The voice of the internet: Are Indian Environmental NGOs exploiting their websites as a Public Relations tool?

I had recently conducted a study of websites of environmental NGOs based in India to see how they are being  used as a Public Relations tool.

This paper was presented at the:- 

XXXIII Indian Social Science Congress, March 10-14, 2010 at Hyderabad.

Abstract

The media generally determine which issues will be discussed by people, by placing those issues in a specific manner, the process being called agenda setting. On the contrary media becomes the audience when agenda building is done by public relations. Here public relations practitioners provide editors with newsworthy materials or ideas through many media, one of them being the internet. The websites of organisations become conduits of information to communicate these ideas, thoughts and objectives of these organisations. This study examines websites belonging to environmental non-profit organisations based in India and seeks to find out if this medium, which is a public relations tool, is being aptly used by these non-governmental organisations. The method to analyse the study would be quantitative content analysis.

Synopsis of the conclusion:-

It was found that the public relations practitioner of the NGOs has to use the website more effectively to the benefit of the organisation and spell out its agenda clearly.

The gender debate in public relations

A discussion on one of the subjects in public relations, was thrown open on a PR forum I m attached to, that "Despite the abundance of women in the PR profession why dont we see them in positions higher up?"As an academician I can give a preview on some researched data from all over the world as put forth by Larissa Grunig, Mary Ann Fergusan, Linda Childers Hon, Elizabeth L. Toth,K.Sriramesh in their work on this subject.

They have commented using the work of many other researchers in this subject. Lauzen (1990a)explains that there many variables such as gender of the practitioner, years of experience, practitioner competencies, and role that would be a deciding factor for non-public relations professional to manage the public relations function.She terms it "professional encroachment". Lauzen who based her studies on Broom's findings proposes that though women may want to advance in management positions, they may encounter roadblocks by organisations who fill these positions with others who seem more suitable for these posts. Thus they hit the very notorious glass ceiling!

Levine (1990) says that though men may have higher levels of aggressiveness that does not make them more suitable for management and leadership positions. Male traits are more congruent with high-level posts because most organizations have been and continue to be ruled by men ( "A Double Edge,"1990).

Further research shows that both women and men desire to reach top positions in public relations ( Creedon, 1989; DeRosa & Wilcox, 1989) but biological differences like differences in levels of aggressiveness sometimes are coupled with differential socialization for women and men can become impediments. It has been found that women display lower levels of job involvement, or the degree to which one's work is considered an important part of one's life ( Lodahl & Kejner, 1965; Reitz & Jewell, 1979; Ruh, White, & Wood, 1975).

Another point here is risk taking. Some women may avoid jeopardizing their security (Slovik, 1966). The precursor to this risk avoidance is an "ambivalence many women feel regarding their careers" ( Cline et al., 1986, pp. 1-7). Some women do not view themselves as primary wage earners but see work as a "temporary haven before marriage" ( Simpson & Simpson, 1969, pp. 196-197). They thus stay clear of the inherently risky task-oriented rewards of "challenge" and "responsibility". This does not go without being crticised. For example, Ryan (quoted in Lukovitz, 1989) argued: "Contending that women aspire to be technicians is horrendously akin to blaming the victim. All the women I know perceive themselves as far transcending the roles they are obliged to occupy" (p. 20 ). For her, women's lower status in public relations is not of their own doing. Instead, women's subjugation is a result of the "corporate, male-dominated world that continues not to pay or promote women as it does men" (p. 20 ).

Broom and Dozier ( 1986) provided evidence, however, that women face more difficulty advancing from the technician role than men with similar years of experience. A technician is somebody who --writes, edits, designs visual messages, and works with the media. Emphasis is on communication and journalistic skills whereas an expert prescriber is viewed by top management of the client or organization for which she or he works as an authority on public relations problems and their solutions. Such a practitioner defines and researches problems, develops programs, and takes major responsibility for implementation.

It is a strange irony. The tendencies of some women are stereotyped as attributes of all women. This, in turn, results in many women being sent the role expectations of technicians. Their routine tasks reinforce any such propensities of low involvement. This is reinforced further by the clearly perceived lower status and pay of technicians.

Another obstacle faced by women has to do with greater difficulty in creating a persona, or public image, that is congruent with that of high power positions ( Conrad, 1985). Because this persona was defined by men and continues to be enacted for the most part by men, it reflects male values -- values that often differ from women's. And, if others in the organization perceive women to be lacking in the traditional characteristics that suggest power, then they are. On this point, Kasten ( 1986) noted: "Power is a funny thing -- it's primarily a matter of perception. If you have power but I don't think so, then you don't really have it. If you don't really have power but I think you do, then you do" (p. 132 ). As Moore ( 1986) reported, women perceive a more progressive climate in organizations that already employ a reasonable number of women.

