Research and Reflections

Hello There,

As I mentioned in my previous post about stakeholder relations, during the second half of my internship, I was assigned to a team that was in charge of coming up with an implementation report for aid and grants provided to small-scale miners and the rehabilitation of zonal mines offices in rural and urban Tanzania, on behalf of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals. This report was to be submitted to one of the Ministry's financial partners and required us to travel through 10 regions out of the country's 30 regions for over 20 days and so it was imperative that we do a good job at it.

Although it was not directly a Public Relations report, I thought I would share some commonalities I noted along the way. 

Our main task as we travelled through numerous districts and small towns was to interview the recipients of the aid and grants to see if they had used it as intended. I realized that this was a form of primary research in the form of interviews. When we completed our travels and started compiling the report we soon learnt that we would need additional information to substantiate and measure the information we collected through the interviews, which would be secondary research. Moreover, I realized that the research carried out for the report was similar to post campaign research as it was done to evaluate the pre-set objectives.

All this is to say that research is not only limited to when carrying out awareness campaigns but it is a tool that is imperative to almost every field of work and the knowledge we learnt in class will surely aid us in numerous scenarios to come.

Now that I am done with my internship, I feel incredibly fulfilled and I am grateful to everyone at the Ministry of Energy and Minerals for the giving me a chance and a platform to grow in my career. If I could go back to the beginning and advice myself, these would be my main tips:-

Be Optimistic: Thinking back to how nervous I was for the first couple of days, I would just tell my self and anyone planning on interning in the future not to beat themselves up too much. Of course you wont know everything in the beginning and that's okay because that's not what is expected of you. The best thing you can do is to go in with utmost enthusiasm and give your best to whatever task is handed to you. At the very least the people around you will notice how committed you are and this is a start to getting better.

Ask, Ask, Ask: Don't be afraid to ask questions. When you are not too sure about something go ahead and ask your supervisor and your workmates (*of course do this in discretion to their time and space). I found that when I knew exactly what was expected of me, my output was always so much better. Ask for their advice and opinions on your work as they have probably been in the industry longer and so can give great insights. Better still, ask what else you can assist them with outside of your designated tasks; you never know what skills you may acquire- a semi-professional photographer anyone?

Google is your friend: While recollecting her first internship experience in class, one of my lecturers told us that she Googled everything and I have to say I can relate. These days you can find a limitless amount of information about almost everything online, so why not make the most of it? I searched for everything from format samples to correct spellings, simply because as an intern trying to leave a mark in the world, you need to be on top your game.

As all this comes to an end, I would once more like to thank all my lectures and classmates throughout my years at Curtin as they have collectively helped me get to where I am now. Time shared with you I will cherish for the rest of my life.

I can't wait to see what life and the world of Public Relations has in store for me.

I hope you have reading enjoyed my posts as much as I have enjoyed writing them.

Latifah Mzee Hamis Salim Boma

17223946/ 7E3A1749

Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia

Stakeholder Relations 101

Hello There,

So in my previous post about my daily tasks as a Public Relations intern, I highlighted on the role of Public Relations personnel as communicators and mediators between an organization and its publics or stakeholders. It is safe to say that this role is the most important one as although all the individual tasks I encountered during my internship were vast and varied, they all collectively led back to serving this specific role.

The most common execution of this role can be seen when looking at how an organization relates to its community or the general public. During my internship, this manifested itself as the relationship between the Ministry of Energy and Minerals and the general Tanzanian public. As a Public Relations practitioner working for the Ministry, my primary role was to communicate important information to and fro the two parties. 

On one hand, this was done through the media releases that I would write on behalf of the Ministry, that would be relayed to the public through the media. Inversely, by summarizing the daily mentions of the Ministry and briefing it to the Ministry's officials and staff, I was communicating to the Ministry what was being said about it in the public. Furthermore, the media releases were put on the Ministry's official website and in its weekly news bulletin that is open to the public, to reach a wider audience, and so relay information to more people.  

Another important stakeholder relationship to highlight is that of the Ministry and its staff. Internal communications was executed through sending daily media briefs to all the Ministry's staff and not just the officials alone. This way, they were able to know the general news surrounding the Ministry, even with things they may not have been directly involved in. Similarly each week, a news bulletin highlighting the Ministry's latest happenings, including all the in-house media releases would be published and posted in all the Ministry's notice boards and emailed to all the staff and so this is serves as another way to keep the staff aware of the happenings of the organization they work for.

