World's PR Today

Well, there is no such thing called PR in Morocco !

2012-02-22T03:33:00.002-08:00

PUBLIC RELATIONS + POLITICS = SPIN !!

2010-03-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

When related to politics, PR is usually seen as spin and manipulation tactics. This bad reputation is sticking to PR because this later acts as an interface between industries and the public. In fact, PR tries to protect their clients, either they were in politics, commerce, economy, showbiz etc. Also, is the PR job to ensure the continuity of the relationship between the two sides? However, while doing what it is supposed to do, it gets accused of spin and manipulation.

In politics one can see this matter very clearly; the politics in general is a dark field with a lot of ambiguity and vagueness, thus when associated with PR which has as a main role to establish mutually beneficial relationships between the client and the public and to satisfy both parties. People believe that PR is just a manipulative and evil method to lie to people and protect whichever industry.

However, the truth is that PR is just trying to present information that people may not agree with in a gentler and smooth way. According to A. Corthell “Unlike marketing and advertising, which seek to match a product or service with a particular audience desire, public relations is aimed at building relationships with audiences.” Public Relations Special Report 10/13/08

What do people prefer to be informed in a nice and smooth way or to be left ignorant?

I do prefer to be informed even if I am just given incomplete information.

______________________________________________________________________

Political communication and ethics

http://www.psa.ac.uk/journals/pdf/5/2002/coldwell.pdf

A very good presentation on Political Communication and Spin

http://www.slideshare.net/DrLilleker/political-communication-introduction

MJ's PR sucide organised by Martin Bashir

2010-03-18T16:47:00.000-07:00

From May 2002 till January 2003, the British journalist Martin Bashir was given exclusive access to interview Michael Jackson to produce a documentary that will inhance the public image of the pop star. since it was the first time that MJ allow such contact with the media, Martin Bashir claimed that “nothing be off-limits in this investigation” (www.showbizspy.com). However, the documentary was a source of the trials held against MJ concerning child molestation and on the other hand, it raised many controversies and debates about the authenticity of the documentary and the professional ethics of the journalist.In the documentary Martin Bashir accused and reached the conclusion that Michael Jackson was doing something inappropriate with the young people " child molestation"

After MJ's death Martin Bashir shared with world his feelings and he confessed that he never saw MJ doing something inappropriate during that eight months. by his confession Bashir proved that he lied to the public and that he was unprofessional and unethical.

Martin Bashir confession after MJ's death

Ethics and Public Relation

2010-03-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

The Public relations field is strongly tied to the Publics. As its name -public relations- clearly reveals it is all about insuring good relationship between the business and the public to best serve the interest of both. In fact, according to the PRSA, “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.”(PRSA National Assembly, 1982). From this definition one can say that the major and ultimate goal of PR is to help in building and preserving good relationships between the stakeholders. Generally, the purpose of PR stays the same; however, the strategies and the tactics to reach it differ from branch to another. For example, there are well studies strategies that insure a mutually beneficial relationship between a corporation and the consumers, also there are those related to the relationship between a person (celebrity) and the public. As stated earlier, each branch of PR has its own tactics and strategies to reach the desired objectives.

However, as it is the case for almost all the professions, the public relations profession has its own code of ethics. The codes of ethics bind the PR professionals with obligations and duties toward their stakeholders. There are various codes of conducts and they differ slightly from organisation to another; thought they lay under the same umbrella. According to PRSA “The practice of public relations can present unique and challenging ethical issues. At the same time, protecting integrity and the public trust are fundamental to the profession’s role and reputation. Bottom line, successful public relations hinges on the ethics of its practitioners.”(PRSA, Ethical Guidance for Today’s Practitioner).

In the light of the PRSA’s ethical guidance statement, one can notice that ethics play a major role in the PR profession. In fact, public relations is field which deals in the first place with the public, it is very powerful and can influence, persuade and shape the people’s behaviour, public relations has a direct and a strong impact on the consumer. According to Robert A. Kelly, This is the power of PR, “The power of public relations is its ability to alter individual perception, resulting in changed behaviours that lead directly to your organization’s success... A basic public relations blueprint looks like this: people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviours about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviours affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is accomplished.” (Robert A. Kelly, 2008). However, some PR professionals become aware of the power that they have and how they can use their PR expertise and skills to unethically influence the public opinion. By acting in an unethical way the PR professional may harm the public, the client, or both the public and the client.

