Week eleven .... the final BLOG... :)

Chapter 6 ‘Research and Evaluation’

After my own debate yesterday, I found out how important is it to write a blog in an interesting way to actually make people read the whole thing. Hence I’ll put in extra efforts in this last week’s blog to at least make it some interesting to read. So Melanie doesn’t just skip over the blog and actually read my very last blog… This week’s readings were all about research and evaluation. Three terms, which I feel must be remembered from this week’s reading are:-

• Input
• Output
• Outcome
  
  

The most important terms, which marked boundaries for the reading’s scope.

Ethics are important and must be discussed in any form of research and the practitioner must be conscious of any kind of manipulation in the output or input data.

The concept hidden behind these terms are was quite hard for me to grab. There are also various types of input research methods that must be applied in practice as
A PR practitioner:

• Exploratory
• Development
• Benchmarking

Singh also shows that research must be taught in the course as a very important stage of the public relations process. The chapter is a helpful one in understanding about the actual job of a Public relation practitioner. Just how much research is involved must also be seen as an essential task and must remain ongoing. Practitioners must be aware that there is a thing called too much research which might lead into wasting of valuable time and money.

The use of different methodologies is an important talent of public relation practitioners. He can opt to use formal or informal research with qualitative or quantitative methodologies. It may be under a primary or secondary research.

Research must be an ongoing activity and is essential to successful public relations endeavours, especially plans, campaigns and strategies. Research is a fundamental part of public relations practice and must be followed at all stages. Its use determines if a practitioner is acting as a professional or not means is he purposive, goal-directed and problem solving or not. Research techniques vary greatly including surveys which can be conducted in. The style of research will depend upon the system that the organisation operates under.

The reading made me think more about public relations theory in terms of intense research needed.

Some important quotes from the reading:

• “Management requires more facts and statistics from PR professionals to show that their efforts contribute not only to overall organisational effectiveness but also to the bottom line.”
• Input research: determines what goes into a campaign. “Input can indicate what problems or opportunities exist, what the perceptions and beliefs of the public are and what tools or methods of communication would be most effective in helping the organisation achieve its objectives with those publics."
• "Outcome research measures the extent to which the original campaign objectives were met, providing a sound basis from which to begin the planning for future campaigns."


I learnt public relations theory and practice in much more depth and the ways in which the proceedings actually happen in a profession. These research skills might even be very useful in writing for the final PR report. No matter how good the research is, most important thing is how you use the information you have gathered. Research can therefore be used as a tool in building and managing successful public relations activities.

And one last thing before i conclude my last blog.... this was a far too exciting experience to write blogs, as it was a first attempt for me. Reaching the last bit of blogging has made me a bit more inclined towards writing. I do not find a better way of understanding the readings than to actually read and summaries them and receive some positive and motivating comments. I hope blogging has enhanced my writing abilities from the beginning till end.

Yeah... I'm so happy to finally conclude my last blog.