Thursday 7 July 2016

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Social Movements through the Net
1) Internetworking: The Internet has enabled the wide spread expansion of established movements. We would like to distinguish three types of internetworking: organization and network coordination, grass roots global internetworking, and direct action coordination.
2) Capital and information flows: We would distinguish three main types of net based economic activity, the sue of:  mainstream networked channels of capital distribution, solicitation, and management by social movements; computer mediated barter banks and local capital pools and credit unions and collective goods coordinated via the net, and decentralized media distribution networks.
3. A) Alternative media and theory:
Alternative media: We note three types of alternative media on the net: alternative media, grass roots global media and information networks and counter-surveillance measures. On alternative media including variously, online alternatives to mainstream media, social movement media, and local media online.
B) Alternative theory networks: Theory and strategizing is another level of the culture of resistance conducting online. While theory is mostly engaged offline, as in the big AGM mobilizations at counter-summits, strategizing which creates new practices/theory in larger networks is often/usually conducted via the Internet.
4) Direct cyber activism: Another type of cyber activism is the use of the Internet as a primary ground for political action.
(a) Virtual sit-ins: Movements are utilizing e-technologies as a disruptive tool to industry and civil practices or temporarily dismantle the various stages of capital's circuit e.g., the production and circulation of commodities. Cyber activists disrupt net activity through electronic civil disobedience, for instance, in “virtual sit-ins” by mounting extensive traffic to shut down websites.
(b) Hacking: In new forms of resistance, which have been called "hacking", hackers appropriate or disrupt technologies for personal and political ends. One example is a British hacker who cracked into hundreds of web sites worldwide and circulated anti-nuclear messages.


(c) Cyber terrorism: More forceful than such cyber-disruptions are the prospects of cyber terrorism. While computer viruses spread via the net have caused billions in economic losses and the escalation of such antics, often by youths using straight forward software, is of concern, hacker’s attacks for overt political purposes have been sporadic and small scale to date. Yet, government investments in cyber defense measures are increasing.

5) Contesting and constructing the Internet: Types of contestation of the nature of Internet and its relation to inequality and democracy include: movements to democratically inform the structure, ownership, and technical aspects of Internet media and technology, activism to create wider access to the internet, crossing the digital divide, and planning and development of the social use of the net. Structuring the Net, The nature of the net has been and is continually being worked out by think tanks, government agencies and legislation, civil institutions, industry, venture capitalists, net administrators, policy wonks, programmers, and in social movements. To understand the social fabric underlying the potential of cyber activism, it is important to explore how Internet technology itself may be designed to facilitate or inhibit democratic interaction.

6) Online alternative community formation:
With the Internet, early online forums demonstrated the promise of a great diversity of “virtual communities” organized around common interests (Rhiengold 1993). A fundamental problematic is if Internet-based communities exist solely as “virtual” moments in cyberspace or do constellations of digital information have an enduring material basis for “reality.”


BY MKULA DENNIS

MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

BY KIMATI ELITRUDAH
 Media development
Is a kind of media which involvement is influenced by media convergence.

Drivers of digital media development
Drivers of digital media development are follows bellow:
Global connectivity and customer empowerment, enhances the capacity of ways corporate communication working I international level, engagement of customer.
Social network, due to this made corporate to think new and work differently. As corporate communication should be innovative, have vision, critical thinking, social network helps in creating corporate identity and usage of positive social in creating customer understand in corporate communication in digital age.
Mobility shifts and customer engagement, moving with information due to revolution of smartphones and tablets, thus engaging customer in whatever you do as he/she moving with information. Thus as corporate communication manager you think different in order the company to develop.
Pace of change, The ICT and digital technologies sector is dynamic and fast changing and many of the current business products or models did not exist a few years ago. The implication of this driver are: Constant change in skills requirements of the workforce and in Education system needs to be agile enough to be able to respond to the changing needs and expectations of businesses ((John, 2011).
Increase in digital investments, increased numbers of businesses, across all sectors, are investing more to enhance their use of technology. The implications of this driver are: to creates an increased demand for technology skills across a range of sectors. This can act as a catalyst for growth and job creation. Also, to assist businesses in adapting to changes in technology there is a need for core competencies and technology awareness to be improved across all sectors. ((John, 2011).
Increased Contracting out, this shows a trend towards increased contracting out of services to countries with the ability to provide a lower cost service. The implications of this driver are:  A high quality skilled workforce becomes critical if nation is to continue to be viewed as a location which can attract, and support high value jobs. Also, the development of the talent pool needs to be aligned with inward investments ((John, 2011).
Increased importance of security, Cybercrime is a driver of innovation within the industry.  This responds to the requirements of key client sectors such as the financial services industry. However, the ability of industry is to protect the integrity of a product or process in a global environment as a key success factor. In addition, the requirement for specialist skills is to be developed therefore education system needs awareness and capacity to respond to this issue as it cuts across all sub-sectors of Information Computer Technology (ICT) and digital technologies ((John, 2011).

