Nipping it in the bud : Overcoming the fear of doing Research

Dissertations or thesis writing sessions are usually no fun for students except a few very academic oriented ones. Research is always this humongous task which looks very daunting and very intimidating to budding researchers. 

Well I don't blame them. We all went through this phase. I was preparing some fresh lectures for my research classes to begin in the next academic year. Keeping in mind all the experiences I have had so far while teaching the subject and then coaxing them to submit a research proposal and later a complete thesis I could come up with some points.

Research actually becomes easy if we begin with reading or simply observing. Keeping ears and eyes open can be the first step to doing research. Thus research is born out of identifying an issue which needs further study so it could be studying professions, studying a particular case at hand or simply studying events which have already taken place. 

 One cannot do something if one does not like doing it. So one has to first carefully choose out of many the topic of research that one would like to do.

Once this is clear, a thorough search of the problem at hand is to be looked upon. A simple google search or a quick run to the local library of the institution would help you to know what other researchers have already said about your topic that you have chosen. At the same time you could come up with a working research question and a working hypothesis which could become like road maps giving you a direction to where you are headed for. They will also remind you in case you slip away from your goal: Your chosen topic. 

Your search will essentially lead you to what appears the toughest while penning down a research: "The literature review" Will not go much into this as this is not the intention of this article and it is assumed here that you know what that means.

So you see a little effort from your side will result in a cluster of research papers or books or credible articles which helped you formulate and even tighten your research question and hypothesis.

Now you wonder why you did all this? Well the answer is that your next step of your research usually and ideally follows from all the ground work you just did. Now this will help in deciding the best methodology and methods which will help in implementing your research. It will help you in deciding your samples from the population at large. It will help you in deciding what should be the tools of your research and how you would prepare them, here I mean your questionnaire. Assuming you are doing a survey or an in-depth interview. But there could be other tools too. There your Guide could help you in deciding that.

The most important part in doing your research is getting all the above in place, as that would have prepared the foundation of your research. Now the next step would be the actual data collection. This is another phase which needs to given enough time as we should understand that if I am doing a survey or an in-depth interview the respondents are not in my hands. They are somewhere there and I am at their mercy of being given time for the data collection. If this method was content analysis of either text, audio or video or all, the time taken in doing a large amount of content collection has to be well thought of as this also takes up your time. (Here the example is of some basic methods, there are others too.)

Once this is done, next step is penning down your findings and analyzing them. You may require the help of your Guide here again and of course all the literature that you had reviewed will be useful while analysing. 

The final step is the conclusion. Here the researcher pens down his/her views, the place where the researcher is able to voice but now with all the credibility of the above data in place. A holistic picture of all that you have done so far has to be critically examined and a conclusion drawn. The limitation & delimitation of the study and of course the future scope of this research has to be written so as to remind the reader of the boundaries of your research.

Research is a journey and it never completely ends at one point. It is continuous and can be re-looked upon time and again by different people, always helping us understand the why and hows of this world.

This was a small attempt in driving out the fear of doing research, hopefully it helps you to break free.

Visual Writing for Public Relations

I remember when one of my students was keen on doing her thesis on something to do with photography. Now as she was in the domain of public relations as that was the Master subject, I suggested her to work on Photo PR. So basically how do companies create images about themselves via their pictures on their galleries on their website or through newspapers. The study was extensive and today she holds a post of a Photo PR executive in a reputed agency, a post especially created for this domain.

Images play a major role in defining an organisation's image. If we take this one step further videos play another role in creation of images. A moving image with sound. Capturing emotions, feelings through sound and movement, an added component in moving images. A holistic experience of the object. Public relations students and practitioners can take the help of these moving images to create the image they want to about their client. Readily available video cameras and camera softwares available on apple and android devices is making the work easier.

Now I need not be a photo or movie editor to work on these pictures and images. There are plenty of softwares available to edit pictures via Picsart and now even shoot small films to describe my client's work. I came across this very useful software called Vine  which is a mobile app created by Twitter to create and post small video clippings. But right now it is only available for apple devices. But android mobile phone users can use Viddy  for the same purpose.Vine helps you shoot for 6 seconds and post the video to Facebook and Twitter accounts. Whereas Viddy lets you shoot for 15 seconds and lets you add effects to your video and post it to Twitter and Facebook. All this work can be done on your smartphone or tablets. This also indicates something very important;  the growing use of smartphones and tablets and its easy accessibility.

