Chris Brown and Rihanna

Chris Brown used to be seen as an endearing talented young singer who was promised so much for the future, he was a favourite for advertisers and he was loved by the public, this image was heavily tarnished when the Chris Brown and Rihanna situation took place. These two individuals became involved in an altercation which lead to Superstar Rihanna being left battered and bruised at the hands of her then boyfriend.

After this incident support for Mr Brown deteriorated and he was dropped from several advertising campaigns and his career was left in tatters. The once loved angelic boy had turned into one of the world’s most hated figures with radio stations refusing to play his music and with individuals threatening him for his actions. When this incident took place it was talked about for months with so many theories being discussed about what may have happened, this incident involved two highly publicized individuals so it is to be expected.

Mr Brown’s behaviour was unacceptable but there is only so much he can do to redeem himself and to hopefully reprieve his career. I think that to gain redemption from the public he needs to show that he is truly sorry for his actions and for what transpired that night, he needs to show that he can and is willing to change, other than that nothing else can be done as he cannot take back his actions. He just needs to continue with his passion and to remind the public why they fell in love with him in the first place.

Law Abiding Citizen and Twilight

I would compile a list of the top 5 films that i have watch or have captured my attention at the cinema’s but im afraid that not many films have urged me to actively go out of my way to watch them.

The last two films I have been to see at the cinema are Law Abiding Citizen and Twilight: New Moon. I was drawn to see these films by its trailers and through other forms of media communication. I specifically went to see Law Abiding Citizen based on its Trailer, it was catchy fast paced and what they chose to show in its preview caught my attention. I also heard from word of mouth from a friend that it looked like it was going to be an interesting film, from those two encounters of the film I decided that it was a must watch film.

As for my reasons for watching Twilight: New Moon there were many factors. Everywhere I looked everybody was talking about it, it was being shown everywhere, from Facebook groups, to statuses to small adverts at the side of my Facebook page. I’d heard from many people how good the first movie was how fantastic this sequel was going to be, this constant discussion of the film lead me to watching the first part of the film, I ultimately enjoyed it and decided to go and watch the next chapter. I have to say that the praise from people I know and the heavy advertising ultimately lead to me going to watch this movie.

For this reason I must disagree with statements that conventional types of advertising are deteriorating. Older forms of advertising are still in effect and are in fact very effective.

Planning and the effectiveness of Etherpad

An important part of Public relations is the planning and brainstorming process. Firstly you start off with ideas and you interact with others to help build up a good plan in relation to your project, Interaction with other people may help to speed up this process and make it more stable. The saying two heads are better than one comes to mind.

Sites such as Etherpad enable people to get together and edit a word document at once, all in real time, this is very good for brainstorming ideas and inputting policies you want included. The different users are colour coded so when a change is made you are able to tell from the colours who made what change. This website allows multiple people to edit a word document all at once.

Whilst editing your document you can engage in chat with the other users, discussion of ideas and why certain changes have been made may be discussed.

In PR one of the most important stages of launching a successful campaign is its planning process, the planning process is crucial as it helps to test out the effectiveness of a plan and whether or not it will be useful. A well thought out plan will help to minimise flaws in a plan and helps to resolve any possible conflicts. Etherpad is a resourceful tool as it allows PR persons to all edit information at once and to discuss the processes.

A plan basically looks at the position you’re currently in, where you want to get to and how you plan on reaching that stage. Planning is not something that can be undertaken without research these two things fall hand in hand, you cannot plan for something if you lack information on the subject alike you cannot research without a plan, in that case you would not know what you are looking for.

The benefits of twitter

Twitter is a very influential communicative tool in contemporary society and for this very reason it is an ideal tool for Public Relation practitioners. Your Twitter page has the potential to be seen by millions of other people so its existence can influence. Not only is this website good for those trying to get a message out or to promote it is also good for those that are looking to get some feedback, for this reason Twitter is a valuable tool in the world of Public Relations. In one of our workshops we were asked to create a Twitter account and to associate ourselves with the applications and tools available.

