prclass

Well, we are now in our third week of the class blogging assignment and from my teacher perspective the project is moving along nicely. Yesterday’s blog stats showed that we have had around 1500 views and an all time one day viewing of 182. The stats counter indicates that it does not count my own views in the stats and most days I look several times - so the stats are really even higher. I was away from email from Wednesday evening to Sunday evening this week and we went from 888 views to the 1500 in that four day period. Yeah. The number of visits tells me people in the class are actively participating.

One thing I have enjoyed is seeing the positive reinforcement/constructive criticism that students are giving to one another. It is encouraging to read that students are impressed with other people’s research and/or writing styles. A few people have ventured into including graphics – I enjoyed that. Truly, we are learning together. Some people are having fun with the project - a bonus.

We spoke in class yesterday about student perceptions on the blogging experiment. Positive feedback included that students enjoy reading the writing of other people in the class, they are learning new information on many topics, some of the topics and links will be useful to them, the class assignment forced them to blog, and they enjoy giving and receiving feedback. The knowledge that other people outside the class were looking at the blog was also a positive for the majority.– Jump in, class, if I left off items here…

Not so positive experiences included that the class assignment forced them to blog, some people did not feel comfortable with blogging, and figuring out formatting could be frustrating. Comments were made about how some people felt ‘creatively stifled’ and were using self censorship in postings and comments. We discussed the concept that most of the class is used to instant messaging or casual emailing and little formality. The situation imposed formality and self censorship. -Again, if I have missed something that was discussed I hope someone in the class will comment further on this section.

Wearing my teacher hat I have to say that many of our posts have typos and grammatical errors. Those do need to be tidied up.  I have assigned groups in the class to edit posts and try to fix formatting for next week. Other teachers in the program have been teaching that everything must be edited first. Once people are graduates and out working typos are not options.

We talked about the formality of blogs in class and the students perceptively commented that to be formal and correct is to give up some freedom. However, we also spoke about how writing accuracy can increase reader perceptions of content credibility.

We have not included many tags yet, but I think that will come. Once all of the assigned posts are up – the due date is next Monday – class traffic to the blog may slow down. After the assignment period I’d like to see posts and conversation continue and for us to continue to learn blogging etiquette and to have others visit and converse.

Dana 

     Public Relations firms have been around for over a century. One century and six years to be exact. The very first Public Relations firm was opened in 1900 and was located in Boston Massachusetts.  The “Publicity Bureau” (which it was known as) was put together by former newspapermen. It was no surprise when writers and staff members of the papers formed the firms because until PR was established, newspapers were how organizations communicated with the public.

     After the Publicity Bureau took off, other firms started developing. William Wolf Smith opened in Washington, and another firm was opened by a well known practitioner named Ivy Lee. Lee and George F. Parker opened their firm, which became the most popular publicity bureau of its time. Even though it only stayed open for four years, it helped to kick start Lee’s career.

     Public Relations agencies are primarily responsible for getting the attention of the public and letting them know what is going on with the organization they work for. They employ practitioners to deal with the public, problem solve and help companies handle any problems that may arise.

     PR firms and PR practitioners go hand in hand. You cannot have an agency without practitioners to work in it. Great practitioners have emerged from great agencies where they have acquired the hands on experience that made them great. There is no doubt that college and university is indispensable, but joining an agency and getting to work with other people in the same field is where you really learn if you have what it takes to do the job. The great thing about Public Relations firms is that it gives the practitioners a chance to talk to other practitioners and learn from them.

- Caitlin Yearwood (Edited by, Kim Resendes)

Helpful Websites

Council of Public Relations Firms www.prfirms.org 

All About Public Relations www.aboutpublicrelations.net. 

 PR Firms Directory www.marketingtool.com