Of media releases and campaigns.

Hi everyone!

So my journey began mid of last month, and I am glad to say that I am halfway there. Two weeks of being in the Corporate Communications office has taught me some of the things every intern working in a corporate communications department needs to know.

And last Wednesday I get to draft my very first media release. My supervisor e-mailed me details of the release in the afternoon and I managed to get it done before I got off from work! Well, the media release is about the upcoming Go Bald event that will be held in campus on the 14th May. Go Bald is a campaign organized by Sarawak Children’s Cancer Society where members of the public are able to give their support to children suffering from cancer through donations and also showing their care by getting their hair shaved. But only the bold will do so and in the past years, I have witnessed girls getting their hair shaved too. Sarawak Children’s Cancer Society (SCCS) is a relief and care for childhood cancer and their annual event, the Go Bald campaign aims to raise enough money for the treatment and to help those children and their families.

As you guys know, this is the third year that Curtin Sarawak is involved in the Go Bald campaign held by SCCS. Curtin has been actively participating in the campaign to show support to all the young cancer patients. And I am glad to say that the event turned out pretty well. I remember asking my colleague the total number of students and staff that were going to shave their hair. But as the event was going on, more and more students decided to join in and get their hair shaved too. At first there only about thirty students and staffs but the number increased to almost double the initial number! Thanks to all the supportive students, the event turned out well and was better than we expected.

So a week before the event started, I was given the task to draft my very first media release. I only had about two hours to complete the given task and was glad that I managed to get it done on time. From this, I have also learned that drafting a media release was not easy. Although I have been taught different ways to draft a release, somehow, it is still different when you actually do it at work. And from the event, I have witnessed how the Corporate Communications manage the event, and how they ensure the reporters and guests from SCCS were taken care of. I saw the reporters took photos throughout the event and even got to interview some of the students who got their heads shaved.

The three brave ladies were first to go.

 Before & after.

Before I end my post, I want to highlight that media relations play a crucial part in Public Relations. And in this case, communicating with the media is a central area of activity in corporate communications. Some of the media relations techniques that have been used are press release and media monitoring. This is what I as an intern has observed throughout the event, and also for the past events as well.


Till then,
Vivian Lee
15442668
Curtin Miri

And there goes my weekend.

What is public relations? From what I read from the results shown in Google, public relations is the professional maintenance of a favourable public image by a company, other organization or an individual in the eyes of the public. And to sustain a positive image of the company is to uphold a constructive relationship with one of its key target audiences, which is the media.

And so, here comes what has happened in the past two days. It was Curtin Sarawak’s Awards & Scholarship Ceremony on Friday (25th April) and Graduation Ceremony on Saturday (26th April) so I was asked to deal with the press together with one of my colleague, Lillian. As a PR practitioner, being in contact with the media is one of the most important part of the job. Without the media, what are we PR practitioners to do? So, my task for the night was to lead the press to their table and pass them each a hand out of the speeches and fact sheets. Before the event, my supervisor had me go all the way to the HR department to photocopy a few copies of these hand outs and all I thought was “Why do I have to do such trifling tasks?” Where is the public relations stuff that I am supposed to be doing?”.

But as I was standing there, I realize that this was more than just a petty chore. While waiting for the hand outs to be done copying, I got to read through them and understand how a fact sheet is prepared in the correct way as well as how speeches are drafted for the speakers. In fact, what I am doing is actually preparing a media kit for the press! And how could I have not realized that right from the beginning? Guess I was a little too nervous about doing this as this was my first time being present at an event not as a guest, but as a committee member.

Apart from that, I have also learnt an important lesson which is to present ourselves in the best image of our company as this will instill positive awareness among the public towards the organization. Because the way I present myself in front of the press indirectly shows how the company represents itself. Also, preparing fact sheets and writing speeches for people are certainly not some simple tasks. Imagine getting the facts on the fact sheet wrong and drafting a speech with lots of grammatical error. Mistakes like these cannot happen as everything done has to be pretty precise. Public relations do not recognize such minor liability and blunders as they may end up becoming huge faults.


