CHUKA UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF DISTANCE LEARNING

IN COLLABORATION WITH

FACULTY: HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT: SOCIAL SCIENCES

CRSS 204: CRIME, MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

WRITTEN BY : ABEL BENNNETT HOLLA

REVIEWED BY: ESTON WARUI

MAY 2021
 CRSS 204: CRIME, MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
Course: Purpose
This course covers how the Criminal Justice departments use public relations programs to
communicate with civilians about pressing matters relating to crime. Students will learn how a
functioning Criminal Justice system communicates with the public about matters of crime.

Expected Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, students are expected to:
Explain the role of media in the criminal justice system.
Engage in contemporary debates about media, crime and violence.
State the relevant theories – both individual (behaviourism, positivism) and social (anomie,
dominant ideology) – which have dominated debates about the relationship between media and
crime.

Course Content
Introduction to public relations, importance and purpose of public relations in criminal justice
system, contemporary trends of public relations, the role of public relations in organizational
management, public relations tactics in written communication, public relations tactics in dealing
with the media, public relations in crisis situations, public relations ethical and legal issues,
public relations planning, strategies and management, public relations evaluation. Analysis of the
effect of the news media on crime levels and public fear of crime. The relationship between
media coverage and public perception, as well as the media’s role in crime prevention, is
explored

Method of Delivery
Lectures, tutorials, discussions, guided group learning activities, reading assignments,
presentations, assignments.

Teaching and Instructional Materials

Computers, internet, overhead projectors, multimedia technology, boards, handouts, textbooks,
journal articles.

Course Assessment
C.A.T’s and Assignments 30%, Final Examination 70%, Total 100%

References
Chris Greer: Greer, C. (2009) Crime and Media: A Reader (Routledge).
Jewkes, Y. (2009) Crime and Media
Roshier, B. 1973. “The Selection of Crime News by the Press.” In S. Cohen and J. Young (eds)
The Manufacture of News: 28-39. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Sacco, V. 1995. “Media Constructions of Crime.” Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science 539:141-154.
Surette, R. 1990. The Media and Criminal Justice Policy: Recent Research and Social Effects.
Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Surette, R. 1998. Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice: Images and Realities 2nd Edition, New
York: Wadsworth Publishing.
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO CRIME, MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

1.1 Course Purpose

This course covers how the criminal justice departments use public relations programs to
communicate with civilians about pressing matters relating to crime. Students will learn how a
functioning criminal justice system communicates with the public about matters of crime.

1.2 Expected Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, students are expected to:

1. Explain the role of media in the criminal justice system.

2. Engage in contemporary debates about media, crime and violence.
3. State the relevant theories – both individual and social which have dominated debates
about the relationship between media and crime.

1.3 Introduction to Public Relations

In the era of globalization, most multinational companies make concrete efforts to manage and
maintain its relationships with its customers. Public relations refer to the variety of activities
conducted by a company to promote and protect the image of the company, its products and
policies in the eyes of the public.

1.3.1 Defining Public Relations

Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial

relationships between organizations and their publics. At its core, public relations is about
influencing, engaging and building a relationship with key stakeholders across numerous
platforms in order to shape and frame the public perception of an organization. It is a planned
and sustained activity of engagement between two parties in order to influence behavior change
and build mutual understanding and trust. Public relations is about sending the right message to
the right place and the right people.

Public relations can also be defined as the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting
their consequences, counselling organizational leaders and implementing planned programme of
action which will serve both the organization and the public interest. It’s also viewed strategic
management function that adds value to an organization by helping it to manage its reputation.

1.3.2 Public Relations Process

Public relations is a process—that is, a series of actions, changes, or functions that bring about a
result. As a process, public relations involve the following steps: using research to define the
problem, developing objectives and strategies to address the problem, implementing the
strategies, and measuring the results of the public relations effort. Several acronyms have been
developed to describe the process and they include; RACE (research, action planning,
communication, evaluation) and ROPE (research, objectives, programming, evaluation).

1.3.2.1 Research

The first step in the process is analyzing the problem or opportunity. This involves research,
either formal or informal, to gather information that best describes what is going on. Research
used to understand the situation and help formulate strategies is called formative research.

Research is defined as the systematic gathering of information to describe and understand

situations and check out assumptions about publics and public relations consequences. Research
can either be primary or secondary, qualitative or quantitative. Primary research involves
generating new information while secondary research uses existing information. Despite being
called secondary research; this kind of research is conducted first. Public relations practitioners
analyze existing information from organizational websites and electronic databases, among other
sources, to gain understanding about the situation, organization, and target audience.

If, however, there are significant gaps in the secondary research, primary research is conducted if
there is enough time and money. If practitioners have both of these are their disposal and can
conduct primary research, they can choose qualitative or quantitative methods. Qualitative
methods produce soft data that sometimes is called exploratory. Using qualitative research
techniques such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, observations, or surveys with open-ended
questions, public relations practitioners can gain some valuable information about the situation,
organization, and target audience. But they cannot extrapolate the data gathered scientifically to
a larger audience.
However, using quantitative techniques such as surveys with closed or structured questions and
random sampling practitioners can produce hard data. Using statistical analysis, the practitioner
can then make some definitive statements about the whole if the sample population was
representative and randomly sampled. Given the fact that quantitative research is costlier and
time-consuming, it is not conducted as much as qualitative research. Plus, crafting a scientifically
valid quantitative study is beyond the skill set of most PR practitioners.

A very popular tool for analyzing situations is the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
threats) analysis. This breaks down a situation by looking at the internal and external factors that
might be contributing to the situation before developing strategies. The internal factors are the
Strengths and Weaknesses of the organization. The external factors are the Opportunities and
Threats existing in the organization’s environment. Once the S.W.O.T. analysis has been
completed, the public relations practitioner will be more effective in maximizing strengths,
minimizing weaknesses, capitalizing on opportunities, guarding against threats.

Once enough data and information has been collected so that you really do understand the core
contributing factors and not just the surface conditions, then it is time to write a two-paragraph
statement that summarizes the situation. The first paragraph should redefine the situation using
the data collected by your research. Highlight the insights gained through formal and informal
research. The second paragraph should identify the problems, difficulties, and potential barriers
to resolving the issue.

So, whether it’s primary or secondary, quantitative or qualitative, the practitioner needs to
conduct research prior to developing a plan. The research will help determine the strategy and
provide more credibility for the practitioner before his or her clients. Finally, research is used to
measure the results of the campaign.

1.3.2.2 Action Planning

Once the research phase of the process is complete, the practitioner can move on to the second
phase: action planning. This step is essentially strategizing and creating the plan. The strategic
plan should be focused on resolving or capitalizing on the situation identified. The first step in
the planning process is to set goals and objectives. Goals are the overarching purpose of the
public relations efforts. Objectives support goals, and they need to be S.M.A.R.T.: Specific,
Measureable, Agreed Upon, Relevant, Timetabled. It is also important to remember that
objectives should measure outcomes, not the means to those outcomes.

The goal provides the direction for the strategic plan and objectives provide the direction of
specific and measurable outcomes necessary to meet the goal. A good objective meets the
following criteria: it should be an end and not a means to the end; it should be measurable; it
should have a time frame; and it should identify the public for the intended outcome.

a) End and not means to an end. An objective should be an outcome that contributes to
the goal. There are three possible outcomes for these objectives: cognitive (awareness,
understanding, remembering), attitudinal (create attitudes, reinforce positive attitudes,
change negative attitudes), and behavior (create behaviors, reinforce positive behaviors,
change negative behaviors).
b) Measureable. Measurable objectives often require a comparative number, such as 65%
awareness of a product or program. An objective cannot be set to increase awareness by
20% if the current level of awareness is unknown. Public relations should engage only in
strategies and tactics that actually contribute to larger organizational goals.
c) Time frame. When will the objective be met? If there is no time frame specified, then it
cannot be accountable.
d) Identify the Public. It is a good idea to identify overall objectives before tying them to a
public. This helps to think about which publics are connected to the objective. However,
to make an objective truly measurable it must identify a public, because different publics
will be at different levels of awareness, attitudes, and behaviors.

Once the goal of the public relations program and measurable objectives have been established,
it is time to turn attention to strategies. Strategies provide the means by which objectives are
reached. The most creative element in the strategic planning stage is the tactic. Tactics are the
specific communication tools and tasks that are used to execute the strategy. A cardinal rule is to
always evaluate your tactics within established strategies and objectives

1.3.2.3 Communication Implementation

The best public relations programs include both communication and action. Once the goals and
objectives have been set, then the practitioner can create the theme and messages for the
campaign. The themes and messages are designed to support the goals and objectives by tapping
into what you learned about your target audience through your research. The message needs to
be clear and understandable to your audience, delivered by a credible source and targeted at
audience needs.

Once the themes and messages have been developed, then the practitioner needs to choose the
channel through which they will be delivered. Research has shown that the most persuasive form
of communication is interpersonal. In those settings, the communicator can receive immediate
feedback and answer questions from the target audience. Interpersonal communication strategies,
however, can be used only when the target audience is small and identifiable. Larger audiences,
which are more difficult to reach through interpersonal means, need to be reached through the
media.

1.3.2.4 Evaluation

The evaluation phase should focus on your campaign results, be aligned with your primary
objectives, and guide you in preparing any additional steps for the future. It should be an ongoing
process that is measured against your previously set goals to analyze overall effectiveness.

Four concerns should be addressed when evaluating the effectiveness of a public relations
campaign:

 Define your benchmark.

 Select a measurement tool.

 Analyze data, draw actionable conclusions, and make recommendations.

 Make changes and measure again

If you have followed the steps in the public relations process, then you have already identified
your audiences and established objectives for each. If your objectives are measurable then you
already have the criteria by which to evaluate the success of your program. If you set the
objective of increasing awareness by 40% then a benchmark has been set against which to
measure. The benchmark compares your current situation to your past. Based on this evaluation,
the tools that will best help measure against stated criteria are selected. Generally, the same tools
that helped establish the benchmark data are used. For example, if primary research was used to
establish benchmarks then the same methods are repeated to evaluate success.

There are several ways to measure the effectiveness of communication output, but some are
better than others. One of the earliest methods was clip counting. A clip is an article, broadcast
story, or online message that mentions the company or product. Although sophisticated measures
of communication output have been developed over the years, it is still more critical to consider
the outtake and outcomes of those messages. Evaluation and measurement should not take place
only at the end of your efforts. You should be monitoring the media constantly to determine
whether your message is available for people to see. If the media strategy is not working, course
corrections in the middle of the program are required, not after the program has been completed.

