We as Public Relations professionals need to do beyond story pitching and disseminating press releases…garnering respect from peer group or rather the industry would not be so difficult then…albeit respect is not the topic today.
We are to be blamed I think sometimes for the way people perceive us, to some extent for sure. We limit ourselves to executing and thinking only about press releases, pitching stories, media meetings et al. But I am sure there is a bigger picture that we are missing out on and PR professionals could do some learning and adoption of it.
What are PR professionals? They are the ones who are (to some extent) designing people’s perceptions. Now how about giving our Client’s mandates a bigger facade and a larger reason to be spoken about?
I will give you an example; let’s say there is an organization in India that is the world’s leader in micro irrigation and the only manufacturers of complete drip irrigation systems in the world. Now as a PR professional I could either just go about speaking to the media (my key influencers and first primary target audience) about the products, the company, the properties et al; or we could do something beyond this since we are so capable of doing it too. Understand first of all how in today’s day and age does micro irrigation help? Micro irrigation helps in High water distribution efficiency, Minimized soil erosion, Lower labor cost and early maturity and a bountiful harvest (season after season, year after year). Now set an Agenda (Agenda Setting is an important theory in Mass Communications) for the organization to achieve and communicate it to the public. The organization’s bigger agenda is to conserve water, increase land fertility, lower the cost of labor and improve the quality standards of the crops. At a time when the world is going all public demonstrating it’s Go Green and Save the world Naara, you would be doing an efficient job of yourself by conveying the innate qualities and benefits of the Client’s business to the masses. Impress upon the Client to talk beyond himself and his company and talk about the bigger picture at hand…this way you will not just stop being a delivery guy (doing only what is asked of you to do like disseminating releases and following up for coverage) but doing what is actually expected of the likes of someone like yourself. Strategic thinking and thinking beyond the parameters set for you.
Impress upon the Clients and media that there are larger issues that they can talk about, which can be related to their business and yet could be a channel for doing an overall good to the society.
Agenda setting describes a very powerful influence of the media – the ability to tell us what issues are important.
Bernard Cohen (1963) stated: “The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.”
Conceptual Model
Agenda Setting Theory
As a PR professional you would have to expand your focus, think laterally and think how you can get more out of your assignment. Read up, get informed, do some research on your own about the Client’s business, think big and influence others (Clients, Media, Peer Group alike) to think big. Issues will come to the fore, discussions will emerge, opinions and feedback will find a place amongst the masses and you will be able to play a small part in the larger scheme of things, of initiating change!
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