Professional Communication

FOUNDATION OF PR - A1

FOUNDATION OF PR

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Table of Contents

DETAILED INSTRUCTION

 

A. ASSIGNMENT SUMMARY:

In this section, we will revisit the assignment's expectations and the steps necessary to complete the assignment effectively.

 

  1. Assessed criteria:

●      Identify and discuss key aspects of the development, and principles and practices, of modern PR.

●      Identify and analyze contexts in which PR practitioners operate as well as relevant professional issues

  1. Assignment details:

●      Requirement: evaluate the influence, importance and relevance of various stakeholders to a company/brand’s operations

●      Format: A3 stakeholder map

●    Objectives:

-        A maximum of 500 words is allowed.

-        A minimum of 6 stakeholders is required to be elaborated on, with each having their own captioned box to provide explanation on 2 things: the type of stakeholder and who they are in relation to your organization.

-        You are expected to apply understanding and analysis of communication, stakeholder and public relations theories learnt in the course to back your claims.

-        At least 3 theories/frameworks/models (preferably those learnt in the course by week 4) must be included in your work.

●      Suggested tools: Canva, Adobe InDesign for designing your map

●      Assignment structure: These are the must-have components of your stakeholder map

-        Power-Interest matrix

-        Legend tables (classification table, communication channels table and theories table)

-        Captioned boxes for explaining stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities

 

B. KEY TERM DEFINITION:

In this segment, we will take another look at the terminology associated with assignment that is discussed within the context of the course.

 

Term

Definition

Persuasion/Social influence theories
  1. Social Exchange theory: Since social behavior is an exchange between people, this theory assumes that a person after weighing up the pros and cons of a relationship will either abandon or maintain it.
  2. Social Learning theory: Consisting of four learning aspects (community, identity, meaning and practice), this model claims that from experiencing social actions and attitudes can change a person’s behavioral pattern as they learn from and model after them.

Mass media theories
  1. Agenda setting: Through this action, we can identify what the media are telling us to think about regarding an issue. For example, presumably we don’t know anything about watermelons and the media tells us they are bad for your health, it is setting an agenda.
  2. Media framing: This course of action entails highlighting only an aspect of a perceived reality, either to promote or discard an interpretation, a definition, an evaluation and more.

Grunig and Hunt’s 4 models of PR

A framework classifying approaches to PR strategic practice. It has four components:

  1. Press agentry: strictly one-way communication, in which the validity of truth is not essential. Used to influence and persuade audiences. Mainly adopted by sports and entertainment companies.
  2. Public information: still one-way communication but since it pertains to spreading information, its accuracy is prioritized. Often deployed by governmental organizations.
  3. Two-way asymmetrical: a dialogue is now in play but has an imbalance result as the company seeks only to understand the audience's perceptions and construct relevant messages. Mainly utilized in political campaigns or health administrations.
  4. Two-way symmetrical: regarded as the ideal approach to PR practice, this method emphasizes truthful communication between parties. Its primary goal is to establish understanding and allow negotiations to take place. Used widely by NGOs, businesses and governmental departments.

 

C. DETAILED OUTLINE:

In this step, we will discuss in detail each component and its requirements within the assignment.

 

For this assignment, the stakeholder map of PharmaCity produced by student Dinh Ha My, which is displayed on the RMIT Showcase website, will be used as an example.

 

 

When it comes to identifying stakeholders, the task requires you to visit various sources of information to locate links between these organizations. Despite several stakeholders that must always be accounted for, the others vary from business to business, from industry to industry. For instance, a local fire brigade will have a different set of stakeholders than that of a pharmaceutical company. Therefore, the following list will help you in pinpointing these stakeholders:

●      Board of directors/Managers: Every company features its own board of directors, in charge of maintaining the operations within the business. As a result, this will always be in the key stakeholders area. However, if you can locate a more intriguing type of key stakeholder, you should replace it with this one since it will demonstrate your research capacity more.

●      Employees: For staff within a company, it is debatable where their position is in the stakeholder map, but their inclusion in it is a must.

●      Customers/Consumers: There can exist different kinds of customers (current, potential, past, etc.), but generally you can group these under one representative name called “customers”.

●      Competitors: These are competitor brands that your organization shares the market with. If yours is an established, long-standing and thriving company, it is recommended to lower their influence on you and vice versa.

●      Government authorities: This stakeholder exists in many forms and they are to be included nonetheless. For example, the Ministry of Health and local authorities are treated as regulators of the law by PharmaCity. They should fall into the “keep satisfied section”. Be as specific as you can, since just naming them “local authorities” won’t score points in the lecturer’s eyes - instead, name them out right, like Ministry of Health or Ministry of Industry and Trade. It will be easier for you to dissect a singular authoritative entity than declustering an entire system.

●      Partners: These can cover investors, insurance companies, shareholders (different from stakeholders), and more - essentially every business organization that your company interacts with. Despite this, you are also entitled to split them if their roles differ much from each other; for example, investors hold a very different responsibility than that of a business partner, so you decide to explain them separately.

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