(Source: The Straits Times)

A MOBILE museum will head to schools, libraries and orphanages in the heartlands, making it easier for children to learn about Singapore's heritage via hands-on experience.

Local food, wedding clothes and games are the first themes featured on the Colours Of Heritage bus. Visitors can sniff spices such as ginger and chilli, feel sari silks or lace fabrics and try a game of hopscotch on the floor.

Museum guides, some in traditional dress, will stage games outside the vehicle to complement the internal multimedia displays and props.

Games and dressing-up activities will be a key feature of the mobile museum, which will make a two- to three-hour stop at any place that has asked for its services.

Colour of Heritage Bus

We were there too. (:

Measuring Successful Relationship: Approaches to Research Methods

This chapter mainly explains the different kinds of evaluation that could be used for a media campaign, measuring how successful is the organization and media relationship, and other possible ways to ensure a most reliable set of evaluation tools, like the Three M Evaluation. However, in my opinion, it is difficult to relate this chapter with our assigned client, SPM, as media relations has not been fully exploited. Instead, SPM's strategically focused on government and community relations to achieve their vision.

Evaluation seeks to determine if the goals and objective of the campaign were met within the given time frame and budget. More importantly, evaluation could be done at any point of the campaign's process, instead of being limited to the end of the campaign.

With understanding from the chapter, I’ve used the above diagram to illustrate the evaluation process, which could be conducted in three phrases: Formative, process and summative.
As mentioned above, evaluation could be done throughout the campaign's process phrase in order to monitor if the objectives are being met.

However, in my opinion, SPM should place emphasis on the formative phrase (when the campaign has yet to begin) by considering the goals and objectives of the campaign, the campaign's direction and implementation before making a decision. SPM should also consider areas for improvement and reflect strategies used in past campaigns, in order for the new campaign to be more effective.

By accurately exploiting media relations, the campaign can reach its targeted publics as a result of increased media exposure. Furthermore, the use of apt tools like The Three M evaluation will increase the chance of engaging the media throughout the campaign and enhance the possibility of media exposure.

In addition, the chapter too mentioned the importance of having both qualitative (e.g focus groups) and quantitative (e.g. surveys) methods of research in order to evaluate how well the campaign has worked towards achieving its goals and objectives.

Xu Zhenni
C 3100154

Grand Strategy, Strategy and Tactics

Grand strategy is when the company or an organisation makes policy-level decisions about goals, alignments, ethics and relationship with publics and other forces in the environment (Botan, 2006, pp. 198). According to Botan, strategy involves planning and allocating resources and arguments to carry out organisational grand strategies at the campaign-level while making decision while tactics are the technical aspect of public relations where the specific activities and output through which strategies are implemented. (p.199).

Revamping Singapore’s Nation Museum is a suitable illustration for the difference among the above mentioned three.

In its effort, a PR campaign was implemented to generate awareness of what the refurbished and re-opened museum had to offer. Its grand strategy was to reposition the ‘dry and boring’ museum to the ‘hip and cool’. This was generally the crisis faced by many museums in Singapore. It was hence, a good move made by the National Museum to salvage their museum by leveraging on Louvre’s Greek Masterpiece.

This PR firm used intensive media relations to reshape the public’s stance of the museum. The museum is now seen as a progressive, world-class institution and a lifestyle destination where visitors can dine and party amidst ancient history. Ongoing communications continue to drive the message that while it was Singapore’s oldest museum, it was also the one with the youngest and most innovative soul. Yet, developing a museum-going culture required consistent work. The tactics employed: interviews, previews and targeted pitching were extensively covered in lifestyle features, photo stories, personality profiles and stories about the collaboration between the two institutions.

In accordance to the previous entries posted by my team members, this campaign had illustrated the power of media relations where the PR effort achieved valuable and significant media coverage in the dailies, magazines, television and radio as well as online media. As a result, this interest group helped attain exceptional museum visitor numbers during the period of the exhibition. With the implementation of the strategic PR campaign, this was groundbreaking for the museum scene in Singapore.

