It is my final
semester at Curtin before I graduate and fully immerse myself into the real
world.
Now it has come to
that time when PR students are given the chance to showcase their skills. It will
become an opportunity for me to apply my knowledge of PR techniques, skills and
theories in practice at an organisation.
I am expecting the placement
to be challenging and a definite change from working on PR Plans in groups for unit assignments over the last few years.
For my placement I
will be interning at a not-for-profit organisation called Global Hand Charity (GHC) Inc. The Perth based charity provides assistance and support to people living in third
world countries by facilitating improved education. No deductions are made to
employee staff or amenities, so everything done by the board members and staff is completely voluntary, and all donations go straight towards funding projects in Laos, its central focus of charity work.
GHC has only been
around for six years, so it is fairly new. I had no idea of its existence until
I started looking for potential places to complete my placement. Global Hand Charity's goal is to raise the profile of its charity among the Perth community.
Upon first meeting my supervisor at GHC, he asked me,
" What is PR and how will it help our charity?"
I had to pause and think about this for a moment. Not because I did not know the definition of PR, but I wanted to give an answer that would be easy for the supervisor to understand. A lot of definitions where going through my mind that I had learned and memorised throughout my studies, such as:
"The management of communication between an organizations and its publics." - (Grunig and Hunt, 1984).
What I told him was "PR is similar to marketing, expect it is free." Not the best answer, but I did fell a little pressure on me, and it was simple enough for the supervisor to understand and get a grasp of. I gave him examples of ways that PR could help the charity raise its community profile, for example:
- creating a stronger and engaging social media presence;
- sending press releases; and
- creating a PR plan to ensure greater impact on communication to the target audience.
Until next time,
Maria 15508764
3 comments:
Hi there,
I understand exactly what you mean, a lot of organisations don't understand what PR is and when finding an appropriate and easy to grasp definition it can be hard.
I also found that sometimes organisations are told they need PR to communicate better with the public, but when telling them what it is, they think they can do it themselves, which is not the case. They need a professional who is specialised in the field and has the time to effectively communicate to the public, which can therefore assist in achieving organisational goals.
I also found that when starting my internship I forgot a lot that I had learnt at Curtin and when I was asked what do I know about PR I went blank. I guess it comes down to experience and practice, which will help over time.
Good luck with the rest of your internship and all the best for the future.
Meika
Hi Maria,
It sounds like you and I had quite a similar experience! I was also put on the spot during my interview, but luckily my supervisor was quite laid back which made the experience comfortable from the get-go.
It is definitely true that many organisations don’t seem to have a grasp if what PR is – especially small businesses. I was faced with the challenge across my entire placement of my supervisor and team members confusing marketing and PR, which resulted in me working on a lot of marketing activities.
It sounds like you were in the same position as me – interning for a small business assisting with PR and not actually working alongside PR professionals. This can definitely add a bit of pressure when it seems you know more about PR than your supervisor/s (a scary thought for a uni student!) – but I found this also gave me a lot of freedom. I was also tasked with raising awareness and this can be quite challenging and daunting when it feels you are, in a way, on your own.
It sounds like you would have gained some great hands on experience – working for not-for-profit I imagine would be very rewarding! I hope you had an enjoyable experience with your placement and best of luck with your future endeavors!
Emma
15485294
Post a Comment