Thus Far......

The second week of my internship has come and gone and thus far I have noticed that my office is a lot busier than it was over the summer. With so many sports active at this current time, we are constantly being kept busy with trying to make sure pictures are done for the website, stats are up, and making sure all media requests are answered. Though nothing is truly difficult in my office, I just find myself always trying to use my time wisely if I am sitting in the office with nothing to do. I mostly expected this semester at my internship to be very busy cause of all the sports that are going on during this time.

I think one of my strengths that is used very effectively on my internship is my work ethic. When assigned a task, I work on it until it is completed, in a effective and efficient manner. When I get done with one assignment, I ask around the office to see where else my services may be needed. I think that attribute is very appealing to my internship boss because it shows initiative, character and that I'm wanting to be at my internship.

My long-term goal with this internship is to just learn more about sports public relations and different aspects that this particular track has.

Summer's Past

This past summer I interned at Florida State University Sports Information Office and worked full-time at Sprint. Both of my summer activities were very relevant to my PR degree as in they gave me several opportunities to practice my public relations skills. I was able to work on my writing skills by writing articles, verbal communication skills when communicating with customers on a daily basis, and editing skills when working on the sports media guides at my internship.

This fall (my last semester at Florida A&M University) the public relations courses I am taking are Public Relations Campaigns and Public Relations Practicum. These two courses will specifically help me with knowing how to successfully develop a campaign that meets all goals and objectives of my client. They will also help with the preparing my portfolio for future employers. Also this semester I am taking a photography class, I believe that this class will help me become more creative It will also help me to understand what helps my client best visually.

Outside of school and work and internship, I wont be participating in any other activites other than doing some part-time publicity work for my cousin's artist that he is managing. Most of the work I will be doing for him will be writing press releases, working on a media kit and helping with bookings. This will ultimately further expand and perfect my public relations skills.

Back At The Internship

This fall semester I will be interning at the Florida State University Sports Information Office. This is my second semester at the internship, as i also spent the Summer 2010 there.The sports information office is a department of the university under the FSU Athletics Department. The office provides all the public relations services for all the sports that the university participates in, this includes producing media guides, maintaining a website with all the sports listed, working sporting events, writing stories and setting-up and organizing interviews for coaches and athletes.

This is not my first internship, i have also done internships with 4kidmedia.com, volunteered with the Florida A&M University Office of Communications and been an associate with the PRodigy Public Relations firm. My internship with 4kidmedia was a virtual internship, where I communicated with my internship boss through web chats and emails. With that internship I did a lot of research on different topics and helped redesign a sales page. At the office of communication, I helped with many different projects including organizing clippings and doing research for the newly re-designed school website. With the PRodigy PR firm, I participated in several several different projects over a 3-year span, also was able to work as a weekend-intern for the Florida Citrus Sports.

My hours for my internship will be Tuesday and Thursday from 2.30pm to 5pm and working Fall athletic events. The tasks that I will be working on will be stories for different sporting events or on individual players or coaches, assisting with different tasks at sporting events including taking pictures and keep up with stats. I will be reporting to the Associate Sports Information Director Chuck Walsh.

This semester I would like to learn more and more about sports public relations and helpful make connections that will allow me to get closer to my goal of being sports and entertainment media consultant.

Google Wave

Google Wave, which has been described as a "personal communication and collaborative tool," is Internet-based software program that allows you communicate with others. Google Wave is a combination of instant messaging, e-mail, social networking and wikis all in one.

Each new conversation is called a "wave" and can include multiple contacts. The "waves" happens in real time, and users can see what each other is typing as it is being written. When you are within a "wave," the messages are threaded (the whole conversation is viewable in bubbles that show your user name and the other users' names). While in the conversation, you can always go back and edit previously submitted messages. The "wave" also allows you to add extensions and widgets. Some of the widgets that can be added are "6 Rounds," which is a video-conferencing extension, and a "Yes, No, Maybe" application that allows you to do a guest list. You can also add an extension that allows you to tweet from inside the Google Wave program and you can add pictures, maps and other documents into your wave conversations.

