Week 2 Blog (late sorry)

Hey this is my first time blogging. I've been in Bali and I have missed the last few weeks. I'm going to catch up so wish me luck....

I think the key points to remember from this week's readings were:

• Modern practitioners of PR work is areas as diverse as media relations, sponsorship, crisis/issues management, financial relations, marketing and community relations. There are many different titles used to describe jobs in this field such as Public Affairs Executive and Media Liaison Director.
  
• PR definitions, purposes and functions- maintaining and organisation's relations with its various publics, to advise management on policy and its effect on public, provide mechanics for explaining an organisation and its policies to the public through the media for example and also the definitions for public relations activities. Send messages out over the internet, film/tv and paper news releases. Write speeches and develop presentations, handle media inquiries and more.
  
• That public relations is different to sales and marketing as it doesn't necessarily focus on profits, press releases are printed for free and is uncontrolled as such. The different areas of practice and the skills that each area employs have developed as Australian businesses, society and media have grown. The modern skills for PR include vocational skills, relationship skills, professional skills, understanding technology, industry knowledge.
• The history of PR- The principles of PR were introduced to Australia by Sir Asher Joel and Eric White in 1950s. Knowledge of PR began in 1959 and was very similar to US. World War II influenced development in communication and PR. A short time later the Public Relations Institute of Australia was founded.
  
• PR aim- to achieve news coverage in the quality press, the publication important to business interests.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that I didn't realise how many job opportunities there are- Public affairs, marketing, internal communications, media advising, technology and new media, celebrity management, community relations, fundrasing, government and more. I also got thinking about agency, in-house, working overseas and have narrowed down which direction I would most like to take if I decide to work in PR.