CGD 318 AU Public Relations Ethics and Legality Discussions

Public Relations Research [WLO: 1] [CLOs: 1, 3, 4]

Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read Chapter 3 in your text and the articles

Why Honesty and Integrity Are Essential in PRLinks to an external site.

, and Crisis Communication and Ethics: The Role of Public Relations, and watch the video,

Research-Public RelationsLinks to an external site.

.

Communications strategies are based on analysis and planning. Find a current event that includes a public relations response to manage public opinion. The event could include positive or negative publicity. Describe the event and discuss the role of public relations research in forming an effective public response. What research methods might have been used to assess public opinion regarding the incident?

Refer to the

Public Relations News Research in the UAGC LibraryLinks to an external site.

guide to find a current event for this discussion.

Guided Response:Respond to a minimum of two of your classmates’ posts. Each response should be a minimum of 100 words. In your response, demonstrate how your ideas relate to those of your peers.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read Chapter 4 in your text and the articles, Why Honesty and Integrity Are Essential in PRLinks to an external site., and Crisis Communication and Ethics: The Role of Public Relations. Finally, watch the video

Protecting a Company’s Public Relationship in Times of White Collar Criminal CrisisLinks to an external site.

.

Find a case study in the news, library, YouTube or other source that blurs the lines between ethics and legality. The seven ethics attributes that public relations professionals use in writing and practice are honesty, fairness, advocacy, loyalty, expertise, independence, and transparency. Thinking of these seven attributes of public relations ethics, what is your assessment of the case from a PR perspective? Were there any of the seven ethics that seemed to apply more than the others in the case? What are the legal concerns for the organization in this case?

Refer to the Public Relations News Research in the UAGC LibraryLinks to an external site. guide to find a case study for this discussion.

