Public Relations and the Media: Networking and Ethics - Term Paper Example

? PR and the Media - Networking and Ethics The paper discussed below will talk about the public relations and the media. The definition of public media will lay down the foundation stone for the paper. The next part will deal with the journalistic ethics affecting marketing public relations professionals. The discussion will also focus upon the reasons of building relationships with journalists and also the ethics that will guide the relationship between the journalists and the marketers. The second part will talk about a business description clearly taking the target consumers into account. Introduction Public relations are one of the most important parts of marketing. Public relation is one of the key elements of the promotional mix. Public relations can be defined as a way of communication through which the products or the services offered by one marketer is promoted or evaluated by a third party and hence this helps the marketers to develop an atmosphere of credibility and trust among the customers. Journalists and reporters happen to be one of the most important parts of the modern media. From the perspective of the marketing and public relations, the journalists play an important role as a reference group. The evaluation made by the journalists about an organization or a product can actually influence the buying behavior of the public and hence the marketers usually look to develop strong relationships with the journalists. However, among all these the ethical aspects of the journalism are some that needs to be maintained. The present study has been conducted in order to analyze the relationship between journalism and PR keeping the ethical aspects of journalism in mind. Also the study looks to understand how the three different businesses can use one media connector to great effect (Belch and Michael, 2005). Part -1 How journalistic ethics affects marketing public relations professionals Journalistic ethics comprises of the principles of the ethics and good practices applicable to the specific challenges faced by the journalists. Presently this subset of the media ethics is mainly known as the code of ethics. Increasing influence of the public relation professional has been quite detrimental to ethical journalism. The role of a journalist in the society is to provide information that serves the best interest of the public. This needs commitment to the relatively less flexible principle of reporting the most balanced and accurate version of the events and stories. On the other hand PR uses persuasive speeches to serve specific interests. However, the public relations experts are not at all bounded by the ethical code of the journalists. To explain the roles of journalism and public relations in simple terms, it can be said that role of journalism in the business of reporting and public relations is inevitable. But the penalty of such conflicts would lead to the inevitable decay to the overall quality of PR and journalism (Kapferer, 2008). Importance of building relationships with journalists for the marketers The relationship of the marketers with journalists is extremely important and this is also the base of the interaction with the media. If someone is heading a startup company that has not been established yet it would be extremely important for the marketer to read the local publications and get the names of the local journalists and the reporters. Then the marketer may decide to contact appropriate reporter or journalist. It can be assumed that majority of the time the offer made by the marketer would be accepted simply because the journalists are constantly searching for news and happen to be a lot more approachable than what normal people may perceive. However it is also advised that the marketer should not appear as though the marketer is looking for free publicity because at the end of the day it is a win-win situation for both the parties. The same concept applies for established firms also as journalists can act as a credible source of communications as the buyers would perceive that the information has come from a third party and would most likely to be credible. In this way it leads to healthy public relations among the buyers and the marketers. Therefore it is important for the marketers to build relationships with journalists. Guiding relationships ethical behavior According to researchers ethical journalism is bounded by autonomy and objectivity. But the commercialization of the news and stories would mean that journalism is obliged to marketing and public relations. The degree to which the journalists depend upon the press releases actually undermines the ethical journalism and eliminates the knack of the professional journalist for judging a newsworthy story. As it has been mentioned before that the journalists actually act as independent source of communication as well as a reference group. Therefore it is very important for the journalists to be ethical and provide the correct information as information provided by the journalists tend to affect the purchasing behavior of the buyer immensely along with the reputation of the marketers. Part -2 Business Description Even before describing the business it is important to mention that the three businesses chosen happens to be educational institution, hospitality outlet (Restaurant) and local business. The educational institution is a vocational training institution that provides job oriented conventional training courses such as retail and sales, soft skills and communication, hardware and networking. The institution is a new one and presently operating on local basis. The restaurant is a food chain which provides an array of services starting from breakfast, lunch, dinner and also fast foods. Just like the educational institution, the restaurant