White Paper

(http://www.gop.com/)
This Presentation is the first direct action I am taking to improve public approval, and raise public interest and activity in the GOP or Republican Party. This objective will be met by combining my knowledge of politics, with my knowledge of public relations. Today’s world  for many Americans is an online world, so the best way for them to reach you or for you to reach them is by improving your web capabilities. Inability or refusal to change with the times is detrimental to a company’s or in our case a political party’s survival. We must strive to be where our customers are, and they are on the internet. Our Website must be one that is easily accessed and is interesting to all people. To do this we must connect ourselves to the most popular things on the internet. Our online presence must have a solid infrastructure, and also be visible to those people who we have not in the past been visible to. Public Relations Online, by Tom Kelleher is full of ideas useful to furthering our goal of online public relations. But the aesthetics and the public awareness of our website alone will not guarantee our success. The message and the impression we leave on people is the most important aspect of our website because in the end we promote, spend, and work on this website so that we may get our message through to a larger audience. So it is after all a negative success for our organization if by improving our visibility and getting our message to more people, we then deter them instead of attracting them due to an ineffective message or a negative impression.

The Message
The message we seem to be leaving now is one that does not communicate our strength but a message intended to show what the faults of our competitors. We need to not focus on finding out what is wrong with democratic strategy but to attempt to find our own solutions. By only undermining democratic efforts we do not present ourselves as a viable choice for voters, people want to her solutions, not just criticisms.

Media’s Reflection

“The Republican party is struggling and that is reflected in the New York Times/CBS poll. The poll mirrors a growing dismay over how the GOP is handling its affairs. The party seems leaderless and without direction. Republican ideology has lost its appeal for moderate Republicans and independents who are concerned about the unfettered fiscal spending that occurred during the Bush years. Moderates and independents are equally dismayed by what appears to be the hijacking of the party by Evangelical right wing conservatives. “
-Examiner.com (http://www.examiner.com/x-5890-Obama-Administration-Examiner~y2009m4d6-CBSNY-Times-Poll-GOP-approval-rating-at-its-lowest-in-25-years-Obama-has-66-approval)

“According to a CNN Opinion Research Poll, public approval of the Republican Party this month is at 36 percent, the lowest it’s been since the summer of 2007, right at the tail end of George Bush’s second term in office. That’s a 5 percent drop from the last poll, over the summer. 54 percent of the people surveyed said they disapproved of the GOP.”
-Nymag.com (http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/10/republican_party_approval_rati.html)

“Approval of Republican congressional leaders continues to decline and is now at 28 percent, down from February’s 34 percent. The rating is the lowest number for GOP leaders in nearly 14 years of Pew surveys.”
-Usnews.com (http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/politics/2009/03/18/hot-docs-obamas-approval-rating-slips-but-gop-hits-new-low.html)

“On an issue the GOP has dominated for decades, Republicans are now locked in a tie with Democrats — 41 percent each — on the question of which party people trust to protect the country. Democrats made their biggest national security gains among young men, according to the AP-Ipsos poll, which had a 3 percentage point margin of error.”
-Foxnews.com (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190937,00.html)

“Bush’s approval rating is down 12 points among Republicans since a year ago. Six-in-10 Republicans said they disapproved of the GOP-led Congress.”
-Foxnews.com (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190937,00.html)

It is important to understand what people are saying about you, and when all the press has to say about our organization is that it is slipping, that we are losing our strengths, and our opponents are improving their weaknesses, that is the clue that our current methods are not successful. Fox News, which has been a faithful media outlet for the Republican Party has no choice but to report our failures that tells us that we need to change our methods.

Our Social Media
Although we do a decent job at connecting our website with social media such as FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flicker, our appearance on them is less than professional. When a person decides to become a fan of the GOP on Face Book they are met with fire and a picture of Nancy Pelosi with clenched fist. When a person clicks on the link to Twitter the tweets they read are about helping “…us send Pelosi & Dems packing in November!”, “New Jersey, Help Us Fire Pelosi in November:”, or “How is your state doing in the Fire Pelosi heat map?”. When people click on the link to YouTube the first three videos are labeled “Chaos”, “The Numbers Don’t Lie” and “Pelosi’s Failure”. On the link to Flicker the mood gets lighter as the slide show is of Steele McDonnell smiling and shaking hands, but no one knows this man. The point is we need to redirect our focus. Our social media outlets attempt to stir people with fear, hate, and anger, as compared to the democrats. When one clicks on these same links on our opposition’s web site they see videos on YouTube of how we are attempting to block progress. When the link for Face Book is opened the browser is reassured by a large “Yes We Can” on the DNC’s Face Book Page. As I stated in the intro we must realize the importants of our message. The Democrats message of hope, economic survival, and healthcare is much more appealing than our message of fear, and hate. Our social media needs to be restructured to reassure people, promote confidence.

