Week 4: Public Relations Research & Public Relations Practice

Lecture - Media Relations

Media Relation is defined as a sub-field of PR and is the linkage with the media personalities and resource that facilitates a business organization in getting a favorable, timely, and widespread editorial coverage.

As Ms. Tanya mentioned, Media Relation has different types of tactics which comes in different forms, #Written, #Spoken, #Acted, & #Imagined. What I find interesting is the imagined tactic. Initially, I thought that imagined tactic literally meant that it was "made up" or rather, it was "hallucination"! Alright, so I made a mistake. Imagined tactics actually meant computer generated pictures, photoshopped-edited photographs, painted pieces of art and, etc. Interesting, right? :)

Alright, moving on, tutorial has been the most interesting so far! There's actually a "walking organizer" service in Singapore! I don't literally meant "organizer, books" I meant as a whole, organizing chaos - for messy places, messed up people. This business is certainly interesting and thriving well, the first and only!

Coming back on track, Ms. Tanya showed the press release by this company and, she emphasized on the way she portrayed her company and herself. Yes, this article is certainly intelligent. She was conscientious in piecing up all the information to suit the needs of her target audience - what they need but don't necessary do it.

Reading

Public Relations Research

From what I understand, Public relations practitioners does research in a few forms. Firstly, two types of research would be primary and secondary. Next, two methods of research would be qualitative research and quantitative research. The distinct characteristics that defines both quantitative and qualitative have both its benefits and disadvantages when it comes to applying its research methodology on different case studies, however when in need of precise and quantitative evidence, quantitative research would be the preferred method to be used due to the nature of quantitative research methodology itself. With regards to public relations, I think that these two types of research are equally important, base on the nature of the subject. If you need detailed and precise information, obviously you would go for qualitative research. Personally, I feel that triangulation research method, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative, would be the best method to use, seeking both precise data and a large sampling unit. Having done relevant research, the information gathered can make a big difference as it helps the organization to better understand, plan the next step, implement and further evaluate their program. And, I totally agree that without research and in-depth analysis, pr practitioners will be making wild guesses and assumptions issues which can't be justified and might just end up with more problems at the end of the day.

So, in conclusion, the relationship between public relations and research is that market research provides the basis for public relations decisions and in most cases, research should be carried out before planning a campaign, as well as to assess the campaign. In addition, strategic research is primarily used to set program objectives and to develop messages as theoretical research helps build theories, such as why people communicate.

Public Relations Practice