Activities of PR

Press Release: Press release can be used to distribute information amoung the target audience. It needs to be made interesting and easily passed along. For example a press release informing student of the new rules in a college.

Press conference: Press conference held by corporations can be very effective. The topic must be very interesting to get coverage from journalist, reports and other media. They must be well organized and the speaker must be well prepped for questions if taken. For example Press Conference used by Toyota on the topic of recalling it cars, which main aim was to gain the public’s trust again. When Football players are bought, it is announced through press conferences.

Exclusives: Offering a particular channel an exclusive into the news. For example giving an eviromental organization to look into an alleged pollutant activity of a firm.

Interviews: Personal interview in the press can play a very strong part. Strong question will be asked to which a CEO or spokes person will have to reply.

Community Involvement : Firm are able to mold their image in the community easily through this. The best example is of Tata company in Kutch where due to shortage of drinking water has made all water which is used as waste sea water.

The Internet: Internet is the best way to get personal with the customers. This can be done by answering queries and giving continuous updates

Problems Faced by Google IPO

Problems Faced by Google IPO

When Google reached 500 shareholders, in accordance with the American law they were presented with three options.

1) To stay a private company, but report their financial results like a public company

2) They could go public

3) They could decided to buy back the stocks (from their employes)

It was a hard decision but Google decided to go pulic. There were a lot of issues to be dealt with this issue. There was a lot of negeative reaction to be dealt with. Google could be making itself from an innovative company to a conventional company, it would lose its objectivity and independence. There were a lot of fear and the media trashed Google on their decision.

Keeping innovation at its core Google did not want an ordinary auction. After much thought, they decided on have the benifts of the auction not only going to brokers but also to the open public. And again Google got a backlash from the media.

By this time Google had gone into a quiet period in accordance with the laws, that is they stopped communicating with the press. This in some ways helped to calm down press from speculating. At the same time Google felt that even negative press was bad, simply because of the publicity the transacation was getting.

Google wanted to prevent a pop of their price at auction. After much discussion they decided to sell at 85$ a share.

It was about this time that a major crisis hit Google. Larry and Sergi the founders of Google gave an interview to Playboy and obviously there was a dicussion of buisness. This was seen as a violation of the quiet period and this could lead to the auction being postponed. However Google reacted fast and it added this interview into their offical filing.

When the auction finnaly occurred it did not manage to esacpe the pop and it shares sold for 100$.

At the end the IPO was sucessful. Google still managed to maintain its image of being an innovative company. It went through a storm and came out unscath and it was stronger than ever in the market. It was set to grow to higher heights.

IPO in India follow a similar system. So what can Indian Companies learn from the Google experince.

n They must always think about the customer. Google does this by have a format of auction that benefits even the customers and not just the stock brokers.

n Be the same. When going through with IPOs it is not easy for companies to remain the same to their core, simply because there are a lot of changes going about. However Google bore with the storm and made sure it did not shift it’s ideals inspite of the flak it drew from crtics and analyist.

n Get what you want. In the auction Google tried to avoid the pop. It did not act hard enough. Though it did not want the pop, it allowed the expectation to grow amoung the public and not only that it opened it doors to the public without sufficient restrictions.

n

STAKEHOLDERS

STAKEHOLDERS

INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

n Employees of the Firm: Maintaining the morale of the employees and showcasing them for the efforts. Done through organizational newsletters, notices on bulletins, award ceremonies, direct mail, annual reports. Personal methods are social events such as corporate games, picnics, etc.

n Stakeholders and Investors: Annual reports not only used to give financial information, informing audience on y the firm is not doing well, outlining future plans, the CSR schemes.

Use of stakeholder meetings, video conference meetings. For example GM presents in its Annual Reports the standards of CSR, a sustainable report to interested parties. This group is important coz they generate additional investment, to get more stocks company controlled, produce funding.

n Suppliers and Customers: It is necessary to maintain the good will of suppliers as well as consumers. Customers and suppliers tend to keep loyalties to companies that they see as socially conscious. Sponsoring public events is a good thing to do.

n Community members : People who live and work in the community where the firm is located are important. PR activities towards them involve activities through ads, meetings, etc that make the community aware of the activities of the firm. Also if there is a crisis in the community the firm should lend a hand.

EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

n The media: This is the most critical external public and has the broadest reach because….. blah blah blah. The media informs everyone of its actions and hence it is important. PR activities associated are press releases, press conference, interviews, etc

n Educators: This refers to scholars and academicians. These people have a certain control over the flow of information, (coz they write in magazines, paper etc) and so are important. Association are formed that pay special attention to these people. These organisations inform them of latest developments, and even offer them to come over to the firm.

n Civic and business organisations: These refer to other business organization and NGOs and social organizations. Sponsorship, financial contribution at fund raisers will create goodwill. Corporate presences on NGOs boards also are involved.

n Government: The Government has a set of laws that must be followed. This is where lobbying comes in. PR should be able to have enough influence to control law making in their favour. This can be done by financial contributions. Or gaining support of Public (for example if Tata raises an objection, Lawmakers will listen coz of Tata’s image and popularity. )

n Financial Groups: This refers to shareholder, potential investors and lending institutions. Financial Groups are important because they provided loans and investements that run a firm. Through press releases and corporate reports play they can be informed of the developments.

