Chapter 10 of Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed
Drew, S. (2001) Oral Presentations (pp 98-114) in The Student Skills Guide. (2nd ed.) London:Gower.
Van Emden, J. and Becker, L. (2004). Speaking as Part of a Group (pp 77-93) in Presentation Skills for Students. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings were that the preparation that goes into presenting should not be underestimated. Both online readings illustrated the effort that is required in organising a successful presentation, they do so by reducing the preparation requirements into minor segments and then explaining them in detail. I found these readings to be the most practical so far as our classes are now focusing on debates and presentations.
I found the reading by Drew (2001) to be much more functional out of the two as it provided guidelines and spaces in which to fill out. It was also much more succinct and being written in point form made it easier to read and follow.
The focus on Media Relations in the text was also very useful and the information brought me back to the articles I examined for the Annotated Bibliography. The text addressed how vital dealing with the media is for a PR practitioner and highlights the importance of media releases, media kits and media conferences. In particular the identification and grouping of 'what makes news' being: impact, conflict, timeliness, proximity, prominence, currency, human interest, the unusual and money (Johnston and Zawawi, 2004) was also useful in developing a broader knowledge of how the media works.
The other considerations are the relationships and values that exist within a media network, the example provided by Johnston and Zawawi is the Newsroom hierarchy. Understanding this will assist a practitioner is establishing relationships or at least show a form of respect to the media team that should in turn assist them in conveying their message. The power of the media and the ownership of the key players; Murdoch, Fairfax and Packer was an interesting glimpse into how the media business operates and this in turn provided further education of the world a PR practitioner has to work in.
The readings made me think more about PR theory/practice in that:
- You need to be able to have a thorough understanding of the media environment when working as a PR practitioner
- This relationship with the practitioner and the media runs both ways
3 comments:
I think that you have made some really important ppoints here. You cleary understand the reading and present in an easy way its content. I like it. I agree with you that the relationship with PR practitioners and media runs in both ways. As a practitioner it is also important to know the hierarchy of a newsroom. This could be useful not only in crisis management. It helps to keep the keep negative publicity to a minimum.
The first paragrah is also well structured. It is easy to read and I agree with you that this reading could help us with our debates and presentations. Well done !
I agree with all the points you have made. The readings on presenting were very helpful as we are ding presentations in class.
But I found the explanations of media relations to be the most insightful of all the readings simply because it gives practical advice on how to handle the media and how to get them onto your side when needing to give out information to the press. The paragraphs on media its, media releases and the like were also very helpful and I think we need to take note of these readings for future reference.
I agree with what you said about how much preparation is involved to do a presentation. Most individuals do not take enough time to prepare a presentation and that's when it doesn't go as well as it could. If individuals who are nervous to speak in front of people took more time to prepare, it would ease their nerves. I liked the example of the student who was afraid to speak in front of an audience and her group members helped her through the process by rehearsing with her. She was more comfortable by the time she had to do the presentation and in turn probably received a better mark than she would have had she not practiced.
I also found the Drew article to be better than the Van Emden and Becker article, for the same reason that you did, it went into more detail about how to prepare the presentation and the appropriate steps. Both articles described how to present at the beginning, middle , and end which is very useful since most people stop listening towards the middle, so the author gives the appropriate steps to gain the audiences attention.
The text was also very useful because it described how much time and effort is involved in the PR profession and how important it is to have excellent reading, writing, presenting, and time management skills. The text also pointed out how important it is to have good relationships with journalists as they ultimately decide whether a story is published or not.
The last paragraph when you discussed how the readings made you think more about PR was really interesting, particularly how the relationships go both ways. It's a good point to make because it's true...PR practitioners wouldn't have a way to release information without journalists and journalists wouldn't have stories without PR practitioners.
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