Tactics and business: What does PR have in common with the military?

Among students there is often the assumption that the terms ‘strategy’ and ‘tactics’ are interchangeable. This week’s readings point out that this is not the case. A strategy is the “over-arching approach or ‘game-plan’” (p. 207, Ch. 8). Where as tactics are smaller campaigns that relate directly back to achieving the strategic outcome. Tactics should be chosen carefully while keeping in mind that society is becoming more complex and multicultural. This complexity has led to the fact that target groups in Western society are now blurred and people suffer, what the reading terms, ‘information overload’, meaning that due to an excess amount of advertising people tend to ‘switch off’. When choosing tactics PR professional have the choice of controlled tactics (advertising, annual reports, brochures, etc.) and uncontrolled tactics (media relations).

The second half of the readings this week focused on PR and business. As the reading notes, this topic is key for recent graduates and a “sound knowledge and understanding of business is…a valuable asset” (p.408, ch. 14). This means that there is a need for the PR professional to have a working knowledge of management, promotions, media and finance. The PR role is crucial to business as the practice of ethical PR helps businesses to “remain socially responsible… [and] maintain public confidence” (p. 408, ch. 14).



Readings: Chapter 8 ‘ Tactics’ and Chapter 14 'Public relations in business' in J. Johnston & C. Zawawi (Eds.), Public Relations: Theory and Practice (pp. 206-237 and 389-413). Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

PR & Communities: Establishing a bond, not just talking at each other!

In PR today there is an ethical responsibility to have at least a little bit of two-way communication going on. This need for PR practitioners to engage more with publics and stakeholder groups has led to greater levels of transparency and accountability for organizations involved, however, to engage with communities one must first know what they are.

The reading this week cites the Oxford English Dictionary definition which is “a fellowship, or a community of relations or feelings” (p. 363). This sounds a little cold and flat if you ask me. Communities are important to just about every facet of PR and working and communicating with communities should be every practitioner’s passion.

The reading talks about six basic characteristics which could apply to a community. These are: commitment to, and quality of, relationships; sense of interconnectedness and social cohesion; commitment to core values and beliefs; balancing of rights with responsibilities; sense of empowerment in decision-making; broadening of one’s social world. However, it must be remembered that ‘community’ is not always a positive thing as it “can have negative or anti-social consequences” in the form of the shutting down of debate and the exclusion of voices thus favouring the views and opinions of those with the power to broadcast. ‘Community’ can also over-simplify complex groups and relationships; here the reading uses the example of the ‘Aboriginal community’.

Once a practitioner knows what a community is they must then communicate with its members. An impossible task to complete without an understanding of it. This is where the need for diversity comes into the picture. The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) discovered that PR is mainly a ‘white’ profession which means that practitioners must work with what is available (community leaders, peak organisations, and advisory bodies) to understand minority communities.

Dealing with communities must ever be thought of as an easy job but it is a necessary one. I believe that it is in everybody’s best interests that the days of communities and PR professionals talking AT each other are long gone and now its common practice to collaborate and come up with a solution which works for everyone.

Reading: Chapter 13 ‘Communities and Public Relations’ in J. Johnston & C. Zawawi (Eds.), Public Relations: Theory and Practice (pp. 361-388). Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.