Some reasons behind the unethical conduct of the PR professionals could be according to Alasdair Sutherland, Immediate Past President of IPRA and co-chairman of the ICMT, “editors and journalists asking for inducements to publish news releases or feature items, company news releases appearing in exchange for paid advertising elsewhere in the publication, advertisements disguised as editorial, material appearing through influence or payment by a third party, and publications asking for payment not to publish certain stories.” (IPRA Report, Revealing Widespread Incidences of Cash for Editorial).

As one can notice incentives are usually behind the unethical behaviours. However, the motive behind a negative or unethical behaviour could be either due to an extrinsic force which is the case for the reasons stated by the IPRA, or they might be driven by intrinsic forces. The Intrinsic motivation is defined as “Stimulation that drives an individual to adopt or change a behaviour for his or her own internal satisfaction or fulfillment. Intrinsic motivation is usually self-applied, and springs from a direct relationship between the individual and the situation.”(www.businessdictionary.com)

Unlike the extrinsic motivation, the intrinsic motivation is rarely controlled by external factors; in fact, it is even hard to be controlled by the individual himself. Since it is an inner behaviour, it could be done consciously as it could be produced in a subconscious manner, sometimes we tend to behave in some ways without knowing exactly the reason and the motive behind our behaviour. However, we say that while acting in a way we felt a big self satisfaction. The self satisfaction could be felt even by producing a negative and unethical behaviour because at the time when the individual produces the negative behaviour, he/she satisfied some inner needs. For example, a brilliant student who is aware of the mediocre abilities of his teammate asked her to do the hardest part of a project. The brilliant student knew in advance that the teammate will fail in doing the task and she will ask him for help. By being asked for help the brilliant student reached his/her inner self satisfaction.

Consequently, PR professionals may act unethically due to some extrinsic motivations and/or intrinsic ones. Sometimes they may not find a valid excuse and reason for their behaviour because it might be driven by some subconscious needs. However, the role of the codes of ethics is to make the PR professionals aware of such situations and raise their consciousness to prevent them from getting strapped in such issues and from hurting the consumers and the business.

* This entry is an excerpt from a paper that i did for the consumer PR class.

Kelly, R.A. (2004). This is the Power of pr. Retrieved from http://bropinion.com/news/?p=53

IPRA. International Public Relations Association Survey Reveals Widespread Incidences of `cash for editorial'. IPRA Press Rlease, Retrieved from http://www2.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-13-2002/0001746715&EDATE

Margery Kraus: Interview abouy Women in PR

2010-03-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

Margery Kraus, president and chief executive officer of APCO Worldwide, a global consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., specializes in public affairs, communication and business consulting for major multinationals.

Ms. Kraus founded APCO in 1984 and has transformed it from a company with one small Washington office to a multinational consulting firm with offices in North America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Recently, Ms. Kraus led a management buy-out of her firm from Grey Global Group, making APCO one of the largest privately owned communication and public affairs firms in the world.

http://www.instituteforpr.org/education/margery_kraus

Women will soon get the Chance to Run PR

2010-03-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

The PR feminization paradigm is becoming the core subject of many debates. The opinions concerning this paradigm are numerous. For instance, there some groups who think that women will reign over and control the public relations industry, whereas, there others who think that women will always work in public relations but will never have the opportunity to run the industry. The two polls have their arguments and reasons for thinking so. However, from an objective point of you and if we analyse this paradigm from a different angle which will be based on evidence and statistics rather than gender preferences and emotions, we might find some astonishing facts.

