The Rise in Regional Public Relations

I had recently presented a paper at AMIC 2011: Taking Stock of Media and Communication Studies, (http://www.amic.org.sg/) an international conference held at Hyderabad, between June 24th-27th on the following topic.The Rise in Regional Public Relations: A study of the public relations scenario with rapidly growing regional journalism in India.

Abstract

Public Relations in India advanced only in the 1980s and 1990s when businesses felt the need to compete and address their audiences. Public relations agencies started growing in this environment the late 1980s.These agencies would work in association with the in-house public relations departments in companies which is still the norm even today. Some even mushroomed into larger firms with associations internationally.During the same time advertising agencies also added public relations divisions in their businesses.Since then public relations agencies in India have only grown and have been known to conduct media relations with the print and the broadcasting media personnel. With the regional press showing rapid growth in terms of readership and circulation, and at the same time the English language press in India showing a decline, it has been observed that investors are keen on investing in the regional language publication houses.With a rapidly growing neo-literate population, most of it in the vernacular medium, the number of people who would be reading vernacular language newspapers will only rise. Robin Jeffery states that vernacular medium newspaper readers not only become better informed, but also tend to actively participate in the political and democratic process. The researcher intended to study:-

Ø R1. Will the rise in regional journalism lead to rise in regional public relations?

Ø R2. What kind of communication skills and personality traits will have to be acquired by future practitioners keen on joining regional public relations?

Synopsis of Conclusion: Regional Public Relations in India is growing so mastery over regional language, reading, writing and speaking it fluently.Adaptation to culture of each region including rituals, habits, lifestyle or anything symbiotic of a culture of a place will be crucial.The above points are most important when dealing with regional audience and regional media.Regional public relations and global public relations are similar as both have to adjust to regional differences before executing a programme.

It has become necessary for a PR practitioner working for an agency or company to know as many languages as possible, as one doesn't know when there would be a requirement to communicate with external audiences. One should not be dependent only on a person specifically knowing the language and culture of a region.A combination of knowledge of the subject of public relations and proficiency in regional languages can become an important tool in the hands of a PR practitioner practicing regional public relations in India.

Do we know our publics?

Public Relations practitioners are constantly looking for different media to publish their press releases, articles, interviews, features, analysis etc.It is done so that as much as coverage is obtained.It is also done hoping that as many people to whom the news is related to are reading or watching it.

But what are these different types of publics to whom our news concerns? Does it matter to all in a similar manner or are there 'situational' publics?

James Grunig proposed the 'Situational Theory' (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). He explained that publics can be identified and classified according to how much they are aware of a problem and to what extent they could do something about it. The theory studies the formation of publics and how organisations should keep a watch and segment them accordingly so that communication is done to that specificity.The theory identifies the following four categories: 

• Non-public: No problem is identified or exists
• Latent public: Problem exists, but public does not see it
• Aware public: Group identifies that a problem exists
• Active public: Group is aware of the problem and co-ordinates to take an action    
  

If we notice the different kinds of campaigns that have happened in our country, whether it was the Jessica lal case, fight for the Bhopal gas victims, the latest anti-corruption campaigns etc, you will see that there will always be some who will sit up and notice and act upon it.It all depends on how much it affects them and what they feel they can do about it.The rest of us will only discuss it casually over tea or on social media sites etc.

Knowledge of our publics is necessary so that behavioral change can be expected, to change people from being latent to aware to active publics as explained above. So what motivates us to react uniformly on an issue? Is some other motivation needed? Or can we act uniformly on an issue?

Do let me know your views.

The Magic called Social Media!

There is enough material written on the social media.So I will not add some more gyan but I have decided to share my experience of being on social media as a consumer or simply an internet user.

I recently bought a blackberry and was still struggling to use this device when I encountered some issue regarding some function.I was looking for help when I decided to write to @BlackBerryHelp on twitter.I was anticipating that the reply may come in some few days when to my pleasant surprise their solution was sent through direct message in some few hours! Quite prompt considering that I must have been some zillionth customer who must have asked for help.Mind you I have asked more questions after that at different times and the timeliness of their reply has always been the same.Prompt.

Another incident I encountered was with @TeasAtGirnar, I was having tea at The Tea Centre at Chruchgate, Mumbai and I happen to tweet this, within minutes I get a mention and I find Girnar Tea tweeting me and asking me the tea I was sipping and my favorite flavor. They also sent me a tweet encouraging me to visit their e-store.Perfect consumer engagement without irritating the consumer off with some personal selling talk! and to think of it I could have chosen not to reply.

