Last week, October 14th through the 18th, I attended the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) National Conference. When asked to write a business brief, what immediately came to mind was one of the breakout sessions during the conference that particularly struck a chord with me. Instead of taking the ‘typical’ route of researching something in news media I thought it would be more effective to write from first-handed media experience.
This specific breakout session was among several to choose from; however this session left a long-lasting impact on me. It also motivated me more toward my goal of one day being a public relations mogul that empowers women and minorities.
This session was called “The Case for Diversity in PR”. The speakers of the session were Laarni Dacanay and James E. Wright. Laarni is a Diversity Communications Specialist for NBCUniversal as well as the Co-Chair for the NBC Diversity Committee. James is a Diversity & Inclusion Strategist and a Trainer/Speaker for NBCUniversal.
The session began with a timeline of the progress media has made over the last century. It showcased things like the “first colored person on air”, “first lesbian kiss on screen”, “first African-American lead” and other groundbreaking moments for cultural minorities in media, specifically NBC and their affiliates.
The speakers then conducted several ‘warm-up’ excises to make us more comfortable and help us realize how much we use labels for people, even ourselves. After the warm-ups they proceeded to show us several examples of when minority portrayal has been successful (ex: Fast and the Furious series) and examples of when they have been less successful or a complete failure, in terms of including diversity.
I asked James what he would suggest to someone trying to increase diversity and battle stereotypes in media; his response was that “more people like us” need to demand to take over the industry and make certain ALL races, sexes, national creeds, etc are not only thought of but also included in all processes (writing, producing, executing, etc) of the media/communications industry.
Although this seminar was well-liked by the audience and did not cause much debate among us; it is vital that we, as a culture, strive toward more diversity and minority inclusion in all aspects and mediums of media. This session caused me to see ‘the bigger picture’ and realize we must make such cultural changes in the industry. It is our job as the upcoming generation of young professionals to make certain the workplace and products that we endorse or advertise for are culturally, racially, economically, and socially inclusive.
I know that personally I will take what I learned in this session and apply it to more aspects of my life. I will be sure to discuss this issue with other professionals already in the industry as well as my peers who will directly effect who is represented in the future. I acknowledge the progress we have already made, however it is still alarming when you look at the racial demographics of the United States and compare it to the racial and ethic portrayal on the news, in newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, etc.
Moreover, all I can suggest is that we face this problem head-on instead of acting as though it does not exist. Progress is still to come and hopefully we will see a dramatic shift change in our lifetime. The majority of the United States; which is racially, sexually, and ethically diverse, should not stand victim to the minority homogeneous population.
Sources:
http://www.ocprsa.org/member/459/laarni-rosca-dacanay
http://www.visualcv.com/jameswright
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
AirTran becomes Southwest
Topic: Business Brief #3
Author: Preston Locklear
Date: October 11, 2011
Southwest buys AirTran
Earlier this year, in May, AirTran became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southwest Airlines. Initially, this created a lot of controversy, mainly among employees of both companies.
I interviewed a current employee of AirTran (now Southwest) to better gauged her opinion and see what she felt other employees thought about the business move.
Shena, who did not want to mention her last name, said she was excited about the business merge. However, she did express she was concerned that former AirTran employees would not receive preference in new business related decisions. She was glad about the increase of benefits with Southwest saying, “Southwest has a lot more monetary benefits…AirTran did not offer pay incentives like Southwest now offers”.
The public did not seem to have much of a vocal input in the merge however, according to RTT News; Southwest/AirTran sales have gone up 6.4% for the month of September. Although the public seems to be giving an overall positive response to the merge it still seems as though employees of former AirTran are worried about their job security as well as preference for business decisions.
Personally, I think this is a step in the right direction for both companies but I could not help but share concern with Shena and the possible inconvenience of not being as valued, simply because she was not an original Southwest employee.
Although this business move was several months ago it is riveting to see the success, other than employee relations, of the two companies. My suggestion to Southwest would be this, to increase employee loyalty and satisfaction, make aware to employees that their value is not more or less depending on the longevity of the employee or the original company worked for.
The merging of the two companies obviously opens more flight options and availability to travelers however employees and their satisfaction as well as job security are vital in the success of a company. Perhaps Southwest can strive to make as few changes as possible in order to keep employee relationships stronger than ever, in a time when such a thing is essential to the overall success of the company.
