, PR is all about logic and creativity. When you study Public Relations, you study about basic things in relating and communicating with other people.

-Global Alliance
-International Public Relations Association.

Lecture 3 (Week 4) - PR vs Journo

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Week 4
We finally got our reading material. Ms. Wilson somehow managed to get a copy of the first chapter of the book we're supposed to read to be put in our online UoN library. Going to start reading soon.. Hopefully I'll be able to finish before evening :p

Today's lecture was interesting. Now I understand more and more what a PR practitioner does (see, I now even know that PR is the job, PR practitioner is the person. Yup, FINALLY I know).
But the more I understand about PR, the less confident I am to become one. The job doesn't suit my character (or rather, my character doesn't suit the job).

You see, the first thing is, a PR person must know all and every newspaper there are in the country they're residing. Better yet, plus all of the magazines. Then, they must know the journalists. Not just know as in acquaintant, but know as a friend.
Ms. Wilson jokingly said, PR practitioners are basicly need to suck-up, both to the journalists and to their clients. That's where it doesn't go with me --when I don't like someone, I show it in their face -__- need to do something about that.

There's one thing that I realized in the lecture: PR and journalism are like twins. You know how twins look alike, when they're young they wear all the same things, accessories and clothes. But as they get older, somehow they don't get along well, sometimes worse than ordinary siblings.
Not a very good analogy for PR and journalism; but that's how I see them now. Maybe that's why both PR and Journalism in UoN are together?

Oh, we also learned about four PR tactics: written, spoken, acted, imagined.

Just for fun, this morning, Ms. Wilson mentioned something about TODAY newspaper tends to write the positive things in their news. Hm...interesting.. I never noticed that.

- OCD company

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Lecture 2 (Week 3) - A knowledge on hold

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Well, we are supposed to read "Introduction to Public Relations: From Theory to Practice" by Joy Chia and Gae Synnott.
But I've yet able to get a hold on the book.
The campus' bookstore doesn't provide it, and I don't have time to look around yet (or I just don't try hard enough..).
I'll update my blog as soon as I get the book and read it. Before the week ends, I promise. I will go to the National Library and few bookstores later, to find the book.

Oh, our debate group is announced. My team will have the debate on week 8 (that is 8 March).
- \ . . - : - . . / -

Update on the book: I went to National Library on Friday, 22 Jan, to search for the book. But they don't have it as well. They really don't publish it in Asia, it seems.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Lecture 1 (Week2) - What is PR?

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Right, that was the same question that has been bugging me, too, for so many years.

I know this sounds pathetic, but I truly get the answer only today, in my first lecture of Introduction to Public Relations course -CMNS1290.
It's not like I've never tried to find out what PR is all about, but the books and articles that I tried to read, talk about what the professional PR are doing, instead of explaining what they simply are.

So, for those who had or having the same fate as I did, here is the answer, Public Relations communicate to the public through the media, on the behalf of an organization.
http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/hsc0531l.jpg

Assignment 1 - blog

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Item Reading Journal Blog - 25 %
grading criteria reading journal blog.doc (32.5 Kb)

All students are expected to read all set course readings.

This reading and learning journal will be kept in the form of a blog. Each student will set up a new blog on www.blogger.com or as directed by your lecturer specifically for this purpose and will post their blog URL as a reply to the Blog forum set up for this purpose in the Discussion Board. This will be done in class.

Please don’t use your full name in order to protect your privacy. Examples of blogs that received HD marks in past courses are:

http://cmns1290verboseprose.blogspot.com/

http://cmns1290partreeek.blogspot.com/

http://cmns1290kelly.blogspot.com/

You can write more if it helps your learning but no less than 200 words each week.

Once each student has their blog set up, each student will reflect on what they have discovered/learnt from the course required readings. Students can post opinions and put forward arguments in their blogs but these need to be backed up by evidence to support the position taken. i.e. Writing "I think that's wrong" is unacceptable but "I think that's wrong because evidence presented in the study by Grunig and Grunig (reference here) clearly showed that the exact opposite was the case!"