Generally, we can conclude by saying that key insights into the impact of digital media on traditional media are: Social networks began as a basic tool to connect with friends; for example, in 2013 these services are now available on both fixed and mobile devices and are used for much more including messaging services, gaming; business networking, e-commerce; accessing breaking news and video/photo sharing. The era of digital social media has certainly caused much disruption to traditional media industries and has also led to many very innovative new applications and services. 



Wednesday 6 July 2016

DIGITAL MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

DIGITAL MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

Digital media is digitized content that can be transmitted over the internet or computer networks. This can include text, audio, video, and graphics.  This means that news from a TV network, newspaper, magazine, etc. that is presented on a Web site or blog can fall into this category. Most digital media are based on translating analog data into digital data. The Internet began to grow when text was put onto the Internet instead of stored on papers as it was previously. Soon after text was put onto computers images followed, then came audio and video onto the Internet. Digital media has come a long way in the few short years to become as we know it today and it continues to grow.

Media development involves capacity building for institutions or individuals related to freedom of expression, pluralism and diversity of media, as well as transparency of media ownership. Media development plays a role in democracy and effective democratic discourse through supporting free and independent media.

DRIVERS OF DIGITAL MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

1. Global connectivity and customer empowerment
If the world is always connected, and become a single village with no boundaries between states, the global connectivity must change you on how you use your social media or internet. Global connectivity will enhance the capacity in you on how to think and act because it has brought something new that is consumer empowerment.
As a corporate communication personnel you have to find time for to engage with your customers and know what they want, at what time they want it, how they want it to be like, you have to empower your customers so as to make them loyal with your organization globally.

2. Mobility shift and customers engagement
 Every consumer will be able to purchase and your products where they are due to mobility shift which means that due to the digital media development people move with information and also mobility shift engages consumers directly from what the organization produce. As a corporate communication personnel you have to know your customers well so as to be able to engage them in what product or service that you provide, also as a corporate communication personnel you have to be able to make your customers change due to the influence on the digital media development and also choose to be new everyday due to the influence of mobility shift.

3. Social network
As a corporate communication personnel you have to be innovate every day and be that innovation means the process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay, and must have the following characteristics, Observability, Trial ability, complexity vs simplicity, compatibility, and relative advantage.

4. Movement of Individual to Business to Industry
As corporate communication personnel you have to make sure due to the help of digital media development you understand your customers individually and being able to change their minds to move to business and lastly being able to transform them to take the organizational products in an industry.

BY MKULA DENNIS

COMPONENTS OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATION


COMPONENTS OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
Corporate branding
A corporate brand is the perception of a company that unites a group of products or services for the public under a single name, a shared visual identity, and a common set of symbols. The process of corporate branding consists creating favorable associations and positive reputation with both internal and external stakeholders. The purpose of a corporate branding initiative is to generate a positive halo over the products and businesses of the company, imparting more favorable impressions of those products and businesses. In more general terms, research suggests that corporate branding is an appropriate strategy for companies to implement when, there is significant "information asymmetry" between a company and its clients.
 That is to say customers are much less informed about a company's products than the company itself is; customers perceive a high degree of risk in purchasing the products or services of the company, features of the company behind the brand would be relevant to the product or service a customer is considering purchasing.
Corporate and organizational identity
There are two approaches for identity:
Corporate identity is the reality and uniqueness of an organization, which is integrally related to its external and internal image and reputation through corporate communication.
Organizational identity comprises those characteristics of an organization that its members believe are central, distinctive and enduring. That is, organizational identity consists of those attributes that members feel are fundamental to (central) and uniquely descriptive of (distinctive) the organization and that persist within the organization over time (enduring).
Four types of identity can be distinguished;
Perceived identity: The collection of attributes that are seen as typical for the ‘continuity, centrality and uniqueness’ of the organization in the eyes of its members.
Projected identity: The self-presentations of the organization’s attributes manifested in the implicit and explicit signals which the organization broadcasts to internal and external target audiences through communication and symbols.
Desired identity (also called ‘ideal’ identity): The idealized picture that top managers hold of what the organization could evolve into under their leadership.
Applied identity: The signals that an organization broadcasts both consciously and unconsciously through behaviors and initiatives at all levels within the organization.
Corporate responsibility
Corporate responsibility (often referred to as corporate social responsibility), corporate citizenship, sustainability, and even conscious capitalism are some of the terms bandied about the news media and corporate marketing efforts as companies jockey to win the trust and loyalty of constituents. Corporate responsibility (CR) constitutes an organization’s respect for society’s interests, demonstrated by taking ownership of the effects its activities have on key constituencies including customers, employees, shareholders, communities, and the environment, in all parts of their operations. In short, CR prompts a corporation to look beyond its traditional bottom line, to the social implications of its business.
Corporate reputation
Reputations are overall assessments of organizations by their stakeholders. They are aggregate perceptions by stakeholders of an organization's ability to fulfill their expectations, whether these stakeholders are interested in buying the company's products, working for the company, or investing in the company's share.