Women's lack of organizational power also may have its roots from the fact; shortage of support from home and society in general. Family concerns may hinder some women because women continue to do more than their share of home maintenance activities in addition to pursuing careers ( Heins, Smock, Jacobs, & Stein, 1976; Hochschild, 1989). And, as Kahn-Hut, Daniels, and Coward ( 1982) pointed out, "Professional ideologies depict work as 'a calling' that requires round-the-clock devotion to work. This devotion is a primary allegiance that conflicts with the cultural mandate of women's primary responsibility to family" (p. 38 ).

Sriramesh (1992) said that initially women worked in the service sector such as the travel and tourism because of the glamour stereotype. Infact in books written then by male practitioners, the PRO is referred to as the PR man! But now things have changed and more women are entering this profession many are slowly moving to management positions.

We have come a long way from the data that is cited here, but the glass ceiling still exists for women even today.So what according to you has not changed?

Building Trust through Social Media Communication

It has been quite a challenge preparing for social media communication for my public relations lectures with my students.The reason being that these are some channels the students are already using it as they perceive, learn from others using it and experiment with it as they go along.So essentially there is no formal training in the use of the same.But there is a science behind why we use social media the way we do and how we can better the use.The trust that we form so easily on a basis of texts being transmitted is something to be understood so that use of social media will improve.

Greg Ferenstein in his post on mashable.com, the site on social media on the web elaborately explains the science behind building trust in social media communication.He takes the studies by Professor Judy Olson into account on how people perceive, her findings based on a pillar of psychological research, she says that people often pass judgement with or without any good information.When we make a mistake the blame is on everything but ourselves, but when somebody else goes wrong the person is to be blamed.

The above lead to an important finding that responsiveness is the key for digital communication.On the digital arena, there is only text available to establish credibility as body language and voice intonation are absent.Speed is also an important factor.The faster you reply to a text message the better it is as it might be considered unhelpful on your part if you don't do so, and some other adjectives might be added to your personality! So in the words of the author "Psychologically speaking, responsiveness makes it easier for others to attribute our misdeeds to the situation, rather than our personality".The details can always be plugged in later but immediate response is always appreciated.

Another vital point made here is that no communication is better than video, audio and then chat, in that order.Simply exemplifies the fact that face to face conversation is the best! Thus the hierarchy will always remain as will always be humans...so to say.Thus where it is possible use video instead of text or audio where video is not possible and text where both are not possible.As when we converse face to face we read a person in totality.

Like all forms of communication this is also a form of communication which will improve if looked at scientifically and not only as a medium to have fun on. Social media is growing as a tool for professional and promotional communication and things may soon change.With mobile phones with the internet on our fingertips in days ahead, we better master the art of this medium as it is growing much faster than we realise.

More on the way....till then happy digital communication!

The Fear Factor

Aristotle defined pathos as arguments that are based on emotions-on arousing feelings such as fear, guilt, anger, humour or compassion.Public Relations practitioners can use these appeals to induce buying a product, support a cause or take important decisions pertaining to health.

Lately we saw public service announcements like the one on creating awareness on cervical cancer and the latest one on the TB-HIV connection, on television. They are using the appeal of fear, especially the one on HIV-TB. It persuades to get oneself checked for HIV in case suffering from TB.

It is said that fear is a vital appeal to evoke the desired response, here getting yourself tested for any abnormality in health at a local government health centre.

Health promotion campaigns are typically designed to elicit fear, yet the use of fear is often ineffective in achieving the desired behavior change says R F Soames of Job Psychology Department, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.In the abstract of his paper 'Effective and ineffective use of fear in health promotion campaigns' he adds "Campaigns which attempt to use fear as part of a punishment procedure are unlikely to succeed. Consistent with established principles of learning, fear is most likely to be effective if the campaign allows for the desired behavior to be reinforced by a reduction in the level of fear. This entails five requirements: 1) fear onset should occur before the desired behavior is offered; 2) the event upon which the fear is based should appear to be likely; 3) a specific desired behavior should be offered as part of the campaign; 4) the level of fear elicited should only be such that the desired behavior offered is sufficient to substantially reduce the fear; 5) fear offset should occur as a reinforcer for the desired behavior, confirming its effectiveness. Under some circumstances it may be difficult to ensure that these requirements are met. In general, a positive reinforcement approach may prove to be more effective than the use of fear."