TIMBERLAND’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT

TIMBERLAND’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT

Timberland was hit with a PR crisis when they received over 65,000 mails that were concerned that their leather coming from Brazil was contributing to deforestation. This information was got from a report published by Greenpeace, which pointed that, the cattle from whom the leather was got their food from pastures created by clearing forest land. At the same there was probably another half million that was not bothering to sends emails, but were also of affected by this report. The large number of people who probably believed this, were putting Timberland brand image at stake.

Timberland’s first reaction was of shock. Of all the environment concerns Timberland looks at deforestation was at top of the list. They organized aforestation in China of over a million trees. They felt that since their logo was a tree that made them even more environmentally concerned.

The first thing Timberland did was to address to the emails. Timberland replied to these emails, thanking the customers for pointing this out to them, that they will look into it and they reminded the customers that they have planted more than a million trees across the globe.

Next step was to look into the issue. Only 7% of their leather came from Brazil. While other shoe companies reaction to this incident was to stop importing leather from Brazil, Timberland decided to tackle the issue head on. They realized Greenpeace is asking a relevant question, where is their leather coming from? To find an answer to this question would not be easy because there was supply circle that started from the cattle to slaughterhouses to the tanneries. So their supplier did not know from where the leather was coming from. Timberland felt answering the question would be worth the trouble because Timberland did not want Greenpeace or anyone having an opinion that companies were not really environmentally concerned but just profit minded.

The next step was understanding, Greenpeace who was raising up this issue. While Greenpeace primary objective was the environment, it also wanted to recruit more member and collect membership fee. And this was why it did not pick up and the phone and call Timberland, but instead went on a publicity spree.

Timberland decided to push their suppliers to find out from where they are getting their leather by simply threatening to stop buying it. In the meantime Timberland decided to take a leaf out of Bill Clinton and understood that amoung the emails there were the Nos and Maybes. They realized that the opinion of the Nos cannot be changed, but the opinions of the Maybes could be changed. So a another response was made that so that they could win the Maybes over.

Finally the supplier informed Timberland that the cattle are not coming from deforested pastures. Greenpeace was informed of this and at the same time was thanked for pointing the issue out.

From this there are a few things to learn from this incident.

n Watch and listen- Timberland’s initial reaction was of outrage to this allegation. However it decided to adopt a watch and listen policy, which enable to think of their next actions.

n Understand the opposing group- Everyone has their own agenda and Timberland were able to understand this and hence were able to act well.

n

EMERGING ROLE OF PR

EMERGING ROLE OF PR

Public relation is a emerging tool for most companies and many still have to find value in it. But it is something that is growing, more and more companies are opening up their own PR department or hiring PR agencies. To understanding the emerging role of PR, I will go on to three topics.

n CREDIBILITY:

Many do not realize, but in future PR could very be more important than marketing. This is because PR offers creditability to the consumers. PR is about generating stories. An editorial verse an advertisement. An editorial will have more impact on consumers than an advertisement. This creditably is not just perceived, but it has substance, since it has to go through evaluated, filtered and edited. The audience trust the media as third party that is vouching for the product, that there must be something worthwhile in the product. Also the information could be positive or negative hence some sense of honesty is perceived.

The press may be deny that they are conduit for PR, but the consumers themselves are demanding this information. Consumers are in constant engagement with media, unlike advertisements. With the inclusion of media, the number of senders and receives increasing which is a boost to market communication. PR heavily relies on third person creditability.

The demonstration of a new product on the news channel or the comment on from an expert that the company is taking the right action

Another way to look at creditability is reputation. Reputation is created when all is amassed. PR has the responsibility of building the company’s reputation and brand. It build up deposits, memories of goodwill that a company can fall back on in times of crisis.

Once a company gains enough of reputation, it gains enough creditability and the need for third party creditability is gone.

n PR A BROADER VIEW OF THE MARKET:

While PR is often used as only a marketing communications functions, few realize that it has the ability to give wide orientation to a wide range of stakeholders like employees, suppliers, ngos, government and customers. To understand this stakeholder approach, a stakeholder map can be drawn. It allows one to identify stakeholders, their influence and who in the company is charged with tracking the actions and reaction of them. Through uses of symbols impact of firm, number of contact, public and media perceptions of negative or positive relationships amoung stakeholders and a variety of other such detailed information can be shown on a stakeholder map.

The stakeholder map is very important. In times of crisis it can be used to make the correct decisions, since now you can understand all your stakeholder and understand their probable reaction.

n ACCOUNTABILITY AND MEASURE PERFORMANCE

PR tries to separate itself from the marketing communication function. It is more concerned with the company’s business and not with communication of business.

PR has always tried to set standards for itself.

There are variety of awards set and these are judged on the basis of research, planning, execution and evaluation.

- Research: Overall planning and identification of audience. Found a need for opportunity.

- Planning: Definite objectives. Objectives support the organizations over all goals.

- Execution: Use of tactics, creativity of tactics, implementation of tactics, efficiency of implementation.

- Evaluation: Success in achieving organizations objectives, results reflected original plan, team work, continuous refinement.

As business environments get harder, the role of PR will continue to grow and become very important.

ISA- IDELOGICAL STATE APPARTUS

ISA- IDELOGICAL STATE APPARTUS

These refer to institutes that uses methods of socialization for people to accept an ideology and not force. Althusser points those key institutions that carry out socialization process- Church, family, education system and the media. The media has taken over from the Church. 