 BY MINZI CATHERENE

EVENT

PREPARING AN EVENT

Any marketer and business person should know that “failing to prepare, is preparing to fail”. The same can be said for events. Whether you’re exhibiting at a  trade show, planning a talk at a  conference, or preparing for a trade show; there are 10 simple steps you should follow to ensure you are ready for success.

1. Do research
It’s important that you do prior research before heading to any event – both as an exhibitor or a guest – to identify the key benefits for you. Read blogs and view videos from past events, take a look at the 
visitor and exhibitor lists, and check up on social media.

2. Identify your goals
Once you have identified the right event for you, it is important to outline the goals for your business. Are you looking to sell a product, drive brand awareness, capture leads or simply use it as a networking opportunity? Whatever the goal, make sure you set yourself some SMART Targets. This will help you to plan the rest of your activity accordingly, and help to keep everyone in the business on track.

3. Plan your exhibition display
A creative exhibition display can make or break your event. Get it right, and you can attract customers, clients and leads steadily throughout the day. Get it wrong, and you could find yourself with low footfall and flagging interest.
First, find out the requirements and restrictions you’re working to base on the space you have. Then, get creative and come up with an eye-catching display that sets you apart from the competition. You should also consider how to create a memorable experience on the stand too.
  
4. On-stand experiences
Attracting customers to your stand is one thing. Encouraging them to stay on the stand, engage with your brand and eventually buy from you is another. Our next step to help you prepare for your next event is to decide what those aforementioned ‘memorable experiences’ will be. Some examples include:

5. Pre-event marketing
You need to have a clear marketing plan in place to promote your attendance at the event. Setting goals and having a creative stand will mean very little if the right audience doesn’t know where to find you.
Sending out mail shots – both direct and via email – are ways you can target your existing client base, but you also need to be targeting prospects. Follow the social media accounts and hashtags for the event and join in the conversation; do everything you can to create a buzz around your appearance.

6. Organize your business
In companies of any size, taking members of the team out of the office to work on a stand for a few days can have a huge impact. Because of this, it is important that you carefully organize who will work the event and when. This will obviously be partly determined by your goals; if you’re looking to leverage sales, members of your sales team would be a wise choice.

7. Live marketing
Your marketing and promotional efforts shouldn’t stop when you’re at the event. Instead, you should be sending out tweets and writing blogs whilst you’re there. Not only does this keep the event fresh in your prospects’ and clients’ minds, it can also help you connect with other attendees.
BY JAMES CATHERINE


