BGS 373 Final Exam

Personal and professional standards of behavior that guide normative social interactions and preserve morality.

We have different standards, perceptions, values and must satisfy; personal values, client needs, public interest, professional norms.

Intends to; Advocate on issues, Influence knowledge, skills, behavior, Communicate messages, Moves other to actions

Misleading information, Promoting Inferior Products, Gain at the expense of others, Inappropriately influence policy/regs, Contributing to systematic decline

A statement that is partly true, may be true in itself, but neglects the whole truth, or may use some deceptive element.

Total objectivity is not always practical, Alternative views will emerge, Not obliged to provide alternative views, Truth not as important as obligation to clients

Undermines ability to counsel on ethics, Undermines relationships w/ internal audiences, Runs counter to the preferred two-way. Symmetrical Concepts of public relations

If they support or provide advice that involves illegal activity or a client or employer

Participate in an illegal action such as bribing a government official or covering up information of vital interest to the public’s health and safety.

Counsel and guides the policy behind on illegal action

Take a major personal part in the illegal action

Must be truthful and non-deceptive. Must have evidence to back up their claims. Cannot be unfair.

Any false statement about a person (or organization) that creates public hatred, contempt, ridicule or inflict injury

Controversy of change. Rooted in “newness” or “interesting”. Meaning/appeal to readers’ need or curiosity (reporters ask “why would readers care?"). What we come to expect it to be. — Important, so we know how to frame the message and reach the right audience.

Old/ already reported topic.

Just any event.

Personal opinion or interpretation.

A blatant cry for attention.

the practice of trying to persuade journalists to cover news stories that put certain policies or perspectives in the most favorable light. —** “just because you ignore them, does not mean they will ignore you”

others write about you. More authenticity and validity if others write about you.

Seeks access/ multiple sources

More in-depth reporting

Angles for relevance/ broadness

Driven by visual and sound bites

For more emotional and evocative

More conversational/ Talking heads

Variety of medium, but speed driven

Lack of professional standards/ anyone can produce content

More interactive, nut also demand to stay on page

“If it BLEEDS, it leads” → violence is the lead story

Speed and easiness

Convergence

Scale and scope of communication

Activity and interactivity

Fluidity of digital media

Goal-directed/Competitive

Bureaucratized, routinized behaviors

Complex set of functions

Role positions

Departmentalization

News if defined in similar ways across media

News sources cooperate

Daily information sharing with coworkers

Not reality; missing other stories/ events

Cooperations: Reporters are pressured to cooperate with news sources.

Standardization: Reporters are pressured to standardize

Pack Mentality: Reporters are pressured to agree.

Pressure on Reporters:

Short deadlines, demanding editors, reliance on officials, cost strictures, social pressures from other reporters.

RESULTED IN =

Standardized Practices:

Reliance on PR, Fluff stories on slow news days, breaking news events reported as formulas, compare notes, formulaic plotlines, pack journalism

Balance/Fairness

Timeliness

Accuracy/Clarity

Comprehensiveness/Need to know

Civic Guardians/Watchdogs

Objectivity

It is a faith in facts, a distrust of opinions, and separating the two

Dominant, fundamental value of professional American journalism

A principle that requires a method or practice to achieve.

a method or practice to achieve —> Scientific Method: journalist adhere to the same method so they produce similar news:

political neutrality, prevailing standards of good taste, relying on documentary evidence, standard news formats packages, generalists instead of specialists, editorial review to enforce these methods

Simulating objectivity by He said/ She said

Forcing balance can lead to :

undermining accuracy

neglecting the “other side'“ when an identifiable spokesperson if not easily found

false spokespersons when representation is ill defined

Journalists adhere to the same methods, so they produce similar news.

Metaphor of news as a mirror

Image is incomplete

Objects reflected are not passive

News is the product of social processes, this subjective

The ideal of objectivity is valuable but unobtainable

Based on facts, evidence, what somebody said, intended to distribute facts efficiently

Intended to avoid embellishment, advocacy, interpretation

Make complex information accessible to average person (framing)

Consistency in reporting over time

Intended to keep news serious, informative (often fails)

Tension between Morality Police vs. Sensationalism

Tries to be all things to all audiences

Ignores what public wants to ignore

Considered to be crucial to a working society & democracy

• inform the electorate

• spark debate

• provide a channel for communication between the public and elites

• surrogate for electorate

• serve as a watchdog on government

Be Accessible

Be Prepared

Be Honest

Be Knowledgeable

Be Fair

Be Consistent

a tool — via email/social media — to hook media to cover your story or book an interview, etc.