The media as an ISA

n  The media tends to support the dominant ideology. They support these dominant ideologies by simply producing programs and products that support these ideas.

n  For media to win support for dominant ideology through media products that gives pleasure to minority groups. 

n  Media is drawn towards social conflict. The best example is the Hindi serial where are constant clashes between family members. Even movies have conflict, be it a love story or action movie there is a conflict, between family or good and evil. This is a staple of the media that it feeds to the public. Take even yesterday, the confict in Ayodhya case was hyped up a lot.

n  However there are times when the media does bring social problems to light, but this is only for the pleasure of the viewers who find it entertaining. In a way this also become a sort of conflict.

Media playing its Role as ISA

n  Media supports the dominant ideology and pushes asides social problems. They do this by:

-          By simply not giving the minority sections in society enough representation.  For example in Bollywood, lower castes like Dalits never present, even religions like Muslims and Christianity are never given enough representation. The dominant representation is Hindu.

-          Social difference is ignored by the media. For example, in most of the Indian serials the families are Hindus, which simply ignores the presence of the other minority religions in India.

-          Social Problems have been in the media have been misunderstood. For example take Police dramas. They depicted the culprit not as a person who has social background problems, but as psychological problems such as revenge or greed.

n  Media supports dominants ideology by incorporating or containing other ideologies.

-          Take for example the Hippy culture in America amoung the youth during the 60s and 70s which was first seen as anti-social but eventually joined the main stream ideology.

-          Media also at first attempt to contain the Black culture, especially during the time of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.

-          Even when they spoke of other ideologies media always found a way to subvert it the the dominant ideology.

 

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY

Social responsibility theory refers to that media should be media being responsible

In context of advertising there are questions to be asked in terms of social responsibility. Do the advertisers have a responsibility only to their clients and not customers? Do they use any means necessary to sell their product that crosses moral and social responsibility boundaries?

They cannot turn their back on the community. The community will most easily understand and accept the messages. Something interesting may grab the public’s eye but will rarely convince and persuade effectively. A survey done amoung consumers show that the public is unhappy with advertising. The advertising claims are false, women are sexualized,

In this competitive market advertisers have forgotten their ethics.

Legally speaking the Advertising Standards Council has set a Code of Ethics. It has set up a Consumer Complaints Council.  The Pubic Relation Society of India also claims that it follows the International Code of Ethics. The Consumer Complaints Council receives about 500 complaints, half of which are filed by rivals.

This is where the government decides to steps in. The government has set up a censor board that does not allow vulgar, inflammatory advertisements to be displayed. Laws have been set and companies can be taken to court if false information is given.

However both the parties, the government and the advertisers are searching for a balance to keep the public happy. 

MASS SOCITEY THEORY

MASS SOCITEY THEORY  

Rise of mass press [penny press]- swept political & business press- rise of yellow jouralism [William Herst] also contributed to this. William Herst political and yellow journalism threatened many politicians and business.

Fearful assumption against the new media mediums- radio, teleivision, movies]

This theory makes several assumption toward the new media

1) new media is a cancerous force that must be eridaicated from socitey.

Proposal destroying or controlling media

Europe- media under tight control. For example Nazi Germany.

US- a comprise- media under watch of a govt agency that would make use of censorship.

2) Media has a greater reach to influence minds.

Individuals hepless infront of maupulative media. For example how citizens became addicted serials like Ally McBeal.                   

3) Media corupts minds, resulting in long term negative results- ruins individuals and causes vast social problems.

Major social problem for example violence has been linked to media. An example is drug addicts have taken advertising to seriously and have begun to believe that good life is achieved through consumption of products (this may be sound absurd, but this is how the theorist looked at it). 

4) Persons are vulnerable to media coz they are cut off from traditional society that was protecting them [from manipulation]

Without protection person believe everything of media. Media destroys folk community.

Story telling imp traditional institution, meida (movies, tv) drew out the public causing decline in story telling.

5) Social chaos caused by media will result in a totalitarian social order.

Example Germany, where Hitler maniplated the public and established a dictatorship.

6) Mass media dilutes the culture and brings a decline in civilisation. 

This has been depicted in George Orwell's book 1984.

 

THE MCCARTHY INCIDENT

The reason this is important is because it shaped the certain values of this theory. McCarthy decided that

GEMENISCHAFT AND GESELLSCHAFT

Earlier Mass Society Theoriest, German Ferdinand Tonnies - expalined the difference between earlier social orgainzations and European organizations in 19th century.

Gemenishaft- folk society- bound by strong family tradition ties, rigid social roles, rigid institutions.

Gessellschaft- mordern society- bound by weak social institution which is based on rationality and not traditions.

For example that marriage. In Gemenishaft marriage is a scared thing, vows are life long commitments, marriage partners were selected by heads of families. In Gesselleschaft, the sacredness was lost out, marriage vows were often violated, divorces were excepted with society.

 

MECHINACAL AND ORGANIC SOLIDARITY.

Emile Durkheim made a division on a similar basis. He compared folk societies to machines were people were forced by a collective consensus to perform traditional social roles. Modern society to animals.

 

MASS SOCIETY IN CONTEMPARY TIMES

Mass society theory in contemporary times is not supported, but there has been a re-insurgence of some parts of it.

