TMC BUSINESS SCHOOL DIPLOMA IN MASS COMMUNICATION (Validated by RSA / UCLES) DM10102 – PUBLIC RELATIONS ASSIGNMENT ASSIGNMENT: Define public relations and include theories with explanations to support argument. Use a report format to present a public relations campaign that you have come across, and provide information on the situation analysis, goals, target market, creative work plan, media plan and evaluation. (1,999 words) Name: Edmond Ng Choon Chai Class Code: RDM3-03F Student No: 13250P Date: 28 May 2003 Date Due: Friday, 30 May 2003 1 Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 DEFINITION OF PUBLIC RELATIONS 2 CASE STUDY 5 Nature Society of Singapore: Chek Jawa Conservation SITUATION ANALYSIS 6 GOALS 6 TARGET MARKET 7 CREATIVE WORK PLAN 8 MEDIA PLAN 9 EVALUATION 10 CONCLUSION 11 APPENDICES 12 Appendix 1: Pulling together to turn the tide for Chek Jawa 13 Appendix 2: Reclamation of Chek Jawa Deferred 18 Appendix 3: Chek Jawa saved for at least 10 years 20 Appendix 4: Government defers land reclamation 21 Appendix 5: Citizen Involvement in Chek Jawa 22 Appendix 6: Chek Jawa: Anatomy of a U-turn 24 Appendix 7: Ubin get reprieve 26 Appendix 8: Nature at its best 27 Appendix 9: Chek Jawa: Nature as Model Teacher 28 Appendix 10: Chek Jawa – Lost forever? 29 REFERENCES 31 DM10102 Public Relations - Assignment: Case Study Student No.: 13250P / RDM3-03F 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In the bid to reverse the Government’s action to convert a coastal beach habitat for marine life at an island off the shores of Singapore into reclaim land, the Nature Society of Singapore (NSS) has put up a public relations (PR) campaign to rally for its conservation. The aim of this report is to provide the details of how the PR campaign for the coastal beach’s conservation was won through the use of press agentry and two-way asymmetric communication. The report begins with the definition of public relations and proceeds to look into the details of the case study for the PR campaign. DEFINITION OF PUBLIC RELATIONS There are many definitions of public relations. The Institute of Public Relations (IPR), UK, defines it as: the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics. The key words in the definition are planned, organisation and publics. ‘Planned’ refers to public relations as an intentional activity, “designed to influence, gain understanding, provide information and obtain feedback” (Kwansah-Aidoo 2001, p.26). ‘Organisation’ refers to “any corporate or voluntary body”, and ‘publics’ refer to “audiences that are important to the DM10102 Public Relations - Assignment: Case Study Student No.: 13250P / RDM3-03F 3 organisation, have influence on it or are influenced by it” (Kwansah-Aidoo 2001, p.26). The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) defines public relations as: the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends. This definition by PRSA positions the many activities and goals in public relations practice as a management function. It identifies building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its publics as the moral and ethical basis of the profession. At the same time, it suggests the criteria for determining what is and what is not a part of the function (Cutlip et al., 2000, pp.5-6). The primary objective of public relations is to establish and maintain relationships between an organisation and its publics. The organisation’s publics are all those groups of people who share common interests or concerns in the organisation or its actions (Johnston and Zawawi 2000, pp.5-6). The publics include the government, the mass media, the investors, the customers, the community, the suppliers, the unions and trade associations, the pressure groups, the competitors, the internal and the general public (Kwansah-Aidoo 2001, p.26; Johnston and Zawawi 2000, pp.5-6). DM10102 Public Relations - Assignment: Case Study Student No.: 13250P / RDM3-03F 4 To build a mutual understanding between the organisation and its publics, the practitioner plays multiple roles to accomplish three primary functions: to control publics, directing what people think or do in order to satisfy the needs and wants of an organisation; to respond to publics, reacting to developments, problems or initiatives of others; and to achieve mutually beneficial relationships among publics by fostering harmonious interchanges (PRSA 1980, in Newsom et al., 1993, p.8). Tymson and Sherman (1996) summarise the roles of public relations as: counselling based on an understanding of human behaviour; analysing future trends and predicting their consequences; researching public opinion, attitudes, expectations, and advising on necessary action; establishing and maintaining two-way communication based on truth and full information; promoting mutual respect and social responsibility; harmonising the private and public interests; promoting goodwill with employees, suppliers and customers; projecting a corporate