This heading only serves to stir people to anger, and also looks very unprofessional. This is not what we should want people to see when they decide to browse our face book page.

This video does not help to reinforce republican values but instead attempts to create bad will towards the Democratic Party, by attacking one of its influential leaders.

In comparison to our message of hate the democrats in this video linked to the DNC’s website attempts to reassure people on one of the major issues of the day, healthcare reform.

Face book Reform

Instead of just having a face book page I think we should additionally use people within the organization to represent the RNC on face book. We could have select members create an alternate face book page that maintains the look of a personal face book page. These accounts would act as representatives of the party that people could talk to about their problems with the party and the candidates.

I have created a Prototype representative, the name of the account holder is Tom Diesel. He is not exactly how I’d imagine the final result of the Face book representative but he is close. His functions are fairly simple; he through the use of conversations and messages is able to find out how people feel about the Republican Party. He does not argue with them but tries to connect with their problems with the Party. By being completely responsive to the problems of the question takers, and by connecting and agreeing with their opinions and issues Tom is able to truly find out how people feel. All the people he communicates with are republicans and are linked to republican pages.

Face book representatives should be very open to criticism of the party and their own beliefs, the ability to take criticism is essential as people want to be heard and listening to them no matter what they say is key to getting information. Listening to what they have to say, even if it is contrary to how a representative thinks or feels is important in finding out how people feel. The goal is not to push a republican agenda but to learn about the thinking and feelings of republican constituents.

Representatives should be knowledgeable on an assortment of issues, or should be prepared to do quick research into issues. Being able to converse about the issues and concerns of people is important in establishing dialogue. Through conversations we will learn about the issues that are concerning voters.

Representatives should be able to connect with people. It does not matter if you are completely opposed to the thoughts of the person you are talking to. The objective is to find out how they feel and think, not to argue. You should be able to identify with them; this will make them open to answering your questions honestly and timely.

Your responses to questions, or responses made by question takers should be made as quickly as possible, also in a response make sure that a stance is not made on an issue before one has been made by the person you are communicating with, and make sure that the stance you take agrees with that of the person you are talking to.

Do not connect yourself to a candidate.

This is an actual example of a conversation where the question taker spoke his mind completely…

Tom Diesel April 14 at 3:16pm

Hi Mr. @#$* I was hoping you wouldn’t mind telling me who you identify as the leaders in the republican party, and what political issues are most important to you?

RESPONDER

April 14 at 3:30pm

Well Tom, I don’t know who leaders of the GOP are. The party is being pulled in so many different directions. If I were to pick some individuals as potential leaders they would be Sen. Tom Coburn, Rep. Paul Ryan, Gov. Mitch Daniels, and Sen. John Thune. These are very conservative individuals but they are also problem solvers. We need a Party and a President that gets things done. The GOP must be the party of real leadership, real ideas and real solutions, common sense conservatism must be the future. We cannot afford to be the party of Jobbernowls like Sarah Palin, who possess no knowledge of the issues and resort to empty talkig points.

Tom Diesel April 14 at 3:40pm

Sir you are very insightful, and I agree completely. It is a shame that people like Sarah Palin who are able to stir crowds is given such a high status within the party. If you wouldn’t mind what are the issues that are most important to you and what are your stances on them?

RESPONDER

April 14 at 3:54pm

Wow, the list is so long. Fiscal responsibility is the big one for me. I am a fiscal conservative in every sense of the word. We need to balance the budget, cut spending even if that means cutting some programs that people depend on like medicare. A spending freeze would be nice. National Security is another biggie for me. I say we fight our enemies with everything we’ve got without any hesitation. Diplomacy is nice, but how do you negotiate with someone that wants to kill innocent people. I also believe in an interventionalist foreign policy. Right or wrong, we, the United States are the policeman of the world. Its just a fact we have to deal with. I also consider some of the social issues like Abortion and Same-Sex marriage to be important. And to be perfectly honest, I don’t think we should allow neither. This country is in great moral decline as we speak.

 

Example 2

 

Tom Diesel April 14 at 3:27pm

Hi Mr. @#$* I was hoping you wouldn’t mind telling me who you identify as the leaders in the republican party, and what political issues are most important to you?

RESPONDER

April 14 at 4:27pm

Well leaders are different than authority figures. We have a lot of authorities and no real leaders. Show me someone that will champion constitutional amendments for congressional term limits and a balanced budget and I will show you a leader.