The above were examples of companies approaching and helping their consumers.

I have also experienced the beauty of social media when a complete stranger replied to my tweets on a simple inquiry.I was travelling on the highway from Santa Cruz when I saw ahead a massive traffic jam.I tweeted the same wondering the reason for the jam, within seconds I get a reply from some stranger that there was some vehicle problem and so the jam!

Even now and then I receive mentions on topics I tweet about or re-tweet where some person has shared some more knowledge or a page on the same issue.

This kind of interaction only says that given an opportunity you can get in touch with the consumers and the target audience without being pushy and give that space to the consumer to take a call on whether they want to interact with you or not.

Consumers are watching your interaction with them, whether you are solving their problems, offering tips, or inviting their contribution on a topic etc.They observe you and decide a lot about you whether you are worth being given a second look or not!

If it is not promotion or public relations from a company or an individual; it is simply a good human helping on the digital space,but magic of the social media still remains.

The Times of Strategizing

The recent Niira Radia case brings to attention the evolving role of public relations in India.Till now known only as media relations or more as a publicist function, lobbying has changed the face the face of this profession.Strategizing has now been pronounced as an important element of lobbying which in turn is a very important function of public relations.


Lobbying (also Lobby) is the intention of influencing decisions made by legislators and officials in the government by individuals, other legislators, constituents, or advocacy groups. A lobbyist is a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest or a member of a lobby.(source: Wikipedia)

So as we see it is now become necessary for a public relations practitioner to become 'worldly wise' .You are no longer handling just the media coverages of your client you will now place  your client strategically in the eyes of their stakeholders.So what does this mean?

Lets look at the word strategy.Strategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal.(source: Wikipedia)

Johnson and Scholes (Exploring Corporate Strategy) define strategy as follows:

"Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations".

In other words, strategy is about:

* Where is the business trying to get to in the long-term (direction)

* Which markets should a business compete in and what kind of activities are involved in such markets? (markets; scope)

* How can the business perform better than the competition in those markets? (advantage)?

* What resources (skills, assets, finance, relationships, technical competence, facilities) are required in order to be able to compete? (resources)?

* What external, environmental factors affect the businesses' ability to compete? (environment)?

* What are the values and expectations of those who have power in and around the business? (stakeholders) (source:http://tutor2u.net)

If this is going to be the new role of public relations then what will be the orientation necessary for one to think strategically?

Knowledge of public relations, politics, economics, finance, management studies,organisational behaviour, pschology etc could be some few subjects to begin with.So to be 'worldly-wise' these will help and yes ofcourse keeping your eyes and ears open to information.Being boundary spanners as we public relations academicians would like to call it.

To change the way public relations is looked at today in India, the practitioners need to update themselves with changing times.We still have a very long way to go.

The Rise in the Use of New Media as a tool of communication in Public Relations

A study of public relations agencies and organisations
with public relations departments based in Mumbai




This paper was presented at the

National Seminar, November 18, 19, 2010

Journalism in India: From Mission to Profession - 1947 to 2010

Organised by
Department of Communication and Journalism
University of Mumbai


By
Meenakshi Upadhyay
Lecturer, Department of Communication and Journalism,
University of Mumbai

It discusses the use of New media as another alternative tool used by PR practitioners by various companies and PR agencies.

Disconnect between academics and the PR industry in India

Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to thank some few of you for all the help you have always given to me and my students in research conducted by us.

But it has been my experience that majorly the PR industry is not as helpful as it appears when it comes to contributing to academics. I have been teaching Public Relations for more than 5 years now and I have observed that they do not readily co-operate in research related queries from students.Sometimes we academicians also face the same problem.Barring a few professionals who help others keep postponing to even give an appointment. The students have shared with me their experience the problems they have faced when trying to conduct surveys in Public Relations.They are often told to contact later and emails are usually left un-answered.It has also been seen that you have to have a friend or a relative working in the institution to get an appointment with the required personnel.

The students feel disheartened because they are keen to learn and such a lukewarm response leaves them with a bad impression of the place where they will be starting their professional careers.I can understand that certain students do not have very good communication skills so they may get rejected out right for the fact that they cannot even speak properly, though care is also taken from our end to train them as far as possible in interviewing skills. But can the industry be a little patient with these budding professionals of the future?

In foreign countries the researches done by academics are funded by the industry and the results are used by the industry in furthering their prospects, so here can we atleast answer queries so that our profession is understood better? We are also growing in our understanding of the profession and a little help in the form of answers goes a long way in helping both of us.We must understand research is a very important element in helping a profession grow otherwise companies would not have R&D departments.