1.3.3 Evolution and History of Public Relations

Public Relations (PR) is often regarded as a relatively modern profession, only emerging in the
past few decades. However, the reality is that PR dates back as far as the ancient civilizations
with Julius Caesar, and Cleopatra as the earliest figures of public relations in history. Julius
Caesar was probably the first politician to publish a book, Commentaries, which he used to
further his ambitions to become emperor of the Roman Empire. These practitioners had relished
a massive PR success without the Internet or any technology at their disposal.

The importance of communication with the public was known as early as the ancient times,
dating as far back as the late 3700 BC with artifacts proving that the ancient people already had
their own means of communication. Although the term "public relations" was not yet developed,
academics like James E. Grunig and Scott Cutlip identified early forms of public influence and
communications management in ancient civilizations. A clay tablet found in ancient Iraq that
promoted more advanced agricultural techniques is sometimes considered the first known
example of public relations.

The Roman Catholic Church was a major practitioner of public relations throughout the Middle
Ages. Pope Urban II used symbolism, staged events, and propaganda to persuade thousands of
followers to join the Crusades. Six centuries later, the Church was among the first to use the
word propaganda with the establishment by Pope Gregory XV of the College of Propaganda to
supervise foreign missions and train priests to propagate the faith.
In Venice, bankers in the 15th and 16th centuries practiced the fine art of investor relations and
were probably the first, along with local Catholic bishops, to adopt the concept of corporate
philanthropy by sponsoring such artists as Michelangelo. It was also during the Middle Ages that
Gutenberg developed the printing press, which profoundly influenced the gathering and
distribution of information for the next 500 years. The printing press essentially made it possible
for individuals and organizations to communicate directly with the public and to publicize any
number of endeavors.

Before the most powerful PR professionals, there are personalities that have influenced and
shaped the face of public relations back in the ancient time such as Socrates, Aristotle and Julius
Caesar. Historical figures such as Henry Ford and Theodore Roosevelt have been attributed with
being the first to utilize the basic PR concepts: positioning and ready accessibility. But it wasn’t
until 1906 that a man Mr. Ivy Lee came along and changed PR forever. Ivy Lee was the first
public relations counselor and was hired by famous industrialist John D. Rockefeller.

In the early 1900s, PR outlets consisted of print media and radio stations. To get their stories out
to the public, PR firms relied on postal mail and some telephone access, though this was often
slow and limited. However, in 1923, Edward L. Bernays introduced the idea of a ‘two -way-
street’ of communication between a company and the public. The two-way approach allowed for
the integration of the public’s experience and opinions with the practice of PR.

Over the years’, public relations became a recognized practice and with the introduction of the
internet, public relations took a broad new turn. As a platform, the internet offered universal
access to anyone who could log on to it. This growth in availability and accessibility created
more outlets for PR and news and it changed the speed at which news traveled. The role of
public relations grew again as practitioners and agencies needed to learn about websites, online
advertising, and search engine optimization.

In contemporary times, with the aid of the internet, the public can now post comments on stories
in real-time. This has created a shift in the balance of power, as well as the role of the audience.
It also created a shift in the role and responsibility of PR professionals.
1.3.3.1 Major Historical Themes over the Centuries

The evolution of public relations can be placed on a timeline from ancient beginnings to today’s
practice, but there are also basic themes that transcend time and place.

a) Profit

In the historical literature, profit is consistently a motivation for the public relations function. In
the 1500s, Pope Clement VIII used public relations tactics to raise money. Fifty years later,
Harvard College was the first college in America to begin a development campaign. American
railroads, in the 1800s, used media relations, exhibits, and press junkets to increase ticket sales.

b) Recruitment

By the Middle Ages, Irish Monks, the Crusades, and the Catholic Church in Spain all employed
public relations methods to recruit armies of the faithful. The Sons of Liberty, in the mid-1700s,
used pamphlets, demonstrations, and staged events to recruit members opposed to British
colonial rule.

c) Legitimacy

Third-party endorsements have been used throughout history to give legitimacy to causes and
institutions. Glastonbury Abbey appropriated the King Arthur legends to legitimize England’s
rule over the Celts. P. T. Barnum and the railroads often engaged opinion leaders such as
scholars and clerics to give their activities credibility.

d) Agitation

The temperance and woman’s suffrage movements used agitation to rally the public against
drunkenness and gender discrimination.

e) Advocacy

Public relations tactics were used in the abolition movement to ban slavery, and were also used
by Standard Oil to advocate its position against antitrust legislation. At the end of the 19th
century, the Sierra Club’s John Muir was advocating for conservation and the establishment of
national parks. The concept of public relations development over time is therefore relevant
primarily to the scale at which tactics were employed and to the gradual development of the rules
of engagement.

Summary

In all cases, the process is a never-ending cycle in which six components are links

Step 1: Research and Analysis. This consists of inputs that determine the nature and
extent of the public relations problem or opportunity. These may include feedback from the
public, media reporting and editorial comment, analysis of trend data, other forms of research,
personal experience, and government pressures and regulations.

Step 2: Policy Formulation. Public relations personnel, as advisors to top management,

make recommendations on policy and what actions should be taken by the organization.

Step 3: Programming. Once a policy or action is agreed on, public relations staff begin to
plan a communications program that will further the organization’s objectives. They will set
objectives, define audiences, and decide on what strategies will be used on a specific timeline.
Budget and staffing are also major considerations.

Step 4: Communication. Public relations personnel execute the program through such
vehicles as news releases, media advisories, newsletters, Internet and Web postings, special
events, speeches, and community relations programs.

Step 5: Feedback. The effect of these efforts is measured by feedback from the same
components that made up the first step.

Step 6: Assessment. The cycle is then repeated. The success or failure of the policy or
program is assessed as a way of determining whether additional efforts are needed, or whether
new issues or opportunities must be addressed. Thus, it is a continuing loop process.

Note

public relations play two distinct roles in this process, thus serving as a middle ground or linking
agent. On one level, public relations interact directly with external sources of information,
including the public, media, and government, and relays these inputs to management along with
recommendations. On a second level, public relations become the vehicle through which
management reaches the public with assorted messages to accomplish organizational goals.

Revision Question

Describe the history and evolution of Public Relations?

State and Explain Public relations processes?

Public relations entails sending the right message to the right people. Justify?
 CHAPTER TWO: IMPORTANCE AND PURPOSE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN
CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

2.1 Introduction

The criminal justice system employs the use of public relations to win and retain the
understanding, sympathy, support, and co-operation of members of the public both as individuals
and a collectivity towards effective discharge of their statutory responsibilities in crime
prevention and fighting outfit in society.

2.2 Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Explain the function of Public relations

2. Demonstrate a clear understanding on the role of public relations in the criminal justice
system.

3. Explain how public opinion is influenced

2.3 Public relations functions

Public relations functions are designed to help build trust and credibility with groups that are
important to your organization.

a) Media Representation.

Representing a company or individual to the media is one of the more well-known functions of
public relations. Media management includes developing and distributing both written and video
news releases, pitching stories to journalists, preparing position papers on issues of importance to
the organization, issuing news of activities to external audiences, establishing and maintaining
contacts with the mass media, handling responses to inquiries from the mass media, and
responding to reporter inquiries. Media representation also includes monitoring and measuring
news coverage of the organization or individual.

b) Crisis Communication
While media representation is a part of crisis communication, preparing a crisis communication
plan and training leadership and employees on its components is handled by a public relations
department. A crisis communication plan developed by a public relations team typically includes
determining specific logistics for expected reporters, the designation of an official spokesperson
for the crisis, the development of targeted messages for internal and external audiences and
training for company leadership on how to handle tough or hostile questions.

c) Stakeholder Relations

Representing an organization to stakeholder groups is another function of public relations.

Stakeholders are any persons or groups who have an interest in or could be affected by an
organization's objectives or actions.

d) Community Relations

A public relations function consisting of an organization’s planned, active and continuing

participation with and within a community to maintain and enhance its environment to the
benefit of both the organization and the community. This can involve partnerships, volunteer
activities, philanthropic contributions and public participation.

e) Social Media Management

Establishing, monitoring or growing an organization's or individual's online presence is another

function of public relations. Specific tasks may include creating or updating Facebook pages,
tweeting information and keeping an eye on what others are saying in cyberspace about an
organization.

f) Guest Relations

This involves guest reception activities, preparing visit agenda and other visit related matters,
conducting university tours, preparing brochures, tour guides, tapes, videos, maps and other
guest-related communications materials, and preparing gift items for the visitors.

g) Publications
Preparing and publishing materials for public including dealers, agents, advisory bodies and
employees, and helping out other departments to promote and publish event announcements and
other event related advertisement materials.

h) Marketing Publicity

Announcing new products or services and enhancements in products and services, though
editorial channels of mass media (digital OB), developing and executing promotional materials,
Participating in exhibits and marketing events.

Other functions of public relations include: Developing a good working climate for an
organization, providing PR Services to other departments, organizing events, providing public
information, managing sponsorship, and building and managing relationships with other
companies.

2.4 Influencing Public Opinion

Public relations can be an effective way to influence people. Public opinion is the collective
opinion of the people of a society on a specific topic or voting intention. Public opinion is
important in building public relations because it helps an organization in understanding the views
of the public and summing those view to reach a conclusion. The media, on its part, spreads PR
news and information shaping public opinion on various issues or commodities.

2.4.1 Target Audience Analysis

The key to shaping public opinion by PR agencies is audience analysis. This involves identifying
a target audience and tailoring a message to fit an audience’s attitudes and interests are essential.
Using audience-centered approach, PR agencies can effectively craft suitable messages and
identify appropriate media to reach an audience. While selecting a target audience can be
challenging, PR agencies can employ several audience analysis factors to simplify the process.
Some of the factors include attitude towards a brand, audience expectations, egocentrism, etc.

2.4.2 Key Messaging

Through the use of well-crafted messages, PR agencies can control the direction of
communication, and improve relationships with a target audience. Regarding public opinion, key
messages help PR agencies create desired perceptions in the target audience’s mind. Success in
influencing public opinion is dependent on crafting simple yet effective messages, targeting a
specific audience.

2.4.3 Deployment of Select Tactics

Success in shaping public opinions is dependent on PR agencies employing appropriate tactics to

accrue maximum benefits for a brand. Some tactics that PR agencies deploy to shape public
policy include press releases, op-eds, letters to the editors, webinars, and broadcast interview
opportunities.

