The Last Blog

Ya know, although at times, trying to figure out what to blog about was a big pain in the butt, it wasn't all that bad. A lot of interaction for an online class, so that was very nice. And it made me actually pay attention to news and current events again. Also, getting deep into any story, linking everything you possibly could, therefore you're on 10 different sites or better before the end of the blog.
Onto the task at hand. . . as for what is going on with my crisis communication paper is that I have gathered up extra information, which I am sure is in the book or in the lectures. . . But the general manager at my job (Dakota Plains) gave me a little booklet on crisis communication. I had brought up the requirement for a crisis communication paper two weeks ago. He also gave me an outline of the company's crisis communication plan. Which had to be put into effect in 2006 when a tender truck driver rolled his truck when he tried to correct going slightly into the ditch. It was fatal roll over and he did not survive, therefore the crisis communication plan took action. Unfortunately, I cannot find any articles on it that I don't have to pay to get into.
As for Valley City's current crisis on hand, the flood and the clean up. I had talked to the mayor last week while she was waiting to pay for her gas, and I asked her how things were going and what nots and she told me that during the whole flood situation, she was working with people with whom she trusted. The day following the afternoon we were chatting, she said she had to meet with FEMA, so no more trust there, basically put on a game face situation.
But good news for Valley City, no more porta potties! And water restrictions have been, for the most part, lifted. Only problem is, is that the sanitary sewer system is partially above ground (on 2nd St NW and in the middle of the intersection of central and main). Short showers, still the whole "if its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down" motto, one wash (load of clothes) a day and basically try to run too much water into the drains. It is just a big pain in the butt still, because you still got to watch your Ps and Qs.
But it does seem like Valley City is going to pull out of this whole thing with flying colors. Like I mentioned in my prior blog post, it'll just be a while until the city is back to complete normalness (roads, houses, water system).

VC's Battle

For our paper, I have decided that since I live in Valley City, I'd might as well do a paper on the flood in Valley City. Especially since I have a lot of first hand information. Not only with helping a few times up at sandbag central, but also by working and being part of a essential business when times were stressful and flood items were in high demand. And to see how many people weren't losing their minds, but staying calm and just trying to deal with things before they got worse.
At first the town battled snow storm after snow storm, leading them to shut down interstate a few times, and basically the whole time another time or two. Then with all of that snow, it was a sure sign that the spring was not going to be good. And it seemed almost as soon as it start the melting and the levels started going up, the city was on it, trying to prevent what could have been the most devastating flood in Valley City. And then as the need for sandbaggers grew, Dr. Shirley and staff called off classes many days to encourage and allow students to go up to the Winter Show barns and help fight the flood. Which I personally thought was way cool of him and the staff at VCSU, helping out the community that much. The high school also let students out. The effort from this community was crazy! (in a good way)
And after all of this, I've realized how strong this community really is. How willing so many people are to give up their time to help others and help the city win the battle. And for a whole city to cooperate with a NO WATER DRAINING ban is also amazing to see. Everyone was doing everything they could to save the city. Unfortunately, it'll now be years til its a pretty city again. . . Roads (such as Winter Show, 9th and Main), levees, people's yards and all the other things damaged by the water.
I feel that since I was here, and I can talk to a lot of people that live here, I should be able to get some very useful information dealing with the Flood of '09.