4
Ethics and Legal Concerns
© Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis
Trumpeting the truth. Legendary jazz musician Wynton Marsalis got it right for public relations people when he said there is
nothing more important than ethics.
Ethics are more important than laws.
Learning Objectives
—Wynton Marsalis
After reading this chapter, you should able to do the following:
1. State the importance of acting ethically when making public relations decisions.
2. Explain why the essence of ethical public relations practice is “doing the right thing.”
3. List the seven attributes that constitute public relations ethics.
4. Summarize the specific standards that public relations writers must exemplify in their work.
5. Catalog the principal laws and regulations with which public relations professionals must be familiar.
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Section 4.1
A Question of Ethics
4.1 A Question of Ethics
For many years public relations professionals and lawyers have interacted in a state of tacit
conflict. Make no mistake: The two fields must coexist in a mutually dependent and sharing
manner. A public relations professional must be familiar with the law, especially those laws
that govern his or her organization or industry.
When an organization is faced with an issue that challenges its reputation, it must first weigh
its legal liability against any public statements it might make. This is why the first counselor a
CEO seeks out in crisis is the organization’s team of lawyers. The CEO wants to make sure that
he or she is not violating the law in responding to the issue at hand. A smart CEO, however,
will also seek out public relations counsel to determine the organization’s best response. In
other words, a good CEO—especially in a 21st-century environment where wireless communications are on duty 24/7 and keeping “secrets” is immediately imperiled—will always balance legal advice on the one hand and public relations advice on the other. Therein lies the
conflict between public relations and legal. A legal adviser will tell you what you must do and
say to defend the organization in a court of law and to lessen exposure to risk. A public relations counselor will tell you what you should do and say to represent yourself in the court of
public opinion. Often there is a huge difference.
In 2014, New Jersey governor Chris Christie was the front-runner for the 2016 Republican
nomination for president until a political scandal involving traffic tie-ups on the George Washington Bridge enveloped his administration. Instead of discovering and discussing how his
aides might have tied up traffic to get back at political enemies, Christie insulated himself by
hiring a high-priced law firm. The end result: Christie’s silence on the scandal caused his popularity to suffer, and he quickly lost his standing as the Republican front-runner. In politics,
“Silence grants the point.” Had Christie received proper public relations counsel instead of
seeking out lawyers to shield him, he
might have been dealt a better political fate.
Matt Rourke/Associated Press
Lowering the bridge. New Jersey governor Chris
Christie’s standing deteriorated dramatically in
2014 when he followed legal rather than public
relations advice in dealing with “Bridgegate.”
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The point is that while lawyers and
legal advice generally begin with the
premise “The less said the better,” public relations professionals and public
relations advice generally begin with
the question “How can communication help our position?” Legal ethics
most times lead to staying silent. Public relations ethics often lead to going
public.
Stated simply, the advice a public relations professional offers should always
be ethical. That counsel should always
be evaluated first as a question of
ethics.
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Section 4.2
Do the Right Thing
4.2 Do the Right Thing
What is—or are—ethics? When businesspeople were asked by a sociologist, “What does the
subject of ethics mean to you?” here’s how they answered.
• “Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong.”
• “Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs.”
• “Being ethical is doing what the law requires.”
• “Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts.”
• “I don’t know what the word means.”
Clearly, what ethics is or isn’t is a hard subject to pin down. People equate ethics with their
feelings, their religious beliefs, social standards, the law, and myriad other connections. Each
of these has merit, but none fully describes ethics. At the University of Santa Clara’s Markkula
Center for Applied Ethics, the definition of ethics consists of two discrete parts:
1. First, ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what
humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose
the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, theft, murder, assault, slander, and
fraud. Ethical standards also include the virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty
and are related to rights (such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury,
and the right to privacy). Such standards are adequate because they are supported
by consistent, well-founded reasoning.
2. Second, ethics refers to the study and development of one’s own ethical standards.
As noted, feelings, laws, and social norms can deviate from what is ethical. So it is
necessary to constantly examine one’s standards to ensure that they are reasonable
and well-founded. Ethics also means, then, the continuous effort of studying our own
moral beliefs and conduct and striving to ensure that we, and the institutions we help
to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly based.
Boiled down, ethics is the study and
application of values that guide a person, organization, or society—concepts
such as right and wrong, fairness and
unfairness, justice and injustice, honesty
and dishonesty. These are the norms
that a society has determined to be
ethical. And it is to these standards that
each of us should be held. Professional
ethics, often called applied ethics, suggests a commonly accepted sense of professional conduct. Often organizations,
associations, and industries translate
these applied ethics into formal codes of
conduct for individuals to follow.
In the practice of public relations, the
fundamental ethical standard is to do the
right thing. In other words, whenever
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© Cynthia Rucker/Demotix/Corbis
Do the right thing. That’s what supporters of
Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning)
urged President Obama to do in 2014, when the
U.S. Army soldier was imprisoned for leaking
confidential information.
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Do the Right Thing
Section 4.2
public relations professionals are confronted by challenges, they should always opt to do the
right thing for their organization and its constituent publics. Sometimes these may be mutually exclusive; often in making decisions, the desired path isn’t clear. Using this ethical standard as a touchstone helps fortify making the right decision.
Case Study: One Zoo’s Ethics
Sometimes doing the right thing is a lot tougher
than it looks. Consider the 2014 case of the
Copenhagen Zoo, Denmark’s leading cultural
institution and one of the foremost animal
sanctuaries in the world. The zoo’s mission is to
be “actively involved in the international efforts
to preserve animal species” (http://uk.zoo.dk
/VisitZoo/Mission and vision.aspx). That part
of its mission is exactly what animal rights
activists around the world pointed to in 2014
when the zoo announced plans to euthanize one
of its young male giraffes.
© Matthew Harrison/Demotix/Corbis
Is it ethical? In the name of “doing
the right thing,” the Copenhagen Zoo
euthanized this mother lion, her two
cubs, and their father to make way for
a new kid in town.
The director of the zoo explained that it was
euthanizing the animal as part of an international
breeding program in order to ensure a sound
and healthy population of giraffes. He explained
to CNN, “It can only be done by matching the
genetic composition of the various animals with the available space. . . . When giraffes breed
as well as they do now, then you will inevitably run into so-called surplus problems now and
then” (Naik & Cumuchian, 2014, para 5). And so the young giraffe was euthanized and fed to
the lions. What’s more, the zoo decided to allow visitors and reporters to witness the lions
eating the giraffe meat.
The director’s explanation and the subsequent feeding of the surplus giraffe to the lions
infuriated a watching world. Tweets and letters of condemnation, online petitions, and all
manner of criticisms were directed to the Copenhagen Zoo. Award-winning American author
Joyce Carol Oates tweeted, “Still can’t comprehend why the Danish zoo killed the young,
healthy giraffe. Yes they had ‘reasons.’ So did Nazi doctors” (Oates, 2014).
The zoo director tried again to explain why the act of feeding the giraffe to the lions was
simply a replication of what happens in the wild. He explained, “This is how it is. Meat comes
from animals. In this case, we know that the meat comes from an animal who has led a good
life” (Copenhagen Zoo, 2014). Predictably, the director’s explanation didn’t do much to calm
down those who thought the giraffe’s killing was unethical.
One month later, just when the fervor was dying down, the zoo did it again—this time to
those same lions who had weeks earlier dined on giraffe. To make way for a newly acquired
male lion, the zoo euthanized four lions: two cubs along with their parents. The zoo’s
spokesman explained that all four would have been killed by the new male lion. “We tried to
place them elsewhere, but unfortunately there wasn’t any interest” (Bro, 2014). In the zoo’s
mind, it was doing the ethical thing to preserve the species; in the minds of many, however,
the zoo’s actions were the furthest thing from ethical.
(continued)
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Section 4.3
Public Relations Ethics
Case Study: One Zoo’s Ethics (continued)
Critical Thinking Questions
1.
2.
3.
How would you assess the Copenhagen Zoo’s action relative to “doing the right thing”?
How do you think the zoo handled the backlash?
Had you been the zoo’s public relations person, how might you have worded its
response to public questions?
4.3 Public Relations Ethics
The quest to do the right thing is what distinguishes—or at least ought to distinguish—the
practice of public relations from other disciplines, particularly the law. Sometimes this isn’t
so easy. In 2000, PR Week magazine surveyed 1,700 public relations executives and found the
following:
• 44% said they were “uncertain” about the ethics of their field.
• 39% said they had “exaggerated” the truth.
• And, incredibly, 25% admitted they “lied” on the job (Leyland, 2000).
Some public relations executives, properly embarrassed with these findings, bad-mouthed
the design of the survey, blaming imprecise questions for the shockingly unethical answers.
But whether or not the survey was skewed (interestingly, no one has ever initiated a followup public relations ethics survey), the fact remains that many in public relations are uncertain
about the standards or ethics of their practice and the work products they turn out. This is a
tragedy because the practice of public relations ought to represent the very highest standards,
especially in the communication work product that public relations professionals produce.
So how should public relations professionals exemplify the ethical mandate of “doing the right
thing”? How, precisely, should they conduct themselves in the carrying out of their duties?
The place to start is with the Statement of Professional Values of the field’s leading trade
association, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). The PRSA’s six values—honesty,
fairness, advocacy, loyalty, expertise, and independence—constitute a rubric (see Figure 4.1)
for practicing ethical public relations and are particularly important for public relations writers. To this list, we will also add a seventh value, transparency.
Honesty
This is the most important public relations ethic. The cardinal ethical principle of public relations is to tell the truth. If you lie to a reporter or a legislator, a coworker or a customer, you
will have squandered the most important qualification you possess—your reputation.
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Public Relations Ethics
Section 4.3
Lawyers march to a different drum than do public relations counselors. Their job, mandated
by the U.S. Constitution, is to provide a client with the best possible legal defense, often regardless of guilt or innocence. In public relations, there is no similar constitutional guarantee of
representation. A public relations professional must always seek to find out the truth from a
client. And if your client is guilty, then you can’t pretend that he or she isn’t. If you do, you may
lose your most precious asset—your credibility.
Fairness
Cynics accuse public relations people of being perpetually upbeat cheerleaders, seeing the
glass always half-full. In point of fact, public relations professionals should treat employers,
coworkers, customers and, most critically, the media with fairness and compassion. In an era
of voicemail and email and often offshore-based consumer relations, most organizations need
a compassionate human face to reassure the public. And it’s particularly true with respect to
what some perceive to be that most dreaded of organizational enemies—the media. Reporters have a job to do, and a key part of the public relations mission is to help them do it. That
means that even when the rudest and most obnoxious journalist demands information, a
practitioner’s responsibility is to treat him or her with fairness.
Advocacy
The ethics of public relations also requires professionals to be advocates for those they represent. Does that mean you are biased in favor of your client or employer? Yes, it does. And