People are still controlled and corrupted by the media. We still see this in everyday life. For example with the introduction of Daniel Craig as James Bond, the series has got more violent than ever.

Media is still very much controlled by a few. Rupert Murdock, Times Group.

New mediums such as internet has seen a creation of new powers and influence, For example Google.

CRITISM

This theory has been criticized a lot. It has been unqualified when it says that the public needs protection and this protection has been provided by a group of people.

Media does not result in a totalitarian rule. Giving the example of Nazi Germany it ignored many other factors, like the desperate plight of the people caused by the ruling elite that drove many to accept  Nazism.

 

Rashomon

Rashomon

This movie was directed by Kurosawa. It is a Japanese film released in 1950. The director explores the perception of humanity. The film tells four different tales on the same event.

The establishing shot is of a raining and we have a close up shot of rain hitting the ground. The director is probably portraying the confusion to come. The first line uttered in the movie is “I do not understand”. We see how Kurosawa through a combination of great camera work, sound and positioning of character beautifully puts his point across.

The movie is a story within the story. The confusion of the commoner, woodcutter and the priest and there is the story of their confusion. The director did something for the first time- both the stories were shedding light on each other.

In the outer story - three characters also are portrayed by director as three perspectives towards life- the commoner is the cynic, the woodcutter is

In the inner story consist of Bandit, the wife, the Samurai and the woodcutter. As the movie goes on we see that each of them have their own perspective to the event. However the director has kept the stories on a basic structure so as to make them believable. For example all the stories agree that the Bandit killed the Samurai. The director makes it seems that the woodcutter’s version may be the truth. This is because firstly the woodcutter has a neutral perspective.

Also the director uses different musicals for the stories which especially reflect the characters.

The movie explores how these perspectives come to be that is that people tell lies to protect their self-image which they believe in.

The director makes fantastic use of camera and this becomes very important in holding the film together. He makes use of the moving camera to show the fast and frantic scene. The camera also helps in establishing the perspective of characters. For example in the beginning when the woodcutter describes we see how the director first show a variety of shot pointing to the sky which was covered by the trees. By this he establishes the good and care free nature of the woodcutter. In the second story of the wife and the samurai we lose camera work since these characters see themselves as tragic victims they tend to occupy most of the frame.

BattleShip Potemkin

BattleShip Potemkin

The battleship Potemkin was directed in 1925 by Sergi Eisentein. It was a film on the revoult on the battleship Potemkin during the 1905 revolution. This film is one of the best and most influential properganda film. Sergi also made a lot of revolutionary fikm making styles.

The scripting of the movie has been done very precises and exact. Sergi has divided the movie into five chapters. (Men and Maggots, Drama at the Habour, A Dead man calls for justic, The Odessa Staircase, The Rendez-Vous with a Squadron)

Due to lack of technique to record voices Sergi has used titles. The sound used is of an orchestra. The music is used very well, blending with the sences. The sound has added to the emtions which Sergi wants to create which has in turn added to the perspective of the film.

The establishing sence of the film is of a thrashing sea waves againt rocks. This is itself depictes that some conflict, some anger is brewing. The shot later on moves to the sailers comenting on the on going revolution agaist the Czarist regime and how they are sleeping. Sergi also very clearly shows the ill-treatment caused by the officers on the sailors. For example while they are sleeping and resting an officer comes along and disturbs them. Also we see the sailors protest against the use of the rotten meat for their meal to be supressed by the officers. The martyer ship of the sailors is done very spectactularly with first showing just like the soldiers at first the villagers did not care of the revoultion. However it was not long before the flight of steps was crowded with villagers to come and meet, join and support the sailors. This sence is done particulary beautifully with Sergi using a classic blending technique where an empty saticase dissolves into a hustling and crowded staircase.

Sergi uses special

The acting in the movie is melodramatic

The shooting techniques used by Sergi are very innovative. Many of the shot are still shot. There is no panning shots or rotation of the camera at all. He uses a lot of close up shot or medium ranged shots. We do not see much of point of view shots. Not much attention is given to lighting in the film. Sergi makes very good use of the close up shots to emphasies certain emotions and aspects (for example the maggots in the meat, or the expressions of the actors or the clenching of the fists).

Sergi has spend a lot of detail with editing. Mainly using features such as fade outs, fade in and dissolve.

Odessay Staircase scence is one of the most revolutionary film making techniques in the history of films. Sergi applies the theory of montages in this scene. Sergi used quick abrupt shot to make a scene. This was the first time it was done in filming.

In this scence he complies a number montages to create a spectaculator scene minute. One of major parts is when the child gets shot and the mother carries him to the soldiers. It is important because of the use of sound and the positioning of characters. As the mother and child neared the Cossacks the length of the shots shorten and moved across very fast. Talking about sound, just before the mother and child are shot, all sounds are stop. This gives a certain stillness to what is about to happen and sends a chill down the audience, allowing to join into the perspective of the film. Talking about the postioning of character, the Cassocks face is never show and only their back are shown. There are shot as this line of upright soldiers. Before the shooting of the mother and child all that is shown of the Cassocks is their shadows and a menacing hand over the woman and child. All this portays the Cassocks as a menacing, strong and heartless soldiers. Another imporatant scene is the dramatisation of the death of the mother and tipping of the baby carrage.

