JMS 480 Exam #3

Systems Perspective

- A system is a set of interacting units that endures through time within an established boundary by responding and adjusting to change pressures from the environment and maintain goal states - Environment is anything that generates change pressures- information, energy and matter inputs on a system - Subsystem- a component of a system, may be itself analyzed as a system in another context - PR is part of the adaptive subsystem- different from the production, supportive-disposal, maintenance and managerial subsystems

Electronic Freedom of Information Act 1996

- Access to digital information (computer databases) held by federal departments subject to FOIA

Social environment

- Affects and is affected by the social setting

Authoritarian organization

- Arises from an asymmetrical organization - structured and formalized communications processes with a decision making hierarchy (e.g., military) Decision making is centralized at the highest level of the organization Input is not typically sought Culture usually stresses individual accountability for an area of limited scope Organizational departments are independent not interdependent Tasks are routinized and high division of labor

A/symmetrical worldview

- Asymmetrical worldview- an organization's goal is to get what it wants without having to change the way it does business internally Focus is on the goals of the organization and the culture is to resist change Power in decision making tends to remain on the side of the organization and is not shared with publics - Symmetrical worldview- incorporates the idea of negotiation, conflict resolution and compromise in an organization's operating procedures Not just self-oriented, but oriented on satisfying the interested on strategic publics, change occurs on both sides of the relationship, change may not always be balanced but the organization and publics are open to adopting and adapting to the views of the other through dialogue and negotiation

Participative organizational culture

- Based on symmetrical worldview, values dialogue, and exchange of input between organization and publics Teamwork is valued, emphasis placed on collective rather than individual Values innovation and seeks input from employees and stakeholders to ensure thorough analysis of decisions and policy Departments are often integrated or multifunctional Emphasis on open communication across departments Decisions are decentralized Feedback at all levels of the organization is sought and valued

Codes of Ethics

- Basic requirements for professions- adherence to a set of professional norms - Practitioners act morally and advise their org./clients as an ethical conscience of the company

Masculinity

- Behaviors that are traditionally and stereotypically masculine such as aggressiveness and independence - Organizations with high masculinity reward competitiveness and initiative - Organizations with low masculinity reward nurturing and cooperation - E.g., an organization with low masculinity would point out how increasing production enhances (or nurtures) employees' sense of self-esteem

Continuing education

- Both PRSA and IABC require or encourage members to continue education through professional development webinars and workshops - APR- Universal Accreditation Board Established in 1998 Exam administered by PRSA Accreditation involves: Readiness review panel- an oral interview by jury of accredited peers, presentation of portfolio, response to essay questions Written exam- multiple choice Maintenance and continuing education

Employee communication

- Building and maintaining relationships with all publics inside an organization including production line workers, managers and supervisors, administrative staff, facilities and maintenance support Timely, complete and accurate communication Face-to-face managerial communication - Important because: The value of understanding teamwork and commitment by employees in achieving bottom-line results The need to build a strong manager communication network, one that makes every supervisor at every level accountable for communicating effectively with his or her employees

Cable and new media

- Cable - started in 1948, cable channels now have a greater share of television audience than broadcast networks (e.g., CNN) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - trying to get an organization's name to appear at the top or near the top of the list when someone does an online research on the organization's category or topic New media environment: Need for having one voice for the organization, especially during a crisis Need to work with nontraditional media e.g., bloggers Everyone is a reporter (e.g., cell phones can videotape) called "citizen journalists" and their reporting may appear on mainstream media Two-way interactive communications, building relationships, not just push communications

Open and closed systems

- Closed systems- impermeable boundaries so they cannot exchange matter, energy or information with their environments - Interaction only occurs within the system - Reactive or closed systems approach to PR is referred to as functionary and the open systems approach is referred to as functional - Open systems- exchange inputs and outputs with their environments through boundaries that are permeable - Adjust and adapt to counteract or accommodate environmental variations from the environment - Feedback within the system causes adjustments in both structure (what the system is) and processes (what the system does) - Social systems are not entirely open or closed so they are either relatively open or relatively closed