Information, knowledge and Fear can be three ways to structure campaigns.In our country fear works best when it comes to doing health campaigns.The results are that people straight run to the nearest health centre for tests. What is your opinion?

The Time Of Multiple Media

Henry Jenkins, Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California says something very interesting.He says that both the old and the new media are there to stay.In his words "students clearly need both and more importantly, they need to understand the relationship between the two. They need to understand the different structures through which traditional encyclopedias and Wikipedia produce and evaluate information, for example. They need to be able to read charts, maps, and graphs, but also to be able to produce and interpret information through simulations. They need to be able to express themselves orally, with pens and paper, and with video cameras and digital editing equipment."

So this debate whether new media will kill the old media takes a different dimension.It is true media evolves and new mediums are formed but the older media doesn't die. For e.g. newspapers change the way they are packaged to suit the new trends in emerging new media but may not be dying.

For public relations students this is a learning that the number of media through which they communicate is increasing and they will have to manage yet another set of emerging media.

I m currently researching whether this dependence on the old media decrease with the rising new media? Will the rate at which media relations is conducted in India take a backseat considering the fact we are now having alternative medium such as the the internet? Of course all this keeping in mind infrastructural development in our country.

what do you think?

Public Relations and Corporate Websites: A Study of the top 30 Bombay Stock Exchange Companies

I recently did a study on the top 30 BSE companies listed to find out how public relations is being practiced on their websites.The paper was presented to

Emerging Trends in Media :

The Rise of Digital Culture and its impact on Information Society

Organised by the Centre for Electronic Media, Pondicherry University,

Puducherry 605014, India (Jan 21-22, 2010)

Abstract

James Grunig has explained that the two-way symmetrical model of organizational public relations which depends on an honest and open two-way communication and a give-and-take is usually reciprocal, rather than a one-way persuasion, which should be the driving force, for all public relations practices. Cooley and others highlight the strength of the internet’s interactive capabilities to transform public relations practice by enabling symmetric relations with publics. Kent and Taylor highlighted the importance of this concept in their five criteria for a dialogic web site. This study examines these parameters and their applicability in the top BSE 30 Indian corporation websites. The personal influence model of public relations is one where public relations practitioners try to establish personal relationships, friendships, if possible with key individuals in the media, government or political and activist groups. This model is essentially an asymmetrical model and it holds true for the way public relations is practiced in India as further explained by Krishnamurthy Sriramesh. This paper argues that the websites of Indian corporations do not follow a similar trend for practicing public relations through the web but are slowly shifting to the two-way symmetrical model which is being reflected in the way they communicate through their websites.

What is USP in Public Relations?

I must say my students keep me on my toes, and it is one of them again who has prompted me to write about this subject of USP or Unique Selling Proposition.

The term "USP" originated in the 1950s and was initially referred to in advertising, namely what the advertising proposition to the customer should be: "When you buy this, you'll receive a specified benefit." The proposition must be unique, something that competitors don't offer or promote, and so intriguing that it encourages individuals to act. But now this word "USP" has been modified and one can find its use in areas other than advertising.

How Do You Find Your USP?

There are three important questions that will help you get the answers:-
1. What benefit is unique to what you offer?

2. Who is the target market that is most interested in this benefit?

3. What USP is already used by major competitors for this target market?

source: http://www.evancarmichael.com


I guess the above questions help one dig more deeper into the study of any project to be undertaken and can help us find more on the issues to be promoted for.E.g. this could be applied to an NGO, a political party or even an invidual who you plan to prepare a media, or non-media plan for.

So for example if your client is an NGO, you will have to find out how your NGO stands out amongst the many NGOs who are crusading for similar issues.The most important part is ofcourse your target publics, this has to be amply clear in your mind before you write a plan or chalk out a budget for the communication plan.

Last but not the least the competitors, one must never forget them, you need to be constantly reading about what other organisations in your field are doing, as you never work in isolation.

Once this is clear you can use the innumerable tools of public relations to create a communication plan which will implement the objectives keeping in mind the USP.Oh yes lets not ever forget the social media tools on our web.

Public Relations and Pseudo Events

Daniel Boorstin came up with the term called pseudo events. The historian Daniel J. Boorstin came up with the term "pseudo-event" in his work "The Image", first published in 1961. A pseudo-event, Boorstin wrote, is "not spontaneous ... but planned, planted, or incited"--an event whose "occurrence is arranged for the convenience of the reporting or reproducing media," and whose "relation to the underlying reality of the situation is ambiguous." source : questia.com

In an example which illustrates what Boorstin meant :

"The owners of a hotel, in an illustration offered by Edward L. Bernays in his pioneer Crystallizing Public Opinion[1923], consult a public relations counsel. They ask how to increase their hotel's prestige and so improve their business.