This is a very strong properganda movie.

CSR COCA-COLA-WWF

CSR COCA-COLA-WWF

The whole issue of Kerala deeply impacted Coca-Cola, and resulted in lot of College campuses boycotting Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola then realized the responsibility they have to a community. In Kerala they were seen as a big symbol of water users in a community where water was scarce.

It was then CRS, especially on water dawned on Coca-Cola. It was incidents like these that made the company realized water shortages and its affect on their business. Coca-Cola sought to change itself to company that cared about water management. It decided to attempt into a partnership with WWF.

WWF realized that though there were successful in raising awareness amoung public, species were still dying and habitat continued to get destroyed. They could not work alone any longer. To make change they will have to form new partnerships with governments and business.

The first step Coca-Cola took is to appoint Seabright as Vice-President of Environment and Water. The company first wanted to initiate change in them, a series of detailed surveys took place in company and it was found people were eager to approach this issue. Mangers felt there was no framework on dealing with issues of watershed. Workshops were conducted and this gave a lot of insight from workers, stories were bought to the forefront and published on the internet. A strategic framework began to emerge which was resulting in operational excellence with realization of water wasting and pollution or realization of watersheds importance in the community.

For WWF to join into a partnership it had to rethinks its vision. They had to working together and not separately. They realized that though they had sophisticated watershed, but Coca-Cola had great watershed analysis and better commercial decision making. WWF realized this opportunity; working together they could make Coca-Cola change to sustainable resources.

WWF helped Coca-Cola realized the concept of their Water footprint which includes such things as sugarcane which absorbs a lot of water.

The partnership went on to become for collaborative. They both thought of the work they plan together and how to shape structure of work that they all agreed to. WWF helped Coca-Cola understand the local community and habitat protection and community protection are two sides of the same coin.

There was a lot of release of creative energy. For WWF they had to make sure that they did not impose their passion on Coca-Cola.

WWF planned over seven watersheds. Yangtze river basin was one of the watersheds. To understand the community the employees went and lived amongst them for some time.

For both the organizations this partnership venture has held a lot of risks. Coca-Cola promised WWF that they could without interference make an accurate water footprint estimate.

WWF may have been seen as taking money in return for green washing its corporate benefactors.

A partnership for with WWF with Coca-Cola has increased the CSR for them. It has changed the structure which Coca-Cola works, making it more community friendly.

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now

The movie is directed by Frank Coppola

The establishing shot of the movie is awesome. It starts with the sound of a helicopter, the strumming of a guitar comes in, a jungle appears, a helicopter passes by and the jungle blows up in flames. The establishing shot is very impactful.

He uses a lot of blending and that’s how he introduces his main character. The introduction is also in a vague way because thought he show a face, the eyes, the movement of the eyes keeps the audience focused on the eyes, as destruction goes around.

The scene where Willard is given his mission also must be discussed General R. Corman - Colonel Lucas - Jerry -. At the table where the mission is discussed. No one is eating, except for the civilian, Jerry(Also this is the only time they show someone eating in the movieand that to a civian) . While General R.Corman and Colonel Lucas is placed in front of Willard, Jerry is at the side. This is simply because Coppola does not want to integrate this mysterious civilian/CIA into the conversation, to keep him out.

The shots uses in the movie are amazing. We see the helicopter shots when Captain Willard meets Kilgore and the audience gets a peek into the war. Throughout the movie we see Captain Willard plays a very passive role in the movie and through that we the truths and lies of the Vietnam War. To establish the massiveness of the attack we see the usage of extreme wide shot from various angles, but mainly high angles. The best scene in this attack is one of the jet fighters where again we see use of high angle shot, and a combination of intense music that heightens up the audience.

After this we see a variety of things that contributes to the awesomeness of this movie. As the they go more into the jungle and the river they go more into the heart of darkness. The river plays a big motif in the movie, signifying the drift deeper into madness.

The boat is also a motif. After the encounter with the tiger, Willard says, “Never get outa of the boat”. The boat signifies a safe haven for the soldiers as they drift deeper down the river. Whenever they were attacked or when they reach Kurtz’s terrority the boat as acted as a safe haven.

Dead bodies are also a motif. As they came closer into the Kurtz’s territory the number of dead bodies keeps increasing. Also as they come closer they first encounter a variety of destroyed helicopter, and when they finally reached they encounter destroyed a jet engine, and jet engine have been portrayed as a sort of ultimate weapon. A pan shot occurs there moving upwards of the engine and then dives into the water and comes out again towards the boat.

The introduction of Kurtz has been slow and pacey. Coppola has made use of the travelling time on the river, Willard gives keeps giving us a narration on the Kurtz achievement. When Willard finally meets Kurtz, Coppola plays with the lighting and teases the audience who are anxious to see Kurtz. We parts of Kurtz face, but never his whole face and when this is done, Kurtz withdraws his face into the darkness and one could almost see his left eye glinting. The character shown by Kurtz is quiet surprising compared to the impression from Willard’s narration of him and the journalist depiction.

Kurtz voice is soft and not a strong one, he is cracking up.

