Seminar 1
• Organisation & their target audiences:
• Customers (Advertising can only target potential customers)
• Partners
• Investors / Shareholders
• Employees
• Suppliers
• Government bodies
• Media (only one that can make or break a company; easiest way to push across a message)
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PR is to protect company’s reputation, credibility, accountability and to maintain trust
Customers need to trust the company to buy their products and services
Understanding the landscape & competitors, and to di erentiate / have an USP
Crisis management — Communicating and managing trust
Networking — creating relationships; events
History of PR — manipulative means, and started as exaggeration; however social media has
changed the landscape and trying to hide is di cult or no longer possible (United Breaks Guitar)
Topics
• Globalisation & culture — communication across geographical borders, di erent methods of
communication due to di erences in culture (Christmas; Chinese New Year)
• Diversity
[Understanding the changes in Singapore’s healthcare system in the last decade](https://
www.todayonline.com/commentary/understanding-changes-singapores-healthcare-system-lastdecade)
Essay
1. Can select any number of campaigns (recommend 2)
2. Communication style for coronavirus - verbal & pictorial (newspapers)
Styles of communication
1. Press agentry — propaganda
2. Public info — Ivy Lee
3. One-way asymmetrical — persuasion (Edward Bernays) - when Singapore introduced IRs
4. Two-way symmetrical — today’s times (boost population in Singapore)
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1 - 3: More for collectivist cultures (asian)
Session 2
History of PR
1. Who was PT Barnum and why was he considered as the father of PR?
https://bigcom.com/2017/01/pt-barnum-marketing-and-public-relations/
2. Who was Ivy Lee and how did he in uence the practice of PR?
Factual and realistic instead of exaggeration and untruths. Public Information - credible
information
3. Who was Edward Bernays and how did he in uence PR?
Professionalism through a PR agency; the di erent elds of PR and how to help them
4. Explain in detail the Torches of Freedom campaign created by Edward Bernays?
Get someone to smoke in public as publicity. Man smoking was commonplace and they
needed new target market - women. Women is 1930 are not given respect and freedom, and
they smoked at home only. Gamechanger for PR - cigarettes change green to be acceptable
by having a green ball (using in uencers in today’s context); and using cigarette as a path to
freedom and women can decide for themselves - Torch of Freedom.
Cigarettes were considered as normal and doctors used them too. No known health issue.
Edward in a later interview - if he had known, he would not have done it.
Persuading people - SIngapore used this too for building the IR (jobs created, economy can
be revived)
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5. How has social media impacted communication for the coronavirus? Real-life examples
Seminar 3
Assignment
- What was the messaging?
- What was done right
- Long-term orientation - Singaporeans empowered to take care of their own health
- Fear, motivation, inspiration based? Started fear-based then move towards motivation and
inspiration - take care of self, healthier society
- Critical analysis and interpretation, and recommendations
- Can include a picture and reference it - better perspective on the campaign
- Essay must have a thesis statement *very important* - what is the essay about and what you
are covering - trailer of the movie - between rst and 2nd paragraph
- Paragraphs linked by logical connectors
- Format!
Culture
1. Identify any three major changes that have taken place in your culture from olden days (20
years ago) to modern times, e.g. CNY celebrations, games, food, etc.