Sources:
http://www.rttnews.com/Content/TopStories.aspx?Id=1729785&SM=1
Interview with Shena, former AirTran employee and current Southwest employee
http://www.rttnews.com/Content/TopStories.aspx?Id=1729785&SM=1
Friday, September 30, 2011
Assange Asylum
If you have not heard the name Julian Assange repeatedly on the news, Internet, newspapers over the past year perhaps you have been under a rock or in a coma. For those suffering from comatose or from being a recluse I will give a brief explanation of who he is, what his significance is, and what we can do with this information.
Julian Assange is an Australian activist. His biggest claim-to-fame is being the unofficial director of the notorious WikiLeaks website. The original website was published in 2006; it would allow users to edit, upload, comment, or share information that could be considered confidential or inconspicuous. Most notably, WikiLeaks released, in October of 2010, (The) Iraq War Logs. The Logs consisted of almost 400,000 secret and confidential government documents. As you can imagine, this caused uproar around the globe.
The documents ranged from government meeting minute notes, cartoon character names assigned to different world leaders, the names of family members of deceased soldiers. What I believe created the most outcry from US citizens and people from around the world was the ‘potential’ danger of having this information so widely available and could end up backfiring by having people’s lives threatened, especially if their information was contained in said documents.
In July of that year, WikiLeaks also released Afghan War Diary, which contained almost 80,000 documents pertaining to the War in Afghanistan. These documents were never public before they were broadcast over WikiLeaks.
In April of 2011, WikiLeaks released another set of documents, this time less than 1,000 relating to prisoners being detained at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. In September of 2011 Julian Assange’s autobiography was published. After being untraceable for a while and posting videos from anonymous locations around the world; Assange’s location was found out. He is currently waiting to be extradited to Sweden to face criminal charges. The US Justice Department wants to extradite and charge him with espionage or for publishing illegally obtained documents. As of September of 2011, ironically enough, Assange was among the list of people nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
The government of the United States, who were major stakeholders in this event, reacted out of fear and ignorance. Although government officials would not admit to it, they shut down access to the website almost immediately after the released and forbid releasing the documents until “examined”. This is what I find to be problematic and a little reminiscent of formerly Communist Russia and currently Communist China.
I remember the release of WikiLeaks and the general response of people after finding out. Initially, people were outraged; instead of being concerned or questioning what are these documents really? Why do we not have access to these documents? Again, I feel as though the US government used fear tactics to get a response from the people and in turn, the government was given indirect permission to limit the information available to us.
After The Patriot Act and more specifically 9-11, US citizens seem to be okay with voluntarily signing over their rights, without hesitation, as long as its in the name of ‘protection from the “bad” guys’.
I would argue that the US is most often viewed as “the land of the free”; one of the few places on the globe you can entirely express yourself without feeling limited or constrained, or at least until now.
Personally, I feel as though our government was so embarrassed by the content of the WikiLeaks, namely how they had been conducting themselves during meetings as well as assigning code names like “Batman and Robin”; Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev respectively.
In my opinion, Julian Assange did nothing wrong. And to think he could be charged with treason truly disgusts me. According to Merriam-Webster, treason is “the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family”. For starters Assange is not a US citizen, therefore he has no allegiance to the US. So I ask this, if the exact definition of treason is attempting to overthrow the government of your allegiance how could Assange be charged with this without being a citizen? Furthermore, did he do anything wrong initially? He personally did not steal the documents. He received documents, which he felt were necessary for the public to know about. Do we now live in a world where you cannot share potentially important information?
I do not think people should have total access to all government documents. There should be some discretion with releasing sensitive or harmful information. However all governments, more specifically, the US government should be held accountable for their actions and be forced to be transparent. Forced by their intrinsic want to be open and honest as well as forced by the people who deserve to know what is going on behind closed doors.
There is no management theory that directly applies to this. However of the nine skills of leadership, the government did not use any as discussed in class. Hypothetically speaking if the government (as a whole) were a manager it would definitely be an authoritative leader with little to no input from employees (citizens) in this case. Even in terms of voting for elected officials, the government, not the people have the final say so in who is elected.
US citizens focused mainly on the ‘wrongdoings’ of Assange and not on the blatant censorship by the government. Not only is this troubling but it makes me question the future of transparency in the government, specifically when it comes to media outlets and what information they release to the public. I cannot accurately predict what direction this will go in however I do hope we, as a county, move more in the direction of transparency in media and less in the direction of denial.