With a 140 word limit what is said on twitter needs to be direct and brief, Twitter enables you to hashtag (#) a topic, this means that anyone interested in a particular topic may search for that subject and will receive information relevant to it. That way everyone looking into that particular topics are linked together.

Twitter has a segment entitled trending topics, here you can find out the most talked about topics in the Twitter world. This information may be useful for some

Extremist blogging

Threatened voices is using crowd sourcing to draw attention to people’s attention bloggers around the world that have been arrested for their blogging content or those that have been threatened or even murdered. From the statistics it is clear to see countries in which threatening behaviour towards blog owners is prevalent. I think that it is a good tool as it helps to highlight hot spots for this kind of behaviour. From the world map I can see China has the highest population of owners showing threatening behaviour with Egypt and Iran coming in Second and third, these stats make you question why people in these countries feel so strongly and actually act threateningly towards people. These stats also make you wonder whether these statistics follow a trend.

This tool is very insightful but it is hugely flawed, when viewing this website you must take into consideration the face that some of these acts may go unreported, these are only statistic based on individuals that have been prosecuted.

The website also enables you to become a tracker and to report any such crimes if they occur, they themselves are acknowledging these figures are not highly accurate. In a sense it is hard to take Threatened Voices as an accurate statistical website but it tries.

In all Freedom of speech is something which has been argued for, for years. Should people really be arrested or even threatened for expressing their views, something which they have a right to. Some of these convictions may be due to individuals speaking out over oppressions, many of these convictions are found in areas where freedom of expression is at an all time low.

Paranormal activity

Paranormal activity has made good use of online media to help to promote the film and to create a hype surrounding it. They have fully utilised the YouTube facility to help to promote the film, they have lots of people talking about it, especially in the comment sections under the video. They film has received both positive and negative feedback.          

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074

Whilst using Facebook I have also seen side adverts for the film, they have managed to use social networking sites and websites with a mass following to promote the film.

   When you Google “paranormal activity” a lot of information regarding the film comes up so the film is somewhat well known. You are shown links to its official website and it is also up on the film database IMDB. A lot of information regarding the film is online so it is true to say that a highly successful PR campaign has been launched. On the official website they give you press, video clips and all the relevant information. They also have links to their twitter and Facebook pages..

    Paranormal Activity has got a lot of people talking about it and rating it, this discussion of the film shows that it has achieved its objective, its use of online media has been effective and with quotes such as “ Hands down, one of the best horror films of the year” –SAN FRANSCISCO EXAMINER     – there is no doubt about that http://www.paranormalactivity-movie.com/

It can be said that a successful Public relations campaign for Paranormal activity has been set up. Knowledge of the film has been dispersed and it has received a lot of feedback, this is the type of exposure that is needed.

Students, twitter and PR

Twitter may be a useful tool for students studying public relations because it gives them an avenue to manage and help to promote themselves or others online which is something you deal with heavily in PR. It is a step in the right direction in terms of communication; twitter is a highly influential tool at the moment, it has a mass following so if you are able to break into that market then you have the possibility of helping to influence others and to help the public to see things in your light.

Twitter has a buzz surrounding it so it is good for public relations students to be surrounded by that, it is very important that people working in the PR world know what the trending topics are and what is being talked about the most. Twitter is a hotbed for absorbing people’s views and their needs, what better place to find out more about its potential consumers.

Twitter posts can influence people and force them into action, Michael Arrington is a good example of this, his post on twitter complaining about tech company Comcast received many replies and it caused top executives to get in contact with him to try and resolve the situation, his post on twitter garnered many replies with people in the same situation. Someone at the company must have read the post and understood the importance of trying to resolves this mans issues.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/06/comcast-twitter-and-the-chicken-trust-me-i-have-a-point/

Twitter is very relevant for students studying public relations as it allows personal views and opinions to come into consideration, usually you are expected to remain unbiased and not allow your own views to come into consideration but tweet allows you to change the dynamics of things and let your views come across. I think that sometimes it is good to actually see people’s views on various scenarios, tweets are available worldwide and you can interact with readers as well.