In a time of crisis

As we all may know by now, Valley City, North Dakota, was recently dealing with major flood threats. There is still a threat since the river is over the flood level, but it was dealt with very well. Just recently, Friday the 17, the sewer system gave, leaving many businesses within a four-block radius with water in their basements. Shortly after that, Mayor Mary Lee Nielson came onto the radio and announced what happened. And what was going to change for the next month. Life as Valley City knew it was thrown back in time, but with electricity.
All non-essential businesses were asked to shut down. The only thing open were the clinics, hardware stores, gas stations and grocery stores. From Friday until Wednesday, the whole town was basically dead. Not being able to use water, well you can use it - you just cannot drain it. Everyone was suddenly coming up with creative ways to rid of their wastewater. And let me tell you, working at a gas station/farm store, we saw a lot of how people were planning to rig up their washer, sump pump the water out of the tub, and so on. Luckily, for Valley City, and after a business owner made a big deal about what is essential and what is not, all businesses were allowed to open back up on Wednesday the 22. However, they too still had some water restrictions, and the residential people were still on their no draining orders. If you were to enter Valley City now, you would see porta potties on every block. I do believe it was about 500 of them that they brought into town.
The reason I'm writing about the Flood of Valley City and all that came with it is because this is a violent natural crisis. So I started looking for things that deal with crisis communication, and I came upon an article about crisis communication kits and what you need in them. The article/web site is entitled "7 Must-have Elements in Every Crisis Communications Kit". It discusses how all businesses should have a kit and a plan ready to go. The seven items that should be included are as follows: 1) A list of the members of the crisis management team; 2) contact information for key officers, spokespeople, and crisis management team members; 3) fact sheets on the company, each division, each physical location, and each product offered; 4) profiles and biographies for each key manager in your company; 5) copies of your company, division and product logos, your press release format and the scanned in signature of your CEO on disk; 6) pre-written scripts answering key questions that you have generated through your crisis scenario analysis; and 7) contact information for each of your key media contacts both locally, nationally, and if appropriate, key financial press and analysts.
As I assume, Valley City's leaders probably had it all figured out - and dubbed the mayor to be the spokesperson. Overall, they seemed to handle this natural crisis pretty well. Handling things quickly, getting info out to the public as soon as new news arrives.

A music video site...supported by advertisement

I found an interesting article on MSNBC.com, entitled "YouTube, Universal partner in music video site". According to the article, YouTube and Unviersal Music Group are teaming up on a music video venture. They are going to have about 10,000 videos available to watch for free, thanks to advertising. Their website for this is going to be Vevo.com, on which they will be sharing all the revenue from the ads. Evenutally, there will buttons linking the videos to a buyable location (which will be Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc's iTunes). As the article states, a good portion all of music revenues from these sites go to the labels.
Why this is a really good idea: YouTube is already very popular amoung all sorts of ages. It is the place you go to find clips of movies, funny videos, or even music videos. So why not dedicate a whole site to music videos? Universal Music already offers site visitors a chance to watch videos as well. Universal has 19 different labels under them right now, some of which including A&M/Octone, Interscope Geffen A&M, Motown Records, UMG Nashville and Verve Music Group.
However, YouTube has had some problems with record labels that resulted recently in Warner Music disattaching themselves from YouTube. Warner Music pulled all of their music off of YouTube since they did not feel they received fair payments for themselves or their songwriters and artists. Another bad deal for YouTube is the $1 billion lawsuit that Viacom Inc. has against them because of infringement rights. Viacom Inc. runs BET Networks, MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures.
For YouTube, they may want to get their act straightened up if this deal will run smoothly for both YouTube and Universal. Although, according to the article Universal will be the big spenders in this whole venture, I doubt they want to lose out on this whole ordeal. But overall, I think this idea is really cool, its not always easy for people to get to a tv and watch MTV or VH1, for example, so this will help out a lot for those who like to watch music videos.

Now the suspect is Pistachios?!

So far this year we've had a peanut butter recall, which would be the second time peanut butter has been recalled in two years. Reasoning for being recalled? Salmonella. Salmonella is the most frequently reported case of food borne illnesses, according to the USDA. Two years ago the peanut butters that were the guilty parties were Peter Pan and Great Value. Even now, right on Peter Pan's website it states that "We’d like to assure you that Peter Pan Peanut Butter is safe to eat and no varieties of Peter Pan Peanut Butter have been recalled. ConAgra Foods, the maker of Peter Pan Peanut Butter, has confirmed that none of the ingredients used to make Peter Pan Peanut Butter come from any location operated by Peanut Corporation of America, the company that has recalled peanuts and peanut ingredients."

However, this year it was King Nut, and according to sources, this brand isn't sold directly to consumers. It may have also been in products in your cupboards. A news release right on the main page of their website date January 12, 2009 (two days after the recall) states: "We issued the recall after learning that salmonella had been discovered in an open container of peanut butter with our label. We also made it clear that we do not manufacture King Nut peanut butter nor do we supply any ingredients for the peanut butter. We are simply the distributors." A paragraph later their news release read: "(King Nut peanut butter is distributed to food service companies in Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Arizona, Idaho and New Hampshire.)" Companies that had to recall items because of King Nut's peanut butter were Little Debbie, Hy-Vee, Perry's Ice Cream and Kellogg's.

