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initiating the communication or reacting to inquiries. Publicity differs dramatically from advertising, despite the fact that most people confuse the two.

Advertising possesses the following characteristics:

1.You pay for it.

2.You control what is said.

3.You control how it is said.

4.You control to whom it is said.

5.To a degree, you control where it is put in a publication or on the air.

6.You control the frequency of its use.

Publicity, on the other hand, offers no such controls. Typically, publicity is subject to review by news editors, who may decide to use all of a story, some of it, or none of it. When it will run, who will see it, how often it will be used — all such factors are subject, to a large degree, to the whims of a news editor. However, even though publicity is by no means a sure thing, it does offer two overriding benefits that enhance its appeal, even beyond that of advertising.

First, although not free, publicity costs only the time and effort expended by public relations personnel and management in attempting to place it in the media. Therefore, relatively speaking, its cost is minimal, especially when compared with the costs of advertising and assessed against potential returns.

Second and most important, publicity, which appears in news rather than in advertising columns, carries the implicit endorsement of the publication in which it appears. In other words, publicity is perceived as objective news rather than selfserving promotion, which translates into the most sought-after of commodities for an organization: credibility. And this is the true value of publicity over advertising.

Gaining access to the media is a common problem among organizations wishing to attract positive publicity. People often complain that the media are more interested in bad news than in anything positive. To a degree, this complaint is valid. Although no two reporters or editors can agree on what constitutes news, more often than not, news is the sensational, the unusual, or the unexpected. And oftentimes for an organization, this equals bad news. Indeed, in recent years, large multinationals like Mobil Oil and Kaiser Aluminum have taken the unprecedented step of purchasing media air time to tell their side of a story.

Obviously, most organizations lack the resources to do this. But clearly, every organization yearns to earn positive mentions in the media. And this objective is indeed attainable. Overall, what’s required is a basic, common sense knowledge of the media people with whom you’re dealing and a sense of courtesy,

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responsiveness, and respect in dealing with them. It bears repeating: journalists — or at least most of them — are people, too. Treat them that way, and the goal of penetrating the print or broadcast barriers lies within reach. The next several pages offer specific suggestions for developing a positive relationship with the media.

Occasionally, events trigger an immediate need to disseminate company news. A sudden change in management, a fire or explosion at a plant, a labor strike or settlement — all engender the need for news publicity. In a more controlled sense, news publicity is used to announce plant openings, executive speeches, groundbreakings, charitable donations, major appointments, and product changes.

1.Feature. Less news-oriented material provides the media with features: personality profiles on management and company personnel, helpful hints from company experts, case studies of ongoing and successful company programs, innovative ways of opening up production bottlenecks, or unusual applications of new products. Practitioners also often help freelance writers in this task.

2.Financial. Generally, this material concerns earnings releases, dividend announcements, and other financial affairs. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires that all publicly held companies announce important financial information promptly, through the media and news wires.

3.Product. Publicizing new or improved products has enormous potential to aid bottom-line profits. However, such publicity should be used judiciously, so that the media do not feel that the organization is going overboard in attempting to boost sales.

4.Picture. The old maxim «A picture is worth a thousand words» is particularly true in public relations. Good photos can frequently tell a story about a new product or company announcement without the necessity of a lengthy news release. If an accompanying photo caption of three or four lines is pointed and provocative, the photo has an even greater chance of being used.

1. Insert the correct prepositions.

Even though television has become a major news disseminator, newspapers continue to hold their own _____ a news source. A survey _____ Audits & Surveys showed that television and newspapers were _____ a par _____ terms

_____ cumulative daily exposure. Any day ______ the week, _____ fact, almost 70 percent _____ the adult population watches some television news and reads

_____ least one newspaper.

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Newspapers provide more diversity and depth _____ coverage than television or radio. It may be _____ this reason that approximately 63 million copies _____

daily newspapers are sold each day. Newspapers range ______ giant dailies _____

circulations approaching two million _____ small weekly papers, written, edited, and produced _____ a single individual.

2. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate word from the box.

Transmitted, loss, circulation, rewarding, cherished, complimentary, abbreviated, ambitious, challenge, downplays, media relations

In 1982, Gannett launched its most ___________ project to date with the publication of USA Today, a truly national newspaper, ____________ from Rosslyn, Virginia, to major American cities via satellite. The paper costs Gannett upwards of $50 million per year. The full-color newspaper lists daily news from all 50 states; offers national weather, sports, and business; and ____________

international news. Gannett’s hope is that USA Today will become «America’s hometown newspaper». Critics charge that USA Today’s _____________ articles are fast-food journalism and derisively label the publication «McPaper». Nevertheless, its ____________ has reached 1.3 million, second only to the The Wall Street Journal.

