My Final Blog

This is my final blog, it is a bitter sweet feeling. I have enjoyed blogging at times and other times I hated it! However it has shown me that I can start my own creative blog about my feelings day to day. I will be advancing my self in the social media realm by participating and creating. Thank you everyone who has followed our blog as well as commented. I plan to start my blog within the next few weeks, so be on the look out.

-Nicole Jackson

The U.S. looks like the tyrant in Africa?

For the last couple days, the news has been talking about this Somalian "pirate" hostage situation. Basically, a U.S. vessel was transporting aid to Kenya and was hijacked in the open seas near Somalia by the now notorious Somali pirates. There was a scuffle on the boat that resulted in all the hostages being free except the captain, Richard Phillips. The details have not fully come out yet, but the pirates took him and got on a lifeboat. There has been a standoff between them and U.S. warships monitoring the boat every since, until today. Today, there was a daring rescue in which the U.S. military shot and killed 3 hostage takers after the Captain jumped overboard.

Before we can discuss the implications of this, I have to give you a little history on these pirates. As the story goes, these pirates were originally Somali fishermen who tired of illegal fishing off there coast by Asian countries. They then became what they are because of the dire situation in their country and the profits they get from piracy.

The P.R. problems I see are regarding the U.S. image to poor countries and what I see as an armed uprising against the wealth of Western and Asian economies. I believe that in places like Palestine and of course really poor parts of Africa that blame the West for their anguish, (possibly rightfully so, at least in part), these pirates will and are seen as heroes that stood up against the great oppressive powers, and the killing of the pirates just made the people angry. It should be interesting to see how this changes the tide of piracy and anti-American/ Western sentiment. I think that now U.S. ships may be targeted, as the highest form of prize for the pirates. What do you think this event meant for the region?

Outrageous Excuses

Since a lot of us are graduating seniors this semester or in the upcoming semester, I decided to give you some career advice; don’t be late. As a newbie on the scene, you definitely want to make a good impression your first year on the job. However, if you happen to be late because something just came up, here are a few tips from CareerBuilder.com on some excuses NOT to use. I found them quite
strange/hilarious.

Here are 11 of the most outrageous excuses employees have heard for being late to work:

1. My heat was shut off so I had to stay home to keep my
snake warm.

2. My husband thinks it's funny to hide my car keys before he goes to work.

3. I walked into a spider web on the way out the door and couldn't find the spider, so I had to go inside and shower again.

4. I got locked in my trunk by my son.

5. My left turn signal was out so I had to make all right turns to get to work.

6. A gurney fell out of an ambulance and delayed traffic.

7. I was attacked by a raccoon and had to stop by the hospital to make sure it wasn't rabid.

8. I feel like I'm in everyone's way if I show up on time.

9. My father didn't wake me up.

10. A groundhog bit my bike tire and made it flat.

11. My driveway washed away in the rain last night.

My suggestion is just be on time and if you happen to be late, just be honest. However, if you feel honesty isn’t the best policy in your circumstances, don’t use any of the excuses above.

Talk to you later,
Kiah

What would you do?

Recently there has been a wave of white collar crime happening throughout the country. The major issue behind these crimes is a lack of ethics and morals. As PR Praticioners it is important that we uphold moral and ethical standards of our industry. I sometimes wonder what types of ethical issue will I be placed in, if any at all? I'm sure that if I am ever placed in these situations I will make the correct decisions. Do you have any concerns about ethical issues in the work place that may arise? In addition have any of you had any ethical issues arise at internships or jobs?

-Nicole Jackson

Bye Bye..........democrats?

So, today, I watched in horror as a discussion went on on CNN about whether it was right for the White House to ask the president of GM to step down. WOW. This is an outrage. I don't understand what kind of country I live in when congress gives "bailouts" to the companies they want to, and the White House is deciding who can and can not run a privately held company? Again....WOW. Now, this blog is supposed to be about PR, and I see a huge PR issue developing before my eyes. As these things happen, it makes me, and hopefully all of you, increasingly upset. A major source of this anger is the fact that there has been a lot of resistance to the bailout and taxpayer money being given to these companies, but our government still proceeded to give our money away. Now, to give credit where it was do, some members of congress (the majority of the republican party, and some democrats) were and are still against it. But now that this is blowing up in the White House and its supporters face, do you think that the democrats took a gamble and now are digging a grave for themselves next election? I do. What do you guys and gals think?

Mandla Deskins

An early April fools joke

I’m going to try and take you back in time a little bit. Now, do you remember the stress of applying to colleges? I know I sure do. There was the filling out of a bunch of applications and wondering which colleges would accept me. Well, can you imagine getting rejected by a school that you wanted to attend and then receive an e-mail saying welcome to our university? Confusing, right? Well, that’s what happened with UC San Diego on Tuesday. Apparently, they mistakenly sent e-mails out to 28,889 applicants congratulating them on their acceptance and to welcome them to the university. After realizing their mistake a half-hour later, a second e-mail was sent apologizing to those same 28,889 freshman applicants. Assistant Vice Chancellor Mae said, “No member of this department is more acutely aware of the emotional roller coaster that this could cause for our applicants." And even though that this isn’t the first school to do this, this incident is known as the biggest “screw up.”

What do you think? Do you think they handled this very well? I don’t. I think their statement of them being aware of the emotional roller coaster this has caused is not enough. By their somewhat flippant statement, I don’t believe they are aware of the problems they have caused. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Talk to you soon,
Kiah

The PR of TV news: Part 1: AIG

So, for the past couple days, I'm sure you all have heard about the big bad AIG and how they are giving these enormous bonuses and all this bailout money. Well I definitely have. It has been on CNN for at least 70% of a 24 hour day for the past week (by my calculations). Now, of course this is supposed to be news, but is it Public Relations?
I say this because All of this outrage over bonuses was basically created by cable news media. They told us that we should be upset about this, according to the highest estimates 212 million dollars, but not upset about the 120 BILLION+ the company has already received and the billions more they are scheduled to receive soon. If that's not PR, I don't know what is. My question to you is, why demonize AIG for this fraction of the money that is somehow going into the wrong hands, as if the other 99+ percent of the bailout money has been used in the "right" way by the company?

Mandla Deskins