We are just a few weeks into teaching on the MA in Media and PR at Newcastle – and times have changed. Students and teachers alike are getting used to online learning and the challenges and opportunities that brings about.
But one thing has not changed – and that’s the early discussions around what public relations is and what it isn’t – and the million dollar question – is Grunig’s excellence model of 2-way symmetrical communication a reality or just an aspiration?
This semester, we have been making good use of weekly consolidation hours with students to debate these issues and the online discussion forum has never been busier. So I thought it useful to share some perspectives from our new students. Generally, the view is that 2 way symmetrical comms, remains an ideal. Here is what some of our students said:
Zinyi suggests 2 way symmetrical communication can be found at a local level, particularly within internal comm where open door discussions allow for balanced conversations to share experiences. “This is a win-win communication model for a strong collaborative organisation. But …. there is no ideal model of risk communication, only more satisfactory realistic choices.”
Lara believes symmetry is achievable but is difficult. Firstly, it would force some companies to switch their culture and values into a totally new arrangement, where the focus should be on customer-orientation rather than the product/service, production or sales orientation. Secondly, whilst Web 2.0 and social media made it easier for PR and organisations to listen to their publics without so many interferences or mediations, there are too many people talking and requesting different things – which makes it much harder for PRs and organisations to accommodate everyone’s demands. And finally, it is much wider if we think not only about customer’s needs but take into consideration all kind of publics of each organisation.
Lara cited an example of Netflix in Brazil which started to add Harry Potter movies to its catalogue following requests from customers – although this decision could be reversed! She also talks about the need for diversity within senior management and board level in large institutions – and until that is achieved then symmetrical communication with less represented publics remains an ideal.
Tongtong mentioned difficulties with measuring and evaluating PR outcomes in his view that symmetrical communication is an aspiration. If we take quantitative measurement into consideration, it will be easy to judge. This standard depends on the ratio of earned benefits of each side in the 2-way communication. If the ratio is 50 to 50, it absolutely can be a perfect symmetrical communication, otherwise it’s asymmetrical. Take diplomacy as an example, there is usually a more developed and powerful region or country relying on its power, whatever economic or military, etc., forcing the other to compromise and accept the less benefit.
Jiayi offers an optimistic view and says: “2-way symmetrical communication can be a reality. We are now living in an age of advanced information technology, we have lots of online and offline platforms to gather information as well as share our voices. If organizations or companies always try to “manipulate” their clients or customers, people will find out one day. For example, tweets talking about bad services and cunning marketing strategies of a company can be viewed by thousands of people and even more. In a long term, the reputation of that company will break down and it will be rather difficult for the company to find a place in market. With that regard, if companies want to survive in severe competition, the better choice is to build balanced relationship with their customers and truly listen to them.” That sounds a lovely, but perhaps quite idealistic perspective.
And Jinai’s view: “I used to agree with this model, but it’s almost impossible to achieve because everyone has a different view of the world, there are hundreds or even thousands of interpretations of the same information text. How can we make sure that everyone’s understanding is exactly the same? At the same time, this model also reminds me of the “information cocoon” theory in communication. It may lead to more and more closed information and greater differences.”
Certainly, some food for thought with those closing comments.
The art of abandonment: how to kick start your academic year and stand up to the challenge
By Ramona Slusarczyk
Fear not: the title of this entry, taken from Dante-esque Hell, is just a tease – that’s how evil I am! – but what I really want to say is this:
Shyness, embarrassment, and anxiety are natural responses to public speaking, which, according to some surveys, is feared more than death, spiders and heights.
After years in academia, I very much prefer public speaking than spiders, no matter how cute they are.
The bad news is that throughout your studies – in both our online and offline sessions, you’ll have to speak in front of other people. A lot.
And then some more.
You’ll meet clients. Experts in the field. You’ll lead some sessions.
Our students, braving through a crisis press conference.
Blunders happen to all of us, yours truly included
No one likes to look like a fool, but the positive side is that all of us have similar fears and we all fail every now and then.
