Ciara Wolfe

My Mission: Boldness and Creativity

My mission is to bring a unique perspective to everything I do. I want to embrace boldness and creativity. It is important to me to craft messages that are different and convey what I do and say in a way that’s fresh and new. Standing out and making an impression is essential to my brand.

My Competitors

My competitors in this process are my classmates, my professor, and myself. There is a lot of talent in the PR department, and my classmates and professor bring a lot to the table, but I want to be able to stand out in my own way. My other big competitor is myself. I need to hold myself accountable and do every task to the best of my ability. Holding myself to a high standard will be part of the way I ensure my success.

My Attitudes and Core Values

Some of my most dominant attitudes and core values are risk-taking, inclusivity, empowerment, and transparency. I want to embrace experimentation and not be afraid to make bold moves. I want to practice inclusivity always by valuing different perspective and creating a welcoming environment. I want to promote empowerment, not just in myself, but in those around me. I also want to maintain transparency in all aspects of my life including work, school, friendships and my relationship. I would also include self-love, independence and balance as more of my core values. Self-love is something I have always valued and believe that loving myself opens more doors to be successful in life in all regards. Independence is also important to me because I have always believed it’s essential to be able to do things, work, and think for yourself and be confident in that. Balance is something I still struggle with, but continue to work on. Life is too short to feel tied down by work, so as much as my career matters to me, I believe having a healthy work-life balance will make me more successful and happier in the long run.

My Experience

Creating the Typesetting Assignment was extremely challenging for me. I had never used Adobe InDesign and it was a bit of a struggle for me when learning the tips and tricks to make my life easier! I still have a lot to learn on InDesign, but the Typesetting Assignment allowed me to dip my toes in the water! Another program that I am still learning and getting the hang of is Canva. Both programs have so many useful features that make creating media easier and more appealing to the eye.

Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is a professional publishing software that is used for making high-quality digital publications. Whether designing multi-page documents such as newsletters and magazines, InDesign is largely thought of as the industry standard. The program allows designers to have more accurate control over all aspects of the graphics and page structure. InDesign is perfect for very complex projects that require an extremely specific look.

What is unique about Adobe InDesign?

• Alignment and Grid Tools: Creators are able to maintain consistency in their projects and layouts, no matter how complex, with the alignment features on InDesign.
• Paragraph Styles: Extremely helpful for larger documents. You are able to have consistency throughout your headings, subheadings, and body text.
• Integration With Other Adobe Programs: InDesign works perfectly with multiple other Adobe programs. Some programs being Photoshop and Illustrator. This allows you to incorporate different images and content easily.

Canva

Canva is personally one of my favorite design tools. Canva allows designers to create a bunch of different types of content for any type of situation. Whether it’s an invitation for a birthday party or a logo for your new business, Canva makes it easy to create something new and exciting. Canva is extremely user-friendly and offers a ton of fonts, stock photos, templates and more to be easily used by everyone.

What is unique about Canva?

• Easy Use: Canva is programmed to be used by everyone. Regardless of skill level and experience, Canva makes it extremely easy to create whatever visual element you need and even provides guides for certain settings.
• Mobile App: Canva is not only for desktop use. You can download Canva on your mobile device and have easier access to it when you’re on the go. This makes it easier for people to create and finish their work when they’re on the go, or wherever they are.
• Collaboration Tools: Canva has extremely useful collaboration features. The collaboration tools offered by Canva make it easier to work on group or team projects. Multiple designers are able to edit the project at the same time, which makes it significantly easier to work in groups or with a partner on a graphic.

How Does This Help PR Professionals?

