Peer blog review

I read my classmate Katerina’s blog for this week’s assignment.  It very much interested me how she related qualitative research to social media. It had never occurred to me that the discussion section of facebook would contain so much qualitative data.  Qualitative data can be found anywhere.  This led me to wonder what I would come across on Spain if I was to search for it on facebook.  I found a few different Spanish public relations firms pages, but none of them sparked any discussion.  This shows how big of a part social media is in America, but how it has not seemed to flourish too much in Spain so far.  If I were to get an internship while studying abroad, I would try to incorporate social media into the daily life of the company.

Keeping with the social media theme, I decided to read my classmate Kevin’s blog, entitled “Social Media Breakfast: The Present and Future of Social Media” .  He discusses how it is important to know that media itself has not changed.  He stresses the importance of changing how a person gets a message or news to others.  The present and future of the media is social media.  Facebook and Twitter are social media tools that all public relations practitioners should familiarize with.  If Spain wants to connect internationally with Americans, the importance of social media must be stressed.  Products would be able to reach a further audience if they expanded their use of social media.

Qualitative research

Research is conducted all over the world, although it does not play as big of a role in Spain’s public relations practices. In class, we have discussed the importance of qualitative research.  Observational research helps a researcher gain better insight of the participant.  I found research that described a researcher’s attempt at finding out more about the migration policy and the reactions of Spaniards.  He wanted to understand the ups and downs of becoming an immigrant and discovered the best way to accomplish this would be to observe them.  He conducted his research at Oficina de Extranjeros in Madrid, Spain

The purpose of this study was to discover how to break the negative connotations associated with immigrants.  He thought it was important to discover the problems in the country’s immigration system, in order to break the disconnect between the people.  The researcher was able to figure out more by conducting a study where he could really get to know the thoughts of the immigrants.  If they were to fill out a survey, he would not be able to get such reliable information.  It is important to know what exactly a researcher is trying to figure out, before he or she conducts a study.

Peer blog review

A lot of countries struggle with public relations because of its accessibility to information and research.  Social media is an important part of public relations across the United States and is also an important factor to public relations in Spain.  Casey’s blog post entitled “Unobtrusive Research” explained how the number one job of a public relations practitioner is to keep up with changing media.  The video she used in her blog explained how social media is not only a trend in the United States, but in other countries as well.  Public relations professionals should be able to agree that technology is something that will always be very busy to the practice of public relations.  It is what is important now and will continue to be important for years to come.  It is important for public relations firms to establish a strong technological background.  Building social media in Spain should improve the perceived professionalism of the public relations practitioners, which is something that Spain is struggling with at the moment.

Practicing ethics in public relations is something that I would specifically advise to public relations practitioners in Spain.  This would help to improve the level of professionalization, that according to many studies, Spanish pr tends to be lacking right now.  Lisa Perez’s blog entitled “Research Ethics in the Media”, had a case study that dealt with mistrust of a company’s publics. It explains why people tend to mistrust public relations professionals.  The mistrust comes from professionals often trying to push the limits.  In order to gain credibility, it is important to tell the truth and let the people being researched know what they are really getting themselves into.  If practitioners are honest with their clients, there is no way that public relations will receive a bad name.

Crisis Management in Spain

A case study entitled, How should a company respond to a product harm crisis? The role of corporate reputation and consumer-based cues, deals with crisis management public relations in Belgium, France and Spain.  In this study, it reveals how high Spain and France rank when it comes to the uncertainty avoidance dimension.  According to the researchers, children in Belgium got sick from drinking Coca-Cola and Belgium, Spain, and France boycotted all products from the company.  The researcher goes on to say that perhaps people from areas with high uncertainty avoidance index react more strongly and quickly in blaming the company, than having the ability to see other possibilities from where there could have been error.  He is able to conclude this because other countries such as Denmark and Sweden did not completely ban Coca-Cola products.  This just shows further how different cultures will react to scenarios in different ways.  PR practitioners must know the country and culture they are dealing with, in order to react properly, especially during times of crisis.

Every public relations course has taught us that we need to know our target audience.  This cannot be stressed enough when practicing public relations internationally.  Public relations professionals must be aware how public relations differs greatly from country to country.