The Update

4/2005

Welcome to the official newsletter of the Greater Spokane PRSA Chapter. Past issues can be found by going to www.prsaspokane.org and clicking on the "Newsletters" link.

April 2005 Program – Don’t Miss It!

Media Convergence: Implications for Public Relations Professionals

A moderated panel discussion with local media representatives

Friday, April 1, 2005

7:30 to 9 a.m.

Gonzaga University COG, Spokane Room

Seasoned media professionals will discuss the trend toward convergence and the implications for public relations practitioners. They will also offer tips and techniques for working with print and broadcast newsrooms. Join us Friday, April 1, as Steve Blewett, ABC, associate professor and journalism director, Eastern Washington University, facilitates a moderated discussion with:

·         Susanna Baylon, KXLY-4 and News 920 AM

·         Jeff Hite, KHQ-6

·         Ken Sands, The Spokesman-Review

Each panelist will describe their news organization in terms of audience, operations and their role in covering the news. They’ll reflect on media convergence and the impacts of technology, 24-hour news cycles, blogging and audience fragmentation. You’ll hear about the pressures facing newsrooms today and learn more about how you, as a public relations professional, can turn the challenges of media convergence into opportunities for success. 

About the Panelists

Susanna Baylon anchors Good Morning Northwest with Mark Peterson every weekday on KXLY-News 4. An experienced anchor, reporter and producer of television news, Susanna came to Spokane from Bay News 9 in Tampa, where she helped launch the 24-hour news channel and contributed to the success of its morning news. Susanna is an Emmy award winning broadcast journalist. She received an Emmy for a 30-minute special she reported and produced after spending a week traveling through Peru. Susanna has also worked at television stations in Missouri and Illinois. A native of Cleveland, Susanna holds a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University and a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Syracuse University. She is an adjunct professor at Whitworth College’s Communications Studies department. 

An experienced photographer, Jeff Hite is executive producer for KHQ-6. In this role, he oversees the team of news photographers and operations. A graduate of the television production program at Spokane Falls Community College, Jeff has worked at KHQ for more than 20 years. He was promoted to chief photographer in 1989 and then into his current position. He won the Edward R. Murrow Award in 2002 for a special on Spokane serial killer Robert Yates. Jeff is married, has one son in college, enjoys the outdoors and has many hobbies.

Ken Sands is Online Publisher at The Spokesman-Review. He has been a reporter, assistant city editor, bureau chief, interactive editor and managing editor since he began at the paper in 1981. He is a board member of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association (APME) and an active member of the Online News Association. His innovative work in civic journalism and interactivity has been recognized with the Batten Award for Excellence in Civic Journalism (1998) and the APME’s Convergence Award honorable mention (2002). Ken is a consultant with the APME’s National Credibility Roundtables project, and in that capacity has tutored 75 newsrooms across the country on how to use e-mail to better interact with readers. In addition to his pioneering work on the use of e-mail, he has led the newspaper industry in experimentation with blogging.

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Public relations professionals will share their experience with students on Friday, April 1, at the annual PRSA Day on the Job. The event takes a different format this year, beginning with the professional breakfast rather than ending with a luncheon.

This popular job-shadowing event matches communications students from the various chapters of PRSSA at Washington State University, Gonzaga University and Eastern Washington University and students from the University of Idaho and Whitworth College with a professional communicator in the Spokane area for part of their workday.

Professionals will meet their student(s) over breakfast at the regularly scheduled PRSA / SPRC membership meeting at 7:30 a.m. Friday April 1, when scholarship and internship awards will be announced.

Feedback from students and professionals rates the Day on the Job experience as one of the most rewarding of the year.

To see if there are any slots available, email Maria Ranniger at MTR Communications at mtrcom@mindspring.com or call her at (509) 747-2622.