PR Professionals need to be particular when choosing which design tool they want to use for their projects. Choosing the right program can make a world of difference when creating publications that actually attract the public. Adobe InDesign and Canva are both extremely useful programs. Both offer amazing different features for different projects. Using these programs effectively is extremely beneficial for PR professionals. There are plenty available resources to maximize the use of both of these programs. Adobe InDesign offers online tutorials through Adobe Help Center and Adobe Creative Cloud Tutorials that offer guides on how to use specific tools. Since Canva is more user-friendly and offers a Design School with courses for many topics, it is a little easir to navigate. YouTube also offers a lot of free tutorials.

What Makes A Good Design?

What makes a good design? A good design has visual appeal. A good design is also consistent and clear. No matter what design tools you use, there are always going to be key elements that actually make a design effective and a hit with it’s target audience. Consistency and typography are two of the most important. Having set colors, fonts and logos maintains a consistency throughout designs that is more effective and visually appealing. Typography is more important than a lot of people realize. The right fonts, alignments, and other typography elements can be the deciding factor on if a design registered with the audience or not. Having strong consistency and typography is essential to a good design.

My Takeaways

If I am being completely transparent, I did not enjoy this assignment. I am not good with these programs whatsoever and get easily frustrated. That being said, I did learn a lot through this assignment and was actually proud of myself for being able to finish it all the way through. The project took me absolutely FOREVER, but I definitely learned a lot and I’m excited to see how my skills can progress from here.

Crisis Management And The Importance Of It’s Aspects

Crisis communication and crisis management are two essential aspects of public relations. A crisis is almost inevitable to most companies. Episode 32 of The PR Podcast by Jodi Fisher with guest speaker Molly McPherson discusses a lot of different aspects of managing a crisis and the some of the steps for before, during, and after a crisis. McPherson defined a crises as “when your reputation is no longer in control” (Fisher, McPherson, 2021, 10:25)

Forbes published an article titled the “13 Golden Rules Of PR Crisis Management” which discusses the main rules for a company handling a crisis. There are many tactics used to try and smoothly, efficiently and effectively handle a crisis. One of the tactics I found to be the most important is “Be Prepared”. Being able to anticipate potential crisis’ and create internal protocols for handling them before they happen is extremely important (Forbes Agency Council, 2022).  Being prepared for a crisis can include keeping in touch with key stakeholders to help get an idea of potential risks, as well as communicating with customers and analyzing the feedback they are giving your company (determ, 2024). 

Another aspect of preparing for a crisis is establishing a team specifically trained for these type of situations. This includes assigning specific roles to team members, regularly rehearsing with the crisis management team, and establishing who will be part of the Contact Information Center (Moore, 2024, Managing Issues and Crises). Team members and leaders in this positon should be able to express empathy to those impacted by the crisis on top of being able to promote cooperation and gather feedback (Moore, 2024, Managing Issues and Crises).

Molly McPherson offered some advice that I thought was super insightful about handling a crisis.

“I think if you shore up your mission, your values, your leadership communications. If you have leadership on board, if you have your board on board,if you have all the communication tools that you need, you are prepared for a crisis in my opinion. Because even if it happens to you, you’re going to have all the resources you need. You have trust. You have your resources. And you have your staff. Then you’ll get through it” (Fisher, McPherson, 2021, 14:20). 

Essential: Preparedness And Communication

One organization who used the tactic “Be Prepared” is PepsiCo, Inc. PepsiCo, Inc. had to deal with a syringe hoax in 1993 where consumers where finding foreign objects, such as syringes, in cans of Diet Pepsi (Holmes,1993). The first case of a syringe found in one of the cans was reported by an elderly couple from Tacoma, Washington. They had allegedly found the syringe in the can of Diet Pepsi after they had left it out overnight. They proceeded to call their lawyer who in turn notified local health officials, press, and police which is the initial cause of the news starting to spread (Holmes,1993). More cases followed shortly after which included foreign bodies such as two pins, a sewing needle, a loose screw, a crack vial, a bullet, and unknown brown goo (Holmes, 1993).