INNOVATION

INNOVATION 
The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay. To be called an innovation, an idea must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need. Innovation involves deliberate application of information, imagination and initiative in deriving greater or different values from resources, and includes all processes by which new ideas are generated and converted into useful products. In business, innovation often results when ideas are applied by the company in order to further satisfy the needs and expectations of the customers.
Characteristics of an Innovation 
Relative advantage 
Relative advantage measures how improved an innovation is over a competing option or the previous generation of a product. Potential users need to see how an innovation improves their current situation. Improvements can be in one or many of these areas: better service, consolidation of multiple functions into one tool, decreased need for supplies and equipment, empowerment of users, improved interface, increased customizability, increased longevity, increased productivity, reduced user effort, reduced environmental impact, saving of money, saving of space or storage, saving of time.
Compatibility 
Compatibility refers to the level of compatibility that an innovation has with individuals as they assimilate it into their lives. Potential adopters need to know that your innovation will be compatible with their life and lifestyle. If an innovation requires a huge lifestyle change or if the user must acquire additional products to make your innovation work, then it is more likely to fail. Innovations meet with the greatest success when users are able to seamlessly adopt them — when they replace an existing product or idea, for the better.
Complexity vs Simplicity 
Complexity or simplicity refers to how difficult it is for adopters to learn to use an innovation. Complexity slows down the gears of progress. The more complex an innovation, the more difficult it will be for potential adopters to incorporate it into their lives. Potential adopters do not usually budget much time for learning to use an innovation. The more intuitive an innovation, the more likely it will be adopted.
Trialability 
Trialability describes how easily potential adopters can explore your innovation. Trialability is critical to facilitating the adoption of an innovation. Potential users want to see what your innovation can do and give it a test run before committing. This is the underlying concept of trial sizes for tangible goods, and demo or beta releases for digital goods. Potential adopters can see for themselves what life might be like once they adopt the product.
Observability 
Observability is the extent to which the results or benefit of using an innovation are visible to potential adopters. We covered in the first article that not everyone adopts an innovation immediately. The adopter types who come after early adopters rely on seeing members of this group using an innovation. Observability extends beyond having earlier adopters use an innovation in view of later adopters. Potential adopters of all types must clearly see the benefit of adopting an innovation and using it.

BY BURUGI MARIA

CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS

CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS
Crisis communication is sometimes considered a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation. These challenges may come in the form of an investigation from a government agency, a criminal allegation, a media inquiry, a shareholders lawsuit, a violation of environmental regulations, or any of a number of other scenarios involving the legal, ethical, or financial standing of the entity. The crisis for organizations can be defined as follows
Internal/employee communications
As the extent of communication grows, many companies create an employee relations (ER) function with dedicated staff to manage the numerous media through which senior managers can communicate among themselves and with the rest of the organization. Internal communication in the 21st century is more than the memos, publications, and broadcasts that comprise it; it’s about building a corporate culture on values that drive organizational excellence. ER specialists are generally expected to fulfill one or more of the following four roles:
Efficiency: Internal communication is used primarily to disseminate information about corporate activities.
Shared meaning: Internal communication is used to build a shared understanding among employees about corporate goals.
Connectivity: Internal communication is used mainly to clarify the connectedness of the company's people and activities.
Satisfaction: Internal communication is used to improve job satisfaction throughout the company.
Investor relations
The investor relations (IR) function is used by companies which publicly traded shares on a stock exchange. In such companies, the purpose of the IR specialist is to interface with current and potential financial stakeholders-namely retail investors, institutional investors, and financial analysts.

Public relations: issues management and media relations
Public relations
The role of the public relations specialist, in many ways, is to communicate with the general public in ways that serve the interests of the company. PR therefore consists of numerous specialty areas that convey information about the company to the public, including sponsorships, events, issues management and media relations. When executing these types of activities, the PR Specialist must incorporate broader corporate messages to convey the company’s strategic positioning. This ensures the PR activities ultimately convey messages that distinguish the company vis-à-vis its competitors and the overall marketplace, while also communicating the company’s value to target audiences.
Issues management
A key role of the PR specialist is to make the company better known for traits and attributes that build the company’s perceived distinctiveness and competitiveness with the public. In recent years, PR specialists have become increasingly involved in helping companies manage strategic issues – public concerns about their activities that are frequently magnified by special interest groups and NGOs. The role of the PR specialist therefore also consists of issues management, namely the “set of organizational procedures, routines, personnel, and issues”. A strategic issue is one that compels a company to deal with it because there is “ a conflict between two or more identifiable groups over procedural or substantive matters relating to the distribution of positions or resources”.


