The end

Hi everyone,
This is my last blog for PR professional practice because I have now completed my internship at the City of Joondalup. It has been an amazing experience that has left me confident and sure that I will be able to succeed in the public relations field when I finish uni in November. I have loved every day at the City and it is sad to be finished my placement now. Seeing as it is my last post, I thought I might blog about the place of Public Relations in the City of Joondalup as a whole.

The City of Joondalup is divided into four strategic business units, one of which is Governance and Strategy. One of the departments this unit looks after is marketing, under which, you will find public relations. The specific roles in the public relations field are the Media Advisor and the Corporate Functions officer. The marketing officers also perform a lot of public relations work as well.

The Media Advisor’s main role is to control the communication coming out of the City of Joondalup to create a positive image that is consistent with the values of the City. The types of jobs the media advisor performs include writing media releases, answering inquiries from journalists whilst upholding a beneficial relationship with this important stakeholder, writing speeches for the Mayor and Councillors and to prepare a lot of internal documents such as the annual report. It is a really exciting and intense position that I hope I will be able to learn more about and maybe even be offered a position as a media advisor for an organisation. I found the role encompassed everything taught about public relations at university and then put it into practice.

The Corporate Functions Officer communicates with the stakeholders of the City of Joondalup by conducting the more prestigious events that promote the City (there is a separate department who deal with the large City of Joondalup events). Some of these events include Citizenship Ceremonies, thank you dinners and prize draws. I wasn’t too involved with this role on my internship; however, I did help out in a couple of areas. The Corporate Officer works really hard to make the invitations, draw up running sheets and check lists, take reservations, set tables, set up sound systems and much, much more, as I am sure many of you have been involved in event management will know. The job is very intense with the many challenges and issues that can easily arise.

Having the opportunity to perform duties of the role taught me so much about public relations that I would have never been able to learn at University. The practical experiences I gained have put public relations into perspective for me and now I fully understand the reason public relations exists and how it operates within an organisation. So I want to say thank you to Mark, Annette and the City of Joondalup for giving me so much insight into the real world of public relations and for all the time you have spent teaching me.

I hope you all get the same results from your placement and enjoy the time you have to put theory into practice.

Katie Richards.