At the same time, PR agencies seeking to shape public opinion should ensure that select tactics
draw significant attention to content that relates to a specific brand. Some techniques employed
to ensure that select tactics succeed in shaping public policy include increasing awareness via
sensationalism, employing the art of misinformation, and provoking an audience’s emotions to
attract attention

2.5 Reputation Management

Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning
understanding and support and influencing opinion and behavior. It is the planned and sustained
effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and
its publics. Reputation management is the effort to influence what and how people think of a
brand or person when viewed online. It incorporates efforts and campaigns to bury negative
reviews, information or search results and promote content that positively accentuates a desired
image.

Reputation differs from corporate image in that in that it isn’t formed by packaging or slogans.
The public essentially owns an organization’s reputation, and a good reputation is defined or
destroyed by organizational behavior in both internal and external competition and conflict
management. Three foundations of reputation have been established by scholars: economic
performance, social responsiveness and the ability to deliver valuable outcomes to stakeholders.
Elements is reputation management include: assessing the corporate culture, identifying
stakeholder groups, identifying stakeholder issues, assessing the organization's commitment to
social responsibility, identifying resources and determining urgency, and gaining stakeholder
feedback.

Specifically, reputation management involves the monitoring of the reputation of an individual

or a brand on the internet primarily focusing on the various social media platforms and
addressing content which is potentially damaging to it, and using customer feedback to try to
solve problems before they damage the individual's or brand's reputation. A major part of
reputation management involves suppressing negative search results, while highlighting positive
ones.

However, the practice of reputation management raises many ethical questions. It is widely
disagreed upon where the line for disclosure, astroturfing, and censorship should be drawn.
Firms have been known to hire staff to pose as bloggers on third-party sites without disclosing
they were paid, and some have been criticized for asking websites to remove negative posts. The
exposure of unethical reputation management may itself be risky to the reputation of a firm that
attempts it if known.

2.6 Conflict Positioning and Risk Communication

Strategic conflict management is the function where the public relations professional must
develop communication strategies and processes to influence the course of conflicts to the
benefit of the organization and when possible, to the benefit of the organization's any
constituents. Conflict positioning and risk communication fall under the strategic phase in
conflict management.

2.6.1 Conflict Positioning

Conflict positioning enable the organization to position itself favorably in anticipation of actions
such as litigation, boycott, adverse legislation, elections or similar events that will play out in the
"court of public opinion".

2.6.2 Risk Communication

Risk communication plays a key role in helping organizations apply the concepts of risk
management in their daily operations. It is critical to the success of any organization, especially
when it comes to public relations and customer retention. Effective communication must be a
two-way channel. This means there must be an audience and a communicator. The
communicator must tell the audience about the risks related to a specific hazard. The audience
must also provide feedback so that both parties can come up with appropriate mitigation
measures.

The main purpose of communicating risks is to inform people about the potential hazards related
to a particular condition or activity. These hazards may be directly linked to a person,
community or property. It involves a two-way exchange of information between the parties
likely to be affected. The communicator should engage all of them and respond to questions and
concerns. Communicators apply practical and scientific principles to interact with both parties
effectively, especially during controversial situations.

There are three components of communicating risks. The first one involves precaution advocacy.
In precaution advocacy, the potential effects of the hazard are high. The necessary strategy
therefore involves creating an outrage so that the hazard can get the attention it deserves. The
second element involves outrage management. Here, the potential effects of the hazard are low
but the outrage is high. The corrective measure involves attracting the attention of the media so
that there may be the right levels of emotions to warrant an immediate response. The third
element involves crisis communication. Here, both the potential effects of the hazard and outrage
are high. This element is applied to highly volatile incidents that are difficult to manage.

There are three steps on how to communicate risk effectively. The first step is to put a particular
risk in context. This should include examining the motives of communicating the risk and
measuring the potential effects. The next step should involve comparing the risk with others
previously recorded. Comparing will enable you to determine the point beyond which the effects
of the hazard in question will cause serious or irreversible damages. The last step is to discuss
broadly the potential effects of the hazard with the affected parties and suggest mitigation
measures.

The best way of communicating risks is to inform all the participants and ensure fairness. You
should also make sure that the participants are able to help solve the communication difficulties
that may arise. You should also match your communication efforts with the type of risk in
question.

Summary

The criminal justice system employs the use of public relations to win and retain the
understanding, sympathy, support, and co-operation of members of the public both as individuals
and a collectivity towards effective discharge of their statutory responsibilities in crime
prevention and fighting outfit in society.

Note

Reputation differs from corporate image in that in that it isn’t formed by packaging or slogans.
The public essentially owns an organization’s reputation, and a good reputation is defined or
destroyed by organizational behavior in both internal and external competition and conflict
management.

Questions

Highlight the functions of public relations?

Identify the four phases in the cycle of conflict?

Highlight the importance of reputation management in the Criminal justice system?

 CHAPTER THREE: CONTEMPORARY TRENDS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

3.1 Introduction

The digital era has empowered everyone. Traditional media outlets are no longer true
gatekeepers as anyone can start a blog and post a note on a company or person online. Public
relations reputational management role is therefore more critical in this digital age. Traditional
public relations primarily involved dealing with print media, television, and radio.

3.2 Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Explain emerging trends in the field of public relations.

2. Explain recent and modern trends in public relations.

3. State and explain how the internet has revolutionized public relations.

4. Elaborate on how social media has impacted the practice of public relations.

3.3 Digital Public Relations

Digital public relations, including outreach to bloggers, influencers, and other content creators,
emphasizes three core elements:

1. Building a strong online presence to improve communication and generate referral

traffic.

2. Establishing brand authority through reputation-building, awareness-raising, and

establishing trust.

3. Developing a measurable strategy, with defined goals, objectives, and KPIs.

In a digital public relations strategy, you need to clearly define your goals and objectives. This
critical area needs to have a comprehensive, effective strategy to drive it, rather than merely
rolling out tactics on an ad hoc basis. Your goals are the end point of your campaign, and the big
picture of what you are trying to achieve through digital PR. This could include increasing brand
awareness, or building trust with existing.
3.4 Electronic Media Relations Management

Media Relations involves working with media for the purpose of informing the public of an
organization's mission, policies and practices in a positive, consistent and credible manner. It
also refers to the relationship that a company or organization develops with journalists, while
public relations extend that relationship beyond the media to the general public. Media relations
tools include the following:

a) Pitches and Media Alerts: These two tools are typically used when a brand or
organization has something to contribute to an editor’s news story or product line up.
b) Press Release
c) Editorial Calendar: Print and digital media outlets often produce an editorial calendar on
an annual basis that includes the features and topics reporters, editors and bloggers will
be spotlighting throughout the year. Reviewing editorial calendars allows PR
professionals to proactively see if there are opportunities for their clients to be included
in or contribute to articles being planned.

3.5 Public Relations and Internet

The Internet has caused a revolution in communication by giving a voice to those that previously
could not have been heard. This has opened a whole new world of opportunities for both
businesses and individuals that were unimagined in the era of the traditional media. These still
play an important role in shaping the public opinion but with the entire globe moving to the
online world to search for information and buy products/services, a PR that does not effectively
communicate with the online community can no longer effectively shape and maintain the
desired public image.

The Internet has made it possible for a communications professional or anyone with an Internet
connection to instantly push news out to the entire world. As a result, the number of news outlets
has grown exponentially. Once saddled with a fair amount of research to find appropriate outlets,
PR practitioners have thousands of delivery vehicles available at their fingertips.

The fact that our society has grown to depend on the Internet for news has resulted in a highly
engaged audience. No longer waiting to hear the news on nightly broadcast television, radio or
read in traditional publications, today’s consumers are actively seeking information 24/7. This
provides communications professionals with unprecedented real-time access to a vibrant
audience.

With the introduction of the internet of things, IoT offers valuable opportunities for public
relations to mine and process data on relevant publics. It would also help to engage the
information derived to make informed decisions as regard anticipating and attending to the needs
of the various publics.

Although the Internet is one of the greatest inventions in human history, it has dramatically
changed the world and above all, the communication. The world wide web has opened a number
of opportunities but it has also opened a number of challenges, especially for the PR sector that
has mastered communication with and through the traditional media. While PR specialists
virtually had no competition in the era of the traditional media, the democracy of the Internet has
forced them to compete with the entire world.

The Internet has given just about everyone the ability to share their opinion just about everything
with the entire world in a matter of seconds. The ability to reach thousands or millions of people
in virtually no time gave PR specialists a powerful tool but it also made their jobs more difficult,
especially in case of an attack on integrity of their clients. Just imagine restoring the client’s
reputation if the first page of search engine results contains mainly compromising or damaging
content.

3.6 Public Relations and Social Media

PR and social media are based on communication but social media, with its real-time messaging,
amplifies your message, allowing PR to be stronger and more impactful. Content published via
news releases, emails, and other PR related means can live longer, spread faster and reach further
with the help of social media.

Social media is a natural fit for public relations and one of many tools businesses can use to
protect and promote their reputations. When public relations and marketing teams combine their
efforts on social media, brands often enjoy immediate positive results. Social media can help
public relations professionals meet their goals or it can hinder the reputation management
process, depending on the situation.

Social media has allowed PR to reach a much larger audience. Previously, PR was targeted at
specific individuals such as investors and business partners, but social media has caused this
target group to be expanded to include all persons vital to the success of a business.

Social media has made PR more “friendly” to all stakeholders of a business, resulting in a new
area of marketing called “relationship marketing”. This helps companies to be more warm,
inviting and approachable, regardless of their type or serious nature.

Social media compelled many brands to start focusing more on their customers, and building
positive relationships. Customers can always go on Twitter and Facebook to sound off about bad
customer experiences. This forces companies to resolve issues speedily to avoid a PR crisis.
Companies also use interactions on social media to improve their business as a whole, especially
where complaints and kudos are concerned.

The current all-day-every-day news cycle has its ups and downs. On the upside, brands can
deliver good news at any time and know someone is listening and ready to respond. Social media
also provides the opportunity to give play-by-play updates as part of a crisis management plan,
when things go wrong. However, the 24/7 news cycle becomes a curse when bad news travels
through the social media platforms, and creates a PR crisis making it more difficult to recover
from, clean up, and contain.

In the past, public relations firms and specialists mostly worked with politicians and large
organizations with the funds to spend for brand management and crisis communications. Today,
even small businesses can afford to hire a college student studying communications, journalism
or public relations to manage their online presence. This makes PR affordable to the businesses
that need it, and who cannot afford more professional and experienced PR assistance.

