Public Relations

Public relations is the art of creating policies and programs to influence the opinions and attitudes of selected publics or audiences toward an entity. The Public Relations Society of America defines public relations as “helping an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.”

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News Stories

The lead is the most important element in a news story; it is the story opener when written in the inverted pyramid structure. The inverted pyramid is a graphical representation of how information should be arranged within a news story. The most important information – made up of the 5 W’s – comes first and the information of lesser importance follows.

It is essential that the lead catches the interest of the reader immediately and by rule-of-thumb it includes the core information of the story, or the traditional 5 W’s: Who, what, when, where, and why. Its objective is to satisfy the reader’s curiosity. Occasionally an H, for how, is included in the lead. In addition, a news story usually includes the answer to “what’s next?”

There are generally 5 news values or characteristics that identify the newsworthiness of a story. Only one value can mean a story is newsworthy, however, any combination is possible. The 5 news values include:

An important question to ask in addition to establishing newsworthiness is simply: “so what, who cares?”

Quotations

Quotations are great additions to news stories; they add credibility and weight and make your story readable and interesting. Quotations can support arguments and information, as long as you attribute your quote, making it more credible and showing you did research, while avoiding any legal or ethical issues.

Be sure to include a quote in your story, but make sure not to swamp it either. And never, never start a story with a quote; your story is what's important, not your company's president.

ABC and other writing rules

The most common writing rule-of-thumb is the ABC rule. Accuracy, Brevity and Clarity. Even the Associated Press Guide to News Writing begins with a similar message: "News writing should be clear, concise, accurate and interesting."

William Strunk writes in his classic The Elements of Style: "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires no that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."

In the 1945 essay Politics and the English language, George Orwell states that "[language] becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts."

Orwell’s criticism has nothing to do with archaism, correct grammar and syntax, or good prose style, nor is it an attempt to make language informal. The plea in his essay is "to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way around."

Orwell wants every writer to ask the following questions in every sentence:

Examples of various news releases

Symphony Center to host Youth Audition finals
Dvorak's New World Symphony is Chicago's Choice
Daniel Barenboim and Thomas Hampson recital
Chicago Lighthouse Board election

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To practice public relations is to practice storytelling.

Unlike a tale from a book or a movie, where a story runs continuously from beginning to end, a tale from a public relations campaign consists of many seemingly insignificant fragments. Whereas a movie runs for two hours uninterrupted and is told by the director, the story told through public relations consists of a two minute radio appearance one day, a thirty second television feature another day, and a two column newspaper article yet another day, and is told by the media.

The end result remains the same, a story with a message. In public relations the following counts: whoever tells the best story wins.

Your client, whether it is an organization in a corporate environment or a person in a political campaign, is the main character of the story, the hero. The hero is mythical; the hero is courageous, idealistic, clever, physically superior, and even sexually appealing.

Like a tale from a book or a movie, a public relations story includes all the dramatic elements of storytelling: roles and stereotypes, plots and conflicts, settings, costumes, symbols, and language.

Gustav Freytag, a German dramatist and novelist from the nineteenth century, analyzed the dramatic structure of Ancient Greek and Shakespearean drama in Die Technik des Dramas (1863). Freytag found that a story is divided into five parts forming a metaphorical pyramid: introduction, ascent, climax, turnaround and finale.

In this same manner, the story of your client is constructed. The story focuses on the hero, your client, and takes the audience on the hero’s journey, experiencing all the trials and tribulations and finally arriving at a new point in which the hero has changed.

Contemporary examples of stories that follow this dramatic structure are works like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter; movies like Star Wars and The Lion King; companies like Subway and Apple; and people like Oprah Winfrey and Lance Armstrong.

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Hurricane Katrina and Exxon Valdez

In today’s crisis management textbooks there is one case study that cannot be left out: Exxon Valdez. When in 1989 the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground and spilled oil in the Prince William Sound we witnessed one of the worst crisis management disasters in recent history, although the actual environmental disaster was relatively smaller than others.

There was no adequate emergency response plan, cleanup equipment was not readily available, and leadership showed its face too late. In addition, it appears that the state had known about Exxon’s shortcomings for years, but had not acted on the situation.

Sixteen years later, following the immediate aftermath of hurricane Katrina, a lot of the same common mistakes were made. One can only wonder if, in a couple of years, we will see this tragedy as a case study in crisis management textbooks alongside Exxon Valdez as a prime example of how not to handle a crisis.

Similar to the Exxon Valdez disaster, when hurricane Katrina hit the American Gulf Coast there was no adequate emergency response plan, emergency equipment was not distributed properly and quickly, relieve efforts came too late, and leadership was absent too long. In addition, it appears that the state had known about the shortcomings of New Orleans’s levee system for years.

