Katie’s Blog

It’s over. The project that consumed my life for the past four weeks has been turned in and completed. Our Style and Design resumes are in and ready to be graded, and we all anxiously await our fates. Will he care that we switched one blue to another? Did that fit right? How do I do this? What do you think about this? All of those questions have been asked and answered repeatedly over the past few weeks. Not only have we pounded Robert with hundreds of questions, but we have depended on each other to teach us and to guide us along the way.

Despite the long nights and the outrageous amounts of time spent traveling between the “pr dungeon” and the digital resource center in the library, I am thankful for the skills I have learned and put into use in this class. Already today, I have looked at my own cd of the project repeatedly, proud that I was able to make that myself. I made a browser! I made what I personally think is an amazing brochure! It is the personal pride in what I have accomplished that made this experience worth it all.

With the exception to PR Writing, I believe that this class is the most beneficial to PR students. So much of the things I learned can be directly applied to my work later on. I discovered that I love working on Adobe InDesign, and making my own podcast with Audacity was a really neat experience. I will be fine if I never have to work with Dreamweaver or Flash again, but if the time calls that I have to use it, I will be prepared.

So, this is my last official post as a member of Robert’s class. I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts and opinions with those who read this. As so many who have before me, I am going to attempt to keep this blog going, sharing the thoughts of young students everywhere.

 

One of my last full semesters at Auburn is over. I am planning to intern this summer and return in the fall taking the last remainding classes before I graduate. I am scared and nervous about what the future holds, and although I am confident all will work out as it should, the thought of growing up and becoming a “big girl” scares me.

My father and I were discussing future plans, and he asked me what I wanted out of life and how I felt my major would help me acheive my goals. I chose public relations because while I loved journalism and writing, I wanted to make connections with people and develop relationships that were deeper than interviewer to interviewee. Communication has always been of key importance to me, and public relations was the major that would allow me to mix both worlds together.

Public relations is very different from any other field. It is obvious from the blogs I have read this semester that this is a field that is full of passionate people wanting to discuss these topics. And in what other field would there be an entire legion of professionals wanting to mentor and help you through the newest technology.

Am I still unsure of the future? Sure. But I am thankful I chose this major to study. At least I have am sure of that.

In my persuassion classes, we have been talking about the different models that we use in persuassion. Honestly, I had never given it much thought about the different means and models of persuassion, but all we have learned really applies to public relations and the different ways we use to convince the customer of our pitches.
Richard Petty and John Cacioppo developed the Elaboration Likelihood Model. This theory states that there are two different ways that we process information. We can process them either peripherally or centrally. Peripheral processing is the result of conditioning. These are the simple decisions that we make each day without much evaluation or thinking. It lacks complexity. The central processing is much more detailed and based on facts. The central decision making process involves critical thinking skills and examination.

My personal definition is that central processing is usually used for the important decisions whereas peripheral is used for the more minor decisions because it does not require the brain to process.

An example of central processing is the thought process students goes through when selecting which college they want to attend. Families of the students work together to research each institution, interview those who work in the admissions office, visit the campus, and other activities to provide the student with needed information for the important decision. This is central processing. When you use all available means of information in analyzing your decision, then you are using the complex decision making function.

Peripheral are those decisions that become ingrained in us. When you go to the store to buy groceries and you buy a certain brand of toilet paper because that is what you always buy, then you are probably using peripheral processing. This is a simple example. However, there are some families that use peripheral processing when deciding about colleges. Many Auburn alumni never question their children about Auburn University because it is automatically decided that they will attend this school. Many children of alumni only apply to this college because everyone in their family goes to Auburn. There is no decision making needed. Although it is a big moment in the life of the child, it is still made with peripheral processing.
These types of processing influence persuasion because the listener of the argument will use one of these two types to interpret the message. If they use central, they will analyze all factors and decide. Those who use peripheral will make a judgment based on what they see immediately or what they instinctively know.

The final two weeks of the semester are here. Anxiety and desperation fill the eyes of all students on Auburn’s campus, but especially those who are in public relations and are suffering working on our final Style and Design projects. I have lovingly nicknamed the IMG lab the “PR dungeon.” Once I turn in my final project on May 1, I can relax and celebrate.

Thankfully, Jeremy Pepper understood our frustration and decided to help ease the tension by sending us two large containers of Red Vines. When Robert first told us about our upcoming gift, I must be honest. I had absolutely no clue what Red Vines were. Sure, I had heard about the candy in references on television shows and movies. It seems like anytime a character goes to the movies, they must get JuJuBe’s and Red Vines. And, no, I don’t know what JuJuBe’s are, either. Maybe I’ll go google them.