The idea is that if I am getting an opportunity to shoot a video of the object concerned and upload it in real time it can be more of value as compared to something appearing later, due to delay in editing. Some quick videos can be more than enough. And will not look like an ad. Time has come where people may not have the time to read long paragraphs but will not miss out a well placed and well clicked picture or an attractive video clip. Of course keeping in mind the various logistics issues and the digital divide, this article stresses on the need for PR practitioners to create content on the go.

Would be keen to know your views.

Defining Public Relations in India in 2013

This blog is out of complete curiosity. Was taking some sessions on defining public relations with students. It made me want to know, how do current practitioners in this profession would like to define it in the year 2013.

Some older definitions are like this. The U.S. perspective : Cutlip, Center and Broom (2006: 5): ‘Public relations is the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends.’

However in the UK the definition is a little diffferent. According to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) it is : ‘[Public relations] is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its publics’ (www.cipr.co.uk). 

This leaves out the the term 'management' as seen in the American counterpart.

So how is the definition of public relations in India being coined?

Is it something different from the above two or similar? Would love to know your views.

New Media: A Pedagogical Tool

Title: New Media: A Pedagogical Tool

Paper presented at the National Seminar on Metamorphosis of New Media and Digital Culture, 7-8-9 March 2013, Department of Communication Studies, University of Pune

Abstract

There are many ways in which Lev Manovich describes new media. One of them is new media as a distribution platform and exhibition channel in the form of Internet, websites, Blu-ray disks and others. A further classification on the Internet is in the form of virtual communication, popularly known as social media. According to Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein, these are programs built on the concept of Web 2.0, which help end users in making their own content and communicating it. Mobile phones, Computers and Tablets have only increased the use of social media. In the past, Internet has played a role in improving education. Research suggests that social media is being used by educational institutions around the world for various purposes. This study examined to what extent do teachers teaching Communication and Journalism at post-graduation level in Mumbai use new media to reach out to students academically. The study also surveyed students’ reaction to the same. The study showed that teachers are using various new media techniques for delivering lectures and connecting with the students on the Internet. But there are some lacunae present in the complete use of these practices by the teachers.

This study examined the following: -

·       How do teachers use new media as a teaching tool to reach out to students?

The researcher has used the survey method to probe this issue and in-depth interviews of experts in this field. The data is quantitative and qualitative in nature. This study would be useful to teachers, researchers, and the current and future users of new media technologies.

Keywords: New media, Social media, Mobile, Web 2.0, Internet.

Let's Lobby

The subject of lobbying has been doing the rounds for a long time in our country. My students have been discussing about this and it has been a topic of discussion on PR forums and PR websites. But what is lobbying? Let us break down this technical term. It is important to understand as it is a vital function of public relations.

An explanation borrowed from The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed:-
"Lobbying practice and profession of influencing governmental decisions, carried out by agents who present the concerns of special interests to legislators and administrators. The term originated in the United States of the 1830s, when representatives of interest groups tended to congregate in the lobbies of Congress and state legislatures. It is now used in a broader sense to include attempts to influence any governmental actions". ("lobbying," 2012)

 See also V. O. Key, Politics, Parties and Pressure Groups (5th ed. 1964); A. M. Scott et al., Congress and Lobbies (1966); S. Farkas, Urban Lobbying (1971); G. Wooton, Interest Groups (1971); M. T. Hayes, Lobbyists and Legislators (1984); C. Barnes, The Politics of Policy-Making and Pressure Groups (1987); R. G. Kaiser, So Damn Much Money (2009). ("lobbying," 2012)
So in layman terms, if you want to get work done which is of interest to your organization or public at large you will try to locate all possible people in position of authority who are useful to you in influencing other people in position of authority, to get your work done.It could be social issues or environment issues or amending policies which affect public at large or for organisations to start with new projects and business both nationally and internationally.
Anyone can lobby and methods of lobbying vary which includes making presentations, sending letters, briefing people in authority and even organizing rallies to get your voice heard on issues of public interest or the organization's interest. Read on http://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/have-your-say/lobbying/
If anyone can lobby why is this process illegal in many countries? The answer lies in the fact that there is not a legal act in place like in some countries. Here they call it the "Lobbying Disclosure Act" ref.http://lobbyingdisclosure.house.gov/amended_lda_guide.html Here is a checklist of some countries and the act of lobbying http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying 
Lobbying is also tricky to regulate says this article on Holmes Report http://www.holmesreport.com/featurestories-info/11835/Analysis-Does-Lobbying-Regulation-Work.aspx   Here they have extensivley discussed a guide to lobby legislation by Raj Chari (Trinity College
Dublin), John Hogan (Dublin Institute of Technology) and Gary Murphy (Dublin City University).Check http://www.regulatelobbying.com/index.html
If you read the articles it again brings to our notice that the influence of culture of a country and the practices in turn is shaped by it.It is no doubt that lobbying should be regulated but how and how much is a questions which looms large.
Hope this article sheds some light on the issues related to lobbying. Your views are welcome to further understand this crucial subject.

