Climate Change

Climate Change is a very important subject matter that affects the world and all living things. Many people in the world truly do not understand what climate change is. Most people believe that climate change deals with the change in climate or a hole in the ozone layer. Through the use of media platforms like print, radio and television the information about climate change can be confusing. So, how can an individual know what or who to believe in when it comes to climate change?
Part of a public relations practitioner job is to counsel our leaders and government in the hopes that we supply them with the most information to make a better decision in the future. The first thing a public relations practitioner must do is research. Research is crucial when an individual first learn about a new subject. “Climate Cover-Up, The Crusade to Deny Global Warming,” by James Hoggan explains intricate problems about global warming and how there are individuals who try to use scientific evidence to suggest that global warming does not exist. The book has plenty of interesting facts to help educate the average person in society about global warming by the use of current events that have occurred because of climate change. Hoggan has found a way to explain intricate political problems about global warming to the masses and a target audience.
After reading “Climate Cover-Up,” my eyes were opened to the scandals of global warming by corporations, government and individuals. "Junk Science" was one of the chapters in “Climate Cover-Up,” that explained a great deal about how people have paid other scientists to fabricate false data. Hoggan used Dennis T. Avery, as an example, who hired 500 scientists to find scientific evidence that global warming does not exist and that global warming is a natural event that happens all the time in nature. Another example would be “The Greening of Planet Earth,” which is a video that tries to explain how more carbon dioxide is better for the planet. This is misleading information that is purposely put out for the public to consume because it causes confusion amongst the mass audience; and if the mass or target audience is unsure about the subject at hand then they have done their job by creating doubt in the public’s eyes.
I would advocate for this book because it defines the lines between lies and truth about global warming. Thanks to authors like Hoggan for writing a book about the cover up of global warming because it helps to educate the public about what is really going on around them in their environment. In my opinion, Hoggan did not use his book “The Climate Cover-Up, The Crusade to Deny Global Warming,” to persuade or influence the mass but to enlighten the mass and allow every individual to make their own choice about climate change.

Picas (New Digital and Social Media)

There are a lot of different media outlets that PR practitioners may use in their careers. For example: newspapers, radio ads and television commercials are what I call “old school media outlets”. Traditional media outlets are still useful to use today, but because of the Internet, digital and social media the traditional media has been pushed aside or pushed to the back of line due to the explosion of digital technology.
The idea of digital and social media has exploded and spread like wildfire across the globe. Digital and social media takes the power from the big and power companies and gives the power to the common individual to spread a message or communicate to a large target audience.
For example: Picas is a great software program that is relative to the common individual or citizen and when properly used it is a great tool for public relations practitioners. Explaining in detail, Picas is a software program that organizes all your digital pictures by face, name or the time in which the picture was taken. Also, Picas has many other features that it offers to the user like a web page gallery, security option for digital pictures and helpful tools that help enhance the digital quality of a picture.
The reason I use Picas in my daily career is to upload certain digital images for clients or graphic design practitioners. JPEG is the digital format for a picture.
A JPEG format is a large file that takes up a lot of space and memory on your PC and Internet. To avoid problems with downloading a picture or opening a picture on your desktop a person would have to reduce the image file. On the other hand, uploading your digital picture to Picas web gallery allows the user to post large digital files without reducing the pixels in a specific digital images, so that clients or others would be able to download or copy the image for their personal use.
All in all, Picas is a great software program that makes sending and receiving large digital images a lot easier than in the past when a person had to hand deliver pictures to a client. Technorati, Google Reader, HootSuite and Skype are just a few of the many digital and social media that anyone can use. Digital and social media is the new wave of the future for people in society to spread their thoughts, message or pictures to the mass or a target audience.

Technology Tools for Public Relations

Technology Tools for Public Relations
Technology has helped Public Relations practitioners to advance in a growing and competitive field. 200 years ago Public Relations was unknown. The job of a P.R. is the art and science of implementing ideas, predicting trends and events and counseling leaders or others are a few of the functions of a public relations practitioner when dealing with a client or media outlets. Over time technology has enhance how people communicate and kept up with others around the world. Transferring conversation, ideas, concerns and paper through communication outlets is a P.R. practitioners dream. If, Edward Bernays had the technology that we use today his job as a P.R. practitioner would have been easier.
A few examples of how technology has helped advance P.R. practitioners include the basic advancement the fax machine has provided. In the past P.R. practitioners had to send everything by mail. The fax machine made communicating through letters more acceptable and efficient in everyday life in society.
Secondly, when the invention of the Internet arrived it open so many doors of communicating with people around the world in so many different ways. For example, email became more efficient than fax over time because people would scan their documents and email their letters online. Having an email account was like your own personal virtual mailbox that you can check at your earliest convenience, while maintaining an organized copy of preferred documents in your email account. Advertisements, junk mail and surveys are delivered to your email account nowadays, which is a great way for P.R. practitioners to have a 2-way communication between clients and their customers or for gathering information about a target audience.
Thirdly, through the advancement of telephones and text messages this technology has open another realm of communication for people and P.R. practitioners. Through texts messages alone a person can hold a live chat and receive instant messages about world breaking news, government or anything else that peeks the individual’s interest.
All in all, the underlining message is that technology is one of the best things that can happen for the field of public relations. Computers, television, copy machines and the Internet along with other types of technology and new inventions in the field of public relations have no place to go but up; as long as P.R. practitioners rely on their mind and skills first and use the technology tools in public relations as reinforcement.