Media and Public Relations Manager

Introduction

The goal of the Management and Strategy Institute is to teach you the key competencies required to function in the role of a PR professional.  As you go through the training material, you will learn the competencies listed below.

The MPRM exam is a timed, online exam.  It consists of approximately 50 questions and has a required passing score of 70%.

Competencies

This course of study covers the following competencies:

Public Relations Introduction

• What is media and public relations?
  • Learning Outcome: Define media and public relations.

Models Of Public Relations

• Four models of public relations that describe the field’s various management and organizational practices.
  • Learning Outcome: Learn the models developed by Grunig and Hunt.  Press agent/publicity model, public information model, two-way asymmetrical model, two-way symmetrical model.

Public Relations Versus Marketing Versus Advertising

• Many people confuse public relations with marketing and advertising.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand the difference between Public Relations, Marketing, and Advertising.

General Roles In Public Relations

• Public relations practitioners can be placed in two groups based on responsibilities
  • Learning Outcome: Understand communications managers and technicians.  What is persuasion vs propaganda.  Understand brand advocates.

Advertising Defined

• Advertising is a simple concept. Mass media professionals craft messages to help sell products by raising awareness and pushing people to make actual purchase decisions, but in the network society and the age of targeted marketing, the ability to reach individual consumers who fit precise sets of characteristics is incredible.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand and define advertising and how it is different from PR.  History of advertising.  Catagorizing advertising methods, above the line and below the line.  Understanding the advertising funnel, the rule of seven, and the third-person effect.

Content Marketing

• Content marketing refers to a common practice where brands produce their own content, or hire someone else to produce it, and then market that information as an alternative to advertising.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand the basics of content marketing.  Marketing’s four Ps.  Inbound marketing.

Public Relations

• The history of the public relations field is often misunderstood.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand the history of PR.  PR and propaganda.  S-M-C-R model.

Crisis Management

• The best prevention against bad PR is to follow your industry’s and your own ethical codes at all times, whatever they are.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand crisis management and planning ahead.  Engaging with social media and journalists.  Handling unfavorable PR.  Examples include Johnson & Johnson in 1982.

PR Wars | PR And Advertising | PR And Marketing

• There are PR battles that go on between competing brands and between non-profits, corporations and government officials all the time.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand PR, advertising, and marketing roles and interference.

Anatomy of a PR Campaign

• A typical campaign often involves four phases.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand the four phases of a PR campaign.  Initial Research, Strategy, Tactics, Evaluation.

Public Relations Tools

• Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to an audience through topics of public interest and news items.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand Messaging, audience targeting, and media marketing.  Examples include De Beers Company, alliance of tobacco manufacturers, Taco Bell.

PR As A Replacement For Advertising

• In some cases, PR has begun overtaking advertising as the preferred way of promoting a particular company or product.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand PR used for advertising.  Examples include Philip Morris.  Learn about branding, shifting from advertising to PR.  Examples include Apple and Nike.  Look at branding backlashes, including British Petroleum, The Body Shop.

Relationship With Politics And Government

• Politics and PR have gone hand in hand since the dawn of political activity.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand how politicians use PR, look at examples.  Understand political branding.

Do The Right Thing

• In any emergency situation, it is imperative that a company put the public interest ahead of the organization’s interest.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand how PR helps a company during an emergency in the modern age.  Communicate quickly and accurately, follow up.

Branding As A New Form Of Communication

• That so many different groups have adopted branding as a means of communication is a testament to its ubiquity.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand branding and the Public Relations’ Components and Roles including counselling, research, media relations, community relations.

Ethical and Legal Considerations

• For public relations professionals, you may need to issue a corporate response to a crisis, therefore it is important to understand the requirements or restrictions of corporate disclosure laws.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand Ethical and Legal Considerations.  Socially responsible communicators, advertising substantiation rule, FTC regulations.

Public Relations Writing Basics

• Each of the mass communication professions – journalism, advertising, public relations – serve different information objectives for their organizations.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand Journalistic organizations and advertising firms.  Earned media vs paid media.  PR messages including internal, news releases, broadcast video/audio, media kits, backgrounders, news conferences, media tours, special events, media inquiries, PR features.

Goals of Storytelling

• Storytelling can serve different kinds of goals. Determining the intention or purpose of the story or message is an important first step in crafting the message.
• Learning Outcome:  Understand the concept of storytelling.  Goals and characteristics of good storytelling.