Blog 10

1.P.T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Body helped develop modern public relations because they used a type of PR communication which means they used all different types of media to spread their information to help their businesses. Some of P.T. Barnum’s strategies include inserting his ad in newspapers and handbills. Buffalo Bill used all kinds of media to develop publicity such as promotional newspaper stories, theater marquees, poster art magazine articles and early films.

2. Railroads and utility companies gave early forms of corporate public relations a bad name using similar strategies. Railroad companies would bribe newspaper companies to create favorable news stories about transporting by train. Another bribing method they used was by deadheading which is, giving reporters who took the train, free train passes if they wrote excellent reports about using the rail. Utility companies like Chicago Edison and AT&T used “ghostwritten articles” where they would take important leaders names and place them on an article that a reporter has wrote. They also employed third-party editorial services, in which the people would send articles about utilities to newspaper companies.

3. There are two approaches to organizing a PR firm. The first approach to organizing a PR form is that there are self-sufficient PR companies whose only job is to give clients PR services. The second approach is that companies keep their own in-house PR staffs to be in charge of routine tasks. These tasks include regulating media requests, producing special events, writing press releases and interacting with the internal and external public.

4. Press releases are announcements that look like news reports that write about new information about a certain person, organization or company and give their story idea to the news media. These are important to reporters because the reporters are allowed to control the amount of information coming in. They can also pick where the information can go and what order it can go in.

5. VNR’s and PSA’s are very different from one another and they have different goals. VNR’s are video news releases which are thirty to ninety seconds long and are designed to copy the design of a regular broadcast report. PSA’s however are public service announcements are shorter than VNR’s because they are fifteen to sixty seconds long. PSA’s are video or audio reports which advertise about educational projects, volunteer companies and government programs. PSA’s are usually scheduled to air between midnight and six in the morning because they are a less expensive commercial time slot.

6. PR firms usually want to sponsor events that have a positive value between the public. For example, companies like Adidas, Gatorade, and PowerBar would sponsor a road race so their product can be advertised.

7.  Lobbying and research has become very important to PR because they want to maintain a good relationship with the public. They also don’t want the government to take control and reduce their control over their own businesses so they try to keep a good relationship with the government too. Lobbying is a way of altering lawmakers to support a business’s organization.

8.  The internet changed the way public relations communicates with an organizations public by adding press releases, images, executive bios online so that their audience can have access to that information at any time. PR are interacting with the public on a more personal level by making Facebook and Twitter pages. This allows the public to keep up with recent information about a company or organization.

9. There have been a few issues between journalism and public relations in the past. One of the issues was journalists have called themselves as being a part of the public relation profession. A term called “flack” developed to refer to PR agents. This word is a military term which refers to a protective military jacket. This allows PR to be separate from journalists.

10. I believe that social platforms present more problems for public relations because it seems that a lot of people are getting in trouble whenever they speak their mind on the web. For example, in the 2012 London Olympics, athletes were sent home due to tweeting their thoughts which included an athlete who made a racist joke. At the same time, I think people should watch what they say because they could get in trouble. Social platforms are a good thing for PR’s because they attract more customers but people need to think before they post online.

11. After reading the Exxon Valdez, BP, and Tylenol cases, I believe the Tylenol company did a good job in responding to their crisis. Exxon and BP on the other hand, didn’t seem to go above and beyond to help with their crises. They didn’t take action right away which was wrong to do. What Exxon and BP could’ve done to improve was to communicate with the people and get people to stop the oil spill when it first happened instead of waiting months to fix it. Exxon and BP could contact ocean wildlife companies and try to help them out in any way because the oil spill had killed many wildlife. Tylenol did a great job at responding to their crisis because they contacted their customers by creating emergency phone lines and they also created tamper-resistant bottles so no one could contaminate their pills.  

Blog #9

1.The first advertisement agents served for people selling goods in town since people lived in isolated communities. The U.S. began advertising medicines when railroads were built so newspapers and goods could cross the country. The first ad agent that the U.S. came up with were space brokers. Space brokers were people who would buy a portion of the newspaper so they could sell those spaces to companies who wanted to advertise their businesses.    

2. Packing and trademarks influenced advertising because manufacturers figured out that if their products were unique and of good quality, people would buy their products because they would ask for it by name. This made it easier for companies to make prices for generic and name brand items. It also allowed companies to have their own individual identity compared to their competitors. When customers started asking for certain brands, businesses were allowed to increase the price of their goods.  

3. Advertising had a huge impact on making America into a consumer society. They helped businesses come up with new products and regain product start-up costs. Also, advertising helped build up technology by showing customers how the products can help them with their daily lives like cars and washing machines. Lastly, advertising helped raise the amount of sales due to consumers buying products that they have seen advertised.  