this should be clear to all with whom you deal. As long as your client is fair and consistent and
ethical in its dealings, then there is nothing at all wrong about working for the organization
and, by extension, supporting it in all you say and write. The key to advocacy is to advocate
responsibly. In that sense, through your writing and speaking on behalf of the client, you are
providing a voice in the marketplace of ideas, facts, and viewpoints to aid informed public
debate.
Loyalty
Consistent with practicing advocacy for your clients, you also must be loyal to them. Here
again, loyalty in public relations—perhaps unlike other tasks in an organization—is a twoedged sword. On the one hand, you must be loyal to the organization you work for; on the
other, you must loyally represent your obligation to serve the public interest. Stated another
way, in public relations you have one foot inside the organization and the other in the
public sector.
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Section 4.3
Public Relations Ethics
Figure 4.1: Public relations ethics
Expertise
These seven qualities are considered the underlying
ethics that public relations professionals must bring
to their writing and practice.
Expertise is the specialized knowledge that
you acquire and use responsibly as a public
relations professional. This has two dimensions: (1) the knowledge you build about
your client and the industry it represents
and (2) the knowledge you build about
the theory, history, and practice of public
relations itself. Every public relations professional is an emissary of the field—an
ambassador whose knowledge, expertise,
and ethics reinforce the credibility of the
profession he or she represents.
Honesty
Fairness
Transparency
Public
relations
ethics
Independence
Advocacy
Independence
Expertise
Loyalty
Independence refers to the objective counsel that you must give to those you represent. As noted, you are an advocate. But you
must be a responsible one, always speaking the truth to your client organization and to your
publics. You must be accountable for your actions and advice.
Transparency
To these six PRSA values, one other must be added
to complete the ethics of public relations: transparency. Transparency is the ability to communicate
clearly without confusion, obfuscation, or deception. Here again, when lawyers communicate, they
often use language that is difficult to understand
(some would say, purposely obscure). Public relations writers, on the other hand, must always seek
transparency so that readers, listeners, or viewers
understand why the organization has chosen to act
as it has.
© Jon Bower/Loop Images/Corbis
Transparency. One hallmark of the
ethical public relations professional
is to be transparent in communicating
clearly and honestly. Transparent, not
invisible.
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Preaching transparency requires courage and confidence on the part of the professional—enough to
go head to head with a lawyer preaching silence and
avoidance.
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Public Relations Writing Ethics
Section 4.4
4.4 Public Relations Writing Ethics
For a public relations writer, the ethics represented by these seven overriding values must be
demonstrated in every release, speech, tweet, and piece of writing. That translates into public
relations writers’ adhering to a higher standard than others in all that they produce. After
all, if public relations writers are the most professional writers in an organization, then they
should hold themselves to the highest standards. This isn’t always an easy task. University of
Massachusetts writing scholar Peter Elbow has pointed out that while critical thinking suggests being skeptical of what we see or hear, public relations writers often must exercise what
Elbow calls the “believing game”—scrutinizing ideas that may be unpopular or suspicious for
their hidden virtues, appeals, or merits (Elbow, 2008).
In terms of style, following are some of the ways public relations writers might hew to a
higher standard.
Avoid Sloppy Style
For many decades, the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook has been the preferred writing style
for public relations writers. The guidelines dictate the proper use of abbreviations, numbers,
spelling, and grammar. For example, the proper style to use in a release, a feature, or Web
copy would resemble the following: “On Nov. 24, 2013, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben
Bernanke issued nine guidelines, each of which is essential.”
Today, the prevailing style is that prescribed by the Internet, which translates to no style, or
at least nothing that could be construed as consistent. It is much better for public relations
writers to continue to adhere to AP style.
Avoid Pretentious Preambles
In order for public relations writers to merit earned media, they need to convince editors
that their copy contains information that is newsworthy—that is, worthy of being considered as news. This suggests that a news release, for example, should speak for itself as news
and that no extra lead-in to the release is necessary.
Too often, public relations releases begin with pretentious preambles, explaining why the following release is important or even imploring editors to contact the writer if they plan to use
the release. No self-respecting reporter would ever call a public relations person to report the
use of a news release, so asking for feedback is pointless.
Avoid Offensive Language
Should public relations releases be provocatively written? Yes. Should they be written to
“grab” an editor’s attention? Yes. But they shouldn’t be offensive.
Unfortunately, today proper language has taken a backseat. Vulgarity and profanity have
become commonplace in the culture. It is the Wild West of language, and nothing seems off
limits.
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Public Relations and the Law
Section 4.5
So, in this world of steadily declining speech and language standards, why isn’t it perfectly
acceptable for public relations professionals to follow suit? After all, the people for whom we
work curse and use the most unseemly language in all variety of venues without hesitation,
and nobody seems to mind. So what’s the big deal?
Here’s the answer: Public relations people are supposed to be professional communicators.
They should set the standard for proper and pertinent communication, whether in speaking,
writing, or communicating on social media. Remember, if the language offends the reader or
listener, your message will be unsuccessful.
Don’t Overpromise or Hyperbolize
Public relations people are also criticized for using inflated language to overpromise or exaggerate. Referring to yours as a “leading agency” or a “cutting-edge institution” or a “widely
quoted executive” will only alienate editors if it simply isn’t true or justifiable. Sure, public relations people must be advocates for their organizations. But being circumspect about
promises and bloated language will only serve to enhance the credibility of public relations
materials. The key is balancing claims made with facts, statistics, and backup proof.
Be Careful With Headlines and Quotations
Headlines in releases should be captivating, enticing the reporter or editor to read on. Quotations within the release should be nourishing, adding to the framework of knowledge presented in the release, so that a reporter might use the quotes in a story.
But headlines shouldn’t be so outrageous that they turn editors off. Quotations should neither be so trite (“We are delighted with our results,” said CEO Smith) nor outrageous (“We’re
simply the best,” beamed CEO Jones) that they are doomed as soon as a journalist sees them.
The sad fact is that failings like these are not atypical in public relations releases, even
though these missteps should be an embarrassment to any public relations writer. For public relations to become more accepted and respected as a profession, those who practice
public relations must produce written copy that adheres to the highest standards of professional ethics.
4.5 Public Relations and the Law
The public relations and legal professions historically have shared an uneasy alliance. On the
one hand, the lawyer and public relations professional must work hand in hand in meshing
an organization’s legal rights and responsibilities with its public positions. The best organizations are those in which the lawyers and the public relations professionals get along with
each other and are mutually supportive.
On the other hand, despite the necessity for the two functions to work closely together, the
philosophical approach of each differs markedly from that of the other.
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Public Relations and the Law
Section 4.5
Lawyers generally argue that the less an organization says publicly, the better. That way, the
opposition can’t gain any new ammunition from public statements that can be used against
the organization in a court of law. Conversely, public relations people argue that organizations should be willing to communicate, that they should be pro-disclosure. A public relations
writer, for example, attends every meeting with the question “What in relation to this issue
can we talk about?” The public relations view is that honesty and candor are the best defenses
in the court of public opinion.
Lawyers and public relations people have historically dealt with each other cautiously in the
executive suite. In light of this tension in the relationship, as well as the importance of lawyers
in the eyes of most CEOs, smart public relations professionals must possess a basic understanding of the law—particularly those aspects that organizations face most frequently. Following is a broad introduction to the legal considerations with which public relations professionals should be familiar.
Privacy, Freedom of Speech, and Press Law
The laws governing a person’s privacy have implications for the public relations profession.
Media libel and slander laws have particular relevance. Libel and slander are forms of defamation. While a discussion of the two could fill an entire text, slander generally involves the
oral “publication” of a defamatory remark, while libel involves written publication. For most
of us, as private individuals, to prove libel or slander, we must prove that the alleged perpetrator was “negligent,” or careless, in publishing untrue information. For public figures,
such as celebrities or politicians, however, the law recognizes the traditional privilege of “fair
comment,” which allows even questionable comments as long as they are made without ill
will, spite, or intent to harm. To prove a charge of slander or libel, a public figure must show
that the media acted with “actual malice,” meaning that statements were published with the
knowledge that they were false or with reckless disregard for whether or not they were false.
The most famous case in this regard was New York Times v. Sullivan in 1964, in which the
U.S. Supreme Court overturned an Alabama city commissioner’s lower court defamation victory against the Times for publishing an ad that criticized him. The Court ruled that the First
Amendment’s free speech and free press clause made it obligatory to prove that a publisher
either knew the information was false or published information with “reckless disregard for
the truth.”
In recent years, talk radio, cable TV, and the Internet have been studded with outraged and
outrageous commentators who throw caution to the wind in their quest to be controversial.
Broadcast organizations, in particular, have chosen to pay out-of-court settlements rather
than testing the laws, even though libel and slander are immensely difficult to prove. In 2014,
Michael Skakel, the imprisoned nephew of Robert Kennedy, sued Headline News host Nancy
Grace after she falsely claimed on television that Skakel’s DNA was found at the crime scene of
the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley. In fact, no DNA was found. That same year, singer-actress
Courtney Love won a landmark Twitter libel case after tweeting disparagingly about her former attorney. A jury found her tweets, claiming malpractice, were not libelous.
On the other hand, also in 2014, a jury awarded former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura
$1.8 million after deciding that Ventura was, in fact, defamed in a best-selling book that
accused the former professional wrestler of criticizing the Navy Seals.
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Public Relations and the Law
Section 4.5
These cases illustrate the growing trend in society to challenge the media, but also the difficulty in proving libel and slander. As with any set of laws, the laws of libel and slander are
subject to wide interpretation. For example, the so-called “wire service defense” suggests that
you might be excused from a defamation charge of negligence if you republished something
from a reputable news agency or didn’t know the information was false. For our purposes, it’s
important for a public relations writer to understand the basics of libel and slander.
Copyright and Trademark Law
Copyright law provides basic, automatic protection for writers, whether or not a manuscript
is registered with the Copyright Office or even published. Under the Copyright Act of 1976, an
original work of authorship has copyright protection from the moment it is in fixed form. As
soon as an article, short story, or book is put on paper or a computer disk or is spoken into a
tape recorder, copyright law protects it. Basically, you created it, so you own it.
Copyright protection exists for broad categories of works: literary works, musical works,
dramatic works, pictorial or graphic works, and sound recordings. Not covered by copyright
protection are such works as titles and short slogans, speeches, and performances that have
not been fixed on paper or recorded. The same protections are true of trademark law, where
words, symbols, or phrases that identify a particular product or service—the Nike swoosh