Until my next post,
Vivian Lee
15442668
Curtin Miri

Another step forward; Internship!

Hey everyone!

I am Vivian from Curtin Sarawak Campus and this is my very first blog post. The company I am working with now is Curtin University, and I am in the Corporate Communications department. It has been four days since I started working here, and guess what? My placement started just at the right time. This is due to the graduation ceremony that will take place on the 26th April, which is this coming Saturday and I am glad to say that I will be involved in it. One week into work, and I already have tasks allocated to me in such an event. More updates on that will be coming your way, right after the event ends. But for now, I will be talking about my first few days at work.

Curtin University, a place I can call my second home because I spend about the same amount of time in campus and home. And I am indeed very glad and fortunate to be able to do my internship in campus. From what I heard from my seniors, it is difficult to apply for a placement in the Corporate Communications department as they have quite a number of students waiting in line for their turn to do their placement there.

Well, I am lucky enough to be accepted by the management. I remember walking into the office to see my supervisor, Ms. Marcella Gider, Senior Corporate Communications Officer sitting at her desk at 8.00AM sharp. She was the only person in the office. So I took a seat and discussed some of the things I have to do throughout the internship, then subsequently she introduced me to all my colleagues when they arrived at work.

And starting from the first day, I have been asked to read newspapers, eight different newspapers in three languages to be exact. So, there is the English, Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia version of the newspapers. Funny thing is, I hardly read Chinese and I have to read it with squinted eyes (like the image below) just to read those seemingly unfamiliar Chinese characters.

But, I made it through day by day, reading articles after articles, looking for Curtin-related news as well as exciting local and worldwide news. Reading newspapers may only be fun to a handful of people, and I admit, that I am certainly not one of them but somehow, I am starting to like going through these papers in search of any intriguing and eye-catching news. Well basically, the main purpose of doing this is to compile all the advertisement clippings, feature articles as well as press clippings and put them in separate folders. Media clipping may just be my thing - or maybe not. Shown below are some of the things that I have done, including the cutting of the name tags for committee members at the graduation ceremony this weekend.

Look at the amount of newspaper I had to read on my first day of work!

Oh, and I even found a tiny mistake in one of the articles I read regarding the lunar eclipse in Washington. Can you spot the error?

By the way, here are some local news for you to read - not PR related but just to cure your boredom:

1. Idris: Improvements on PBS accepted by educators
2. Marine turtles lure foreign tourists
3. Ninth Borneo Jazz Festival 2014 expects 9,000 visitors
4. The Obama double in Malaysia
5. Have a break, Malaysia

Well, that is all for now. Until my next post, cheers!

Vivian Lee
15442668
Curtin Miri

Media Release: Not a Small Piece of Cake

In the last week of my internship, apart from searching, collecting, reading and collating all the media releases in the newspapers and websites, I did some analysis. I have discovered that from February to April, our Corporate Communications Department had posted 18 media releases in Curtin’s official website. There were seven in the February, six in March, and five in April.

The topics covered the full range of the most of important events and activities in Curtin Sarawak. In terms of external media coverage, all these events and activities had been published in nine local newspapers over 120 times and in three different languages.

As an in-house PR, one of the most important assignments for us is media release. When it comes to media releases, one word which always comes to mind and should stand out is “News Angle”. Overall, my assignment in Curtin’s Corporate Communications Department to gather, read through and compile the many media release clippings and involvement in writing three media releases during the internship has given me the confidence to come up with media releases on my own.

The media releases that I was involved in writing were:

1. Find out about Curtin Sarawak at upcoming fairs in Kuching and West Malaysia http://www.curtin.edu.my/campusnews/mediarelease/2014/PR_14-021.htm
2. Curtin Young Associates organises fourth annual camp http://www.curtin.edu.my/campusnews/mediarelease/2014/PR_14-027.htm
3. Curtin Sarawak organising Inter-school English Debate and Oratory Competition http://www.curtin.edu.my/campusnews/mediarelease/2014/PR_14-028.htm

Photo:  Different news angles of the same event above in the newspapers

Although, I have already been taught PR techniques 220 for media release writing I have found that my first attempt at a media release fraught with many mistakes. But my supervisor was very kindly and guided me with much patience. Some of the important details I have acquired during my media release writing are as follow:

• The acronyms must always be in capital letters;
• The headlines need to be in single spacing;
• Symbol such as “&” must be fully written out as “and”; “/” written as “or”;
• Numbers under 10 must be spelt out;
• Never use “we” but the organization’s name.

