The Role Of Social Media In Public Relations

The Role Of Social Media In Public Relations Technology in this age is putting a spin on how an organization establishes and cultivates an ongoing mutually beneficial relationship with its publics. Social media is an evolving, ever present catalyst in the communication realm of public relations. Public Relations in its earliest years, the era of Antiquity, acknowledged the importance of public opinion, but their scope was limited to an arms reach of their publics. Social media has become both a window and a bridge to the public relations practitioners, by enabling them to interconnect the internal objectives of the organization with the constant changing externalities. In the arena of public relations, an array of hats is essential to effectively carry the overall message of an organization into a stage of visible outcome. An organizations public relations department amongst many other tasks must build awareness, research and analyze public attitudes and perceptions, strategize, and implement crisis plans. Social media provides a way for organizations to do these things on a scale not known in earlier times when messages had to first bypass the filter of the media gatekeepers. As stated by Rupert Murdoch, Technology is shifting the power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, and the media elite. Now its the people who are in control (p. 1). Social media as defined by Wikipedia is an umbrella term for the various activities that integrate technology, and social interaction (p. 1). This includes internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures, and videos. Forrester, The Growth of Social Technology Adoption estimated in 2008, that 3 out of 4 Americans use social technology. It is this type of growth that makes it an inevitable, essential tool in creating a survivable existence. In the world of public relations, building awareness and brand reputation are cohesive. Social media is not only being used for its direct to audience approach, but also as an effective generator of media relations. Both awareness and reputation come on the tail of an organizations integrity. In order for an organization to build a positive reputation, it must nurture relationships. It is not science that viable relationships come from a foundation of trust. The trust that social media provides is authenticated by the fact that it allows for the relationship to be carried out in a two-way process. This type of communication permits an organization to truly listen to their publics needs and opinions, giving the organization an open opportunity to be actively responsive. Before social media, the standard press release into traditional industrial media was a shot in the dark towards reaching the true potential of interest. It is important to understand the many different branches to which an organization may utilize in building awareness and how. Through internet forums or social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn, to name a few, as well as blogs, make an organization able to centralize their audience. Instead of talking at the masses, they are able to talk with a selected tuned in, interested community. It is in these communities where a considerable buzz of web chatter stirred, enters the web world and reaches the eyes and mouths of influential mediums that were otherwise unlikely to be reached by just any Joe before. In social media, ideas can spread like a wild fire, through an effect called push and pull. According to Oden 2009, in the push aspect there is instigation of a new concept in social media situations, providing useful information and provoking discussions about it (p. 2). This creates an influence of pull which is the drive of traffic from people searching for more information. A common threaded resource between the push and pull theory is what is called Really Simple Syndication (RSS). RSS is a jeweled technology in the search and sift element of both public and media relations. On the side of the public relations, RSS is useful in recognizing content analysis, by keywords or concept references. This type of insight gives public relations a heads up into their competition and identifies their own strengths and weaknesses accordingly. On the side of media relations, journalists are able to receive content that is in relevance to their interests or beat. The research that takes place within the public relations department is essentially the bones of the overall success of an organization. It is a stage that is unending, and social media provides a platform for which information is delivered in real time format. Another dynamic of research affected by social media is the scale upon which surveys are able to be given. Not only do social media make it possible for samples to be gained on a global level, through certain software, presentations are part of digital exhibits and interactive sites record message resonation. Although, some may view this open door to the world mentality overwhelming, it is a way for an organization to see where their message may penetrate beyond their eyes conception. After the research, an organization must take all those pieces of information to organize, strategize, and implement into a plan. In the text Using Public Relations Research by Glen Broom and David Dozier (2009) Strategic planning is deciding where you want to be in the future and how to get there. It sets the organizations direction proactively, avoiding drift and routine repetition of activities. The quality of content is a core value in success, so developing a strategy that engages people is important. When formulating a strategy through social media the five Ws serve as an outline. Who are you trying to reach? What are you trying to accomplish? Where are these people online? When and how is the best time to reach them? Why will they care about what you have to say? In order to create a credible presence, the content must be