As for my top issues:
* The economy and job creation
* Stagnant wages
* Improvements in the consumer credit market
* Budget deficit
* Clear and concise control and reform of ALL laws related to political Lobbying
* National debt
* Immigration reform

Here is my platform:
1. Constitutional Amendment for Congressional Term Limits
2. Constitutional Amendment requiring a Federal Balanced Budget – phased in over 4 years, (1 Presidential term)
3. Temporary utilization of a Value Added Tax solely for the purpose of reducing the National Debt. When the National Debt is less than 40% of GDP the VAT would have to be abolished.
4. Strict limits on lobbyist and campaign contributions. Only allow elected officials to accept funds from constituents that maintain their current primary residence within the elected officials district. Meaning a Senator from Texas can only accept donations from people actually living in Texas. A Congressmen can only accept donations from people (not companies) that live within their specific congressional district. People, Companies, Lobbyist can still donate to the Political party of their choice just not directly to an elected official.

If we can pull those 4 items off and focus on only those issues then everything else will fall into place over time.

Tom Diesel April 14 at 4:38pm

As you can see from the responses the responders are very comfortable with answering questions online. They are willing to give answers with out reserve. The information that we can get about our constituents is key to getting our candidates elected to office. Facebook and other social media outlets is a valuable resource that has become availiable to us to connect with people, if our organization can not realize the importants of exploiting this cheap and useful resource we will be denying ourselves success. It is of the utmost importants to continue research and use research available in the uses of Facebook and other social media outlets.

If we take anything away from Kelleher’s book it is that organizations, especially those in business to create profit or obtain votes, need to be at the cutting edge of technology. At this point in time the internet and social media for our organization is the most practical, useful, and cheap technology that we can improve upon. This press release I from the Facebook website makes it evident why we need to utilize this easy online resource.  http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Our organizations function is to put individuals in office that will forward our agenda, but we must be able to communicate our ideas across to the electorate, our ability to do this is of the utmost importance as if our opponents are more successful at reaching more people than their success becomes our failure. Every vote they acquire is a vote we lose. I hope that my research and thoughts have been helpful towards getting this party back on track.

The Three Elite

 

Number 1) Kelley’s Word Press 

Kelley is number one for obvious reasons. Not only does she have every assignment done but they are all done to perfection. She has video, images, and URL’s embedded all throughout her Word Press. Kelley has a model portfolio that anyone can look at if they are struggling. 

Number 2) Rocco’s Word Press 

Like Kelley’s Rocco has also done virtually every assignment. Rocco’s visuals are astounding. He seems to carefully pick each video that he adds to his Word Press, my favorite being the videos on Domino’s Pizza. But Rocco has put much work into his Word Press and also is a light for people who can not seem to get a handle on the class. 

Number 3) Phil’s Word Press 

I loved Phil’s Word Press because of the personality that went into it. There is a lot to be said about people who are able to connect themselves with their work and Phil was able to do this very well, so because of Phil’s interest and personality in his Portfolio I decided his was my number three. My favorite part of Phil’s Portfolio was the Hockey players head going through the glass in the arena.

5 reasons why you are qualified for Public Relations

Are you someone who is not interested in sitting in front of a computer screen for the rest of your life? Are you quick on your feet and good with words? Do you constantly think of ways to make things better, do you love to speak to people? and most importantly would you like to learn how to utilize these skills, or develop them? If you do then Comm 270 is for you. Comm 270 is an intro class to Public Relations. But what is Public Relations? Well why don’t we start off by taking a look at one of my favorite examples of it from Hollywood.

Now Thank You For Smoking might seem a little unrealistic but it really isn’t. This profession is one that enables good communicators to fully use their skills, you need to be able to see a problem and think of how to fix it. Although not all Public Relations Practitioners might not be flying out to L.A. to meet with Hollywood agents some of them do, depending on how good you are. At St John Fisher you are lucky enough to have the opportunity to take a class that will enable you to reach the heights Nick Naylor has made in the profession. We all start somewhere and you are lucky enough to get to start in this class.

But how about a real life example of Nick Naylor, well he would come in the form of Edward Bernays. This man called by many the father of Public Relations takes Thank You For Smoking and puts the what seems like out of this world ideas into reality. How is that? Well early on in Edward Bernays career he was also representing tobacco. He was working on behalf of a brand called Lucky Strike, but don’t take it from me, this is an excerpt taken out of John C. Stauber’s article “Smoke and Mirrors: How Tobacco and PR Grew Up Together”

“Following this advice, Bernays staged a legendary publicity event that is still taught as an example in PR schools. He hired beautiful fashion models to march in New York’s prominent Easter parade, each waving a lit cigarette and wearing a banner proclaiming it a “torch of liberty.” Bernays made sure that publicity photos of his smoking models appeared world-wide.”