My supervisor pointed out to me that the media release writing style and format is not only to follow the general journalism style but that we need to strictly adhere to the “Curtin University Journalism Style Guide”. The style guide contains all the necessary details on excellent creative writing such as using the active voice and the use of acronyms. In the Curtin style on the latter, one should first write out the subject matter in full before using acronyms for it later. Brackets are not necessary; and instructions are given on the format in the use of dates and time, numbers, quotation marks and a variety of styles are described.   

Aside from writing the media releases, the PR specialist would need to prepare the background material, write the feature article as well as enclose photographs (Include group photos and close up shots captured from different angles) in a press kit package to be sent to the target media. In Curtin Sarawak, we would usually send the press kit to the local newspapers by fax and then email them to confirm their receiving the information.

It is gratifying to note that the English and Malay newspapers would usually use the information we have provided with little or no modification. As for the Chinese newspapers, their translation would normally result in their coming up with their own news angles so that the focus and the writing may be quite different from Curtin’s work. They tend to elaborate on the feature stories for their readers to enhance their understanding.

The above experience in preparing media releases as part of my very rewarding internship assignment has given me a deeper appreciation of the fact that each organization have its own writing format and style and that it is very important to read and understand them before one can start writing. There are very well thought out rules and formats that will make the difference between a uniform and professional work and a casual and careless one. 

Zou Dan Ting

14963841

Miri 

How to handle a Corporate Event?

As an internationally renowned educational institute, Curtin is frequently visited by local and foreign dignitaries, administrators, professors, scholars and students. So, it is very important to know the process and the required standards of managing a corporate event.  

Before this semester commenced, the China General Consul based in Kuching paid a visit to Curtin Sarawak. As a China Student, I was involved in the meeting with some China students and the affected Curtin staff pertaining to this event. Since I was involved in the whole process, I would like to share some of my experiences with you.

Preparation for the Event

There were several things that needed to be done at this stage such as the preparation of the “Guests list” (the names and titles of the visiting persons), the “Invitation List” (of those to be invited to the event), “the program of the day” and the “Letter of invitation”.

Firstly, you need to confirm who is coming to visit our university and how many of them to arrive at a guests list. Also, you will need to know when they will come and the purpose of the visit. Is it an official visit or an informal one? Only after this, can you make a decision as to how to manage this event and come up with the program of the day, the invitation list and the content of the invitation letter. 

 

The program normally includes time, activities, venues and the persons in charge. Constant communication with the Curtin staff involved, either those meeting with the visitors or organizing certain portions of the program, is essential for things to run smoothly. 

Here is a sample of a program:

Chinese Consul General Liu Quan visits Curtin Sarawak Agenda
22 February 2014
Time	Activities	Venues	Person in charge
2:30 pm	Give VIP-Pass to Consul and Datuk’s vehicle	Security Check point	On duty security
2:35 pm	Welcome Consul and Datuk.	Entrance of HERON 1 (John Curtin Building)	Vice-Chancellor
2:40 pm- 2:45 pm	Welcome speech	Conference Room in HERON 1	Emcee
2:45 pm- 3:00 pm	Introduction of Curtin Sarawak	Conference Room in HERON 1	Vice-Chancellor
3:00 pm- 3:10 pm	Introduction of Consul Liu	Conference Room in HERON 1	Datuk Lee Kim Shin
3:10 pm- 3:30 pm	Speech by Consul	Conference Room in HERON 1	Consul Liu
3:30 pm- 4:00 pm	Interaction with China students	Conference Room in HERON 1	Consul Liu
4:00 pm- 4:05 pm	Group photo taking	Conference Room in HERON 1	Camera Person
4:05 pm- 4:20 pm	Tea break with refreshment	Hall in HERON 1	Cafeteria staff
4:20 pm- 4:50 pm	Campus tour	Campus area	Vice-Chancellor
4:50 pm	Consul and Datuk leaving	Security Check point	On duty security

                                                                                                                          update: 22 Feb 2014

The above is the program during the visiting, there are other things that need to be considered, such as the conference room booking and decoration, equipment booking and checking (of the Screen, projector, desktop computer, microphone, camera and video camera ), as well as the refreshment required and cleanliness. Normally, a budget list will be attached to the program. 