consistent. Tactics that reinforce the strategy of an organizations power in the clutter of information is redundancy. Using multiple communication channels within social media, such as blogs and podcasts, fights entropy. Also, increasing the channels a message is delivered optimizes the search engine visibility. It is through search engine optimization that an organization leaves its footprints in the virtual world. However, these virtual footprints can have adverse affects in the light of a crisis. A constant flow of information circulating can lead to misinformation, and in turn misunderstanding (McLintic 2009). A good crisis management plan must involve actively monitoring the web for any content that could be damaging to the organizations image and reputation. Social media gives organizations a way to be transparent in their management. With a constant flow of communication between an organization and its public, it is much easier to indentify and diffuse a small problem that couldve escalated to a bigger one (Hall 2009). As with any situation, it is ideal to be proactive rather than reactive in nature. There are certain methods of preparation that can greatly change the outcome of a crisis. Through anticipation, an organization can take a front line approach to crisis planning. One way that a crisis can be redirected, is by the purchase of generic crisis terms that ensure search engine positioning of the public to landing pages set in place to address issues, before they link to others that could possibly reinforce negativity. Before venturing off deep into the social media dimension, it is a good idea to benchmark the current position of the organization, so that there is a clear start of measure on the ROI. A few simple markers Chris Lake suggests in his article 10 Ways to Measure Social Media Success would be to make a note of the obvious numbers, (facebook fans, twitter followers, dig links, etc). Make a note of the less obvious benchmarks, (SEO rankings, customer satisfaction scores). Make a note of ROI benchmarks, such as how much is being paid to acquire customers via other marketing channels. However, reality is, social media humanizes a process that was once broken down so analytically. In order to measure the success of social media, you must come to the realization that there is no true assessment by which impact can be calculated. Although, it should not go without saying that it stands as an effective means to communicate to millions, far below the cost of any other form of media. The relationship it assists in building is priceless, and retention is a pretty effective bottom line tool of evaluation. In every new media there has been resistance to change. As a product of generation Y, I have been witness to the crossover over in media convergence, and I see a world of possibilities as it evolves. In the world of PR, I feel social media is an undeniable asset to an organizations ability to connect in ways that attributes to immeasurable value in what they strive to represent and stand for. Social media is a hub to the PR obligations. To underestimate its power to redefine and shift the foundation, by which PR once stood upon as news beggars, is to remain oblivious to the treasure bestowed at our fingertips.

Milgram’s Destructive Obedience Essays -- Psychology

Stanley Milgram was a social psychologist best known for an experiment he did regarding destructive obedience (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2011). According to McLeod, Milgram had originally set out to prove that Germans were somehow more obedient than Americans. This was a short while after WWII had finished and the horrors committed by the Nazis under Hitler’s authority had been learned. His experimental results were contradictory to the results predicted by fellow psychiatrists, college students and some adults of various occupations. They had predicted that very few people would obey an order that would harm another person; however, the actual results proved quite the opposite. Instead of proving that German’s were more obedient, Milgram opened the door to the possibility that anyone is capable of carrying out orders that would harm another person (2007). Douglas Navarick expanded on the experiment’s results and derived a three-stage model for defiance and withdrawal (2012). After comparing the three sources on the previously mentioned topic, it is my belief that the peer reviewed journal (Navarick, 2012) is the most credible. Its credibility is largely accredited to the established requirements of publication in the journal it is found in. Hockenbury and Hockenbury summarized Milgram’s experiments as simply as they could. The test subject was led to believe that the second participant was as uniformed as they were and that their roles in the experiment were chosen at random. They were told that the experiment was about learning and memory and the effect punishment has on them. The test subject was given the role of â€Å"teacher† and the other participant given the role of â€Å"learner† seemingly at random. The second partici... ... it means avoiding personal discomfort. A source is considered credible if it is accepted by general consensus of the experts of the field it concerns. It should also show the scientific facts that support it. A standalone source that does not show any form of reference to other psychologists that agree with or support his/her theory would not be considered as credible. Works Cited Hockenbury, D., & Hockenbury, S. (2011). Discovering Psychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth. McLeod, S. A. (2007). Simply Psychology; Obedience in Psychology. Retrieved 25 March 2012, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/obedience.html Navarick, D. J. (2012). Historical Psychology and the Milgram Paradigm: Tests of an Experimentally Derived Model of Defiance Using Accounts of Massacres by Nazi Reserve Police Battalion 101. Psychological Record, 62(1), 133-154.