There is a study reporting that “most PR students are women were an established fact some 10 to 20 years ago. To that we must now add the fact that more women than men are enrolling in college.” (Larissa A. Grunig, Elizabeth Lance Toth, Linda Childers Hon The Guilford Press, 2001, 424 pages). This is the first fact showing that women will have the chance to run the sector in the future, why? Because the majority of PR students are female and so the number of PR male student is decreasing with time, thus we might say that in the future no man will be interested in the PR industry. And even if they will be interested, they will not have the chance to run and to have a key position in the company because they will be lacking technical knowledge of the industry.

The question here is that why women are interested about PR more than men? The answer to this question is related to the differences in character and traits between men and women. In fact, pr is an industry that needs compromise, understanding and building relationships. By nature women are not seeking to prove who wins and who loses, rather they are looking for a win win situation; which means they want both parties to be satisfied. In addition, women are very communicative and not scared from sharing their feelings and thoughts loudly and in public. They also easily put themselves in others shoes and they feel what others are feeling.
There are some views concerning the fact that working women in general may not be committed to their work and this is due to many reasons such as post and pre pregnancy period, parenting etc. Some people claim that these kinds of disablers prevent women from being fully committed to their work and to the position that they are holding inside the company. There is a research showing the more than 50% of women prefer to stay at home rather than work of they have the possibility. In my opinion who want to go to the office everyday from 9 to 5? Neither women nor men would like to be in such a situation if they have the choice; however, that does not mean that women are lazy and unproductive and uncommitted.

Nowadays, the work environment is dramatically changing; companies are aiming for a better and more flexible work situation. There are many techniques that enable employees to not be present at the office everyday or work the same hours a day. With the shift hours, job rotation, and home based work employees can stay at home and be productive for their company. Also, thanks to technology employees are more able to work and take decisions even if they are away from the office. With the internet the world becomes as a small village. So there is no shame for women to have their maternity leave if they can still do their job from home.

The fact that women are not in the top position of the PR agency is due to the fact that this field is a little bit new compared with other and as it is the case for almost all the fields man is the first one to enter a field and this is due to many historical, natural and cultural reasons. However, and as I said earlier there are more female students in PR than men. So I can say that the change is coming and women will soon have the chance to run public relations.

"Women in Public Relations: How Gender Influences Practice"
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4422/is_4_18/ai_77010728/

“The New Majority in PR: Women”
http://sunnyshim.blogspot.com/

"There's a syringe in my Pepsi can" crises

2010-03-14T19:22:00.001-07:00

In 1993 an American couple, Tex and Mary Triplett, 82 and 78 years old, reported that they found a syringe in a diet Pepsi can. They returned the can to the shop owner who then contacted the pierce county health department.

The story attracted the attention of the media and the Seattle area TV was the first one to report the incident. After that many other people reported finding syringes and other things in the Pepsi can such as needle, pins etc. The media got involved intensively in the case and the story was all over the newspapers and the TV channels.

Pepsi didn’t react at beginning because they were not expecting that the case will get bigger; however, after that the case was making the headlines of the newspapers, the Pepsi counsellors decided to react. In fact, “Pepsi crisis counsellors decided to fight back and as Rebecca Maderia, Pepsi's VP of public affairs said “If you're going to conduct your trial in the media, you've got to do it with the tools they're used to working with," Rebecca Maderia, Pepsi's VP of public affairs.

Pepsi didn’t recall the product from the market because they were sure that the can are 99,9 % safe. However, the number of people reporting finding something in the cans got bigger and bigger. Pepsi produced video press releases and they were broadcasted in 403 stations and seen by millions of viewers.

There were some investigations carried by different services and authorities. And some people were arrested and charged of fraudulent claims and different other charges. The Pepsi Company did a great job to save its reputation and it stayed strong and calm during a time of crisis. The company’s crisis management strategy became very known and used as a good case study in universities and schools. The idea of fighting the media by the media was the innovative and creative part in this case.

After that Pepsi was proven innocent, the company took advantage of the situation to launch a Public Relations campaign. Pepsi distributed millions of coupon with the slogan “thanks America”. They also advertise in a full page of the newspapers stating "Pepsi is pleased to announce...nothing."