also operates locally and looks to serve the needs of the people who live close by to the restaurant. The small business chosen is plumbing services which provide services to both individuals and corporate bodies. It is a small business and operates on a local basis too. Define its target audience The target group for the educational institution includes primarily students belonging to the age group of 18-22. The target group also includes working professional who would look to upgrade the communication skills to improve the skill set (Kotler, 2001). The target group of the restaurant includes the people belonging to the age group of the 18- 50+. This includes youngsters and teen agers who may visit the restaurant occasionally to hang out with friends and have some fast food. This may also include people who are working professionals and may decide to visit the restaurant along with the family members to have lunch or dinner with the family on weekends. Also people who have come to the city for some purpose could also be a target group for the restaurant. The demographic segmentation of the company providing plumbing services could be a bit difficult. However, based on business segments it can be said that the target group of the company happens to be the B2B and the B2C market segment. Also since the marketers operates on local basis it can also be said that people living close to the business set up of the company or business organizations situated close by the organization would be the prime target groups. Choosing Media Connector There are various mediums of communication available for the businesses in the form of the print media, audio and audio visual medium such as the television and radio as well as the digital medium. All the mediums are effective in their rights and can produce desired results to the marketers if used properly. However, if only one media source has to be chosen then the preferred choice would most certainly be the digital medium. Television and Radio is most certainly one of the most popular mediums as it caters to a mass population. However, extensive use of such medium would need strong financial budget. But since all the businesses chosen operates on local basis only it can be assumed that the organization may not have that amount of budgets to use the audio visual mediums effectively as those medium are quite costly. One the other hand very few people actually today read the newspapers and hence the effectiveness of the print medium may also be questioned. This brings the preferred choice that is the digital media into picture. Today majority of the people spend more time on digital media as compared to the audio visual medium. Also the rise of social media has increased the percentage time spend by the people over the internet. Social media presents a unique opportunity for the marketers to engage the public quite effectively. From the budgetary perspective the digital medium is a lot less costly as compared to the other medium. Posting ads on digital medium would require a lot less money as compared to other mediums. The consumers today spend a lot more time on the digital medium and hence the chances of the visibility of the ads would be lot more than other medium. This would most likely provide an efficient and effective solution to the marketers. Also the social media in particular is totally customer centric and hence it would help the marketer to develop a reputation of transparency and credibility among the minds of the customers. As far as developing rapport with the journalists are concerned, the marketers can still look to rapport with the journalists as majority of the journalists tend to have their own blogs and hence that can also help the marketers in developing strong public relations with the customers. Many journalists actually provide personal opinions through blogs which would most certainly go a long way as far as credibility is concerned. Overall despite of the differentiated nature of the businesses and completely different target groups, digital medium can still act as an effective media connector due to all the various reasons mentioned above (Weideman, 2002). Conclusion To conclude it can be said that Public relations is of extreme importance in the modern day marketing as it helps the marketers to build up an atmosphere of credibility and trust. However in public relations the evaluation of business or product must come from third party. Therefore the marketers look to build up strong relationship with the journalists as they tend to have strong influence on the people of the society. Therefore there lies a strong relationship among the PR and marketing professionals and the journalists. However, before writing or reviewing about any product or businesses it is important for the journalists to be ethical keeping in mind that they happen to be the media connector among the buyers and the marketers. However, due to commercialization of media, ethical aspect of the journalism and PR has witnessed some amount of damage. The study also shows that three different types of businesses can actually use one media connector in the form of the digital medium to connect to the audience. The study reflects how the addition of social media has provided a huge boost to the use of the digital medium and how the digital medium can be used by the marketers to develop strong public relations with the buyers leading to a sense of trust and credibility. References Belch, G and Michael, G. (2005). Advertising &Promotion-An Integrated marketing Communications Perspective. UK: McGraw-Hill. Kapferer, J. (2008). The new strategic Brand Management. UK: Kogan Page. Kotler, P. (2001). Marketing Management. UK: Prentice Hall. Weideman, L. (2002). Dynamics of Public Relations and Journalism: A Practical Guide for Media Students. USA: Juta and Company Ltd. Read More