Week 6 Reading

'Crisis and Issues Management' Public Relations: Theory and Practise, S Mackey In J, Johnston and C, Zawawi (eds)

'Taxonomy of mediated crisis responses' by Taylor, M and Kent, M

'Crisis Communication Practises at an International Relief Agency' By Davis, B

'Creating and Managing a Crisis Team in Crisis Control: preventing and managing corporate crises' By Campbell, R

I believe the key messages from this week's readings were;
The Mackey readings key message is that crisis and issue management can be one of the most stressful challenges facing a PR officer. And how the organisation deals with the challenges it faces during a crisis can be extremely important to whether an business can recover from a crisis situation. It also highlighted the fact that it is extremely important to for PR officers to be thinking ahead and planning for any possible crisis scenarios that may occur. They need to already have the plans in place.

The 'Crisis Communication Practices at an International Relief Agency' was a insightful case study that illustrated how essential a communication plan is. It is part of every aspect of the successful running of an organisation, particularly a international organisation like Direct Relief.

The Taylor and Kent reading explained the many benefits of using the Internet and having a company website, particularly in a crisis. The Internet can be used to get information out immediately, tell your side of the story without media's influence, promote their product and publise their good deeds.

The Campbell reading emphasised the importance of having an efficient team prepared for a crisis situation. The team needs a leader to make decisions, and the team must have extensive skills and know how to deal with a stressful situation.

The Key points in the reading could be applied to my group's work in that they;
The Taylor and Kent reading showed that a use of the current Wine Country Tourism website could be used to promote a more harmonious relationship with the Cessnock community, by using it to communicate with the community and encourage dialogue between the two.

The Campbell reading also showed how a PR team can effectively work with each other to achieve its goals.

The readings made me think more about the public relations practise in that;
All of these readings illustrated different ways for PR practitioners to deal with a crisis, all of these strategies are helpful. And they outlined the ways that PR officers should already have these strategies in place for crisis situations, so that the reaction time is quicker.

The readings related to other readings I've done in previous weeks;
This crisis and issue management reading follows on from the other readings in the Johnston and Zawawi textbook. Each week the textbook readings build on each other, from Strategies, research, community relations and now crisis management. All of these reading would be common issues facing PR officers, and they would have to be knowledgeable and skilled in all of these areas to be successful.