Pepsi lost a lot of money on the crisis and the after crisis, however they gained huge media coverage and they made the headlines of the newspapers. They were victims of the public, they were innocent, and thus they use the situation to their advantage.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/rant/pepsipanic.html

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring01/Morrison/Pepsi.html

https://learningspaces.njit.edu/elliot/content/pepsicos-response-product-tampering

Crisis Management
Dr. Allan Bonner

StOckholders or StAkeholders

2010-03-12T15:40:00.000-08:00

Nowadays, the idea of a socially responsible business raises a lot of controversies. It is becoming a major debatable subject among politicians, businessmen, economist and moralists. With the globalization movement the need to clarify this issue and to identify the circumstances of its application becomes bigger and urgent. The free circulation of goods, people and ideas all around the world is for sure is a good initiative; however, for this phenomenon to be complete business regulations and laws should be standardized all around the world.

According to Milton’s Friedman “the only responsibility that businesses have is to generate a profit, thus freeing them from any social or moral responsibility”. He argued on that by the fact that only humans have to follow moral and social responsibility, corporations are not humans, thus they should not be expected to act as human.

On one hand, this argument is right, because since the corporation has a specific status – not human- it should care only about profit; otherwise, it is going to damage the future of business and the relationship between the business and the stockholders. And as Friedman stated in his book if an employee or executive wants to be socially and morally responsible, he/she should be generous with his own money and own labor and efforts , because if they try to use the company’s resources to be socially responsible, then they will act unethically regarding the stockholders. Thus, from Friedman perspective, the business should act ethically only when dealing with stockholders. Otherwise, it is not its responsibility to be socially ethical because the business is not a person.

On the other hand, according to R. Edward Freeman’s theory “Stakeholder Theory of The Modern Corporation”, for the business to be ethical, it should maximize happiness for the greatest number. And by the greatest number, Freeman means all the stakeholders. This could be the government, the citizens, the employees, the environment etc. This theory emphasizes the fact that there are other components of the market that might be affected by the business decisions rather than the stockholders.

The corporations were pleased with the fact that they don’t have to be socially responsible and moral. However, the negative impact of their irresponsible actions awakened the stakeholders. The stakeholders complained, revolted and they even broke the regulations and laws to establish justice and to prevent themselves from the unethical behavior of the corporations.

We are living in a world of systems and for a system to survive it will need to coexist with other systems. Thus, nowadays, the business becomes aware of how important it is to be socially responsible. It becomes aware that if acting irresponsibly, it might be isolated from the other systems and try to survive alone. Even if businesses are not deeply convinced by the idea of being socially responsible, the majority of them started to act in such a way to preserve their image and reputation and to please their stockholders, and satisfy the stakeholders to generate money. Their quest is always over money; however, I believe that it is better if they can do both.

Another point that I want to raise in this discussion is about codes of ethics. It is true extent that those codes exist to regulate the business actions and limit the impact on the stakeholders; however, they are different from corporation to another and from country to country. Thus, sometimes you can that a multinational company is acting ethically in some part of the world; however, it acts unethically and irresponsibly in some other parts. And this happens because corporations as mentioned earlier are just forced to respect those codes of ethics, thus if they don’t feel obliged to be ethical in some other parts of the world they will not be. This situation is true for the underdeveloped countries, they get easily fooled by multinationals and they allow them to act in whichever way they want. However, if a standard and general code of ethics is created even those poor and underdeveloped countries will be protected from the irresponsibility of the businesses acts.

