Classmates' Blogs

         The first blog I chose to further investigate was Jordana's blog. Her topic is PR Research in relation to American Cancer Society, which is something I personally have a lot of interest in. I help coordinate Relay for Life both here at Quinnipiac as well as at my high school. The non-profit world of public relations truly intrigues me, because you would not think research is such a huge aspect in this area of PR. Reading Jordana's blog made me rethink that thought completely. Jordana's specific post on research results is what really changed my mind. Like she explains, ACS is constantly doing cancer research to try to find a cure. Jordana also mentions the report the American Cancer Society presents  with all results from their research within the year consissting of questions and answers, figures, statistics etc. The results from these reports show research answers such as how many expected cases of cancers they are predicting. For example in 2010 an estimated 207,090 cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed for women and 1,970 diagnosed in men. It's facts like this that can also be tracked back to the idea of crisis management situations. Having information such as over 200,000 cases of breast cancer being expected in the coming year is something that can be crisis centered, and reporting something of that nature to people is not something easy to do, but is a part of both research and public relations. Overall though I found Jordana's blog to be interesting, and very informative of the types of research American Cancer Society does, as well as other non-profits.

      The other blog I chose to read was Steph Ferris' blog, which ironically deals with the research that goes into the PR tactic of blogging. I didn't even consider research being a part of blogging, but after reading Steph's posts I can now see how blogs can even be the provider of information for companies, celebrities etc. The example she gives about tv shows for Bravo having their casts blog about the show of that week, such as the cast of "The Real Housewives" shows and "Top Chef." The differnet blogs can be found on Bravo's website. The fact that these cast members are able to blog will only help increase the audience and it will act as a type of research for the tv company because it allows them to see what aspects of the show the viewers like the most, the least and can alter the next season or spisode to be something the viewers will like. Steph also focused on the top blogger himself, Perez Hilton, who blogs daily about the lives of celebrities and other pop culture gossip. From the information that Perez puts on his blog, he's single handedly able to increase consumers interest in virtually anything he blogs about. Steph's blog opened my eyes to how blogging is become a crucial part to the PR industry. More and more companies will be taking advantage of these blogs, and in the idea of crisis management it could be helpful. If companies start to keep blogs and a crisis arises, they will be able to quickly blog their solution so the public is kept informed 24/7. Blogging is only getting bigger and bigger and will eventually be a huge part of public relations, even in the non-profit world.

Pow Pow, research helps.

It is a very valid point in saying that research is a touchy subject, especially when referring to crisis management. Depending on the crisis at hand the steps taken to do the research and fix the problem must be very carefully planned out. Research must be done to see what the problem is, who’s involved and that all the information about every part of the situation is correct.

Something that is a high profile crisis that would need immediate attention would be a school shooting. Even though you don’t think there would be research involved but there’s tons of it. For example, you must find out all the information about who the shooter was in a situation like that, why would they do something like that? Were there behavioral issues? Then go into further questioning about the school, the people who work there, the children who attend it. It’s also imperative that all the information about that day was collected and every step necessary is taken to make that school feel like a home again.  In a situation like a school shooting the research results plays a huge role, because it’s the research of what would make people feel safe again; what can others do to make something that drastic go back to normal? But, that’s the job of anyone in the PR field, to know how to handle crisis situations; and you want to make sure you do your research all the way through because if the research is wrong, the way you go about solving the issue at hand could be completely thrown off. I know if I were to experience something as horrible as a shooting at school it would take a lot for me to feel comfortable there again, and that's part of the research needed in a situation like that. Once a crisis situation happens, information must be given out and the research continues as time goes on to see what more can be done to a)prevent it from happening again and b) making people feel more comfortable with the world around them.

It’s hard to believe but shootings are happening in middle schools as well, which provides for even more crisis control and background research.A shooting at Discovery Middle School happened in the beginning of 2010 and immediately there were press releases out about what had happen, with enough details to provide information. They then have to, like I said, figure out what can be done to make this middle school become a home again for all the students, parents, faculty and community. It's extra tough because it was a middle school, but some steps were even taken days after the shooting to ensure students that it was being handled. The superintendent himself ensured that there would be more security and that the entire situation would be handled, as it was as time went on. The accused had a hearing and steps such as local counseling for the children was offered.  Clearly there was more research going on about the individuals involved but the research that goes into any crisis situation is unbelievable. From start to finish, research is there, even in situations as horrible as this.

Why this blog?

I chose research in the section of crisis management because I beleive that it is an overlooked area of research. In any crisis situation there needs to be research. The professional or firm standing behind a person, company, celebrity etc. in crisis needs to know their facts and know what they're talking about .They need to know the ins and outs of each side of the crisis as well. All aspects of PR include research, but this one is vital. As a PR professional you want to make your client look good, but also do that by using facts.

In this blog I plan to find crisis issues in the public and/or PR world and see how research was used in those situations. Hopefully I'll be able to prove that research is in fact a huge part of crisis management.