Almost always, a media pitch is done by email, but also via social platforms, telephone, or traditional mail

Stick to what you know, follow up if needed

Pay attention to appearance and body language

Know when you’ve answered, then STOP

Repear messages

Frame your answers

Decide what you want to say; refine three positive points

DO NOT

say no comment

Answer a questions with yes or no if necessary, incorporate the question into your answer

lie, tell jokes or use profanity

use buzz words

go “off record”

lose your temper

Comment on what others have said

Forget that the interview is not over until the reporter leaves

negative events that could severely damage the operational functioning and reputation (business and persona) of a company

Operational Viability

Reputational Credibility

Financial stability/sustainability

Legal Action

Unexpected/loss of communication functions

Decisions/Demands for information are urgent

Routine business become increasingly difficult

outsiders take an unaccustomed interest

reputation suffers

communications are difficult to manage

Before , Identification/Discovery, and Anticipate

During, Prepping/Planning, Response/Control, Recovery, Engage And Manage

AFter, Learning, Post-crisis

Stakeholders look to attribute or interpret causes of negative or unexpected events. Attribution (narrative blame) may be assigned in a variety of ways or at different stages. An organization may be victim. Additionally, a reputational threat can be ‘intensified’ by crisis history and prior relational reputation.

Organization is a victim of the crisis (eg natural disasters, attack) - mirro reputational threat

Organization’s actions leading to the crisi were unintentional and in good faith (eg equipment or product failure, accusations from external stakeholders) - medium reputational threat;

Organization knowingly took inappropriate risk - major reputational threat

Engage

Tell the truth

Denial

Diminishment

Rebuilding/Rehabilitate

Bolstering/Reinforce

Silence is NEVER a strategy

Assess risks

Promote crisis-ready culture

Product plans

Define roles and responsibilities

Appoint crisis management team

Draw up communication plan

Produce contact and organization chart

Publish plans and conduct training

Text, review and practice

Public Relations

Legal

Operations

Executive Suite

Security

Human Resources

An anticipatory process to detect emerging challenges or opportunities that may draw the attention of publics and stakeholders and require a response

Differs from crisis management because it anticipates and pre-empts crisis or risk in a productive way (CSR). Helps to effectively respond to emerging issues to avert future crisis, but it’s a mistake to characterize the discipline as defensive and reactive.

Evident: a company actually experiences a problem to be resolved

Perceived: arises from public perceptions of a possible crisis

Identifying the extent of the crisis (what happened?)

Identifying multiple audiences (whom needs to know?)

Drafting the messages (what needs to be said?)

Choosing the channels to communicate (How?)

This Crisis Management and Communications piece from the readings, Tim Coombs identifies different crisis messaging strategies:

• Attack accuser: confront person/ group claiming offense
• Denial: crisis manager asserts there is no crisis.
• Scapegoat: blame outside person/group
• Excuse: minimizes responsibility by denying intent to harm or claiming inability to control the events
• Provocation: crisis was response to another's actions
• Defeasibility: lack of information about events leading to the crisis situation (i.e., who knew?)
• Accidental: lack of control over events leading to the crisis situation (i.e., act of God)
• Good intentions: Organization meant to do well
• Justification: Minimize the perceived damage caused by the crisis.
• Reminder: Remind stakeholders about the past good works of the organization.
• Ingratiation (affiliation): Praise stakeholders for their actions
• Compensation: Proffer money or other gifts to victims
• Apology: Accept full responsibility for the crisis and asks stakeholders for forgiveness.

Patterson Corollary: Tell the Truth: Establishes trust, also opens liability—don't need to tell everything

Current

Emerging

Societal

Broad Impact: i.e., inflation economy, energy costs, health care access, jobs, transportation, privacy

Broad Abstract: Systematic, with a larger principle involved—i.e., abortion, racial/gender inequity, religious belief

Narrow Impact: Minimal affected, generally identified by issue groups i.e. Indian burial grounds, fracking, student debt

Technical: Complex/ usually involve distribution of political/economic power

Potential Stage

Imminent Stage

Current Stage

Critical Stage

Dormant

Corporate Social Advocacy

Conceptualize

Definition, Legitimation, and Awareness

1. Issue identification and analysis

2. strategic decision-making and action

3. evaluation

Planned use of communication to systematically influence the knowledge, attitude and behaviours of current employees.

Today’s Workplace:

• Highly competitive

• Longer hours

• Technology changes

• Social influences

Today’s Employee

• well educated

• higher expectations

• will have 10 before

• diverse

• want to understand more

Communicating company vision and values externally, so employees can explain strategic direction of organization and future priorities.

Informing employees across the organization,

communicating successes, highlighting challenges, providing education and

training, and improving internal brand awareness

Ensuring employees are kept up to date with any plans to change or restructure the company, including new acquisitions, business integration, downsizing, and redundancy

Announcing staff changes, new hires, promotions; promoting cultural diversity, building employee engagement

Efficiency: Employees informed about goals, function, and performance. Lack of commitment may cost business $50 billion per year in quality defects, rework and repair costs, absenteeism and reduced productivity, (Cutlip, Center & Broom, 2006)

Encourage innovation/share knowledge: Create dynamic for improving operational processes, identify talented workers, make sense of the organization

Establish positive cultural values: Show values/promote understanding among employees about corporate goals, and connect people and activities.