In my opinion, I think Singapore Philatelic Museum should also adopt this grand strategy and change their ‘boring’ stamp appreciation to a ‘hip, cool and engaging’ stamp culture so as to sustain the museum’s life and to heighten awareness among the younger Singaporeans.

Jacquelyn Tan
C3101908

Chapter 11: Risk, Uncertainty, and Crisis: How to Identify and Manage Them

Crises are inevitable and they cause uncertainty, ambiguity and disorder. Since the media acts as a primary stakeholder, PR practitioners should be aware of the differentiation of natural and unnatural crises linguistically. A natural occurrence is framed as a disaster, while an unnatural disaster is a crisis. As the media thrive on crisis, emergency and disaster, PR practitioners must be prepared to manage media attacks on credibility and legitimacy of their clients.

Usually, the media will engage in attack journalism if they perceive a crisis is not being played out in accordance with certain rules and actions related to reputation restoration. The actions are:

• Denial
• Evasion
• Irritation reduction
• Correction
• Rapprochement

Let’s take a look at the effects of Hurricane Katrina to better understand.

The media has repeatedly attacked the United States’ Federal Emergency Response Agency (FEMA) after Hurricane Katrina happened. Headlines regarding FEMA’s reaction to the disaster screamed:

“Aid Workers Turned Away at the Louisiana Border”;

“Housing Trailers Sitting in Empty Warehouses”;

“Hundreds of New Orleans Stuck Inside the Convention Centre”;

Evidently, the media has started attacking the credibility and legitimacy of FEMA and the U.S. government. However, cordial relations between the media and the government soured due to a federal ban for journalists, preventing access to victims’ recovery efforts. In response, CNN filed a lawsuit and obtained a temporary restraining order against the federal ban. The next day the government immediately lifted the ban.

In this case, there was no public denial of responsibility by FEMA or the government. Instead, the implementation of the ban and refusal to speak to the media fulfilled the notion of evasion. Ultimately, after the disaster, FEMA and the U.S. government embraced correction and rapprochement, with the lifting of the federal ban and eventual rebuilding of media relations after the disaster.

Yet, in the case of Hurricane Katrina, it is special as there was the unexpected rise in blogging and community journalism. The aggregation of community journalism on NOLA.com became a vital link for rescue operations and later for reuniting scattered residents, as it accepted and posted thousands of individual pleas for rescue on its blogs and forums. Much of this information was relayed from trapped victims via SMS to friends and relatives outside the area, who then relayed information back to NOLA.com. On the other hand, the unexpected use of social media also severely impacted the reputation of FEMA as it portrayed the inept nature of their relief efforts, having to rely on community efforts to rescue victims.

Frankly, I think that PR practitioners need to have foresight in order to accurately handle crises. It is essential to know every single repercussion a crisis or disaster entails. No longer limited to the crisis lifecycle (detection; preparation; containment; recovery; evaluation), PR practitioners have to learn how to deal with their clients’ stakeholders, especially the media and to manage unexpected impacts on the media image. In this case, the impact of social media was vital for recovery efforts but reflected FEMA and the government’s unpreparedness.

Shereen Tan
C3097956

Chapter 9: Community, Not-for-profit, and Interest Groups

The primary goal for public relations is to build and maintain long-term relationships with an organisation’s clients and its target publics. This could be achieved through improved network accesses and alliances with them to strengthen lobbying strategies. Thus, this topic is about community, not-for-profit and interest groups,as they were considered important and effective bodies in addressing the complex developments in the network of public relations.

Communities are formed within society and usually limited to the local area. It is an effective strategy adopted by organisations, as well as the government sector to help them in identifying their mission with the interest of the public. Also, it allows them to evaluate feedbacks from the public on particular issue. On the other hand, not-for-profits organisations focus on building awareness and credibility of their organisations, in order to gain support for their fundraising efforts. Therefore, the main communication tool used will be through the press, using media coverage to generate greater publicity to reach the public.