My question to all PR industry professionals is why do you shy away from questions? Is it so difficult to spare atleast five minutes to answer queries which might even help you back in return? I wonder if this post will be read or simply ignored as questions are.

The Ever Evolving Social Media Bubble

Public Relations are today an important component of any campaign.Whether it was Microsoft launching its Xbox video game player or Windows Xp. Lakme the well known fashion and cosmetics brand has heavily depended on PR for making its presence felt amongst their target audience.Even in crisis Johnson & Johnson  relied a lot on Public Relations to emerge from their Tylenol crisis.

What if social media was there and also used when the above events had come into being, how would it have helped the companies in their campaigns? Well for that, one has to understand this channel. Social media is like that bubble in water that keeps bursting and evolving into more new bubbles.It is not stagnant for a long time in one form.

If we observe in other countries where social media is  heavily used in marketing campaigns, social networking sites like twitter are not really playing a role in promoting brands, look at this article Marketing: Study Says Most Brands Still Irrelevant on Twitter - Advertising Age - Digital

Another issue with social networking sites is the fact that it changes fast.Something new emerges the moment you had just got used to the previous (read old) one.A site which everyone wants to be on today such as Facebook can might as well be a passing fad! People initially were on Orkut. The same have now shifted base to Facebook. Tomorrow there might be another 'networking' site.Read more on this on Can Social Media Be Trusted? These articles come from a world where social networking sites are intesively used by marketeers and people.what is the Indian scene?

We are still learning the tricks of these new channels.In our country celebrities hog twitter more than the common man.Facebook is more of a stress buster and a place where you can openly vent out your feelings about issues.Promotions are still to a large extent ignored, even if some of your friends send you 'invitations' to join 'events' right? Though we do hear of social media being used by consumers as grievance platforms. Blogs are still read but comments are sent on your personal ids and not as comments on the blog, though the follower list may rise.You are told on phone or in person that your blog was well written but not on your blog.Image sites are still used for uploading personal photos as we still use the good old cd or email to send official photos.We are still learning the use of these new channels and  still don't really trust it.So if countries where these media has been used for campaign purposes and it is thought that have a long way to go, imagine how far we are!

So at this stage how much of social media should be recommended to clients? After a small research conducted in a total of more than 100 companies and PR agencies put together I found that this media is highly recommended to clients to promote themselves.More than 50% of respondents use online press release sites to publish their press releases.

The reasons cited for using social media were ease of use, reach was very good, it was obviously a cheaper mode, and audio-video could be used most effectively on these channels (here YouTube).

Though there was one answer which was quite an opposite to what the agencies and the corporate communication departments of the companies thought on.Only 23% of PR practitioners in agencies thought that

giving out information via internet channels will reduce dependence on the print and broadcasting media whereas 49% of the respondents in the corporate communications thought differently!

The audience will be take some more time before they adapt themselves to new media is what more than 15% of the respondents feel when they say it will take more than 10 years, this  appears quite true considering what other countries are going through. 

One thing all of them agree which is a whopping more than 57% ; the fact that social media/new media training is essential to PR practitioners in both agencies and corporates.

The data above only confirms the fact that we need to give some more time to this new medium to catch up both in the minds of audiences as well as to practitioners using this tool for promotion before we either discard or totally adapt to it.

Public Relations Is Truth Well Told!

I read the title somewhere and immediately liked it.Isnt that true? Can an organisation reveal everything to the publics (media) because being transparent is important as said in many definitions of Public Relations?

Rawlins (2008) advocated “transparency through every aspect of corporate communications” (p. 2) that embraces open, authentic communication of organizational successes and failures; facilitates ongoing discussion; and relinquishes a seemingly incessant institutional drive to maintain the image of perfection.

But how important it is in being totally transparent? I m not saying we should go all out in giving information but say that, that will be appropriate for the organsiation in that particular situation.The paper Is Full Transparency Always the Best Approach?exaclty argues the same point, says that infact it is ethically correct for both the organisation and its stakeholders.

Lets say there is a crisis in an organisation will you give all details of the crisis that ocurred or will you be careful only in revealing those facts that are necessary? Or will you simply ignore the situation and pretend as if it never existed? How will you handle a journalist who is screaming into your ears demanding explainations or the community who is upset as it is direclty affected by the crisis?

As a public realtions practitioner will you be transparent or transluscent?

Are creating controversies on TV becoming yet another frequenlty used tool of Public Relations?

Controversy is defined as a disagreement or argument about something important.This element of difference of opinion creates an interest in the issue or the people concerened in it interesting.(Berneys, 1955) defined the function of public relations as using information, persuasion and adjustment to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement or institution.

