Re-election of Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama has announced his intention to stand for the 2012 re-election bid. 

Barac Obama, re-election campaign

The campaign starts with a video that Mr Obama's team released on his official website and sent an e-mail to supporters announcing his plans. Mr Obama does not appear in the video, posted on YouTube and the campaign website. The supporters look back to the 2008 campaign and talk of their hopes for 2012. The individual voters talk about what they can do to help their man - ending in the slogan "it begins with us." The president has an online network of millions of Americans and his web campaign was widely seen as a key plank of his election success in 2008.

Mr Obama's re-election campaign is reportedly seeking to raise as much as $1bn (£620m), an increase on the $750m raised for the 2008 campaign.

It is a good time to remind us how his campaign looked back in 2008 and which PR activities helped him to be successful. 

The smallest brain in the world

We think nowadays that using the internet, searching and connecting with people via the web is cost free. The BBC documentary ‘The Virtual Revolution’ shows that sharing private information online is very valuable. The programme demonstrates that by using even basic search engines like Google, we create a huge database about ourselves every day. The web stores an enormous amount of information about our private lives such as where we live, what we like, where we go to school and do our shopping. We give out this kind of information routinely, every single day for free and it is happening on a enormous scale across the world. As a result we are changing into an online product that is traced and targeted by the advertisement, which is created and tailored to fit our preferences. We are judged and scanned while surfing on the internet. ‘Cookies’ are now a reflection of who we are and what we are portraying about ourselves via our facebook profiles.

The truth is that we are using the web for free, but the information about us is highly priced. We are exchanging our life for the convenience of using web. We exist on the web as a number that can be matched to our computer. We can be traced and indentified by this number using the information that we place online.

 

This great documentary programme did not stop me for using internet, but it will make me think twice before I put any private information into the Google search box.               

‘The Virtual Revolution’ BBC, Episode 3 Part 1 (see more on YouTube).

Media helps but does not solve the problem

J.E.Gruning in the book ‘Excellence in Public Relations and communication management’ wrote: ‘Excellent public relations needs the media less than poor public relations does’. Further in book author describes that the public uses mass media mainly to get attention when making issues out of a problem. In order to get attention they stage protests, marches and strikes. 

He is not the only one claiming that media strategy is not the most important and essential element in leading a successful Public Relations campaign. Gruning quoted Steven L. Vibbert from the meeting of International Communication Association, who said that the media plays an active role only in two of the four stages through which issues progress. The media polarizes two sides of the issue and forces people to identify with one of the sides. The first two stages ‘definition’ and ‘legitimating’ generally take place without media engagement. 

When thinking about media usage in any NGOs campaign, public relations practitioners have to remember that media do not play the most important role. Sean Kidney during his lecture at the University of Westminster pointed out that the media helps to build the climate and atmosphere around the issue, but very rarely they help to combat the problem. He admits that  according to his experience and knowledge very few people change their behaviour because of media. Media coverage aims to get people’s attention and build solid foundation under the behaviour change, but the overall strategy has to be focused on something more than just getting media coverage.

Sociologist, Dr Reiner Grundmann, talks about his research into the media's reporting of climate change:

What we are fighting for

According to the book ‘Public Relations Cases’ by Hendrix and Hayes, there are two types of objectives that are used in Public Relations programmes. The first of them are called ‘output objectives’, which include the work that was produced and distributed, for example the number of press releases that have been sent or presentations that took place. The second is ‘impact objectives’, which can be further divided into three groups, informational, attitudinal, and behavioural.

All of them are significant from a public relations point of view, but it does depend on what the aim of the campaign is, making some of them more important than the others. Sean Kidney, chairman and co-founder of the Climate Bonds Initiative pointed out during his lecture at the University of Westminster, that when Public Relations officers communicate about climate change issues or any other NGO’s cases the attitudinal objectives, which aim to modify the way the audience feels about the issue are not sufficient. In these cases the most desired outcome is behaviour change. 

Public relations practitioners when fighting for a better environment should not only aim to make people think that recycling is good and necessary, they have to try and convince the public to start recycling. It is not good enough that society knows that they should not waste food, the campaign has to stop people from throwing food away and teach them how to use leftovers. This is one of the crucial things that public relations officers working for NGO’s and charities have to remember. Of course, every case and issue is different, but by making people think about something, we’re not necessarily changing the world.

Key Aspects of Social Media – webcast

The webcast is address to the Public Relations agency’s current and prospective clients. It’s designed to introduce clients to certain key aspects of social media and try to explain to them how the agency will be using social media and what the benefits are, as well as the negatives of the social media platform for clients and their businesses. 

The movie has been created as a part of the a assessment for the MA Public Relations course at the University of Westminster. It has been created for educational purposes and the agency’s name and spokes person’s title has been created for the purpose of the movie.