To prove my point, I’ll share the most embarrassing job interview anecdote (you can’t use it against me though) – and not just for any job, but for my most-dreamt-of and craved position of a university lecturer. Read: high stakes, weeks of preparation, and new formal clothes (obviously).
Understandably, I was nervous. Understandably, I was anxious. Unexpectedly, I was sick from food poisoning the evening before (side lesson: don’t do your final job interview prep over dinner out; the restaurant staff may try to poison you).
Having spent most of the night in hospital pleading with doctors to make me feel better – ‘I have a dream job interview in the morning!’ – I arrived at the university (it wasn’t Newcastle) with a green face, fluttering stomach, and sweaty hands.
To explain my state to the interviewing panel, I uttered a half-hearted warning about the said restaurant. Without batting an eyelid, the programme director said: ‘Are you warning us, Ramona, that you’ll be vomiting on us during the interview?’
Ha.
But the worst part was when one panel member asked me how I’d explain the difference between PR and advertising to students – something they usually struggle with at the beginning of the academic year (don’t feel bad about yourself if you do unless you’re at the end of your studies!).
I’d like to say that my mind went blank from stress (and hunger, and exhaustion). I think that actually would’ve been better than what it started projecting.
At such a crucial moment, my unsubordinate brain decided to get stuck on a quote I got from one of my research participants who cracked an old joke in response to my question about his perception of PR – the following cartoon illustrates his views:
DO NOT use this comparison
in your essays.
The only thing whirling in my head was that humorous – if not entirely inappropriate – parallel between first- and third party endorsement (something we will discussalong the conceptof trustA LOT) but I was clearheaded enough not to voice it; I doubt whether the panel would have appreciated it. Maybe they’d have been amused. Impressed – not so much.
Instead, I asked the interviewer to allow me to revisit the question a bit later and we moved on with the interview. I relaxed, the conversation flowed, and I went back to the PR vs. Advertising question – we’ll discuss that distinction a lot during the course of your studies, so bear the suspense!
But!
At the age of 29 I got my first lecturing job at an Australian university! Champagne!
It happened only because:
1. I was overall well-prepared,
2. I planned how to handle different/difficult questions,
3. I revisited the question and thus didn’t miss the opportunity to show my expertise.
And this is how I want you to think about your classes whether online or on campus: do your homework – do the readings and make notes and think what you’re going to say.
Keep your eyes on the prize: make the most of your time in our sessions and —
Very often, students worry: what if my answer is wrong aka what if I make an idiot of myself?
My answer is: SO WHAT.
Is it going to matter in twelve months’ time? No.
In three months’ time? No.
Are you being assessed on giving wrong answers in our sessions? No.
No?
Those sessions are like a playground: you can test your ideas and we can debate why they work. Or why they don’t.
Pause, look around, take a breath. Gather your courage.
We are all learning.
It’s perfectly normal to get things wrong – it’s part of the learning process – but when you don’t take those opportunities and wait until you submit your paper via Canvas, then it’s too late to make any amendments and amends!
Eyes on the prize aka abandon yourself to experiences
Let’s go back to the beginning of my studies: early 2000s, University of Wroclaw, Poland. In the second year of my BA in Journalism and Communications, I chose a PR module as my option and that was it: I loved the module, the principles of strategic planning, the storytelling, the ethics of the profession… Everything!
It was love at first sight (seminar).
I wanted to develop my writing skills, so I wrote for the university’s weekly, got an internship at a magazine publishing company – I won’t tell you how many rookie mistakes I made there! – and then spent the summer working at a PR agency.
Fast-forward to my MA studies in Media and PR at nowhere else, but Newcastle University – I am a graduate of the same course you’re just about to start! – where I chose a practical module which required students to design and execute PR campaigns for local businesses.
The experience was petrifying – I had to pitch ‘our’ story to the local media, like, actually phone journalists and promote our client’s initiative – but it taught me how to be resourceful and that most practitioners in the communications industry are very, very nice people (I also learnt NOT to start a press release with ‘yesterday’ – do make a note of that!)
My younger, student-self at the backstage of a fundraising event with our client.
So, here’s my tip for you: do get involved in anything the University offers, and most opportunities are accessible both to the domestic and international students.