Communication

- Communication is a reciprocal process of exchanging signals to inform, persuade, or instruct based on shared meanings and conditioned by the communicators' relationship and the social context: Need to get the attention of the target publics Stimulate interest in message content Build a desire and intention to act on the message To direct the action of those who behave consistent with the message

Media relations

- Controlled media - media over which practioners have the say over what, when, how and to whom - Uncontrolled media (earned media) - no direct role in decisions about media content - Traditional media - newspapers, magazines, trade publications, radio, television, cable, direct mail, books - Newspapers: Circulation peaked in the 1990s at 63 million Total worldwide circulation is 540 daily sales not counting millions of free newspapers distributed daily

Libel

- Covers both written and spoken defamation (spoken defamation is also called slander) - Gov. institutions may not sue for libel - Defamation - communication that injures another's reputation or good name - Identification - must prove that the defamatory language is "of or concerning" them (naming of the wrong person due to careless reporting) - Publication - witnessed by a third party besides the plaintiff and the defendant - Fault - a mistake was made - Actual malice - made with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard - Negligence - made because the defendant failed to act as a reasonable person would have in similar circumstance - Falsity - language used is untrue - Damages - language hurt the plaintiff

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) 1935

- Created the independent federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to administer laws governing relations b/w unions and employers in the private sector - Prohibit both unions and management from engaging in unfair labor practices by forbidding coercive expression during political elections and forbidding management from interfering with labor's right to organize and to bargain collectively

Uncertainty avoidance

- Cultural dimension that explains the extent to which people prefer organizational communication and structures that reduce their social anxiety - High uncertainty avoidance - employees tend to prefer clear requirements and instructions to follow organizational rules, to take fewer risks and to demonstrate more loyalty to the employer - Low uncertainty avoidance culture - people feel more tolerant of ambiguous situations have lower resistance to change, show greater interest in taking risks, more likely to engage in two way public relations activities, they do not feel threatened by input from their environment

Upward communication

- Employee to management - Face-to-face communication with an open-door policy is primary medium for encouraging upward, two-way communication and building good working relationships w/ employees - Goal of internal relations is to establish and maintain mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the employees on whom its success or failure depends

Securities Exchange Commission (SEC)

- Enforces the newly passed securities laws, promotes stability in the markets, protects investors

Professional Ethics

- Ethical conduct suggests that actions are consistent with moral norms in a society - The application of moral values in practice is referred to as "applied ethics"

Individualism

- Extent to which people put their own individual needs ahead of the needs of the group - Organizations with strong individualism reward employees on the basis of their personal achievements and there is competition among employees to gain individual recognition - Organizations weak in individualism are strong in collectivism emphasizing the needs and accomplishments of teams of employees and focusing on the goals of the group rather than individuals

The First Amendment

- Freedom of religion, speech, press and the right to assemble and petition

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 1996

- Full disclosure from executive branch of government- any federal government department, military dept., regulatory agency, exec. branch

Functionary vs functional PR

- Functionary (closed systems) puts PR practioners in the technician limited role, they monitor the environment to make communication output more effective but not to make changes within the organization - Functional (open systems) changes the PR practice - uses two-way symmetric approaches, communication is two-way, information exchange, causes both sides of organization-public relationship, allows you to be a manager of change both inside and outside of the organization, plan and facilitate organizational and social adjustment and adaptation using communication

1984 Cable Communications Policy Act

- Gave FCC jurisdiction and required cable applicants to set aside channels for public, educational and governmental access

Public Officials

- Government officials who have or appear to the public to have substantial responsibility for or decision making control in government affairs (elected or appointed)