Satisfaction: Ensures trust, loyalty, and satisfaction. Izzo & Withers (2000) found employee retention rates were 44 percent higher in organizations with engaged and committed employees.

The shared values, habits, and beliefs of employees that affect performance and purpose driven collaboration. Tied to employee recruitment/retention, company profitability, and customer loyalty. Culture is how things get done.

Communicate the vision : Ensure employees understand the “who we are” and “what we do” and can clearly articulate it to their networks. It’s important that everyone is speaking from the same page.

Give Permission : Employees hesitate to share information about their employers on social media, in case they get into trouble. If you want your employees to post, tweet and snap about your organization, provide a social media policy of dos and don’ts to on what they can and can't share publicly, as well as how to properly refer to the company and your products. If there is specific language they should not use, be sure to let them know.

Create great content they can use: Create compelling and relevant content that employees can share on social media: i.e., press releases, infographics, videos and behind-the-scenes looks at the organization. Include sample posts, tweets and hashtags they can use.

Let employees contribute: When given the chance, employees are more likely to share when they are involved.

Vets authority with upper management. Info flows vertically to strategically plan and deliver messages that inspire, guide, and engage employees.

SMCR: Information Source encodes Message which is sent through a Channel to Receiver

• company wide announcements

• KPI overviews and progress reports

• Employees know roles/responsibility

Designed to capture and address staff concerns/suggestions in a timely manner. Not all communications affect employees equally, requiring tailoring messages to distinct teams and staff groups.

Various channels available — (eg. online platforms, face-to-face meetings, Q&As, teleconferences, all staff, intranet).

Empathize — not just the facts, but tips on how to navigate change/performance.

Continuously ask for employee feedback using (surveys, groups sessions, forums) Most Importantly: Follow through on staff feedback

An enriched way of communication from two-way communication in creating functional communication channels and responsibilities.

Relationships between departments, units, individuals, and teams decide communications. based in receivers’ needs, not transmitter’s.

Peer-to-peer sharing. Teams visible and engaged with one another, sharing intelligence, asking questions and generally supporting each other.

Organized ways to convene teams, discuss work, and generally get things done.

promotes a company’s narrative to analyst and investors to achieve a market valuation that reflects understanding of the business, its growth strategy, and prospects for how the company grows.

It communicates the company’s financial strategies and results to everyone with an interest (eg stakeholders, market analysts, find advisors, journalists, regulators, employees) and ensure information is relevant, correct, timely, and understandable.

Maintaining relationship with shareholders and others in the financial community

Promote: clear and concise messaging
Relationship building: outreach to investors
Dissemination: reliable and transparent financial info
Compliance: Adhere to SEC laws, IRS, accounting standards
Interpretation: repart MKT intelligence to management

Create IR Fact Sheet (Pitch Book): Narrative playbook to synchronize message.

Attract new analyst coverage: Target analysts covering extended peer group of companies consistent with company story.

Research prospective shareholders: Find holders who respond to your story.Market investment style aligned with story

Maintain ongoing comparable valuation analysis. Track consensus revenue,estimates for peers to educate analysts and investors on valuation drivers.

Ensure regulatory compliance: All verbal and written communications must meet regulatory and legal requirements. Disclosures, whether positive or negative, should be candid, balanced and timely to maintain credibility.

1) Support Fair Share Price by knowing and communicating company’s investment proposition/future prospects--and building trust, reliability and transparency to the widest pool of potential investors--helps achieve an appropriate comparative valuation. Help capital markets understand a fair valuation of a company - Providing evidence of growth opportunities - Demonstrating historical and future performance/success - Engendering trust in corporate sustainability

2) Improve Liquidity of Stock by attracting new investors and raising demand for the company's stock can help raise the liquidity of a company's shares to enhance the company's worth and make it easier for investors to trade.

3) Enhanced Analyst Coverage by knowing who is trading your stock and focus on building a diversified shareholder base. Investors WANT metrics (e.g., sales, profits, debt-equity structure, Free Cash Flow, etc.) to ensure their capital is being deployed in value-accretive activities. Income smoothing is a kind of earnings management (‘managing’ as defined as reported earnings to meet analysts’ expectations) Earnings management is stimulated by the direct link between accounting earnings and share price (P/E ratio).

4) Building & Maintaining Investor Relationships by building and maintaining investor relationships with hundreds or thousands of shareholders. engaging them effectively at every stage.

5) IR intelligence—i.e., systematising investor views and competitor situations, then channelling that information back to management.

typically fall into three categories: Individual investors, Institutional investors (i.e., collective funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, etc.), and “Day- traders.”

