Day one of my
internship was full of nerves- to say the least! I was fortunate enough to gain
my internship at Go Communications, a Public Relations (PR) agency based in
Kuala Lumpur (KL) recognised by an accolade of awards to be at the forefront of
consultative work within the industry. Embarking on a PR learning experience
beyond my safe university bubble was a daunting thought, let alone with the additional
element of doing so in a completely foreign country (a personal challenge that
I was eager to undertake!).
I became quickly acquainted with the daily routine at GO, starting with the task of media clippings. After being allocated the English newspaper publications, I was provided with a list of our clients with the instruction of scanning for articles relating to industry, competitor and press news. This seemed like a somewhat basic task initially, however I quickly learnt of its importance. Being up to date, fully informed and in tune with every detail of the industry that a client operates within is key- the basis of which fresh ideas for PR work is built upon. Thankfully Catherine Archer introduced me to the world of media clippings and their value in Media Relations 250!
Media monitoring was most crucial for press clippings, where a client was referred to specifically within a publication. These pieces required the calculation of the ad and PR value- something that was very new to me and took me slightly by surprise. I was instructed to calculate these values through the use of a specific formula, which in turn provided a monetary figure to the proposed ‘value’ of the publication derived from editorial publicity. To date, this PR practice has never presented as a learning outcome within any of my units, which led me to think that it was one of the ways that PR differed in KL to Australia (after all, I am in a different country). Curiosity killed the cat, so I decided to find out some answers to my questions on this practice. It turns out that it has received quite a bit of flack in recent times, with industry professionals butting heads about its validity and use. Without boring you with all of the nitty-gritty details, I have gathered that this method of determining PR value is in fact present within Australian agencies as well, however the extent of which is unknown to me. Maybe we should leave sleeping dogs lie.
I’ve reached the end of my first week- what a whirlwind it has been! The scope of my workload has been expansive, allowing me to greatly utilise this work experience opportunity. I have already been able to test my writing ability, as I was required to produce a media invite, feature article and media release among other tasks. Getting accustomed to the cultural variations has been particularly interesting this week, with jobs such as media calls requiring a deeper sense of awareness then I first anticipated (e.g. needing to take praying sessions into consideration with time of call). Accompanying my boss to a client pitch was without a doubt the highlight of my week- watching the PR guru work his magic was definitely inspiring.
By the looks of it I will have a lot to look forward to in my remaining weeks, with events being a big feature. For now, it’s time to explore the food and shopping scene to find out what all of the fuss is about!
I became quickly acquainted with the daily routine at GO, starting with the task of media clippings. After being allocated the English newspaper publications, I was provided with a list of our clients with the instruction of scanning for articles relating to industry, competitor and press news. This seemed like a somewhat basic task initially, however I quickly learnt of its importance. Being up to date, fully informed and in tune with every detail of the industry that a client operates within is key- the basis of which fresh ideas for PR work is built upon. Thankfully Catherine Archer introduced me to the world of media clippings and their value in Media Relations 250!
Media monitoring was most crucial for press clippings, where a client was referred to specifically within a publication. These pieces required the calculation of the ad and PR value- something that was very new to me and took me slightly by surprise. I was instructed to calculate these values through the use of a specific formula, which in turn provided a monetary figure to the proposed ‘value’ of the publication derived from editorial publicity. To date, this PR practice has never presented as a learning outcome within any of my units, which led me to think that it was one of the ways that PR differed in KL to Australia (after all, I am in a different country). Curiosity killed the cat, so I decided to find out some answers to my questions on this practice. It turns out that it has received quite a bit of flack in recent times, with industry professionals butting heads about its validity and use. Without boring you with all of the nitty-gritty details, I have gathered that this method of determining PR value is in fact present within Australian agencies as well, however the extent of which is unknown to me. Maybe we should leave sleeping dogs lie.
I’ve reached the end of my first week- what a whirlwind it has been! The scope of my workload has been expansive, allowing me to greatly utilise this work experience opportunity. I have already been able to test my writing ability, as I was required to produce a media invite, feature article and media release among other tasks. Getting accustomed to the cultural variations has been particularly interesting this week, with jobs such as media calls requiring a deeper sense of awareness then I first anticipated (e.g. needing to take praying sessions into consideration with time of call). Accompanying my boss to a client pitch was without a doubt the highlight of my week- watching the PR guru work his magic was definitely inspiring.
By the looks of it I will have a lot to look forward to in my remaining weeks, with events being a big feature. For now, it’s time to explore the food and shopping scene to find out what all of the fuss is about!
1 comment:
This post was very entertaining and has helped me to reflect on my own time in Malaysia. I really liked that you did your own research into the different practices of public relations to make it more clear how things work within Australia. This post really made me think of my own experiences within GO communications and will help me to put them down in writing :)
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