Take our project-based assessments seriously: they can serve as a showcase for your future employment and they can be extremely rewarding – see the result of the Pencil Case Project campaign our students ran as volunteers at the University:
[<iframe width=”932″ height=”524″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gj3RfJwO6iI” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe> – if the vid is possible to embed on Canvas]
What our students did was sometimes glam, including a fundraising gala at beautiful Kew Gardens in London.
Currently, our alumni are running a fun social media campaign – check it out by clicking on #peelorpay
Eyes on the prize: language challenge
My acceptance letter left me in tears of joy, but I wasn’t eligible for a student loan, so I had to self-fund by keeping a full-time job and studying part-time
Remember my love for storytelling and writing?
Even though I scored 7.5 in ILETS test and received an unconditional offer, I was dying from anxiety at the prospect of studying in English – studying in English ON THE MA LEVEL!
Like most of international students, I sat the additional language competency test and I passed, but I still attended workshops at what is known now as INTO because I wanted to become as fluent as I was in my mother tongue.
And here comes advice that may seem extreme, but it’s the best piece of advice I can give you:
Stop reading. Stop listening. Stop talking.
Stop all those things in your mother tongue.
Not forever, but for the course of your studies. You’ll never forget your language and you won’t lose your accent; I promise.
What you’ll gain is invaluable: you’ll become confident at expressing your thoughts in speaking and writing without the need to translate. Is it easy? Absolutely not.
But it’s totally worth it.
What I did was this: I stopped reading and writing in my native language. That’s it. I knew my vocabulary and the command of Polish was great because I read a lot. So it was obvious to me that the only way to develop my language skills was to do it in English only.
Immerse yourself in the language and culture
And accept that you’re not going to understand everything and that’s fine.
The first novel I read in English was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It’s a beautiful story of two Afghani women and I got the plot, but vocabulary-wise…
Maybe I understood two-thirds of the words because otherwise I’d have to stop reading every few minutes to consult a dictionary and would’ve been extremely frustrating (apologies to Mr Hosseini for missing out on a lot of his brilliant narrative!).
This is obviously not ideal, but you can (and should) revisit your readings. The key point is to try to understand in English and in English only. With time, it’ll become comfortable. I promise.
The worst thing you can do is use an online translator or a running translation as you listen to us talking. I can hear you saying: ‘but I won’t understand everything.’
That’s why preparing for all sessions is key: if you do the readings, you’ll be ready to take part in discussions which will clarify your understanding of the ideas inEnglish and connect the dots as we talk about the things you’ve read and beyond. You’ll enjoy yourself and you’ll be amazed at your progress.
I’ll say it again: eyes on the prize – and did I mention preparing for all our sessions?
Prep with courage, prep as if there was no tomorrow, prep as if your marks depended on it (and they do). And in English only please.
This entry is all about courage to test oneself and experiment and can only end with a decent, fun challenge for you:
How did you feel when you got your acceptance letter? What are your first impressions of Newcastle, the University, your peers?
Have you got yourself into an embarrassing situation already?
By Laurel Hetherington, Lecturer in Public Relations
I’m writing this the week before induction and thought you might all be interested into what goes into preparing for your arrival from the teacher’s point of view – a lecturer’s lament if you like.
We’ve all been preparing our videos and sways and when you meet me, you will soon realise that I’m a true digital immigrant – a term all you digital natives will come to know in the coming weeks.
The basic theories and concepts of PR do of course stay the same, although there are new interpretations of these constantly coming through. What does change is the application of these concepts in current and recent situations, so that we can help you to understand some of these, sometimes complex concepts, by applying them to what is happening in the real world.
For example, I am writing this on the day that Cineworld has just announced it is temporarily closing all of its cinemas in the UK and the US. We can discuss this in the internal comms lecture in 8065 ( how were the employees told about this – very badly handled!), the implications for the share price dropping by 25% in one day in the financial lecture – what does that mean to all the financial stakeholders? How will it affect their overall reputation – a key theme in 8065. And so on and so on – and by the time you get to Ramona’s crisis lectures in 8060 in semester 2, they may well be back in business or may have hit the wall like so many others in the leisure and hospitality sectors.