4. Visual culture influenced advertising by making commercials on the radio and TV. Video ads were all over the TV and commercial producers would add popular songs to their commercials because people would listen to the song instead of shutting off the TV. Computers and mobile devices also influenced advertising. Advertisements are now displayed on phones and other devices. Visual design helped bring these advertisements to life by making them in three-dimensional, animated and interactive. Visual design found a way to simplify ads so they can be easier to read on small screens.

5. The advantages that Internet and mobile advertising have over traditional media is that dealer can make profiles for certain customers who go on specific web sites. In order to do this, they send out surveys that customers will take such as telling them they could possibly win free stuff. Advertisers can track how many people look at a specific ad and they will know which ad is popular. Smartphones is another advantage the internet has. Advertisements can pop up on smartphones if the individual is in a specific area for example, going to a store or restaurant.

6. The association principle is a technique advertisers use to convince people to buy a product. What they do is link the product with positive images or cultural values when they have nothing to do with the commercial. It is an effective way to analyze advertising because it lures the customers in by showing them positive and happy scenes.   

7. Product placement is when a company buys a space in a TV show, movie, or music video to have their brand will appear in the scene. Some examples include Coca-Cola in American Idol and Reese’s Pieces in E.T. (p.403).

8. The difference between puffery and deception advertising is that puffery exaggerates their product. The reason you can tell it is a puffery advertisement is when they say it’s “new and improved”. A deception advertisement is when they take out bits of information to make the product sound better for example, a Klondike light ice cream bar is said to be 93 percent fat free. However, the Klondike bar is 93 percent fat-free after the chocolate is taken off the ice cream. The FTC regulates deceptive ads by telling the companies to either change them or take them off TV and they can also fine companies for civil penalties.

  

9.  The major issues that involve political advertising is the fact that some political advertisements are only thirty seconds long. People running for president can’t say much in that time slot, especially not serious political issues. When politicians violate other candidates, that could have an effect on the amount of people who vote.  

10. Advertising plays a huge role in our society because it helped mass media tremendously. If it wasn't for commercials, Even though commercials can be annoying, they have helped build our society and our economy. If it wasn't for advertisements, a lot of mass media would have to find a way to remake itself. 

Blog #8

1.The printing press was such an important and revolutionary invention because before the printing press, authors had to hand make their books which took time and made the books more expensive.  The printing press also allowed information to spread further so people could have access to the information. Due to the printing press invention, books were made cheaper because they were not handmade, the size was reduced, and it was much faster to publish. The only people who could buy the handmade books were people who were very wealthy like religious leaders and royal families.  

2. The reason why the sales of printed and CD encyclopedias decreased was because of the invention of digital encyclopedias. People began using search engines like Google and Wikipedia to look up information instead of using encyclopedias. Encyclopedias today are going digital but are still struggling because searchers rely more on Google and other online resources.    

3. Book and movie industries are similar because they talk about recent events that have happened. Book industries have also were very successful writing about government reports. Just like movie industries, the book industry have wrote books on important events like the assassination of President Kennedy and the marriage of prince William and Kate Middleton.

4. The kindle was very successful than other e-book devices because the Kindle was the first ever to make an electronic paper that was easy-on-the-eyes. The kindle also made wireless e-book downloads from Amazon’s online bookstore. Then Kindle made the Kindle fire which is where readers could browse the internet. The reason why other devices failed was because their devices were expensive and Kindle was the least expensive device to use.

5.The major issues on the debate of digitalizing millions of books for Web search engines was that Web search engines such as Google had too much power to profit from millions of books but Google didn’t get the copyright permission first. They then began a nonprofit service to stop this issue.

6. When a book is challenged it means that the book is removed from the library collection because there have been complaints due to offensive language, violence, nudity, racism and so on. When a book is banned it is because they have challenged authority and promoted radical ideas.

7. The growth of book superstores made a great impact on other bookstores because they had coffee shops in their stores along with selling recorded music and having live performances in their stores.  Other bookstores began to go bankrupt due to the growth of these superstores because the superstores began taking older bookstores customers.

8. The concerns of Amazon’s powerful role in determining book pricing and having its own publishing divisions is that Amazon expanded to its own publishing company.  This allowed Amazon to become too powerful because they competed with other e-book companies trying to decrease the prices of books so that customers will buy the book from their website.

9. Andrew Carnegie’s built 2,500 public libraries in the U.S., Britain, Australia, and New Zealand because he thought that libraries was great  learning opportunity for people who lived in those countries but especially for immigrants because Carnegie was one.