or Coca-Cola or Pepsi-Cola—distinguish them from other products or another organization.
One exception to such laws that is important for public relations writers to understand is
the “fair use doctrine,” which permits limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the rights holder. In determining what constitutes fair use, as with most matters
of law, the devil is in the details. A balancing test for fair use, which includes factors such
as the amount and substantiality of the copyrighted work being used, is always subject to
interpretation.
Public Relations and Securities Law
With half the country now direct or indirect participants in the stock market—largely through
retirement accounts, pension accounts, 401Ks, and the like—public relations people should
know the rudiments of securities law. Public relations writers, in working for or writing
about public companies, should be particularly mindful of the laws that govern such entities.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)—through a series of court cases, consent
decrees, complaints, and comments over the years—has painted a general portrait of disclosure requirements. The SEC’s overriding concern, as described in the Securities Act of
1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, is to ensure that all investors have an equal
opportunity to learn about material information that would cause them to buy, sell, or hold
a stock. Through its general antifraud statute, Rule 10b-5 of the 1934 Act, the SEC strictly
prohibits the dissemination of false or misleading information to investors. In the final
days of the 20th century, the SEC sought to crack down on insider trading, in which those
informed of corporate news before it was announced took advantage by trading early on
the information. Strong court verdicts against several high-profile investment professionals suggested that insider trading would be dealt with harshly in an environment of strong
stock market interest.
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Public Relations and the Law
Section 4.5
Internet Law
The Internet has introduced a new dimension to laws affecting free speech. The operating
premise in American law is that not all speech is created equal. There is a hierarchy of speech
under Supreme Court precedents dating back many decades that calibrate the degree of First
Amendment protection for the particular medium of expression.
The Internet has brought new ramifications to this legal principle. In 1996, Congress passed
the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which prescribed criminal penalties for making
indecent speech available to a person under 18 years of age. A Philadelphia court struck down
the law, contending that such censorship would chill all discourse on the Internet. In 1997,
the Supreme Court declared the CDA unconstitutional, thus extending the time-honored
American principle of freedom of speech. Justice John Paul Stevens said the Court considered
the “goal of protecting children from indecent materials as legitimate and important” but
concluded that “the wholly unprecedented breadth of the law threatened to suppress far too
much speech.”
In recent years, all aspects of the Internet—email, chat rooms, websites, cybersquatting relative to domain names, and myriad other topics—have come under increased legal scrutiny.
Most recently, as broadband providers seek competitive advantage, we’ve seen issues surrounding net neutrality—the principle that Internet service providers and governments
should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by
user, content, site, platform, application, type of equipment, or mode of communication. In
2014, President Barack Obama made
a strong case in favor of net neutrality, and on February 26, 2015, the
FCC issued a decision in favor of net
neutrality.
In the United States, the snooping
allegations revealed by National Security Administration leaker Edward
Snowden provoked a new look at
privacy on the Net. At the same time,
a growing number of other nations
faced with internal strife, from Turkey
to China to Russia, have in recent years
passed draconian measures to censor
Internet comments on blogs, Twitter,
and Facebook and intimidate Net users
by mandating the storing of personal
user data that could be made available
to the authorities. All of these developments should be tracked closely by
First Amendment–advocating public
relations professionals.
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©Gail Albert Halaban/Corbis
Slanderous behavior. As docile as she might be as
a mother, Headline News network anchor Nancy
Grace has forced her CNN employer to settle several
lawsuits accusing her of slander—in one case,
harshly criticizing a woman who subsequently set
herself on fire and died.
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Public Relations and the Law
Section 4.5
Writer’s Sidebar: Please Accept My Apology
One principle of public relations that has gained increased
acceptance in recent years—especially in the context of an
increasingly litigious society when someone’s reputation
is defamed—is that of apologizing when an organization
or individual does something wrong. Some public relations
people suggest that apologizing exposes weakness, and a CEO,
government leader, or lawyer might worry that apologizing
opens one to potential liability. However, wiser counselors
argue that a quick apology can defuse even the most troubling
crisis. When one waits and appears reluctant to take blame
for his or her actions—as media impresario Martha Stewart
did when facing securities fraud charges and disgraced
cyclist Lance Armstrong did in reluctantly admitting he took
performance-enhancing drugs—credibility is lost. The instant
apology has become commonplace in 21st-century America,
so much so that on a single day in 2014 the following three
apologies were issued:
•
•
•
General Motors apologized to families of accident
victims it had earlier notified in perfunctory messages
to bring in cars for replacement of defective ignition
switches.
The White House apologized to key lawmakers for
not notifying them in advance about the exchange
of five Taliban detainees for American prisoner
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
Movie star Jonah Hill apologized for using a
homophobic slur to lash out at a member of the
paparazzi.
© Brock Miller/Splash News/Corbis
Responding to tragedy.
When TV star Tracy
Morgan was critically
injured in a crash with a
Wal-Mart truck in 2014,
Wal-Mart’s president
immediately promised
“responsibility” if
its truck caused the
accident.
In each case, the apology helped to stem a brewing crisis. Perhaps the greatest example of
a company willingly sacrificing the danger of potential legal liability for a quick response to
tragedy came a week later, when TV star Tracy Morgan, returning from a Delaware appearance,
was critically injured when a Wal-Mart truck plowed into his limousine in the early morning
hours on the New Jersey Turnpike. Wal-Mart president Bill Simon immediately acknowledged
that his company would “take full responsibility” if authorities determined its truck had caused
the accident. “We’re praying for the family and friends of the passenger who lost his life in the
terrible accident,” he added. Now that’s positive public relations except that . . .
Months later, when Morgan sued Wal-Mart for significant damages, the company changed
its tune, arguing in the media that Morgan himself was partially to blame because he wasn’t
wearing a seat belt.
Now that’s miserable public relations.
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Public Relations Writers and Online Law
Section 4.6
4.6 Public Relations Writers
and Online Law
Offbeat rock musician Frank Zappa (no stranger to censorship laws) once famously said,
“The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced” (Zappa, 1992,
para 11). While he certainly had a point, it’s important that every public relations writer be
familiar with the particular laws and legal guidelines that govern writing online (where much
of public relations writing takes place). Here, then, is a quick guide to the 10 most applicable
laws that apply to online public relations writers.
Freedom of Information Act
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) gives any person the right to access records
from a U.S. government agency. How long it will take to get the records varies by agency,
and there is often a fee associated with obtaining these records. Also keep in mind that not
every bit of information is accessible. There are certain exemptions and exclusions that
may prevent your access.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a comprehensive law that protects copyrighted works used on the Web. It is a federal law that has both civil and criminal components. For online use, the DMCA provision most people need to be familiar with is the one that
allows copyright holders to send an email or fill out a form asking the author or moderator of
the site where an alleged infringement is happening to either take down the material or block
access to it.
Anti-SLAPP Laws
Anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) laws protect your right not
to be censored, silenced, or intimidated when the First Amendment doesn’t apply. As noted,
you aren’t protected if you defame someone. However, there are times when what you say
online may be detrimental to a person or cause, but not defamatory. Caution: Laws vary from
state to state.
U.S. Copyright Law
According to U.S. copyright law, a work created by an employee of the U.S. government as part
of his or her official duty is not subject to copyright. So you can use it. The U.S. government
may obtain copyright rights in other countries, though, so be aware of that if you use works
outside the United States. Works created by government contractors, on the other hand, may
be subject to copyright, as are works created by independent agencies such as NASA and the
U.S. Postal Service.
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Public Relations Writers and Online Law
Section 4.6
Basic Contract Laws
Contract law, like most elements of the law, is complicated. The essential thing to remember
is to read—and understand—everything you sign and agree to. You should always know what
your obligations and those of the other person are before you agree to do anything.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) imposes certain requirements on
operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age (or on
those collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age). You need to
be familiar with this act if you deal with, or write for, this age group.
Securities Law
The SEC has wide sway over the timing and content of public company announcements.
Public relations writers must be aware of these regulations, especially as they apply to
the online environment. In recent years, the SEC has adapted to online communication by
broadening the approved channels for company news. This especially includes social media.
In 2013, the SEC ruled that companies could use social media outlets such as Facebook and
Twitter to announce key information, so long as investors have been alerted about which
social media will be used to disseminate such information.
Workplace Privacy Laws
With the growing importance of social media, workplace privacy laws have come under
increased scrutiny. More employers are asking employees to turn over their user names
and passwords for their personal accounts. These employers argue that access to personal
accounts is needed to protect proprietary information or trade secrets, to comply with federal
financial regulations, or to prevent the employer from being exposed to legal liabilities. But
others consider requiring access to personal accounts an invasion of employee privacy. As a
consequence, at least 28 states have introduced legislation to prevent employers from requiring passwords to personal Internet accounts in order to get or keep a job. Some states have
similar legislation to protect students in public colleges and universities from having to grant
access to their social networking accounts.
Sweepstakes Laws
Social media promotions are a huge draw and can bring traffic and potential revenue. But
public relations writers involved with such contests should realize that state and federal laws
govern all promotions. If these rules are violated in sweepstakes offerings, companies are put
at great risk not only from the government, but also from contestants or potential contestants
who may sue for violations.
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Section 4.6
Public Relations Writers and Online Law
Right of Publicity Laws
The right of publicity, often called personality
rights, is the right of an individual to control the
commercial use of his or her name, image, likeness,
or other unequivocal aspects of one’s identity. For
example, you can’t put a picture of Shakira on your
jar of peanut butter without her permission. George
Clooney, Julia Roberts, Kanye West, and the estate of
Jimi Hendrix have all sued to preserve the right to
protect their images. In 2014, the National Collegiate
Athletic Association was sued by former college athletes for using their images, without permission, for
everything from posters to video games.
Andreas Branch/MCMUP/Associated Press
Milking the right of publicity. In 2010,
E*Trade settled with Lindsay Lohan,
who sued the brokerage firm for
violating her rights of publicity for
running a Super Bowl commercial
featuring a “milkaholic” baby named
Lindsay.
Today, of course, with everyone a cell phone photographer, the images of people who aren’t celebrities
show up all the time in unwanted Internet capture.
What are their rights? The answer isn’t yet absolutely clear. However, using a photo of anyone—
even if he or she sends it directly to you through
social media—is an instant invitation to a lawsuit
and should be off limits unless you have written
permission to use that person’s likeness. Online law
is a moving target, with cases and precedents being