Despite the _______ of journalistic competition in many cities, the newspaper is still a primary target for ____________________ activities. To practitioners and their managements, penetrating the daily with positive publicity is a critical

______________. To many corporate managements, favorable publicity in The New York Times is a special achievement. To politicians, a ___________ story in the Washington Post is equally. In other communities, a positive piece in the local daily is just as.

3. Put the words in brackets in the correct form.

In recent years, as operating costs (skyrocket) and many Americans (leave) central cities for the suburbs, some urban papers (fold). In such cities, traditional competition between the morning and evening newspapers (diminish). Occasionally, the same publishing firm (own) both papers. The huge Rochesterbased Gannett chain, for example, (own) 97 daily newspapers reaching 6 million readers as well as 8 TV stations and 15 radio stations.

One newspaper that (be) a frequent target for public relations professionals, particularly those who (work) for publicly held firms, (be) The Wall Street Journal. The Journal, commonly (call) the business bible, (print) several daily

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editions for different geographic regions. Although its circulation (be) nearly two million, more than four million people a day (read) the paper because of high passalong readership. The paper (put) together by 500 reporters, 500 editors, and bureau chiefs worldwide. The average annual income of a Journal subscriber (be) close to $62,200. More than one-half of its readers (employ) in professional or managerial occupations; 262,000 (be) company presidents. Thus, The Wall Street Journal (be) a prime target for public relations publicity initiatives, including all four U.S. editions and the Asian and European editions, as well.

Not (overlook) in media relations (be) the suburban newspapers, the smallcity dailies, and the nearly 7,500 weekly newspapers. All (be) targets for news releases and story ideas. When an organization (have) a branch or plant in an area, these local media contacts can be of critical importance, particularly for consumer product publicity.

PART TWO

TEXTS FOR WRITTEN TRANSLATION

Text 1. Communicating in a Crisis

The key communication principle in dealing with a crisis is not to clam up when disaster strikes. The most effective crisis communicators are those who provide prompt, frank, and full information to the media in the eye of the storm. Invariably, the first inclination of executives is to say, «Let’s wait until all the facts are in». But as President Carter’s press secretary, Jody Powell, used to say, «Bad news is a lot like fish. It doesn’t get better with age». In saying nothing, an organization is perceived as already having made a decision. That angers the media and compounds the problem. On the other hand, inexperienced spokespersons, speculating nervously or using emotionally charged language, are even worse.

Most public relations professionals consider the cardinal rule for communications during a crisis to be: TELL IT ALL AND TELL IT FAST!

As a general rule, when information gets out quickly, rumors are stopped and nerves are calmed. A continuous flow of information indicates that people are working on the problem. Messages should be consistent, using a limited number of spokespersons — preferably only one. Comparisons should be avoided: Don’t give people the opportunity to link your accident with a worse one. Statements should be limited to facts, not speculation or guesswork. But as a senior communications manager for Dow Chemical put it: «The public must be fully informed frequently and accurately through the media from the outset by credible senior spokesmen

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accustomed to dealing with the media in a responsible, respectful manner, who understand and can explain clearly, in lay language, complex information».

Another key in intelligently communicating in a crisis is to evaluate each media request separately, on the basis of several questions:

1.What do we gain by participating? If you have absolutely nothing to gain from an interview, then don’t give one.

2.What are the risks? This is based on your level of comfort with the medium, who the interviewer is, the amount of preparation time available to you, legal liability, and how much the organization loses if the story is told without the interview.

3.Can we get our message across? Will this particular medium allow us clearly to deliver our message to the public?

4.Is this audience worth it? Often, a particular television program or newspaper may not be germane to the specific audience the organization needs to reach.

5.How will management react? An important variable in assessing whether to appear is the potential reaction of top management. In the final analysis, you have to explain your recommendation or action to them.

6.Does your legal liability outweigh the public interest? This is seldom the case, although company lawyers often disagree.

7.Is there a better way? Key question. If an uncontrolled media interview can be avoided, avoid it. However, reaching pertinent publics through the press is often, the best way to communicate in a crisis.

In the final analysis, communicating in a crisis depends on a rigorous analysis of the risks versus the benefits of going public. Communicating effectively also depends on the judgment and experience of the public relations professional. Every call is a close one, and there is no guarantee that the organization will benefit, no matter what course is chosen. One thing is clear: helping navigate the organization through the shoals of a crisis is the ultimate test of a public relations professional.

Text 2. Communications Theory

Books have been written on the subject of communications theory. Theoretical explanations of how people communicate vary as much as do the definitions of public relations itself. In its most basic sense, communication commences with a source, who sends a message through a medium to a receiver.

