Seems so weird that the semester is coming to an end, time flies when you're doing research I guess! Didn't think that I'd ever make it to the end of the semester (and I'm sure some will agree!), but here we are we all made it and all made it a lot more proficent in blogging than we were when we first entered the classroom.
I took a look at a few classmate's blogs and what they've talked about the past few weeks in regards to surveys and experiements and one that caught my eye was Lisa's blog. I'd been keepig up with her blog because I enjoyed her witty titles and interesting posts all semester long. She presented quite a funny experiment that she talked about, dealing with the one and only Lindsay Lohan (talk about crisis managament!) An experiement dealing with Lohan's prision experience seems kind of silly, but there's always somethig to do research on. Lisa's thoughts about splitting people up for experiements into groups really made me think; how can you be sure it is randomized? Her example relating experiements to students was interesting, when relating it to adderall. It'd be interesting to see the differences in the experiemental group and control group, of really any experiement.
The second blog I looked at was Tom's blog, which was on a completely different topic than Lisa's but still something I've been following for the remainder of the semester. Tom's blog deals primarily with sports, and the post on experiements dealt more with sports medicine which really caught my eye. He went on to talk about how the NFL is trying to find ways to prevent serious injuries such as spinal injuries from happenign as often as they do. "Over 20 current and former NFL players have agreed to donate their brian and spinal cord tissue to science upon death so that researchers can study the effects of repeated head trauma on the nervous system," Tom explains. Doing experiments and tests like this on athletes to see how these injuries can be prevented is something that the industry truly needs. Relating this back to my main topic, crisis management, this is a wonderful tool sports PR could use. If their teams are doing experiments and research like this it is great PR to fix any crisis or injury they may face.
Once again, I can't believe it's the end of a semeter. Thanks to anyone who read this blog, I think all my classmates did an absolutely wonderful job in all of their blogs and we all gained valuable information about research in the PR world today. I hope everyone has a safe and fun break and has a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Experimental Research
Public Relations would not normally be an outlet in which I would think experiements would be done to obtain certain research. Experiments are usually something science related, which is a common misconception. A lot of research can be done through experimental avenues, like the example we had in class of what could be seen as a survey but was in fact a type of experiment.
When it comes to crisis management, similar to surveying employees on their comfort level of being able to handle a crisis, companies could do some sort of expeiment within their company to see if they truly are ready for whatever is to come their way. For example, how would a company react if they were to find out a client of theirs was involved in a scandal how would they react? A company could do an experiment and put this "fake" situation in front of their clients, splitting them into a control and experimental group. One group would be given help and tools to help solve the crisis situation and the other wouldn't. To get different perspectivies and results on how to handle one of these situations if they were to ever arise would be a great result of such an experiment.
There's also the choice of doing a social media experiment through facebook, videos and the internet. Especially in the field of crisis managment because of the medias constant coverage on any type of global situation. Any crisis that seems to occur in the world, or even in the country when dealing with celebrities is covered by the media so doing an experiment with how many sites cover a certain crisis, how many people look at these sites, etc. I think the social media outlet would be great for firms in crisis managament when dealing with experiments
The hardest part about any experiment is the actual production of it. There can' be any bias from the people putting on the experiment. The groups must be randomly assigned to stray away from this bias and the groups should be tested to make sure they are even. You must also test the participants after the experiment to see if it was in fact successful. Experiments are not just for science, but a great outlet for Public Relations companies, and are very under-utalized. They are a little more expensive and harder to go about doing because the outcomes are never predictable, but if done the right way they are helpful in the PR world.
When it comes to crisis management, similar to surveying employees on their comfort level of being able to handle a crisis, companies could do some sort of expeiment within their company to see if they truly are ready for whatever is to come their way. For example, how would a company react if they were to find out a client of theirs was involved in a scandal how would they react? A company could do an experiment and put this "fake" situation in front of their clients, splitting them into a control and experimental group. One group would be given help and tools to help solve the crisis situation and the other wouldn't. To get different perspectivies and results on how to handle one of these situations if they were to ever arise would be a great result of such an experiment.