PepsiCo, Inc. quickly become aware of the severity of the issue and took action as soon as possible. The company pulled together a team of 12 company executives. These executives where the center of the crisis team until the problem was resolved (Holmes, 1993). Being prepared to pull this team together and have the executives in mind they were going to use was extremely beneficial to the company. 

Very quickly, the companies president at the time, Craig Weatherup, was in TV newsrooms explaining in detail with multiple resources the actual logistics of the production process and how it was essentially impossible for a foreign object to find its way into a can during the manufacturing (Holmes, 1993). PepsiCo, Inc. was adamant that the foreign objects were placed after purchased and opened. FDA Commissioner David Kessler also quickly partnered with the company in their defense to further explain how unlikely this situation was (Holmes, 1993). 

PepsiCo, Inc. quickly created their team, maintained transparency, and frequently updated the public which was essential to the success of their crisis management. The company thankfully had heat taken off of them when a surveillance camera from a supermarket caught a woman insetting a syringe into a can of Diet Pepsi. Multiple arrests came from filing false reports of tampering and PepsiCo, Inc. stood by their claim that it wasn’t possibly their fault (Holmes, 1993). 

All of the tactics used by the company, especially the preparedness of the PR team and company as a whole was essential to saving the reputation of PepsiCo, Inc. and managing the crisis in the best way possible. In my opinion, the tactic “Be Prepared” is the most important and so essential for companies in their crisis management plans. 

Key Words/Tags

Crisis, management, preparedness, communication

References

Council, F. A. (2017, June 20). 13 Golden Rules Of PR Crisis Management. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/06/20/13-golden-rules-of-pr-crisis-management/#791714d21bcf

Determ. (2024, October 7). 9 Vital Steps of Crisis Communication for Successful Outcome. Determ. https://determ.com/blog/steps-of-crisis-communication/

Fisher, J. (2015). 32. Crisis Communications with Molly McPherson, Author of “Indestructible” by The PR Podcast. Spotify for Creators. https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/theprpodcast/episodes/32–Crisis-Communications-with-Molly-McPherson–Author-of-Indestructible-e10g938/a-a5gi1f9

Holmes, P. (1993, July 6). How the Pepsi Syringe Hoax Fizzled (1993). Www.provokemedia.com. https://www.provokemedia.com/latest/article/how-the-pepsi-syringe-hoax-fizzled-(1993)

Moore, J. (2024). OU Sign In. Ou.edu. https://canvas.ou.edu/courses/355766/files/112062231?module_item_id=6982831

PR Research: Effectiveness and Importance

The dynamic field of public relations greatly depends on research to guide tactics and gauge effectiveness. This blog post covers effective practices in PR research and looks at a noteworthy campaign failure that was attributable to inadequate research.

When public relations research is conducted correctly, bias should be eliminated and the leaders of companies should have a better vision of how the public perceives their organization (Chron Contributor). 

Episode 97 of the PR Talk Podcast with Amy Rosenberg featured the owner of Big Small Brands, Jen Barth, to talk marketing and public relations research. There are multiple different ways to gather and analyze research and information. Different examples of research include primary research, qualitative research, interviews, quantitative research and secondary research (USC Annenberg, 2023). 

“What I tend to focus on and where I think PR folks are finding more and more value over the last couple of years is in that sort of primary research, right? Because nothing can really replace the value of just a direct one-on-one  conversation.” (Rosenberg, Barth, 2020, 4:10) 

Public Relations research is very complex and needs to be thorough in order to obtain the most accurate and effective results. There are many different reasons that public relations research is necessary. Public Relations Research is necessary because it provides the initial information that’s essential to plan public relations actions. It is also necessary because it provides the means to assess a public relations plan’s effectiveness (Moore, 2024, Public Relations Research). 

What NOT To Do: Crisis Management and Audience Engagement

One example of a huge crisis management fail was the Deepwater Horizon oil leak. On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon that operated in the Gulf of Mexico exploded and sank. In the history of marine oil drilling operations, this was the largest oil spill yet. The explosion resulted in the death of 11 workers. The United States filed a complaint in District Court against BP Exploration and Production among others as being responsible for the incident  (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2024).  

