prclass

High-Definition Television - High-Definition Television, or HDTV, is the latest evolution of the medium of television. HDTV has become available to consumers through Digital Television, or DTV. DTV broadcasts a television signal in binary code, rather than the analog signal that has been the standard for more than half a century. DTV holds many advantages over analog, most notably it’s ability to deliver much higher visual and audio quality to the viewer, with HDTV being at the forefront. Canada, like most developed nations, has set dates by which all television will gradually make the transition to digital. There are several roadblocks in the DTV movement, including national and international political concerns, and the technological upgrades necessary for both producer and consumer. However, the question is not if television will move completely into the digital age, but when.

 Digital Radio - Digital radio, like digital television, broadcasts a signal broken down into ones and zeroes rather than a radio wave. Digital Radio Broadcasting, or DRB, was envisioned as a way to provide listeners with CD quality music and up to date text information in one service. The Canadian government has pushed to get DRB up and running in an effort to inject life into what has been considered a perishing medium. DRB is slowly becoming a reality, but digital radio in general has taken on far more manifestations than had ever been considered. It can now include DRB, internet radio, and satellite radio, just to name a few. Radio is rapidly moving into the digital world.

Background

HDTV - HDTV is a television broadcast that’s resolution is at least 720 progressively scanned lines of pixels. All televisions display images in a series of lines. The lines can be interlaced, which means every other line is displayed alternately. The lines can also be progressively scanned, which means every line is put on the screen at the same time. The current HDTV standards are 720 progressively scanned lines, expressed as 720p, and 1080 interlaced lines, called 1080i. Standard-Definition Television , now known as SDTV, is broadcast in 480i. It is a far lower resolution than HDTV. HDTV programs are in a 16:9, or widescreen format. HDTV also broadcasts audio in digital surround sound. To put it simply, HD provides far better picture and sound than regular television.

Digital Radio - The term Digital Radio is actually an oxymoron. Digital describes a signal that is sent out in binary code, that is a series of ones and zeroes. Radio indicates a signal that is broadcast using a radio wave. Digital Radio Broadcasting, or DRB, can also be known as Digital Audio Broadcasting, or DAB, which is technically more accurate. Digital Radio may best be described as a service that resembles traditional radio, but is broadcast in a digital format. It can include both audio and data, and takes on numerous forms.

Conclusions

Without question, all information technology will eventually be joining the digital world. For better or worse, this marks a revolution in the way we gain, exchange, process and analyze information.

Digital television will forever change the relationship between consumers and advertisers. The professionals and companies who will be most successful will be those who can best take advantage of an audience that will go from being passive observers to interactive participants.

HDTV will immerse viewers in the television experience like never before. Making use of this technology will be vital if television is to remain a pervasive medium and not be completely overtaken by the growing popularity of the internet.

DBR will eventually become the dominant form of radio broadcasting in Canada. However, it remains to be seen whether this change will allow radio broadcasters to be successful and profitable with so much competition from other forms of media.

Internet radio broadcasters will increase in number, with corporations, musicians, individual enthusiasts and many other all competing for listeners. With such a massive amount of information instantly accessible at any time, communicators will need to be exceedingly skilful at crafting their message to stand out from the crowd.

Bryan Sterritt

YouTube.com only began last year and it has already caught Googles attention in a large way. Google recently announced they will buy YouTube.com for $ 1.67 billion dollars in stock, they’re largest investment yet. It’s amazing that three guys working out of a basement became billionaires with a year from a simple Web site. It’s also amazing how popular this site is. It plays 100 million clips a day and has 20 million visitors per month, keep in mind the dominant audience is people from ages 12 to 17. So this is my thought, I want to come up with an idea, in my basement, that will make me a billionaire… That is true, but here’s my real thought. People prefer and like to be visually stimulated. For example, going through a Tim Horton’s drive threw these days includes televised adverstisment and don’t lie once you see the donut looking so soft and delicious on that screen just a coffee turns into much more. Actually I’ll get more precise, younger people prefer to be visually stimulated and it’s important to add that YouTube.com is internet based, so technology that is interactive and visually stimuating is the winner. This is good to keep in mind for future PR practitioners because when these kids to grow-up we can use their medium to send our message. <br>

Nicki Ramjass

“Click the Mouse and Bet the House”- Senator John Kyl

Internet gambling has become a booming industry.  As harmless as online gambling seems, it has many associated problems. One major obstacle Public Relations practitioners are faced with is the regulatory and enforcement challenges associated with the legality of online gambling.