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One early theory of communication, the two-step flow theory, had it that an organization would beam a message first to the mass media, which would then deliver that message to the great mass of readers, listeners, and viewers for their response. This theory, as noted in Chapter 4, may have given the mass media too much credit. People today are influenced by a variety of factors, of which the media may be one, but not necessarily the dominant one. Another theory, the concentric-circle theory, developed by pollster Elmo Roper, assumed that ideas evolve gradually to the public-at-large, moving in concentric circles from Great Thinkers to Great Disciples to Great Disseminators to Lesser Disseminators to the Politically Active to the Politically Inert. Broken down, as rapper M. C. Hammer would say, this theory suggests that people pick up and accept ideas from leaders, whose impact on public opinion may be greater than that of the mass media. The overall study of how communication is used for direction and control is called cybernetics.

Although there are numerous models of communication, one of the most fundamental is the S-M-R approach. This model suggests that the communication process begins with the source, who issues a message to a receiver, who then decides what action to take, if any, relative to the communication. This element of receiver action, or feedback, underscores that good communication always involves dialogue between two or more parties.

The S-M-R model has been modified to include additional elements: (1) an encoding stage, in which the source’s original message is translated and conveyed to the receiver; and (2) a decoding stage, in which the receiver interprets the encoded message and takes action. This evolution from the traditional model has resulted in the S-E-M-D-R method, which illustrates graphically the role of the public relations function in modern communications; both the encoding and the decoding stages are of critical importance in communicating any public relations message.

Words are among our most personal and potent weapons. Words can soothe us, bother us, or infuriate us. They can bring us together or drive us apart. They can even cause us to kill or be killed. Words mean different things to different people, depending on their backgrounds, occupations, education, or geographic locations. What one word means to you might be dramatically different from what that same word means to your neighbor. The study of what words really mean is called semantics, and the science of semantics is a peculiar one indeed.

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Words are perpetually changing in our language. What’s in today is out tomorrow. What a word denotes according to the dictionary may be thoroughly dissimilar to what it connotes in its more emotional or visceral sense. Even the simplest words — liberal, conservative, profits, consumer activists — can spark semantic skyrockets. Many times, without knowledge of the territory, the semantics of words may make no sense. Take the word cool. In American vernacular a person who is cool is good. A person who is «not so hot» is bad: So cool is the opposite of «not so hot». But wait a minute; «not so hot» must also be the opposite of hot. Therefore, in a strange way, cool must equal hot.

In the 1990s, public relations professionals must constantly be alert to alterations in the language. In 1990, when the august New York Jockey Club restaurant offered a breakfast called the «Central Park Jogger» — a term widely used as the identification of a woman brutally attacked the year before in a wellpublicized rape case — the menu was reprinted. On the other hand, when the term couch potato came into vogue to signify an inveterate television watcher, a Pennsylvania potato chip maker was quick to capitalize.

Even more confusing is the language used by various special publics in society, which seems foreign to the uninitiated, to a computer analyst, a bit and a bomb and a chip are commonplace. The rest of us might have a hard time discerning that a bit is the smallest binary number, a bomb is a piece of computer equipment that ceases to function, and a chip is a tiny wafer of silicon or an equally tiny complete circuit.

To a human resources manager, a 401(k) is a salary deferral plan. A Gantt chart is a bar chart used in project planning and scheduling. And COBRA, of course, is the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act covering employers of 20 or more who offer group health plans.

And then there are teenagers, whose vocabularies defy description. Sure, they know what they’re talking about; but do the rest of us have any idea that fresh means cool, dweeb means nerd, gleek means spitting, deaf means the same thing as fresh, and biter is another name for dweeb?

Finally, there are the dozen words — important for all communicators to know — that, according to Yale University, are the most persuasive in the English language: discovery, easy, new, proven, guarantee, health, love, money, results, safety, save, and you.

The point here is that the words used in the encoding stage have a significant influence on the message conveyed to the ultimate receiver. Thus, the source must

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depend greatly on the ability of the encoder to accurately understand and effectively translate the true message — with all its semantic complications — to the receiver.

Text 3. Issues Management

Public relations pioneer W. Howard Chase, who helped coin the term issues management, defined it this way:

Issues management is the capacity to understand, mobilize, coordinate, and direct all strategic and policy planning functions, and all public affairs/public relations skills, toward achievement of one objective: meaningful participation in creation of public policy that alfects personal and institutional destiny.

Issues management is dynamic and proactive. It rejects the hypothesis that any institution must be the pawn of the public policy determined solely by others.

The noblest aspect of freedom is that human beings and their institutions have the right to help determine their own destinies. Issues management is the systems process that maximizes self-express ion and action programming tor most effective participation in public policy formation.