Current Research in Astronomy Essay

For many astronomers, Adaptive Optics is something like a dream coming true. Since 1609 and the first observations of celestial bodies performed with the help of an optical telescope, astronomers have always fought to improve the resolving power of their instruments. For a long time, engineers have trimmed the optical quality of the telescopes, until they finally reached the barrier set by the atmospheric turbulence. At that point, the intrinsic quality of the site became a major issue to establish new observatories with modern telescopes, and astronomers started to desert the urban skies and to migrate toward mountains and deserts (Alloin and Mariotti 2004 9). The recent emergence Adaptive optics aims at providing diffraction limited long exposure images at large telescopes, which is greatly considered as one of astronomy’s breakthrough (Alloin and Mariotti 2004 9; Espinosa 1997 12). By far, the largest limitation to the application of adaptive optics to astronomy is very limited sky coverage when using natural guide stars for wavefront sensing. Similar limitations existed for many military applications of adaptive optics (Espinosa 1997 12). Adaptive optics systems provide a real time correction of the distorted wavefronts; they restore all the properties of light prior to the final part of its travel through the atmosphere (Alloin and Mariotti 2004 9). Discussion Adaptive Optics: Wavefront and Laser Guide Star (LGS) Adaptive optic systems for atmospheric turbulence compensation require a reference star for correcting wavefront distortion. The sodium LGS relies on resonant backscattering of a laser tuned into the D2 sodium absorption line to provide a reference, but LGS must sufficiently bright to correct high order wavefront aberration (Zamorano, Gorgas and Gallego 2001 317). The key concept in adaptive optics is the wave front, which is found by tracing out an equal optical path (distance x refractive index) from a source to the region of interest. For a point source and free space, wavefronts are spherical, and for starlight, the distance is so large that for all practical purposes the wavefronts entering the Earth’s atmosphere are plane. After propagating through the random refractive index of the atmosphere, the wavefront entering the telescope pupil is random, and its statistics determine the image quality, and govern how an adaptive optical system might be used to compensate for the distortion (Agerorges 2000 4). Such effect greatly depends on the laser lunch power, polarization’s beam, atmospheric transmission and the sodium column density, which, if obtained appropriately, might even enhance the imagery, increase the scope of telescopic observatory, and improve the image details of pictures obtained from astronomical studies (Zamorano, Gorgas and Gallego 2001 317). The use of LGS AO has caught on quickly within the astronomical community in large part because, equipped with adaptive optics operating at the diffraction limit in the near-infrared, the new 6- to 10-m telescopes possess the capability to match the angular resolution in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the visible and to exceed its resolution in the near infrared (Rodier 256). Laser Guide Star LGS, basically, is a technology that utilizes AO imaging in order to enhance graphical imagery of telescopes and view astronomical images with additional quality. The technology uses an artificial star in order to act as a wavefront reference source, which consequently corrects light distortion (Zamorano, Gorgas and Gallego 2001 317). The need for a bright stellar was always a concern for astronomical applications of adaptive optics. To operate, a wavefront sensor must have sufficient light to overcome photon noise and background noise with enough light left over to form the image. In astronomy, few stars of scientific interest are sufficiently bright. For imaging uncooperative satellites, reflected light is often too dim or nonexistent. In 1985, French astronomers Foy and Labeyrie published work detailing how one might use backscatter from a laser focused to a point in the atmosphere as an artificial beacon (a guide star) for astronomical adaptive optics. As work progressed in the astronomy community to build and test a laser powerful enough to have sufficient backscatter for the Foy-Labeyrie