This weeks reading by melanie James was really helpful as it gave me an idea of what different positions within the Public relations industry entail. More importanatly it gave me an idea of how much work can be involved (particularly looking at Heidi Alexandra Pollard!!!). Another key learning from this reading was actually that as practitioners we will need to ensure we are keeping on top of current affairs by reading weekend papers. I actually noticed too that in the "weekly schedule" section many people had yoga somewhere in their week. I think this really hit home to me at how busy and stressful this industry would often get. I also noted that not only do most positions in some way entail developing campaighns but also overseeing development of websites. I did note in this chapter much like what was said by agencies in "the Big picture" chapter in week 2 that its important to have hands-on experience.
This reading has built on my previous knowledge of what a PR practitioner does as I actually didn't realise we would do that!!! I found it really exciting thinking about the opportunities we'll have in the workplace though!!
The second reading from Tymson et al was helpful as it discussed the role of internal communication. The reading noted that there are two distinct types of communicators in public relations: organisational communicators and internal comminucators. The first would deal with external relations e.g. publics and the second deals with internal relations e.g. employees.
Internal communications is just as essential as external communications as the role of this communicator is the influence behaviour of employees.
A key meesage I got from this reading was that internal communications promotes stronger relationships between employees which in turn creates better/ more productive working environment.
Before this reading I had mainly thought of Public relations communication roles as external so it was really good to realise that and organisation benefits from both internal and external communication and we can influence both. I'm quite interested in internal communications after this reading as I too believe that internal communications is extremely important!!
References: Insider Info (pp 37-93 looks a lot but isn’t!) in Public Relations by James, M. (2006). Sydney: CareerFaqs
Chapter 11 Internal Communications In C. Tymson, P. Lazar, P and R. Lazar, (Eds.)The new Australian and New Zealand public relations manual (5th ed.) (pp. 74-117) Manly: Tymson Communications
2 comments:
I also found this reading quite innovative. I found your point about yoga interesting as I hadn't noticed it at all. I think you summary would be useful to other students as it makes a lot of connections that people may have over looked!
Thanks Carly!
The point about Yoga was just something I had noticed to see if there were any similar activites PR practitioners were doing that perhaps we should be doing. I actually didn't expect to see yoga I thought it would be more like monitoring websites etc. Your comment that you enjoyed this weeks reading has also made me realise that perhaps we liked it as it gives us a taste of what we're in for....good and bad. It's not a typcal textbook reading it's advice for our futures from people who were exactly like us a few years ago. Something to think about anyway.....
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