Thus, issues management is the highest form of sound management applied to institutional survival.

Issues management is a five-step process that (1) identifies issues with which the organization must be concerned, (2) analyzes and delimits each issue with respect to its impact on constituent publics, (3) displays the various strategic options available to the organization, (4) implements an action program to communicate the organization’s views and influence perception on the issue, and

(5) evaluates its program in terms of reaching organizational goals.

Many suggest that the term issues management is another way of saying that the most important public relations skill is counseling management. This skill, in fact, was at the heart of the reputation enjoyed by public relations pioneers such as Ivy Lee, Edward Bernays, Carl Byoir, and John Hill. Today, issues management as a specialized discipline has developed to the point where the Issues Management Association, founded in the 1980s, has hundreds of active members.

In specific terms, organizations can manage their own response lo issues and, therefore, influence issues development in the ways identified here.

Anticipate emerging issues. Normally, the issues management process anticipates issues 18 months to 3 years away. Therefore, it is neither crisis planning nor postcrisis planning, but rather precrisis planning. In other words,

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issues management deals with an issue that will hit the organization a year down the road, thus distinguishing the practice from the normal crisis planning aspects of public relations.

Selectively identify issues. An organization can influence only a few issues at a time. Therefore, a good issues management process will select several — perhaps 5 to 10 — specific priority issues with which to deal. In this way, issues management can focus on the most important issues affecting the organization.

Deal with opportunities and vulnerabilities Most issues, anticipated well in advance, offer both opportunities and vulnerabilities for organizations. For example, in assessing promised federal budget cuts, an insurance company might anticipate that less money will mean fewer people driving and therefore fewer accident claims. This would mark an opportunity. On the other hand, those cuts might mean that more people are unable to pay their premiums. This, clearly, is a vulnerability that a sharp company should anticipate well in advance. Plan from the outside-in The external environment — not internal strategies — dictates the selection of priority issues. This differs from the normal strategic planning approach, which, to a large degree, is driven by internal strengths and objectives. Issues management is very much driven by external factors.

Profit-line orientation Although many people tend to look at issues management as anticipating crises, its real purpose should be to defend the organization in the light of external factors, as well as to enhance the firm’s business by seizing imminent opportunities. Action timetable Even as the issues management process must identify emerging issues and selectively set them in priority order, it must also propose policy, programs, and an implementation timetable to deal with those issues. Action is the key to an effective issues management process.

Dealing from the top Just as a public relations department is powerless without the confidence and respect of top management, so, too, must the issues management process operate with the support of the chief executive. The chief executive’s personal sanction is critical to the acceptance and conduct of issues management within a firm.

Text 4. Compare Oral Presentations With Written Communication

Public speaking, like other methods of communication, is influenced by the entire personality of the sender of the message, the particular situation, and the

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receivers of the message. The ability to be a capable and convincing speaker is important to your success and to your professional growth.

The principles of effective communication through written letters, memorandums, and reports discussed in preceding chapters also apply, for the most part, to effective oral presentations. Precise use of language, clarity, empathy, knowledge of subject matter, appropriate emphasis and organization — all these qualities are necessary for the successful transmission of a message in either written or oral form.

Both written and oral reports begin with a careful and objective analysis of data. As in other forms of communication, you consider the probable reactions of the audience to ideas and recommendations. The same principles that apply to objective interpretation and presentation of data in written reports apply to oral presentations. Emphasis must be on data and what they indicate, not on the writer’s or speaker’s beliefs and desires.

Like written messages, oral presentations can be presented in the direct or the indirect order. When presented in the direct order, however, an oral report should have a specific, emphatic ending, often in the form of a short summary.

Many people find speaking much easier than writing. For others, facing an audience is terrifying. The best way to build confidence in yourself — and to make your speech convincing and informative — is to know your subject thoroughly and to understand that your purpose is to inform and to convince, and perhaps to entertain, but not to impress the audience with your cleverness and knowledge.

If you are completely familiar with all portions of the subject (even though you don’t know all the answers) and if you sincerely want to pass this knowledge on to your listeners, you are likely to express your ideas clearly and convincingly.

An advantage of oral communication over written communication is that you have instant feedback. Another advantage is that your facial expressions, tone of voice, and gestures help to make spoken words clear, convincing, and effective.

Graphic illustrations are used in oral reports and other presentations, just as they are in written communications. They can be used effectively, or, as in written reports, they can be misleading, distracting, and unnecessary. The principles of graphic illustration apply to both written and oral reports.

Moreover, when you use illustrations in an oral presentation, remember that every member of the audience must be able to see the entire illustration easily. And, as in written reports, the illustration should not be expected to convey the

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