At a minimum each entry for each week will be no less than 200 words and include entries that address:

a) the key points of the readings, and

b) the application of the readings to public relations practice (include examples from case studies or current campaigns that you've seen)

You can write about other aspects but each week those two area must be completed.

The reading journal blog will be updated weekly prior to each week’s tutorial class. Students will be assigned a partner each week from their class and each week you will comment on each other's work. You must respond to the comments received on your blog - you are marked on this aspect of the blog exercise. You will be given time in class to comment on other students' posts from that week so all students must have completed their work for the week.

Even if you are not attending class that week for some reason, your blog posting for that week must be ready to be read and commented upon. You should also comment on another student's blog. Suggested approaches for students to begin their comments include

  • I thought your point about ______ was interesting in that…
  • I took the author’s meaning to be quite different in that ….
  • I thought the way you approached the reading was helpful to other students as ….
  • I can’t believe we saw things so differently. I totally disagree with what you said about _____ because…..

There is no limit on the number of comments and blog entries that can be made and students are encouraged to use the journal to highlight other insights and findings that they have made. This assignment is designed to facilitate your learning.

The grading criteria are clear as to the requirements and how students will be assessed for this assignment. You will be assessed on readings set for Weeks 3 to 10.

DO NOT PLAGIARISE

Students should note that this is individual work. In keeping with the University’s policy on Student Academic Integrity, students discovered working with others without permission on this assessment task and presenting the resulting work as though it was completed independently may invoke a penalty.

Issues such as substantial changes in style and expression between out of class blogging and in-class blogging may be grounds for investigation to ensure academic integrity is being maintained.

If you include words that are not your own e.g. sections from the readings, please ensure that these are properly referenced. You will be penalised if they are not. Blogs will be checked by the course coordinator for evidence of plagiarism. Do not copy from other blogs - Turnitin picks these up too.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ALL STUDENTS:

When setting up the blog, students should not include personal information like photos of themselves, location, contact details, star signs and hobbies etc that could encourage people from outside the course to submit unwanted comments.

If you receive unwelcome and/or inappropriate comments please stop blogging immediately and advise the course coordinator immediately of the situation by email.

GENERAL BLOGGING GUIDELINES (sourced from Barbara Nixon's PR blog)

Keep these general guidelines in mind when you post blog entries for our class:

  • Blogs are public, so write in a way that you will be comfortable with anybody reading your work (co-workers, friends, potential employers, parents, etc.).
  • Public blog posts may be indexed by Google and other search engines, so be mindful of your online identity you are creating.
  • Remember that Google may cache previous versions of your blog posts, even if you delete them. Google never sleeps.
  • Use an engaging title that captures your blog post and promotes reader interest.
  • Write about anything that interests you as it relates to our class content, even if there is no specific class assignment. Writers get better writing by writing.
  • Give credit where credit is due - If you use the direct words or lists of another blogger/writer, you MUST put the words in quotation marks. Cite the source by including the name and URL of the source; hyperlink to the source. OR use APA style. If you paraphrase another blogger/writer, you MUST indicate where you found the information.
  • Cite the source by including the name and URL of the source; hyperlink to the source. OR use APA style.
  • When using images in your blog posts, indicate where the images come from, either by linking back to the image source or providing a photo credit on the page. A great source for images is Flickr, especially when searched using CompFight.
  • Failure to cite sources in blog posts will result in the same penalty as failure to cite sources in traditional research papers or other writing projects. Consult with your tutor if you are in doubt about how to attribute the sources.

Guidelines for Commenting on Blogs

  • Reading your classmate and colleagues’ blogs to will give you ideas for your own writing.
  • When you comment on another person’s blog, you can potentially start a dialogue and gain new social contacts.
  • Like blog posts themselves, you never know who will read your comments.
  • It is good practice reply to comments on your own blog - plus you get marked on this component in this course.