There are few aspects of the last scene that must be discussed. Coppola does the comparison of killing of Kurtz and the bull very well. While the killing of the bull is very violent, Coppola portrays the killing of the Kurtz in an almost beautiful manner. Willard when he is at the door step after killing Kurtz, a medium close up shot, Willard takes a step back, his face goes into the darkness. This is almost as if Coppola is teasing is before the next few seconds, because the next few seconds when Willard is walking and everyone is bowing to him it almost seemed like Willard was taking the place of Kurtz.

The movie is an awesome one.

PROPAGANDA THEORY

PROPAGANDA THEORY

Basically states that with the media the public is easily manipulated. The media is controlled by a group of individuals and because this groups of elite tend to promote a particular idea and ignores others.

What is Propaganda?

Propaganda- No bound communication where only a particular belief is propagated.

Black Propaganda- Deliberate and strategic transmission of lies

Grey Propaganda- Communication of ideas that may be false

White Propaganda- Open supervision of information, ideas with information given out to distract attention for the real events.

ORIGIN OF PROPAGANDA

The term was introduced by Jesuits- Society For the Propagation of the Faith.

With advancement of technology and media’s reach, propaganda became more powerful.

Fritz Hippler, Head of Nazi propaganda mentioned effective propaganda is to simplify a complex issues and repeat the simplification over and over.

Michael Sproule said effective propaganda is covert- its persuades people without seeming do so.

The Propagandist believes the end justifies the need and hence there is a need of half-truths. They believe that the public is not rational and hence there is a need for manipulation. They also use the same reason for suppression of opposition- the public is easily swayed.

During the 1940s to 1980s propaganda was widely used for the ideologies of democracy (American way) and communism (Soviet and China).

INFLUENCE OF PROPAGANDA THEORY

n Behaviorism: Watson propounded that human action is conditioned responded to an external stimuli. Theorist seen media as providing external response that triggers a response.

n Freudianism: There a constant conflict with the Id, superego & ego. The media manipulation, stimuli could set the id lose beyond the control of the ego & superego.

n Magic Bullet Theory: People no matter what have no defenses against propaganda which sends out magic bullets which penetrates the subconscious.

LASSWELL’S PROPERGANDA THEORY

People have are manuplable to propaganda even when there is a sense of tension about the public that can be caused by such things as economic depression or political which can result in a touch of reality.

People need to be prepared to accept radical ideas. This can be done by a long term campaign. Symbols must be created and meanings must be attached to them. If successful these will be called Master Symbols. These Master Symbols will evoke a strong emotion from the audience. Master Symbols gains these symbols due to its past experience. For example the Indian Flag which has been used to commemorate Indian Freedom.

Hitler was an evil artist but not a scientist. Hitler did not know what he was doing. Proposed a new science of propaganda to combat Hitler. The control of propaganda through mass media would be handed over to the new elite who were scientific and they would pledge to use it for good and not evil. The only hope that social scientist would use it for good.

LIPMAN’S THEORY OF PUBLIC OPINION FORMATION

Lasswell’s Theory played a great influence on Walter Lippmann, a columnist of New York Times.

People are not able to rationalize themselves and understand the media around them. People could not learn and understand enough of the world from the media. He went on to say even serious journalism could not overcome the psychological and social barriers that limit the public thought.

Q 5 HBR ARTICLE-- EMPOWERMENT

Many customers are making use of technology and the internet to post their grievances caused by companies. These give a bad impression towards the company and effect the reputation and sales.

However the power of the technology and internet also is in the hands of the employers. Tools as done in the past (nestle-fb-greenpeace, dominos-youtube), but these technologies are already available to the employers and it is difficult from stopping them. Companies must acknowledge that employees have technological power.

Just like any other company Best Buy is open to critism from the Internet, but because it structured differently it can respond to this better than other companies. Employees who sign up for the Twelpforce program which enables them to respond to any critism posted on Twitter.

HERO (Highly Empowered & Resourceful Operative) is referred to people who are able to innovate with technology inside a company. Many customers put up their grievances on the internet, and it is up to the employees to use technologies and solve the problem.

Most companies IT departments are unable to handle customer service related problem. Management is also unwilling to empower the employees with technology and prefer a lock down. In order for companies to respond to the customer's escalating power they can encourage the HERO innovation.

-- Heroes innovate within the structured framework. Employees who come up with these innovative projects must coordinate with the management and IT.

-- Managers encourage innovation and manage the risk. Managers must be open to employee innovation and recognize success and failures. They must understand the risk and gains associated with innovative ideas.

IT agrees to support and scale HERO projects. They must act on an advisory bases. They must assess the risk.

For HERO project to be successful there must good understanding and coordination between the employee, manager and IT.

BLACK AND DECKER

The sales manager of Black and Decker equipped his employees with a camera. It was not soon before he had many videos depicting the strengths of Black and Decker and the weakness of competitor’s products. Many of these videos were posted on YouTube. The IT dept agrees that at first it was reluctant to give into this idea- How quickly can we capture the productivity across our commercial team is always a critical question.

VAIL RESORT

Vail resorts found that it’s traditional advertising strategy- ads in ski magazines was becoming ineffective. Vail’s CEO appoints an interactive development personal to embrace social networking sites as new their new marketing strategy.

They were able to follow and tackle many negative comments on social sites. For example a customer Bob tweeted a problem he faced signing up for meal passes. Bob had a followers list of 13,000 and 13000 people became aware of this negative aspect of the Vail Resorts. Because Vail had a system in place it was able to tackle this tweet.