It might be my sheltered existence, but I don’t feel like Red Vines are advertised very well here in the South. Maybe it’s just me, but when I go to the store to buy licorice, I reach out for a bag of Twizzler’s. I remember when I was younger, I would see commercial after commercial for Twizzler’s when I watched Nickelodeon or Saturday morning television. But I honestly can’t remember seeing a commercial for Red Vines. 

But it isn’t just me. A friend called while I was walking home from lab, and I told her about the Red Vines. Her response? “What in the world are Red Vines?”

I suppose I am a victim of brand loyalty. They got me young, and that’s all I know. When our package from Jeremy finally arrived to Tichenor Hall, I was anxious to try the candy I had always heard about but never quite knew what it was. It wasn’t love at first taste, but then again, I am not a huge connoisseur of licorice candy. I have to really be craving licorice in order to enjoy it. But as my time in the lab grew longer and longer, I found myself reaching out for another piece of the candy. It might have been the stress, but I started to really like the gummy substance.

Red Vines should really take a look at their marketing towards the younger demographic. Having mentions on televisions shows and movies obviously aren’t garnering enough attention for us to know what the product is. If their were splashy commercials that captured the minds of children or a fun character attached to the candy to give the kids an incentive to ask mom to buy the licorice for them, then maybe they would be brand loyal and would only know about Red Vines.

And after taking a look at the web site, I learned that the only way to purchase Red Vines here in Alabama are through a sales representative. Looks the only Red Vines I am going to be able to enjoy are in the lab. The candy can be found in Target and other retailers throughout the West.

But despite my sweet tooth ignorance, I want to thank Jeremy for sending us the gift. I enjoyed getting to try something new (at least for me!) I probably won’t be finding them on the candy isle the next time I go the store, but I guarantee I won’t be able to look at Twizzler’s the same way again.

 

In my persuassive discourse class, we discussed the audio and video news release and the effect it will have on communication. I decided to take another look at one of the audio releases I reviewed for our midterm exam.
This audio news release is from the U.S. Census Bureau. It is about grandparents becoming caregivers to children. As older people are reaching retirement age, more and more in that generation are taking in their children and raising them primarily as their own. This study shares facts with the public about this growing trend in our society.
This audio news release targets the audience of those interested in the statistics given by the Census bureau. Information such as this would be important to different media outlets who are interested in providing their viewers and listeners with an interesting story. This particular audio news release is one that is prepackaged and ready to send to the different media outlets who will play it.

The audio news release is approximately 59 seconds in length. It uses simple sentences to convey the message to all in the audience. The simple format of the radio news release will allow it to be conveyed much simpler over the airwaves.

Research is apparent in this news release. It is loaded with facts and figures in the 60 seconds that it is on air. Because it is conveying the message of a research institution, no outside researchers are needed to back up the survey. The sound bite in this particular news release is from Louis Kincannon, Director of the U.S. Census Bureau. This is considered an actuality that highlights the topic. The scriptwriting is strong for this ANR. It conveys the message in an educational format that can be read by either a news director or narrator in a recording session.

Because this isn’t the formal script of the audio news release that was sent to different types of media, it omits a slug and a title. It does include the contact information and the running time, as well as the dates for the last revision. It also doesn’t include proper endings. It also isn’t in al capital letters, and there are no phonetic spellings.

This example of an audio news release is one that can be downloaded of the web into mp3 format or a Real Player. As technology progresses, more and more people are able to download the audio news release off the web rather than wait for a hard copy to come to read off themselves and release to the general public.

Since this isn’t the hard copy version of the audio news release, I will critique and say that they should have included one on this website. An organization such as the U.S. Census Bureau should have that information readily available to the public. I think the information in the audio news release was well-written and well stated, but I felt as though we should have had all available formats to analyze the proper formatting.

I am one of the millions of college students who are on thefacebook.com. I am no where near as obsessed with checking my profile and those profiles of my friends as some of my contemporaries are. I might get on once a week to see what’s new at with all those at Auburn University. Personally, I like the format of the sight. Everyone has the same basic layout. Although I realize no web sight like facebook is completely secure, I like the fact that only certain people can see your profile and that a full name is required to sign in.

I don’t know have that much experience with myspace, but from what I have seen, it is a poorly designed web space. Sure, you have customizable options, but it just isn’t aesthetically pleasing. It is messy and cluttered, plus the security features aren’t nearly as secure as thefacebook.com. However, my knowledge on myspace.com is limited, so I might not be the best judge.