 BY ALLY AMINA

CRISIS

CRISIS INTERVENTION TECHNIQUES
When you are dealing with a person who is apparently in a crisis state (very upset or angry, depressed, irrational, unusually confused, very withdrawn or frightened, possibly mentally ill, or under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, etc.), using the techniques described in this chapter will help you manage the situation effectively.
These tactics fall into two main skill clusters:
1. Pre-Intervention Preparation
2. Crisis Intervention Format
PRE-INTERVENTION PREPARATION
Before you actually use crisis management techniques in a situation, it is a good idea to take time to prepare yourself and to formulate a basic plan for the intervention. This is because such situations are often difficult and/or volatile. You may be dealing with subjects who are unpredictable and/or potentially violent, and your usual communication skills may not work well.
As you learned in Professional Communication, the recommended steps to follow in pre-intervention preparation are as follows:
• Calm yourself
• Center yourself and get focused
• Develop a strategy for the intervention
Here is more on each of these steps.
Calm Yourself
For you to help calm someone else down, you yourself need to appear calm. The subject will pick up on your calmness. A good way to calm yourself is with autogenic breathing, in which you take slow, deep, full breaths. Here is the technique:
1. Breathe in for a four-count through your nose,
2. Pause for a four-count.
3. Exhale for a four-count through your mouth,
4. Pause for a four-count.
Repeat this several times. Doing this exercise will help supply oxygen to your system, which will help you calm down.

Center Yourself and Get Focused
Do what you can to focus on the task at hand and prepare yourself to deal with a potentially difficult situation. There are certainly different ways to focus, and different officers use techniques that work for them. Some people visualize the coming event and how to respond to it effectively. This is a form of crisis rehearsal. Others use positive self-talk, which basically involves affirming to yourself (silently or aloud) your abilities and determination to handle the situation effectively. Whatever technique you use, your goal should be to prepare yourself to use your skills effectively in responding to a person or persons in crisis, and to ensure your safety and that of others.

Develop a Strategy for the Intervention
As best you can, plan how you will respond to the situation. Specifically, decide in advance what you will say and do and how you will position yourself, whether backup is required, and so on. Try to decide what level and type of intervention is called for, taking into consideration your safety and the safety of others. Consider all the options. For example, it may be that medical intervention is needed. A person who appears to be in crisis may be behaving oddly because of a physical problem, such as an insulin reaction, a stroke, or Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia disorder.


BY KINGALU AVIN

ELEMENTS THAT REQUIRES FOR A GOOD FORMAL COMMUNICATION


Proper performance of organizational activates and thus attainment of its goals largely depends on effective communication. Effective communication requires some conditions or elements or factors.
These are discussed below:
  1. Pre-thinking: Pre-thinking about the message is an important quality of good communication. Pre-thinking enables the sender to develop creative message and to transmit it efficiently.
  2.  Specific objective: Communication occurs with specific objectives. Therefore, the communicator must know the objective of communication and must arrange the message accordingly.
  3. Timeliness: Usefulness of any message depends on its timely transmission. If the message is not transmitted in appropriate time, its utility is lost. So the communicator should consider the time of communication.
  4. Conciseness: Another important quality of good communication is that the message should be concise. Concise message is one that contains only relevant and necessary facts, avoids repetition, and organizes properly.
  5. Completeness: Good communication transmits a complete message so that the receiver can understand the full meaning of the message. The sender should not sacrifice completeness to attain conciseness.
  6. Correctness: Good communication contains only the correct messages. False, manipulated, and exaggerated information irritate the receiver and make the communication ineffective.
  7. Persuasiveness: Persuasiveness is important quality of good communication. It helps to develop positive attitude of thy receiver towards the message.
  8. Concreteness: Business communication becomes effective- when it excludes irrelevant facts. Concreteness is essential to express the communicator’s view to the receiver unambiguously.
  9. Feedback: Good communication always keeps the provision of feedback. Feedback ensures that the message has reached to the intended receiver.
  10. Mutual Interest: When communication considers the interest of both sender and receiver, it is treated as good communication. If the message ignores the interest of the receiver, communication may fail to attain its goal.
  11. Use of Appropriate Language: Good communication always uses appropriate language. Appropriate language avoids ambiguous and complex words, misleading non-verbal cues, technical jargons, poetic words etc.
  12. Considering the Receiver: A good communicator thinks about the receiver’s knowledge, ability, interest, origin etc. This increases the utility and acceptability of communication.
  13. Use of Appropriate Media: Selecting suitable media is very essential for successful communication. The sender should select the written or oral media depending on the nature and importance of the message, availability of time, cost, receiver’s ability etc.
  14. Emphasizing on Informal Relationship: The communicator requires giving attention to establish informal relationships with the receiver along with formal relationship as it ensures success of communication.
  15. Effective Listening: The communicator is also a good listener. He has to listen attentively the response of the receiver. Therefore, the sender should possess the ability to hear the receiver’s response attentively with due patience.
BY ALPHONCE BHOKE
BAPRM 42527

NEW MEDIA BY MCLUHAN.