Need to know more check the links:

http://09180407088128277719-a-g.googlegroups.com/web/Social%20Responsibilty%20of%20Busines_case%20study%201.pdf?gsc=HnxcMC4AAABHmbVTyTN2GBiT1GskA_a1A9LfgWfo3_pBxQb7mlG3AX37rkkc49hbeVwDNd5dsGU

http://09180407088128277719-a-g.googlegroups.com/web/social%20responsibility%20of%20business_%20case%20study%202.pdf

Doing Business In Morocco

2010-02-20T10:26:00.000-08:00

The Concept of Shame - Hshuma

. Moroccans' most cherished possession is their honour and dignity, which reflects not only on themselves but on all members of their extended family.
. Moroccans will go out of their way to preserve their personal honour.
. Hshuma occurs when other people know that they have behaved inappropriately.
. A Moroccan's sense of self-worth is externally focused, so the way others see them is of paramount importance.
. If someone is shamed, they may be ostracized by society, or even worse by their family.
. To avoid hshuma, many Moroccans will say or do things publicly because it makes them look good or helps them avoid embarrassment or awkwardness.
. In business it is extremely important to verify anything that has been agreed to in front of others as it may not have been a sincere agreement and the person may have no intention of following through.

Moroccan Family Values

. The family is the most significant unit of Moroccan life and plays an important role in all social relations.
. The individual is always subordinate to the family or group.
. Nepotism is viewed positively, since it indicates patronage of one's family.
. The family consists of both the nuclear and the extended family.
. The elderly are revered and respected and often exert a great influence on the rest of the family.

read through this website, you will find very interesting infromation

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/morocco-country-profile.html

Should PR practices be standardized or customized?

2010-02-20T10:15:00.000-08:00

Few decades ago the world enters a new era, the populations start witnessing a new way of life, they start exploring other cultures, other thoughts and other people. They were almost no barriers, and no boundaries between people. The whole world seemed like a global village where people can interact and deal with each other. Today, we are living in this world; we are witnessing the apogee of this phenomenon called globalization. According to Bhagwati, Jagdish (2004). In Defense of Globalization “Globalization describes an ongoing process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communication and trade. The term is sometimes used to refer specifically to economic globalization: the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology.” In fact, technology is one of the most important factors behind this phenomenon, with quick and easy communication flows international trade becomes something normal that businesses, organisations and governments can do just by one click or just by one phone call.

With globalization, companies and corporation become international. They widen their network to reach other continents, other countries and civilizations, and through this they need to implement marketing and public relations strategies to raise awareness among people about their products or services and to persuade them of which ever idea the companies are trying to convey.

Let us discuss how PR practices are implemented by multinational companies. In fact, we all know that in the PR field the business is not done randomly, there are techniques and tactics based on experiments and studies. Some people claim that these techniques and strategies are valid for any time and any place; however, another group of people claim that these techniques may not give the same results if applied to different countries or cultures.

Some years ago, the debate about the fact that PR practices should be generalized or customized was raised, as I said before there are two poles here. In my point of view, I support the fact that PR practices should be customized rather than generalized. Most of the PR strategies that we know today are tied to a specific culture and a specific lifestyle. In other words, if someone from the West tries to do business in a North African or Arab country without changing and customizing his/her PR practices the business will be a great mess.
Some people are really culture sensitive, they will not let you in if you don’t show respect to their customs and adopt some of them. As it is the case is china concerning the Guanxi, according to www.kwintessential.co.uk “Guanxi(pronounced (gwan-shee) is one of the most powerful forces in Chinese culture. Though the direct translation of "guanxi" is "relationships", the concept as it is used and applied in Chinese culture is much richer and encompassing. "Guanxi" does express the relationship of one person to another, or one party to another. However, more importantly the term also expresses an obligation of one party to another, built over time by the reciprocation of social exchanges and favours. If one has "guanxi" with another, one will be quick to do a favour, act on another’s behalf and depending on the depth of the relationship, do anything necessary for the other party. By establishing this type of relationship with someone, the other party is implicitly agreeing also to be available to reciprocate when the need arises. In such a way "guanxi" can be considered as a type of currency that can be saved and spent between the two parties. Like money, it is a resource that can also be also be exhausted, so one must be sensitive not to overextend the "guanxi" that has been established.” http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/etiquette/china-guanxi.html

From my own experience, in Morocco many PR strategies don’t work because we have this idea that you can’t accept something from someone if you don’t know him and we mean by knowing him/her, inviting him/her to your house with your family, have dinner or lunch and try to socialize more and then comes the business. So the sum up, the PR strategies are very useful in some cases; however, with the Globalization those strategies cannot be generalized to all the countries in the world. They rather should be customized to suite every single culture