Informing employees

- Grapevine: neither a formal nor controlled medium but word of mouth is often the quickest means for communicating information Grapevine often fills the gap left by an inadequate internal communication program - Employee publications: printed publications remain the primary media for internal communications. Usual goals include: Keeping employees informed of the organization's strategy and goals Providing employees the information they need to perform their assignments Encouraging employees to maintain and enhance the standards for commitment to strategy, quality improvement, increased efficiency, improved service, and greater social responsibility Recognizing employees' achievements and successes Creating an opportunity for two-way communication to generate feedback - Publications are controlled and allow the org. to go on the record with its positions, communicate information essential to achieve objectives, deliver messages to target publics, let the org. communicate in its own words - Published speeches, position papers, backgrounders: posting CEO speeches or white papers, as a method to communicate with both internal and external audiences - Bulletin boards: laws require posting certain items - Intranets, document sharing platforms: electronic bulletin boards, shared information platforms have benefits: Disseminates information widely and rapidly Empowers employees by providing them with access to information Overcomes geography - Hotlines or toll-free phone numbers - disseminating basic information - Email - eNewsletters and emails are push information tactics - Listening to employees: Anonymous phone and email lines to accept tips for whistle blowers Ombudsman or ombuds officer - person charged with giving employees the opportunity to share their concerns and resolve them through informal mediation

Organizations with low and high power distance

- High power-distance managers and employees see themselves as inherently different from each other Employees respect managers b/c of the position they hold Promotion from the lower employee levels to managerial levels would be unusual - Low power-distance managers and employees see each other as equals despite their different positions within the org., no special bathrooms, different dining rooms, etc. - The US is typically a low power-distance country where there are company blogs where employees interact directly with CEOs asking hard questions and expecting timely answers

Service name

- Identifies a source of services rather than a source of goods (ServiceMaster provides cleaning services)

Trade name

- Identifies the commercial name of the producer (e.g., Kimberly-Clark Corporation manufactures Klennex)

Noncompete clause

- Important for PR professionals- employees cannot use their employer's time and facilities to develop their own business - Courts generally favor employees and do not hold up noncompete clauses b/c they often fail to meet the three tests: Must be reasonable, not place an undue restriction on the employee to earn a living Must be supported by some monetary consideration, offer of employment, raise, promotion of continuing employment Protect only the employer's legitimate business interests such as unique products & services, trade secrets and goodwill

Employee communications purposes

- Important to get employees to understand and internalize the organization's culture and values - Serve as a way to inform employees of organizational developments - A way for the organization to listen to its employees, hear their concerns and questions - Employee-to-employee communication is desired within organizations

Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002)

- Increase transparency and timelines, hold top management accountable for financial reports, make sure insiders cannot exercise unfair advantage in their compensation or stock trading

Privacy

- Individual's right "to be let alone" - Violations in civil law are "torts"- meaning anything considered legally wrong that one part does to harm another - Intrusion - deals with how information was gathered and most of these cases deal with the media's intrusion into people's lives - Public disclosure - embarrassing private facts about the plaintiff, deals with the sharing of information regardless of how it was obtained - False light - distorting information or making up information to suggest that someone is other than what he is or she really is usually in an offensive way (this area is very closely related to libel law) - Appropriation - meaning usage without permission of the plaintiff's name or likeness for the advantage of the defendeant

Different PR Associations

- International Assoc. of Business Communications (IABC) 15,000 members, world HQ in SF - International PR Assoc. (IPRA) 100 countries, 1,100 members - PR of Society of America (PRSA) Largest assoc. in world, HQ in NY Student assoc. is PRSSA 32,000 members, 110 chapters - Arthur W. Page Society- by invitation only, formed in 1983

Dissemination

- Is often confused with communication - e.g., that media placements (like clippings) are evidence that communications has occurred

Agenda setting theory

- Issue salience determines the prominence and penetration the issue has with the audience, or how well it resonates with each public - Cognitive priming describes the personal experience or connection someone has with an issue - Agenda building theory tries to answer the question of who is building the agenda of the media - Mass communication also facilitates social interaction and change

Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council

- Laid out two conditions for commercial speech: It must be about a legal activity It cannot be misleading

Accountability and Legal Considerations

- Licensing where the gov. regulates who can practice PR and who cannot raises three constitutional issues: The right of freedom of expression The right of the states to regulate occupations The right of individuals to pursue occupations w/o unjustified gov. interference - Licensure must be justified as crucial to the well being and preservation of society - In the absence of state licensing, accreditation is a means of encouraging professionalism and accountability