  
BY JOHN CAFRENE
The  use  of  the  term  “new  media”  is  of  course  relative.  When  McLuhan analyzed  television  and  automation  these  were  the  new  media  of  his  time.  At any  given  point  in  time  there  will  always  be  new  media  or  perhaps  more accurately  newer  media.  The  term  “new  media”  as  it  is  used  today  refers  to  a class  of  media  that  are  digital  and  interactive  and  hence  differ  from  the electric  mass  media  that  McLuhan  (1964)  addressed  in  UM. 
What’s  new  about  today’s  “new  media”  is  that  they  are  digital,  they  are linked  and  cross  linked  with  each  other  and  the  information  they  mediate  is very  easily  processed,  stored,  transformed,  retrieved,  linked  and  perhaps most  radical  of  all  easily  searched  for  and  accessed.  This  is  why  I  believe that  McLuhan’s  stunning  analysis  of  the  new  media  of  his  day,  namely electric  mass  media,  and  their  total  transformation  of  education,  work  and society deserves and requires an updating.
To  better  understand  the  ground  in  which  today’s  media  interact  we  will investigate  the  transition  from  the  non-digital  electric  media  to  the interactive  digital  media.  Although  McLuhan  included  computing  and automation  in  his  analysis  of  media,  which  are  certainly  digital  media  they were  at  the  time  of  the  publication  of  UM  isolated  figures  operating  in  the ground  of  electric  mass  media.  Also  the  computer  in  McLuhan’s  day  was  not as  interactive  as  today’s  because  one  had  to  submit  a  job,  which  included both  the  program  and  the  data  as  part  of  a  batch  with  other  jobs  and  wait many  hours  for  one’s  output.  The  slightest  error  in  one’s  input,  such  as  a missing  comma,  would  result  in  another  delay.  With  the  emergence  of  the microcomputer,  the  Internet,  email,  the  World  Wide  Web  and  cell  phones  a new  communication  and  information  ground  emerged  that  was  truly interactive and which changed the figure of each and every medium. The  emergence  of  the  “new  media”  ground  presents  us  with  two  motivations to  re-analyze  the  media  that  McLuhan  studied  in  UM.  First  of  all,  the  old media  became  the  content  of  the  “new  media”  and  hence  to  understand  the “new  media”  we  must  understand  the  old  media  in  the  new  ground.  The content  of  the  “new  media”  will  be  the  old  media  such  as  speech writing.

A second  reason  to  reexamine  old  media  is  that  the  ground  has  changed  from electric  mass  media  to  that  of  the  interactive  digital  media  and  therefore  the effects  and  impacts  of  the  old  media  have  changed.  Radio,  television  and  the movies  are  not  the  same  in  2007  that  they  were  in  1964  when  UM  first  hit the  presses.  They  have  undergone  some  technical  improvements  like  large flat  screens  for  TV  and  Dolby  sound  and  computer  animation  for  the  movies, but  that  is  not  the  real  story  of  their  changed  impact.  The  real  story  is  that the  ground  has  changed  underneath  these  media  and  their  place  in  our culture and their effect on society have changed.  Understanding  the  interaction  of  a  medium  with  other  media  has  always been  an  important  part  of  the  approach  McLuhan  pioneered,  which  is  at  the heart  of  media  ecology.  Understanding  these  interactions  becomes  even more  critical  with  the  “new  media”  because  of  convergence  and  the  fact  that the  links  between  media  are  even  stronger  with  digitization.