So if one of the roles is using all kinds of information to simply gather support and influence the publics then creating news to 'create' controversy cannot be ruled out.If this brings attention to the object of interest!

Are public relations practitioners taking advantage of controversies or 'creating' controversies is debatable. (This subject is analysed keeping in mind the medium of televison) But whatever the case the client gets all the publicity.How interested are the viewers in really analysing the news? Do they really have the time or interest to find out the real issue.Guess not as researchers have pointed out.Berneys (1923) and Dahl (1963) argue that public is guided not only by thought but by emotion and sentiments; this is in case of television as there is more drama, emotions and sentiments portrayed. He also says that people are occupied with families, hobbies and social commitments that they have less time left to inform themselves with issues, so only issues which affect their daliy decsions catches attention.Others simply pass by.So why not show something in these serials and news capsules that which the viewer really needs?

So is it that controversies merely then become short term attention seekers and later the audience forgets about them? Can we then say that controversies may catch attention for a short time but if it is not directly affecting a viewer in any manner he will surely forget it?

This article 'A good controversy leads to good news' says Neeraj Sanan, Vice President, Marketing, Star News surely made me think that should public relations use this tool to catch attention of the viewers in this case televsion serials and news or should the focus be shifted to more content based programmes and news capsules which will anyways draw the attention of the viewer.

How much are controveries needed to 'sell ' programmes and news capsules? This is taking us to a very important area why dont we frequenlty ask the viewers what do they really to like to watch on TV? A need of the hour is an audience survey...are we ready for it?

What is are your views?

Role of Agenda Building in Public Relations

The term Agenda Building as explained by Cobb & Elder, 1971, 1972,1983,Cobb, Ross & Ross, 1976) is that it examines public participation in such a way that various kinds of publics in a population become aware and participate in political conflicts.(Cobb et al., 1976, pg 126) further add that it is a process by which voice of many in the population can catch attention of the public officials. This may be done to accomplish some serious policy change.

The term agenda can be explained as “ a general set of political controversies that will be views as falling within the range of political concerns meriting concerns of the polity.” (Cobb & Elder, 1971, pg 905).There are two types of agenda clearly specified: public and formal. The public agenda consists of “a) subjects of widespread attention and awareness b) perceived of requiring action and c) appropriate concern of some governmental unit.”

The formal agenda refers to the set of issues that decision makers have already formally considered for serious consideration. So any issue that is raised from a governmental body will be a part of the formal agenda.

Johnson et al., 1996 give an interesting insight where budding public relations professionals can take a cue from. They say “it is a collective and reciprocal process where the press, public and public officials influence one another and are at the same time influenced by one another.” They came up with a four-stage model for agenda building "1) real-world conditions starts off the agenda building process; 2) news media increases coverage of the issue; 3) the public picks up signs from real-world conditions and media coverage; and finally 4) the opinion leader reacts upon public concern". Take all examples that we have seen in the recent past such as the emergence of the swine flu, bird flu etc. If you look at these issues they have all had a similar pattern. The way they started and were later on ‘treated’ by all the parties concerned .It explains how any issue  that which is of public concern is usually handled. Here we have to keep in mind that events though begin with being news events may turn out to be pseudo news events as explained in my earlier blogs.

Would you like to contribute to the above?

References:-

Handbook of public relations

 By Robert Lawrence Heath, Gabriel M. Vasquez

Public relations theory II

 By Carl H. Botan, Vincent Hazleton

Research paper “International Agenda-Building and Agenda-Setting: Exploring the Influence of Public Relations Counsel on News Media and Public Perceptions of Foreign Nations” A Manuscript submitted to the Public Relations Division for the annual International

Communication Association conference in New York, NY, to be held on May 26-30, 2005

What Makes News?: A Public Relations Perspective

We in our department are in this good habit of discussing and probing on issues which bother us in our profession of journalism and public relations. One such issue which came up again in the discussion was the one on Pseudo Events.Is the definition of Pseudo Events as described by Daniel Boorstein as that which "exists for the sole purpose of the media publicity and serves little to no other function in real life. Without the media, nothing meaningful actually occurs at the event, so pseudo-events are considered “real” only after they are viewed through news, advertisement, television  or other types of media." hold true to defining all news emerging from press conferences as pseudo events as press conferences are called as pseudo events?

