This document provides an overview of key concepts in public relations including: 1) Defining publics and prioritizing stakeholder groups. Internal and external publics should be identified for an online portfolio. 2) Comparing internal PR with external PR and the influence of primary publics on message delivery. 3) Discussing ethical guidelines around accuracy, honesty, and avoiding false or misleading information. Libel laws and issues of privacy and copyright are also pertinent. 4) Explaining the difference between persuasion and manipulation in opinion formation and the challenges of changing attitudes, beliefs, and opinions over time. Designs for effective persuasion must consider the audience.

1. A Summary of Essential Information: Chapters 1-3

2. A Public “A public is any group of people tied together by some common factor. There are many such groups.”

3. The Public in PR Should Be Publics Identify potential publics for your online portfolio

4. Internal Vs. external PR

5. Prioritizing publics

6. Calculate the PvI index of your portfolio publicsP + V = I

7. Ethical guidlines One is the idea of being genuinely sensitive to the feelings and needs of others. The other is practicing the Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated by them.

8. If you are asked to violate your personal standards Educate or convert those around you to your point of view. Refuse Request reassignment Take the assignment---demonstrates team player, loyalty, trustworthiness---may lead to a promotion or raise.

9. Code of ethics pertinant to writers Accuracy---credibility Honest, Truth and Fairness—issue of misleading False or Misleading information—causes people to make bad decisions

10. Laws are generally negative They tell you what you can’t do. Or can?

11. Libel laws and Privacy issues

12. Copyright What is your understanding of copyright? How will it influence your online portfolio?

13. Influence of primary publics Shared values Adversarial groups

14. Persuasion or manipulation?

15. Opinion formation and change Opinions, attitudes and beliefs: What is the difference? Temporal, fleeting and unstable. More stable and less likely to change. Very stable and resistant to change.

16. The nature of persuasion Learning process Power process Emotional process

17. Designs for persuasion Stimulus-Response – behavior modification Cognitive---think and reason Motivational—change an attitude to fulfill a need Social—background, social class and group norms Personality – each individual is unique

18. Steps in the persuasion process Presenting Attending Comprehending Yielding Retaining the New Position Acting

19. Typology of the steps in persuasion Devise a graphic for Harold Laswell’s Model of persuasion: Who says what—a source and a message Through what channel –a medium To whom—a public With what effect--- an effect

20. source Credible—expertise and objectivity

21. message Should you give one side or both sides? Which side should you give first? Should you make your conclusion explicit? Do fear techniques work? It is better to use emotional or factual arguments?

22. The medium is the message Marshall McLuhan

23. Know your public

24. Did the message do what you wanted it to do?