Moreover, other ways that could be used to increase awareness of the organisation include campaigns to influence the public on a particular issue. Most of their revenues are from charitable contributions, government contracts and donations from the public. Thus, these not-for-profits organisations usually work closely with the government sector and rely on skilled workers and volunteers for their activities.

The last group would be the interest groups. This group of people usually have different opinions and they compete to have their views heard by the government and their favoured policies enacted. An interest group is often looked upon as people with differing views on policies, which could influence the society.

A point to take note of is that even if a network was well established, it may not be effective in terms of service delivery by simply attracting more and more members. Thus, a newly established network should gain more members, but in a moderate manner to avoid confusions in services and duplications of efforts made.

Wong Yingting
c3100899

Chapter 1 & 3: Stanton's Media Relations

In Richard Stanton's Media Relations, he unpacks media relations to simply be, "the relationships with and between media relations practitioners, and clients". However, Stanton also delves into the importance of strategy and differentiates objectives and actions.

Personally, I share the same opinion that media and public relations ought to play a significant role in framing not just important global issues but also local issues that are relevant to us. Furthermore, media relations is not only about building relationships, it is also about communication and communicating well with clients.

Where campaigns, strategies, tactics, objectives and actions are concerned, all of these aforementioned elements are critical to aiding PR practitioners in effectively using media relations to communicate to the target audience.

My stance on strategy is explained in the following analogy: Strategy is like a spider web. It comprises of and is many tactics weaved together to form a beautiful piece of 'art', of which either leads to the success or failure for their client's organisation. Hence, the strategies selected to execute a campaign can either make or break the 'spider web'.

I agree completely, that any media relational relationship should be dialogical, building trust and reputation between a client and stakeholder. However, should integrity and trust be broken, do efforts come to a halt causing both client and PR practitioner to bear the consequences? It is understood that the consequence differs according to circumstance, but not every relationship is pure and easily appeased based on mutual terms.

Knowing and understanding the client's requirements and executing campaigns or movements according to those requirements is of great importance. Ultimately, even if success is at hand but the campaign did not meet the standard of the client, it would still end up as a partial failure. Thus, in media relations, a PR practitioner not only has to understand the medium used, but also the criteria and expectations of the client.

In my opinion, where objectives meet actions (tactics) in media relations, actions are of more importance. Why so? Simply because without action, there cannot be objectives. As Stanton stated, "Objectives rely on tactics to reach a goal." These goals act as driving forces and motivation towards making the overall strategy a success for the client.

At the end of the day, clients pay not for success, but for innovation, creativity, flexibility, effectiveness and most of all, potential. Proving to a client that it is possible to accomplish such a feat truly shows the mark of an effective and skilled PR practitioner.

Yeo Ying Wei Natalie
C3085607

About this Site

This site is created to serve the educational purpose in discussing PR Issues and Strategies. In this blog, the original content on this site is published should be considered as a work in progress. They range from critiques, academic analyses and our personal perspectives so please do not cite us as sources for their research.

Everyone is encouraged to comment on the blog entries at any point in time. To facilitate constructive discussions, comments would be screened.

Rules

1. The journal will be updated weekly, every Friday 12nn , by each student.
2. Comments can be made thereafter and all comments should be posted by Friday (latest) of that same week.
3. Each entry should be at the length of 150 to 200 words.
4. In the event that there may be a delay in posting the entry, please inform us and give us the next date to check so we could comment.

Schedule

[chapters are taken from Media Relations by Richard Stanton]

• Natalie: Chapter 1 & 3 OR Persuasion: An intrinsic function of public relations. (wk 4)
  
• Yingting: Chapter 9 & 10 (wk 5)
• Shereen: Chapter 11 OR Mackey. S (2004) Crisis & Issues Management (wk 6)
• Jacq: Chapter 8 “Grand strategy, strategy & tactics in PR” OR Speaking as Part of a Group. (Short Loans) (wk 7)
• Zhenni: Chapter 12 OR Using evaluation techniques and performance claims to demonstrate PR impact (wk 8)