A new relationship I got to explore however, is that between the government and its partners; financial and otherwise. For the second half of my internship I was put in a team in charge of preparing an implementation report (more on this in my next post) on behalf of the Ministry to be submitted to one of its financial partners. Again, this is an example of the vital exchange of information between the organization and one of its stakeholders managed or facilitated by Public Relations personnel. 

Lastly but definitely not least, it is important to note the Ministry's relationship with the media. The Public Relations department was in charge of contacting all the media in case of any events as well as sending media releases to the media for publication, so once again we see that Public Relations people are responsible for maintaining and facilitating these relationships.

It was really interesting seeing a concept learnt in class play out in real life.

I hope this was an interesting read.

Until next time.

Latifah Mzee Hamis Salim Boma
17223946/ 7E3A1749

Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia

A Day In The Life

Hello There,

So as I got more accustomed to my internship, my primary responsibilities included carrying out daily media monitoring for the Ministry, with a majority of it being on newspapers as form of traditional media. Although I was not new to this, I found it interesting that after highlighting all the mentions of the Ministry's activities in all the major newspapers, we would summarize all the information and email it to all the Ministry's employees. 

I think this is a brilliant tool as it not only enabled us as Public Relations personnel to know what is being said about the organization in the public but it informed another important stakeholder group of the Ministry; the employees, of the organization's activities that they may not be directly involved in and so aware of.

Daily monitoring and briefing of all major newspapers.

Another of my recurring tasks was that of writing media releases on the different activities done by the Ministry. This was one of my favourite tasks as it enabled me to put in practice all that I learnt from my modules and improve on my professional writing skills both in English and Swahili, that are both actively used as a means of communication in the country. I learnt that although writing for Public Relations may differ depending on the organization and industry, the format for media releases usually stays the same, following the 'inverted pyramid'.

To date, the most fulfilling day has to be when one of the media releases I wrote was published in the front pages of one of the major daily newspapers in my country.

A media release in Swahili in the 'Mtanzania' newspaper.

A media release in English in the 'Daily News' newspaper.

However, I was pleasantly surprised at how involved the Public Relations department was in the Ministerial meetings, that I frequently had to attend. I learnt that our role in the meetings was that of communicators and mediators between the Ministry and the general public. The meetings were a great source of information for media releases as that is where most important statements were made and contracts signed. It was a pleasure to see the role of Public Relations extensively appreciated on a governmental platform,

I should note that the amount of work did fluctuate depending on the Minister's schedule, with some days being fairly hectic and others involving nothing more than daily media monitoring. Regardless, it is best to give your all in all scenarios as it shows that you are proactive and not reactive towards your work. Do not be afraid to ask what else you can help with when the work load is low. Besides, this is a great way to keep monotony away and learn new things. 

I hope that this has been an interesting read.

Until next time.

Latifah Mzee Hamis Salim Boma
17223946/ 7E3A1749
Curtin University, Sarawak Campus

A Lesson In Confidence

Hello There,

My name is Latifah and for the last three months I have been interning for the Government Communications unit at the Ministry of Energy and Minerals of the United Republic of Tanzania. When it came to deciding where I wanted to pursue my internship there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to do it in my home country as that is where I see myself working in the long run and so I wanted to see first hand how the Public Relations industry worked there.

For those that are curious, Tanzania is in the eastern part of Africa, bordered by Kenya and Uganda.

I am sure interning in an African country and for the government may be a little different from the experiences of my counterparts, regardless I hope that I can provide some useful insights from my experience.

To be honest, I was very nervous on my first day of interning. I kept wondering whether I would be able to meet the high standards of work as it was an established office with years of experience. Although my boss and my co-workers were incredibly accommodative, I learnt early on that it was a busy office and on that day itself I was assigned to cover the '5th Annual Canada - Tanzania Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility', on behalf of the organisation.

Upon my arrival, I was completely caught off guard. For the longest time, I had the idea that Public Relations was more of a 'behind the scenes' profession, all about research and writing, where you lay the ground work and let the spokespeople do the talking. Turns out I was very wrong. I realized that as a Public Relations person you have to be able to get up and fearlessly take perfect pictures even in crowds of hundreds; you have be able to ask the right questions to the right people so as to gain sufficient information for your media release; you have to able to confidently introduce yourself and liaise with the media, all so that at the end of the day your organisation's work can be communicated to the public.

This realization made me go about my work much more confidently, and although my pictures could have been a little better that day, I really saw first hand the importance of Public Relations personnel.

You can see some of the pictures I took for the event on page 8 of the Ministry's Weekly News Bulletin below:
https://mem.go.tz/mem-news-bulletin-105th-edition/

Until next time.

Latifah Mzee Hamis Salim Boma
17223946/ 7E3A1749
Curtin University, Sarawak Campus