There's also the choice of doing a social media experiment through facebook, videos and the internet. Especially in the field of crisis managment because of the medias constant coverage on any type of global situation. Any crisis that seems to occur in the world, or even in the country when dealing with celebrities is covered by the media so doing an experiment with how many sites cover a certain crisis, how many people look at these sites, etc. I think the social media outlet would be great for firms in crisis managament when dealing with experiments
The hardest part about any experiment is the actual production of it. There can' be any bias from the people putting on the experiment. The groups must be randomly assigned to stray away from this bias and the groups should be tested to make sure they are even. You must also test the participants after the experiment to see if it was in fact successful. Experiments are not just for science, but a great outlet for Public Relations companies, and are very under-utalized. They are a little more expensive and harder to go about doing because the outcomes are never predictable, but if done the right way they are helpful in the PR world.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Surveys in Crisis Management
Surveys are a vital research tool in Public Relations, it's cheap and easy to reach to people in large amounts Surveys are commonly used by advertising and PR researches to provide information about populations to clients, government agencies, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and educators. Surveys are customized to fit a specific research goal. Each question is developed to solicit information to expand knowledge about a particular issue.The more specific you are in developing your goals, the easier it will be to collect quality data. You would think that a survey wouldn't be too useful in the world of crisis management, but in fact it's a valuable to companies within their employees. For example, after the September 11th events many companies surveyed their employees to see if they thought they would be ready for when a crisis were to hit. AMA did a similar survey to its members and customers to determine if companies are prepared today to handle a major crisis. In light of the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks, AMA surveyed its members and customers to determine if companies are prepared today to handle a major crisis. They continued to survey every other year after September 11th. According to the results, 61% of executives said their companies have established a crisis management plan, down from 64% in 2003.
Surveys are just a very effective way of get employees to have their voices heard as well as getting information from people outside of their company's points of view. Another pro to doing surveys in the work place when dealing with crisis management would be the fact that people are able to give their opinions while staying secret. People are usually more likely to get what they want off their chests if they know people don't know their identity, especially in the work place. In the field of crisis managament I feel one of the only ways to implement a survey is with the employees of the company, and while many Public Relations firms do so, more and more should consider implimenting this method.
Surveys are just a very effective way of get employees to have their voices heard as well as getting information from people outside of their company's points of view. Another pro to doing surveys in the work place when dealing with crisis management would be the fact that people are able to give their opinions while staying secret. People are usually more likely to get what they want off their chests if they know people don't know their identity, especially in the work place. In the field of crisis managament I feel one of the only ways to implement a survey is with the employees of the company, and while many Public Relations firms do so, more and more should consider implimenting this method.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Qualitative Research for York Hill Students
Qualitative research is used to gain insight into people's attitudes, behaviours, value systems, concerns, motivations, aspirations, culture or lifestyles. These past two weeks we've had assignments on doing different types of qualitative research to see what students on this campus like, such as sports teams and some of their habits, such as which door they use the most when entering the School of Communications. It's small oberservational experienments like these that are able to utalize qualitative research and get results without having to intrude on the people who are being observed.
Another type of qualitative research that is often used in the industry would be focus groups. I know that recently one of the Public Relations classes had to hold a focus group about the School of Communications. I thought it would be interesting to do a focus group with some current juniors and talk about the new York Hill campus. To get some ideas on how to run this focus group I used the Free Management Library's basis of conducting a focus group. I put together some questions to ask, or bring up in discussion such as what students think of the current shuttle system from York Hill to Mount Carmel, what their thoughts are on the fact that there is currently no staff at the health services at York Hill, and how much they utalize the cafe at Rocky Top. My focus group consisted of ten juniors living at York Hill and provided me with a great deal of feedback. In the aspect of crisis management, these are crisis situations for many students here at York Hill.
Some of the feedback was that the shuttles are too unreliable for them to use. "I have to leave at least a half hour before class to get there on time," one participant commented, and all agreed. The general consensus was that many students drive opposed to taking the shuttle because they know they will get to class on time and it's less of a hassle. In the area of health services, all of the participants were disturbed by the fact that it was not staffed, but wasn't one of their main concerns. One of the participants is a RA and explained how many of his residents have been sent to the hospital because of the lack of nurses up here. This comment did in fact spark the level of concern in the other participants. The last topic, regarding the cafe, through these ten students showed that it is not utalized as much as it should be. Their comments had a lot to do with they were unaware of what the hours are, and theres never a lot of food options when they do go. Hopefully, this will change as the year goes on, but there was a lot of helpful feedback from the participants. Although this was only a group of ten students, there can be other focus groups done to get more opinions on the York Hill campus. I'm sure focus groups like the one I conducted would be benefical to not only other students, like myself being involved in SGA, but also administration for their future campus expansions.
Qualitative research is something that I feel is very necessary to the PR industry to get feedback on people's feelings and attitudes. Quantitative research provides people with numbers to back up these feeings, but what do the numbers really mean if there's no attitudes and feelings described as well? It's the people, in these focus groups, in these observations that help make different methods and theories, and are very much needed in this industry. Even in something as simple as a focus group for getting feedback on York Hill is helpful and is something I'll probably do again.