Mr.Sanjay Ranade, Reader at our department had opined that  Daniel Boorstein has defined this concept from a historian's point of view.All news cannot be pseudo events, as all news cannot be 'created' for the media.There will always be news which needs to be given to the media as there is no other way the media could get the news.So this brought us to yet another hypothesis that "all press conferences are not pseudo events." Supporting this view is W. Lance Bennett who categorizes news like this:

1)Fully Controlled (released news, pseudo-event)

2)Partially Controlled (press conference, etc.)

3) Uncontrolled (ex. Watergate, Daniel Ellsberg, Iraq prisoner abuse photos)

If you notice Bennett does not classify all news as pseudo events.Nor does he say that all press conferences are pseudo events, and he puts it under the category of being partially controlled.

So If you connect this with agenda building in public relations I will say that agenda building of public relations stems from this very thought that only when information is scarce will journalists turn to public relations for information as they are confirmed sources of official information about the company. As rightly put by Carl Botan and Vincent Hazleton in their Book Public Relations Theory II "The greater the information scarcity the better the chances that sources that control the information can influence the media agenda." So this may not always be 'created' information but genuine information to be given for dissemination. The entire process of agenda building if you closely watch is a a very dynamic process of making news.The news here may not be always 'created'  here even though it is being made.

More on Agenda building in the next note...

Let me know your thoughts.

Post Postivism and Research approach in Public Relations

This topic got me thinking when somebody said that research does not always work.There is a theoretical approach to the whole thinking process of choosing the right way to do research.

Generally research is confused with being statistical and every answer asked in a research question can only exist if proven scientifically based on a certain perspective."Positivism is an epistemological perspective and philosophy of science which holds that the only authentic knowledge is that which is based on sense experience and positive verification." source: Wikipedia

Post-Positivism begs to differ."In philosophy and models of scientific inquiry, post-positivism (also called postempiricism) is a metatheoretical stance following positivism. Post-positivists believe that human knowledge is based not on unchallengeable, rock-solid foundations, but rather upon human conjectures."source: Wikipedia

 When we look up both the definitions we understand that  Post positivism approach if applied to research in areas like Marketing, Public Relations and Advertising will probably give more space to understand people and their issues than simply looking at them as statistical samples.

Solutions in such cases in research can be obtained far better than other otherwise, other than simply discarding research as a subject that does not deliver.

Also read more on this on http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/ and material written on the same by Zina O'leary.

Pseudo events and Truth Events

We have our department group online where discussions regarding our subjects are often done.Recently a discussion started on what are pseudo events and those events which are not  pseudo events, what should  they be termed? We all know that pseudo events are those events that are created with the exclusive intention of getting media coverage, or rather that events are staged in such a way that lends itself to media coverage; this is as explained by Boorstin (1961).

So what are the events which are not pseudo events? An explanation on the same is given by Alain Badiou. He calls them truth events.He says "Truth is first of all something new. What transmits, what repeats, we shall call knowledge. Distinguishing truth from knowledge is essential… For the process of truth to begin, something must happen. Knowledge as such only gives us repetition, it is concerned only with what already is. For truth to affirm its newness, there must be a supplement. This supplement is committed to chance—it is unpredictable, incalculable, it is beyond what it is. I call it an event. A truth appears in its newness because an eventful supplement interrupts repetition. Examples: The appearance, with Aeschylus, of theatrical tragedy. The eruption, with Galileo, of mathematical physics. An amorous encounter which changes a whole life. Or the French revolution of 1792. An event is linked to the notion of the undecidable. Take the sentence 'This event belongs to the situation.' If you can, using the rules of established knowledge, decide that this sentence is true or false, the event will not be an event. It will be calculable within the situation. Nothing permits us to say 'Here begins the truth.' A wager will have to be made."

"What the Truth-Event renders visible is the one excessive element which is a part of the situation being submitted to the Truth-Process, but not counted within the positive structure of Being. By rendering this excessive element visible (whatever it may be), the preceding positive ontological order must radically change. And it is this formal relation between the Event and the Truth of the situation it articulates/renders visible, which allows us to distinguish between a genuine Event and its mere semblance. To elaborate by example, Zizek explains: “Nazism was a pseudo-Event and the October Revolution was an authentic Event, because only the latter related to the very foundations of the Situation of capitalist order, effectively undermining those foundations, in contrast to Nazism, which staged a pseudo-Event precisely in order to save the capitalist order.” This is as explained by Slavoj Zizek.

This could be an insight to all public relations practitioners, students and teachers.Any further insight?

Sources:
Alain Badiou, “On The Truth-Process”, Open Lecture at the European Graduate School, August 2002.
Slavoj Zizek, The Ticklish Subject, Verso, London and New York, 1999, p. 138.