Vail’s CEO is an example of HERO friendly manger. These sorts of mangers have a common attitude. They plainly communicate corporate priorities (as in this case the switch to social site for marketing). They encourage experimentation at the same time keeping up the brand image and avoiding risks.

BUILDING A HERO- POWERED BUSINESS

If you are potential HERO then you need to take certain steps.

- Find out how many departments will need a say

- What level of technology will be needed

- What’s the budget

- There is a need to look at also the affects of the idea and how can you prove that value in increased revenues, lower costs and other parameters of the business.

- Look for similar projects. Can learn a lot from those.

If you are a manager, then

- Urging people to be creative is not enough- find solutions outside and inside of the company

For example General Mills has a monthly departmental meetings where creative strategies used by other brands and companies are highlighted.

Q 4

Social media is important for the PR of any organization. In today’s new world the fast and most connected medium are the social network sites.

Branding and Buzz- Create a buzz on your product or services so that it becomes a part of online conversations.

Online Reputation Management- Find, and fix any negative perception on your brand.

Establish yourself as an expert- Use forms and messages boards to answer frankly, honestly and correctly and then people will look forward to your answers.

Word of mouse- Comments that are posted online are followed by millions of people. These comments can earn the trust of the potential customers.

Build Relationships through Personalization- Through social media brands can connect and build relationships with their customers.

Online mediation- Brands get afraid to approach social media coz of the possibility of negative comments. However few realize the great potential in social media and how any negative comments can be turned around in great PR.

n Create a website and have options that enables people to comment and give feedback.

n Keep the website update with latest developments.

n Make your presence be felt in the social websites- twitter, facebook, youtube.

MYTH- Deleting –ve comments is +ve

Online Reputation Management (ORM)

Practice of managing ones reputation across the internet. People use the social media to voice their opinions and comments on a brand, service, products etc.

There are various sites available to monitor ones reputation

Googl.com/alerts, technorati.com, backtype.com, seachtwitter.com, tackur.com

Points of action

Brand monitoring tool takes a look at the entire web for comments on a brand. This brand buzz is then categorized as the agreement with your social partner. The classification can be as simple as positive, negative and neutral. Before taking this action it is best to use free social media tools.

Free social media tools allow simply allows you to listen to the conversation on your brand.

n Google alerts- www.google.com/alerts

Top ten new articles, web searches, blog searches, group searches and Comprehensive (combination of news, web and blogs)

n Delicious- www.del.icio.us

Gives an idea of what people are book marking about.

n Google Blog Search- www.blogsearch.google.com

Use this find out topics that people are blogging.

MYTH- Measuring Social media results is impossible

There is a need to keep track of the buzz and comments circulation the internet. These comments may be negative or positive.

SocialToo- Helps in social networking power users. It allow you to keep better relationships with your followers.

Twitteranalyzer- It gives statistical charts about you and your friend’s behaviour on twitter.

Identity

Everyone us searching for their identity. I am not talking identity as in associating oneself with your profession or family. I am talking about the identity that one distinguishes for ones selves. This one makes us different from each other. This identity is under constant evolution and this evolution is most active when people are in their teens. This is because they are trying to find out who they are, what they are meant to be, what they are made of. There are many such question which they seek the answer to.

To know our identity there is truly only one way that is to done a variety of coats and see the one that best suit us. We have to experience what is there to in life at the same time we must know our limits for only once limits are understood can we find a way around it.

Everyone is struggling for the answer. They grope in the darkness in their souls for the true meaning of their purpose in life.

Purple Seven

It was in the night and I was walking briskly. I checked the time on my watch, it was almost seven. Damn, I am late. I had to reach the Charles Sports Club. This is the last and most important job. The tennis racket was slung over my back. The fences started to appear, the gate would not be far. Loud bearing rock music was playing in the night, which I suppose was coming from one of the residential buildings. I reached the gate only to be shocked. There was a huge crowd outside it and the rock music was coming from inside. There was a rock show going on inside. Still, it would be no problem, the tennis court would be in use. I pulled out my id card. I had to do what I came to do. I flashed my membership id at the entrance and walked in towards the court. It was empty. I may be able to catch him at the shower area. I moved at once. The showers were running and men were having their bath, but he was not there. Maybe I could catch him at the locker room. The locker room was very crowded, I pushed my way amoung the jostling men in towels careful not to get into a fight. I got a view of his locker for a whole minute. There was no sign of him. I watched him for days; I know his every schedule moves. My final chance would be catch him leaving in his car.

I ran out, to the parking exit and hoped I did not miss him. I was searching for a purple Honda. Nervously my eyes kept roaming everywhere. It was not long before I my eyes caught him, but he was not in his car at all. He was exiting from the main entrance. Where had he gone? It did not matter I had to get to him. He was wearing his purple suit. Where was he going? He hailed a cab and was off. I hailed a cab and jumped in, “Follow that cab ahead”. What was this guy up to? If I finished this job, I could finally go home.

The cab stopped and I paid my fare. He came to the subway station. I quickly followed him down. I had to get to him before he jumped in to the train. He moved to the restroom. I breathed a sigh of relief. I kissed the purple seven that hung around my neck. It could be done. I walked into the restroom. The dim light was hanging from the ceiling. The target could not be seen.