We are always looking for generic case studies and examples that will interest you all, so goods and services that we all use or buy are very popular, we don’t like anything too niche or too specialist an interest.
We’ve also got to change the method of our delivering our lectures to you, at least for this semester, which brings its own set of problems. If I am standing in front of a large lecture group I can get feedback – good old two way communication as Grunig & Hunt, (who you will get to know very well on this course) advocate as the ideal. I can see the expressions on your faces, feel the mood in the room and listen as I walk amongst you and appreciate if you are coping with or struggling with the mini questions that we set in class, and then can adjust my session accordingly. It’s all going to be very different this year.
But we are looking forward to seeing you all very much. We’ve missed all our students; I only had six dissertation students over the summer plus my two PhD candidates to keep me company. So it will be great to meet you all, whether on line or on campus. And do spare a thought for me please if the technology doesn’t work as well as it should, and please please please follow the guidelines on online etiquette, otherwise I shall end up talking to myself if no one turns their camera on!
Seven weeks into lockdown and I appear to have developed something of a routine. It goes something like this – wake up, mint tea, think about what’s for tea, do some work, think about tea, walk dogs, make and eat tea, chat with friends and family, watch TV or listen to music, go to bed. Repeat.
Of course, the days when I get to walk the dogs in the
morning are like little victories, flicking two fingers at the pesky virus and
its lockdown rules. I’ve also been able to exercise more, get out on the bike
and even a few 5k runs – great when I have miles of largely deserted beach and
dunes at my doorstep.
Social media has, of course, become even more of a dominant influence cementing its reputation as a two-faced security blanket/anxiety trigger. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) has largely disappeared, as really there’s nothing to miss out on anymore, I’ve even forgotten all about football.
What has been encouraging is to see how the PR/comms
community has come together to share insight and perspective on the good and
bad of how the crisis is being managed and strategized. There really is a
treasure trove of analysis, case studies and secondary sources that all PR
students should have in their search engines on speed dial!
Of course, our very own visiting professor Stephen Waddington
is leading the way with his regular analysis and lockdown letters on the Wadds blog. Stephen’s output has been
impressive over the last few weeks with his posts not only acting as meaningful
and important analysis but also a pause for reflection over what we can learn as
people and society. Stephen’s reflection on Covoid brand
conversations should be one of the first stops for any PR dissertation
student looking at how brands have used the pandemic to manage reputation.
I continue to be impressed by PR Academy, edited by Richard
Bailey, with its more scholarly tone and useful guides to the theories and
concepts which guide comms. Richard’s briefing on the PESO model was a go
to teaching tool for me this year. Recently the Academy’s content has understandably
focused more on crisis – check out these crisis book
reviews – and its league table of student blogs #bestPRblogs is always a
timely reminder that I need to encourage our Newcastle students to blog more.
Watch out PR Academy, Newcastle is coming for you (that’s really hard to say as
a Sunderland fan!).
I’ve always enjoyed PR
Moment for its blend of light and dark industry perspectives from those working
at the coalface of comms. In particular, its regular Good
and Bad PR feature is a great source for practice case studies and
campaigns. And of course, there’s PR Week
which offers the latest UK industry news, albeit behind a paywall.
On Facebook, the marketing,
media and PR community of practice has emerged in the past few weeks as the
go to resource for engagement and conversation, particularly around Covoid
comms and messaging. Again, it’s been developed by Stephen Waddington, with some
impressive metrics – more than 300 members and dozens of topics on everything
from Captain Tom’s fundraiser to mainstream media distraction. The group is
helping to shape how practitioners and academics are making sense of the
strategy as we emerge into new ways of living and working – which leads me to
my closing thoughts.
I’ve had a number of conversations with colleagues this
week, including with the parent of a prospective student, about how PR and
comms. will fare from the crisis. There’s a strong sense that the sector could
emerge stronger and with new found respect. Perhaps even with New Zealand
president – and PR graduate – Jacinda
Ardern as its knight in All Blacks armour!
Generally, PR and comms was ‘relatively’ thriving pre-Corona compared with other media sectors, particularly journalism. The pandemic has, however, put an immediate dent in that with commercial organisations understandably putting a hold on budgets and recruitment.