Research prospective shareholders: Find investors who respond to your story. Market investment style aligned with story.

Maintain shareholders relationships.

Monitor IR activity: Track outgoing/incoming calls, emails and investor downloads. Establish metrics for investor and analyst contacts.

Monitor shareholder activity:Track changes in holdings for yourself and peers to detect shifts and company-specific news.

Analyze and predict investor behavior to management: Monitor investor activity, valuation parameters, and outcomes to guide strategic planning.

employees of brokerage firms or institutional investors (e.g., banks, insurance companies, mutual fund managers) who study companies and make buy-and-sell recommendations on stocks of these companies. Most specialize in a specific industry.

Sell-side Analysts: work for brokerage firms whose analyses and recommendations on specific companies that are used by stockbrokers as vehicles to promote stocks and other securities to customers. Sell- Side is focused almost exclusively by volume because brokerage house revenues are driven by trading and deal flow.

Buy-side Analysts: typically work for institutional investors (portfolio managers) that purchase securities for their own accounts and use analysts to watch specific industries or major economic sectors. Buy- side is an asset gathering business and is thus typically focused by market capitalization, benchmarks/indices, long-term performance and risk measurement.

SEC, Auditors, accountants, certificatons, Credit agencies, US congress, lawmakers, etc.

General Media: General business news in everyday newspaper, magazines, radio, television, and digital media affect public perceptions.

Financial Media: General financial or business media (Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Business Week, CNBS, etc.) or industry specific (trade magazines to specific vertical industries.)

Digital Media: Sites that specialized in news of interest to the investment community (Yahoo Finance, The Street.com) other sites operated by investment/brokerage firms offer historical information, breaking news as well as reports prepared by the firms’ analyst.

A plan of actions undertaken by government officials to achieve some broad purpose affecting a substantial segment of a nation’s citizens

It inputs shape a government’s policy decisions and strategies to address problems.

Legislative

Referenda

Regulatory Agencies

Judicial Review

Market Regulation

Economic Regulations

Social Regulations

Fiscal Policy

Regulation: Market, economic and social regulation

Tax Policies: raising or lowering taxes on businesses

Trade policies: encouraging or discouraging trade with other countries

Industrial/infrastructure policies: directing economic resources towards to the development of specific industries

Monetary policies: affect the supply and demand as well as the value fo the nations currency

the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. It is done by many different types of people and organized groups, including individuals in the private sector, corporations, fellow legislators or government.

Consistency, Conciseness, Credibility

It is about education, information, and relationships.

Lobbying

Testimony

Direct Communication

Ex: Think

Thanks / Trade Groups

It is a group of individuals, businesses think thanks, or political organizations that pool their resources influence legislation.

• stakeholder coalitions

• Trade associations

• Think thanks

• Party loyalty

• Ideological disposition

It seeks to influence specific legislation by encouraging the public to contact legislators about that legislation. AstroTurf appears to be grassroots, but it is really organizational manipulation.

Officials in the executive branch, Congress and senior congressional staffers spin in and out of the private and public sectors, bringing with them privilege, power, access and money to the powerful appropriations committees, which interest are employing former members of congress to lobby on their behalf.

the policy making relationship among the congressional committees, bureaucracies, and interest groups.

Congress

Interest groups

Bureaucracies

The main policymaking institution in the USA

Independently incorporated organizations that can solicit contributions and then channel those funds to candidates seeking political office but must disclose their finances to the FEC and cannot coordinate with candidates or political parties

Independently incorporate organizations that can raise and spend funds for the “Public good” (not for a specific candidate) but do not have to disclose their donors.

International communication balances a broad spectrum of publics and cultures to avoid cultural differences that could lead to misunderstandings and to find common ground to work together

a symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual process in which people from different cultures create shared meanings often. Focuses on shared core value messages that can transcend cultural differences in language, customs, faith traditions, and/or ideologies.

Is the sending of a message from one unique culture to another unique culture while still meeting the cultural norms of the specific country the message is being sent.

Incorporated two separate concepts of international communications into as integrated comprehensive theory

Argued that international public relations has to centrally standardized to preserve global management strategies and consistent messages

Also considered, “adaptive localization”. Argued that centralization could not possibly respond to local cultural differences and communication mandates.

Integration of generic theory’s principles and specific theory’s applications that falls “midway between an ethnocentric theory that public relations is the same everywhere” - requiring cultural mediators, linguistic translation and strategic experts

• understand what people do and why they do them

• Linguistic fluency does not equal cultural fluency

• Be Flexible - business vs friendship? / inter-business = inter-personal relationships

• Be respectful - sincerely approach business dealings

• Be non judgemental

• Listen vs. Arguing

• Understand that other political, religious, personal ideas exist

• Avoid assumption, jokes which are misunderstood.

• use symbols, diagrams and pictures