PR 3310Principles of Public Relations
Thursday, 6/4/09
Class Objectives
Hand in Ex. 2- discussion about it Ethics are at many levels
You may disagree with something that your employer agrees with
Do you quit the job? For this assignment, YOU may disagree with marketing
cigarettes. But there was more to this assignment than expressing your opinions.
What were some past campaigns? (Bernays) Did you explore media types given the geographic locations? Are there alternative messages? (Bernays’ campaign was
about independence for females) The point is, we all have opinions. How can we separate
ourselves out and examine a topic more objectively? See all sides? (by researching the topic)
Class Objectives
Lecture Ch. 5, Quantitative research Won’t get access until Friday for Blackboard
Homework assignment Read chapter 6
What’s in the news today?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/sports/basketball/04webcohen.html?_r=1&hpw
Congressman is asking NBA to rescind the policy that players can’t enter the NBA until age 19 Calling it a type of “slavery”! Saying that soldiers can fight for their country at age 18 but
not play in the N.B.A. Noting that predominantly white sports like hockey, baseball
and golf lack similar restrictions. Issues – essentially forces athletes to go to college even if
they don’t want to Issues – primarily affects poorer African American males Problem- NBA commissioner want to RAISE age to 20! Look at how the players’ union publicist responds
What’s in the news today?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090603/ap_on_go_ot/us_us_nuclear_list
Whoops! A 266 page document that listed U.S. nuclear sites and their activities was accidentally posted on the Government Printing Office website (it’s now removed)
The head of the National Nuclear Security Admin. told a Senate hearing that the sites on the list are of civilian facilities and that none of the information is classified. Still, he said he's concerned the list could provide an "easy locator" for uranium storage sites and other facilities related to the country's civilian nuclear program
An Energy Department official said none of the sites on the list are directly part of the government's nuclear weapons infrastructure
NOTE: all the words did not copy and paste off of this url!
Content Analysis
Systematic and objective counting or categorization of information. Who says what, to whom, why, to what extent
and with what effect? Used to measure the amount of media
coverage ad the content of that coverage circulation, readership, # of viewers/listeners,
frequency of publication/program Book lists under Qualitative Research, but it
could be Quantitative as well
Content Analysis Example: counting words A survey was given to ~400 people. Open-ended questions were asked about the
people’s views of their town’s future. The answers were typed into computer, and a
software was used to count the frequency of the words, thereby generating a list of keywords that summarized most respondents’ opinions on this issue.
Content Analysis Example: counting content A study that examined the representation of women
in introductory public relations textbooks. 6 textbooks were used
Photographs, profiles, quotations, and citations were examined to see if they showed or mentioned women.
Findings suggest that women are not represented in introductory public relations textbooks at the percentages at which they represent the field. These results suggest that the contributions and
importance of women to public relations may not be covered in as much detail as would seem justified since the field is a feminized practice.
Google News Timeline and Content Analysis Go to a beta version of Google News
Timeline (which is different than Google News) and type in a story name http://newstimeline.googlelabs.com/ See how many stories appear, on what days,
and who covered them
Copy Testing
Pre-testing a message (with a focus group) before the message goes out (on an printed piece, radio spot, etc.) Focus group is shown dummy advertisements and
asked to recall copy points Post-testing a message after the message is run
Focus group shown a magazine and then asked to comment on advertisements they remember
The use of 2 (or more) messages mailed to selected individuals in the same audience. Can determine which message drew the larger percentage of requests or orders.
Copy Testing catches…
Text that is written at too high a level for the target audience
“Readability” of material Counting syllables and using complex sentences
should be for higher level of education Also can pertain to the design of material; often
called “usability” Size of typeface (font) Type of typeface Backlit (monitors) versus no-lit (Kindle)
Copy Testing example: effectiveness of a banner adv. Want to test to see which banner advertisements lure
users to an external Web page. Demonstrate that click-through rate (the %e of
visitors to a Web page clicking on an advertisement banner) can vary according to the advertisement copy.
Perform an A/B split run test in which 2 different ads are each shown to half of an audience. Since the audience, timing, and position are the same
for each ad being tested, it's relatively easy to assess an ad's effectiveness.
Copy Testing example: Google
Test copy, design, even which color of blue should represent a hyperlink
http://communityseo.com/forums/Glimpse-into-Google-Copy-and-A-B-Testing-t1584.html
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research = is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories and/or hypotheses pertaining to natural phenomena. Research involving the use of structured
questions where the response options have been predetermined (closed)
Normally have a large number of respondents Numbers, objective hard data.
Pros: Generalize to a larger audiecne Cons: wide coverage, not deep
Quantitative Research: Scientific Sampling Scientific Sampling is all about getting a
random sample Random Sampling Procedures
Also Called Probability Sample : Equal Chance of Being Selected
Often Drawn from List Quota Sampling Done to Match
Characteristics of Sample and Overall Audience
Quantitative Research: Scientific Sampling Size of Sample
National Samples Usually 1000 to 1500 Persons
For PR: Sample of 250 to 500 Yields About 5% Variance
Common to see 100 (try to get randomly selected participants)
For statistics, 60 is lowest
Comparison of quant. and qual.
Quantitative Research Objective Numbers Tests theory Strives for
generalization Random selection of
subjects/ participants Larger sample size
Qualitative Research Subjective Rich/deep data Develops theory Strives for
uniqueness Purposeful selection
of subjects/ participants
Smaller sample size
Quantitative Research with human subjects Very popular is to use questionnaires Experiments are also quantitative
Questionnaire Design
1. The Problem of Semantics: the meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or text Avoid Biased Wording Timing and Context Political Correctness The Answer Categories Can Skew Results b) Yes-No Answers (binary) c) Likert-Type Scale (1-5) d) Semantic Differential Technique:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_differential
Questionnaire Guidelines
Decide what type and how much detail is needed in the information you want to collect
State Survey Objectives Decide Which Group Will Be Surveyed Set Sample Size State Purpose and Guarantee Anonymity Use Closed-Ended Answers Design for Easy Coding Strive for About 25 Questions
Questionnaire Guidelines
Use Categories for Sensitive Demographics Income
Use Simple, Familiar Words Avoid Ambiguity/ vaguely described words
Biweekly instead of twice a week Edit Leading Questions Remember Context and Placement of Questions Provide Space for Comments If possible, have a pretest Questionnaire
Ways of Reaching Respondents
1. Mail Questionnaires 2. Telephone Surveys (CATI labs) 3. Personal Interviews 4. Piggyback Surveys 5. Web and E-mail Surveys (Survey Monkey)
Normally, a response rate of 30% is high You mail out 100 surveys and get 30 returned
Video: Corporate social responsibility
1. As a business 2. To their employees 3. To their customers