PR practitioners face many issues and concerns when dealing with such a scrutinized industry.  PR practitioners have to make ethical and socially acceptable decisions regarding campaigns for online gambling.  PR practitioners have to ensure that their company and society is given adequate facts when trying to find a middle ground until the government puts regulations on this industry.

Online gambling is one of the fastest growing businesses worldwide, becoming “an essentially borderless activity that poses regulatory and enforcement challenges,” according to the Government Accountability Office in 2002. 

In Public Relations, practitioners will be faced with making ethical decisions on how to view and publicize online gambling. Heydary, a writer commented that “the situation in Canada is simply unclear as there are few gaming cases that provide clear-cut guidelines regarding online gaming and advertising.”  

The Canadian government has taken the stance that running online gambling operations is subject to criminal liability and advertising for online gambling is considered illegal.  However, contradicting ideas surround the legality of online gambling in Canada.  According to a CBC News Online article, companies such as Cryptologic exist in Canada, which is a major supplier for internet gambling software.  The article also states that the average Canadian online gamer may not be breaking the law if they log on.

According to the Canadian Federation on Compulsive Gambling (Ontario), betting online on a sports game would be legal but betting online on a casino type game is illegal.  What is legal and what is illegal?  How can it be determined who is breaking the law and what are the regulations?

Public Relations practitioners have a challenge in performing their job effectively because they do not have any solid legislation surrounding this issue.  It is a practitioner’s job to provide individuals in this society with adequate and informational knowledge on online gambling, which is difficult when the government provides no information.  PR practitioners need to know the legality associated with participating in such activities.

Cristina Taglione

For more interesting information please visit the following sites 

http://www.unc.edu/~jsugar/gambling.html  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0389.pdf#search=’internet%20gambling’

http://www.heydary.com/publications/online-gambling-laws.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/gambling/onlinegambling.html

http://www.responsiblegambling.org/articles/NewslinkSpring1999.pdf#search=’internet%20gambling%20legal%20in%20canada’ 

A Brief but Informative Look into VIRAL MARKETING By: Mel Douglas

Prior to this assignment, I was not sure how viral marketing would be defined. I had a few ideas but I was not sold on my definition. Shorlty into my research, I found that viral marketing is a rapidly expanding new form of marketing. It is defined as “marketing techniques that seek to exploit pre-existing social networks to produce exponential increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of a computer virus” (Wikipedia, 2006). With this knowledge I was then able to consider how viral marketing can be used in public relations.

One of the main goals for a public relations professional is to get their message across to large audiences. Viral marketing is an ideal way to obtain this goal. With the increase in technology (cell phones, blackberries, internet etc.) that has appeared over the last approximately twenty years, viral marketing is becoming more and more apparent. Text messaging is one of the key areas that I focused on. The youth of today always appear to be the owners of cell phones. The use of cell phones has greatly increased in usage in the last ten years. More recently, the use of text messaging has sky rocketed. Knowing that text messaging has increased so rapidly, proactive public relations professionals should begin utilizing this new fad.

In my paper, I focused on Fanshawe College increasing the awareness of on-campus events through text messaging. Many times this year, I have already missed events that have been held on-campus because of lack of advertisement. If a text message was sent to students weekly informing them of upcoming events I am sure attendance would drastically increase. Public relations professionals can take the skills of viral marketing and use them in their own personal campaigns.

The strongest example I came up with is Canadian Idol. Each summer people all across the country are encouraged after the show to vote for their favourite person by either calling in or sending a text message. Canadian Idol utilizes viral marketing by sending out a message to all Telus subscribers the day of the show airing to remind viewers to tune in. This is an ideal way to get your message out quickly, and to a massive audience.