Marketing experts jumped on the social media bandwagon before PR experts caught up and
incorporated it into a good PR strategy. As a result, to work with social media marketing, public
relations experts must integrate marketing concepts and practices with PR strategy to achieve
results. This integration can also cause a company with separate PR and marketing teams to butt
heads over control for social media.
Summary

Over the few years, Public relations has undergone great changes and with the introduction of the
internet and social media, PR professionals and agency are now moving away from traditional
and conventional practice and integrating new technology.

Note

An important note is to differentiate between social media advertising and public relations.
Advertising is creating paid announcements to be promoted through different types of media
while public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial
relationships between organizations and the public.

Question

Discuss how the criminal Justice system has benefited from new public relation trends?

Explain the importance of the internet in Public relations?

CHAPTER FOUR: THE ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN ORGANIZATIONAL
MANAGEMENT

4.1 Introduction

Public relations professionals shape an organization's image. They build the brand, spread the
organization's message and minimize the effect of negative publicity. Public relations play a
major role in organizational management.

4.2 Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Define organizational Management.

2. Explain the role of public relations as a management function.

3. Demonstrate a clear understanding of modern corporations.

4.3 Todays Modern Corporation

The extensive negative publicity about corporations and businesses over the past several years
made it imperative that companies make a special effort to regain public credibility and trust.

In contemporary times, we have witnessed corporations increase their media presence through
frequent press conference and conducting online PR campaigns. A number of multinational
companies are fast adopting to this new trends and have established PR departments within their
structure in a bid to build up their brand and reputation. For modern corporations’ PR is now no
longer a matter of luxury but urgency with greater emphasis now being placed on setting up
more defined structures and employ tools to build their public relations.

Customer service is the front line of public relations. A single incident, or a series of incidents,
can severely damage a company’s reputation and erode public trust in its products and services.
Corporations are realizing that customer relations serves as a telltale public relations barometer.
Many public relations departments now regularly monitor customer feedback in a variety of
ways to determine what policies and communication strategies need to be revised.

While maintaining the public face of the company is important, it’s equally important to ensure
that information is flowing naturally within the internal structures of the company. To ensure
this, it’s important that all areas of the corporation are connected to each other. It also means
there is a strong need to tailor messages that keep both employees and management aware of the
company’s goals and issues.

4.4 Employee Relations

Employee relations refers to an organization’s efforts to create and maintain a positive

relationship with its employees. By maintaining positive, constructive employee relations,
organizations hope to keep employees loyal and more engaged in their work.

Typically, an organization’s human resources department manages employee relations efforts;

however, some organizations may have a dedicated employee relations manager role. When it
comes to employee relations, an HR department has two primary functions. First, HR helps
prevent and resolve problems or disputes between employees and management. Second, they
assist in creating and enforcing policies that are fair and consistent for everyone in the
workplace.

To maintain positive employee relations, an organization must first view employees as

stakeholders and contributors in the company rather than simply as paid laborers. This
perspective encourages those in management and executive roles to seek employee feedback, to
value their input more highly, and to consider the employee experience when making decisions
that affect the entire company.

4.5 Customer Relations

Customer relations describes the ways that a company will engage with its customers to improve
the customer experience. Customer relations aims to create a mutually beneficial relationship
with the customer that extends beyond the initial purchase.

Customer relations is present in all aspects of a business, but it's most prevalent in the customer
service department. Customer service teams, customer support, customer success, and product
development all play important roles in building a healthy customer relationship. Customer
relations includes both the reactive and proactive functions performed by your customer service
teams.
Reactive functions are the efforts made by your team to solve issues that are reported by
customers. This includes tasks like responding to customer complaints and solving problems
with the support team. Proactive functions are the measures taken to ensure a long-term
relationship with customers. These efforts are aimed towards fostering customer success by
consistently satisfying evolving customer needs.

4.6 Internal Consumer Relations

Internal customers have a relationship with, and within, your company, either through
employment or as partners who deliver your product or service to the end user. Internal customer
relations heavily focus on how employees interact with each other to accomplish tasks that affect
the overall company.

Internal consumer relation involves giving employees an opportunity to learn hands on what
other members of their team do and how their job functions relate to their fellow employees'
duties. Through job swapping or job shadowing days, employees get an opportunity to test drive
other positions within a company. Job swapping will help employees gain a sense of
responsibility. If employees can see what their co-workers do day-to-day, it can help them
communicate more efficiently.

4.7 Corporate Event Management

The management of corporate events includes planning and organizing different types of events
for corporate stakeholders, and engaging the attendees during the event. These events can be for
a variety of reasons. Some of these include – conferences, team dinners, orientation for new
joiners, farewell parties, trade shows, exhibitions, awards and incentive programs.

Since corporate events can be of various types, the audience depends on the type of event being
hosted. It is important to know your audience as it’ll help you to work on the outcome you are
aiming to fulfill from your event.

Defining your audience and setting a goal is co-dependent. If you know your goal, you can easily
define your audience. And vice versa. However, it is important to set a goal as it’ll give a
direction to your event. It will not help to organize a conference just for the sake of it. But, if you
know what you are trying to achieve from your conference, you will benefit more.
Once you’ve known your audience, have a goal and know your key metrics to be evaluated, the
next step is to plan and schedule. Plan your resources and schedule them based on the needs of
the event. This will help you to be fully prepared well in advance.

Whatever the size of your event, it always helps to set a timeline. This will help you to stick to
your plan. In the case of bigger events, you might need more time to organize everything.
Therefore, try to space out different aspects of your plan accordingly.

Summary

Public relations’ unique function is to help the organization develop and maintain relationships
with all of its key publics and stakeholders by effectively communicating with these groups.
Communication is key in maintaining a satisfactory, long-term, trusting relationships with
publics and stakeholders.

Note

In order to gain a strategic management role in the organization, the public relations function
must show its value to management. When the public relations function provides information
and feedback about stakeholder needs and expectations, it performs a critical task for the
organization that is unique to its function.

Question

Explain public relation as a management function?

Highlight employee relations best practice?

CHAPTER FIVE: PUBLIC RELATIONS TACTICS IN WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

5.1 Introduction

Despite increases in new technologies, solid writing skills remain critical for public relations and
marketing success. Effective public relations and marketing writing is clear, concise, compelling
and error-free.

5.2 Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Explain the goal of communication.

2. Explain the role of communication in public relations.

3. State and explain different writing tactics used in public relation

5.3 Goals of Communication

Communication plays a vital role in effective public relations. It’s very important to
communicate between both parties so that both organizations are on the same page. The goal of
communication is to convey information and the understanding of that information from one
person or group to another person or group. The main goals of communication include the
following.

1. To inform. Often the communications goal of an organization is to inform or educate a

particular public.

2. To persuade. A regular goal of public relations communicators is to persuade people

to take certain actions. Such persuasion needn’t be overly aggressive; it can be subtle. For
example, a mutual fund annual report that talks about the fund’s long history of financial strength
and security may provide a subtle persuasive appeal for potential investors.

3. To motivate. Motivation of employees to “pull for the team” is a regular

organizational communications goal. For example, the hospital CEO who outlines in an Intranet
memo to employees, the institution’s overriding objectives in the year ahead is communicating to
motivate the staff to action.
 4. To build mutual understanding. Often communicators have as their goal the mere
attainment of understanding of a group in opposition. For example, a community group that
meets with a local plant manager to express its concern about potential pollution of the

5. Message exposure. Public relations personnel provide materials to the mass media and
disseminate other messages through owned media such as newsletters and the organization’s
websites. Intended audiences are exposed to the message in various forms.

6. Accurate dissemination of the message. The basic information, often filtered by

journalists, editors, and bloggers, remains intact as it is transmitted through various channels.

7. Acceptance of the message. Based on its view of reality, the audience not only retains
the message, but accepts it as valid.

8. Attitude change. The audience not only believes the message, but makes a verbal or
mental commitment to change behavior as a result of the message.

9. Change in overt behavior. Members of the audience actually change their current
behavior or purchase the product and use it.

5.4 Communication Elements

Communication takes places when one person transmits information and understanding to
another person. The basic elements of communication process include source, message, channel,
receiver, feedback, environment and context. In the public relations process, communication to
internal and external audiences produces feedback that is taken into consideration during
research, the first step, and evaluation, the fourth step. In this way, the structure and
dissemination of messages are continuously refined for maximum effectiveness.

5.4.1 Source

The source imagines, creates, and sends the message. The source begins by first determining the
message what to say and how to say it. The second step involves encoding the message by
choosing just the right order or the perfect words to convey the intended meaning. The third step
is to present or send the information to the receiver or audience. This message can be conveyed
through his or her tone of voice, body language, and choice of clothing. Finally, by watching for
the audience’s reaction, the source perceives how well they received the message and responds
with clarification or supporting information.

5.4.2 Message

The message is the meaning produced by the source for the receiver or audience. When you
speak to a person your message may be the words you choose that will convey your meaning.
But that is just the beginning. The message also consists of the way you say it in a speech, with
your tone of voice, your body language, and your appearance and in a report, with your writing
style, punctuation, and the headings and formatting you choose.

5.4.3 Channel

There are different ways for a message to travel between the source and the receiver and this is
called the channel. Each channel takes up some space, even in a digital world, in the cable or in
the signal that brings the message of each channel to your home. Spoken channels include face-
to-face conversations, speeches, telephone conversations and voice mail messages, radio, public
address systems, and voice over Internet protocol. Written channels include letters,
memorandums, purchase orders, invoices, newspaper and magazine articles, blogs, e-mail, text
messages, tweets, and so forth.

5.4.4 Receiver

As a receiver you listen, see, touch, smell, and/or taste to receive a message and interpret the
message from the source intentionally and unintentionally.

5.4.5 Feedback

When you respond to the source, intentionally or unintentionally, you are giving feedback.
Feedback is composed of messages the receiver sends back to the source. Verbal or nonverbal,
all these feedback signals allow the source to see how well or how accurately the message was
received. Feedback also provides an opportunity for the receiver or audience to ask for
clarification, to agree or disagree, or to indicate that the source could make the message more
interesting. As the amount of feedback increases, the accuracy of communication also increases.
5.4.6 Environment

The environment is the space where you send and receive messages. The environment can also
include factors like formal dress, that may indicate whether a discussion is open and caring or
more professional and formal.

5.4.7 Context

Context is the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of
which it can be fully understood and assessed. The degree to which the environment is formal or
informal depends on the contextual expectations for communication held by the
participants. Context is all about what people expect from each other, and we often create those
expectations out of environmental cues.

