Overload!

Sorry about the Danish Cartoon overload!

Danish Cartoon suit rejected

We recently read about a controversial Danish cartoon that had offended many muslims. The cartoon depicts Mohammed as what the prosecution described as "belligerent, oppressing women, criminal, crazy and unintelligent." http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=383&sid=929650
The case was acquitted because there were not proven to violate laws against racism or blashemy, they presented opinions that might offend muslims.
Is this insensitive? Should those offended have been paid $16,860 in damages? We are allowed to make fun of our president, is that ok even though it may offend some? Should we withhold our opinions in order to respect another's culture?

Public Relations Specialists

This website is good information to know about Public Relations. They discuss the nature of the work, working conditions,training, employment, job outlook, earnings,and related occupations. All these key points are very important for us to know when we get out in the work world. I think you guys should check it out.It gives good tips. Click

Community Relations

I have been looking into different types of PR and have stumbled upon a good web-site that provides useful information about Community Relations and PR. This site provides a PR toolkit for the basics in Community Relations. It also gives definitions and in depth information on Crisis planning, Media, Events and more. I think this site is full of information for someone that is researching the differences in PR titles and what kind of jobs they can do. http://www.jacksonwells.com.au/Community-relations-basics.ashx

Foreign Relations

This website is very appealing it is considered to be an online supply for everyone in these chaotic times who wants to learn more about the difficult global issues demanding strategy- makers. This also delivers high quality information, with links to news coverage around the world. They have a tab on their link that says “educators” and they really commit themselves to help lead you in the right direction. They work with colleges and universities around the world; they have many ways to engage in the scholastic communities. Check it out!
http://www.cfr.org/

Bi-lingual PR

As we all know the United States population is ever growing and the diversity within is expanding as well. According to a press release, the Latino population has increased to be 13 percent of the country’s total population. I have always that it to be important to be bilingual in English and Spanish as the Latino population continues to grow. To learn Spanish has been one of my goals for a while, but have not yet had the time to spend in that area.
This press release, “Public Relations for Hispanic/Latino Audiences: More than Speaking Espanol,” is about how to incorporate the Spanish community into the world of PR and how to target their audience. Granted, this press release is for a workshop at UCLA, it just was another fire under my feet to get a move on in learning more about the Latino community. I think that being bilingual and understanding and having knowledge with Latino audiences is going to be crucial in the United States and it will help us out in our field tremendously; we will be that more valuable.
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/community/calendar/description.asp?eventID=1101

Cultural Marketing Communications

This website is very interesting it talks about how their mission is to help clients develop mutual relationships with their customers, which exceeds the old public relations uses of “publicity.” This involves defining the objectives of your public relations campaign, identifying the target publics for this plan, identifying tactics, and developing the strategy and a timeline. Public relations has evolved as a profession that helps clients.This is a very useful website you can read some case studies see resource links. Check it out! culturalmarketingcommunications

PR Blogs

http://www.101publicrelations.com/blog/
This website is pretty cool - there are bloggers who concentrate on PR issues and they are very insightful - for example, there is a blog that is concerned with commercials offending people but is focuses on how this is a positive thing.
The blogs also have links so you can go to see exactly what the blogger is talking about - they back up their examples with proof through links so you can see things first hand.
This website offers a lot of info for PR professionals or for companies who don't know how to get their own PR started.
One part of PR is crisis management, which this website explores, and it talks about the infamous Tylenol case - I reccommend you check it out!

Religious Propoganda

I visited the MuslimWakeup website and also referred to some of its links. I personally was not raised with any religious preference ( a shadow of christianity.) It was informative and interesting to read about the conflicts and misunderstanding between Muslims and Jews. I try to imagine different theories of what the root of our prejudice in this country really is. I would like to openly say that I think our "western culture" does not seem to have a positive interest in muslim culture. I feel that there has been so much negative propoganda against the muslim world, it has been painted as extremist and hateful. We know about Jihad, we know about repression of women, we have been shown videos of men beating women. Have we really been educated about the muslim world though. Has this just been done out of convenience to the war, to make them seem less human? Have we been conjoled into thinking we are somehow more civilized. I personally cannot say I understand the muslim culture, it is so far removed from my own. I am interested to know more. I think it is important for the voices of those misinterpreted and misjudged to be given a voice.

PR Newswire

I found this interesting website called PR Newswire where we can read thousands of organizations around the globe and read news. You can read international news or multicultural news. Click on the topic that looks appealing to you. I clicked on Multicultural and I found and interesting article under Women Related News.

The article was called Governement Data confirms Rise in Preterm Birth Rate. More than a half million babies were born too soon in 2004, the growing problem of premature birth. The National Center for Health information released final birth data for2004 showing that more than 508,000 babies were born prematurely. Many premature babies face risks of lifelong developmental challenges,such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, chronic lung disease, andvision and hearing loss. That have this website attatched at the bottom called march of dimes. Where you can go to the website and donate money to fight to save babies from premature birth. You should check it out.
http://www.prnewswire.com

PRSSA

Hello PR Colleagues - I just wanted to let all of you know that the PRSSA is holding its weekly meetings Mondays at 11:00 in 100-C in Meier hall. All that are interested I encourage you to join. This is my second year. This group gives you so much exposure to real life PR. We work with real clients that need publicity and being in this group looks really good on your resume. Dr. Brown is the advisor. The group already is a good size and we are all motivated. I think it is fun to get together will people who are intersted in the same career field, it's a great way to learn. Hope to see you! For more info go to www.PRSSA.org