1. Sending wedding invites by hand/hard copy; now sending e-invite
2. Celebrations - dress in traditional clothing e.g. cheongsams; now dress more modern
3. Purchases - buy things/food by going physically to the stores; now click on an app and it
gets delivered
4. Games - more outdoor (hopscotch, ve stones); now more electronic games
5. Mooncake avours - more traditional; now more modern (durian, salted egg)
6. CNY - must wear red; now can wear darker colours
7. Speaking in mother tongue
8. Food that we eat for breakfast, etc.
9. Cross-cultural marriages/relationships
10. Availability of items - e.g. dumplings used to gather around and make, but now buy o the
shelf
11. Culture - cumulative transmitted from generation to generation; responsive - responds to
needs in society
12. How communication changed through culture - letters > calls > emails > WhatsApp
13. Google pulled out of China on 23 Jun 2010 due to di erences in culture; laws of the land;
glocalisation (how much we go local vs keeping the base culture)
2. Why do PR practitioners need to be culturally competent and cultural intermediaries
1. Penetrating into the market (gaining acceptance) - HSBC - the world’s local bank - merger
of di erent banks but positioned themselves (need to understand the value system, what
works in one country may not work in another country); making sense of the culture
2. Avoid o ending / being sensitive to their culture
3. Target the right audience
4. Google moved out of China due to censorship — search engine is to give information
based on any keywords provided (Yahoo and Altavista have already been there and
worked with the censors)
5. Google represented America — individualism (all have a voice and can agree/disagree;
freedom of speech) but moved into an area that restrict voices/communication
6. Business model undermined if they have to mute certain words so can’t achieve aim of
best search engine (The Atlantic article on Google pulling the plug on China)
7. HSBC moving into 380 countries — cultural collision - shows sensitivity to one’s culture
(respect your culture and work with you); positioned as humorous but banking is serious
so they did it sensitively
3. Why do PR practitioners need to know about world a airs (especially related to our client)
Diversity
1. Why is there a gender pay gap between men and women (with women earning less than
men)?
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Culture
- Participatory culture (Alaimo, 2015)
- Social media for cross-cultural communication
- Cultural-centred approach
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Assignment question
1. Cultural aspects of Singapore
2. Singapore government does not usually give subsidies as compared to e.g. Australia
3. Empowering citizens to be proactive in taking care of their health
4. Imparting of information in structured methods
5. Dechipher and dissect the campaign
6. Cultural sensitivity - Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Mosque — have to adapt to their culture and
be all covered up before entering
7. Refer to slides for lecture
8. Hostede’s cultural dimension
1. Power distance
1. Low: do not accept what people in power say; try to create equality; want to have a
say and opinion.
2. High - accept hierarchy, people in higher authority listened to because of their position.
Communication is formal, direct and given as public information.
2. Individualism vs collectivism
1. Individualism - loosely knit social framework. Look after oneself and immediate family
only. Can choose whether they like/agree it or not
2. Collectivism — tightly knit social framework - look after each other for loyalty, people
work in groups. Take care of and get support from people who are close to you.
Motivate or inspire you, your family and society.
3. Masculinity
1. Masculine - social gender roles are clearly distinct
2. Femininity - social gender roles overlap; both are considered equal in the roles
3. Campaigns can focus on results and also on e ects
4. Uncertainty avoidance
1. Ability to withstand uncertainty - avoid uncertainty
2. Structured, sytematic and planned
3. Keep away from issues, risks and problems
4. Information is given to help - if followed will stay out of that issue
5. Penalties to prevent anything left to risk or chance
5. Long-term orientation v short-term orientation
1. ST: Want things now
2. LT: Want to be able to sacri ce now to bene t later (rainy day); pragmatic futureoriented perspective
3. Take care of the issue now so we have lesser issues in future
4. E ort to encourage to do now instead of su ering later
9. COVID-19
1. Use of statistics to show what is happen; use of visuals - surpasses knowledge,
understanding; colours - bright - to gain attention, blue, yellow, green - di erent meanings
2. Be socially responsible - collectivistic culture. Protect yourself and the people around you.
10. Why was the campaign necessary - implications, requirements, etc.? Your take on it
11. History - Why it came about, etc.
Seminar 4
Popular Culture
1. One of the lowest entry barriers - less accreditation, unde ned job scope (creating good
impressions of the company), lesser positive image
2. What is the value of a reputation? Airplane crash - how does it a ect the company?
3. A company talks to its stakeholders and it does so di erently for each (McD to media,
customers, employees, suppliers, etc.) - without social media they will have to meet people;
the unde ned role is mostly invisible. The visible part is having fun
4. PR — relationship building & networking - outsiders associate it with fun and games
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Assignment - Reading Summaries
1. Format - topic, session, reading name (from study guide)
2. 500 words each +- 10% (include word count)
3. New page for each summary
4. 1.5cm line spacing, Times New Roman
5. 1 summary per topic (incl. Popular Culture)
6. Can use rst person view
7. 300 words to summarise; 200 words critical analysis (look at case studies discussed in rst
half hour of class)
8. “Author has focused on…”