      

An invitation list is necessary after you have finalized the program. There are two kinds of people who should be including in this list: intern (staff and students who are involved) and extern (Journalists and some VIPs).

After that, send the program to the people who are on the invitation list. Usually, this is double confirmed through email or phone calls. It is also very important to inform all the students and staff in campus about the event, irrespective of their involvement in the event.

During the Event

Style of honorific

Pay attention to the titles used in Malaysia, it might be much different from other countries. In Malaysia as elsewhere, people in high position always carry honorific titles. It is usual to refer to the position and organization’s name first, followed by person’s peerage, and last being the person’s name.

Quotes in a report in Curtin Sarawak’s official website:

• “Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Kuching, His Excellency Liu Quan and his wife”
• “Sarawak Assistant Minister of Communications, Datuk Dr. Lee Kim Shin, who is the chairman of Curtin Sarawak’s management board”
• “Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Ir. Yudi Samyudia”

Furthermore, in the introduction before a speech is made, the guest is first mentioned, followed by Malaysian government officials and then introducer’s own staff.

The following Link is useful reference on the manner of address when encountered with honorific titles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Style_(manner_of_address)

Meaningful photo taking and speech recording are very important for the coming media release. Last but not least, always be prepared to deal with emergency cases such as having umbrellas readied for bad weather.

After the Event

Media release and feature story will be sent to all the local print media. It will also be posted on our university’ own official website as well as our Facebook page.

Media release on Curtin website:

http://www.curtin.edu.my/campusnews/mediarelease/2014/PR_14-016.htm

Media release on Curtin Facebook:

This visit has been reported by the local media which includes:

• English Newspapers: The Borneo Post, Sarawak Tribune.
• Malay Newspapers: Utusan Borneo.
• Chinese Newspapers: Sin Chew Daily News, See Hua Daily, United Daily News.

Photo: media release about this event reported by different newspapers in three languages

Photo: feature stories about Curtin Sarawak in three Chinese newspapers.

Both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of People’s Republic of China and the Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in Kuching have also reported this visit on their official websites.

http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_chn/zwbd_602255/nbhd_602268/t1131905.shtml

http://kuching.chineseconsulate.org/chn/xwdt/t1131902.htm

By my participating in this event, I have learnt a lot on how to manage an official visit or meeting especially on what are considered small details but are items that could make an event a success or a preventable disaster. These details and the finer points in the process are unavailable in most textbooks. 

As a Chinese, I appreciated the show of sincere respect to the VIP visitors from China. This is not only obvious from the time and effort spent in preparing and arranging for the visit but in the content of the speeches. One suggestion from my observation is that the Speeches could have been delivered in both Chinese and English to avoid any misunderstanding in the communications and to show further respect to the language and culture of the guests.

Zou Dan Ting

14963841

Miri 

How to make a meaningful corporate gift?

This week, I have been tasked with a rather special assignment, which is to collaborate with my colleagues in preparing some corporate gifts for a visiting guest.

Typically, there are 5 steps in the making of a standard corporate gift.

Step 1: Choose the gift

We need to consider the kind of gift appropriate to the recipient within the allowable budget. According to our manager’s recommendation, the gift should reflect the traditional culture of Malaysia or Sarawak as our guest was a foreign one. So after some research, we chose three souvenir shops to go to, which include the Miri Handicraft Center where ethnic arts and crafts were readily available.

Step 2: Find the gift

At the shops, the gifts that suited our needs were photographed for further discussion. Prices were compared and enquiries as to discounts for bulk purchases were made.