Edward Bernays took his vision for the industry and made it a reality, but unlike you Bernays did not have the Benefit of taking a class that would educate him on the history and modern techniques for the business of Public Relations.

 

But how about a modern example, well my favorite would be Dana Perino. Now Dana is on the other side of the business, she does work for the government, specifically the President of the United Sates. Yes even the President of the United States needs PR people; pretty much anyone in the public’s eye needs a public relations person. But Dana has probably one of the hardest jobs in PR she is a press secretary; she has to actually represent the president in front of the press. She gets asked all the tough questions and like Nick Naylor must use her expert ability of handling pressure and spinning bad news to help the presidents image. Let’s take a look at some of Dana’s work.

 

Even though that was not official White House work there you have Dana Perino going on National Television because of her work as a Public Relations Professional. Dana, and Bernays may seem like they are out of your league but they are not, they are just two people who realized their potential and exploited it, and you have the opportunity to do that yourself. Comm 270 will put you on the road to the kind of success these two practitioners have had, but how about one last example from another side of the industry, Sports. Now we all know about Terrell Owens, as most of us here at Fisher are Buffalo Bills fans, but maybe also because we are football fans. Terrell Owens has had a shaky career in the NFL for an assortment of reasons but who helped him climb back into the spot light, who helped him to get his TV show, acquire the fame that enabled him to be given the key to the city of Buffalo, there are those who have had just as much talent but not given that kind of recognition. T.O. can accredit much of his success to his personal pr man Drew Rosenhaus 

Well Public Relations is pretty great, but you don’t just get to be these people simply through luck, work is involved to become the best, as all these people are. If you see yourself as someone who could be on television, who could interact with millionaires, rulers of nations and controversial businesses then start your career by entering Comm 270 intro to Public Relations.

Mega quiz (Kelleher) Part 3

3.) Kelleher’s lasting concepts are systems theory, two-way communication, and relational approaches to public relations. Kelleher’s main argument for why these lasting concepts are important can be summarized as although the media landscape changes these concepts remain relevant. For my white paper the concept of two way communication is most important. I feel that establishing good communication with the people who you need to be interested in your organization is most important. People are more liable in my opinion to be interested and involved in something they can connect to and having representatives of an organization communicate personally a potential voter or buyer even once can be a decision maker for many. This is also why social media is an integral part of my white paper.

Mega quiz (Kelleher) Part 2

2.) The research done by Porter and Sallot found that practitioners who use blogs will be more successful, and have more “prestige power”. I found this to mean that by having a blog and people who read your blog you will gain more popularity and this popularity and familiarity that people will have with you will translate to power and influence, this influence will then also give you power within one’s own organization. The Porter and Sallot article did appear in a peer reviewed journal. A peer reviewed journal is defined as an academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. A 2010 study for this could be done on practitioners who have a Twitter. I feel that Twitter the new fad, where blogs can be long, Twitter is short and easier for people to read. I think it is not so much the information in the blog that people care about it’s the person; research could be done into this. The fact is people more often than not are just curious as to the thoughts and other information on people that they are interested in; the substance is not so much as important as just having something to say.

Final Exam Questions

Explain what a dialogic loop is and give an example of it online.

Answer: The ability for people to communicate with an organization, Stony Brook University’s online chat.

Who is labled as the father of public relations?

Answer: Edward Bernays

From the McNair reading what were the the two major developments of relevance to the sociology of sources?

Answer: 1.) the expansion of universal suffrage

                  2.) the expansion of mass media

Name five values from the universal news values.

Answer: Any of the below…

Impact

The facts and events that have the greatest effect on the audience are the most newsworthy

 Weight

The significance of a particular fact or event lies in its value with respect to other facts or events

 Controversy

Arguments, debates, charges, countercharges, and fights increase the value of news

 Emotion

Take into account human interests that touch our emotions

 The Unusual

When a dog bites a man it’s not news. But when a man bites a dog, it is news. (Old journalistic cliche)

Prominence

More prominent individuals are given more attention

 Proximity

Concentrate on news that is of local interest; the closer to home the better

 Timeliness

Emphasize what is new

 Currency

Take into account what is on people’s minds

 Usefulness

Help the audience answer questions and solve problems in their daily lives

Educational Value

Make readers more knowledgeable rather than merely informed 

What was the brand of the cigarettes that Edward Bernays convinced womens activists in the 1920′s to smoke to symbolize their fight for independence?