The Public Relations Guru

PR agencies and Public Relations departments in companies offer crucial image building services to their clients.Their role to improve, enhance the image of their clients is most important. There are various functions like publicity, media relations, lobbying, event management, internal and external communications etc. which are routine.
But the most important role would be that of a consultant, a guide who can see the potential of the client and make them improve or enhance their image. Here he helps the client to use his own talent and expertise to the benefit of the organisation and society at large.Now here I do not mean manipulation or any other such works which also aids in creation of pseudo events and thus pseudo images.
Sometimes it is seen that a client himself doesnt realise his true worth and is stuck in the cycle of publicity and pseudo events which usually does bring some press coverages but its value lasts for a short while.
It is the role of a PR advisor, consultant who helps manifest the potential of his client and helps him grow in his career or business.
The practitioner is therefore a mentor, a guide and a friend who stands by the client in all times and has the courage to speak up to his client when he is going wrong.
Maybe then the client-agency relationship or the PR department-company relationship will go beyond that of an executive or a manager. Maybe then PR relations practitioners will be seen as 'Gurus' and not mere publicists.
I am sure it is not simple and sometimes not realistic as it sounds.What could be the obstacles? What do you think?

Public Relations: A Career Choice

From my post on Indian PR forum blog

Public Relations as a career choice: http://indianprforum.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/public-relations-as-a-career-choice/

I was thinking about issues to write in PR education when this question struck me “How do people make the choice of pursuing a career in public relations?” Is it accidental or a well thought off option? If it is accidental then how was the experience of entering this profession? If it is by choice, do you regret it? Or you are happy and comfortable in this profession and would love to grow in this job.
These questions popped into my head, as this is something I ask a candidate planning to join this course. Sometimes I have been told by these candidates that we have had public relations as a subject and advertising as a specialisation while pursuing their graduation, so I would like to do this course. Or there will be some working professionals saying that it helps in promotion so they would like to do this course. Or yet others, simply decided to plunge into a new field. Like I have had candidates, who have done a graduation in Economics and who would like to join Public Relations at the Master level.
So these choices are tough. Either if you have simply come to into this profession either with a journalist, marketing, administration background without any academic knowledge in this subject or you are a student with or without previous knowledge of this subject in his/her graduation or post-graduation tenure.
But I am sure all of you would agree this is one subject which is still gaining recognition, at least in India, and it is definitely not something you dreamt of becoming, when you were a child. Cannot blame you, you didn’t know, that it existed or what it was.
So I am sure whatever the reason of the plunge into this profession it would be great to share your experience in this field whether as a student or as a practitioner as to how has your journey has been? Would you like to add your bit to make this journey for you and for others a better one? So that hopefully a child tomorrow may dream of becoming a public relations practitioner, the way h/she dreams of being in other professions.

Would love to know your views.

Measuring Sentiments

This piece is a continuation of my previous article on evaluation http://knowpublicrelations.blogspot.in/2012/09/media-evaluation-or-stakeholder.html. It focuses on the evaluation of the the social media. The evaluation of the 'mention' of your organisation, products, brands etc. To know how these evaluations can be done, one has to first understand what we are analysing on the web. 