Another type of qualitative research that is often used in the industry would be focus groups. I know that recently one of the Public Relations classes had to hold a focus group about the School of Communications. I thought it would be interesting to do a focus group with some current juniors and talk about the new York Hill campus. To get some ideas on how to run this focus group I used the Free Management Library's basis of conducting a focus group. I put together some questions to ask, or bring up in discussion such as what students think of the current shuttle system from York Hill to Mount Carmel, what their thoughts are on the fact that there is currently no staff at the health services at York Hill, and how much they utalize the cafe at Rocky Top. My focus group consisted of ten juniors living at York Hill and provided me with a great deal of feedback. In the aspect of crisis management, these are crisis situations for many students here at York Hill.
Some of the feedback was that the shuttles are too unreliable for them to use. "I have to leave at least a half hour before class to get there on time," one participant commented, and all agreed. The general consensus was that many students drive opposed to taking the shuttle because they know they will get to class on time and it's less of a hassle. In the area of health services, all of the participants were disturbed by the fact that it was not staffed, but wasn't one of their main concerns. One of the participants is a RA and explained how many of his residents have been sent to the hospital because of the lack of nurses up here. This comment did in fact spark the level of concern in the other participants. The last topic, regarding the cafe, through these ten students showed that it is not utalized as much as it should be. Their comments had a lot to do with they were unaware of what the hours are, and theres never a lot of food options when they do go. Hopefully, this will change as the year goes on, but there was a lot of helpful feedback from the participants. Although this was only a group of ten students, there can be other focus groups done to get more opinions on the York Hill campus. I'm sure focus groups like the one I conducted would be benefical to not only other students, like myself being involved in SGA, but also administration for their future campus expansions.
Qualitative research is something that I feel is very necessary to the PR industry to get feedback on people's feelings and attitudes. Quantitative research provides people with numbers to back up these feeings, but what do the numbers really mean if there's no attitudes and feelings described as well? It's the people, in these focus groups, in these observations that help make different methods and theories, and are very much needed in this industry. Even in something as simple as a focus group for getting feedback on York Hill is helpful and is something I'll probably do again.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Classmate's and Facebook...?
I feel that even browsing through my fellow classmate's blogs is a form of unobtrusive research. Through their blogs, even if they deal with issues such as media, fashion, non-profits, how their bligs are set up and what their topics are can tell us a little bit about each individual, therefore qualifiing it as unobtrusive research. Even me currently "facebook stalking" instead of fully trying to concentrate on this blog post is unobtrusive because through all the news feed updates and such I'm learning about people, without them fully knowing it.
Going off of that creepy comment, I found Blaine's blog to be interesting when talking about entertainment and technology in regards to unobtrusive research. She discussed the obsession with blackberries in today's society, and I'm not going to lie I am one of those peple who does have a blackberry, and I do love it. Through some of her findings of observing people with and without blackberries and could see how some of it held true. I like being connected with the outside world with the touch of a button. I like that I can be reached any time of day from really any avenue of media, but on the other hand I can see how absurd it can truly be. Technology is really becoming such a huge part of everyday life, even being seen in the moives like Blaine discussed, how "The Social Network" is the new movie out and it's all about the creation of Facebook and how popular it's become. It's truly amazing to see how fast we are able to connect with people all around the world, with the press of a button. It's also amazing to see how we are able to do so much research through all of these avenues, even to see how we can research the current obsession with technology through unobtrusive research. Just how many times does someone check their blackberry a day? How many times does someone go on Facebook? It's questions like this that can be answered to show how much technology has become a part of our lives.
To further all of Blaine's points, my fellow classmate Katie Warner's blog continued the quest of unobtrusive research through the avenue of Facebook, but looking at an opposite side-the non profit side. Katie stresses the fact that, "Nonprofit corporations are companies funded by donations; they rely heavily on the amount of public's that are attracted to their message in order to remain successful." She has an article in her blog that discusses " of social media, and how it is important to utilize the various media outlets to attract your target audience. Research done showed that 150 million people in the U.S. have a Facebook page and 39 million people are frequent users who “use social media several times per day” Non-profits can take a huge advantage of Facebook, because it;s a great avenue for unobtrusive research. They can take advantage of this because it's a cheap way of gaining information for any organization in large amounts. All in all, both of these classmate's blogs offered great insight to the areas of social media in unobtrusive research. Facebook, as much of a "college distraction" as it is, is a great outlet for unobtrusive research for all organizations as proved in both my classmate's blogs.
Going off of that creepy comment, I found Blaine's blog to be interesting when talking about entertainment and technology in regards to unobtrusive research. She discussed the obsession with blackberries in today's society, and I'm not going to lie I am one of those peple who does have a blackberry, and I do love it. Through some of her findings of observing people with and without blackberries and could see how some of it held true. I like being connected with the outside world with the touch of a button. I like that I can be reached any time of day from really any avenue of media, but on the other hand I can see how absurd it can truly be. Technology is really becoming such a huge part of everyday life, even being seen in the moives like Blaine discussed, how "The Social Network" is the new movie out and it's all about the creation of Facebook and how popular it's become. It's truly amazing to see how fast we are able to connect with people all around the world, with the press of a button. It's also amazing to see how we are able to do so much research through all of these avenues, even to see how we can research the current obsession with technology through unobtrusive research. Just how many times does someone check their blackberry a day? How many times does someone go on Facebook? It's questions like this that can be answered to show how much technology has become a part of our lives.
