i was having a debate with one of my friends!well the topic of discussion was that "public relations practitioners seem to bribe media people with presents especially during celebrations". i was against the motion, trying to raise some important points as a public relations student but my friend(not a PR student) on the other hand couldn't understand why PR personnel give out goody bags,send seasons greetings cards and invitations to parties etc. she sees this as a deceptive motive by Public relations people to get the media to be on their side.she(my friend) further argued that 'if at all these small gifts are given as a token of apreciation,do the PR people also receive these "little presents" from the media people' .well i tried to get her to understand that PR people work with the media almost on a daily basis therefore they must have and maintain a good relationship with the media thereby showing appreciation. i mean without the media, PR would almost seem hopeless, how else would we disseminate information about our companies/client's campaigns and projects to large masses of people?what i am trying to say is that the word BRIBE fits rather wrongly on the topic at hand but APPRECIATION will do.speaking of appreciation, last week i was preparing seasons greetings cards to be sent out to more than 200 companies and universities,(local and abroad) and of course the media to wish them well for the new season and show our appreciation .
i was very excited about preparing and sending out the cards, it was fun though time consuming.the cards were already designed and printed by the publisher, all i had to do was to fold them nicely and dicard those which were not in good shape.once i finished folding the cards i had to carefully stamp each of the cards with the Directors signature.next i had to type and print addresses on envelopes, honestly i couldn't find a faster way to do this, mind you well over two hundred cards had to be sent out and that meant over two hundred envelopes had to be typed and printed.once i was done printing the envelopes, it was time to insert the cards and get them ready for the post people to collect them.at the end of the day my supervisor was impressed with my work.
anyway, i would like to hear what you guys think about PR practitioners sending out tokens of appreciation, be it christmas(or any other ocassion) presents,cards or goody bags.should this really be considered as a bribe of some sort?what difference will it make if these were not sent out, would the media not cover 'us'?
i was very excited about preparing and sending out the cards, it was fun though time consuming.the cards were already designed and printed by the publisher, all i had to do was to fold them nicely and dicard those which were not in good shape.once i finished folding the cards i had to carefully stamp each of the cards with the Directors signature.next i had to type and print addresses on envelopes, honestly i couldn't find a faster way to do this, mind you well over two hundred cards had to be sent out and that meant over two hundred envelopes had to be typed and printed.once i was done printing the envelopes, it was time to insert the cards and get them ready for the post people to collect them.at the end of the day my supervisor was impressed with my work.
anyway, i would like to hear what you guys think about PR practitioners sending out tokens of appreciation, be it christmas(or any other ocassion) presents,cards or goody bags.should this really be considered as a bribe of some sort?what difference will it make if these were not sent out, would the media not cover 'us'?
4 comments:
I do agree with you, and I dont think that is kind of bribing behavior in the PR daily life.
First of all, the PR truly is a subject that is related to the social science which studies about the relationship among people and organizaions in ths society, in short, there will not any accurate standard to judge this kind of condition like other technology science that has the precise line to determine whatever is right or not, therefore, to argue this so flexible topic might lead no result, is it?
secondly, to be honest, does every PR practitioner have the purely and frinkly purpose when they send the card, for me, I cant lie to myself, of course, I have somehow needs such as establishing a healthy relations with them or leave the good image in their minds, anyway, the card doesnt mean just a greets from a friend without the any working connecitons, correct? Then, I wanna ask, why we do that? no doubtable reason, we wish they will report more positive news about our firm, even when we got some crisis, we still hope them to "soft" us, is it? So that's the controversy existing that we cant avoid to face.
However, I have to emphsize a point, here, did you ever consider about the views of media, I mean, is the media becoming the "puppet" of the social firms, obviously, absolutly no, you cant buy the media and let them throw away their basic moral and ethics only by the cards or small presents, is it? so I do believe, we have to make the confidence on them, never underestimate their own personal value for their job and their belief, apparently, PR practitioner can't totally help the media to decide how and what they will report, so , if this is a bribe, where is the benefit for PR's firm, there is still the risk in this kind of choices.
sum up, we should have more positive perspective on this business activity optimistically, no pay no gain, this is also an investments about human beings.
I'd have to say "Token of Appreciation". For our work-as PR people- to get coverage and publicized we are helped by the media. they publish and broadcast our effort. Giving them goodie bags and holiday presents is simply a 'Thank you for supporting us' gesture.
We and the media are actually need each other. They are helping in covering our events ,campaigns, interviews and such...we on the other hand help them with material to publish or broadcast because they can not go around looking for stories all the time, so we bring the materials to them.
So saying thank you to them is not a crime. The same goes for the media invites. Here at S&A we either just send a uniquely designed card to invite the media to an event or (depending on the client's budget) we come up with creative ideas for the invites.
These usually include both the card and a usable item that is related to the event. For example- a pumice stone can be tied together with an invitation card to invite them to an event for a 'Beauty Spa'.Does that mean you are bribing them to attend your event on that and not respond to other invites of the same day?
I believe it is just to show that with your creative ideas, your event is most likely to be as creatively interesting as well...Remember you do have other competitors out there and they too want their efforts to be covered live by the media.
In conclusion, I'd say, although one of the journalism code of ethics states that do not accept gifts of any form including monetary, a small token of appreciation is not a bribe. It is just that, 'A Token of Appreciation'
Thank you so much for your insightful feedback. i am glad to know that some of you share the same point of view as me, after all we are public relations professionals in the making!
i also acknowledge the fact that you raised some important points that i had left out.
@Tony, yes indeed we are all in it for something, more of 'i scratch your back and you scratch mine'. i mean it is beyond reasonable doubt that public relations personel and the media depend on each other,well perhaps we slighty depend more on them. we need the media to cover our events,press releases,etc. so giving journalists goody bags or sending them cards is just a way of saying thank,we appreciate it,please keep on working well with us.of course small presents are not exchangeble for journalist's code of ethics.they(journalists)are guarded by their code of ethics and if at all they accept any bribe of some sort then they are to blame just as much as 'whoever' offered that particular bribe is to blame.
@Lena K,i especially like the point you raised when you said "Remember you do have other competitors out there and they too want their efforts to be covered live by the media."i would not have said it any better myself.I mean there are so many public relations comapanies say in malaysia,obviously all of them are fighting one battle(they want media coverage and success) therefore each one of them must see to it that they work very closely with the media as such showing appreciation comes in handy! besides the media people like to feel appreciated by being specially invited to events and getting first hand information, so a goody bag will just put a cherry on top of their icing.
Well, to be honest..."bribing" is a pretty harsh word to describe the "tokens of appreciation"; although they seem similar in nature.
In some cases, little 'freebies' are included in Media Kits during events because they sometimes help to get the message across. For example, if a skin-care company held a launch+press conference for a new product, it's no surprise that every member of the media invited will most probably get to have a sample to take home.
That should give them something to write about, right?
Also, sometimes these tokens also enhance or maintain media-company connections. Like how friends sometimes remember to wish you happy birthday, or buy you lunch; it's a way of saying "hey, we're still friends"
wouldn't you agree?
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