But now there is another salmonella scare. Pistachios. You know, those shelled greenish colored nuts. Which are usually a popular snack and help improve cholesterol according to California Sungold.com. They also are useful in a lot of other things, such as being good in plants as drainage chips.

So what is so wrong with them?!?! Well, according to the article on MSNBC.com, investigation started on Thursday from a California nut processor to its sister plant in New York, where inspectors last month found cockroaches and rodent droppings. The FDA is investigating the nut plant Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc, Calif. Setton Pistachio recalled 2 million pounds of pistachios according to MSNBC.com.

For all the guilty parties involved in the peanut butter incident and now the pistachio incident, this is not good PR at all! I personally may never want Peter Pan peanut butter ever after knowing they were recalled. Same goes for pistachios, and they are good!, after all is said and done and they figure everything out, Setton's sales may go plummeting down. It is going to take a LOT of work for them to get out of the rut they're going to be in. Take another look at what Peter Pan's website had on it front web page, they are going to have to assure assure assure people that nothing is in their products.

Help Set A Record...

So I came across a pretty interesting article from PRweekus.com entitled "Cotton Inc. and 'National Geographic' align efforts". It is about how Cotton Inc. and National Geographic Kids magazine want to set a record by collecting the most jeans. So for the next three months in NG kids magazine they will be encouraging readers to help contribute to this collection.
Cotton Inc. has been doing this for three years. They intend to not only make a world record, but to use these recycled jeans and turn them into environmentally friendly home insulation. The insulation is then used to build homes in areas affected by natural disasters.
The age ranges in which NG kids reaches is mainly 6 - 14, as the article states. Cotton Inc.'s campaign, "Cotton: From blue to green" has been going on for 3 years, like previously stated, and they are going to launch the site that is linked to that by March 27. But now with NG's help maybe they'll be able to reach their goal and help out many others.
Stated on the NG kids' donation part of their website, it takes 500 pairs of jeans to insulate an average U.S. home. They would like the jeans received by June 30, 2009. Also on this article it gives more insightful information about what they're doing. This info is as follows:
The COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.® denim drive is a call-to-action to donate denim and give it "new life" by converting it into UltraTouch™ Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation.
UltraTouch™ is composed of 85% recycled fibers and is an environmentally safe, non-itch natural cotton fiber insulation.
Recently, according to a press release from Cotton Inc., Cotton Inc. received 5000 pounds of denim from Monsanto. Also, straight from the article, "In the past three years, the Cotton. From Blue to Green.® denim drive traveled to 37colleges throughout the nation and worked with retail partners and corporations to collect an astounding 89,799 pieces of denim. "
That is pretty impressive, and if having the NG helping out gets them more, they will be able to get a lot more denim sent to them. Hopefully they are advertising on channels that have kids that subscribe to National Geographic.
Overall, that is great public relations for both of the companies. Helping the Earth be greener. It is the way to go after all.

Shootings...What is up with people these days?!