"In less sophisticated times, the answer might have been to hire a new chef, to improve the plumbing, to paint the rooms, or to install a new crystal chandelier in the lobby.

"The public relations counsel's technique is more indirect. He proposes that the management stage a celebration of the hotel's thirtieth anniversary. A committee is formed, including a prominent banker, a leading society matron, a well-known lawyer, an influential preacher, and aneventis planned [say a banquet] to call attention to the distinguished service the hotel has been rendering the community. The celebration is held, photographs are taken, the occasion is widely reported, and the object is accomplished."

To this Boorstin explains as he thinks it is a pseudo event. He says,

"Now this occasion is a pseudo-event, and will illustrate all the essential features of pseudo-events.

"This celebration, we can see at the outset, is somewhat -- but not entirely -- misleading. Presumably the public relations counsel would not have been able to form his committee of prominent citizens if the hotel had not actually been rendering service to the community. On the other hand, if the hotel's services had been all that important, instigation by public relations counsel might not have been necessary.

"Once the celebration has been held, the celebration itself becomes evidence that the hotel really is a distinguished institution. The occasion actually gives the hotel the prestige to which it is pretending.

"It is obvious, too, that the value of such a celebration to the owners depends on its being photographed and reported in newspapers, magazines, newsreels, on radio, and over television. It is the report that gives the event its force in the minds of potential customers."

source: http://www.nku.edu/~turney/prclass/readings/events.html

Press conferences are a common example of pseudo-events.Pseudo-events are staged to attract media attention.The media is informed well in time so they can prepare for reporting on it. "Spontaneous (or “genuine”) events are never, or hardly ever, influenced by the mass media." It is important to note here that though such events may not be influenced by media they could have news value and be vital for the media to report .

source:http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405131995_chunk_g978140513199518_ss36-1

Are we so media dependant that pseudo events seem to be the only way to get attention? what about non-media activities? Can these be added a little more as part of strategic communication, both by corporations and NGOs alike, so that public relations is looked at a little differently? what do you think?

The Personal Influence Model of Public Relations

Every country has its own style of practicing public relations.We practice public relations in India using the personal influence model of public relations (Grunig et al., 1995, Huang, 2000, Jo and Kim, 2004, Park, 2002, Rhee, 2002, Sriramesh,1992).

Researchers found that in this model 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.There are other countries like ours where this model is also applicable and they are Greece, and Taiwan.

Sriramesh (1991) 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.Huang (1990) also termed personal influence model of public relations as carrot public relations.

In many countries the practice of this model can be considered unethical.This is essentially an asymmetrical model and its asymmetrical practice can be successful in in meeting the goals of an institution, especially in a society that is bound by rigid cultures and authoritarian political systems.Thus an important point that emerges here is that effect of a country or society's culture influences the way they work.

In media relations, which is a vital function of public relations, practitioners use contacts to get journalists to write stories about the institutions represented by them.According to (Sriramesh, 1991 , p. 191), 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.

Media relations practiced according to the personal influence model, resembles the press agentry model as proposed by Grunig. A point to be noted here is that the press agentry model usually uses set of methods such as staged events, puffery, or photo opportunities to grab attention, whereas the personal influence model focuses on personal relationships with journalists.

Read more on this in (Models of Public Relations in an International Setting by James E. Grunig and Larissa A. Grunig, K. Sriramesh,Yi-Hui Huan,Anastasia Lyra)

Why study theory in public relations?

Is studying theory important in public relations? I say it is as crucial as a doctor or an engineer studying theories in their courses.Studying public relations theories help in constructing a base to "think" as public relations professionals later.Your first job could be to either to be part of a public relations agency as an executive or maybe even a part of a team to start a corporate communications department in an organisation which doesnt have one! How and where do you begin? There are times when theories are being applied without having the knowledge that it is being applied.Let there be awareness that it is being applied and the point where it is facing its limitations.

To know the nuances of this profession one needs to know theories that help one understand the reasons why an organsiation needs public relations in the first place.As rightly put by noted public relations theorist James E. Grunig in his article "Teaching Public Relations Theory" he explains why one needs to understand theories at various stages in the process of public relations.They are the ones as mentioned below:-

• Why Organizations Need Public Relations?
• Strategic Management of Public Relations
• Public Relations Roles
• Models of Public Relations
• The Stakeholder Stage
• Publics stage
• The Issues stage
• The Program stage

There are theories at each stage that has been mentioned above as they serve as guides to novices as well as professionals working in this field.As Grunig aptly says "If I can get students to understand theory, I believe firmly, I will have done my part to move public relations from a craft to a profession." His works can be read on sites such as www.questia.com,www.prsa.org, to name a few.