5.5 Fundamentals of writing

Few people are born writers. Like any other discipline, writing takes patience and hard work.
The more you write, the better you should become, provided you have mastered the basics.
Writing fundamentals do not change significantly from one form to another. What are the basics?
Here is a foolproof, four-part formula for writers, from the novice to the novelist:

1. The idea must precede the expression. Think before writing. Few people can observe an
event, immediately grasp its meaning, and sit down to compose several pages of sharp, incisive
prose. Writing requires ideas, and ideas require thought. Sometimes ideas come quickly. Other
times, they don’t come at all. But each new writing situation doesn’t require a new idea. The
trick in coming up with clever ideas lies more in borrowing old ones than in creating new ones.

2. Don’t be afraid of the draft. After deciding on an idea and establishing the purpose of a
communication, the writer should prepare a rough draft. Drafting is a necessary and foolproof
method for avoiding a mediocre, half-baked product. Writing, no matter how good, can usually
be improved with a second look. The draft helps you organize ideas and plot their development
before you commit them to a written test. Sadly, few public relations writers go through the
drafting process. Writing clarity is often enhanced if you know where you will stop before you
start.
3. Simplify, clarify. In writing, the simpler, the better. Today, with more and more consumers
reading from computer screens, simplicity is imperative. The more people who understand what
you’re trying to say, the better your chances for stimulating action. Shop talk, jargon, and “in”
words should be avoided. Standard English is all that’s required to get an idea across. practically
every case, what makes sense is the simple rather than the complex, the familiar rather than the
unconventional, and the concrete rather than the abstract. Clarity is another essential in writing.

4. Writing must be aimed at a particular audience. The writer must have the target group in
mind and tailor the message to reach that audience. To win the minds and hearts of a specific
audience, one must be willing to sacrifice the understanding of certain others. Writers, like
companies, can’t expect to be all things to all people.

Summary

Two-way communication between both the parties is essential and information must flow in its
desired form between the organization and public. The receiver must understand what the sender
intends to communicate for an effective public relation. The receivers must clearly understand
the sender’s message.

Note

Public relations is the management of communication between an organization and its publics.

Revision Question

Highlight the different elements of communication?

What are the goals of communications?

Public relation is the management of communication. Explain?

CHAPTER SIX: PUBLIC RELATIONS TACTICS IN DEALING WITH THE MEDIA

6.1 Introduction

When practitioners need to deliver information to the media, they can choose from several PR
tools and tactics. Some of these tools and tactics may be sent to the media with other materials
that supplement them.

6.2 Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this chapter students should be able to:

1. Explain the role of media in public relations.

2. Explain different media tactics and how to handle the media.

3. Define Media relationship and its importance.

6.3 Objectivity in the Media

Objectivity is one of the values that is an essential part of honest journalism. Objectivity in the
media means being able to criticize and highlight important facts and information. The journalist
is supposed to give their audience an honest picture of events that take place. Journalistic
objectivity requires that a journalist not be on either side of an argument. The journalist must
report only the facts and not a personal attitude toward the facts

Objectivity in journalism aims to help the audience make up their own mind about a story,
providing the facts alone and then letting audiences interpret those on their own. To maintain
objectivity in journalism, journalists should present the facts whether or not they like or agree
with those facts. Objective reporting is meant to portray issues and events in a neutral and
unbiased manner, regardless of the writer's opinion or personal beliefs.

6.4 Dealing with Media

The first rule for handling any media or press situation is keeping calm. Losing your temper will
make you appear immature or even incapable. Always remember that anything said to the media
will almost certainly be made public. Don’t panic. You know your business and you know your
facts. Be courteous and polite and listen to exactly what the reporter is asking.
The reporter isn't the only one who can ask questions. Get as much information as you can about
the complaint or issue the reporter is calling about. Listen and take notes, but don't try to argue
the merits of the case right away. Everything you say could be on the record, even if the reporter
says otherwise; terms like "on background" and "off-the-record" are not legally binding.

6.5 Media Relationship

Media relations refers to the mutually beneficial relationship between journalists and public
relations professionals. One of the biggest benefits for journalists is the easy access to story ideas
and sources.

The role of media relations is to educate the media on your business enough to interest them in
doing a story, and as a result, educate the general public on the services your business provides.
One of the key reasons why having good media relations is important from a business
perspective is because having third-party endorsements is more effective in establishing a
reputation for whatever you are trying to sell to the public.

One important aspect of media relations is maintaining long-term relationships with journalist
and media publications and maintaining these long term relationships can offer several
advantages to a business. Press coverage usually results in an increase in the branded search term
on Google as people look up your company online after watching or reading about it in the press.

Summary

Media Relations is an aspect of public relations. The terms are not interchangeable as media
relations focuses solely on the relationship between the company and the media. They use
different media outlets and coverage to tell the company’s story, rather than directly engaging
with the publics and key stakeholders.

Note

The key to success in a top-notch communications strategy is the combination of strong public
relations with strong media relations. Earned media is just a piece of the puzzle that makes up a
broader and more comprehensive successful PR strategy.
Revision Question

Define objectivity in media and explain its importance?

Highlight ways of dealing with Media?

State and Explain the importance of Media in Public Relations?

State the difference between Media Relations and Public Relations?

CHAPTER SEVEN: PUBLIC RELATIONS IN CRISIS SITUATIONS

7.1 Introduction

A PR crisis is when any negative event or review related to your business gains traction in the
public sphere. It could be related to an unhealthy business practice, a customer accident at your
location, or an internal, employee-related issue.

7.2 Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Define Crisis situation.

2. Demonstrate a clear understanding in crisis management.

3. Explain the role of public relations in crisis management.

4. Explain steps in social media crisis management

Crisis management is a critical organizational function. Failure can result in serious harm to
stakeholders, losses for an organization, or end its very existence. Public relations practitioners
are an integral part of crisis management teams. So a set of best practices and lessons gleaned
from our knowledge of crisis management would be a very useful resource for those in public
relations. From many different disciplines making it a challenge to synthesize what we know
about crisis management and public relations’ place in that knowledge base. The best place to
start this effort is by defining critical concepts.

7.3 Defining a Crisis

A crisis is defined as a significant threat to operations that can have negative consequences if not
handled properly. In crisis management, the threat is the potential damage a crisis can inflict on
an organization, its stakeholders, and an industry. A crisis can create three related threats: public
safety, financial loss, and reputation loss.

Some crises, such as industrial accidents and product harm, can result in injuries and even loss of
lives. Crises can create financial loss by disrupting operations, creating a loss of market
share/purchase intentions, or spawning lawsuits related to the crisis. Three elements are common
to most definitions of crisis: a threat to the organization, the element of surprise, and a short
decision time. Crisis is a process of transformation where the old system can no longer be
maintained. Therefore, the fourth defining quality is the need for change. If change is not needed,
the event could more accurately be described as a failure or incident.

7.4 Communicating During a Crisis

Communication in a crisis should follow these principles:

1. Be open, accessible and willing to respond as much as possible to those clamoring for
information.
2. Be truthful. Honesty is the best policy both from an ethical point of view as well as from
a practical standpoint. People quickly find out about partial truths or cover ups – and they
will hate you for it. They hate the cover up more than the original crisis event.
3. Be compassionate, empathetic, courteous and considerate. It’s not easy to do this under
pressure when silly questions are asked or repeated, but this patient approach is
necessary.
4. Don’t over-reassure. The objective is not to soothe, but to convey accurate, calm concern.
In fact, it is better to over-estimate the problem and then be able to say that the situation
is better than first thought.
5. Acknowledge uncertainty. Tell only what you know. Show your distress and
acknowledge your audience’s distress: “It must be frustrating to hear that we don’t have
the answer to that question right now…”
6. Emphasize that a process is in place to learn from the situation. Describe the process so
people will be confident you will use the knowledge to prevent or minimize the chances
of a similar crisis happening again.
7. Give anticipatory guidance. If you are aware of future negative outcomes, let people
know what to expect: “Experts won’t know the full extent of the data leak for another 24
hours at the earliest.”
8. Be regretful, not defensive. Say, “We are sorry…”, or “We feel terrible that…” when
acknowledging problems or failures. It is preferable not to use ‘regret,’ which sounds
legalistic.
 9. Acknowledge people’s fears. Don’t tell people they shouldn’t be afraid. They are afraid
and have a right to their fears.
10. Express wishes. Say, “I wish we knew more,” or “I wish our answers were more
definitive.”
11. Be willing to address the ‘what if’ questions. These are the questions that everyone is
thinking about and they want expert answers. If you are not prepared to answer the ‘what
if’ questions, someone else will, and you will lose credibility and the opportunity to
frame the discussion.

Strategies for Responding to Crises

Recent research has shown that organizations don’t respond to a crisis in the same way. Indeed,
Timothy Coombs postulates that an organization’s response may vary on a continuum from
defensive to accommodative.

Here is Coombs’s list of crisis communication strategies that an organization may use:

■ Attack the accuser. The party that claims a crisis exists is confronted and its logic and facts are
faulted. Sometimes a lawsuit is threatened.

■ Denial. The organization explains that there is no crisis.

■ Excuse. The organization minimizes its responsibility for the crisis. Any intention to do harm
is denied, and the organization says that it had no control over the events that led to the crisis.
This strategy is often used when there is a natural disaster or product tampering.

■ Justification. Crisis is minimized with a statement that no serious damage or injuries resulted.
Sometimes, the blame is shifted to the victims, as in the case of the iPhone 4. Consumers
complained that when held a certain way their new iPhones had problems with reception.
Initially, Apple’s response was to tell consumers they were holding the phone wrong.

■ Ingratiation. Actions are taken to appease the publics involved. Consumers who

complain are given coupons, or the organization makes a donation to a charitable organization.
Burlington Industries, for example, gave a large donation to the
Humane Society after the discovery that it had imported coats from China with fur collars
containing dog fur instead of coyote fur.

■ Corrective action. Steps are taken to repair the damage from the crisis and to prevent it from
happening again.

■ Full apology. The organization takes responsibility and asks forgiveness. Some compensation
of money or aid is often included.

7.5 Social Media Crisis Management

Effective social media crisis management starts long before any issue arises. Social media crisis
management involves the following steps.

7.5.1 Create a social media policy

Some of the worst social media situations start with an employee posting something
inappropriate. The best way to prevent this type of social media crisis is to create a solid social
media policy for your company. It should provide clear guidelines for appropriate use, outline
expectations for branded accounts, and explain how employees can talk about the business on
their personal channels.

