Mass Communications 307
Public Relations Processes

Assignments

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 One Message, Three Voices

Same content, different audiences:

Cost of the shots is just $5 per person for Clay County residents (including all of Moorhead and the Moorhead School District). Those who don’t live in the county are charged $12.

You may want to find out more about flu shots and the risk of developing the flu on the Internet to develop the content.

Write one paragraph to promote the clinic to the audience for each of these communication channels. (Double-space your paragraphs and put each on a separate sheet.)

Link to background info on the flu

Another link

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State University of Dilworth: Hitting the target

Baseline areas
for research

Working with the members of your team, identify a nonprofit organization that interests you. It may focus on health (Family Health Clinic, American Lung Association), human services (Great Plains Food Bank, Adoption Option, YWCA, Youth Court, Cultural Diversity Project, Healthy Community Initiative)), the arts (city public libraries, Plains Art Museum, Rourke Art Gallery, F-M Symphony, F-M Community Theatre, Fargo Theater, Trollwood Performing Arts School), sports and recreation (city park district, F-M Youth Hockey, F-M Soccer, YMCA, F-M Beez, Dragon athletic boosters) ... almost any area you can think of. Please do NOT choose an organization that has no organized PR or marketing strategy like most campus performing groups and organizations.

Meet with your group and gather baseline information and samples. Some suggested areas for discussion are on this link.

Prepare to report in class on the organization you've chosen. Also prepare a written summary of your report ... 1-2 pages (double-spaced).

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You've landed the job of director of publications for the State University of Dilworth, and have developed a promotional plan for the coming year that includes a variety of elements. Prepare a memo for Milo Hatzenbeuhler, vice president for university advancement, outlining the legal and ethical issues that should be considered in implementing each of these projects.

Meet with your NPO contact (in person or by phone) to learn more about the organization's relationship with the Fargo-Moorhead media. Does the NPO initiate most or all of the stories about its programs ... or do reporters come to them? Does the group create publicity events, or does coverage center on its regular mission and activities? 

Seek out specific examples of reporters, media and stories that your contact feels are most accurate and effective (from the NPO's perspective). Also, probe to identify the opposite kind of situation — meaningful stories that weren't covered and coverage that was incomplete, inaccurate or biased (again, from the NPO's point of view).

Summarize your findings in a report of one to two pages to be turned in Thursday. You'll also be asked to discuss your findings in class.

10 points.

The date: Oct. 12, 2012. Your PR agency is preparing a news release announcing the hiring of one of your old MC307 classmates to the public relations position of which he or she dreamed back in 2006. You are assigned to interview the lucky new hire and write a standard hard-news-style announcement news release to be distributed to the media in his or her home town.

Working with a partner, gather the information and write the release — and be sure to show it to your subject for his or her review and approval prior to turning it in. Each person is responsible for the news release about his/her partner. (Everyone will turn in a story.)

Obviously much of the background information contained in the release will be imaginary. Have fun with it, but **use correct third-person media style.**

NOTE TO ALL: When you review "your" release written by your partner, take pains to make it as good as you can, including suggestions for style, spelling, grammar and AP issues as well as the information it contains. Mutual assistance on format and style is most welcome here.

Prepare two releases on an event sponsored by your organization. It may be a fund-raiser, educational session or public hearing — anything of interest to local media and the general public.

Hard-news story: Follow the guidelines covered in Wilcox 5 and in class, paying special attention to news format and news style. You may use an event that's already happened, but write the news release as if it were properly timed (rather than using today's date as the date of issue).

Feature story: Prepare a human-interest story on the same event in the distinctly different feature style — more relaxed, more topical. Be sure that the two stories are DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT so that the difference is immediately apparent.

Team assignment: 10 points

Research the nutritional features, lore, culture and uses of pumpkins. (You'll find some starting points in the links on the pumpkin page) Then develop one story idea for each of these five audiences: 

Team assignment: 10 points

Prepare a :30 public service announcement script for your nonprofit organization. Instead of focusing on a special event (difficult to place in TV, easier with radio), please choose a timeless message -- recruitment of volunteers, education related to your group's mission, and so on. Be very conscious in your selection of visuals to match the message.

A 30-second announcement can usually accommodate about 75 words at a professional speaking pace that's slightly faster than conversation. Sound effects and music, of course, cut down the length of the spoken message that can be accommodated in the spot.

After your :30 is prepared, adapt the script for :15 and :60 versions.

In class on Tuesday, April 8, your team will be asked to "act out" your :30 PSA in front of the class. The objective of this stunt is to reinforce how essential the visual element is to gaining the TV audience's attention.

Team assignment: 10 points

The most effective way to interest TV assignment editors in your story is to "pitch" it — sales pitch, that is — instead of or in addition to providing a news or feature release. When working with local stations, you can do this in person; when covering a region, you may find yourself using the telephone. In either case, your task is to persuade the editor that your story is just right for his or her viewers ... possessing the key visual element that makes for good TV, along with other news values including all-important proximity and one or more of the others: timeliness, importance, human interest and the rest. 

Prepare to pitch a story for your NPO during class Tuesday. You can use the subject of your feature assignment, if it's appropriate for TV (visual!). Otherwise, develop a compelling idea tailored to the needs of TV. (You may stretch the facts a bit for this project.)

In addition to your persuasive skills, bring a hard copy to leave with the station — using the media alert format.

Develop a single-purpose brochure for your NPO. Be very specific about its purpose, including a call to action. You can use a sheet of paper up to 8x14" and folded as you prefer. 

(You may want to think ahead so that you can use your brochure as part of the direct-mail assignment later this month.) 

Review a variety of Web sites related to your NPO’s area of service. Find one you consider especially good and another that you feel is most ineffective. Print out the home pages of each; write a brief (1 or 2 paragraphs) summary of your reasoning; and be prepared to discuss your conclusions in class on Tuesday, ``/`8. 

(Summary and home pages will be turned in.)

Produce a five-part direct-mail fund-raising package for your NPO. The brochure project may be used as the support piece. Assume that the money is being raised in whatever time frame makes the most sense for your group. The package should include a carrier envelope, a multi-page letter, some type of response device, a return envelope and a collateral piece. 

This assignment is designed to integrate what you've learned over the past four months about PR practices and about your nonprofit organization.

The assignment includes three parts:

1. Thorough overview of the NPO's current practices, including their apparent goals, audiences and tools that are used to reach them.

2. Critique of current PR program. Please use your best judgment to analyze what's working and what could be done more effectively.

3. Three recommendations for extending and/or improving the NPO's current program. Two of these recommendations must be achievable more or less with the agency's current resources. The third recommendation, however, can use up to $25,000 to add new tools or new approaches to the PR plan. (Don't plan to spend this money on delivering services ... it's independent of other budget needs, earmarked only for marketing.)

Prepare this information for delivery in TWO ways:

1. Live presentation in class Tuesday, 4/30. This should involve every member of your team. Include as many visuals as possible (posters, samples, even Powerpoint if you'd like — but if so, please make your own arrangements to get a projector in the classroom).

2. Notebook documenting your conclusions and recommendations in written form. May include samples, roughs and other materials, including any that have been prepared for this class).