Sources:
http://en.rian.ru/world/20101129/161542104.html
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/treason
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks (not used for facts, only for spelling and dates)
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/145977/bradley-manning-and-julian-assange-both-nominated-for-nobel-peace-prize/#2
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/07/world/main7124779.shtml
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-in-london-high-court-for-bail-fight/story-e6frf7m6-1225972449507
Julian Assange is an Australian activist. His biggest claim-to-fame is being the unofficial director of the notorious WikiLeaks website. The original website was published in 2006; it would allow users to edit, upload, comment, or share information that could be considered confidential or inconspicuous. Most notably, WikiLeaks released, in October of 2010, (The) Iraq War Logs. The Logs consisted of almost 400,000 secret and confidential government documents. As you can imagine, this caused uproar around the globe.
The documents ranged from government meeting minute notes, cartoon character names assigned to different world leaders, the names of family members of deceased soldiers. What I believe created the most outcry from US citizens and people from around the world was the ‘potential’ danger of having this information so widely available and could end up backfiring by having people’s lives threatened, especially if their information was contained in said documents.
In July of that year, WikiLeaks also released Afghan War Diary, which contained almost 80,000 documents pertaining to the War in Afghanistan. These documents were never public before they were broadcast over WikiLeaks.
In April of 2011, WikiLeaks released another set of documents, this time less than 1,000 relating to prisoners being detained at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. In September of 2011 Julian Assange’s autobiography was published. After being untraceable for a while and posting videos from anonymous locations around the world; Assange’s location was found out. He is currently waiting to be extradited to Sweden to face criminal charges. The US Justice Department wants to extradite and charge him with espionage or for publishing illegally obtained documents. As of September of 2011, ironically enough, Assange was among the list of people nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
The government of the United States, who were major stakeholders in this event, reacted out of fear and ignorance. Although government officials would not admit to it, they shut down access to the website almost immediately after the released and forbid releasing the documents until “examined”. This is what I find to be problematic and a little reminiscent of formerly Communist Russia and currently Communist China.
I remember the release of WikiLeaks and the general response of people after finding out. Initially, people were outraged; instead of being concerned or questioning what are these documents really? Why do we not have access to these documents? Again, I feel as though the US government used fear tactics to get a response from the people and in turn, the government was given indirect permission to limit the information available to us.
After The Patriot Act and more specifically 9-11, US citizens seem to be okay with voluntarily signing over their rights, without hesitation, as long as its in the name of ‘protection from the “bad” guys’.
I would argue that the US is most often viewed as “the land of the free”; one of the few places on the globe you can entirely express yourself without feeling limited or constrained, or at least until now.
Personally, I feel as though our government was so embarrassed by the content of the WikiLeaks, namely how they had been conducting themselves during meetings as well as assigning code names like “Batman and Robin”; Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev respectively.
In my opinion, Julian Assange did nothing wrong. And to think he could be charged with treason truly disgusts me. According to Merriam-Webster, treason is “the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family”. For starters Assange is not a US citizen, therefore he has no allegiance to the US. So I ask this, if the exact definition of treason is attempting to overthrow the government of your allegiance how could Assange be charged with this without being a citizen? Furthermore, did he do anything wrong initially? He personally did not steal the documents. He received documents, which he felt were necessary for the public to know about. Do we now live in a world where you cannot share potentially important information?
I do not think people should have total access to all government documents. There should be some discretion with releasing sensitive or harmful information. However all governments, more specifically, the US government should be held accountable for their actions and be forced to be transparent. Forced by their intrinsic want to be open and honest as well as forced by the people who deserve to know what is going on behind closed doors.
There is no management theory that directly applies to this. However of the nine skills of leadership, the government did not use any as discussed in class. Hypothetically speaking if the government (as a whole) were a manager it would definitely be an authoritative leader with little to no input from employees (citizens) in this case. Even in terms of voting for elected officials, the government, not the people have the final say so in who is elected.
US citizens focused mainly on the ‘wrongdoings’ of Assange and not on the blatant censorship by the government. Not only is this troubling but it makes me question the future of transparency in the government, specifically when it comes to media outlets and what information they release to the public. I cannot accurately predict what direction this will go in however I do hope we, as a county, move more in the direction of transparency in media and less in the direction of denial.
Sources:
http://en.rian.ru/world/20101129/161542104.html
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/treason
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks (not used for facts, only for spelling and dates)
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/145977/bradley-manning-and-julian-assange-both-nominated-for-nobel-peace-prize/#2
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/07/world/main7124779.shtml
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-in-london-high-court-for-bail-fight/story-e6frf7m6-1225972449507
Monday, September 26, 2011
Yahoo, fires their CEO
On Tuesday September 6th, Yahoo fired their CEO Carol Bartz. In an interview with CNN Money, “Tuesday, Bartz was in New York, to speak at Citigroup's technology conference the next day, when she was supposed to call [Roy] Bostock at 6 p.m. "I called him at 6:06," she recalls. When he got on the line, she says, he started reading a lawyer's prepared statement to dismiss her.