decided all the time. It’s important for a public relations writer to be aware of this changing landscape
as he or she produces online work product.
Case Study: When Lawyers Rule the Corporate Culture
There is no greater symbol of the strength
and ingenuity of the American free enterprise
system than the General Motors Company. For
more than a century, GM has been an iconic
American treasure; indeed, the very foundation
of America was said to be “baseball, hot dogs,
Chevrolet, and apple pie.” But in the financial
meltdown of 2008, GM and its auto industry
cohorts found themselves in desperate shape.
Only a bailout from the U.S. government could
save General Motors. After receiving lifesustaining financing, the company emerged
from bankruptcy in 2009, reorganized
into a new, smaller, stronger organization.
Steadily, GM regained its financial footing and
introduced a better line of new cars that sold
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© Kevin Lamarque/Reuters/Corbis
GM CEO in the crucible. In 2014, new
General Motors CEO Mary Barra was
summoned to Washington to testify to
Congress about defective GM ignition
switches tied to 12 deaths.
(continued)
4/23/15 2:44 PM
Section 4.6
Public Relations Writers and Online Law
Case Study: When Lawyers Rule the Corporate Culture
(continued)
well. In January 2014, GM became the first automaker to appoint a woman CEO. Mary
Barra, a respected 30-year GM veteran, was hailed from all quarters. The General Motors
Company was back.
Then disaster struck. A month after Barra’s appointment, GM informed regulators that ignition
switch problems in certain older models could cause cars to shut down, putting passengers
at peril. GM’s ignition switch problem was immediately blamed for 12 deaths in 31 crashes.
The company then recalled 2005–2007 Chevrolet Cobalts and 2007 Pontiac G5s. A month
later, after publicity connecting the switch problems to deaths, GM appointed a new safety
chief. A month after that, the acting chief of the National Highway Transportation Safety
Administration told Congress that regulators would have moved earlier to deal with the
problem had GM not withheld critical information.
Barra was immediately summoned to Washington to testify before Congress; her honeymoon
was officially over. In her testimony, Barra said she was shocked to learn that the company
had known for years about the switch problem but had said or done little about it. She
promised an exhaustive internal investigation, which two months later confirmed GM’s worst
fears. The report exposed an internal culture dominated by lawyers, who investigated the
problem but said—or wrote—little about their deliberations. Specifically, the investigation
report stated that the ignition switch issue “passed through an astonishing number of
committees. We repeatedly heard from witnesses that they flagged the issue, proposed a
solution, and the solution died in a committee or with some other ad hoc group exploring
the issue” (quoted in Morgenson, 2014). The report said it was impossible to identify
any ultimate internal decision makers on the issue. In fact, it was difficult to identify who
attended the meetings because minutes of the meetings, showing who attended and what
was said, were rarely taken. In other words, accountability for the issue was avoided, either
purposefully or by chance.
Some employees told investigators they did not take notes at safety meetings “because
they believed GM lawyers did not want such notes taken” (quoted in Morgenson, 2014).
Employees reported receiving “formal training” on writing about safety issues. For example,
in 2008 the company made a presentation in which it advised employees to write “smart.”
But what does smart mean in this context? According to the New York Times article “A Vow to
End Hollow Nods and Salutes”:
Words such as “problem” and “defect” were banned. Employees should
instead to use softer words—”issue,” “condition,” or “matter.” Rather than
write about a “defect,” employees were advised to note that the car “does not
perform to design.”
Sometimes entire sentences were forbidden, according to the report.
“Dangerous . . . almost caused accident,” was off limits, for example, as was,
“This is a safety and security issue. . . .” (Morgenson, 2014)
As a result of the report, GM fired 15 employees, including three senior lawyers. By June
2014, General Motors had announced 34 separate recalls, citing some 14 million vehicles, an
unprecedented number in the company’s history. Barra promised a new “culture of integrity”
(quoted in Morgenson, 2014) at General Motors. But unless that means reining in the
lawyers, that promise might prove hard to keep.
(continued)
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Summary & Resources
Case Study: When Lawyers Rule the Corporate Culture
(continued)
Critical Thinking Questions
1.
2.
Had you been a GM public relations professional participating in meetings about the
defective ignition switches, what would you have done?
What public relations advice would you give to CEO Mary Barra for realizing her
vision of creating a new culture of integrity at General Motors?
Summary & Resources
Chapter Summary
In this chapter, we have learned:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ethics is a great differentiator for public relations professionals.
The essence of public relations action and counsel is to “do the right thing.”
Seven values that should frame the ethical constitution of a public relations
professional are (1) honesty, (2) fairness, (3) independence, (4) advocacy,
(5) loyalty, (6) expertise, and (7) transparency.
Public relations writers should uphold a high standard, sensitive to overblown or
offensive language.
There has always been a tension between legal and public relations professionals,
with the former counseling what you must do to represent yourself in a court of law
and the latter counseling what you should do to represent yourself in the court of
public opinion.
Among the laws with which public relations professionals should be familiar are
securities law, copyright law, privacy law, and the laws that affect online writing.
Public relations professionals should be sensitive not only to the law of publicity,
which protects the images of celebrities, but also to the use of anyone’s image on
the Net.
Web Resources
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html
Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics is a comprehensive source of
articles, cases, and definitions on ethics in business and other sectors.
http://www.prsa.org/aboutprsa/ethics/codeenglish/#.U5DHGSt16Xw
The Public Relations Society of America’s Statement of Professional Values provides a sound
prescription for practicing public relations ethics.
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Summary & Resources
http://www.ap.org/products-services/stylebook
The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law is the essential style manual for
all writers, editors, students, and public relations specialists. It’s a comprehensive guide to
usage and accepted style, with special sections on fashion, food, broadcast, business, sports,
and social media guidelines. The AP Stylebook is updated every year with new listings as
well as notable revisions. There are separate chapters for photo caption style, social media,
punctuation, and a briefing on media law.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/376/254
This synopsis of the famous First Amendment case New York Times Co. v. Sullivan presents
a comprehensive explanation of what the Supreme Court found and its rationale for the
decision.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/business/gretchen-morgenson-on-the-problems
-at-gm.html
The “Switchgate” scandal of 2014 is well worth reviewing, in terms of the danger of a company letting its lawyers rule the roost. This New York Times column is particularly noteworthy in that regard.
Key Terms
advocacy The idea that public relations
professionals act as proponents for those
they represent. Their bias in favor of their
employer must be clear and arguments
delivered responsibly to advance the public
dialogue.
Anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against
Public Participation) laws Legislation
that protects your right not to be censored,
silenced, or intimidated when the First
Amendment doesn’t apply. These laws vary
from state to state.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
(COPPA) Legislation that imposes certain
requirements on operators of websites or
online services directed to children under
13 years of age (or on those collecting personal information online from a child under
13 years of age).
copyright law Provides basic, automatic
protection for writers, whether or not a
manuscript is registered with the Copyright
Office or even published.
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Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
A comprehensive law that protects copyrighted works used on the Web.
ethics The values that guide a person, organization, or society—concepts such as right
and wrong, fairness and unfairness, justice
and injustice, honesty and dishonesty. These
are the norms that society has deemed
ethical.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
Legislation that gives any person the right
to access records from a U.S. government
agency.
libel and slander Two forms of defamation. Slander generally involves the oral
“publication” of a defamatory remark, while
libel involves written publication.
net neutrality The principle that Internet
service providers and governments should
treat all data on the Internet equally, not
discriminating or charging differentially by
user, content, site, platform, application, type
of equipment, or mode of communication.
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Summary & Resources
newsworthy Public relations copy that
merits earned media because it is worthy of
being considered as news.
professional ethics A commonly accepted
sense of professional conduct. Sometimes
called applied ethics.
right of publicity The right of an individual
to control the commercial use of his or her
name, image, likeness, or other unequivocal
aspects of one’s identity; also called personality rights.
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trademark law Provides protection similar to copyright when words, symbols, or
phrases that identify a particular product or
service distinguish them from other products or another organization.
transparency Communicating clearly,
without obfuscation or deception.
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3
Researching, Planning,
and Measuring
© Oscar White/Corbis
Man with a plan. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was known as a superb strategist as supreme commander of the Allied Forces
in Europe during World War II and later the 34th president of the United States.
Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.
Learning Objectives
—General Dwight D. Eisenhower
After reading this chapter, you should able to do the following:
1. Explain the importance of planning for public relations campaigns.
2. Articulate why every public relations initiative must begin with research.
3. List the most typical forms of public relations research.
4. Examine and catalog the essential components of a public relations plan.
5. Describe the components of a SWOT analysis in preparing the public relations plan.
6. Explain the importance of measurement in assessing public relations programs and the difficulty
in achieving statistically significant clarity in terms of public relations initiatives.
7. List the various ways that publicity might be measured.
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Section 3.1
Planning for an Inexact Science
3.1 Planning for an Inexact Science
Public relations is not an exact science. The field is fueled by common sense, experience,
and—most of all—judgment and insight. Most public relations actions are intuitive and not
quantitative. But that doesn’t mean that public relations writers shouldn’t aim to be as analytical as possible in determining their approach to and implementation of communicating
public relations messages.
• What do you want to achieve with this program?
• Whom should you target and why?
• How do you know your assumptions are right?
• What kind of results do you expect?
• How do you know the campaign was worth the cost?
Increasingly, CEOs are demanding that public relations professionals demonstrate accountability for their actions and that they base their decisions on one commodity in particular—
facts. CEOs desire—and are certainly entitled to—evidence that what you think, recommend,
and want to spend money on is worth it. In other words, these managers—many of whom are
trained in business school where quantification is key—want to see the research that justifies
the action and the expense; the planning that will ensure a logical rollout and execution of
strategy; and the measurement that lets us know what we have achieved. Research, planning,
and measurement are particularly essential for a field as difficult to define as public relations.
Managers want analytical evidence that initiatives are worthwhile. Research, planning, and
measurement help deliver those analytics for management and (equally important for our
purposes) set the framework for the public relations writer.
Research enables writers to understand the attitudes and opinions of
the target group they’re trying to persuade. The public relations plan provides a road map for the writer as the
campaign progresses. And measurement helps show the writer how the
campaign messages might be refined
to improve their effect. Without these
tools, a public relations writer is shooting blind, relying solely on instinct to
achieve organizational goals. This is a
recipe for, if not disaster, then imprecise targeting and potentially missed
opportunity. The more empirical,
quantitative, analytical, and thoughtful
the public relations writer is, the better the chance of that writer’s persuading a target receiver.
