PR & The Writers

1. PR & The Writers Dr. Inas A.Hamid

2. city's safety engineers investors youngers tourism department residents The task of public relations writers is to communicate with publics. There are many publics; what youngers want to know is quite different from what business want to know. If a company is going to create a new thrill ride. Think about different concerns of different publics; You have to prepare information to reach all of these publics, and the information for each has a different focus. The focus is a responsible communication to satisfy the information needs and interests of particular publics.

3. The public in public Relations • Each of us belongs to many different publics. • I am a member of a public important to : The University Real State agencies Recruitment Agencies Banks Politicians Services Clubs

4. A PR writer for a university must write for faculty, students, administrators, alumni, financial benefactors, community leaders, legislators and sports fans. • Messages may be received by “unintended audiences. So; awareness of these publics, knowledge of them and sensitivity to their potential reactions are critical because misunderstanding, some of crisis proportions can result. • PR people often find it useful to divide the publics they deal with into two broad classes; internal and external. • Internal publics are groups within the organization and share the institution's identity. • External publics are groups outside the organization

5. Priority publics • On any one project it is impossible to direct attention equally to all publics. Therefore, PR people must select the publics that are most important for the communication effort. • In any event, the groups considered the most important for a communication effort are called the target publics or priority publics. • Psychographics information is more important to PR writer than demographics. • Psychographics classified people by what they think, how they behave and what they think about, and their special interests.

6. Discovering and Prioritizing Publics. • One informal method that can be used to discover and prioritize publics is called PVI: • P: the potential to influence a public. • V: The vulnerability of the organization to that public (which may change over time and in different situations). • I: the impact of that public on the organization.

7. Channels • To reach different publics, the PR writer must choose channels of communication carefully. Each channel has characteristics that make it suitable for sending a particular message to a particular audience at a particular time. • The channel must be: • One that the target audience will receive and believe. • Appropriate for the message.

8. Specialized Media Management • Media designed for a particular audience are called specialized, to distinguish them from media for general audiences. • Specialized media include: Employees Stockholders internal publications that institutions produce to communicate with : Staff Directors Organization's Intranet Computerized messages CD-ROM Emails Films slides

9. Mass Media • Mass media includes books, magazines, newspapers, internet,…… • Mass media are mostly for communication with external publics. • PR writers use mass media to reach large audiences, however, that such media are seen by internal publics as well.

10. The Role of the Writer • PR writers must be knowledgeable about • publics, channels and all aspects of their institutions and the laws that regulate their work. • Financial aspect of a business to prepare the right messages and annual reports. • Must be able to borrow ideas from other fields as political science, psychology and sociology. • Must be alert to changing patterns of thought and behavior. • Must be an expert in communication.

11. Exercises Analyze the university's brochure. Are different appeals addressed to first – year students, transfers and graduate students? Are the messages consistent with the University policy? Are any of them inconsistent?