On the web, more specifically on the social media, we are essentially analysing sentiments. Sentiments is "analysis of emotion in messages". Sentiments are not the same as feelings, and their use interchangeably has also become extinct in regular use or scientifically speaking  - (www.cyberemotions.eu) 

Sentiment analysis helps understand impact of negative emotions online http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19821-flaming-drives-online-social-networks.html or it also helps, like in this article, where social and traditional media are compared on http://www.journalism.org/commentary_backgrounder/how_social_and_traditional_media_differ_their_treatment_conventions_and_beyo

Some of the links which I found are given below which help you to examine sentiments. These links will give a broad idea on what is being spoken about the client.

So we are not studying the complete message as a whole here but rather the emotion conveyed in them. To begin with, you can try Social Mention http://www.socialmention.com/ which gives a free detail analysis of the client on the cyberspace.

There are sites that also offer free softwares to analyze content about your client. This one is used extensively, Sentistrength http://sentistrength.wlv.ac.uk/ as you will read about it on the link provided. It examines texts within contexts. This link http://smm.streamcrab.com/ searches for all views on twitter. Though Twitter also has its on tools.

The above links to begin with can help PRites both practitioners and students to understand emotions on the web better.

Do share your views and links to look more deeper into this area.

Media Evaluation or Stakeholder Evaluation

I was taking some lectures on how media evaluation is necessary and why PR practitioners should study what media (here print and television) publicizes about them.It struck me though that with effective media relations practices more or less a practitioner would know what the media would write about the client. Then why evaluate? One would only worry about no. of articles in coverage. Is it really so? What are your views?

On the other hand my stakeholders can write about my products or organisation and I have no stakeholder relations to control. Thus the medium in question the Internet is a place which allows this. Also word of mouth through other sources. So don't these mediums need evaluation more than others? This also brings to attention another point, isn't stakeholder relations an issue to worry about?

What are your views?

Looking for a job in PR?

I have observed that students who get ready to face the industry either while they are seeking internships or jobs,face a few hurdles.

The lack of knowledge of current affairs is one of the primary concerns.Second,no  basic knowledge of finance terms. I remember one student came back and told me that she was asked questions on shares and IPOs and she didn't have the answers.

You are now even required to possess basic knowledge of computers and some Microsoft office skills. And yes a mobile device where you can have your contacts stored in the in-built messenger.

These mind you are over and above the basic requirement of communication skills, both spoken and written.

With fast moving times and advancement in technology students have to remain in touch with latest developments or else they will be left behind.

One of my students told me how knowing a regional language was useful to her. So times have come where knowing an additional language is always useful. So you can no longer ignore reading writing other languages.

These are a list of some 'to do list' which every newbie practitioner in PR should know especially in Mumbai. But I am sure these are common elsewhere too.

As a teacher I try my best to help the freshers in imbibing these skills but are there any additions on these?

Can you suggest some more to-dos?

Building Credibility through Public Relations

A discussion on the Indian-PR forum gave an idea to this article of the credibility of public relations in increasing sales.So thought of discussing some other issues too.

Public Relations plays a very important role in informing and educating publics on issues that is important to them and the organisation. For example, if you were to represent your institution for seeking future candidates for jobs or admissions to a course in your organisation, wouldn't you do all the homework required before you could even start promoting it? Yes, it totally depends on what kind of awareness you are trying to create. For example, if it is only about driving down a point "Do not drink and drive" then it actually has to be put the way it is, as it is plain awareness.But campaigns are not always that simple. I am sure you will agree that even the do-not-drink and drive campaign is not longer simple considering the number of accidents increasing in our Mumbai city.

Sometimes it requires you to tell the publics on information on new products or stores, but again here education is still not the focus.It is a step beyond creating awareness. It could be informing them about a launch of a store or a product which could be useful to them.

There are other times when the publics sometimes need to be educated on subjects like new mobile phones or softwares releases in the market or new devices which would require extensive manuals with detailed instructions. It is said that Windows XP the operating software was sold merely on around 20,000 articles written on it across the globe.

 The more difficult and usually very time consuming campaigns are ones where one requires to help the publics change their beliefs on a certain issue and thus leading to attitude and later behaviour change. All health campaigns are like that. Campaigns leading to stopping of social evils like dowry, children education, female foeticide etc are some more examples. But this usually are the tough ones and time-consuming. We can put our drink and drive ones into this range now.