Within two days, there have been two headlining stories about shootings. One in Alabama and one in Germany.
The shootings that have happened since 1996 just make one think, "What is wrong with society? Why are people so mad?" According to infoplease.com - there were almost 50 school shootings since February 2, 1996. That is about 4 shootings a year. . . If anyone may recall on April 20, 1999, the nation's deadliest shooting took place in Littleton, Colo. The Columbine High School, where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 14 students (including themselves) and one teacher killed, 23 others wounded at Columbine High School. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 and blow up their school. At the end of their hour-long rampage, they turned their guns on themselves. In 2007, the Virginia Tech shooting happened, the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, killed a total of 33 people (including himself) and injured 15 others. This almost made that the most deadly shooting for the U.S.
According to CBSNews in their article "Why Do School Shootings Happen" dated April 22, 2007, the first known school massacre in this country was in 1927, a revenge killing in Michigan carried out by the treasurer of the local school board, who was convinced high school taxes were the reason his farm was foreclosed.
The most recent school shooting was in Germany Wednesday March 11. Unlike how it happens in the U.S., this 17 year old student went into his former high school and killed at least 15 people before he was shot and killed by the police. According to this article, it was Germany's worst shooting since 2002 when another high school lost 16 students and the gunman. Wednesday's gunman had graduated from Albertville High School in 2008. He had no rhyme or reason to his shootings, they were just at random, shooting students and adults alike.
In Alabama, it is unclear whether the shooter started at his mother's house, starting it on fire while his mother was still inside. He then drove a dozen miles and killed another nine victims. Four of them that happened to be his relatives. The wife of the deputy and their daughter were also shot and killed on that porch. He drove farther and went after more people, shooting another two or three, injuring many. This rampage ended when he had a stand-off with the police, shot at and wounded an officer, and then went into his old workplace (Reliable Metal Products) and shot and killed himself. That brought his death toll up to 11, including himself.
We all know shootings, especially school shootings, are hard to go through. Because everyone is so close and losing a friend is very hard. And for these schools and towns, to make people believe that incidents like that are not what the town/school is really like all the time takes some good PR.
In Valley City, ND, we (because I am from here) once had a nickname of Death Valley, because about 8 or 9 years we had three different incidents within a year span. So it is hard to get people to forget about that kind of stuff when they hear about your town and what nots.

Whoa... Jacko's Coming Back?!?!

Yeah, you read the title right, Michael Jackson has said he is returning to the stage... March 5, 2009, Michael Jackson was at the O2 Arena in London announcing that he was going to play a series of London concerts (10 nights to be exact) before retiring from public performances. It is going to be titled "This Is It!" and it is going to be it, according to what Jackson had to say to the crowd when he announced his final concerts (click this link to see the video). According to the video - he said he will be performing the songs his fans want to hear.

Also in the video they discussed how Michael's "people" so to say have videos promoting this series of concert events in the O2 Arena. The promotional videos have clips from his best videos and greatest moments in concert, basically, as the girls in the MSNBC video put it, reminding all the viewers of how great he was. Since it has been 8 years since he has last done any sort of music making or actually performances/tours, this is big. Only bad part of this whole concert idea is that Michael is now 50 years old. So returning to the spotlight may be difficult, especially if he plans on pulling all the stunts right?

According to the article, British music writer and broadcaster John Aizlewood said that, “because of what’s happened to him and how he’s lived his life over the last 20 years, he’s made it very difficult for people to out themselves as Michael Jackson fans. These concerts are a huge opportunity for rehabilitation.”

If no one recalls, "Thriller," released in 1982, is still the best-selling album of all time. And Michael did win 13 Grammy's and sell over 750 million albums. At one time, Jacko was a pretty big deal. But after everything that has happened to him over the last decade or two, it is going to be hard to beat all of that and get a sold out crowd (the O2 Arena holds 20,000 people). If we all don't recall his child molestation suit, his baby-dangling incident or the fact that he has been financially struggling for a few years now. . . those were some major things that have been happening with him in the last few decades.

Some people, including Bookmaker William Hill and spokesperson Graham Sharpe, think that Jackson will be a no-show at his concert event. They have a 5 to 1 bet on his first show, saying he won't show.

For Michael Jackson, this whole concert idea is a great way to get him back into good spotlight. And if he pulls if off, it will help his tainted image a lot. Even the gals from the MSNBC video think this is great PR for him. For the sake of the fact that this may be his last big thing, I too hope he pulls it off. Afterall, many of us grew up knowing Michael Jackson music, and we all know we loved it!

E-Cigarettes...wow...what the world has come to.

