2/4/10

Week5: Public Relations Research (Part1)

Research is actually vital in everything that we do, not only in Public Relations. From the readings, it is true that research carried out during a program allows us to fine tune the activity to ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved. Personally, I feel that by doing research, we can always ensure that we are working towards a more holistic way. However, being able to conduct a research effectively is not a simple task afterall. There must always be a reason behind conducting a reasearch, one needs to always get into the research mindset beforehand. I find that the Hierarchy of Effects model (McElreath, 1993) is quite useful in the sense that practitioners can refer to it and incorporate tasks to be undertaken.

Also, upon reading, I've realised the close links between attitudes, opinions and behaviour. Before one can change his/her attitude, they have to be able to accept opinions and this leads to the change in behaviour as well. Moving on, public relations practitioners should also take into account the public opinions as upon grasping the preferences/likings of the public, it is always easier to plan to reach our to specific target audience.According to (Seitel, 2007), public opinion is what most people in a particular target audience think about an issue. Through this, perceptions are based and planning can be done.

As for the types of research, there are quantitative and qualitative research. Sometimes, the use of one type of research method is sufficient, however, most of the time, I feel that the use of both quantitative and qualitative research is better as it ensures that the research is conducted both in depth and in quantity and therefore, is able to cover more areas. I am quite amazed that research have to be done throughout the whole process. Like during the implementation stage and at the outcome stage.

It is true to large extent that planning is difficult as besides the need for intensive research, researchers have to consider time and budget as well. I feel that in order for all these to be done well, the researcher have to be patient, clear of his/her objectives, limitations, strengths. Although this takes a lot of time and effort, the fruits at the end are worth the hard work.


2 comments:

  1. The other thing about research being that you will be able to get additional information that can contribute to the existing material. This not only increase the angle of the report, but also substantiate the finding in terms of depths.

    However, research, with its potential benefits that can be added to the report, it might result in a deviation from the initial topics. Therefore, one must filter the information according and include what is vital and necessary. Not a meer cut and paste.

    Time factor is another important consideration when carrying out research. One has to pace out the workload accordingly to ensure it's due before deadline.

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  2. I pretty agree with Kenneth's comment, research that can be added to the report and carried out during a program allow us to fine tune the activity to ensure our desire. Furthermore, this one also helpful to understand Audience Studies research part of lecture :)

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