7.5.2 Secure your accounts

Weak passwords and other social media security risks can quickly expose your brand to a social
media crisis. In fact, employees are more likely to cause a cyber-security crisis than hackers are.
Having a centralized system to control use permissions and grant the appropriate level of access
allows you to revoke access for employees who leave the company or move to a role that no
longer requires them to post on social.

7.5.3 Use social listening to identify potential issues

A good social listening program can help you spot an emerging issue on social media well before
it turns into a crisis. Monitoring brand mentions can give you some advanced warning of a surge
of social activity. But if you really want to keep an eye out for a potential social media crisis, you
should be monitoring social sentiment.

7.5.4 Craft a crisis communication plan

A company-wide social media crisis communication plan allows you to respond quickly to any
potential issue. Instead of debating how to handle things, or waiting for senior managers to
weigh in, you can take action and prevent things from getting out of control.

Your social media crisis communication plan should include

 Guidelines for identifying the type and magnitude of a crisis.

 Roles and responsibilities for every department.

 A communication plan for internal updates.

 Up-to-date contact information for critical employees.

 Approval processes for messaging posted on social media.

 Any pre-approved external messages, images, or information.

 A link to your social media policy

7.6 Risk Communication

Risk communication plays a key role in helping organizations apply the concepts of risk
management in their daily operations. It is critical to the success of any organization, especially
when it comes to public relations and customer retention. Effective communication must be a
two-way channel. This means there must be an audience and a communicator. The
communicator must tell the audience about the risks related to a specific hazard. The audience
must also provide feedback so that both parties can come up with appropriate mitigation
measures.

The main purpose of communicating risks is to inform people about the potential hazards related
to a particular condition or activity. These hazards may be directly linked to a person,
community or property. It involves a two-way exchange of information between the parties
likely to be affected. The communicator should engage all of them and respond to questions and
concerns. Communicators apply practical and scientific principles to interact with both parties
effectively, especially during controversial situations.

Summary

Crisis management is the communications management function used to convey accurate facts
and data to the general public and to specific publics during a crisis situation in order to prevent
or minimize negative publicity that could adversely affect the success of the company.

Note

Crisis management public relations can make or break your company during a crisis event. By
working with an experienced PR firm before an event occurs, you can substantially improve your
ability to minimize the impact of negative publicity on your business.

Revision Questions

What is crisis communication in public relations?

Does public relations strategies play a significant role in crisis management. Explain?

Why is crisis management important in Public relations?

CHAPTER EIGHT: PUBLIC RELATIONS ETHICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES

8.1 Introduction

Ethics means the set of rules or principles that the organization should follow. While in business
ethics refers to a code of conduct that businesses are expected to follow while doing business.

8.2 Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Define what is ethics.

2. Explain the significance of ethics in public relations.

3. State and explain best ethics practice in public relations.

4. Demonstrate a clear understanding of litigation in public relations.

5.Explain the role of public relations litigation.

8.3 Understanding Ethics and Value

Ethics refers to the guidelines for conduct, that address question about morality. Value is defined
as the principles and ideals, which helps them in making the judgement of what is more
important. Values are beliefs that a person holds about things and aspects of life. These are
guiding principles that mold a person's behavior all his life. Ethics are codes of conduct that
decide what is wrong and what is right in a particular circumstance.

Through ethics, a standard is set for the organization to regulate their behavior. This helps them
in distinguishing between the wrong and the right part of the businesses. The ethics that are
formed in the organization are not rocket science. They are based on the creation of a human
mind. That is why ethics depend on the influence of the place, time, and the situation. Code of
conduct is another term that is used extensively in businesses nowadays. It is a set of rules that
are considered as binding by the people working in the organization.

Ethical practices must consider the employer's self-interests, the public's self-interest, personal
self-interest, and the standards of the public relations profession. Public relations professionals
must also meet legal standards, as there are ways they can be held legally accountable for their
decisions and actions.

8.4 Ethics in Public Relations

In the public relations discipline, ethics includes values such as honesty, openness, loyalty, fair-
mindedness, respect, integrity, and forthright communication. Its six core values underpin the
desired behavior of any public relations professional.

1. Advocacy. The PRSA Code endorses the Fitzpatrick and Gauthier model in stating:
“We serve the public interest by acting as responsible advocates for those we represent.” For
example, public relations professionals must never reveal confidential or private client
information, even if a journalist demands it. The only way such information might be revealed is
after a thorough discussion with the client.

2. Honesty. For example, a client asking a public relations representative to “embellish”

the performance the company expects to achieve should be told diplomatically, but firmly, no.
Public relations people don’t lie.

3. Expertise. For example, a client in need of guidance as to whether to accept a sensitive

interview invitation for a cable TV talk show must be carefully guided through the pros and cons
by a skilled public relations practitioner.

4. Independence. For example, when everyone in the room—lawyer, human resources,

treasurer, and president—agree with the CEO’s rock-headed scheme to disguise bad news, it is
the public relations professional’s duty to strike an independent tone.

5. Loyalty. For example, if a competing client offers a practitioner more money to

abandon his or her original employer, the public relations professional should understand that his
or her loyalties must remain constant.

6. Fairness. For example, when a rude and obnoxious journalist demands information, a
practitioner’s responsibility is to treat even the most obnoxious reporter with fairness.
8.4.1 Share Information

Public Relations professionals are responsible for representing clients in an ethical way. PR
professionals should assist in the free flow of information to ensure that the public can make
informed decisions, and maintain open relationships with the media, the government and the
public. Any information disseminated by those responsible for PR should be independently
investigated for accuracy by those individuals and should reveal any sponsorship at the heart of
the information.

8.4.2 Embrace Competition

PR professionals should always respect fair competition among themselves and their peers.
Avoiding undermining competitors and avoiding stealing other individuals’ work is at the heart
of this ethical behavior.

8.4.3 Keep Confidences

PR professionals must keep the confidences of clients, protecting privileged and insider
information, and be prepared to continue to do so in the face of that information being leaked by
another party.

8.4.4 Avoid Conflicts of Interest

The professional’s personal interests come last in PR work. The organization being represented
comes first, as we are charged with acting in our client’s or our employer’s best interests
regardless of our own.

8.5 Ethics in Business

By definition, business ethics are the moral principles that act as guidelines for the way a
business conducts itself and its transactions.

Business ethics, also called corporate ethics, is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that
examines the ethical and moral principles and problems that arise in a business environment. It
can also be defined as the written and unwritten codes of principles and values, determined by an
organization’s culture, that govern decisions and actions within that organization. It applies to all
aspects of business conduct on behalf of both individuals and the entire company. In the most
basic terms, a definition for business ethics boils down to knowing the difference between right
and wrong and choosing to do what is right.

Business ethics compromises of all these values and principles and helps in guiding the behavior
in the organizations. Businesses should have a balance between the needs of the stakeholders and
their desire to make profits. While maintaining these balances, many times businesses require to
do tradeoffs. To combat such scenarios, rules and principles are formed in the organization. This
ensures that businesses gain money without affecting the individuals or society as a whole. The
ethics involved in the businesses reflect the philosophy of that organization. One of these
policies determines the fundamentals of that organization. As a result, businesses often have
ethical principles. There is a list of ethical principles involved in the businesses.

Acting ethically ultimately means determining what is “right” and what is “wrong.” Basic
standards exist around the world that dictate what is wrong or unethical in terms of business
practices. While some unethical business practices are obvious or true for companies around the
world, they do still occur. In other instances, determining what practices are ethical or not is
more difficult to determine if they exist in a grey area where the lines between ethical and
unethical can become blurred.

Business ethics are important for every company. They keep workers safe, help trade and
interactions between companies remain honest and fair, and generally make for better goods and
services. Distinguishing what a company will and won’t stand for is not always the same for
each organization, but knowing which guidelines need to be followed helps keep a company
honest and productive.

8.6 Litigation in public relations

Litigation public relations, also known as litigation communications, is the management of the
communication process during the course of any legal dispute or adjudicatory processing so as to
affect the outcome or its impact on the client's overall reputation. When it comes to managing the
reputation of a client during the litigation process whether that client is an individual or a
company it’s up to litigation PR to deal with everything. Litigation PR is a specialist section of
legal PR.
This is the segment of public relations that deals with everything before any claim has been
issued, and before anything even reaches the court, as well as dealing with any events throughout
the timeline of the court processes. Litigation PR also deals with the public relations aspects of a
client when the case is finally closed.

The closer a PR practitioner’s work is to the actual litigation the greater chance the practitioner’s
communications with a client can be protected by attorney-client privilege. Courts extending the
privilege to PR practitioners look at the relationships between practitioners and attorneys and the
role practitioners play within litigation. The closer a practitioner can place themselves into the
nexus of litigation strategy and an organization’s lawyers the argument for extending attorney-
client privilege becomes stronger.

One important question that PR managers need to answer is whether their activities as part of
LPR are not a cover-up of fraudulent or unethical activity of the party they represent. One
should remember that litigations against companies are only brought about when there is a strong
suspicion of wrong-doing, and the litigation is raised usually by competing companies or the
general public.

One should remember that litigations against companies are only brought about when there is a
strong suspicion of wrong-doing, and the litigation is raised usually by competing companies or
the general public. While lawyers can argue that every company has the right to defend itself is
lf, PR managers on the other hand usually act out of loyalty as well as their own investments in
the company. In this sense, one can see that ethics are not the primary motivation for LPR
exercises. As opposed to publishing and reporting the truth as it exists, LPR efforts attempt to
color this truth and make it favorable to the company’s cause. This might ultimately prove
beneficial to the company by reducing negative publicity and consequently not affecting its
bottom line, but the general public and the broader industry might suffer due to the
misinformation being generated.

To be fair to the defendants, one has to concede that media coverage generally tends to be hostile
to them. For example, most law-suits are covered from the viewpoint of the plaintiff or the
prosecutor and their case gets presented in greater detail. There is a slight negative bias toward
the defendant, for they are deemed as wrong-doers until proven otherwise. So one can justify
LPR processes as a way of compensating for the prevalent media bias against the defendant. In
this regard, LPR can be considered to present a ‘balanced’ and ‘neutral’ view of the case.

Ethical Issues in Investigation, Interrogation, and Custody

 Rights of Suspects

Suspects are morally entitled to be convicted based only on evidence that is real and not
fabricated and on evidence given by truthful witnesses. Fabricating evidence or committing
perjury violates the moral rights of suspects, affects the fairness of trials, and ultimately
undermines the administration of justice.

