The importance of a BLOG and the power of people.

Chapter 3- Theoretical Concept

This weeks lecture i learnt quite a number of interesting information such as the power of blogs and people and why a PR person needs to understand these factors.

As we all know the modern world we live in now revolves itself along side high-tech technology and more importantly the internet. The internet is a powerful form of media that has both its pros and cons. It has a wide range and diverse audience that use it various ways for their own personal interests. Facebooking, chatting, gaming, researching, youtubing, you name it and its there. However, one of the most strongest forms of such alternative media formed is blogging.

Nowadays, its hip to have a personal blog and to be able to tell the audience what one has done in the day, week, month. The thing is it doesn't seem to sound interesting- reading other people's thoughts, feelings, opinions and so on, but it is. People read blogs not only to find out and be entertained by what a person has done in their day but also because they want to find out information on new products and critics on food, movies etc.

Thus, blogs influence a way a person may form ideas about a product. Its like word of mouth online. Moreover, because of the power of the internet and because the power it has given to blogs, the power has now gone to the hands of the people. Remember one opinion can be carried and viewed by a large audience and that is why PRs need to be aware of this power.

Another interesting knowledge i gained from this weeks lecture is that the new generation of audience need to be reached in a more comprehensive way. Reaching them only through the mass media is now impossible. Thus, PR people need to be able to also understand the importance of experimental marketing and the impact it has on people.

Experimental marketing was derived from Confucius a Chinese philosopher who said, "Tell me and i'll forget, Show me and i may remember, Involve me and i'll understand." This form of marketing creates a connection between the consumer and the product in a memorable way. Example is when promoting Wii and allowing people to play the game and test it out.

Apart from the lecture, i read Chapter 3- Theoretical Concept (Silson, D.M). There were actually plenty of note worthy information, but there were unfortunately some parts i could not particularly understand. However, i did learn various things and will write about those that interested me the most.

Firstly, there were many theories involved in PR. There is the Systems theory, Cybernetics, Boundary spanning and a concept called the Requisite variety. Out of the three, systems theory was the most dominantly referred to in PR. However, i found Requisite variety to be the one that interested me the most. This concept was developed by W Roland Ashby and was further applied to organizational studies by Karl Weick. Basically, the theory suggests that with more diversity opinions from employees, an organization will be more prepared to withstand the effects of change that it may be confronted with.

This is because, with more voices, opinions and values, the company will be able to acquire more ideas and information than that with a company consisting of the same people with the same attitudes. The advantage of this concept is that it avoids groupthink which is exactly what i just mentioned- same people = same attitude and opinions which may not help a company to perform better and improve or see its faults.

Additionally, there are various communication theories and the ones i were most able to understand and find appealing was agenda setting and framing.

Agenda setting was developed by Donald Shaw and Maxwell McCombs who asserted that the media shaped our realities. In addition to this, they state that the mass media 'may not be successful in telling us what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about'.

Framing on the other hand refers to how individuals organize and place information in the mass media and how in return it affects the way we construct our realities. In public relations, it is important to place information consciously for the organization. PRs need to think about what information should be placed, what not to be placed and what is important to be placed. Not only that in the previous lecture, we learnt that PR's need to be able to think of different angles and choose ones that fit the context to which the story is for and one that is interesting and that may be appealing to the target audience. For instance, in a men's magazine, you are not going to place information about flowers in general. Instead you have to find a way to intrigue men readers towards the topic flowers, like what giving flowers to woman can do.