Viral marketing is a rapidly spreading new form of communication. This new form is potentially one of the fastest ways to reach a large mass of your audience in the shortest amount of time. Although I only focused on text messaging, there are many trends that are all connected to viral marketing. Check out the attached links if you want to learn more. Or feel free to inquire about anything else!!

http://www.onedegree.ca/2006/07/31/the-meme-epidemic-a-case-study

Http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/1063.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing

The word “propaganda” has an awful connotation associated with it.
As up-and-coming PR practitioners, we must be sensitive to the fact
that some of our work may be considered “propaganda” or “story spinning”
in the eyes of others. Propaganda can be defined in many different ways. Dictionary.com states that it is; “information, ideas, or rumours deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.”

A PR agency called the Lincoln Group, claims their work in Iraq is not propaganda.They feel they must use deceit in their campaign for the Iraqis to listen to theirmessages. The Lincoln Group feels that if they tell the Iraqi people the advertisements they are watching are paid for by the United States, they won’t believe them, even if the message is one of hope and freedom. Their website www.lincolngroup.com states that they are
“a strategic communications and public relations firm providing insight and influence in
challenging and hostile environments.” Based on their website, they seem to be the best of the best in their field of work and that is why they won a $5 million contract from the United States government to help inform the Iraqi people about fighting the insurgents and accepting a new government. 

On the other side, many critics feel the work done in Iraq by the Lincoln Group is propaganda. Since the Lincoln Group is working closely with the Psyops division of the United States army,the critics feel their public relations campaign is crossing the line into manipulation. Psyops is a short form for “psychological operations” and an example of their work is airdropping
pamphlets in Iraq and Afghanistan. These pamphlets would tell the Iraqi people “not to resist the US troops.” The Psyops would also give out water bottles with a phone number on them, and tell the Iraqi people to report any suspicious actions that could be considered terrorist acts to the US authorities.
Another main reason why critics feel the Lincoln Group is using propaganda is because the US military is paying them to plant positive stories in Iraq newspapers. The campaigns in question were supposed to have disclaimers on them to show they were paid advertisements from the United States, but these disclaimers were usually not on the paid advertisement.
This is a case where there are many factors involved. I personally don’t know which side is right and which side is wrong.  My only goal is to show how one company’s public relations style can be seen in a totally different way than it was intended for. We must be aware that some critics might attack our style of public relations, especially if we are working within the realm of government or politics where everything that is said will be scrutinized. Hopefully this doesn’t happen, but if it does, we will be smart enough to have a plan in place to cover our actions.

To learn more about my topic, you can read the following articles;

Duke, L. (March 26, 2006) The Word at War.
www.washingtonpost.com
This article characterizes the difference in opinion over the word propaganda. The
Lincoln Group says they are not using propaganda; they are only “influencing” the Iraqi
people.  The article goes on to describe propaganda and it’s history.
Vest, J. (Nov 30, 2006). US: The Hazy Story of the Lincoln Group; www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12840
This article describes the Lincoln Group and how they got their first campaign
from the United States to inform the Iraqi people of the “coalition’s goals.” It also
describes their transformation from “Iraqex” to the Lincoln Group.
www.lincolngroup.com (2006).
This website gives background information on the business, how they go about
their work and what services they do. It also describes their current news and their
partnerships.

Thanks for reading,

                     Monica Charron  Edited by Stacey Hunter

Trends are occurring all over the world when it comes to new technology. In order to fully understand an audience and its general public it is important to understand the way they communicate with one another. This of course can help marketing and advertising if a company understands these trends and especially if they know how to use them. 
 In Korea the cell-phone is an example of a massive trend which is not only taking over family interaction but interaction with one another.