BP failed across the board in crisis management in multiple aspects. BP executives immediately declared it was not their fault nor their accident. They blamed their contractors, which made the company look extremely arrogant (NPR, 2011).  A huge reason that the company was striking out so badly in terms of their public relations efforts was because their CEO, Tony Hayward, had cut the public and government relations sectors to save costs. Hayward in turn was getting his advice from outside sources and rookies who gave him poor advice. He repeatedly made insensitive comments such as, “There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do . You know, I’d like my life back” (NPR 2011). Hayward’s ability to always say the wrong thing made him a bad choice to be the face of the crisis and it took BP a little too long to realize that (NPR, 2011). 

In my opinion, there was a lot the public relations professionals behind this situation could have done differently. Firstly, a rooted problem that I think was a horrible idea was cutting the public and government relations sectors. When you’re a massive company like that, it’s essential to have a strong public relations team in case of a crisis such as the one they experienced. I think it’s also essential to be upfront and honest with your publics. Hayward came off as arrogant, insensitive, and a liar. It was worse that the company tried to lie when the publics seemingly knew the truth. It also would’ve been beneficial for BP to have had a representative who had better media training. Hayward could’ve had a better chance of making the company look better if he would’ve had better media training or even tried in the slightest to have genuine empathy for the people effected. There should have been a crisis communication plan for something like that, which is a reasonable ask considering the line of work involved.There were a lot of things that could’ve been done better and a lot of essential research that could’ve been done to help BP handle the situation better and better understand the publics. 

Key Words/Tags

PR research, effectiveness, crisis communication, audience engagement

References

Chron. (n.d.). How Is Research Important to Strategic Public Relations Plans? Small Business – Chron.com. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/research-important-strategic-public-relations-plans-15586.html

EPA. (2019). Deepwater Horizon – BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/deepwater-horizon-bp-gulf-mexico-oil-spill

Moore, J. (2024). OU Sign In. Ou.edu. https://canvas.ou.edu/courses/355766/files/110983238?module_item_id=6945948

Rosenberg, M. (2020, December 2). Mike Rosenberg. Veracity Marketing. https://www.veracityagency.com/podcast/pr-research/

Shogren, E. (2011, April 21). BP: A Textbook Example Of How Not To Handle PR. Npr.org. https://www.npr.org/2011/04/21/135575238/bp-a-textbook-example-of-how-not-to-handle-pr

USC. (2023, November 15). 4 Research Methods for Audience Analysis | USC Online Communication Degree. Communicationmgmt.usc.edu. https://communicationmgmt.usc.edu/blog/4-research-methods-for-audience-analysis

World War I and Propaganda Techniques

The use of propaganda has been around for a long time and used through many different historical events. World War I (1914-1918) was unlike any war fought before, and the United States needed all the members throughout the nation to be involved in the war efforts (University Libraries University of Georgia, 2018). Propaganda for the war came in various forms such as advertisements, short films, pamphlets, posters, speeches, door-to-door campaigns and more (University Libraries University of Georgia, 2018). The United States wasn’t the only country using propaganda to get their nation’s people involved. Governments wanted to gain support for the war from their people and also create a sense of animosity through printed matter such as colorful posters (Rudnick, 2017).  Episode 20 of the Marketing Muckracking podcast goes further into discussing the effects of the propaganda from World War I. 

“In 1928 Edward Bernays published the book Propaganda, which pointed to the success of mass media in World War I to not only shape, but manufacture public opinion, creating what he referred to as “the invisible government”” (Albers, 2022, 0:58). 

Bernays had a lot of strong opinions on the idea and use of propaganda. He believed that it had a huge influence on public opinion and was an extremely powerful tool for shaping public behavior as well (Albers, 2022, 1:27).