But one of the positives is that clear comms. is
coming to the fore during the pandemic and is what people value. That’s being
recognised widely, and while not practiced by the UK government, my hope is
that the sector will emerge with increased credibility as organisations recognise
the importance of clear and consistent comms and messaging. Ultimately that may translate to greater recognition
for PR with organisations supporting within their teams internally and
externally.
In a time, long, long ago – well January to be truthful – I was approached by a group of our PR students about Corona Virus.
As Chinese nationals, some of whom had recently returned to the UK after spending the Christmas holidays at home, they were concerned about the impending crisis and particularly the impact on the large international student body here in Newcastle. You may recall that disturbing media reports emerged at that time which suggested that Asian students in the UK had been targeted in incidents of racist abuse.
In an effort to dispel myths and build relationships with other students at Newcastle and the wider community, the group devised and then implemented a campaign over several weeks – using guiding PR principles at its heart.
The campaign was as simple as it was effective with PR and communications strategy as its anchor – raise awareness and change attitudes and behaviour via two-way balanced communication. Once the campaign was over, I interviewed the students for a podcast which I have shared with the cohort. If you would like to listen to that, then please send me a comment (the file is too large to post on here!).
I have summarised below the campaign plan. Reading it back again, several months later, fills me with both admiration and pride at what these young people were able to achieve.
Background：Many cases of xenophobia against Chinese and other Asians recently across the world
Objectives: 1.Improve students’ motivations of engagement in anti-racism campaign 2.Raise awareness of conventional differentiation of mask-wearing between east and west. It is a major root of the prejudice and misunderstanding.
Aims and Strategy: 1.Use social media and brochures to promote our campaign.2.Attract as many passers-by as possible to sign our banner and book ,or to be interviewed by us and by other reporters.3.Negotaite with NUSU actively to let our fully signed banner and book be collected by history room of Newcastle University.
Tactics:1.Make a team in our PR class(eight people) and allocate following tasks 2.Make brochures promoting the mask-wearing difference and the discrimination cases 3.Take portrait posters of our classmates from different nations 4.Make banners ready to be signed.5.Engage with NUSU and StandUpToRacism Society to gain financial support for printing and use their social media to promote our campaign.6.Get media access to display our posters on NUSU screen.7.Engage in the rally held by StandUpToRacism to have a speech and be interviewed by Global Radio 8.Invite journalists of CNN London and Channel 4 to report 9.Request to Chinese Association for promoting our article
Outcomes: 1. 700 messages and signatures that truly goes beyond our expectations. 2. Media coverage on CNN London,Global Radio and Channel4. 3. The NUSU anti-racism society wants to cooperate us continuously 4.It’s the first time I saw a numbers of Chinese students who dared to have a speech or other forms about anti-racism publicly. 5. Via brochures we made and interviews,many Westerners firstly learnt the conventional difference of mask wearing.
It was truly an inspiring effort by all those involved, a glimpse of hope and light in otherwise dark times.
Finally, a name check for all of those involved – a huge congratulations to Jason Jiao, Emma Ma, Sherry Liu, Chelsea Zhao, Shan Xiong, Jayden Zou and Shawn Zhang. Apologies to any I have missed!
IN LAST WEEK’S LECTURE AND THIS WEEK’S SEMINARS, WE HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT PERHAPS THE BEST KNOWN THEORY IN PR – GRUNIG AND HUNT’S 4 MODELS.
Since 1984, PR scholars and academics have been citing and debating the merits of publicity, public information, persuasion – and whether we have reached the best practice of mutual understanding and engagement.
But while a trawl through any newspaper, magazine or online news outlet will reveal plenty of examples of the first three models, finding the pinnacle of model 4 – two way symmetrical engagement – is trickier.
That’s why, the last model is often seen as an ideal rather than a reality and why Grunig’s concept is often referred to as as the excellence model. It’s about excellent communications practice and on that basis we can understand why the model can have its detractors.