Korea has become one of the world’s leading nations in the field of modern technology development; as a result,  information technology is becoming the country’s paramount ambition.  The primary beneficiaries of  Korea’s interest in “IT” are the nations internet users who now enjoy the fastest access on the planet.  For example, an mp3 file might take anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes in
Canada, while the same file in Korea will take about 30 seconds.  While most people in the western world feel America has solidified itself as a “super power” in most areas - including IT - it is clear that the technology sector is booming in the east. In Korea technology continues to boom with the latest, and most up to date in the world.  With the fairly recent integration of the cell phone, this ‘multi-purpose’ device, is leading the way in communications. Many facests on top of phone capabilities have been developed for the cell phone over the years.To date, it can act as a television, computer, an mp3 player and the digital camera.  Cell phones are the single most important piece of integrated technology in the world today, and no other country in the world exemplifies this fact quite like Korea.  In the last few years the cell phone has taken over in classrooms, on the streets, and now the boardrooms. For example: 

Every organization needs an online presence. Not for profit organizations perhaps even more than traditional companies. Although almost every NFP has a website, not every NFP is using the Internet effectively. A few of the key uses an NFP needs to capitalize on are:

i) Communicating Key Messages and Providing Information. Making sure the message is consistent through out the website is key. Also, it is important that a NFP site be well designed and free of clutter and stale information. Other aspects include having contact information on every page within a site and a lot of information on the topic, particularly if the NFP is cause or disease based.

ii) Staying up to Date with Various Publics. A great way for an NFP to encourage dialogue and keep visitors coming back is to have a blog on its site. Blogs provide an excellent forum for people sharing a similar situation – living with leukemia for example – to converse and share ideas and resources.

iii)Fundraising. A big one. There’s no question that the ability to donate to an organization online has distinct advantages, such as anonymity and no schedule constraints. However, simply having a “Donate Now” button on a website is not enough to entice and maintain donors. The actual interface to enter financial information is only part of the equation. Building a relationship with potential donors is also important as is maintaining that relationship after a donation has been received. A big part of giving means donors want to know their money is being put to good use. That involves managing contact information so donors, if they choose, can be on a mailing list for newsletters and annual reports, or receive information about upcoming events. In some cases, it may be worth the expense of having the donation page on an organization’s webpage link to an outside fundraising firm. Some innovations include immediate tax receipts, personalized thank you emails, and for the organizations, completed databases of donors.

Here are some excellent resources if you are looking for more information.

charityvillage.ca

One stop shopping for NFPs. Tonnes of information regarding technology, trends, news, jobs and more. An essential research tool and Canadian to boot.

philanthropy.com
American version of Charity Village with an extensive cache of scholarly articles about NFPs. Lots of information about fundraising in particular.

firstmonday.org
Another great American resource with heavy focus on fundraising and the sociology of NFPs and community organizations.

mediainfocenter.com
An all purpose site for strategies on dealing with the media.

canadian cancer society

canadian diabetes association
Two NFP sites from organizations that “get it”

michael

In the past, voter interest has often focused on campaign races as opposed to specific issues. This is evident through the effectiveness of negative advertisements and smear campaigns. Over the past few years, however, there seems to be a change in public interest. Voters are now concerned about, and asking questions regarding, policy initiatives and candidate platforms. During the 2006 federal election, Canadian media was responsive to this emerging trend and focused more coverage on the issues. However, not all PR specialists have changed their tactics accordingly. Martin’s negative campaign against Harper was outdated and not receptive to voter interest.

            The internet and the opportunities it offers political campaigns is not being fully utilized by communicators. Campaign websites during the 2006 federal election were used only as a platform for projecting literature. They were often outdated technologically, did not encourage public participation, and were very low on content. For these reasons candidate websites were not used effectively and opportunity for increased competition was missed.

There is often a public resentment towards perceived ‘spin doctors’ during political campaigns. It is a common perception that public relations specialists advocate and enjoy creating negative advertising. Sometimes, this is the case, as in Martin’s election campaign for 2006. This time, however, the tactic failed. This can be encouragement for PR specialists who do not promote smear campaigns, and instead focus on content. Being knowledgeable of voter trends not only helps PR practitioners get their candidates elected, but can also be useful to the field of public relations. Voter interests during political campaigns are prone to change, and PR specialist should embrace the current trend of the public demanding information on issues and policy. It is an opportunity for communicators to portray their work to the general public as ethical, beneficial, and worthy of professional status.

