Another week down and another public relations blog to write. This week’s readings Chapter 7 of Public Relations; theory and practice - ‘strategy, planning and scheduling’. The text was highly theoretical and builds on the knowledge I have gained in previous weeks – but I guess that is the point of this exercise.
The text is forever exploring and expanding the definition and field of public relations in this chapter it stresses that public relations practitioners need to understand what they need to know and do it strategically in order to achieve its PR goals. In order to do this the organisation needs to be clear about its mission, direction values and objective and must be certain that what it says is consistent with that it actually believes. This idea was explored in tutorial four.
Chapter 7 explored the concept of strategy and how when used effectively it can maximise the success of the public relations practitioner. Public relations strategy is defined in the text (p.171) as being a process by which the leadership of an organisation deliberately manages its communications proactively so that they are open, candid and primarily focused on the marketplace and the customer as the first cause. The text outlines how public relations strategy encompasses a variety of techniques and skills that the practitioner must consider and master in order to maximise the effects of their campaigns.
It further developed ideas established in week four’s tutorial, where we viewed organisational structures and the role of public relation practitioners within them. I found the study by Professor James Grunig explored on page 172 of the text very interesting in that it established that organisations tend to value PR practitioners more highly that a regular department within an organisation as the practitioner deals with major social issues. However the study showed that the success of the practitioner was proportional to whether it was in a strategic management role – as explored last week in the observation exercise - most practitioners were high in the organisational chain of command.
This led to a line of though instigated by the text where it encourages the reader to consider the following: “you are only likely to be as good as a public relations practitioner as your CEO will allow you to be”. I am not entirely sure I agree with this, while in principle it makes sense, I believe that practitioners are responsible for the success and effectiveness of their campaigns and strategies. However in saying this I acknowledge that I have a highly limited knowledge and this will surly be rectified and reflected upon in future weeks and courses.
As stated previously the chapter outlines a variety of skills and techniques that are used in public relation strategy, for example budgeting, checklists, gantt charts, flow charts and calendars. In particular I found budgeting to be interesting and its two dominant types – financial and operating budgets, where previously I had only been aware of financial budgeting. The text cites a particularly useful definition of budgeting on page 180, by McElreath “a budget is a plan for coordinating resources and expenses over a period of time by assigning costs to goals and objectives for specific activities.”
Yet again this is a very long blog but finally I think that it is important to note that while I understand the chapter lays a good foundation for our future careers, I could not help but think as I read it of week three’s readings. The interviewees in the text all explained that while the theory they learnt in completing their degree’s were useful it is the hands on experience that is most beneficial in the training of practitioners. I believe that it is only once we apply this theory in a practical approach that we will fully understand the importance of it for effective and successful public relations strategy.
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