Step 3: Purchase the gift

Our manager finally helped us to choose a carved hornbill and a wooden Iban shield. The Hornbill was chosen as it truly represented Sarawak, which has been notably known as “the Land of the Hornbills”. Furthermore, its people have been called “Kenyalangs”, the native name for the Hornbill.

The Iban shield reflected the Ibans as the largest native group and majority population in Sarawak. They make up about 29% of the population. Thus, the Iban shield represents both the Iban as well as Sarawak.

The Orang Ulu population may not be large, but they have the most graceful of dance movements and their decorative and colorful traditional costumes make them stand out as one of the most unique and interesting native groups in Sarawak. So we used to give Orang Ulu ear rings as a corporate gift before.

That week, we purchased 10 to 20 of each item and they were delivered on consignment.

  

Step 4: decorate the gift and design the packaging

Once we received the gift items, we began to design the background with the inclusion of the Curtin Logo and formulated the necessary wording to describe the gifts.

Here is the quote for the gift of a pair of “Orang Ulu ear rings”.  

Quote:

WITH OUR COMPLIMENTS

Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia

Personal adornment is very much evident among the Orang Ulu of Northern Sarawak. One of the most fascinating ornaments used is a heavy brass earring, worn by the women and men to elongate their earlobes. Elongated earlobes symbolize great beauty among the community, hence enhancing their looks. Traditionally, parents would perforate and stretch the earlobes of babies just a few months old by hanging circular brass rings or other ornaments. As their earlobes stretched, more rings would be added to stretch them further. When they reached adulthood the rings would often be replaced by pendulous earrings like these. This tradition is now rarely practiced by the younger generation and brass earrings are now used more as decorative ornaments.

Photo: Corporate gift giving (a pair of Orang Ulu ear rings)

Step 5: Framing the gift

With all the back ground information gathered, appropriately worded and attractively displayed in some form of design, we sent the gifts together with wording and design to the framing shop. It will normally take a few days to finish the framing depending on the quantity required. Once this is finished, the gift is ready for presentation.

In performing the above task, I have not only learnt the significance of giving meaningful corporate gifts, on what constitutes an appropriate gift to the recipient but also the step by step process in creating them, which I could never have learnt from the books.

The corporate gift is part of PR etiquette deemed essential to show respect to visiting guests. They are not necessarily expensive but are often very meaningful to the recipients.

Besides that, our corporate communications department also makes other small souvenirs such like T-shirts, mugs, cup coasters and an assortment of stationery for various categories of visitors.

Here are some more ideas on how to make different corporate gifts (gift cards, booklets, toys, fridge magnets, etc.) from a Hong Kong company.

http://thinqhongkong.com/Hong_Kong_Memory.html

Zou Dan Ting

14963841

Miri 

Starting my adventure in Sarawak, Heart of Borneo.

In order to handle both my studies and the required PR internship, I applied for a PR internship in the Corporate Communications Department at Curtin University, Sarawak. I was most fortunate to be offered this exclusive opportunity.

As some of you may undergo a similar PR experience at an international institution such as Curtin Sarawak in the future, I would like to do a brief about this place, its people and my recent life enriching internship experience.

Location and ethnicity

Curtin Sarawak is located in the city of Miri in the state of Sarawak, East Malaysia. Please see the above map on the location of the state in relation to Australia and the rest of South East Asia. The state itself is on the island of Borneo. As some of you may be aware, Malaysia as a whole is largely made up of three major ethnic groups, namely, the Malays, Chinese and Indians. While this holds true for Malaysia as a nation, Sarawak itself is quite different. Here, in Sarawak, the majority groups are the Ibans, Chinese and Malays. The Ibans are part of the native population (eg. The orang Ulu, Bidayuhs, etc.,) of Sarawak, which together are known as the Dayaks. The Ibans comprise about 30% of the population of Sarawak.

Languages

The Official language in Malaysia as a whole is the Malay language while English (the ex-official language) is widely used in Business and Education. But the English generally spoken here has been mixed with other languages, so that the English in Sarawak, as is in the rest of Malaysia, has been styled as “Manglish”.