sei82209_03_c03_043-064.indd 44
Topp_Yimgrimm/iStock/Thinkstock
Shooting blind. A public relations writer who does
not engage in thorough research, careful planning,
and precise measurement might as well be shooting
blind in terms of persuasion.
4/23/15 2:50 PM
Section 3.2
It All Begins With Research
3.2 It All Begins With Research
The first step for any public relations writer—just as for any public relations campaign—is
research. Before you can begin to write persuasively about a topic to a target audience, you
must understand as much as you can about the topic, the audience, and the goals of the organization; in other words, you must do your research. This is the only way to map out clear
communication strategies, based on impartial analysis.
Research is the objective and systematic gathering of information to enhance understanding.
Research can be as simple as informally seeking a benchmark for your results by surveying
the attitudes and opinions of a target audience (for example, having lunch with a group of
employees) or as complex as commissioning a full-blown opinion survey to determine deepseated beliefs on a particular subject (such as the opinions of potential American voters on
gay marriage). The range and scope of research depends on the subject at hand and the budget of the organization. The research should be appropriate to answer the writer’s most fundamental questions, among them:
• What are the key beliefs of your target audience relative to this topic?
• How does this knowledge influence the design of your messages?
• What are the optimum messages you might use to convey the organization’s goals?
• How might this knowledge influence the media you will use to convey your
messages?
• How does the degree of urgency attached to this issue influence your schedule for
rolling out messages?
One additional benefit of research is
that the management of most organizations is empirically based. Managers, for the most part, favor analytics
over intuition. Public relations, on the
other hand, is largely an intuitive art
form. The more empirical—and objectively researched—the public relations
approach, the more credibility the public relations initiative will have with
management.
For years, public relations professionBrennan Linsley/Associated Press als have searched for the research
tools that would help justify their
Pot poll. By 2013, U.S. public opinion polls indicated
that a clear majority of Americans (58%) favored the role and importance to management.
In the past, public relations research
legalization of marijuana. A year before, Colorado
and analysis were dominated by the
legalized recreational pot, and partygoers lit up in
most rudimentary measures—such
celebration.
as counting the number of press clippings an organization or product or
announcement received and how closely the ultimate publicity replicated public relations
messages.
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It All Begins With Research
Section 3.2
Primary Analysis
The best public relations research is primary analysis, which consists of collecting original
data from a representative sample (or selected group) of a target audience. The ideal sample
is one that is random. Random sampling gives all members of a population an equal chance
of being selected, and therefore yields conclusions based on the laws of probability that are
statistically significant within certain margins of error and allows generalizations to be made
from the sample to the total population being studied. This is preferable to nonrandom
sampling, which generally uses focus group volunteers, selected without concern for their
being representative of the entire population, as survey participants. Nonrandom sampling
does not provide the statistical significant of random sampling.
Such primary research costs money and is often accomplished by professional research firms.
It is typically achieved by surveying subjects through the use of questionnaires or interviews
in which subjects’ opinions are recorded and then compared.
Today, the computer, sophisticated software, and comprehensive digital archives have opened
the field to more sophisticated avenues of research and analysis that enable practitioners to
more accurately target programs and measure results, often without costing a great deal of
money. According to Dr. Walter K. Lindenmann (2001) of the Institute for Public Relations,
several types of effective public relations research can be achieved inexpensively.
Secondary Analysis
Secondary analysis is the method of reviewing preexisting survey results from an alternate
perspective. It’s a technique that aims to cull new information from previously conducted
opinion studies. You can think of secondary analysis as “surveying the surveys” (Lindenmann,
2001).
Piggyback or Omnibus Studies
Omnibus surveys are versatile, regularly conducted consumer surveys. Most omnibus surveys will occur once to several times per week. Organizations are encouraged to buy—or “piggyback”—their own branded questions onto the basic questionnaire. Typically, such services
are billed on a per-question basis; in other words, organizations only pay for the specific
questions they would like asked. Depending on the size and complexity of the research, questions can range from approximately $500 to more than $1,000.
Quick-Tab Polls
The quick-tab poll involves interviewing a small pool of respondents—usually between 100
and 250—and asking only a few simple, closed-ended questions, generally by phone or via
the Internet. Such polls are ideal for measuring consumer reaction in a hurry, often when an
organization has been subjected to criticism and needs to respond to the problem.
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It All Begins With Research
Section 3.2
Intercept Studies
Intercept studies involve intercepting people you encounter in a particular setting: stopping them, and asking a number of survey questions. Intercept studies are not as concerned
with statistical precision, and so tend to be quicker, more efficient, and more economical than
other studies. Intercept interviews are frequently done near colleges, grocery stores, shopping centers, and hotel lobbies.
Internet Polls
Using Internet polls gives you the opportunity to create and conduct surveys yourself. Such
surveys are ideal if you intend to poll a specific audience and can control the sample selection
process. However, if you are looking to poll the general population and are unable to control
the selection process, these surveys may not be a reliable option. As in all polling, there is
always a danger of false responses—answering questions untruthfully for ulterior motives,
such as to earn a reward.
Mail and Email Surveys
Mail and email surveys tend to be highly reliable, cost-effective, and statistically valid as
research tools. One pitfall of such surveys, though, is that they often suffer from low response
rates, which tends to raise concerns over the reliability and validity of their results. Offering
an incentive—$1, $2, or even $5—for responding to your survey can greatly increase your
odds of achieving a good response rate.
According to Lindenmann, “Too often, public relations professionals spend a small fortune on
research and end up with a report that is pretty, but not particularly useful” (2001). What is
needed is research that yields results and can be acted upon.
Case Study: When Research Goes Awry
All research is not good research. Sometimes research that sounds good and makes sense—
at least on paper—isn’t at all what makes sense in reality. Thirty years ago, Coca-Cola found
this out the hard way when its research revealed that soft drink users in random taste tests
preferred sweeter sodas over its time-honored brand. So Coca-Cola, with much fanfare and a
multimillion-dollar ad campaign, introduced New Coke, a sweeter version that tasted more
like its traditional rival, Pepsi-Cola.
New Coke was a colossal flop, with loyal Coke drinkers protesting the company’s willingness to
dump its secret 99-year-old formula. Negative articles proliferated, and three months after its
introduction an embarrassed Coca-Cola CEO announced that New Coke was no more. One thing
Coke learned was that its quantitative research should have been buffeted by intuition—that
is, stronger consideration of the heritage loyalty that drinkers and nondrinkers alike attached
to the venerable name of Coca-Cola. For decades, New Coke reigned as the poster child for bad
(continued)
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Creating the Public Relations Plan
Section 3.3
Case Study: When Research Goes Awry (continued)
consumer research, right up until 2009 when none other than archrival Pepsi, owner of iconic
Tropicana Orange Juice, pulled an equally misguided move, based on “sound research.”
For years orange juice leader Tropicana was known by its quaint carton depicting the strawin-the-orange image. But when the company polled focus groups on new looks to reinvigorate
the brand, they responded positively to package designs featuring abstract imagery, brighter
colors, and updated typefaces. Based on this research, Pepsi decided—just as its fiercest
competitor had years earlier—to change something that its most loyal users had grown used
to and fond of over the years. Pepsi was so sure about the new packaging that it was ready to
commit $35 million to the rollout.
And boy was Pepsi surprised. Loyal customers were confused when they couldn’t distinguish
the new Tropicana package from other similarly packaged juices. Confusion turned to
outrage. And outrage soon turned to diminishing sales. Within weeks Pepsi-Cola announced
it would return to the old packaging, shelving months of market research and oodles of
money. The moral: Even the best research must be tempered with good old intuition.
© Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis        © David Brabyn/Corbis
Out with the new, in with the old. The world’s two
leading soft drink manufacturers, Coke and Pepsi,
learned the hard way that sometimes even the best
research shouldn’t be followed.
Critical Thinking Questions
1.
2.
What was faulty in Coke’s rationale for New Coke and Pepsi’s for Tropicana?
What additional research might you have suggested to test the conclusions in these
two cases?
3.3 Creating the Public Relations Plan
Effective public relations campaigns depend on solid planning to ensure that persuasive arguments are organized, messages flow logically, budgets are appropriate for the effort, results
can be measured, and (if required) midcourse refinements can be made to achieve the campaign’s desired objectives. By contrast, ineffective public relations campaigns are those that
are done by intuition alone, with little foresight and minimal planning. Public relations may
be largely based on intuitive thinking, but rigorous campaign planning is necessary to backstop that intuition with clear direction.
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Creating the Public Relations Plan
Section 3.3
For a public relations writer, this planning is essential, so that you know where the campaign
is headed, how it will get there, and how you will know when you’ve arrived at your goals.
The plan, like research, should be an evolving entity, so that midcourse corrections can be
made to benefit outcomes. Indeed, the writer is often the author of the plan, ensuring that the
document is specific, purposeful, and understood by all who will participate in the campaign.
Most public relations plans follow a basic format that includes the following eight steps
(see Figure 3.1).
1. Executive Summary
The public relations plan begins with an executive summary, encapsulating precisely what
the campaign is about and the challenges it will confront. For example:
One-third of U.S. children are overweight or obese, putting them at higher risk
for heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, among other ailments.
First Lady Michele Obama is declaring war on childhood obesity. This “Let’s
Move” campaign will be an all-out attack on junk food, an all-out effort to promote healthier eating, combined with an initiative to get America’s children
running, jumping, and playing to stay well.
2. Goals
The goals of the public relations plan are the specific objective or objectives that you wish the
campaign to achieve. Some argue that “goals” and “objectives” are different—that objectives
must be measureable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. Others argue that these standards
must be met whether you call them goals or objectives. For our purposes here, we will consider the terms interchangeable.
The overriding goal of “Let’s Move” is to dramatically reduce childhood obesity rates within one generation so that children born today will grow up
healthier and able to pursue their dreams.
3. Strategies
Strategies refer to the methods you will use to achieve your goals.
We will first raise awareness of “Let’s Move” by launching the campaign at
the White House with star athletes and fitness gurus in attendance. We will
engage with well-known food experts, like Food Network celebrity Rachael
Ray, to help champion the program. We will target states and state legislators, as well as nutritional experts, administrators, and teachers within those
states, to carry out the program. We will enlist corporate support from food
merchandisers, like Wal-Mart, and restaurant chains, like Olive Garden and
Red Lobster, to spread the campaign’s message. And we will constantly promote the First Lady’s travels in terms of “Let’s Move.”
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Section 3.3
Creating the Public Relations Plan
4. Target Audiences
Figure 3.1: Public relations plan
Your targets are the types of people and specific groups (including the media) you wish to
reach.
The eight steps of the public relations plan.
Our primary target audience will be
the parents and children of America,
specifically those who live in the most
obese states in the nation. These are
the people whose behavior we seek
to change. Additional targets will be
all those who play a role in childhood