While some organisations claim to have balanced, mutual understanding and engagement with their publics, surely in a commercial context at least, they exist to make a profit and therefore communication will always be geared towards achieving that goal. Yes, they’re listening, they’re even responding, but would they really risk profit at the expense of appeasing the conflicting demands of many different publics? We can’t really knock organisations for taking that stance and certainly there has been research which suggests that publics want to take the lead from brands, particularly those they trust and are loyal to.
Social responsibility, or the idea of being good corporate citizen, is where organisations can perhaps take the biggest strides towards excellent balanced communications. A business that makes a profit while genuinely seeking to adapt and meet the needs of its publics, is surely acting in a more balanced manner, with focus on mutual understanding – it’s a win win situation. But as we will find out in a few weeks, much CSR activity is little more than empty statements dressed up as goodwill with the primary goal of securing market advantage.
The truth is, there has not really been a better model developed in the last 35 years to plot the development of communications behaviour of organisations. Perhaps the best way to think about Grunig and Hunt’s 4 models is to consider what they are trying to achieve with stakeholders – for publicity, think the public be fooled or damned; then the ticky box of keeping them informed; using unbalanced persuasion to contact and convince or even control; through to conversations and engagement.
And as we have witnessed in the last few years, the fake news propaganda of our political leaders and campaigners, has actually taken us further and further away from genuine engagement. But for every Trump, there’s a Thunberg, and for every Cummings, a community champion champing at the bit to influence and engage – sometimes the biggest and most impactful social change comes bottom up activism, for example, the ban on fox hunting, same sex marriage and now climate change. Excellent communication and engagement is alive and thriving, but it’s not necessarily coming from the traditional sources we have trusted to lead and guide us – big business, government, politicians and celebrities. It’s now at a much more local, micro level – influencers, opinion leaders and activists – and that should give us all some hope that 2-way comms is not an unachievable ideal, but a real opportunity for authentic engagement driving societal change for all.
OF COURSE, we already knew it but Newcastle was named the friendliest city in the UK in a survey last week.
The survey could not have had come at a better time for PR students, particularly when it comes to understanding reputation, earned and shared media.
The survey, which was put together a Travel website, claims to have been compiled by asking its 1.5million social audience.
Lively locals, great nightlife and culture and ease of access were all listed as factors which makes the Toon the land of smiles. Our city was also described as having ‘a homey feel where locals who go the extra mile to welcome tourists’.
It’s great to be in top spot beating much more cosmopolitan cities such as London, Edinburgh and Manchester – although this Mackem writer feels Sunderland deserves to be much higher than a measly 41st!
The survey can’t have come at a better time with thousands of students arriving in Newcastle to start their studies. The article has been shared and commented upon thousands of times by all kinds of Tyneside organisations, from the university, to big businesses, celebrities and of course the genial Geordies.
When we think about reputation, word of mouth is hard to be beat – it’s often based on personal experience and we tend to trust what others say over highly controlled messages coming through advertising or an organisation’s own website and social media channels.
Shared media is great for reaching large audiences efficiently, but it’s also about who is sharing and their credibility. The fact that it’s been shared by the likes of Geordie royalty Ant and Dec will have done no harm at all.
And what’s more, it was picked up by traditional media, meaning it made a big splash of earned media in the city’s much respected newspapers the Chronicle and Journal. Make no mistake, this survey was all about that highly credible contributor to reputation – what others say.
Newcastle should wear the moniker of friendliest city in the UK with pride. But as residents, workers and students here we should all have a responsibility to protect that reputation, through our own communication, whether that be feeding back to friends and family, or through our own blogs and social media profiles.
Have your say? Is Newcastle the friendliest city in the UK? What makes the city’s reputation so great and what are you basing that upon? Please feel free to comment
Well, what a week it was. Induction Week has been an gone and now we look forward to learning all about Public Relations.
Around 150 students have joined the MA programme – that’s more than ever before – and it has been great to meet some of you over the last few days.
Thanks to those of you who joined us for our trip to Tynemouth – the weather may not have been great, but the mist certainly made for an eerie morning!
So, now we are into teaching and most of you have made your option choices. Don’t worry if you are still to choose or if there are issues with timetable clashes. These are common in the early weeks and things will begin to settle down soon.