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May 26: Webseminar Held at Gonzaga University’s Foley Teleconference Center

“Building Community Relationships: Gaining and Maintaining Public Consent”
A PRSA Master Practitioner Series ™ Program 

You Will Hear From: James E. Lukaszewski, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA
Date: Thursday, May 26, 2005    Deadline to Register: Friday, May 20, 2005 

Check-in: 9:30 a.m.        Time: 10 a.m.    Duration: 90 minutes

Cost: $25: PRSA Member & Students     $50: General Public

There are some powerful relationship realities between various community groups and organizations. Constituents are asking more questions; decisions are taking longer. Very small forces, sometimes individuals, can stop very big ideas and projects. People without credentials have enormous credibility. Corporations and institutions must prove their validity, honesty, and trustworthiness every day. Most public debate and discussion, on issues that matter, is focused more on embarrassment, humiliation, and blame shifting than on achieving beneficial progress.

In today’s environment of public suspicion, gaining and maintaining public consent to operate has become an on-going, top management concern for most businesses and large organizations. Community relationships are effectively maintained primarily through engagement with various publics and audiences within the community and your organization.

This 90-minute program will outline the key elements that lead to gaining and maintaining public consent.

Program objectives: 

Some of the important questions this program will answer: 

· Why do people without credentials have real power?

· Why do we have to keep proving ourselves, even if we’re honorable organizations?

· Why does the news media always get it wrong, and we get the blame?

· Why aren’t powerful facts and data convincing?

· How can we prevent situations from getting emotional?

· Why do public officials take sides against us, even when our proposal is beneficial?

· How can we avoid the communication warfare that occurs when the message is useful but controversial? How do we permanently fix the trust problem?

There will be 20 minutes of live questions and answers at the end of the program to answer your specific questions.

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Advocacy * Honesty * Expertise * Independence * Loyalty * Fairness

The six values mentioned above summarize the Public Relations Society of America's pledge—a pledge expected of all members—to act ethically regarding clients, the public, the law, and our profession. Our PRSA Code of Ethics is designed to help us build the image of our profession. The thought is that all of us as public relations professionals ought to recognize that our industry needs to work hard to develop better respect and recognition as a professional institution. 

The last of the six PRSA values we’ve been discussing monthly is fairness.

Of all the six values itemized by PRSA in their code of ethics, fairness, to me, is the most important. (I guess they saved the best for last.)

The reason I like to hear discussions about fairness is, perhaps, because people don’t really talk about it in a positive sense very often. What we tend to hear are complaints about things being “unfair”. It’s an unfair call by an umpire. It’s unfair how there are so many fabulously rich people in the world, and, yet, still so many miserably poor.  It’s unfair that dad left his entire inheritance to his cat.   

Fairness, in the annals of ethics, is a virtue. It’s not just an ordinary ethical act, it’s a big-time attribute of a good system, a good institution, a good person—and not “good” in a good, better, best rating. Good as in “goodness.”

The PRSA Code tells us to “deal fairly with clients, employers, competitors, peers, vendors, the media, and the general public.” It also suggests we “respect all opinions and support the right of free expression.”

But that tells us what to do. How do we express fairness? It’s easy: always treat people with respect.  

When you treat others with respect, in the ethics business, you’re expressing a major ethical virtue. Respect is one of the biggest drivers of ethical thought and action. This isn’t the kind of respect Emily Post or Miss Manners is talking about. Theirs is the superficial kind. By demonstrating real respect for people, we say a great deal without ever having to put it into words. For example:

• We say to our clients, we’ll produce a truthful news release or shareholder report. In turn, we expect truthful information from our clients.

• We say, or tactfully demonstrate, we believe our clients to be good, well-meaning people at heart, despite, perhaps, a difference of opinion. Likewise, we hope our clients will treat us with respect, recognizing that, often, respect has to be “earned”, even though all people really ought to respect all other people for no reason at all.

• We say we’ll be fair with clients, and we expect fairness in return.

But, when fairness is not a two-way street between PR practitioner and client or corporate management, it’s up to the PR person to take the “higher” road and work to build an atmosphere of fairness through respect for other people and their opinions.

Reprinted with permission by Mary Pieschek, ethics officer, PRSA Northeast Wisconsin

(mary@pieschekpr.com)

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