 Right of Victims

Police also have a duty to the victim of a crime that extends to the victim’s family if there is a
need to protect persons who have been terrorized by the crime, although not its direct target.
Fundamentally, police are under an obligation to employ the greatest possible effort to apprehend
a suspect and to provide evidence for a successful prosecution. In doing this, they satisfy their
ethical obligation toward the victim

 Privacy

This is a constitutional right and a moral right that a person possesses in relation to others,
particularly with regard to information possessed by others or in relation to the observation of
others. A violation of privacy takes place through acts such as observation and body searches.
Similarly, a person’s intimate personal relations with others must be regarded as a privacy issue,
as is information relating to the ownership of objects or assets where there is a presumption that
the person need not disclose assets except in defined.
The right to privacy is clearly not absolute, and a balance has to be achieved between rights to
privacy and confidentiality and rights to protection from crime. In achieving this balance, there is
need to apply the following principles:

1. Accessing and interception are prima facie an infringement of privacy and are presumed a
violation that ought not to be overridden except in exceptional circumstances.

2. The benefits of violating privacy must be greater than the likely costs, especially the cost of
reducing public trust in those who seek to violate privacy.

3. Accessing and interception ought to relate to a serious crime; there ought to be probable cause
that the person whose privacy is to be violated has committed the crime and that the resulting
information is likely to further the investigation of that crime.

4. There must be no practicable alternative method of gathering the information.

5. Law enforcement officials must be accountable for the violation in terms of obtaining any
necessary warrant.

6. Persons whose privacy has been violated should be informed of the violation at the earliest
possible moment consistent with not compromising the investigation.

 Entrapment

Entrapment occurs when a government agent, usually a police officer, initiates action that
induces an otherwise innocent person to commit a crime so that he or she may be prosecuted.
The practice of entrapment includes operations—such as surveillance, undercover investigations,
and entrapment itself—which are of a covert nature and involve deception of one kind or
another. Deception seems to be an inevitable part of law enforcement and may not necessarily
infringe on moral rights. Entrapment, however, is regarded as morally problematic because of the
belief that the offender involved in a case of entrapment has not attained the required degree of
criminality to be arrested and must therefore be entrapped. Entrapment may be random or
targeted at a particular person or persons, and random entrapment is considered particularly
morally problematic. In the case of targeted entrapment, moral objections may cease to apply if
certain conditions are met. These are the following:

1. There is sufficient evidence to believe that the target is likely to commit a crime.

2. The person would have committed the crime or a similar crime whether he or she was a victim
of the entrapment or not.

3. The entrapment succeeds as a technique of detection where other methods, such as complaints
investigation, have failed.

The second condition is the most morally problematic because it assumes facts that cannot really
be clearly ascertained and relies on evidence such as the suspect’s disposition to commit crimes,
which is a matter of subjective interpretation. It also relies on evidence of opportunity, and this,
together with disposition, would lead to the formation of an intention to commit the crime.

 Deception

To what extent, if any, are police entitled to rely on deception to promote law enforcement?
There are many forms of verbal and nonverbal deception, and police deception may take forms
such as withholding and manipulating information, lying, using ruses, using informants, enacting
sting operations, installing wiretaps and bugging devices, creating false friendships,
manufacturing evidence, and using the good cop/bad cop routine in interrogations. Many of these
forms of deception involve lying in one form or another.

Skolnick (1982), in considering police deception, focuses on three stages of deception:

 Investigative deception,

 Interrogatory deception, and

 Testimonial deception.
He makes the point that the acceptability of deception varies according to the stage reached in
the criminal process. Deception is most acceptable to police and the courts at the investigation
stage, less acceptable during interrogation, and least acceptable in the courtroom.

The reason for this is that each stage implies a greater number of constraints in the criminal
justice process.

For example, testimony in court is given under oath, but in the process of interrogation, it is not.
Deceptive practices can include acts associated with the fabrication of evidence, such as the
following:

 Telling a suspect that he or she has been identified by an accomplice when this is not true

 Showing a suspect faked evidence, such as fingerprints, to confirm his or her guilt

 Telling a suspect that he or she has been identified by an eyewitness

 Holding a lineup in which a supposed witness identifies the suspect

 Getting a suspect to agree to a lie-detector test and telling him or her that it has proved
their guilt

 Informants

What ethical issues are associated with police use of informants? Indicates the use of informants
is ethically problematic on several levels. He describes informers as “individuals who supply
information about other persons covertly to the authorities, usually in expectation of some form
of reward and usually at the instigation of the authorities.” Commonly, the informant’s
information cannot be acquired by any other means, and the informant has gained that
information through a relationship with the subject of the information. Harfield (2012) argues
that using informers who inform against a third person, unknown to that person is itself
unethical. In terms of policing, it can only be justified morally if
  it facilitates the purpose of policing;

 Reasonable suspicion exists that the person informed against is intending to commit a
crime;

 the crime is sufficiently serious in nature to justify recourse to an informant in order to

obtain knowledge of it;

 no other less morally harmful means of obtaining the information exists;

 The information itself is central to an investigation in the sense that the investigation or a
prosecution could not proceed without it; and

 The information is not simply desirable, but essential.

 Confessions

Research into the personal and situational influences that lead both guilty and innocent persons
to confess shows that interrogation tactics such as minimizing a crime by suggesting to a suspect
that he or she was morally justified in committing it makes suspects believe that that they will be
dealt with leniently after confessing. As well, presenting false evidence can lead innocent
persons to confess to acts they did not commit.

Confessions are elicited through the polygraph by the polygraph examiner, who plays on the
fears of exposure of the suspect that arise before, during, and after the test and particularly when
the suspect is informed that he or she has “failed” the test. The suspect will be told that the
polygraph has found him or her to be “deceptive” and that since it never makes mistakes the
suspect might as well confess (Leo 2004: 62).

Police interrogation manuals teach officers that they too can recognize when a suspect is lying by
using “behavioral analysis.

 Testimonial Deception

The police often take the view not only that deception in testifying is done with the aim of
furthering the noble cause, but also they are forced to practice deception to correct deficiencies in
the criminal justice system. Police might argue that the standards of proof required of the state,
the constitutional restraints under which police operate that protect the rights of suspects, and the
abilities of cunning defense lawyers and unsympathetic judges mean that the odds are stacked
against them, and evidence, therefore, ought not to be excluded by technicalities or a case lost
because of a clever lawyer.

 Police Lying

Police Lying

Barker and Carter (1995) propose a typography of police lying, comprised by accepted lying,
tolerated lying, and deviant lying.

Accepted Lying

While lying may be acceptable to the police themselves, this does not answer the question of
whether their lies are ethically acceptable. Many deceptive practices involve lying in the broad
sense, especially in undercover operations, and in such cases, police must be aware of the
possible defense of entrapment.

As far as the police are concerned, a lie is acceptable if the following are true:

 The lie is made in pursuit of a legitimate organizational goal.

 There is a clear relationship between deceiving and achieving that organizational goal.

 The lying is such that police and management within the police believe that lying will
better serve the public interest than providing the truth.

 The ethical and legal aspect of lying is not considered a concern.

Tolerated Lying
In tolerated lying, lies are tolerated as necessary evils, and police will admit a lie when
confronted. Again, from the police perspective, such lies are seen as necessary to the policing
mission. An example is using lies and deception to handle what police regard as “nuisance work”
as opposed to “real police work.” Given that police are called out to deal with a wide variety of
problems, most of which do not involve criminal activity, they sometimes promise to investigate
a matter or threaten to take action when they have no intention of doing so.

Deviant Lying

In deviant lying, police use lies that violate police regulations as well as the law. The major
example here is police perjuring themselves in giving evidence in court, and at least one well-
known defense attorney believes that almost all police lie in court.

Summary

The ability to engage in ethical reasoning in public relations is growing in demand, in

responsibility, and in importance.

Note

The public relations function stands at a critical and defining juncture: whether to become an
ethics counselor to top management or to remain outside the realm of the strategic decision
making core. How we choose to respond to the crisis of trust among our publics will define the
public relations of the future.

Revision Question

What are ethical issues in PR?

Why are ethical issues important in public relations?

 CHAPTER NINE: PUBLIC RELATIONS PLANNING, STRATEGIES AND
MANAGEMENT
9.1 Introduction

For PR professionals, the backbone of every client relationship is a strategic plan that
encompasses what your client is trying to achieve and how public relations can help support their
overall goals.

9.2 Expected Learning Outcome

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. State and explain public relations planning.

2. Explain the importance of planning in public relations.

3. Demonstrate a clear understanding on public relations messages.

9.3 Understanding the message

Public relations messages are sometimes referred to as earned media. This means that the PR
professional has earned the attention of the journalist who decides to use the information the PR
professional supplied as the germ of a news story. The messages created by public relations
professionals get a major portion of their exposure through journalism organizations output from
public relations professionals is a major source of news. A significant routine for news
professionals is the monitoring and use of news releases generated by public relations specialists,
attendance at news conferences organized by PR professionals, coverage of events sponsored by
PR strategists, and use of material from the media kits that PR firms create for their clients.

Generally speaking, the policy of news organizations is that PR-generated messages are checked,
edited, and supplemented by information independently generated by news professionals before
running. In fact, much PR appears in mass media, but most of it is produced for specialized
media such as trade, association, and employee publications. Public relations messages are also a
part of what is referred to as strategic communications along with advertising in that there is a
strategic objective in the crafting of the message to influence people’s opinions or purchasing
decisions.

9.4 Acting on the Message

Once messages have been carefully crafted, you can design strategies and tactics to carry out
your message to their intended public. Strategies and tactics are public-specific since they are
designed with one public in mind.

A message that has been received may be an instruction that will require appropriate action
within an appropriate time period. Before a message can be acted upon, the receiver of that
message must have clarified that the message is understood and confirmed that appropriate
action will be taken.

9.5 Implementing the Plan

A public relations plan is a strategy used to manage the public’s perception of a person or
organization. A public relations plan typically addresses public disasters and issues with public
perception. These issues can include data and information breaches, illegal activity and immoral
behavior. Public relations plans consist of knowing who your intended audience is and how to
contact your intended audience, and addressing the issue. A successful plan can be achieved by
organizing community and charity events, or sending out press releases to newspapers, radio
stations and televisions.

Summary

A public relations plan is a strategy used to manage the public’s perception of a person or
organization. Public relations plans consist of knowing who your intended audience is and how
to contact your intended audience, and addressing the issue.

Note

A message is not the same as an advertising slogan or a marketing line; a message is a simple
and clear idea that acts as a guiding principle for all kinds of communications, from the content
of leaflets, brochures and websites to the agenda for a media interview, to conversations with
stakeholders

Revision Question

What is a public relations plan and how should it be used?