method (Tyson 2000 5). Since the beginning of the 1980s, classified U. S military work was addressing the problems of projecting high-energy laser beams from the ground to space for missile defense and secure communications. The research from 1982 at the U. S Air Force Starfire Optical Range (USAFSOR) directed by Robert Fugate advanced the laser guide star concept and produced a wealth information about laser performance requirements, adaptive optics system operation, atmospheric physics, and closed loop image of space borne objects. By 1991, the bulk of military work on laser guide starts was declassified and made available to astronomers around the world (Tyson 2000 5). Currently, LGS is being developed by various nations, setting up their own laser beacon and extensively enhancing research through the said technology. The use of a laser beacon as the reference source enables faint objects to be compensated by adaptive optics, at the expense of greater hardware complexity. The laser beacon must be directed within the isoplanatic angle of the science object at the observation wavelength; although, this procedure provide only short-exposure correction. On the other hand, a fixed natural guide star possesses the ability to further stabilized the image during long exposures so that sky coverage depends on the distribution of stars, which consequently enhances the space imagery (Hardy 1998 309). There are many cases where the object itself, such as a sunlit satellite, is insufficient for wavefront sensing. In astronomy, there are billions of stellar objects too dim for sensing and not near enough in the sky to bright objects. For high-energy laser propagation to uncooperative targets or satellite tracking and imaging, an artificial source must be placed above the atmosphere to provide photons for the wavefront sensor and subsequent compensation. Lasers actually provide only partial correction, because a natural star still is required and opposite tilt upon traveling up into the atmosphere and returning (Tyson 2000 6-7). Particularly exciting development is the use of adaptive telescope mirrors to compensate for the distortion of stellar images produced by atmospheric turbulence. Using adaptive optics, ground-based telescopes are now demonstrating diffraction-limited performance, albeit over relatively small fields of view. It can be expected that large ground-based telescopes will have higher resolution and light-gathering power than space-based telescopes, since both of these performance metrics depend on aperture size. Moreover, ground-based telescopes can be larger than those space-based ones; hence, enabling higher development and scope for stellar imagery. The adaptive optical system of LGS displays 0. 07-arcsecond resolution, which is almost a hundred times better than past ground-based telescope systems but uses a telescope built approximately 80 years ago (national Research Council 1998 137-138). Conclusion LGS AO is one of the breakthroughs of current astronomical imagery, which provides enhanced images and display features that are usually not present in the space-based telescopes, such as HCT. The mechanism involved utilizes a guide star or an artificial star that facilitates the graphical imagery. LGS works as distortion corrector enabling enhanced imaging through AO ground-based telescopes. Conclusion Ageorges, N. Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics for Astronomy. Springer, 2000. Alloin, Danielle M. , and Jean-Marie Mariotti. Adaptive Optics for Astronomy. Springer, 2004. Espinosa, Jose. Instrumentation for Large Telescopes. Cambridge University Press, 1997. Flectcher, L. † Solid State Laser for Subaru Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics. † Subaru Telescope. 6 July 2005. 8 Jan. 2008 . Flectcher, L. Observational Methods. 14 Feb. 2005. 8 Jan. 2008 . Hardy, John W. Adaptive Optics for Astronomical Telescopes. Oxford University Press, 1998. National Research Council (U. S. ), . Harnessing Light: Optical Science and Engineering for the 21st Century. National Academies Press, 1998. Roddier, Francois . Adaptive Optics in Astronomy. Cambridge University Press, 1999. Tyson, Robert K. Adaptive Optics Engineering Handbook. CRC Press, 2000. Zamorano, Jaime, Javier Gorgas, and Jesus Gallego. Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics II. Springer, 2001.