Google Wave cannot be used with Internet Explorer Web browser, but it can be used with Mozilla Firefox, Safari or Google's Web browser, Google Chrome.

I think this program can be useful for PR practitioners in that you are able to organize, meet and share documents with others when you are away from the office.

You can find out more information at wave.google.com

Climate Cover-Up

 Recently I read the Climate Cover-Up by James Hoggan, and found the book to be a difficult read. Hoggan, who is a lawyer and public relations practitioner starts off the book by talking about how he came into the climate change conversation and discusses the founding of his blog DeSmogBlog. Hoggan discusses how companies and goverment entities have tried to "cover-up" that climate change was happening by using actual scientist who denied it in written reports.
 Though the things Hoggan mentioned in his book may have been true, I found it hard to accept the things he said. Hoggan spent a lot of his time in the book "name dropping" and not really explaining why or how these mentioned were relevant to the supposed cover up. I was also bothered by the fact that his book was very one-sided and unbalanced. I felt that Hoggan should have told a complete story or presented more detailed information.
 Though I am not denying that climate change is a real issue nor that their are people who deny climate change is happening, I would have just appreciated a more rounded view from Hoggan. So I suggest that you read the book for your self to create your own opinion.

Framing

According to the FrameWorks Institute, in an article called "The FrameWorks Perspective: Strategic Frame Analysis" framing is an approach to communications research and practice that pays attention to the public's deeply held worldviews and widely held assumptions. Framing happens when the speaker (who can be an actual speaker or writer) says things in a way that makes them take on a different meaning or makes the audience think certain things about what has been said. 

Framing is important in public relations because it allows the practitioner to put the message into certain contexts that the public is "comfortable" with and keep the publics opinion positive for the topic. 

One of the current events I found framing to be used a lot in was the recent Sea World whale trainer death. When the death first happened, the reports were saying that the trainer went down on accident and was tripped by the whale. Then later reports were release that the whale had actually pulled the trainer in. Then a few days later Sea World did a press conference to discuss the incident. The press conference took place in front of the glass tank that held the whales. As the president of Sea World spoke, viewers of the televised conference could see the killer whales peacefully swimming by and even at time coming up to the window and staring at the press core. The press conference was framed to show that the whales were safe, gentle and that the trainer would not want for the whale shows to stop. 

I think that the press conference was perfectly framed and helped to restore faith the whale shows at Sea World. This was evident in that the attendance for the whale show the next day was full.

Are you a Connector...Maven...or Salesman?!!!!!

After reading Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point", I kept thinking about the chapter on the Law of the Few. The Tipping Point is when an idea, product, messages or disease reaches the point where it spreads and reaches it maximum.

In this chapter, Gladwell talks about how it takes only a few people who are willing to do the work for an idea to reach its "Tipping Point." The idea of the 80/20 rule where only 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work.

Gladwell goes on to speak about the three types of people who help to get an idea to its "Tipping Point." They are the Connectors, the Maven and the Salesmans.

Connectors as defined by Gladwell are the "people with a special gift for bringing the world together." Connectors know many people--and its not just how many people they know--its the type of people they know. Connectors usually know people who are influencers. Connectors are steady introducing one person to another person and help build relationships.

The second type of people are Mavens. These people are the one who acquire knowledge about an idea and inform others. Now Mavens dont usually know as many people as Connectors but they are still very important to the movement of ideas. Mavens love to help and inform others and most people take the advice of these people cause they know they are genuinely spreading helpful information.

The third type of people are Salesman. Now salesman meet a lot of people like Connectors and know a lot of information like Mavens but they are the ones to help sell the idea to the masses. These are the people who persuade us to use a certain product.

So after reading these descriptions, I pose to you this Question: Which category do you fall in?! Are you a Connector, Maven or Salesman?