Lobbying

- Lobbying includes direct pressure on members of Congress - General PR campaign to move public opinion and to activate stakeholders to pressure legislators and gov. departments, called grossroots lobbying is part of an org.'s First Amendment right to express itself on public issues. This is not "direct" contact w/ a gov. official. - Testifying before a committee is also not lobbying b/c it is invited by legislators or opinion pieces in publications - Lobbyists and lobbying firms must register w/ the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House (Estimated $1.3 billion spent on state lobbying)

Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946 and Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995

- Lobbyist - someone employed or retained by a client who makes more than one contact on behalf of that client and spends at least 20% of his/her time during a six-month period providing that service to the client - Lobbying firm - entity that has at least one person who was hired to represent someone other than her/his employer. The term also applies to self-employed individuals who represent other people or entities. - Lobbying contract - communications, either oral or written, on behalf of a client to a covered executive or executive branch official regarding legislation, rules, regulations, grants, loans, permits, programs or the nomination of anyone subject to Senate confirmation.

1997 Supreme Court Reno v American Civil Liberties Union

- Made clear that speech on the Internet was fully protected by the First Amendment (overturned Communications Decency Act of 1996 that attempted to regulate the Internet)

Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (1995)

- Made reforms to the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934 - - Restricted abusive litigation practices as routine filing of class action lawsuits against public companies following sharp drops in stock prices - Prevented abuse of the discovery process by plaintiffs' attorneys to extort settlements from publicly traded companies that might be willing to settle simply to avoid costly litigation - Created "Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements' to encourage dissemination of information without fear of litigation (must include meaningful cautionary statements around predictions about earnings and performance)

Downward communication

- Management to employee - Willingness to listen to their views

Disclosure requirements

- Mandated by statute and those required to avoid fraud - When securities are offered to the public the law requires that companies provide "material information" about new security offerings so that investors can make purchasing decisions based on facts

Magazines

- More than 20,700 magazines & publications are published in the U.S. Effective specialized channels of communications to narrowly defined audiences; target specific messages to specific audiences 325 million subscriptions and single copy sales In 2010, 180 new magazines were launched; only 1 in 3 will survive more than 5 years Specialized business and professional publications serve professional groups, trade associations and business and industry Opinion leaders, young and diverse populations read magazines Durable platform (read, reread, discuss, debate, share)

Private figures

- More vulnerable to injury and can thus suffer more irreparable damage to their reputation - standard of fault for private figures is lower than for public officials and figures

Wire services

- News wire services - economically and effectively distribute stories and news to state, regional, national or international media Access to networks through the nearest bureau or "stringer" correspondent Associated Press (AP) - founded in 1846, HQ in NYC has 3,700 employees, sends news in six languages to 17,000 media subscribers in 121 countries A not-for-profit cooperative owned by the 1,500 media members Reuters - largest international news agency - 2,800 full time editorial staff, working in 200 bureaus in 100 countries

Disclosure

- Not enough to just issue a press release - material information must be issued simultaneously to national business and financial news wire services, national news wire services, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Moody's Investors Services, and Standard & Poor's Corporation Rules also prohibit fraud in securities trading

Social Support

- Opinion leaders are key components of gaining acceptance of new ideas and practices - "Spiral of Silence" theory suggests a phenomenon also known as the "silent majority"- individuals who think that their opinion conflicts with the opinion of most other people tend to remain silent on an issue - Others who think that many others share their view or that the number of people who agree is growing rapidly are more likely to express their views - Public opinion arises as individuals collectively discern support for their views through personal interaction and by attending to the mass media

Open systems model of PR

- Output driven model - stream of news releases, email blasts, responding to disruptions (closed systems approach) and is based on assumptions like: The purpose of PR is to bring about changes in the environment That persuasive communications can make those changes happen That message placements in media are all powerful That organizations do not need to change themselves in order to solve PR problems

Negatives of social responsibility

- PR gains advantages for and promotes special interests, sometimes at the cost of the public well-being - Publicity clutters already-choked channels of communication with the debris of pseudo events and phony phrases that confuse or influence rather than clarify - PR sometimes corrodes our channels of communication with cynicism and credibility gaps

Positives of social responsible public relations

- PR improves professional practice by codifying and enforcing ethical conduct and standards of performance - PR improves the conduct of an org. by emphasizing the need for public approval - PR serves the public interest by making all points of view articulate in the public forum - PR uses communication and mediation to replace misinformation with information, discord with rapport - PR promotes human welfare by helping social systems adapt to changing needs and environments