Highlight steps in developing a public relations plan?

10.0 Public Relations Evaluation

10.1 Introduction

PR evaluation is any and all research designed to determine the relative effectiveness of a public
relations programme, strategy, or activity, by measuring the outputs and/or outcomes of that PR
programme against a predetermined set of objectives.

10.2 Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Explain the purpose of evaluation in public relations.

2. State and explain steps in the evaluation of public relations.

3. Define the prerequisite for evaluation.

10.3 Defining Evaluation

Evaluation in PR refers to the measurement of results against established objectives set during
the planning process. Evaluation involves the systematic assessment of a program, particularly
focusing on communication results. It is a means for practitioners to offer accountability to
clients and to themselves.

Evaluation provides the opportunity to learn what was done right and what was done wrong, both
as a look backward at performance and as a look forward at the improvement of performance.
The desire to do a better job next time is a major reason for evaluating public relations efforts,
but another equally an important reason is the widespread adoption of the management-by
objectives system by clients and employers of public relations personnel. They want to know
whether the money, time, and effort expended on public relations are well spent and contribute to
the realization of an organizational objective, such as attendance at an open house, product sales,
or increased awareness of obesity in children.

10.4 Purpose of evaluation

10.4.1 Validate your PR efforts for achieving your organization’s objectives

Absence of evaluation leads to misinterpretation of your company’s performance. Marketing and

PR practitioners need to demonstrate the value of PR activities in achieving business objectives.

10.4.2 Make adjustments and corrections

As you implement your campaign, some factors and circumstances change. Measurement and
evaluation help you to identify those elements and make necessary adjustments and corrections
in your PR campaign to achieve better results.

10.4.3 Plan for the future

Measurement allows you to assess your past performances to plan your future strategies. It is
critical for planning budgets and setting key performance indicators.

10.4.4 Eliminate confusion and misinterpretation

People are exposed to diverse media and many messages on a daily basis. Armed with accurate
and collected data, you can provide explanation and reasoning in any situation, should confusion
or misinterpretation happen. This is particularly important in times of reputation and business
image crises.

10.5 Prerequisites for evaluation

Before any public relations program can be properly evaluated, it is important to have a clearly
established set of measurable objectives.

10.5.1 Setting Specific Measurable PR Goals and Objectives

This has to come first. No one can really measure the effectiveness of anything, unless they first
figure out exactly what it is they are measuring that something against. So, to begin, the public
relations practitioner, counselor or research supplier ought to ask: What are or were the goals or
objectives of the specific public relations program, activity, strategy or tactic? What exactly did
the program or the activities hope to accomplish through its public relations component? In
setting PR goals and objectives, it is usually important to recognize that measuring PR
effectiveness.

10.5.2 Measuring Output

Outputs are usually the immediate results of a particular PR program or activity. More often than
not, outputs represent what is readily apparent to the eye. Outputs measure how well an
organization presents itself to others, the amount of exposure that the organization receives. In
any event, both the quantity and quality of outputs can be measured and evaluated. Media can be
evaluated for their content; an event, as to whether the right people were there; a booklet or
brochure for its visual appeal and substance; and so on.

10.5.3 Measuring Outtakes

Although it is obviously important to measure how well an organization presents itself to others
and the amount of exposure obtained, it is even more important to measure PR outtakes that is,
determining if key target audience groups actually received the messages directed at them, paid
attention to them, understood and comprehended the messages, and whether they retained the
messages and can recall them in any shape or form.

10.5.4 Measuring Outcomes

These measure whether the communications materials and messages which were disseminated
have resulted in any opinion, attitude and behavior changes on the part of those targeted
audiences to whom the messages were directed.

10.6 Measurement of message exposure

The most widely practiced form of evaluating public relations programs is the compilation of
print and broadcast mentions, often called “clips.” Large companies with regional, national, or
even international outreach usually retain monitoring services to scan large numbers of
publications and various Internet/ social media sites. It is also possible to have services such as
Critical Mention monitor television newscasts in major markets as well as local and national talk
shows.

Other ways to measure message exposure include

1. Compilation of news clippings and R-TV time

2. Media Impression--Number of people exposed to the message (but they may not actually read,
remember or act on the information.

3. “Hits” on Internet

4. Advertising Equivalency--Calculate the value of message exposure into equivalent advertising

costs.

5. Systematic Tracking, using computer databases to analyze the content of media placements.

6. Requests and 800 numbers

7. Cost per Person: the cost of reaching each member of the audience.

8. Audience Attendance

10.7 Measurement of audience awareness

This involves

1. Higher level of evaluation

2. Measure whether message received, attended, understood, and retained

3. Usually use audience surveys

a) Awareness
b) Day-after recall
c) Message acceptance
d) Message agreement

Summary
PR evaluation is any and all research designed to determine the relative effectiveness of a public
relations programme, strategy, or activity, by measuring the outputs and/or outcomes of that PR
programme against a predetermined set of objectives.

Revision question

How do you evaluate public Relations?

Why is evaluation important in Public Relations?

What are the three levels of evaluation to public relations efforts?

CHAPTER ELEVEN: EFFECT OF THE NEWS MEDIA ON CRIME LEVELS AND
PUBLIC FEAR OF CRIME

11.1 Introduction

A large body of research argues that the high amount of violence in mass media elevates the
public's fear of criminal victimization. It is well documented that crime content is a pronounced
feature of mass media and distorts the reality of crime by disproportionately focusing on random
violent crimes.

11.2 Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Explain the relationship between media coverage and crime.

2. Explain how the media shapes the perception of the public concerning crime.

3. State and explain how the media can help to stop crime.

11.3 The relationship between media coverage and public perception of crime

Violent crimes have become a constant part of today’s media. As the interest of crimes continues
to grow, the question of how crime is portrayed within the media influences on the public begins
to rise. Media reporting often highlights random and unexpected crimes. As a result, individuals
can imagine themselves as potential victims of such events. Sensationalist media reporting
contributes to moral panic.

Some media reporting represents a distorted view of the real experiences of crime in the
community. These inaccurate reports may fuel prejudice against certain groups or may prompt
the imposition of overly strict measures to fight crime. Community members may also isolate
themselves through misplaced fear of crime.

11.4 The media’s role in crime prevention

Media exposure to crime and crime-related events can be an effective crime prevention strategy,
and useful tool for sensitizing and educating the public on underestimated or overlooked social
problems. Several campaigns on human trafficking, victim’s support, mobilization for women’s
safety and child sexual abuse cases have all contributed as successful crime prevention
initiatives, which have promoted improvements in the quality of facts and dissemination of
information. The media can help to improve the state of violence and crime in society, especially
for women and children.

The media equally participates in disseminating public information on self-protection and safety
strategies against crime. Due to the impressive amount of individuals who rely on the media for
crime information, the media can therefore be highly efficient for denouncing certain types of
crime. Media campaigns on prevention against residential burglary and information on the risks
of using illegal drugs and alcohol, exemplify the means by which the media can have an
important role in crime prevention.

The media can play a democratic role when it comes to the question of crime prevention. With
more information being made public, the media educates the population on certain issues, which
therefore encourages critical thinking on the part of the population and promotes responsibility
on the part of institutions, agencies, organizations and the government.

11.5 Influencing Public Opinion

The communication process has become a learned skill such that many of us may not realize we
are analyzing, positioning, listening, decoding, thinking ahead, and perceiving all at the same
time, among other things. Those are just a select few of the steps and techniques we may go
through in one small conversation. At a young age we were taught “sticks and stones may break
my bones but words can never hurt me” as a means to ward off bullying and to compartmentalize
our feelings. Words are actually very powerful. Additionally, the body language cues and
feedback we give which also tie into the complexity of interpersonal communication are
important in discerning the message.

Any field in criminal justice demands so many aspects of interpersonal communication. As an

agency leader, communication processes and interpersonal communication with the citizens
coincides with public image which weighs in on every administrators’ agenda. These are skills a
peace officer hones in on over time but practices every day and can never hit a learning cap.
Each concept or theory can aid in developing one’s skills and takeaways from each
communication technique can be used in practicality.
11.5.1 Create community immersion. Immerse law enforcement officers into their
communities.

This can be accomplished through a variety of ideas including reintroducing or elevating earlier
community policing models. Forming community partnerships and coalitions with community
leaders can assist in building relationships where tension might be forming. Walk beats where
officers are conducting regular neighborhood contacts and checking on local businesses has a
proven history of success. Getting officers out of the car while being visible and personable
creates cohesion with residents and business owners. Involvement in community programs and
neighborhood projects can bring the citizens together with police to create a conversation to
build unity.

11.5.2 Become more cognizant of background differences and cultural sensitivity.

Persons may become culturally encapsulated with no intention of bias, but it comes from being
so ingrained in one’s own norms and erudition. People come from various upbringings and were
raised in a multitude of conditions, environments, and cultures giving us a very diversified
population. Officers have been treating people according to ordinance and statute parameters
under the law with regards to enforcement. However, during the enforcement transaction and
individual communication they sometimes tend to ignore social cues and internal and external
influences an individual citizen carries. Scientists often call these factors social pulses or “noise”.
It is important for peace officers to be sensitive to the factors in environment and cultural
differences when communicating and interacting.

11.5.3 Use more transactional model communication and active listening.

Police officers often engage in linear communication due to the nature of their work by giving
orders or commands. This model of interpersonal communication is effective in dynamic
situations or circumstances where officers need to gain compliance immediately.
Communication from an officer is frequently used to steer someone in a certain direction which
makes it very linear, often eliminating other factors which make interactions more transactional
or two-way.
Summary

The mass media play a large role in the public perception and acceptance of criminal behavior.
The mass media play an important role within the context of public opinion, providing security
and crime prevention. Media is like a double-edged sword that in addition to the positive
performance and pushing the community to improve security, in the event of carelessness might
cause damages and also provide crime.

Note

Certain conditions are necessary in order for government and other stakeholders to formulate a
successful partnership with the media. One successful method is the adoption and integration of
a ‘Communications Policy’ for crime prevention and safety. This ‘policy’ suggests that the
government sets up a framework for opening a discourse on the role and relationship between
communicators and the media, and for creating ongoing communication, exchange, assistance
and training for a diversity of media representatives. Furthermore, creating a communications
policy suggests changing the mindset of government and community groups, in order to enhance
openness and proactive interaction with the media, to understand communication implications
and to make communication a strategic issue.

Revision Question

What is the impact and the role of the media on crime?

Explain the relationship between media and crime?

Explain the role of mass media in the prevention of crime. Using examples.