As I was glancing through categories and news article titles. I saw this article - "E-cigarettes attracting attention - and scrutiny" and I was kind of curious. What the heck is an E-cigarette? At first I thought this was some, buy your cigarettes online thing, but it is far from that. The E-cigarette, more so the Ruyan V8, was invented in Beijing, China. It is a battery-operated cigarette. This name for the e-cigarette, Ruyan, means "like smoking". China, the largest tobacco market, sells about 2 trillion cigarettes a year.
As it gains popularity, it also gains the attention of many health officials. Not only does Ruyan Group Ltd. claim it is healthier because you are just getting the nicotine and not the hazardous materials that come with smoking, but they are also saying it may be a good way to kick the habit. A benefit to this e-cigarette, is there is no burning, so there is no chance of second-hand smoke. In addition, everyone knows how much they just enjoy sitting by a smoker... So that could be beneficial for Ruyan Group Ltd. when it comes to promoting it. This article then goes on claiming that the World Health Organization does not believe Ruyan Group's claims, they state that there is no evidence that it is a way to help you quit or to avoid the toxins that come with regular cigarettes. Unlike all those other ways to help you quit, these e-cigarettes have not gone through all of the vigorous tests that are required from the alternatives. A reason why the WHO says this is still just as unhealthy is that "Nicotine is highly addictive and causes the release of the "feel good" chemical dopamine when it goes to the brain. It also increases heart rate and blood pressure and restricts blood to the heart muscle."
These e-cigarettes have been around since 2004, and honestly, this is the first time I have heard of them. The sales for these e-cigarettes take place mainly over the internet.
This is good PR for those who are selling these e-cigarettes, by saying there are a way to kick the habit, a way to avoid the toxins, and a way to eliminate second hand smoke. Another tid bit from the article states that: "Prices range from about $60 to $240. Kits include battery chargers and cartridges that range in flavors (from fruit to menthol) and nicotine levels (from zero — basically a flavored mist — to 16 milligrams, higher than a regular cigarette.) The National Institutes of Health says regular cigarettes contain about 10 milligrams of nicotine."
Yet, this is not good PR for all those advocates of quitting smoking. Who really wants to figure out how much harder they are going to have to work to make it look less appealing and help people quit. This is going to make all the PRs that work for the health departments really step it up a notch.
It is probably safe to say that society is always going to try to find ways around smoking laws and bans somehow.

Obama's First Border Crossing

For the first time since president, President Obama traveled across the border and into Canada. He met, for the first time ever, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to talk about the slumping economy, trade, energy and the war in Afghanistan. From the article Obama touched down in Ottawa with a list of things for discussion, some of which were - a promise of a new strategy in Afghanistan as Canada moves to pull out all its troops there; and talk of clean-energy cooperation as controversy hangs over Canada's massive oil-rich tar sands.

These oil-rich tar sands are estimated to have 175 million barrels of oil just sitting there. This along would make Canada second to Saudi Arabi with the most crude oil resources. The only problem for Canada to get to these resources is that they would have to produce a lot of greenhouse gases. This is one thing that environmental activists will not allow to happen, they are pushing to have Obama not allow such a thing.

From the oil in the past, Obama has criticized America on its dependence from the Middle East for oil. According to the above link, Canada (especially Alberta where these oil-rich tar sands are located) has warned Washington that their oil security there in Canada may be lost. Daily production of 1.2 million barrels from the oil sands is expected to nearly triple to 3.3 million barrels in 2020.

According to his visit to Canada and talk with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Obama's economic stimulus plan has put aside money to help out environmental issues. These issues are carbon capture and sequestration technology, in which Obama has set 3 billion aside for that, and smart grid efforts which has 11 billion put aside for that.

From the article about President Obama traveling into Canada I saw this, which is very interesting to me - "Canada and the United States have the largest trading relationship between any two countries in the world. And for all the talk of ending a dangerous reliance on foreign oil, the U.S. depends more on Canada for imported oil than it does any other country."

For Obama's image, this is really good for him. To go up to Canada, have an audience and have a good talk with Canada's Prime Minister. This not only helps him, but makes America look good too. Because ultimately, it was America who picked this guy to run the country.

