coms 213 4

• Influence


  Awareness, attitudes & behaviour
• Attitudes formed by


  • First-hand knowledge
  • Second-hand knowledge
  • On- & offline media
  • Conditioning (background)
  • Commonly held beliefs
  • Personal beliefs
  • Facts
• Importance of feedback
• Role of gatekeepers


  NB to identify specific persons
• Aims (Goals)


  • Broad statement of what communicator wants to achieve
  • NO specific, measurable outcomes
• Objectives


  • Measurable steps & activities to achieve aim
  • Highly specific
• Aims & Objectives


  • Outcome aims - What do you want the stakeholders to do? - results
  • Process aims - What is done to achieve aim?
• Guidelines for aims & objectives


  • Singular, clear/specific, understandable
  • Clear outcomes – describe process how it will be achieved overall
• Aims


  • What do want to achieve?
  • The word "to"
  • An active verb
  • Conceptual, quantifiable statement of the desired outcome
  • Identify relevant target stakeholder(s)
  • Focus on one aim per statement
• Objectives on 3 levels

  • Awareness – promote understanding
  • Cognitive - knowledge
  • Attitudes & opinions – positive
  • Affective – feelings
  • Behaviour – motivate actions
  • Conative – behaviour
• Aligning objectives


  • Organisation objectives
  • Set communication/PR objectives
  • Link to aims
  • Link to specific stakeholders
  • Research NB
  • Be precise
  • What is achievable?
  • Quantify
  • Timescale
  • Budget
  • Prioritise
• Objective setting


  • The word "to"
  • An active verb
  • The measurable outcome
  • The relevant target stakeholder(s)
  • The amount of change expected
  • The target date or deadline
• Aims & Objectives Constraints

  • Internal - Human ability, Cost, Timescale – align to that of the organisation, Who are the decision makers?, Supporting personnel & support equipment
  • External - Who & where are target stakeholders?, Socio-cultural differences?, Access to infrastructure?, Timeframes e.g.. Long weekends?
• Why stakeholder identification?


  • Aim for "buy in" – organisation values & aims
  • Messages & dialogue – buy in & collaboration
  • With whom?
  • STAKEHOLDER IDENTIFICATION = specific messages – specific stakeholders/publics
  • How? - "Learning organisation" - Listen, Inform, Manage similarities & differences, Learn together
• Types of publics


  • On-publics
  • Passive
  • Latent
  • Aware
  • Active
  • All-issue (against organisation in general)
  • Single-issues & "Hot-issues"
• Public opinion


  • Consensus concerning views around issue
  • Consensus = power
  • Public opinion – cause & effect of PR
  • PR practitioner – make management aware of public opinion & gain public support
  • Media – NB
  • Levels: Perceptions, Attitudes, Behaviour
• Nature of Campaign


  • Information campaign
  • Persuasion campaign
  • Dialogue based campaign
• Information campaign


  Usually to change/strengthen attitudes, perceptions, opinions
• Dialogue based campaign


  • Two-way comm
  • Can reveal deep differences
  • Dialogue for understanding
  • Deliberative engagement