Deck 14: Managing Public Media and Public Advocacy

Question 1

Describe the active public relations planning process

Answer 1

.Identify the organization's relevant publics
.Measure images and attitudes of the relevant publics
.Establish image and attitude goals for relevant publics
.Develop cost-effective public relations strategies
.Prepare for public relations crises
.Choose specific public relations tools
o Develop strategic approaches to major challenges
o Pay special attention to the Web site
.Implement actions and evaluate effects (Measure the effects)

Question 2

How should a public relations crisis be managed?

Answer 2

.The interests of the public should come before the interest of the organization
. Long-term:
o Cultivate strong media relations
o Prepare key managers to handle the media
.Short-term:
o Develop guidelines
.Do not make matters worse by blaming someone, pretending or speculating, stalling or covering up
.Get the story over with - disclosure ends it, gather information and release it quickly
.Be evenhanded and professional - you will continue to deal with the media long after this particular story is over

Question 3

Describe the role of advocacy and the upstream role for public relations practitioners in a nonprofit organization.

Answer 3

. Focus on changing the social and institutional structure surrounding social problems, not focus just on changing the behavior symptomatic of the problem
.Target legislators, regulators, media executives, allies and the general public
. Use appropriate tools at appropriate times:
o Reframe the issues
o Public education campaigns
o Media advocacy
o Pseudo-events
o Influential books and op-eds
o Use the entertainment media and celebrities
o Lobby
o Work with schools
o Use print, phone, fax and Web for grassroots efforts

Question 4

"A form of communication not paid for or under the control of the nonprofit marketing organization through which the organization must earn coverage" is:

A) public relations
B) earned media
C) earned advertising
D) publicity
E) blogging

Question 5

When public relations is conducted so as to be mainly reactive:

A) the response to crisis is guided by long-term strategy
B) the organization is defined by carefully designed messages over a long period of time
C) the environment, not the organization, sets the public relations agenda
D) the organization has control over how others see it
E) it is part of a careful long-range organization level process

Question 6

An organization relates actively and continuously to certain segments of its clients, employees, directors and the community. They are

A) primary publics
B) secondary publics
C) tertiary publics
D) irrelevant publics
E) internal publics

Question 7

A large university seeking to enhance its knowledge management approach to public relations and research would

A) wait until a significant issue arose and conduct an issue study
B) conduct focus groups
C) conduct informal studies and research continually to save money
D) conduct formal field surveys on a regular basis
E) hire a knowledge management consultant

Question 8

Cost-effective PR strategies for a university community relations program would include

A) an advisory board of community leaders
B) quarterly formal field surveys of the community
C) TV and newspaper ads
D) a door-to-door persuasion campaign
E) renting out the university football stadium to a professional team so that the community could watch pro-football on Sundays

Question 9

A nonprofit organization's CEO has been arrested for embezzlement. In handing the media, the PR person should

A) say "no comment"
B) convey that there is nothing to worry about
C) release information pointing to someone else being at fault
D) get the facts and release the information quickly
E) say that the nonprofit will be hiring a new CEO

Question 10

A "customer centered" approach to handling the media by a public relations manager means that the PR person

A) must persuade journalists that it is in their interest to run a particular story
B) determines the needs and wants of the journalist and modifies the story to meet those needs
C) must combat journalists rejecting a story because they just don't understand the value
D) go over the head of the journalists to the editor to convince the media outlet to run the story
E) tell the journalists that he or she has many years of experience and that should be good enough to know whether the story is newsworthy or not

Question 11

Reframing an issue and conducting public education campaigns are tools of

A) public relations
B) marketing
C) lobbying
D) advocacy
E) advertising

Question 12

Investing in having a public relations professional work to generate publicity is a worthwhile investment because earned media

A) has a high potential for dramatization
B) is more credible and has more veracity than advertising
C) tends to catch people off guard and attracts people who wouldn't read a sponsored message
D) appears as "normal" news
E) all of the above

Question 13

In the twenty-first century, public relations practitioners should pay special attention to the Web. If a PR specialist is confronted by negative blogging on a Web site not controlled by the organization, he or she should

A) totally ignore it
B) post a counter-argument on the blogger's Web site using an assumed name
C) post a carefully thought out and worded response on the blogger's Web site identifying the posting as coming from the organization
D) call lots of friendly bloggers and others who think highly of the organization and ask them to put something positive in other blogs
E) create their own blog and "join the fray"