Systems Theory and Public Relations

I guess its been long since i have blogged here, but there was no subject bugging me enough to write.I was preparing to take a lecture with my post graduate students on the subject of systems theory when i bumped into this very interesting paper by Broom on this subject (link at the end).

Public relations that we have understood so far acts as a very important buffer between an organisation and its publics, which is correctly explained by the concept of systems theory by Miller (1978).He explained that no organization has a simple, measurable goal but can be evaluated on the bases of systems characteristics such as growth, equilibrium, or decline.

Yuchtman and Seashore (1967) futher addded that organisations could be evaluated by their ability to get crucial inputs and process them in such a way that they were able to maintain their stability within the market environment.

Thus here comes the link betwen systems theory and public relations.Public relations is that part of the system or or organisation that helps in gathering, assimilating, interpretating and disseminating intelligence about the organisation as explained by Broom (1986).

Public Relations departments or Corporate Communication departments are not isolated entities but a subsystem or boundray spanners of an organisation.They can be barometers in predicting any change in the environment in which the organisation works.Here the importance of public relations as a managment function (discussed in previous postings) is also exemplified.

To read more on this concept go to this link:-
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/2f/7d/80.pdf

Public Relations or Publicity?

The word 'public' in public relations has been defined by Hallahan (1999) as a group of people who relate to an organisation and show different intensities of activity or passivity and who may or may not interact with others with respect to their relationship.Infact Grunig and Hunt(1984) and Center and Broom (2000) say that members of a public have something in common,they are affected by the same issue or problem and behave similarly towards a problem. Marianne Kugler (2004) explains that public relations is about relations and relations is about forming networks which can be created, used or reinforced in many ways.

Public Relations when it was in its roots, was actually understood to be publicity.As (Cutlip, 1994, p. 11) also said that public relations initially was publicity ( Wilcox, 1992, p. 41) where he notes what an early practitioner had to say: "I was in the publicity business. I was a press agent. Very simply, my job was to get the client's name in the paper". (So understandibly why they were considered synonyms!)

It was only much later that Edward Bernays and others found out that public relations was about maintaining a balance of interests of an organisation and its publics.Now we know without any doubts that publicity is a communication function and it also means placing any kind of information in a news medium but public relations is a management function, as also explained by Newsom, Turk and Krukeberg in their book The Realities of Public Relations.

If we look at public relations in India, we are still in many ways practicing being press agents in the PR profession. Arent we?

The Public Relations we see today...

The Public Relations scenario we see today is a result of many changes in the economic conditions in the country in the 1970s and later in the 1990's.In 1970s the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi endorsed public relations as a vital function in management.This gave a major boost to this profession and changed it's status to a better one than before.As we all know the 1990s brought about some important changes in the economic policies in India.Our closed socialist thinking was forced to come in contact with the forces of liberalisation and globalisation.India was soon to become a mecca for multinationals coming and doing business here as never before and soon Indian businesses also moving abroad for greener pastures.

Public Relations as a profession became very crucial to companies as they started regarding it as a key managment function.The negative image of a PRO being 'fixers' reduced but still had its traces, especially in the public sector.The public relations manager became part of strategic decision makings of a company.The job of public relations officers moved to becoming image makers than mere guest relations officers.Though ofcourse there was not much formal education in public relations in the 1990s still the importance of a PR professional having command on his/her communication skills and writing skills became a top priority.Many PR agencies sprung up which were keen on offering public relations services to companies.

The change in the economic scenario and acceptance of this profession in the social and political and business scenario helped this profession grow as we see today.The media too started taking the public relations practitioners a little more seriously.When it comes to communicating crisis or any other important company announcement, the media knows they can approach a PR professional attached to the company.

Though ofcourse even today we see that advertising is given a little more importance than public relations when it comes to making budgets avaliable for each of these functions by companies, but slowly this scenario will change as more and more public relations professionals enter this profession with adequate training and formal education, which is now avaliable. They will make their clients realise the importance of this profession and its slow yet promising positive effect on images of not only companies but governments, politicians and celebrities.The last 10 years have seen reform in the education sector with respect to this profession and there is growth in diplomas, undergraduate degrees and post-graduate degree programs in India which offers formal education to candidates keen on pursuing this profession.

We are at a very nascent stage when it comes to doing public relations in India.We have to go a long way combining professional expertise and a sound academic background which will help us offer public relations services better.

What do you think?