Propaganda, Social Media and Public Relations

Much modern-day propaganda is seen through politics. Specifically, in the upcoming 2024 presidential election with Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Former President Donald Trump is known to have a strong influence amongst his supporters and has previously riled them up through posts or tweets that are seen as propaganda. Trump’s strong influence is seen perfectly on the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol (United States Attorney’s Office, 2024)

“So when Trumpers threaten civil war they are now revealing how well trained they are all while being convinced that they came up with this themselves. Because the goal of propaganda and militarism in general is to convince people that this is what they wanted all along” (Albers, 2022, 3:04)

Former President Trump uses various propaganda techniques to fire up and persuade his supporters to stand by him. One of the propaganda techniques I find to be the most divisive is fearmongering. Fearmongering is essentially the exaggeration of impending danger that results in inciting fear in the public. This is also an example of media framing and how Trump brings awareness to certain issues by inciting fear in his supporters by presenting information in a specific way that warrants a specific reaction (Moore, 2024, Theory and Public Relations). People have a strong impulse to pay attention to danger, especially when it revolves around current events (Buckingham, 2021). In my opinion, fearmongering can be good in certain situations, such as making people more aware of the effects of climate change. Fearmongering that is almost unnecessary or not true and only used with malicious intent shouldn’t be allowed.

Another example of other propaganda tactics used by former president Donald Trump is the recent artificial poster of Taylor Swift dressed as Uncle Sam, endorsing his presidential campaign. I think this is another divisive tactic of misinformation. The image was AI-generated and led to Taylor Swift’s public endorsement of Kamala Harris on her Instagram account (Kruesi, 2024). Taylor Swift has an extremely large group of supporters, and Trump wanted to take advantage of that by spreading misinformation and a fake endorsement. Using the spread of misinformation as a propaganda technique is dangerous and wrong.

The best way for PR professionals to navigate the use of current propaganda techniques is to maintain honesty. Social media has been an easy conduit for public figures and businesses to spread propaganda. PR professionals should uphold honesty and transparency to maintain trust with their audience (Bowen, 2007). Having a good understanding of ethics and be prepared for a crisis is much better than being blindsided and stuck with how to handle and navigate a situation. 

Key Words/Tags

Propaganda, public relations, World War I, social media

References

Bowen, S. (2007, October 30). Ethics and Public Relations. Institute for Public Relations. https://instituteforpr.org/ethics-and-public-relations/

Bridie Buckingham. (2021, July 28). I Explored The Psychology Behind Fear Mongering In The Media. Source PR. https://www.sourcepr.co.uk/fear-mongering-in-the-media/

Cleveland. (2018, June 14). War of Words: Propaganda of World War I | UGA Libraries. Libraries.uga.edu. https://libraries.uga.edu/news/wwipropaganda

KRUESI, K. (2024, September 11). What to know about Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-endorsement-democrats-harris-trump-3a5f4827a930d5cf5439febaf014de76

Moore, J. (Ed.) (2024). Public Relations: Principles, Origins, and Practice. Cognella Academic Publishing

Rachael Kay Albers. (2022, August 17). Marketing, Propaganda, and Politics From WWI to Trump – Rachael Kay Albers. Rachael Kay Albers. https://rachaelkayalbers.com/episode-20-marketing-muckraking-wwi-propaganda-to-trump-raid/

Rudnick, A. (2017, December 28). Humor and Horror: Printed Propaganda during World War I. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/articles/printed-propaganda-world-war-i

United States Attorney’s Office. (2024, September 9). 44 Months Since the Jan. 6 Attack on U.S. Capitol. Justice.gov. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/44-months-jan-6-attack-us-capitol

Ivy Ledbetter Lee’s Influence On Public Relations

Ivy Ledbetter Lee (1877–1934) is known for his influential work in shaping the perception of public relations as well as standards in the career itself (Meade, 2020). Lee’s work in public relations is still highly regarded and used in the profession today. 