obesity—from school administrators
and teachers to nutritional experts,
from nutritionists to athletes and fitness gurus, from corporate food stores
to restaurant chains, from state legislators to federal government officials
and politicians who have a hand in the
nation’s food policy.
Next
steps
Messages
Executive
summary
Goals
The
process
Strategies
Target
audience
Tactics
Target
media
5. Target Media
Target media are the specific media outlets—print, broadcast, or online—through which we
will target our key messages.
Target media will include opinion-leading national print media (e.g., New York
Times, Washington Post, USA Today) to lay out the campaign’s parameters and
update the campaign’s progress; local media in states like Mississippi and
West Virginia, which lead in childhood obesity; continuous online updates
through Twitter and Facebook accounts; and the Food Network for periodic
highlights of campaign progress.
6. Tactics
This is the outline of the key tactical recommendations—news releases, speeches, social
media messages, and the like—and public relations programs that will serve as the primary
thrust of the campaign.
Public relations tactics of “Let’s Move” will revolve around five specific implementation themes:
•
•
sei82209_03_c03_043-064.indd 50
Creating a healthy start for children
Empowering parents and caregivers
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Section 3.3
Creating the Public Relations Plan
•
•
•
Providing healthy food in schools
Improving access to healthy, affordable foods
Increasing physical activity
7. Messages
Defining the key messages that will underscore the campaign—including rationale, themes,
and the angles (or “hooks”) that will be employed—will help all involved stay on a clear path
in helping achieve the campaign’s objectives. These will serve as talking points for campaign
spokespeople to use as they promote the initiative.
Among our most important key messages in “Let’s Move” are the following:
1. Thirty years ago, most children lived more active lives, walking to school,
playing outside, and eating home-cooked meals. Today, lifestyles are more
sedentary, marked by rides to school, video games, and snacking on cheap
junk food.
2. Portion sizes for food and beverages have grown, yielding a much more
unhealthy environment for growing children.
3. The end result, according to the New England Journal of Medicine and
numerous studies, is that the average American child spends nearly eight
hours a day watching entertainment media and consumes 15 pounds
more sugar a year than in 1970.
4. “Let’s Move” is a comprehensive initiative that combines healthy food
strategies, exercise, and common sense to reduce childhood obesity and
ensure a healthier future for America’s children.
8. Next Steps
This is the blueprint, including a timeline for tactics that will be followed to
roll out the campaign.
”Let’s Move” will be staffed by
the First Lady’s Public Affairs
Unit, which will set about
immediately to allocate budgets, prepare press materials,
line up target media lists, and
begin preparations for a fullscale rollout.
A final important stage, the “Evaluation” stage, measures the success of
the campaign. We will discuss measurement at chapter end.
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© Cheryl Gerber/Reuters/Corbis
Public relations planning in motion. First Lady
Michelle Obama’s campaign to fight childhood
obesity required ample public relations planning.
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Section 3.4
Taking a SWOT at Planning
Writing Right: Perfecting the Public Relations Plan
The best public relations plans are specific, concise, and straightforward. With that in mind,
how might you improve this one?
Executive Summary: The morale at our company is just not good, so CEO
Ferdie Finlap will launch a campaign to make it better.
Goals: To improve morale so that people walk around enjoying where they
work.
Strategies: We will devote a lot of time to ensuring that the staff really becomes
grateful for the efforts of management to improve morale.
Messages: Our most important messages will include the following:
1.
2.
3.
Morale hasn’t been great since we curtailed the free doughnut program in the
cafeteria. Since then, we’ve noticed morale dropping.
Management is kind of upset that morale has been lacking.
We will implement a campaign to prove that management is really concerned.
Next Steps: We will try to convene groups of employees and discuss morale
with them at lunches. We will post smiley face posters on hall bulletin boards.
We will begin a “joke of the day” feature on the company Intranet.
For an interactive version of this exercise, visit your e-book.
3.4 Taking a SWOT at Planning
One common approach that benefits public
relations plans is conducting a SWOT analysis
before creating the plan document. Stated simply, a SWOT analysis is a structured approach,
commonly used in assessing a new project or
business venture, that helps assess the benefits and problems that may result from moving
forward.
In public relations terms, a SWOT analysis
forces you to explore the pros and cons of
approaching your intended campaign in certain ways. The best SWOT analysis will present a vast range of both opportunities that the
campaign might open and problems that the
campaign might stimulate. Performing a comprehensive SWOT analysis in advance of the
plan is often as important as creating the plan
itself.
Figure 3.2: SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is a common approach applied to
public relations planning.
S
Strength
O
Opportunity
W
Weakness
T
Threat
Here are the four elements that comprise the
SWOT analysis (see also Figure 3.2).
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Section 3.4
Taking a SWOT at Planning
1. Strengths. The strengths of the campaign are those characteristics that recommend
it to the target audience and the broader public. These are the advantages of this
campaign over others and the attributes that differentiate it. For example, the “Let’s
Move” campaign’s strengths would include the fact that this was the first national
anti–childhood obesity campaign, perceived on a massive scale, and led by the First
Lady of the United States.
2. Weaknesses. The weaknesses are those elements that may project disadvantages
relative to others, such as elements that cause suspicion or even negativity in the
eyes of some. In the “Let’s Move” example, the First Lady’s attempt to influence
the eating habits of children, the manufacturing habits of food producers, and the
merchandising habits of restaurant chains might be interpreted by free enterprise
advocates as a blatant attempt to control a person’s freedom of choice by introducing unwanted government interference in the marketplace.
3. Opportunities. Opportunities are the elements of the project that you might exploit
in promoting it and attempting to realize its objectives. Think big. What opportunities exist locally, regionally, nationally, or even internationally? What opportunities
are there to get a leg up on competitors in the industry? The opportunities inherent
in “Let’s Move” are clear—among them, the publicity power of the First Lady, the
reality of a growing childhood obesity epidemic, and the basic knowledge among
most people that sugary foods and beverages are harmful. All of these elements
might be exploited as opportunities.
4. Threats. Threats are the elements in the campaign that could cause trouble for the
project. Are there challenges built into the campaign that we must confront—or even
preempt—in advance of launching the project? For example, the objectives of “Let’s
Move” pose a direct threat to sugar growers, soda companies, and fast food chains.
These must all be considered (and hopefully dealt with) in creating the public relations plan.
© moodboard/Corbis
Occasionally, an extra “T” is added to
the traditional SWOT analysis, signifying “trends” that might affect our planning. The more planning you do in
advance of implementing a public relations campaign, the better—not only
for the public relations writers responsible for the key messages of the program, but also for the organization
interested in achieving the plan’s
objectives. In other words, for a truly
buttoned-up public relations plan,
SWOT makes sense.
Not SWAT, “SWOT!” Good public relations plans
may not be protected by SWAT teams, but a
comprehensive SWOT analysis can serve as
protection enough for an organization intent on
positive campaigns.
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Writer’s Public Relations Campaign Arsenal
Section 3.5
3.5 Writer’s Public Relations
Campaign Arsenal
The key to implementing the public relations campaign is the public relations writer. He or
she is the one assigned to create and communicate the key messages that will drive the organization’s public relations goals. The writer must first know and understand the audience.
That means probing the experts, in advance of the campaign, about what the target audience
relates to most readily (the “hot buttons” of influence). What are the aspects of this story that
most appeal to your targets?
Next, the writer must clearly understand the various aspects of the organization’s story. What
makes the story special and different from that of the competitors? What are the aspects of
this story that rise above the din of the daily flow of news and information?
The writer’s key campaign messages must follow the “3 Cs” of storytelling—be compelling,
consistent, and credible. Specifically, the messages must be, if not unique, then interesting
to readers or listeners. The messages must be consistent, adhering to a periodic schedule of
communication formats, each reiterating the salient points that have been identified previously. The messages should be stocked with statistics, examples, and illustrations to enhance
their credibility.
The ground rules of communication—spelling, grammar, formatting—should all be scrupulously followed. The best source for this is the Associated Press Stylebook, which reporters
treat as the journalistic style bible. The organization’s reputation and the campaign’s success
may depend upon the professionalism with which messages are delivered.
Media lists must be continually updated. Reporters change publications. Bloggers switch
email addresses. News editors, TV producers, and talent bookers frequently move to new
positions. Updating media lists becomes an important task for the campaign’s public relations
writers.
Finally, the writer should be familiar with all the vehicles at his or her disposal to communicate the organization’s story. The campaign tool kit for a writer is a mix of many potential
weapons. Among them (depicted also in Figure 3.3):
• News releases. Still the most essential element in any campaign, news releases
communicate, in a succinct and factual manner, the campaign’s primary elements.
News releases are the necessary encoding vehicle from which reporters, editors, and
bloggers decode your information for their media. We will discuss news releases in
depth in Chapter 6.
• Features. Features are more informal, subjective, and editorialized than news
releases. They are designed to embellish a release, providing color and texture to
a story.
• Individual pitches/exclusives. One recommended way to secure features in leading media is to offer or pitch them on an exclusive basis. An exclusive is a pitch to
a particular journalist, giving him or her the opportunity to be the only reporter
to write first about a specific announcement or event. We will discuss pitches and
exclusives in Chapter 7.
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Writer’s Public Relations Campaign Arsenal
Section 3.5
• Interactive/Web media.
The Web offers myriad media
placement opportunities in
websites and blogs. Influential
bloggers should be pitched
personally, even offered
exclusives, if their influence
merits. We will discuss public
relations in the digital world
in Chapter 5.
• Social media. Each campaign
should have its own Twitter
identity and Facebook page.
Innovative hashtags to drive
© Pete Souza/White House/Handout/The White House/Corbis
elements of the Twitter presExclusive view. Exclusive interviews with celebrities
ence have frequently been
and politicians are coveted by journalists and TV
used to stir up interest in pubprograms. Barbara Walters (second from left), who
lic relations campaigns. Other
retired in 2014, was known as the “Queen of the
social media vehicles, such
Exclusives.”
as Instagram, Pinterest, and
blogs, should all be considered
to reach target audience members. We will discuss social media in Chapter 8.
• Employee communications. The employee population is another important audience that must be covered by the public relations campaign. Employee Intranets
and other internal vehicles should be used to keep the staff informed about the
external campaign.
• Speaking opportunities. Speeches to pertinent local or industry groups may provide additional momentum to a public relations campaign. Speeches are among the
most creative of all public relations writing vehicles. We will discuss speeches and
presentations in Chapter 10.
• Bylined articles. Speeches can be easily converted into bylined articles, drafted by
public relations writers and bylined by appropriate managers, to be used online or
in print magazines and journals.
• Events. Special events, from luncheon presentations to focused parties or press conferences, are another vehicle to keep the campaign’s momentum moving.
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Section 3.6
Measuring Public Relations’ Contribution
Figure 3.3: Your story
All of these documents and more make up the public relations writer’s arsenal.
Individual pitches/
Exclusives
Interactive/
Web media
Features
News
releases
Social media
Your
story
Bylined
articles
Employee
communications
Events
Speaking
opportunities
These are but a handful of the unlimited options available to a public relations writer in waging a campaign. The rule of thumb in choosing appropriate vehicles for a particular public