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

BY  ALLY AMINA
According to Caves (2000), creative industries are characterized by seven economic properties:
1. Nobody knows principle: Demand uncertainty exists because the consumers' reaction to a product are neither known beforehand, nor easily understood afterward.
2. Art for art’s sake: Workers care about originality, technical professional skill, harmony, etc. of creative goods and are willing to settle for lower wages than offered by 'humdrum' jobs.
3. Motley crew principle: For relatively complex creative products (e.g., films), the production requires diversely skilled inputs. Each skilled input must be present and perform at some minimum level to produce a valuable outcome.
4. Infinite variety: Products are differentiated by quality and uniqueness; each product is a distinct combination of inputs leading to infinite variety options (e.g., works of creative writing, whether poetry, novel, screenplays or otherwise).
5. A list/B list : Skills are vertically differentiated. Artists are ranked on their skills, originality, and proficiency in creative processes and/or products. Small differences in skills and talent may yield huge differences in (financial) success.
6. Time flies : When coordinating complex projects with diversely skilled inputs, time is of the essence.
7. Ars longa : Some creative products have durability aspects that invoke
copyright protection, allowing a creator or performer to collect rents.
The properties described by Caves have been criticized for being too rigid (Towse, 2000). Not all creative workers are purely driven by 'art for art's sake'. The 'ars longa' property also holds for certain noncreative products (i.e., licensed products). The 'time flies' property also holds for large construction projects. Creative industries are therefore not unique, but they score generally higher on these properties relative to non-creative industries.
Difference from the 'cultural industries'
There is often a question about the boundaries between creative industries and the similar term of
cultural industries. Cultural industries are best described as an adjunct-sector of the creative industries. Cultural industries include industries that focus on cultural tourism and
heritage , museums and libraries ,
sports and outdoor activities , and a variety of 'way of life' activities that arguably range from local pet shows to a host of hobbyist concerns. Thus cultural industries are more concerned about delivering other kinds of value—including cultural wealth and social wealth—rather than primarily providing monetary value. (See also cultural institutions studies .)
FUNCTIONS OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATION MANAGER
BY KIMATI ELTRUDAH
Corporate communications departments play a key role in how investors, employees and the general public perceive a company. They often report directly to a company’s chief executive officer and serve as advisers in managing a company’s reputation. They help leaders prepare for media interviews, develop messages to deliver to investors and employees and suggest new initiatives to keep companies on the cutting edge of communication with their stakeholders.
Media relations
This may be the function for which corporate communication managers are best known. Media relations work includes writing and distributing news releases and responding to media inquiries. Corporate communicators oversee all planning for news conferences, including selecting the site for an event, arranging for banners and other graphics to be displayed at the event, preparing packets of information to distribute to the media and preparing executives to speak at news conferences. Media relations also involves arranging for spokespersons to appear on local television and radio programs. Corporate communicators monitor newspapers, television news broadcasts and other outlets to see what the media is saying about the company and to devise strategies to address misinformation.

Building mutual relations
Building relationships with customers and responding to inquiries from the public fall under the public relations function of corporate communications. Duties in this area include producing newsletters, brochures and other printed materials designed for the general public. Corporate communicators also manage a company’s website and social media presence, which includes monitoring what customers and clients are saying about the company on social networking websites and responding to inaccurate posts or requests for information. Communication professionals may respond directly to calls and emails from citizens and customers with questions about a company’s plans or activities. They arrange for speakers from the company to make presentations to local community groups and may facilitate group tours of a company’s operations.
Crisis management
When an event occurs that threatens public safety or a company’s reputation, corporate communicators function as advisers to CEOs and senior leaders in managing the crisis. Special training in the issues unique to crisis communication helps corporate communicators prepare for events such as chemical spills, violence in the workplace, an accidental death on the job, layoff announcements and allegations of company wrongdoing. They often work with staff throughout their organizations to develop crisis communication plans before disaster strikes. A crisis may require communications staff to work with attorneys, government regulators, political officials, emergency response personnel and communications staff from other companies when developing crisis messages.
Maintaining employees relation
In addition to conveying a company’s messages to external audiences, corporate communicators may also be called on to function as employee communications managers, which includes designing printed publications and writing emails to announce company news, benefits information and training opportunities. Corporate communicators may facilitate focus groups to learn what issues matter most to front-line employees. They advise senior leaders on how to improve relationships with their staff and gain support for their initiatives. The corporate communications staff may also manage a company’s Intranet and internal blogs.