“It was the creation of ethical crisis management practices is his most important contribution. This is all the more remarkable considering that in Lee’s era, the early 1900’s, companies would most likely hide an incident from the press, or even lie about it entirely,” said Shelley Spector, the co-founder of the Museum of Public Relations (Meade, 2020).

Lee’s “Declaration of Principles” published in 1905 discusses the foundation of his approach. Lee’s beliefs revolve around the idea that the public should be told truthful and credible information concerning public institutions and businesses (Georgia Historical Society, 2020). The document was groundbreaking for a shift in corporate communications. Lee was a strong advocate for openness and providing honest information to the public and media. This time period was known as the Seedbed Era, where a lot of early developments in public relations were made in terms of developing new strategies and techniques for companies to use (Moore, 2024, What is Public Relations and How Has it Evolved?).  During this time corporations prioritized profit over the public’s perception, and Lee wanted to use his “Declaration of Principles” to gain public trust.

Lee’s Impact on Crisis Management and John D. Rockefeller

Season 3, episode 1 of the Drilled podcast discusses how there was a lot of unknown, behind-the-scenes, effort put into the image of John D. Rockefeller and his company. It had been uncovered through one of the first muckrakers of the time, Ida Tarbell, that Rockefeller had essentially scammed his way into an empire. He had controlled everything about oil at the time, and Tarbell exposed him for using bribe and blackmail instead of honest work to make his way to the top, and the public was outraged (Westervelt, 2020, 12:00). The Rockefeller family had a hard time escaping bad press over the next few years. 

The Ludlow Massacre occured on Monday April 20, 1914, at the mines of the Rockefeller owned Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (PBS). The mineworkers were on strike for the conditions they worked in as well as the wages, when they were attacked by a state militia that murdered many including 11 children and two women. The attack approved by Rockefeller who didn’t admit to a massacre (PBS). 

Rockefeller was desperate for good PR and hired Ivy Ledbetter Lee. Lee was initially hired to help clean up the aftermath of the Ludlow Massacre but did such an amazing job that he remained employed by Rockefeller for the rest of his life (Westervelt, 2020, 15:00). Lee coached Rockefeller on how to behave and talk in public to make people like him more. Lee’s crisis management skills resulted in Rockefeller being remembered as a philanthropist and impressive businessman, not a murderer and cheat. 

Lee did whatever he could to turn the focus away from a company’s bad choices, including corporate philanthropy as a PR move (Westervelt, 2020, 16:30). Lee portrayed Rockefeller as a concerned employer and crafted the narrative in Rockefeller’s favor. The core principles that Lee brought to the world of public relations have truly been a huge influence on the way the industry works today. Proactively engaging with the public and maintaining transparency being two huge principles in regards to crisis management and media relations today.

Key Words/tags

Public relations, Ivy Ledbetter Lee, John D. Rockefeller, Crisis management

References

Drilled. (2020, January 21). S3, Ep1 | The Father of Public Relations. Drillednews.com. https://drilled.media/podcasts/drilled/3/drilleds03-e01

gahistory. (2020, October 26). Marker Monday: Ivy Ledbetter Lee, Founder Of Modern Public Relations 1877-1934. Georgia Historical Society; Georgia Historical Society. https://www.georgiahistory.com/marker-monday-ivy-ledbetter-lee-founder-of-modern-public-relations-1877-1934/#:~:text=The%20foundation%20of%20Lee

Meade, J. (2020, August 24). Father of PR, Ivy Lee, Pioneered Tactics We Use Today. PRNEWS. https://www.prnewsonline.com/ivy-lee-crisis-history/

Moore, J. (Ed.) (2024). Public Relations: Principles, Origins, and Practice. Cognella Academic Publishing

PBS. (n.d.). The Ludlow Massacre | American Experience | PBS. Www.pbs.org. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-ludlow/