identity; encouraging an interest in international affairs; promoting an understanding of democracy (Tymson and Sherman 1996, pp.3-15). To fulfill the roles and functions of public relations, a practitioner must first understand his or her professional practice and develop a theory base. One of the more influential theories is that of Grunig and Hunt (1984), which advocate ‘symmetrical public relations’ against press agentry/publicity, public information and two-way asymmetric models for practising public relations. DM10102 Public Relations - Assignment: Case Study Student No.: 13250P / RDM3-03F 5 Press agentry/publicity model aims to “publicise the organisation, its products and its services in any way possible” (Grunig and Hunt 1984, p.1), while public information model seeks to “disseminate information to the public as truthfully and accurately as possible” (Grunig and Hunt 1984, p.1). Both the press agentry/publicity model and the public information model use one-way communication, dedicated to “help the organisation control the publics that affect it” (Grunig and Hunt 1984, p.1). The two-way asymmetric model uses public relations to “persuade the public to agree with the organisation’s point of view” (Grunig and Hunt 1984, p.1) while the two-way symmetric model utilises the development of “a mutual understanding between the management of the organisation and the publics that the organisation affects” (Grunig and Hunt 1984, p.1). Both the two-way asymmetric and the two-way symmetric models use two-way communication. However, in the case of two-way asymmetric model, the communication flow is greater from the organisation to its publics, while in the two-way symmetric model, the communication flow is considered equal (Johnston and Zawawi 2000, pp.7-9). CASE STUDY Nature Society of Singapore (NSS): Conservation of Chek Jawa With the scarcity of land in a small city-state island of Singapore, the government’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) had issued in 1991 a land development Concept Plan for 2001 (Sivasothi 2001, 2002), which DM10102 Public Relations - Assignment: Case Study Student No.: 13250P / RDM3-03F 6 includes reclaiming Chek Jawa, a coastal beach habitat for marine life at an island off the shores of Singapore, known as Pulau Ubin (Frances 2002). SITUATION ANALYSIS During a public forum organised by the URA to discuss land use in May 2001, a botanist, Joseph Lai, who stumbled on the coastal beach at Pulau Ubin while acting as a voluntary guide for students to explore the coastal forests in the area, made an impassioned plea to the government to save Chek Jawa (Lim 2001). It was the first time that such forums were aired in public and Mr Mah Bow Tan, the Minister of National Development, was the chairperson of the meeting (Lim 2001). Following the initial publicity, the Nature Society of Singapore (NSS) decided to take collective action to rally for the conservation of the coastal beach and to reverse the government’s action to convert Chek Jawa into reclaim land (Lim 2001). GOALS By the time the NSS knew about the existence of the coastal habitat for marine life at Chek Jawa, it was less than six months before reclamation work was due to start in December 2001. At that point, few people knew about Chek Jawa’s coastal forest, mangrove, sand and mud flats, rich with sand dollars and other types of starfish, sea horses and octopi (Lim 2001). Given the short time frame to turn the tide for policy change and the lack of public awareness, the goals for the PR campaign was: DM10102 Public Relations - Assignment: Case Study Student No.: 13250P / RDM3-03F 7 • To promote public awareness of Chek Jawa • To gain mass publicity from the media • To lobby support from politicians and obtain consensus from the publics for the conservation of Chek Jawa • To rally for a change in URA’s development plan, which was approved by the government in 1992 • To save the coastal forests and marine habitat at Chek Jawa TARGET AUDIENCE The target audience for the public relations (PR) campaign was aimed at the general public, educationists, marine scientists, mass media, the politicians and the government bodies. • General public includes citizens, students, nature lovers, media audiences, and others, whose support and consensus are vital for the campaign. • Educationists are education providers, called to evaluate the educational values and benefits in retaining Chek Jawa and in getting written petitions to the government. • Marine scientists are the marine experts who provide the research data and appreciation of marine life, biodiversities and others. • Mass media provides news coverage in the press and broadcast media, including the Internet. DM10102 Public Relations - Assignment: Case Study Student No.: 13250P / RDM3-03F 8 • Politicians and Government are influential people and government bodies that need to be rallied to support the conservation cause and to represent the publics’ voice in the government.