Except for the Malays, the other two majority groups here, namely, the Ibans & Chinese, would normally use their own languages in their communities.  Aside of these, Mandarin is widely spoken by the Chinese community as a link among the various Chinese dialect groups.

So the languages used in Sarawak are also different from the rest of Malaysia for although Malay and English are still the official and ex-official languages here, Iban and Mandarin are widely used in Sarawak.

Religions

Malaysia is a Muslim majority country and Islam is the official national religion but in Sarawak, the State constitution provides that there is no one official state religion. Another major difference, from the rest of Malaysia, is that Christianity is practiced by about 44% of the population, which makes it the majority, followed by Islam at 30%, Buddhism at 13.5% and Chinese Ethnic Religion at 6%. 

Customs

The various ethnic groups have their own customs and lifestyles. As there are some 29 ethnic groups in the State, there is much tolerance and respect for each others’ customs and practices in Sarawak. The pace of life here is much more relaxed compared to the more developed urban centers in West Malaysia, such as Kuala Lumpur. Afternoon tea (Drinking tea or coffee with friends) appears to be a norm for the people here.

People love to discuss about political issue with friends in Sarawak.

Media

The Main stream media is still very much utilized and effective in Sarawak. Sarawak does not as yet have its own TV station.  National TV programs are popular although citizens may subscribe to International channels through the main non-governmental TV media provider, “Astro”. Radio broadcasts are usually in English & Chinese as well. You can receive Miri FM & Red FM in the Curtin Sarawak campus area. There are 3 different kinds of newspapers available, according to the languages of the people. They are:

• English Newspapers: The Star, The Borneo Post, Sarawak Tribune, The Sunday post.
• Malay Newspapers: Utusan Borneo, Utusan Sarawak.
• Chinese Newspapers: Sin Chew Daily News, See Hua Daily, United Daily News.

Since most of the cities and towns in Sarawak have access to the internet, social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, is very popular especially among the younger generation. Some smart phone apps such as “WeChat” and “WhatsApp” are very popular among the youths as well. 

In conclusion, although Sarawak is a part and parcel of Malaysia, its background and environment greatly differs from the rest of Malaysia so much so that a person undergoing an international PR experience would need to do a more detailed background research on the place as well as understand the institution to which you will be attached.   

Internship experience

From my first day of this internship, after being introduced to my colleagues, my supervisor started to guide me in doing the simplest things in the office, such as how to use the office phone and fax machine, which printer is for colored printing and normal printing, how to log in the photo copy machine with our given staff ID, how to access my staff email, and also where the other departments and facilities are located.

Besides that, was thoroughly briefed so that I was able to remember all my colleagues’ names as well as their positions and job functions. The importance of working as a team and work delegation and management was emphasized and I was given an overall perspective on how the PR industry works in reality.

Media Clippings assignment during internship

During the first week of my internship, except for helping my colleagues to do some paper work such as typing, filling in information into the excel tables and photocopying, I was put in charge of compiling  Media Clippings which includes press clippings, featured articles and advertisement clippings. In order to that, I needed to read through all the newspapers daily, categorize them and use my advantage in being able to translate all the Chinese media releases into English. In doing this work, I have become more aware of how media releases can differ from among the feature articles in the newspapers - the different news angle of the same event- and the different angles presented between English and Chinese language papers.

Besides the above task, I helped to research and collate Malaysian Universities’ lecturers’ personal and academic information (their departments, titles, contact numbers, emails) online, for us to invite them to join our upcoming events and conferences.  This has taught me the important lesson that working as a PR, it is vital to keep a record of your clients and update them regularly and the importance of personal contact and relationships in PR industry.

Throughout my internship, I have been made to understand that as a PR personnel, I need to have a very good relationship with my colleagues for an on-going dynamic team working rapport. The personal example set by the staff has impressed upon me of the significance of being really nice people, always smiling and easy going, as fitting for a PR professional.   

In Curtin Sarawak, the PR division is named the Corporate Communications department. There are seven persons in the team besides me, each of them in charge of a portion of the required tasks in the team. Generally, the overall functions of the department can be combined and divided into two separate teams under a single manager, with each team having three persons to handle the PR section and the design segment.

