How Olympic Officials are Handling the Protests

The Olympic torch relay is supposed to be a time for pride in one’s country. Unfortunately the protesters have made the torch relay a time of anguish and frustration. Many government leaders want President Bush to boycott the opening games.

According to a recent New York Times article, protesters have pulled off a “publicity coup.” Grass-roots Tibet support groups in the United States have launched a full communications plan. China is finally realizing that they are losing this battle and have begun hiring firms to implement their own public relations plan.

 I believe that China’s human rights abuses should have excluded it from consideration for the games; however officials have decided against that. I think that this is a decision that people should accept and that the Olympics should not be ruined for all of the athletes who worked so hard to get there. I hope that the Olympic games will be able to shed a better light on Beijing.

How Typography Can Win a Campaign

A recent article in the New York Times is about how important Obama’s typography has been for his campaign. It is simple, yet bold, and it gets the message of “Change” across. It doesn’t take something elaborate or fancy, but Obama’s Gotham typeface, “amplifies the personality that is already there.”When I think about all of the other campaigns it is true that the only one that stands out to me is Obama’s. His message is simple but it has a lot of meaning. In one word, “Change” I know exactly what Obama stands for. I never realized how much typeface can affect something until I read the article. There is an example given of the word “Change” in different typefaces. The Gotham typeface really stood out out to me.

Not only is he using a typeface that is most effective, but he is also using many different media outlets to get his message across. The article states that he is running the first transmedia campaign of the 21st century. He is going beyond all the other candidates by realizing that the media has now split and there are other media vehicles besides television. With this he is able to reach a greater audience. It will be interesting to see if this step above the other campaigns will really boost Obama into the top spot for the Democratic ticket.

When Blogging Sites Take A Turn For The Worst

As I have previously written , most blogging sites are put to good use and educate the public. As of late, there have been a few scandals throughout the blogging world. One of them is the new website, Juicy Campus. Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace have caused some controversy, but nothing like the new site Juicy Campus.

Juicy Campus is a college gossip site and I personally think it is disgusting. Students from all different college networks anonymously post awful things about other students such as how fat they are or who is a “slut”. After their post others are allowed to post comments. Real names are used and reputations are damaged.

Unfortunately, not much can be done about this. The website is protected under the Communications Decency Act of 1996. This act states that web publishers are shielded from liability from libelous comments posted by third parties. It would also be hard to file a lawsuit against the individual who posted the information when you don’t have proof of who it is.

Something needs to be done to censor this website or get rid of it all together. Students need to speak out and stop using Juicy Campus. It is hurting too many lives and in my opinion it is just childish.

Is Auburn’s Crisis Communication Plan Really Effective?

After this past Wednesday’s tragic shooting at Auburn University which resulted in the death of Lauren Burk, many students and parents are left wondering how safe Auburn really is.

The general consensus of students at Auburn is that Auburn is a safe city where nothing bad happens. I think that this is also the same mentality that Auburn’s officials have. Lauren Burk was walking from the library to her car when she was abducted at only 9:00 at night. The library parking lot is often full, which means that I almost always have to park across the street or somewhere far away. In all my late night walks from the library to my car, I have never seen campus security. I think that this is something Auburn should definitely tighten up on.

This brings me to my second point. After the events at Virginia Tech last year, Auburn adopted its new AU Alert system to inform students when there is something of importance going on. The fact that students weren’t notified of the shooting until 12:30 the next day is not ok. I personally found out about it from my mother before I did from the school. I realize that students shouldn’t have been notified until all the facts were known. However, It remains that this girl was abducted on campus, her car was found burning on campus, and the person who did this to her was on the loose. Students should have been warned to take precautions.

No school can ever truly be prepared for the unexpected, but Auburn was in no way prepared for this. The university should have done a better job notifying the students and in general should take a better look at their campus security efforts. It often takes something bad to get the attention of an organization. Hopefully, after this is over Auburn will be able to learn from this experience and make some needed changes.

Response to Mark Stevens, “A Tale of Two Blogs”

A recent article found in PR Newswire titled “A Tale of Two Blogs” describes a Fox News broadcast over Thanksgiving that stated that blogs were not important and traditional media outlets are what make blogs important and give them fame.