But I am really intrigued by the latest promotion craze that is sweeping the nation. Production companies are promoting their movies and television shows by creating myspace accounts and blogs for their characters. I know I have discussed character blogs such as the Grey’s Anatomy blogs before, but recently I stumbled across an entire myspace community of made up characters with profiles and pictures as if they were real people. My younger cousins who are both in high school are “friends” with Amanda Bynes character from the movie “She’s the Man.” After I missed my new favorite show, “Beautiful People,” the other night, I did a Google.com show trying to catch up on what I missed. And I discovered that all of the major characters on the show have a myspace account where they are “friends” with the other characters as well as hundreds of myspace users.

This is genius.

Let’s think about the target audience, shall we? Myspace users are typically the young adult set. Honestly, my parents aren’t likely to sign up for a myspace account. (Although I do know a few moms who have joined to keep a close eye on their childrens’ online activities, for which I applaud them.) This generation has been catered to by the entertainment world their entire lives. The industry fights over their attention, using splashy commericals and technical graphics to persuade the younger set to persuade their parents to purchase this product for them or take them to that movie.

These fake myspace accounts are going to give the real myspace users yet another connection to the characters and the movies they are spending money on. When Sophie from “Beautiful People” updates on Monday, they receive an alert that she has “posted.” And what a coincidence that “Beautiful People” comes on Monday nights!

Until the novelty wears off, this is a great marketing tool. Obviously, it can’t be the only thing the shows or movies do to promote, but it is going to get the attention of all the tweens and teens everywhere when the cute guy from “She’s the Man” pops up on her friend list. My personal opinion is that while this is a really awesome way to put your shows out there, there is a limit to how much of this can be absorbed before it becomes too common place to be effective.

So while I am not a huge fan of myspace, I applaud the person who came up with this idea. I only wish I had thought about it myself.

I must admit I felt guilty last Thursday when Robert asked the three of us in lab why we never read the professional websites with recent information about public relations. All of us admitted that we had a few sites that we visited frequently. Most of us read PRNewswire or something of that nature, but what we really wished we had was an opportunity to read O’dwyers Public Relations News. Having had the opportunity to log into Robert’s account once for a blog topic, I told him that someday I hoped to join, but right now, it wasn’t in my college student budget to be a member of the site right now.

Well, now we don’t have to worry about that anymore. Jack O’dwyer is giving us a student account where we at Auburn can log on the website and have no excuse about our lack of knowledge on public relations. Although I would imagine he probably won’t visit my little blog, I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his kindness. It shows that he is invested in the betterment of our education, and I can’t wait to sign on and read about the latest and greatest in the field.

It continually amazes me when I think about all of the great people I have had the opportunity to converse with because of the classes I have had with Robert. The best in public relations want to talk to us! How many public relations students are able to say that they are apart of a global community where they chat with people from all over the globe about public relations? We can. We have Marcom Blog. How many up and comers can say they maintain their own professional blog? I can. I have this one.

I turned in a resume for an internship yesterday, and it made me so proud to say I have my own website of professional observations by little ole me. Soon, when I add my completed digital portfolio and resume that was completed by blood, sweat, and tears, I will joyfully put it down on the resume and pray it will put me heads above the rest.

One of the first things I remember learning from my Fundamentals of Public Relations class is that to get ahead in public relations, we have to do something that makes us stand out. Style and Design is going to do that for us.

So thanks to all of you professionals out there who have helped us along the way. I am beginning to see how beneficial this all is. You didn’t have to care about us, but you did. And our careers will never be the same.

Today, my afternoon went from dull and uneventful to quite the technical experience. After I left three hours of lab working with Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop, the very last thing I wanted to do was spend time with any form of technology. My greatest desire was going home and reading without looking at my computer all night. But then I received a phone call that would change that outlook quickly.

On our daily conversation on my way home from classes, my mother asked me how much money I had on a gift card she had given me for my birthday. The gift card combined with one my aunt had given me was supposed to go towards a camera dock and printer I never purchased, and therefore we realized that I had nice amount of change to spend at a particular computer and gadget store. But with my birthday approaching again and almost one year after they had purchased the gift cards, we realized that I only had about three weeks to spend the cards before money started being deducted from the cards. I had to act quickly if I wanted to utilize all of my new dough. So instead of reading that book, I went shopping.

And I came home with a fantastic purchase. And no money left on my cards. I am now the proud owner of a Video iPod. And my night of no technology? Well, that didn’t happen.