relations campaign should be “whatever works to help achieve the organization’s goals.” In
other words, you are only limited by your own creativity in setting out to achieve organizational objectives.
3.6 Measuring Public Relations’ Contribution
For the 100 years of its existence, the number one challenge of the modern practice of
public relations has been measurement—that is, answering the question “How do we measure the contribution that public relations makes to achieving organizational objectives?”
Measurement is the act of collecting data that will help you make informed decisions
about your performance. Good measurement should reveal what is and isn’t working in
your public relations initiatives.
For the most part, public relations professionals are more qualitative than quantitative. They
exist in a world composed more of amorphous elements like opinion, attitude, morale, and
words than of factual elements like statistics, analytics, and numbers. By contrast, the people
for whom public relations professionals work—principally CEOs—are more quantitatively
based. They generally ascend from backgrounds in engineering, sales, or finance, which
depend on numbers for success. To these people, unversed in the nuances of public relations
(or even unclear on what, exactly, public relations is), the practice is hard to grasp, difficult not
only to understand but to measure. Without some form of measurement, CEOs have trouble
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Section 3.6
Measuring Public Relations’ Contribution
assigning value to the campaigns you suggest or the words you write. “If it can’t be measured,”
they sigh, “then it can’t be managed.” In some cases, measurement is used to justify someone’s
job, program, or budget. This is a mistake, especially in such a nebulous art form as public
relations, which—like advertising and marketing—builds support with consistency over time
and whose contribution is, therefore, difficult to parse precisely. Nonetheless, in such an environment, some measurement of public relations and the contribution it makes to bottom-line
objectives is imperative. So, the measurement gospel for public relations strategists and writers alike should be “quantify whenever possible.”
To get started on the road to quantifying, you need to define your terms. And in measurement,
this isn’t as easy as it sounds. The language of management includes several terms with varying definitions, so it’s always proper to check in advance what a manager means by the measurement terms he or she uses. Following are the most common standards of measurement
to which public relations projects might be held.
ROI
ROI stands for return on investment, the most common accounting term used to calculate
financial results. The basic formula for calculating ROI is:
ROI = (Gain from investment—Cost of investment)/Cost of investment
ROI yields the net percentage gain or loss as a result of the investment. In public relations
terms, this means that you need to apply a value to the gain achieved through your efforts
(e.g., media articles, positive mentions on the Net, increased sales) as well as to the cost, in
terms of manpower, time, and materials.
Impressions
© Image Source/Corbis
Online measurement. The eyes have it in terms of
measuring impressions on the Internet; what counts
is the number of eyeballs viewing your message.
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Impressions are a measure of the
number of eyes that have had the
opportunity to see your ad, message,
or story in print or online. Impressions
for print publications have traditionally been based on circulation figures,
described as reach, or the number of
readers who have seen your story or
ad. In broadcast, this is referred to as
GRP, or gross rating points. In online
media, a proxy for impressions is the
number of unique visitors attracted to
a story or a site. In social media, it is
standard practice to use the number
of Twitter followers, Facebook fans,
or blog subscribers as a measure of
the number of people reached. The
caveat, again, is that such measurement is imprecise; just because you
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Measuring the Value of Publicity
Section 3.7
have followers on Twitter or fans on Facebook, there is no guarantee that they will read your
message. The same is true with advertising and marketing, in general.
Owned/Earned Social Media Measurement
It is relatively easy to measure the success of owned media campaigns (at least in terms
of reach) by employing such services as Facebook Insights or Google Analytics to track the
audience you reach on your Facebook page or YouTube channel. Earned social media measurement, such as responses to tweets or blog posts, can also be tracked. But here again,
to determine true success, gross numbers are less relevant than separating the positive
responses from the negative ones.
Share of Voice
Share of voice means comparing the number of items in print, broadcast, or online that mention your organization or brand to the number that mention the competition. This is typically
expressed as a percentage, as in “Your share of voice this month was 70%.”
Share of Mind
Share of mind, or mindshare, is the percentage of survey respondents who remember your
organization or brand compared to your competition. This is measured in surveys by asking
direct questions like “What organizations come to mind when I mention the following?”
There are many additional measurement standards, but a knowledge of these specific ones
will give any public relations writer a leg up in understanding what measurement is all about.
3.7 Measuring the Value of Publicity
Measuring the hit-or-miss practice of publicity—applying ROI, in particular—is perhaps the
most difficult measurement challenge for a public relations professional. Asked simply, how
can a public relations writer be sure that the messages he or she is crafting are yielding positive returns for the organization?
It used to be that raw column inches of publicity were measured and applied against equivalent advertising space or time. For example, a half-page new product story in the New York
Times was considered the equivalent of a half-page of advertising (at today’s rates, approximately $80,000). Such measurement of press clippings, of course, failed to address such
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Measuring the Value of Publicity
Section 3.7
factors as whether the article was positive or negative, whether it contributed to sales, or
even whether anyone read it. These measurement tools were gross and inexact.
In more recent times, the question of publicity measurement has become even more complicated as media have become more segmented and global. The Internet poses measurement
challenges unforeseen even a few years ago. Despite these ever-increasing complications,
publicity measurement has become more sophisticated. A variety of tools and techniques are
available to help measure the impact that publicity has on influencing attitudes and opinions,
on purchasing products and services, and in proving a return on publicity investment.
One group established to assist in devising methods for public relations management is the
Corporate Communications Benchmarking AssociationTM, which offers a mix of measures
that, in combination, provide a ray of hope in divining the value of publicity.
Relative Costs
Media relations is the subset of public relations that deals directly with an organization’s
relationship with the media. Relative costs are the total costs of media relations evaluated
against comparable organizations. For example, companies might compare media relations
costs as a percentage of total revenues or media relations employees as a percentage of corporate communications department employees. Media relations might also be measured in
terms of outputs and outcomes—for example, positive clips in targeted media per media relations employee or costs per positive clip in targeted media. Such measurement techniques
would provide a comparative benchmark for media relations units.
Relative Processes
An alternative approach to measuring one organization’s media relations prowess relative to
competing organizations is to assess various media relations processes. The measurement of
cycle times to complete certain media relations tasks, such as the creation of news releases
or media events, is an example of the kinds of baselines that can be established and evaluated
for improvement.
Benchmarking Clips
Rather than simply assessing one’s own press clippings, a more revealing approach is to
gather and analyze media clips about competitors as well. Subjective evaluations of these
clips—in terms of realizing objectives, positive versus negative references, and so on—are
scrutinized along with more objective evaluations such as size, location, and complementary photo.
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Measuring the Value of Publicity
Section 3.7
Rating Clips
The rating of clippings according to whether they attain the target message imparted in
releases is another method of establishing the impact of media relations. Releases are first
ranked in terms of intended messages. Clips are then rated as positive, negative, or neutral in
terms of how much or how little they coincide with the predetermined ranking scales. Proprietary algebraic formulas have even been developed to gauge the quality of clippings.
Journalist Surveys
Surveying journalists for attitudes about media relations performance is another way to evaluate whether an operation is working. Asking reporters (the clients of media relations professionals) to assess such elements as response times, relevance, quality of information offered,
and access to management is a good way to determine strengths and weaknesses of a media
relations program. Even without asking directly, determining how reporters respond to your
pitches through questions along the following lines is another helpful source of measurement.
• How many contacts received your email, opened it, forwarded it to colleagues, or
clicked the link?
• How many contacts replied to your pitch?
• After posting the pitch on social media, how many fans or followers replied, clicked,
retweeted, and shared?
Less analytical response measurement techniques provide a viable way to reduce deficiencies
and improve effectiveness of the media relations process.
Cause-and-Effect Analysis
Results and outcome of news releases can also be evaluated to indicate certain cause-andeffect relationships. For example, one company found that including management quotes in
financial releases led to more generally favorable treatment in news stories. Another company found that when op-ed articles from executives appeared prominently in the press, positive media coverage tended to increase.
In terms of social media, here are questions worth asking to assess feedback and response:
• How many people are talking about your story?
• Who are the people talking about it? Are they influential?
• Which medium is talking about your story, and how popular is it?
As to gauging the public relations campaign’s success, such measures as new social media
followers, new referral links, increased website traffic, and new leads or signups are excellent
performance metrics.
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Section 3.7
Measuring the Value of Publicity
Clip Scoring System
Finally, the old practice of measuring clips against
equivalent advertising space has been refined to
reflect a number of dimensions. A scoring system is imposed on clips, including such factors
as page placement, section location, placement
above or below the fold, headline and story size,
graphic complement, and positive/negative message assessment. Releases are then compared on a
publicity continuum to determine trends in what
works and doesn’t work.
Not every metric will be will be relevant for every
public relations campaign. But a good public relations professional will want to learn from every
email pitch, media mention, and fan interaction.
Beyond the more formal and empirical forms of
measurement, many in public relations still believe
that the most valuable measure for any public relations department or writer is positive feedback
from and respect of the head of the company. When
the CEO says, “I want her/his advice on this issue,”
that’s the best return on investment that any public
relations writer can ask for.
© David Woods/Corbis
Public relations’ best ROI. The best
return on investment for any public
relations writer is a positive response
from the CEO.
Case Study: Figures Lie and Liars Figure
This maxim should always be considered in terms of measurement, especially in assessing
communications efforts. The following 2014 case involved a soda industry study purporting
to show that diet soda spurs weight loss. Here’s what happened.
An organization whose membership includes Coca-Cola and Pepsi funded a study that
concluded, unbelievably, that diet soda drinkers lost more weight on average than those
who drank water. Three hundred diet-soda-loving adults who weighed, on average, around
200 pounds were given a year to lose weight. These study participants were provided
coaching and nutrition advice to assist them with the weight loss. Half of them were allowed
to keep drinking their diet soda of choice, while the other half were allowed to drink only
water. A year later, the soda drinkers had lost an average of 13 pounds, while the water
drinkers lost around 9 pounds. Diet sodas, the sponsors claimed, actually aided weight loss.
Or did they?
As nutritional experts explained, cutting calories and boosting exercise takes a lot of
willpower. Most psychologists agree that our willpower is a limited resource. Trying to
(continued)
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Summary & Resources
Case Study: Figures Lie and Liars Figure (continued)
simultaneously give up something else you regularly enjoy—
such as diet soda—taxes your ability to stay the course. So
those denied their diet sodas, according to this analysis, may
have simply lost interest in losing weight if they …