I look forward to seeing you all again on Friday for the first of our PR Theory lectures!
IT’S that time of year when the reality of teaching and learning starts as students join the PR programme.
Whether you are a student on the Masters PR programme, or joining the Introduction to PR module, which are the key books, texts and articles you should be familiar with? PR@Newcastle has asked the teaching team and some of the UK’s leading practitioners which texts they view as essential to understanding PR and global communications in 2019.
Jonathan Ward
Without a doubt, the book I would recommend is Tench & Yeomans’ Exploring PR. It’s the core text we use through the programme and supports both the compulsory and optional modules. Exploring is written very much with the student in mind, with excellent analysis, case studies and activities to enhance understanding of theory in practice.
There’s a new edition out in the coming months edited by our visiting professor Stephen Waddington and including a chapter written by Jonathan and Ramona. For now, you can pick up a copy at the Uni library or even better, try to get your own copy.
Others to consider would be Rethinking PR by Moloney and McGrath. There’s a new edition that has just been published by Routledge offering a critical perspective of PR and communications.
For students new to the concept of strategic planning, Anne Gregory’s Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns: A Strategic Approach PR In Practiceis an essential 12-point practical guide to effective management of any PR campaign or programme. Published in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and supported by numerous case studies, the latest edition discusses critical aspects of PR planning including the role of PR in organisations; research and analysis; objectives setting; researching target publics; defining strategy and tactics; timescales and resources; evaluation and review.
My second recommendation is Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street, Kara Alaimo (September 2016). To contextualise PR practice within different countries and cultures, Kara Alaimo’s Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street addresses vital cultural differences practitioners have to consider in their approaches to planning and the management of public relations programmes globally. Packed with prominent case studies from Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and Sub-Saharan Africa, this book demonstrates how to adapt and implement PR strategies across the private, NGO, and government sectors to deliver highly impactful projects within intercultural context.
This book is the outcome of research by Lloyd and Toogood in the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. It provides an overview of the history of PR and the contemporary PR industry, focusing on its changing practice in the digital age. However, the book is primarily based on the interviews of experts and does not engage with much existing literature. It should be read in conjunction with other key authors’ works on PR.
Stephen Waddington
Business of Influence, Philip Sheldrake (April, 2011). Philip Sheldrake sets out an innovative model of organisational communication as a result of the internet and online networks based on six primary influence flows in his book The Business of Influence. Sheldrake’s influence model plots six flows of communication between an organisation and its various publics. It overlays neatly onto Grunig’s Excellence model.
The Cluetrain Manifestoby Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger (November, 1999). We continue to be surprised by the changes that the Internet is having on the business of public relations and organisational communication. We had plenty of warning. The Cluetrain Manifesto by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger foretold everything we know today. It is organised as a set of 95 theses organised and put forward as a manifesto, or call to action, for organisations operating in Internet-connected markets.
Anne Marie Lacey
Award-winning practitioner and CIPR Young Communicator of the Year Anne Marie name dropped our own visiting professor Stephen Waddington with her choices. Both of Stephen’s books with Steve Earl – Brand Anarchy and Brand Vandals – offer an insight into the impact social media has had on PR and marketing communications. She also agrees Wadds on Sheldrake’s book – I always refer to his ‘Six Flows of Influence’ when teaching.
INDUCTION Week can sometimes feel quite overwhelming with so information to take in and sessions to attend.
There’s friends to make, societies to sign up to and even some dancing to get down to (if you wish)!
That’s why during this year’s Induction Weekwe have arranged a day at the seaside for all of our MA Media students. Join us on Tuesday, September 24, for a trip to Tynemouth – a beautiful beach village just 20 minutes from the campus by Metro.
This year, we have free passes for all who attend to visit the ancient Tynemouth Priory – and there’s also a competition for media students to get you in the habit of becoming content creators (see below).
To whet your appetite (let’s hope it stays dry), here’s an amazing video about Tynemouth made by some of our students at Newcastle.
Thanks to those of you who joined us for our trip to Tynemouth – the weather may not have been great, but the mist certainly made for an eerie morning!