Answer: Lucky Strikes

What is a pseudo event?

Answer: an event created with the sole purpose of attracting attention.

Who wrote “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception”, and what was his job title?

Answer: Scott McClellen

The Author of “the Power Elite” was?

Answer: C Wright Mills

Why is Dana Perino a better press secretary that Scott McClellen?

Answer: pretty obvious…

Scott

Dana Perino

Hint: Shes really hot

 

re prominent individuals are given more attention

 

Proximity

Concentrate on news that is of local interest; the closer to home the better

 

Timeliness

Emphasize what is new

 

Currency

Take into account what is on people’s minds

 

Usefulness

Help the audience answer questions and solve problems in their daily lives

 

Educational Value

Make readers more knowledgeable rather than merely informed

Mega Quiz (Week Ten) Part 2… where are they now?

Tom Kelleher

Tom Kelleher web presence includes his official website at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~tkell/. He also has a blog on blogspot.com and a twitter account. Tom Kelleher lives in Hawaii, he works as a professor at the School of Communications at the University of Hawaii. His newest research is “Measuring Ecoshock and Affective Learning Ecologies” (09/2009)

Richard L. Daft

Daft teaches at Vanderbilt University and teaches; MGT 444: Leadership: Theory and Practice – MGT 540: Leading Change – EMGT 744: Leadership, these courses have been hyperlinked so the course information can be viewed. I could not locate him on any social media sites, so creating a twitter account could be useful to his web presence.

Which AFC South team had the best draft?

Colts

Jaguars

Texans

Titans

I found this poll on nfl.com, this survey is excellent as it is short, concise, and very relevent as when this survey came out the Nfl Draft had just finished. Many people would be willing to respond to this because the people who visit nfl.com are football fans, and the people covers four popular teams inthe NFL.  Also the survey does not allow people to write in answers which Kelleher warned about. But the information is not going to reflect peoples honest thoughts because the people likely to answer the survey would be fans of those teams and they would be partial to their team.

Lawrence G. Forster(alternate assignment to GOOGLE chapter)

-Graduated from Penn State 1948

-Right after college joined Newark News, New Jerseys largest daily newpaper. He worked their for ten years and while he was there was a reporter, the bureau chief and a night editor.

- In 1957 Forster when to Johnson & Johnson to help form the health care company’s first public relations department.

-Forster became the Corporate Vice President of Public Relations and also a leafer in the profession.

- Earned national recognition for Tylenol tragedies.

-Was named one of the ten most influential public relations professionals of the 20th century.

-Retired after 33 years with Johnson & Johnson. Wrote the book Robert Wood Johnson: The Gentleman Rebel.

-The Penn State College of Communications and the Penn State Chapter of PRSSA have established the Lawrence G. Foster Award for Excellence in Public Relations.

Mega quiz (Kelleher) Part 1

1.) The site I chose was that of SUNY Stonybrook. They have a good dialogic loop on their site. They give current and prospective students many different ways to ask questions and get their questions offered; they do this through blogs, and online chats. The Universities web site is also linked to Facebook, twitter, Flick’re, and YouTube. I think they do a great job with their website and utilize the ideas from the Kelleher book as the site is loaded with different outlets for the students to get in contact with representatives of the university, and they have themselves connected to every major social media outlet. I myself can appreciate their efforts as I used the online chat to get my questions answered when I was applying.

Press Release

   

“100 Years of How I Was Able to Get You to Do Whatever the Hell I Wanted”

 Edward Louis Bernays has been playing off the emotions and subconscious of the American public for over a century. A man who has little regard for the truth or for liberty has decided to donate his time to St. John Fisher College for a lecture Friday February 12. This man, who has been labeled the Contemporary Machiavelli, and the father of Public Relations, has decided to reveal the secrets of his genius to the select few who are able to attend his lecture at St. John Fisher College. It is to the benefit of any who can attend, to hear the man which Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter described as a “professional poisoner of the public mind, exploiter of foolishness, fanaticism and self-interest.” This Friday February 12 in Basil 135 Bernays will speak, with his new book “100 Years of How I Was Able to Get You to Do Whatever the Hell I Wanted”, being sold before, during and another 100 years after the lecture. The lecture is being sponsored by the foundation for Tony Dechario’s tuition, for which half of the proceeds from Bernays lecture will go to, in partnership with St. John Fisher College. For more information go to sjfc.edu, or call us at 5855855585.