Social responsibility

- PR's value to society is enhanced when: it promotes the free, ethical competition of ideas, information and education in the marketplace of public opinion; it reveals the sources and goals of participants in the debate; it enforces high standards of conduct - PR's value is diminished when: it suppresses or otherwise limits competition of ideas; it hides or ascribes to others the true sources of pr efforts; it leaves unchallenged incompetent or unethical practice

Public Figures

- People who invite attention and comment and thus voluntarily expose themselves to an increased risk of scrutiny and possibly to defamatory falsehoods (e.g., movie stars, sports figures)

Treble damages

- Persons who infringed the trademark must pay the owner three times the infringer's profits from using the mark or three times any damages sustained by the legal owner whichever is greater plus reasonable attorney's fees to cover costs of the trademark action

Four areas of federal legislation that do not limit corporate speech

- Political elections, lobbying, labor organization communication w/ management and securities trading

Reputation in the digital age

- Post with caution - Think long term - See it their way - Patrol the web - Defend yourself - Prospective employers, supervisors, clients review online postings - Litigation public relations - help organizations address important interest that extend beyond legal concerns - PR practioners are not immune from lawsuits = malpractice insurance - Actions in your private lives may affect your professional reputations

Federal Communications Commission's Communications Act of 1934

- Power to make and enforce programming policies for broadcasting, to issue, renew, or deny licenses to individual station operators - Supreme Court rejected a case that regulation violated the First Amendment

Federal Trade Commission

- Primary authority that regulates advertising to ensure advertising is truthful

What makes a profession?

- Professional associations - Specialized educational preparation to acquire unique knowledge and skills - Body of theory-based knowledge, developed through research - Codes of ethics and standards of performance established and enforced by a self-governing assoc. of colleagues - Recognition by the community of providing unique and essential service

Trademarks - Lantham Act 1946

- Protect words, name and symbols used to identify and distinguish their goods and services from those of another (e.g., Klennex)

Copyright protection

- Provides economic incentive for creative people to produce original work and publishers to distribute those works and to preserve the public interest by guaranteeing the right to use the works without restrictions -Original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression ... from which they can be perceived, reproduced or otherwise communicated - Public ownership of creative material/public domain - copyright has expired, an authored never claimed copyright, the materials were produced by government employees on government paid time - Works that can be copyrighted: Literary works (databases, computer programs, textbooks) Musical works Dramatic works Pantomines and choreographic works Pictorial, graphic and sculptural works Motion pictures and other audiovisual works Sound recordings Architectural works created after 1990

Nonverbal behaviors

- Proximity - communicates intimacy, attraction, trust, caring, dominance, persuasiveness, aggressiveness - Smiling - emotional arousal, composure, formality, intimacy, and liking - Touching - intimacy - Eye contact - intensifies the other nonverbal behaviors

Radio

- Radio is a mobile medium suited for mobile people, Listening remains pretty constant at 2.5 hours a day or 16 hours a week; on a typical weekday 73% of adults listen to radio in their vehicles; radio reaches a daily audience of 183 million listeners 57 million aged 12 and older listen to radio via the Internet 25,000 radio stations (includes Internet streaming, AM and FM stations) Call-in talk shows set the public agenda and provide a forum for debate on local and national issues; potential for impact is great Free public service time on radio is seldom during prime listening time however it is not without value (when FCC relaxed its rules many stations reduced number of public service announcements) Public Service Announcements PSAs - promotes programs and services of government and nonprofit organizations for which no payment is made to the station (a good plan would provide 10, 30 and 60 second spots)

Reactive vs proactive

- Reactive programs employ relatively closed systems approaches to program planning and management (when disturbed) - Proactive use early warning systems to gather information and make adjustments to general internal and external output to prevent or avoid problems

Legal protection for intellectual property

- Refers to rights in products of mind (or intellect) found in the U.S. Constitution - Copyright law - Trademark law

Investment Advisors Act (1940)