Suddenly I felt something hit me from behind, on my shoulder. I went crashing down. A hand swung around my throat and a blade from pressed against my neck. “Who are you? What do you want?” I heard two rapid questions fired off. I knew something was wrong about this fellow. Doesn’t matter, I just got to deliver the package. “I am nobody, but the racket on my shoulder” I said slowly, “it’s yours.” The hand slowly slid away from my neck, while the knife stayed. The racket was lifted from my shoulder. He lifted it up. I could see him smiling in the shadow, “Yes, it is mine. Thank you”. And the knife slashed against my neck. My temporary human vessel was failing me. My purple blood was flowing out. My hands grabbed my throat, but it was of no use. So this was how humans die. I was going to die, but it did not matter the job is done.

The man in the purple suit walked out cleaning his knife on his handkerchief. With the racket swung over his back he got into the train. However this man did not get out the train at all. He was searched for, but not found. In another mysterious incident in the same train a purple seven about six feet high was found.

Drugs, Cigarettes & Alcohol

I was always fascinated with cigarettes from when I was a kid. I think it started from all those movies I seen and now if anyone says that it was the negative influence of the media, well then I would tell him get a life, it was either the media or from the outside. In other words it would have been unavoidable. I remember those games I used to play with my brother where we used to be in an imaginary Jurassic Park scene or in an imaginary back robbery and a pencil used to be in our mouth as an imaginary cigarette.

“Dad”, I used to ask my father, “have you ever smoked.”

“I used too,” he told me “the last time I smoked was before you were born but after I was married I stopped. The last time was when your Uncle’s father had come and he still used to smoke so to keep him company I smoked with him.”

“Ha!” my mother used to come in “your father barely used to smoke. He just smoked on that day to show everyone he could smoke.” That issue is still an unresolved matter. Going back to the point I am making...It is not just about cigarettes, but everything that the world offers which people say are addictive. Cigarettes, drugs, alcohol. Should we or should we not try them. The risks of having these are of addiction, of becoming slaves to these materials or even such as you’re too young to have them. Now when you talk about young, things are changing very fast, the youth of every generation seems to be maturing faster than the last one. For example when I was in fifth standard I did not know anything of reproductive system or neither did I use abusive words in my speaking vocabulary, however now you go to a fifth standard child and you know things are different. In the West, maturity development has moved up to youth aged as young as 13 years old, (the main reason why maturity has developed is simply because of exposure that gives information).

So why do the youth do what they do. Why do they have drugs, alcohol and cigarettes? Simple, they are curious and to satisfy that they try out stuff. Sure, you will hear older people saying they should do this when they are older when they are working and earning their own money. But that’s where my theory of maturity comes.

Then some people or even you may say then if their maturing faster, then they should be able to work earlier. They should be able become professionals as soon as they mature. However if you have lived life long enough then you will know that life is not that simple. Of all the many points that are available I will point out that the education systems around the world is still trying to adjust to mind of the children and this is because the mind has been on a changing part. Sure sex education has been pushed to an earlier class and the system of exams is becoming absolute, but about completing ones education in five or six years. This may sound utopian, but it is possible, the human mind has rarely been pushed beyond limits. Why can’t education of a child start from the time he or she can walk. It has been done by everyone’s ancestors at some point or the other.

As Jason sat in the train he was slightly nervous. Very soon he was going to go for his first day of college. As he worried himself over various things like friends, girlfriends and a lot of other things. One thing that struck his mind is that finally he was going to get a peak at life. He was going to be exposed to life for what it is. For quite a bit of his life he was told that he would experience life when he went out of school and into college. Little did he know that he would hear the same thing, but in a different context- going out of college and going to work. Hearing something like that would be a pain. And… Back to Jason. Sure, he reached college fine and living up to his habits from his boarding school he came reached his class ten minutes early. The class was empty. He felt awkward, hell anyone would if on their first day of anything they would come early and find the room empty. He chose a nice corner seat and sat there. From his back he extracted an Alistair Maclean book and started reading. People came, but ignored them. He did not need company, that was provided by the imaginary world created by his book. He glanced at his watch. Two minutes left. He raised his eyes slowly above the book and its looks like he was not the only person who liked to sit alone. There were about six to seven people in class who were also sitting alone.

The bell rang and people started pouring in. And he made new friends. This story maybe very boring for you to read, damn it boring for me to write so let’s do a fast forward. So this Jason found his place in college with a six people. Most of them smoked cigarettes, but he vowed not to smoke. He did not know why, but most of his other rules laid down this one too had no logical basis, it just came from the gut. When you’re with friends you grow curious of such things. You wonder what keeps them hooked on it. They themselves don’t have an appropriate answer. And then one day he tried, he pulled the smoke into his lungs and he felt his head become lighter. However Jason did not really become a regular smoker. On an average he managed to keep it to only once a month. This once a month was only on the days he felt very tired or he felt like crap. However he felt that he could very easily become a full- fledge and regular smoker, but he was afraid he would get hooked. He was wrong. That once a month cigarette he was not able to escape from and he had to have it every month and no matter how much he tried he could not.

Jason began to consider himself weak. Imagine if every day was difficult and tough to live, then everyday he would smoke. To motivate himself to quite he used to tell himself that he stronger and better than this. He did not need cigarettes to handle the pressures of life.

I like to end by the simple line, what is the use of living if you don’t try everything.