The necessity of corporate governance systems - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1792 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Management Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? Corporate governance is a necessary, important and comprehensive overview of what corporate and their directors must do in order to bring the largest benefit for the corporate as it include the structures, processes, culture and systems that engender the successful of the organization. It concerns the relationships among the Board of Director, the management team, the shareholders and stakeholders. As time passes, good corporate governance is a compulsory requirement in todays corporate world by every stakeholder groups as it has become an important key for a corporate to success. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The necessity of corporate governance systems" essay for you Create order Lacking of efficiency in corporate governance may cause the corporate to collapse. While, by having good corporate governance it may help to reduce the risk of corporate collapse happen, enhance the performance of the corporations yet it creates an environment that motive the manager to maximize the return on investment. Besides, it also helps to ensure long term productivity grows and increase the investor confidence. Therefore, transparency and accountability are the most important element in order to have good corporate governance. This is because it would help the organization to have a clear and creditable decision making. However, there are various theory have affected while developing the corporate governance. The main theories that are greatly influence the corporate governance concept and reformation is the agency theory, transaction cost and stakeholder theory. 2.0 AGENCY THEORY Agency theory is defined as the relationship between the principals, such as shareholders and agents such as the company executives and managers (Abdullah.H, 2009). This theory is usually being use to examine the relationship between the principle and agent in order to determine how the agent (director or managers) archive to maximize the return to shareholders, while at the same time the managers/ director himself/herself does not own the share. However, this theory may not be practical for the director or managers when manage the corporate in real life. This is because; suppose that the director being appointed by the principle is being expected to act and make decisions in the best of principals interest and full fill all the their needs. However, the director/managers has his/her own objective too, as they might not be working in the best interest or act partially in the best interest of principle. They might be misuse his/her power and committing moral hazards such as shirking duties to enjoy leisure merely to maximize their personal wealth, benefits, self-interest and reputation as they do now own the share of the corporate. Besides, conflict may be occurring between the agent and principle due to different interest being focus. The agent being appointed as director might be only focusing on short term benefit which may bring benefit himself/herself the most, while at the same time the shareholders are more focusing on long term benefit which may bring best interest to the company. Enron scandal is a real life that show that the managements goals conflict with those shareholders. In this case, the auditor manipulated the financial arrangements among themselves by using the special purpose entities (SPEs) transferred fund to some of the Enrons director and conceal the large loses that Enron is facing. Ultimately, announced bankrupted and leaving Enron shareholders without anything. However, the agency problem can never be perfectly solved due to diver gent behavior of manager but in order to predict such problem happen again, agency theory suggests that a system needs to be carry out in order ensure that the agents are working on the best interest of the principle that they are representing. Jensen (1983) suggested that the principal-agent risk-bearing mechanism must design efficiently and must be monitor though the nexus of organizations and contract. Besides, from Enron case it also highlighted that there is a need to set up an independent non-executive director to monitor the action of executive director in order to ensure that the director is working on the best interest of the shareholder. In short, agency theory has greatly influence the reformation if corporate governance as it is an important set of propositions in the organizational economic discipline so that the employees are responsible for their task or decision has been made. 3.0 TRANSACTION COST THEORY Besides, transaction cost theory has also great influence in the reformation of corporate governance. The exposition of transaction cost theory is where the organization has become larger and became the market leader; in effect it turns to control the market by determining the allocation of resources. The organization started try to control the production, price movement in the market and the markets coordinate transaction. Therefore, the organization tent to extent their organization by vertical integration either forward or backward integration in order to create a boundary so that the organization could control and determine the price and production of a product. Besides, the organization could also reduce risk as the organization could avoid the risks that there is an increase of price in future yet could avoid the risk of dealing prices with supplier or retailer. Due to there is imperfect market condition, as there is too many buyers and limited resources, transaction cost economic has incurred. According to the theory of transaction cost economics it assumes that some individual are opportunistic, some