- Regulates investment companies and advisors - Practioners in the field are subject to the disclosure rules of the stock exchange that lists their company's stocks - IR PR practioners must have in-depth knowledge of corporate finance, accounting and law

Labor Management Relations Act (Taft-Hartley Act) 1947

- Requires companies and unions to enter negotiations with open minds and willingness to reach an agreement

2000 Children's Internet Protection Act

- Requires schools and libraries that receive some federal money for Internet to install technology protection measures (filters)

Securities Act (1933)

- Restricts corporate communications before and during the period that new securities offerings are being registered

Mass communication model

- Senders- source of the message - Message- message characteristics can have powerful effects - Medium or channel- the way in which you deliver the message, choosing the right medium requires an understanding of media and media effects - Receivers- audience, don't consider them passive, two-way - Relationship- occurs within a context of relationships Emotional arousal, composure, formality Intimacy and similarity Immediacy or liking Dominance-submission

Infringement

- Someone has violated copyright, the owner must show proof of the three elements and originality of the work

Organizational culture

- Sum total of shared values, symbols, meanings, beliefs, assumptions, and expectations that organize and integrate a group of people who work together - It is a valuable asset in building cohesion and teamwork inside the organization resulting in organizational effectiveness reaching its goals - Organizational culture defines the values and norms used by decision makers in an organization - Power-distance - extent to which people see inequities as natural and unchangeable

First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti

- Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects political speech regardless of who (individual or corporation) is speaking - First Amendment protects the right of corporations to speak or not to speak if they do not agree just as it does for individuals

Law

- System of rules that governs society - PR cannot be practiced in exactly the same way around the world b/c diff. societies have diff. laws - Executive and Legislative branches of the US gov. make the law while the judicial branch interprets the law - There's federal laws, state laws, local rules/laws, the US Constitution

Television

- Television combines printed word, spoken word, video, color, music, animation, and sound effects into one message, making it a very powerful medium 1,782 commercial and education TV stations broadcasting 6,100 cable systems carrying an average of more than 100 channels The average time the TV is on in an household is 8 hours 21 minutes a day, and reaches 90% of adults Children spend an average 3.5 hours a day watching TV TV as the major source of news is a challenge as it is limiting - TV news must tell a story in 4,000 words or less, a 'major' story gets 58 seconds Video news release (VNR) and use of satellite media feeds

Two-way communication

- The foundation for management-employee relations and overall job performance - Working relationships are characterized by seven conditions: Confidence and trust between employer and employees Honest, candid information flowing freely up and down and sideways Satisfying status and participation for each person Continuity of work without strife Healthy or safe surroundings Success for the enterprise Optimism about the future

PR's adjusting and adapting role

- The job of PR is to help organizations adjust and adapt to their environments: Monitor public opinion, social change, political movements, cultural shifts, technological developments, natural environment Interpret these environmental factors Work with management to develop strategic plans of organizational change and responsiveness

Copyright notices

- The word "copyright", abbreviation "Corp.," or symbol © - The year of the first publication - The name of the copyright owner - © 2016 by Peri Lynn Turnbull, APR - Copyright usually belongs to the author, but sometimes at publication some transfers to the publisher (purchase the rights) - Employee work generally belongs to the employer

Internships

- They are not employees, they provide new practioners with skills and experience regulated by the Department of Labor - Internships should provide college credit, if working for a for-profit the internship must be a paid position

Trademark

- Trademark rights create through adoption and use of the mark on goods in trade - Rights are protected under common law, but registration of a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office creates presumption of ownership that are important should infringement be claimed - ® symbol or phrase "Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office" indicates a trademark registration - "TM" superscript is used when registration is pending for a mark identifying a product - "SM" to identify a service mark - Completed trademark registration lasts 10 years with 10-year renewals granted for as long as the mark is used in commerce

Communicating internally

- Vision statements: provide an overview of organizational goals in the broadest sense, future goal, general priorities for where the organization is headed, helps manage reactions to changes in the environment Answers questions: why does this organization exist and what would we like to accomplish - Mission statements: helps employees set priorities and goals so that everyone is committed to achieving thee mission specified in the statement, focus on strengths by emphasizing areas and attributes in which it has success Answers question: how are we different from our competitors - Policy Documents: organizational policy and procedures are communicated through various channels to employees Employee handbook explaining how to implement the policies and procedures - Ethics documents: provides a guide to organizational management's values, priorities, standards, and policy Ethics statement spells out in clear terms the parameters used by the organization to evaluate decisions