"I said, 'Roy, I think that's a script,'" adding, "'Why don't you have the balls to tell me yourself?'"
When Bostock finished reading, Bartz didn't argue—"I got it. I got it," she told the Yahoo chairman. "I thought you were classier," she added.”
However, this was only the beginning of Carol’s outcry after being fired. She goes on to say the board of directors is a bunch of “doofuses” and also says, in regards to the Yahoo board; "These people f---ed me over.” As I’m sure you can imagine, this has created quite the stir in the press.
I have been a follower of Bartz for about a year now. Last fall, Carol Bartz came and spoke to Georgia State University. To be honest, I was put off by her short responses to the interviewer as well as the impersonal vibe she gave off in her snarky responses. I remember being seated in the auditorium, thinking to myself “THIS lady is a CEO of such a huge company??” However, I did appreciate her business advice when it comes to talking to C-suite management.
There has been much debate about her firing; a few reasons have been predicted. Besides her use of strong language, the issue of her being a woman CEO has been brought to attention too. This is another issue in itself and has CNN and others debating if this is more focused on the fact of her being a woman in the first place, thus being perceived as incapable of performing certain job tasks.
Women in the workplace have been an issue since the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the 1920s, when women were first able to legally work. It seems like equal pay for women and equal treatment in the workplace is something our nation still struggles with. I agree, Carol’s profanity was over the top and perhaps she is not the most heartwarming person but I have to ask myself, “Would I feel this way if she were a man; or would I just see her as strong?”
Woman or not, what she said was out of line but I do not think her business practice or working ability should be gauged in ANY way by her gender. Gender equality in the workplace is something we must strive to fix and overcome. Have you ever faced discrimination in the work place due to your gender? Or have you ever had an outburst at work, which did, or should have cost you your job?
Sources:
http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2011/09/08/carol-bartz-fired-yahoo/
http://www.businessinsider.com/insider-carol-bartz-is-a-lame-duck-and-has-checked-out-2011-8
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/sep/08/carol-bartz-blast-yahoo-after-being-fired
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Local Guerrilla Marketing for Denver
According to PRWEB, "Local Guerrilla Marketing is the most trusted brand name providing online marketing solutions for local businesses."
Recently, in Colorado, Guerilla Marketing has experienced an increase in usage with local businesses. The concept behind Local Guerilla Marketing is to cut marketing costs while increasing overall profit and sales.
Jim Earl, of Denver Colorado, is going to assist in making efforts bigger in Denver. The goal of the company is to have as many local customers as possible.
This breakout seems to be mainly beneficial. I found no written complaining against the movement or people not in support of it. Although I'm sure they're out there.
Big businesses seem to be the only entity that would be negatively effected by this. In theory, local markets and consumers/producers should thrive while big businesses do not make as much profits. Of course, that is from a local market perspective.
I believe this business initivite will bring nothing but success to Denver. I would be curious to see if this same mentality carried throughout a bigger metropolis like Atlanta or New York. Would businesses and locals be in stronger support of something beneficial to big business?
With local marketers and small businesses pleased; I'm curious to see how this will turn out for Denver. Will success run rampant or will big businesses take notice and win their profits and clientele back?
Feel free to comment, rate, subscribe. I want to hear feedback!
Source:http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2011/9/prweb8770867.htm
Recently, in Colorado, Guerilla Marketing has experienced an increase in usage with local businesses. The concept behind Local Guerilla Marketing is to cut marketing costs while increasing overall profit and sales.
Jim Earl, of Denver Colorado, is going to assist in making efforts bigger in Denver. The goal of the company is to have as many local customers as possible.
This breakout seems to be mainly beneficial. I found no written complaining against the movement or people not in support of it. Although I'm sure they're out there.
Big businesses seem to be the only entity that would be negatively effected by this. In theory, local markets and consumers/producers should thrive while big businesses do not make as much profits. Of course, that is from a local market perspective.
I believe this business initivite will bring nothing but success to Denver. I would be curious to see if this same mentality carried throughout a bigger metropolis like Atlanta or New York. Would businesses and locals be in stronger support of something beneficial to big business?
With local marketers and small businesses pleased; I'm curious to see how this will turn out for Denver. Will success run rampant or will big businesses take notice and win their profits and clientele back?
Feel free to comment, rate, subscribe. I want to hear feedback!
Source:http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2011/9/prweb8770867.htm
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