of the time, at the same time it also stated that mangers are opportunistic by nature. (Soloman, 2007). Due to there is limited resources, there will be an increasing of the market value of a product/ services, and this has created an opportunity for the managers and other economic agent to practice bounded rationality. According to Simon, bounded rationality defined as the behavior that was intentionally rational but only limitedly so. The managers will tend to satisfies him/her own self interest rather than maximize the company profit. They would try as hard as to organize transactions for their best interest. At the same time, arms length transaction will also occur during the negotiation. This is because the seller and buyers or the supplier and retailer will be acting in their own self interest during the negotiation session as there are limited r esources/ substitute and this give an opportunity that bribery and under table problem occur. Therefore, in order to avoid these problem occur, the organization should have stuff rotation once a year in order to avoid there is close relationship between the manager and buyers. At the same time, transparent, integrity and openness should be practice among the organization, so that the information are open to disclose and the information give in financial statement is disclosing with honest and completeness and there is no hidden information. Besides, if there is related party transition occurs it has to be stated clearly in the account to avoid any misunderstanding. 4.0 STAKEHOLDER THEORY The role of organization in the society, the impact of organization on the employees and environment has being highly focused and discusses over decade. Society nowadays has become more concern about organization business activity, the effect to environment and how they treat the stakeholder unethically. Therefore, stakeholder theory has been involved and has great influences on the reformation of corporate governance. The main concept of stakeholder theory is that the organization should concern on more sectors of society rather then only focus on the returns for organization and their shareholder. Stakeholder theory normally being viewed as a conceptual cocktail, as it emphasizes on the dependency of many different groups on the organizations management, not only the shareholders but also the employees, customers, suppliers, creditors and the general public. There are too many problems rise in the real environment, as the organization nowadays are acting in so unethically way and they are only concern about their self-interest or to increase the organization profitability. It highlighted that the social problem todays are getting serious as the organization nowadays are acting so irresponsibility; they do not border about the damages and effect that they bring to the environment. Besides, in order to maximize him/her self interest, it causes fraud and cheating problem occur. Due to the organization didnt act ethically as connected with what they are doing and unable to fulfill their basic responsibilities to their stakeholder. Therefore, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has fallen into as it relies on the separation between the business, social and ethic which the stakeholder theory intends to solve. It has become main issue for the organization, where the organization are being so encourage by the society to improve the way the they treat the stakeholder and the environment , yet it will influence the views of the society to the organization. Ho wever a major problem has arise, is there a measurement to measure the stakeholder welfare? Yet, there is no standard accounting measurement or market value measure that could measure the past or current organization decision brings effect on the stakeholder welfare. Besides, when an organization takes into account of all the goals and involved themselves in the stakeholder activities, often there will be bring a higher cost to the organization yet will decrease the business performance. The manager may become ineffective to achieve the company goal in order to achieve win-win situation to the society and organization. At the same time, from the China economy performance shows that the society becomes worst when the organization is focusing on social goals.(Kim, 2010) Indeed, the stakeholder theory stated that the organizations should act responsibility and take into account of the stakeholder welfare as it the moral things to do so but it is very questionable to do so. As it is not a well-defined theory and it doesnt show that by taking into account of the stakeholder welfare it may increase the organizations stock and operating performance yet there is no prove that maximizing organization profit will bring harms to the society. Therefore, stakeholder theory is very questionable and it depends on the organization how to practice it. 5.0 CONCLUSION In short, having good corporate governance is a major key in order for an organization to success. The corporate governance conceptual or theory is just providing a guideline for the organization in order to have improvement or being self-regulation. So that the organization would provide better services, bring less harm to the society and protect the environment. However, it maybe not practical and there is difficulty to practice in the real world as many organizations may not follow as what the theory said. An organization may fail in social goal but success in business, but an organization may not be success in social goal yet fail in business. At the same time, the major problem is there are lack of a framework, rules and regulation that every organization has to follow as what corporate governance said. Therefore, it is depends on how organization to practice it in order bring less harm to the society and protect the environment.