Chinese Business etiquette

PR vs. New Media

2010-02-08T09:59:00.000-08:00

here's a link to a very intersting book

This book is a record of an international conference –

“New Media: The Press Freedom Dimension
Challenges and Opportunities of New Media for Press Freedom”

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001520/152017e.pdf

PR vs. New Media

2010-02-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

PR vs. New Media

Survival for the fittest

The controversy between the two fields is getting bigger with time. PR and new media coexisted in the same world and they seem to interact in a harmonious way; however, if you critically analyze their relationship you will be able to see that there is a kind of pushes and pulls from both sides. In fact, each one of those two fields is fighting for survival. Public relations is a field much older than new media, PR used to be the only tool to inform, “persuade”, motivate, “influence” and build mutually beneficial relationships with the public. However, in the technology era nothing is impossible; actually, new media can do the same thing as PR.

The reason behind the pulls and pushes is the fact that PR is trying to protect what it has built during many decades, a traditional practice is trying fiercely to survive is a word ruled by technology. On the other hand, the new media is trying to position itself and to prove that what PR is doing can be done through new media in a much more transparent and democratic way.

Nowadays, people like us are looking for the truth, they want to express their own points of view, they want to construct their own ideas and images about events, and they want to lead not to follow. The public is becoming aware of its passive and surrogate participation, they don’t want to be crammed with information without challenging it and without questioning its authenticity.

Mogens Schmidt, Director, Freedom of Expression Unit, UNESCO

“New media hold great potential as a resource for press freedom and freedom of expression. They serve as a platform for dialogue across borders and allow for innovative approaches to the distribution and acquisition of knowledge.”

I don’t mean to say that PR is acting as shield between the reality and people, PR provide us with valuable information too, but as far as new media exist traditional PR should act in a way that actively engages the public more often too, it should provide information in the most transparent and authentic way that people will ever need another platform to find out the truth. The truth should be what PR offers to us, yes the platforms can still exist but not to challenge the truth just to elaborate on it.

The Magical PR : The Bright and the Dark Sides

2010-01-26T11:06:00.000-08:00

Public Relations is a discipline of communications that uses precise actions and proper performance to influence the public opinion in favour of an organization, person, product or issue.

PR has a power of influencing the way how people think and this power can be used for mutual benefit or for the benefit of just one side.
Public relations actions can be used to raise awareness among people and to change a negative behaviour or perception; however, it could be used to distorted the reality and make people believe and do whatever they are asked to.

We can take as example the war on Iraq and the story of Jessica Lynch. The American government and especially the public relations unit fabricated a whole story so that the American government promotes his agenda. In fact, the real story was very different from what the Americans said; however, for a certain period of time the fabricated story was very beneficial for the American government because they gained support and blessing from the population and from the stakeholders.

Just as magic, PR can realize magical changes and it has two sides the Dark side and the bright one. The dark side could be beneficial but just until the truth is discovered and revealed. However, after that the truth is revealed the organisation, the person and/or the company may loose their reputation and people's trust.
On the other hand the benefits of the bright side of PR may not be recognized quickly and easily; however, the positive results and the mutual benefits will last for a long period or if we can day forever.

Sometimes it's not a question of bright or dark side. In fact, during the Iraq War more than 600 journalists were sent with the American troupes to cover the war events on a daily basis. not to say the majority, but some of those journalists were trying to report the events as objectively as they could; however, they were unable because they are some other factors that one should take in consideration; for example, as a journalist said:" trying to tell the story as objectively as possible bearing in mind that soldiers "unit" are protecting you, feeding you ..."

Unfortunately, nowadays one cannot trust one source of information; to gratify the information needs people should get the information from more than one place, they should listen to other opinions they should discuss with other people and not rely completely on the media to feed them.

As I said there are planned techniques to influence the masses, thus people should become aware of the situation and try to construct their own opinion rather than waiting for others to tell them what to think.

BBC Proves Jessica Lynch Rescue Story Was A Hoax