Securities Exchange Act (1934)

- Was enacted as a result of the stock market crash of 1929; regulates the trading of securities after their initial distribution, requires periodic reporting about a company and it created the SEC

Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) 1938

- Working for "foreign principals" must require all persons who work as agents of foreign gov., companies or political parties to register with 10 days with the US Attorney General

Working with the media

- Working with the media is all about knowing the media you are working with Their platform, audiences, style requirements, deadlines, interests Shoot straight - be honest, direct, share the full story Give service - provide newsworthy, interesting, timely stories, respond on deadline, provide information in the form they can use Do not beg or whine - communicate in the way they have asked, do not pressure, correct their story if they got it wrong, let them know when they did a great story even when it is not yours Do not ask for "kills" - they will not suppress a story, you may be able to keep a detail out that is private or a delay if it is damaging to the public interest Do not flood them - only send what is newsworthy Give the public interest viewpoint, not just the organization's Make the news easy to read and use - short, punchy headline, do not use jargon, acronyms, technical terms, provide contact information at the top Do not say something you don't want quoted - "off the record" exists when you have a relationship, when you begin the interview, set the rules of engagement - background, on the record State the most important fact at the beginning, stay on message, have 2 or 3 things you want to say and keep going back to them

Defamation

- Wrongfully harming an individual's reputation

Dissemination vs communication

- You may have distributed information, but that does not mean the audience received your information in the way you intended - Technical problems arise when the signal or channel limits or distorts the message being transmitted from the source to the sender - Semantic or fidelity problems occur when the receiver's perception of the message and meaning are not the same as those intended by the sender - Influence problems indicate that the sender's message did not produce the desired result on the part of the receiver

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act 2002 (BCRA)

-AKA the McCain-Feingold - Regulates election contributions - Soft money prohibitions (money donated to political parties for "party building" purposes) - Increases in contribution limits - Limits on "electioneering communications" (commercials that support or oppose a candidate w/o explicitly urging that candidate's election or defeat)

Public opinion

-The social process of forming, expressing and adjusting ideas that affect collective behavior in situations - Public opinion polls have long guided politics, government programs, entertainment programming and corporate decision making - Researchers take "snapshots" of public opinion at a point in time to describe it and compare it with opinion at other times Direction - evaluative quality of a predisposition (positive-negative-neutral, or for-against-undecided) Intensity - how strong people feel about their opinions whatever the direction Stability - how long respondents have held or will hold the same direction and intensity of feelings Informational support - how much knowledge people hold about the object of their opinion Social support - provides evidence of the extent to which people think their opinions are shared by others in their social milieu

Cable systems

Developed in the late 1940s, to improve reception of hard to receive over-the-air broadcast signals

Working with the media (continued)

Do not argue with a reporter - reporters are doing their job and part of that is to push you to get more information Do not repeat information that either contains language that is offensive or a message that is not true or you don't want in the story - go back to your message Never guess, always say "I don't know, I will get back to you" - but be sure to get back to the reporter by his/her deadline Tell the truth no matter what Keep press conferences for truly newsworthy content - use it when you need to give reporters a chance to ask questions or you need brief people all at the same time (e.g., in a crisis) Embargoed - information is made available to media but with the understanding they will not share it until a specified date/time

Working with international media

Media may not follow the same principles so much consider linguistic, cultural and political differences Authoritarian - countries where they are subordinate to the state, which controls the media and restricts what they can cover (e.g., Middle East autocracies) Communist - the state controls the media and requires it to promote Marxist values and philosophy (e.g., China) Revolutionary - media system exists clandestinely in conjunction with the systems listed above and may be Internet based (e.g., Iran) Western - can be found in any country where the news media are free to report on whatever they wish as long as they balance that right with their social responsibility Developmental - developing countries, relatively free media system as long as it supports national goals towards development (e.g., India)