Public Relations plays an important role at every stage of the campaign. Organizations have to create messages and keep persistently following up the efforts to understand if their campaigns were effective or not and if not why not. The profession of public relations adds credibility to any other promotion effort as it takes pains to educate and inform people on issues and products. So public relations does play a role in increasing sales and reaching the masses through patient and consistent persuasion.

A lot of hard work goes behind creating a message and finally converting that into a sale or a change in the mindset for other issues. Sometimes it is diffcult to exactly measure if the conversion was due to public relations efforts as there are other promotion tools also avaliable which could be working simultaneously. Sometimes plain "Word of Mouth" plays a very important role too either for good or for bad. As a PR practitioner one has to understand the product or the issue at hand to decide the course of action.

A lot of research work ideally goes behind a subject being presented for it to appear credible. Public relations practitioners is like that backstage worker who cannot be seen but is working tirelessly away to make sure the client and the works are being well-represented to the publics, constantly adding credibility to the efforts. As a PR practitioner one has to decide if only PR efforts will work or there has to be a blend of other tools. But understanding the strengths and limitation of public relations efforts is a must.

For more knowledge on developing campaigns, this might help you to begin with, "Theoretical models of Public Relations Campaigns" by James K.VanLeuven and Types of PR campaigns means of raising sales by Dr. Flaviu Calin Rus.

Your views?

Technology and the Budding PR Practitioner

I remember sometime back when one of my students was refused a job at a PR agency because she did not possess a Blackberry phone. The reason given was, how could she then maintain contacts much needed in the PR profession? 

I  also noticed the increase of endorsement requests on LinkedIn from current and previous batch students to elaborate on their educational and communication skills. 

Thus Blackberry and LinkedIn have become important tools to show that you have arrived as a professional.

Facebook so far seems untouched by prospective employers as otherwise the young budding practitioners would be more alert before posting random status messages and pictures. Or worse be found playing games.

Twitter is still used as a medium to speak out on issues, if you go by the "trending" issues. Again, doesn't seem to be under the scrutiny list.

YouTube could be used for uploading fun videos by students. Are they checked?

These products of technology have quietly entered our lives and somehow have becomes an extension of ourselves which could be under scrutiny by future employers. How many of these tools or more such tools are being used by employers in India to study prospective employees? Do students need to be trained to use this sites more carefully in the future? What are your thoughts?

My Post at Indian PR forum blogsite: We are like this only!

I have been recently invited to author a PR blog on Indian PR Forum blogsite. Below is the copy of the post.

It is on the link: http://indianprforum.

wordpress.com/2012/03/12/we-are-like-this-only/
                                                  

We are like this only!

It has been established that in India we do public relations, using the personal influence model. This model states that public relations practitioners try to establish personal relationships, friendships, if possible with key individuals in the media, government or political and activist groups.These relationships with key people were known as contacts from whom favours could be taken.Krishnamurthy Sriramesh has done some extensive studies in the 1990s and has further developed this model. In 1991, he identified a technique which led to the further development of the personal influence model, it was called hospitality relations.The main idea behind hospitality relations was to build a strong bond with journalists or other individuals which could later help in important decision making situations.He added in his observations that a public relations practitioner working in India said that 60% of the reason a news release gets published is because it has its roots in personal influence and only 40% has news value. Thus personal influence model played an important role in practicing media relations, a function of public relations.

I did a research sometime back on the effect of the rise in regional journalism on regional public relations. The study was presented at an international conference organised by AMIC (http://www.amic.org.sg/) in Hyderabad in 2011. A significant finding was that most of the public relations practitioners felt that there was an increase in public relations practitioners servicing the regional media, though the trend for all organisations to hire more practitioners was only slowly rising. Respondents from all categories interviewed such as public relations practitioners, academicians and journalists gave their views on the education and skills, understanding of regional cultures, to name a few, required by current and future practitioners while practicing regional public relations.

A thought that arises from the above discussion is that is there any practice in public relations which is peculiar to a region in India which is clearly distinct from other regions? Have you observed this in media relations, event management, CSR or any other functions of public relations? So for example will a public relations activity conducted in Maharashtra, influenced by its regional culture, be different from say another state like Gujarat or Tamil Nadu? Do we have a 'regional public relations practice' which needs to be studied?

What has been your experience?