I am usually a fan of Fox News, but it is interesting to me how biased this news segment was. The panel was made up  of traditional media journalists. Stevens suggested that there be a PR pofessional on the panel to give a different view and I agree with that. I don’t think that the segment was worth discussing wihtout opposing viewpoints.

Stevens goes on the say that there are three different types of blogs. There are the blogs that no one reads that are more like personal diaries and are irrelevant.(This is the type of blogging to which Fox News was referring ). There are the blogs that have more following and cover things such as client interests. Then there are the real blogs such as The Drudge Report type blogs that Steven’s says are, “more important than any traditional news outlet.”

Reading this article just makes me see how far behind the world really is. PR professionals realize how important blogging is and traditional media outlets should realize that the use of their sources is on the decline. The internet is where most everyone gets their news these days and blogs have proven to be a huge source for that.

Social Media included on Resumes

This past Friday I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the 2008 Real World PR conference in Atlanta. There were a little over 100 PR students in attendance from schools around the country. The conference included a career fair from local Atlanta firms, a resume critique and a media relations panel.

One of the most beneficial parts of the conference for me was the resume critique. There were several PR professionals there to critique resumes. I have already had my resume looked at by career services so I thought that having my resume critiqued might be a waste of time. As I expected she thought everything looked good except for one thing. She asked, “Why didn’t you include anything about social media on your resume?”

It was something I hadn’t really thought about. She went on to tell me how impressive it is to have social media on a resume and it is something that employers don’t see a lot of. After the conference, I immediately added  social media to my resume. Within a day, I had two replies for internship interviews. It’s amazing how important social media has become in the PR world.

Using Twitter as a PR Tool

Recently my Style and Design class has been using Twitter as a PR tool. Some people may think of Twitter as nothing more than another silly internet site to talk to your friends. However, as I have started working with it more I have found that Twitter is a great way to make connections with other PR professionals out there.

I think that it has been exciting to see what others are doing out there such as new projects for work and to just really get a feel of what life is like out there in the “real world”. I have enjoyed following Rick Murray from Edelman.  A recent post of his says, “Just spent the morning being brought up to speed on the status of all things digital in Asia. Awesome to have folks here from 8 countries.”

After this class I really think that I will continue using Twitter  to keep in contact with friends and to meet interesting new people. I can also hope that I will be able to make the right connections with the right people and hopefully a job will come out of it one day!

Use of Blogs for Emergency Response

In the wake of the deadly tornadoes that virtually destroyed Union University in Jackson, Tenn. blogging has proved to be a successful way to alert the public in times of crisis. The schools UU Recovery Blog provides posts about volunteers, students, relief efforts, counseling and many other important issues related to the disaster.

I think that blogging is the most effective way to reach the public because it is a way to see all the information at once. The local news stations and newspapers have all of the information but it is not always all readily available when you need it. With the blog all of the current and past information is available all at once. It is something that everyone can access anytime they want.

Media organizations might want to start using blogs and other online services as a form of communication for crises or as a place of remembrance as was done after the Virginia Tech shootings. Not only do blogs reach all different publics, but they serve as a way to talk to others in the aftermath of disasters.

Experimenting with Video Blogging

I am exploring with video blogging. Here is a video of Sarah Beth Rigby. She talks about her summer studying Interior Design abroad in Italy.

Target’s “nontraditional” Media Ban

A recent article in the New York Times reveals that Target does not consider blogs to be a relevant media source. After a customer complained about an inappropriate advertising campaign, instead of using good customer service skills, Target responded with an email stating that they could not comment back because the blog was a nontraditional media outlet. Shortly after this article came out Target’s PR people issued a statement that they may rethink interacting with blogs due to their rising popularity.

The blogger in question is a perfect example of Target’s “core guest”. Just because they are writing on a blog does not make them any less of a valued customer then a person who reads The New York Times. Target should respond and take into consideration all customers from all media outlets.

Blogging has become a very popular way to communicate messages. There are so many bloggers out there and I believe that Target’s choice to dismiss them will cause Target to lose business from many “core guests”.