Tuesday 5 July 2016

VIRTUAL COMMUNITY

BY KIMATI ELITRUDAH
Virtual community have  existed on the internet for almost quarter of century.The Well(http://www.com) started in 1985 and the usenet Newsgroup,started 1979 are widely regarded as the first virtual community on the internet.However despite the existence of over 100000 usenet, newsgroup with over 650 million messages(google.com,2003).only five to ten percent of internet users go to Usenet(Morochov,2003)
News group are internet  text based messaging system.These discussion group work like email except that message are posted to a public place where others can read them.They like chat in that they present public message, but differ from chat in that message are delayed.Message maybe posted  about something that is not currently being discussed in newsgroup or maybe written in response to one or many other existing messages.Newsgroup cater for both experts or novice debating topics of mutual interests. indeed a distinguishing feature of newsgroup is that they are organised by topic and they are public - posting free - for - all almost.Newsgroup topics span the interest of humanity and vary in their intended audience and geographical relevance.Newsgroup are created and discontinued daily.
What is being said about a company in newsgroup can have a severe impact on public perception of brands, products, and services.The facts that newsgroup posts or messages posted on the newsgroup , tend to be available for days if not weeks means that message may be seen by many people over extended periods.Negative messages may cause damage to an organisation's reputation a company's stock value and its sales revenue.
Virtual communities  have been characterised as people with shared interests or goals for whom electronic communication is primary for interaction (Dennis et all 1998) as groups of people who meet regularly to discuss a subject of interest to all members.(Figallo  1998) added that is the group of people brought together by shared interest or geographical bond who shares the same interests and practices that communicate regularly and for some duration in an organised way over the internet through a common location or mechanism. 
Newsgroup give professional communicators a ready resource for monitoring public sentiment and conducting issues research in much the same as chat does.Newsgroup lend themselves particulary well opinion ( rather than factual or knowledge)research because the quality of information provided by participants is often poor and usually  cannot be verified but opinions are readily available.Because specific newsgroup are created by people motivated  by and interested in particular  topic and because they are operated on the host computer that maybe located within a company...............

Monday 4 July 2016

IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH IN IPR


 

JOHN CAFRENE

 Gaining feedback, Knowing how effective the public relations plan is at achieving the objectives helps the organization decide whether to continue with the plan, make adjustments to the plan or to scrap the plan and begin formulating a new one. Before going international, an international public relations practitioner after conducting a research it will be easy for him and his organization know of how much the organization is known internationally due to the feedback, and therefore come up with a better plan depending on the feedbacks. After a public relations plan has been formulated and then put into practice, additional research provides feedback on the actual public relations plan. This research allows the organization to determine if any of the objectives formulated for the public relations plan has been achieved and to what degree.

Research helps public relations practitioner identify its key publics and issues at the moment so the organization can focus on areas where it will deliver the most impact and value. Stakeholder group with whom organizations communicate include the community customers, suppliers, financial markets, distributors and vendors, potential employees and opinion leaders. Through research, an international public relations practitioner has to maintain intense relationship with every group all the time.

Provide the groundwork for building effective programs. Through  conducting the environmental scanning research, problem statement and situation analysis provide a room to build valuable public relations programs including establishing better goals and objectives. Objectives are more specific describing the results to be achieved by a specific rate for if the well defined target public. Moreover, are based on protected and actual program results. Goals indicate the more general result of the total program.

Performance evaluation. Is a constructive process to acknowledge the performance of a non-reliable career employee? Research helps an international public relations practitioner to know the evaluation of different employees in his organization over is their performance in order to see if they are ready to go global as an organization. Performance is everything in introducing an organization to the local publics and even global publics. An employee’s evaluation shall be sufficiently specific to inform and guide the employee in the performance of her or his duties.

Research makes public relations activities strategic by ensuring that communication is specifically targeted to publics who want, need, care about the information. Without conducting research, public relation is based on experience or instinct, neither of which plays large roles in strategic management. It is likely that research help the international public relations practitioner know of what the public needs and how to reach them instead of wasting money on the publics that are not reached easily.This type of research prevents us from wasting money on communications that are not reaching intended publics or not doing the job that we had designed them to do.

Organizational strengths and weakness. Research for public relations plan should involve a non-biased assessment of the organization itself. This research says not only the general mission of the organization but also how far the organization has gone toward achieving its mission. The research also gives a list and assessment of all resources available to the organization that it may use in the implementation of a public relations plan. Leadership in the organization also receives information about any liabilities or possible internal threats that could threaten the public relations plan, allowing the leadership to devise a plan for how to proactively manage these risks.

 

Public relations messaging. The research conducted by the organization provides valuable information about how the organization should create its public relations messaging. The research provides feedback about what matters most to the public, which the organization addresses or incorporates in public relations messaging. Thorough research on groups the organization interacts with also supplies a list of media forms the different groups engage in, letting the organization know the most effective methods of delivering its message.

Research helps identity the existing knowledge, predisposition or blur of key publics, their preferred information sources and how to reach them. Through research lead to continually bring needs and wants of the public especially activists publics into decision-making. These lead public relations practitioners or departments to respond to key publics such as activists. Therefore, for an international public relations practitioner through research he/she will be able to know the needs of the public towards the services or products provided by his/her organization.