One of the most important aspects of a PR practitioner’s career is to stay current on all forms of social media and mediums. However, during the 2006 federal election, the internet was overlooked as a powerful campaign tool.  The Canadian sites are often unidirectional, with no opportunity for sharing or encouragement of grass roots efforts. In future election campaigns, Canadian communicators should embrace the multitude of opportunities the internet offers. Effective websites can allow campaigns to deliver more detailed content and target niche groups. Also, websites can be used to clearly link the candidate’s political agenda to fundraising contributions. Finally, one mistake commonly made during the federal election was not creating a campaign website separate from the party’s main site. Virtual media is cheap, popular, and can reach mass audiences. There is much room for growth of social media in political campaigns.

Helpful source on this topic are:

www.hillwatch.com - political commentary
www.onedegree.com - political commentary

www.sfu.ca/mediapr/news_releases/archives - Simon Frasier University, Public Affairs and Media Relations

Steph Miller

Edited by Stephanie Harkin

Social media is a blanket term used to refer to a set of World Wide Web-based tools and platforms that share a number of commonalities: they rely on user-created or user-submitted content; they foster two-way communication; they have a broad level of accessibility; and they have a high level of interconnectivity with other web-based technologies. Blogs, podcasts, wikis, social networks and content communities are examples of social media. Websites such as LiveJournal, YouTube, Wikipedia and Myspace, all examples of social media, have gained mainstream media attention due to their widespread proliferation in the recent past.

Technorati, a search engine dedicated specifically to blogs (www.technorati.com), lists over sixty million English-language blogs. Podcasts on every topic imaginable are appearing at an astonishing rate on such sites as the iTunes Music Store and Podcast.net. YouTube and Myspace have been bought out by internet giants Google and Yahoo, due to their ever expanding user-bases. The social media phenomenon is symptomatic of a larger phenomenon that has been gaining momentum in the past five years. Cheap digital technology and increasing accessibility to the internet have spawned a user-content revolution. People are stepping out of their roles as media consumers, and are embracing new roles as media producers.

This has opened possibilities for all forward thinking individuals, such as the independent filmmaker, musician or public relations professional. The facilities for media production are no longer in the hands of the few, and the internet makes it possible to distribute your message in its originally intended form, completely circumventing traditional channels of communication.

Unfortunately, one of the downsides of this democratization is that it has created a credibility gap between social media and traditional media. A constant criticism of social media, and specifically blogs, is that they are unreliable sources of information. A recent article from Brandweek magazine cited research that showed that only 21% of consumers trusted information that they had read in blogs. In defending blogs, Virginia Postrel, a writer for Forbes magazine, makes a comparison between traditional “journalistic” sources Times Magazine and the National Enquirer: both share the same format, however they are about as far apart in content and credibility as is possible. It’s necessary to view blogs in the same respect, and to select your sources as you would any media.

Thanks to a handy web-technology known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS), this task has been made, well, simple. RSS allows you to subscribe to a number of different sources, such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts, and have them all compiled for you in one location. Websites such as Bloglines (www.bloglines.com), and programs such as iTunes make this task easy, and can also provide suggestions for further reading and listening.

From a public relations standpoint, the proliferation of social media cannot be ignored. Social media outlets provide a demographically broad audience to be reached by one easily accessible source. Unlike traditional media sources, social media facilitates two-way communication, allowing the PR person to gauge the impact of their message almost instantaneously.

For further information about this topic, check out these resources:

What is Social Media? from Spannerworks.com. Provides a brief overview of the different types of social media.

The University of Essex, UK: Chimera Institute for Social and Technical Research. A resource for scholarly analysis of the impact that technology is having on society and social interaction. Includes a number of papers written about blogging.

Many2Many blog at Corante.com. A thorough report on current trends and issues facing social media.

- Nick Iszakovits
- edited by Nijah Smith