Flight of Phoenix

You have got to love it when actors and actresses make complete fools of themselves. It just means, in my opinion, they must be more like us than they pretend not to be. On Wednesday, February 11, Joaquin Phoenix, most famous for his part in "Walk the Line" starring opposite of Reese Witherspoon, pretty much did just that. His interview with David Letterman was quite bizarre, to put it lightly. Joaquin showed up with dark sunglasses, a full beard and no sense of humor. For crying out loud he even stuck gum underneath Dave's desk!
He recently has announced that "Two Lovers" is his last movie, and that he plans to start a career in hip-hop music. Many think this may be an act because according to what happened on the David Letterman show, Casey Affleck was following him around with a camera. I wonder if Dave felt like he was suddenly on EdTv? Joaquin's interview with Letterman is "leaving him destined to join Farrah Fawcett on the list of late-night guests memorable for the wrong reasons." (according to msnbc)
David joked with Joaquin and said, "I'm sorry you couldn't be here tonight." Apparently he was way more out of it than they make it seem. Joaquin also asked if he could come perform on The Late Show after he starts his hip-hop career, and Dave replied "“You know, that seems unlikely, we’ll certainly keep you in our Rolodex.” The audience roared in laughter, but Joaquin did not appreciate that one too much.
This fall from grace is going to take a lot for his publicists to bring him back from this one. And to take a jump from acting to hip-hop and be taken seriously will be a huge issue for him.

Timeliness Is Key. . .

So for a change, I wanted to do something outside of the book. So I started looking around. Seeing articles about Michael Phelps, the Hudson River plane crash and Obama's stimulus plan being pushed further. But then I stumbled across an article about a doctor not showing up on time for a scheduled abortion.
Turns out that this gal, Sycloria Williams, who is only 18, hired Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique for her abortion (for $1,200!!). A couple days later Miss Williams goes in to the clinic to get her 23-week old (mind you that's almost 6 months) unborn child aborted, and the doctor was late. Therefore, she went into labor and delivered a live baby girl. One of the medical clinic's owners cut the baby's umbilical cord and then proceeded to place the baby in a plastic bag and throw her away. Through tips, police recovered the remains of this baby in a cardboard box.
Now Sycloria Williams has a lawsuit against Dr. Renelique and the clinic. Turns out this doctor received his medical training in 1991 at the State University of Haiti, and has had 5 medical malpractice payments in the past decade. And now, no one can find him. Hmmm... Wonder why? For that clinic, they'll probably never have business again, and when they find that doctor, I'm sure he's doomed. Even a great public relations department could not save this from this. Abortion has been a touchy issue for who knows how many years! So by blotching an abortion that badly, and it upsets people on both sides of the abortion case, yeah no saving that clinic from going down in flames.
From another source, (after simply typing in "Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique") I found that Sycloria had named the baby, Shanice Denise Osbourne. Turns the day of the abortion, an unlicensed receptionist gave Williams Cytotec, which induces labor and dilates the cervix. Hence the reason she gave birth at 23 weeks. Reasons why she didn't just go through and have the baby? Because she didn't feel mature enough and did not have the right resources to take care of a baby.
I did some research just to see when the safe time for an abortion would be, and obviously 23 weeks is way too late if one will give birth to a living, breathing little baby. Turns out that not even 1% of abortions happen on the 20th week of pregnancy. Another interesting fact that I got off of a site dealing with Abortion Facts, is that 93% of abortions are because of some "social reasons", which are basically, the baby is unwanted or bad timing. It is just crazy to see that, the rest of it breaks down that rape and incest are among 1% of abortions and potential health problems account for the other 6%.

The Lesson of Persuasion

I guess I didn't really understand how much there was to know about persuasion, until I read this chapter. I understand that, especially in writing, persuasion is a very powerful tool, but I guess I just did not know how powerful one could make it. After reading chapter three I realized there are so many things that go into making that perfect persuasive piece.

There was a couple of sentences in the book that I found very appealing, to say the least. It was on page 37, and it read: "Writers who can think about persuasion at the strategic level will be at a premium. It is clear that a writer who knows how will always have a job. But the writer who knows why will always be the boss." That seems to hold true. As I was reading I was thinking that if everyone were to read this book, they would know way too much about what PR really is and what is all involved in it. But good thing for the PR practitioner that not a everybody has to study the art of public relations.