To further all of Blaine's points, my fellow classmate Katie Warner's blog continued the quest of unobtrusive research through the avenue of Facebook, but looking at an opposite side-the non profit side. Katie stresses the fact that, "Nonprofit corporations are companies funded by donations; they rely heavily on the amount of public's that are attracted to their message in order to remain successful." She has an article in her blog that discusses " of social media, and how it is important to utilize the various media outlets to attract your target audience. Research done showed that 150 million people in the U.S. have a Facebook page and 39 million people are frequent users who “use social media several times per day” Non-profits can take a huge advantage of Facebook, because it;s a great avenue for unobtrusive research. They can take advantage of this because it's a cheap way of gaining information for any organization in large amounts. All in all, both of these classmate's blogs offered great insight to the areas of social media in unobtrusive research. Facebook, as much of a "college distraction" as it is, is a great outlet for unobtrusive research for all organizations as proved in both my classmate's blogs.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
How Unobtrusive Can You bBe?
When thinking of unobtrusive research, crisis management is not really something that would come to mind as a situation that would require this specific method. Unobtrusive research is a method that doesn't require the subject's knowledge of you researching and studying them. It can either be done in a social setting, or can be as secretive as looking at someones police records. As we've been discussing in class, unobtrusive research can have its pros and its cons, and has a lot to do with the ethics of the situation. On the positive side, it is able to reduce bias in the research situation, and it's very accesible to do and also very cost effective, because usually unobtrusive research requires you to either observe a subject, or gather information that has already been researched for you. The cons that are usually presented include the validity of the researchers findings and the lack of control the researcher has on the experiment.
The one aspect of unobtrusive research we discussed in class that I could see being put to use in a crisis management situation would be the historical and legal aspect of the method. Through this avenue, the researcher is able to find out information about a subject through legal records, criminal records, online photos, newspapers etc, really anything avaliable to the public. Another way of looking at it is if your company or business is going through a crisis situation, they can be being researched through all of these ways and you wouldn't know it because it is unobtrusive. For example, last year it was such a scandal that "raunchy" pictures of Miley Cyrus were being shown all over the internet. No one claims to know how those pictures got realeased, and none were truly bad, but they were out there for the public to see. For someone who simply googled Miley Cyrus, those pictures would come up, and that could be considered unobtrusive research on that specific celebrity. Whoever Cyrus' agent or "go-to" person for a crisis situation had to have been all over that scandal, making sure Cyrus was protected throughout the entire process.
To me, I don't see all unobtrusive research being "unethical" or something we shouldn't partake in as both PR and research professionals. It is a creative way to go about research with getting serious, not skewed results from your participants. Yes, there are lines that should never be crossed ethically, but overall it is a good research method in my eyes. In regards to using this method with a crisis situation, there aren't too many I can think of, except making sure whoever or whatever you are representing you make sure any unobtrusive research being done about them or your company is limited so they are protected at all times and crisises can be avoided.
The one aspect of unobtrusive research we discussed in class that I could see being put to use in a crisis management situation would be the historical and legal aspect of the method. Through this avenue, the researcher is able to find out information about a subject through legal records, criminal records, online photos, newspapers etc, really anything avaliable to the public. Another way of looking at it is if your company or business is going through a crisis situation, they can be being researched through all of these ways and you wouldn't know it because it is unobtrusive. For example, last year it was such a scandal that "raunchy" pictures of Miley Cyrus were being shown all over the internet. No one claims to know how those pictures got realeased, and none were truly bad, but they were out there for the public to see. For someone who simply googled Miley Cyrus, those pictures would come up, and that could be considered unobtrusive research on that specific celebrity. Whoever Cyrus' agent or "go-to" person for a crisis situation had to have been all over that scandal, making sure Cyrus was protected throughout the entire process.
To me, I don't see all unobtrusive research being "unethical" or something we shouldn't partake in as both PR and research professionals. It is a creative way to go about research with getting serious, not skewed results from your participants. Yes, there are lines that should never be crossed ethically, but overall it is a good research method in my eyes. In regards to using this method with a crisis situation, there aren't too many I can think of, except making sure whoever or whatever you are representing you make sure any unobtrusive research being done about them or your company is limited so they are protected at all times and crisises can be avoided.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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.
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.
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