Basically, the task of the PR section includes media relations, events management, corporate relations, social media management, advertising, CSR, internal relationship with students and staff, and some other special projects. The design part is including the branding, advertising design, web design, and publication design.

 

I have found that all these tasks intended for the corporate communications department corresponding to the structure of my Mass Communications and PR course at Curtin University.  One major lesson I have learnt from this international internship experience is that being a PR specialist means that you have to be thoroughly versed with the whole spectrum of PR and communications , be trained and therefore skilled in the smallest detail and one is not only a professional writer but also an accomplished  photographer and designer.

Tips for the new comers

1. It is better to do your internship during the semester break, full time, so that you will get enough time and energy to concentrate on it. 
2. It will be most appropriate to also started with some simple office work during your first week and to be patient to learn. Rome was not built in one day.
3. PR is not always about a single big project or a series of major projects. Much small efforts and communications to maintain good relationships with other corporations or individuals make for a successful PR department.
4. Be positive thinking during your work; don’t be upset if you are making mistakes for unless you are really a genius, you cannot be compared with your colleagues who have already been in this industry for years.
5. Keep a personal daily log for you to remember the lessons learnt and what you did during the internship. These materials can in turn be arranged and used for your final project paper.
6. For international students, especially those whose first language is not English, working in an English speaking environment is a great opportunity to practice your English. See your competency in another language as an advantage; you can help you colleagues translate those articles in your own language into English. 
7. It is always a challenge to do your internship in a foreign country but you can acquire considerably more than doing it in your own country.  

Zou Dan Ting 

14963841

Miri 

 “Coming together is a beginning.
 Keeping together is progress.
 Working together is success.”    Henry Ford                          

My latest project is trying to increase awareness of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). The disorder relates to the risks drinking has to an unborn baby. The impact of drinking alcohol during pregnancy can create lifelong issues that are not curable. However FASD is completely preventable. The key message is that not drinking during pregnancy is the safest option.

Aiming to shift cultural norms and changes lifelong habits to improve public health is a big job, with a relatively small team and budget allocated to get the job done. My internship involves bringing people together and equipping them to make a change in the community.

It seems impossible that a team of two people could make a change but internal communications, partnerships with other health agencies and community involvement make this possible. Some examples include:

Internal communications

• Ensuring the message given by people in the agency is consistent: that not drinking during pregnancy is the safest option.
• Training doctors, nurses and those involved in pregnancy planning or testing to talk to clients about the risks of drinking while pregnant and provide strategies to ensure success.
• Supporting employees in having alcohol free pregnancies by providing non-alcoholic options at events and planning social group outings where alcohol is not the focus.

Partnerships with other health agencies

• Developing sustainable partnerships with a shared vision of reducing incidents of FASD and using the strengths of the different agencies to promote the message (that might be time, resources, skills and abilities).
• Recognising different backgrounds and use this diversity to support development of different initiatives. For example indigenous health groups can ensure messages are culturally appropriate and help reach areas of the population that may not be seen by traditional health care providers.
• Ensuring communication between partner agencies is effective, regular and timely so that a consistent message is presented to the community. This is especially important if new information is released or in times of crisis communication.

Community involvement

• Raising public awareness about FASD and influencing the target audience to change values and behaviours. Drinking can be a social norm and people have reported feeling isolated as they are not able to be involved in social activities if they don’t drink.
• Educating and equipping people for change through workshops, events, media releases and provision of information designed to provide options to support alcohol free pregnancies.

 

Through all this consideration needs to be given to ‘best practice’ and the strong ethical guidelines around health promotion. There are many social detriments to health and long lasting, community wide change involves strong strategic planning and a long term commitment by health promotion agencies to addressing the issue.

The scope of the project may seem large but I am encouraged by reading about Canada’s success at raising awareness, and reducing incidents of FASD. This can only be achieved through a holistic approach and by working together.

My degree in public relations has enabled me to be confident in engaging, working with the media and planning events but it is just the first chapter in making a difference in a health promotion setting.