Although they were two very different crises, there were many similar failures in the management of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the hurricane Katrina aftermath; first and foremost was a fatal lack of planning. Rule number one in crisis management was ignored: a crisis will happen. Rule number two was not heeded: have a plan before crisis hits. Rule number three was not applied: tell it all and tell it fast. The single most important aspect of crisis management is preparation and planning and the ability to act quickly once a problem occurs.

Exxon did not have a coherent and cohesive crisis communications plan. There was no designated spokesperson; there was no immediate response to the first report of the oil spill; contradicting statements and miscommunication happened frequently; and following advice from the legal department, Exxon kept quiet and refused to acknowledge the scope of the disaster. This could all have been avoided by a simple crisis communications plan.

Key rules of any crisis communications plan include:

• A crisis will happen;
• Plan and prepare;
• Tell it all and tell it fast;
• Concern for the people involved, family and victims; do what is right;
• Three (or few) key messages and one (or few) qualified spokesperson(s);
• Do not speculate; only tell facts from an identified credible source;
• Do not point-fingers or play a blame-game;
• Work with the authorities and media.

However, history repeats itself and people do not learn. Sixteen years later, in the immediate aftermath of hurricane Katrina, there was no adequate plan that could handle such a major natural disaster. Years earlier, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) rolled into the Department of Homeland Security and more than 75% of the agency’s preparedness grants went to readiness for terrorism. Natural disaster response was placed on the backburner and it proved fatal. There was no immediate response from the FEMA and it took five days for serious relief efforts to arrive in New Orleans. In addition, officials in New Orleans officials had failed to devise a comprehensive evacuation plan. This, again, demonstrates the importance of preparation and planning.

Second, both disasters showcased a serious lack of leadership, priorities and compassion. The second most critical issue in crisis management is strong leadership and communication. Exxon ultimately suffered most from appearing uncompassionate, as its leadership was weak and stubborn and its communication flawed. Chairman Lawrence Rawl only visited the site of the oil spill two weeks into the crisis; Exxon seriously underestimated the scale of the disaster and did not involve experts or authorities; Exxon set up a futile press conference in Valdez and did not have a communications or press center in New York or any other major city; and responsibility was not taken and blame was shifted as Exxon accused Alaska and the Coast Guard of causing delays with the cleanup.

In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, most criticism was directed to the leadership. FEMA director Michael Brown, a politically appointed man without the proper credentials, made contradicting statements and was not up-to-date with the latest developments, demonstrating a serious lack of communication and a violation of the “do not speculate” rule. There was no qualified appointed manager or spokesperson as competing orders were issued by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FEMA director Michael Brown, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Army Lieutenant General Russel Honore, sending mixed messages to the victims and ignoring the need for a one strong and united voice.

Congress, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Rice were all on vacation. Just days after the hurricane, Rice attended a theater performance and went shopping for shoes and President Bush held attended a birthday party and joyfully played the guitar, as images of the sick and dying went across the world. In addition, President Bush held a speech with a sunny backdrop of the Rose Garden, a rough contrast to the devastation of the Gulf Coast, where Bush should have been within hours. These examples illustrate a major violation of the crisis management rule to show concern for the people, families and victims involved.

Nobody wanted blame or responsibility: New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin blamed federal and state relief efforts and President Bush said the relief efforts were not acceptable, but refused to take responsibility and protected Michael Brown. The public image was one of wrong priorities, politicians playing the blame-game, and uncompassionate leadership.

In a time of crisis, it is essential for a company’s or agency’s leadership to have strict priorities. Within minutes of a disaster, a prepared and carefully thought-out crisis management plan needs to be implemented and a designated and qualified crisis management team needs to be on its feet. The victims need to be tended to first, fast and with compassion. In addition, tell it all and tell it fast; communication needs to be in top shape. Communicate with authorities and the media; do not keep them waiting, you might risk wrong speculation. If they can’t find you, they will find others who will tell the story. Within hours of a disaster, leadership needs to be among the victims; a communication center needs to be installed at an accessible and logical location; full cooperation with authorities and the media is required.

The tell it all and tell it fast strategy cannot be stressed enough; if you don’t give them what they want, they will give you what you don’t want. Never point fingers or play the blame-game. Only give facts and never speculate to forge an answer to please someone; it is fine to say you don’t know, just let them know you are working on it and will get back to them as soon as possible.

Last, do not expect any sleep or rest. It is a crisis, not a vacation. It is essential to be prepared and act quickly; a good start is half the battle. Simply do what is right and spare no expenses or the expenses will not spare you in the end.

A crisis will happen, you’d better prepare.

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