Persuasion is a very powerful tool, as I mentioned before, so naturally I did some research on persuasion and its amazing powers. The Power of Persuasion, this online excerpt is from the book "The 7 Triggers to Yes", by Russell H. Granger. He also has a website dedicated to his ProEd teachings.
Right off the bat in the excerpt it reads: "The most influential people are those who can effectively get things done. They influence others to agree or comply, to effectively execute goals, objectives and wishes. Success, perhaps survival, for you and your organization hinges primarily on one skill: the power of persuasion—the ability to persuade people to say “yes,” to willingly concur or follow your directions or act on your behalf." The article then goes on to explain how useful and critical persuasion is.
I also read in this excerpt that not only do PR practitioners need persuasion skills, but also everybody that wants to influence someone does. As Dr. Condoleezza Rice said, “Power is nothing unless you can turn it in to influence.”

So after looking through that article and going to Russell's website dedicated to ProEd teachings, I kept hunting for other persuasive communication articles, and came across "Persuasive Communication in Business", well since I am going into business I thought I'd take a look. This article was written by Robert F. Abbott, where he goes over three techniques for increasing your persuasiveness. Paraphrasing the three points, the first point deals with focusing on the other person with whom you are trying to persuade. The second point is to use persuasive words (a site with some good words on it). And the third point is to eliminate any barriers that would effect persuasion.

E.L.B.

The first chapter, I must admit, was very well detailed in what public relations really means. Pulling it away from people assuming it is the same as advertising, but as it is found in the chapter, it is not even close to what advertising is. As mentioned in the chapter, the lines between advertising and publicity have been blurred. In the readings, it says that advertising is paid time or space in a medium. While publicity is information provided with no fees.
In the readings, the name Edward L. Bernays stuck out the most to me. As the quote goes from the chapter (found on page 5) he said,

"Public relations is not a one-way street in which leadership manipulates the public and public opinion. It is a two-way street in which leadership and the public find integration with each other in which objectives and goals are predicated on a coincidence of public and private interests."

After reading this, I made note to look more into the late Edward L. Bernays, who the book calls the "PR authority." An interesting article that I found on him, which stuck out because of it's unique title, is "The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays & The Birth of PR." Which is the actually the name of the book that Larry Tye wrote. The article is a book review by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, whom in the first paragraph wrote,

"Today, few people outside the public relations profession recognize the name of Edward L. Bernays. As the year 2000 approaches, however, his name deserves to
figure on historians' lists of the most influential figures of the 20th century."

Not being an actually PR major, I myself have never heard of Mr. Bernays, until I read the chapter and did some research.
An interesting fact that I found from the book review mentions how Bernays's uncle was Sigmund Freud. Since Freud was, as the review puts it, "the father of psychoanalysis", I have actually heard of him thanks to a psychology class from high school. According to what I have read, they seemed to use similar tactics with what they did. From the book review I found that Freud would use his ""talking cure" [that] was designed to unearth his patients' unconscious drives and hidden motives, in the belief that bringing them into conscious discourse would help people lead healthier lives." While Bernays would use "psychological techniques to mask the motives of his clients, as part of a deliberate strategy aimed at keeping the public unconscious of the forces that were working to mold their minds."
Furthermore, I think that what Edward L. Bernays did for PR seems to be pretty major. It seems he really helped people understand what the world needed back in the 1950s. And yet, as I have read, he also did some things that hurt his image. All in all, he did something right.

First Week - Getting Back Into The Swing

When deciding to take this course I wasn't really sure what to expect. Public Relations, why would I need to take a class on that? But when it comes to any career in business, I can see this class being very beneficial in the long run.
My blog, for this first one, is going to just express my thoughts on the introduction assignments and a little on the book.
When I took the wrapping off of the book, I flipped to the first chapter, to mainly just see what we will be going over for the next week. And it seems like there will be a lot of very valuable information that, as I have already said, will prove to be very beneficial in my career after college.
As for the assignments that we did for this week, I thought that the scavenger hunt was a good way to make sure everyone has either read through the material and kind of let it sink in. I also thought that the personal homepage assignment was neat. Except coming up with the three media sources, I really didn't know what to put in all of them. I guess I need to start hitting up media sites more often. The main sites I seem to hit up are on movies, I am a huge movie buff after all.
I believe that it will be pretty fun interacting with people in an online class. This is my one of my two online classes for this semester, but I have online taken one prior to this semester. In that class, there was no interacting with the other students in the class, unless you wanted to of course.