I have spent the last three hours playing on this amazing little invention. I had the iPod pink mini when it first came out, and I thought it was amazing. But the video and photo capabilities on this machine are really impressive. I can download television shows and music videos and put them on a hard drive the size of my hand.

But the feature I am most impressed with is the slideshow feature. I love to create power point presentations and slideshows, and this iPod allows me to make presentations on the hard drive and transfer them to the television. I am already imagining the types of things I can do with this feature.

I realize my post is basically an advertisement for Apple, but I am so excited about the capabilities of this little machine. I can’t wait to see what I can put together with this my new technology.

We receive our assignment for our final project this week. One of our assignments–or so I hear–will be to create a brochure. So I decided to take a look at the analysis  of a brochure we were required to do for our midterm.

I chose to analyze the Huntsman Cancer Institute’s Center for Children’s Brochure. I felt this is a good example of a six-panel 4×9 brochure. I downloaded it for examination with Adobe Reader.

This six-panel brochure uses the basic muted tones of blue, yellow, black and white. The front panel has a black and white picture of a child and a woman hugging him and an insert shot of a medical researcher performing tests in color. It lets the reader know that the black and white is the dream of what we are searching for—healthy children. But the color shot is reality—what we are doing to find a cure. It grabs the attention of the reader because at the time we don’t know this is for cancer research and we are curious as to what this is about. The “wild card” panel shot is of this same child running with the word “care” written on the side vertically. The third panel grabs the attention of the reader for the black and white picture of a child with cancer and the word “discovery.” The child is being held by an older gentleman, and the viewer might think that this is a doctor or researcher who is busy finding this child a cure. The inside panel three and four give us the bulk of information about the brochure. In a Times New Roman font, they tell us what the Center for Children does and why the center is important. The sixth panel gives more information about the organization and how they can be contacted. It also tells them how they can get involved and ask questions if they are interested in the organization.

Information isn’t too crowded on here, but there is enough text to let the reader know what the organization is about and why participation is important. Nothing is too crowded on this brochure and the reader can easily evaluate the important information.

The design elements make this brochure striking. Because of the serious topic, the photographs used portray both sad and happier times in the life of a childhood cancer patient. None are too sad, however, they show us what life can be like for this child if we allow this center to do its job. It utilizes a basic font, and they only use two different fonts in the entire brochures. A small font was used in the body and a much larger used in the graphics. On the bigger pictures, they used reversed writing to emphasize the words. They are also bolded the headlines for emphasis. The sub-headlines are well done because they standout with a larger font size, yet don’t draw undue attention away from the rest of the text.

The message of this brochure is stated in a clear, simple manner.  The graphics don’t overwhelm the text, which means that the reader can focus on the message instead of flashy graphics. This brochure uses boxes to emphasize important parts of the text, and it also shades main words behind the text. These two elements help add to the subdued nature of the brochure and its theme.

Overall, I really like the brochure. It takes a very serious subject, continues to stress its seriousness, yet informs the reader on the best ways that they can help with the advancement of this center. I think it does the job of a good brochure tastefully.

Ever since I blogged about the media campaign against “The Da Vinci Code” movie, I have been intrigued with the subject. What I first reviewed as just another blog subject has evolved into a topic that I just keep finding more and more interest with. I decided that I would read the book over spring break to grasp a better understanding about the controversial movie and to identify with why people have such a problem with the subject matter.

I decided to revisit the site I blogged about. The Da Vinci Outreach has made many improvements to its website since my last visit. They have added an online resource center that not only targets teachers but free posters and advertising materials for those lessons. They are endorsing the book “The Da Vinci Deception,” and they are offering special bulk rate deals for parishes wishing to purchase the book for their parishioners.

And, yes, you guessed it. They now have a blog.

They began blogging on March 1, 2006, and they have continually updated it with information relating to Dan Brown’s plagiarism trial and updates on counteracting the new movie and paperback release of the book. After reading most of the posts, I feel like this blog’s main purpose is to act as an online pep rally. Post after post encourages people to speak up about the remarks made against the church in this piece of fiction.

Is the blog working? They don’t allow for comments, so you can’t see how many are visiting and actually reading the information. But I think this is a great idea. Blogging is one of the newest waves of technology. I feel like we often say this without really understanding the impact it is going to make in the future. By using this blog, they are keeping the masses up-to-date with their latest war tactics on convincing people not to see this movie.

Do I necessarily agree with their viewpoint on “The Da Vinci Code?” No. But I do agree with the methods they are using to promote their point. I’ve seen articles about their efforts in magazines and on websites. And I am sure as May 19 draws closer, we will see even more from this group. But I am certainly enjoying watching their progress.