10 days in...

Good afternoon fellow PR students,

Well, I have now completed ten days of my internship. What an experience it has been so far. Since my last post, I have been busy working on my media relations strategy report; which has involved discussing many different media opportunities with various site supervisors.

I have learnt one key point, which probably should have been quite obvious to me since I am a PR student... PR is a hugely important part of day to day business operations, and without consistent PR strategies, businesses don't seem to be as successful as competitors with strong PR tactics.

At the organisation I am working for, all of the PR is handled and run from Sydney. Through working here for ten days now, it is quite apparent to me that this is not working as well as it could. Media opportunities are being missed, and people who are not well trained to deal with the media are having to 'wing it' when they are asked questions from the press and have no PR spokesperson to refer to. In addition to this, I have discovered that there are no crisis communication plans in place, and if something drastic happens, the PR rep has to hop on the next flight over to Perth to deal with the issue. This results in delays in responses, and has left some sour feelings with some media representatives in Perth. Finally, the internal communications is sometimes inconsistent, and not dealt with in the best possible way; as instructions and change communication is given by the closest supervisor to the employees.

While it seems obvious to me that even one PR person based in Perth would be highly beneficial to the company, they don't seem to feel the same way. I have been speaking with my supervisor about my thoughts and while he does agree that things could be done far better, he thinks that it should come down to better training given to the on site supervisors.

In doing some research, the problem seems to stem from the origins of the company, which began in Japan in the late '80s. Perhaps due to the cultural differences, there is less need for PR representatives in each major branch of the organisation in Japan. However, in our Western culture, where it is becoming  more and more important to create and protect corporate images, I believe it is very important for businesses to have PR representatives in each of the major centres; forming relationships with media personnel, engaging with internal and external stakeholders, managing crisis communications and ensuring that anyone speaking to the media  is trained to do so.

It is now clear to me what my recommendations for the final report will be.

Until next time,

Rebecca