Thank you for smoking (2005): The best movie to see for any PR student. Trust me!

I accidentally came across this amazing movie while reading through Women in PR: why they win blog.  All it took was 10 minutes for me to realize how intriguing this could be for all PR students.  I am not really good in writing reviews on the movies, so will just quickly introduce the context of the finest movie I have seen for the recent months.

Nick Naylor (Eckhart) is one man who talks for a living and does he talk! Nick is the Vice President of The Academy of Tobacco Studies, the official spokesperson for cigarette manufacturers and smooth talks his way when they are in a mess. Smoking kills, but Nick Naylor would beg to differ. Aditya's Movie Review Blog

Genre: Comedy/Drama
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Cameron Bright, J.K. Simmons, Maria Bello, David Koechner, Katie Holmes, William Macy

Guys, seriously, it is worth to have a nice 2 hour break from  working on your assignments and watch this movie. Will give you a link where you can see it for free:

http://www.wewatchmoviesfree.net/2010/02/watch-thank-you-for-smoking-free-online.html

Would also like to know what you all thought about it. Especially would like Catherine (my tutor) to let us all know if this movie is any way close to how it works in the real live?!

Are local authority newspapers close to outpacing the local publications?

Competition is rising because the council newspapers have grown in numbers in the past few years, at the same time as local newspapers have suffered a severe rejection form the public.

The concern is due to the amount of council publications that were branching out into non council related topics. The council’s publications are usually free of charge and sometimes exceptionally engaging.  Not only that attracted the readers but it naturally resulted in increase in number of advertisements inside of the councils publications. Given the state of the economy the independent local newspapers and magazines publishers are obviously not happy to see the risk of being undercut on their vital business.

A CIPR pride award and excellence award gold winner 2010 Dacorum Digest is a Dacorum Borough council’s residents’ tabloid newspaper is a free local authority publication. Containing material that represents the interests of all diverse communities and age groups.

Imagine that, in the approximate population of 137,799 the Borough of Dacorum the 79’000 free exemplars of the councils newspaper are being send out to residents’ regularly + anyone who is not receiving it can apply for the copy at any time.

The larger percentage of content and new improved design for made the publication so popular amongst the local residents that 74% of Borough’s Citizens’ named Dacorum Digest as one of the most effective methods of finding out about borough news and life and many other things, more than local papers or local radio. What is more, Dacorum Digest achieved £7500 income from advertising so the council can offset some of the costs and further increase the publications quality.

Research has shown that “The vast majority of people in the UK rely on their local councils paper to keep them informed...” The Newspaper Society's Lynne Anderson

So my question would be, what is there left to do for the other non authority publications, who are struggling to be better, in order to get more readers, partnerships and at the end of the day earn more money. 

What are your thoughts on the topic? Would you call it “the unfair competition" posed by local authority publications to commercial newspapers?

Deceptive “green” labels on products

According to a government-commissioned report, most labels on customer products that boast about their environmental credentials do not guarantee they are eco-friendly (inflicted minimal of no harm on the environment)  Daily Telegraph.

Many different studies were undertaken and various reports were written about the “green” labeling issues. For example one of the studies that was carried out by Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs , assured that the information on food, drinks and electrical gadgets frequently comes out as confusing or misleading.  Because there is no single international standard for this concept, the International Organization for Standardization considers such labels too vague to be meaningful.

All this made me want to question the actual effectiveness of the eco-labels. It is almost impossible for a customer to recognize whether it is just misleading information or any environmental benefits had actually been achieved. How often do you pay attention to eco-labelling? Does that affect your choice and do you trust “green” labels if the only proof was the retailers’ claims?

KRISTINA’S HINT FOR THE FOLLOWERS:

I would strongly recommend all of you to visit this website http://www.worldometers.info where you can find all sorts of real-time, live statistics of different subjects like environment, births, water, energy, deaths, etc, gathered all in one place. It could be useful for PR and Communication students, for the upcoming assignments or just for people who are curious and like to be up to date. The source list also appears fairly credible, so don’t hesitate. 

Calling PR Students from all over

Lets not just bond with those from our own University. This group is for graduates and undergraduates from all over Britain (and hopefully the World too) to share work experiences, blogs, course information in Public Relations. This can also include those taking PR with marketing, communication, advertising, business..you name it!

Join the group on facebook

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=109503105780204

Abortion: is it morally and ethically correct?!

This week I and three of my course mates had to facilitate an assessed discussion as part of the Ethics, Issues and Crisis Management unit. The theme was “In what circumstances is it ethical to kill?” -a very broad and sensitive subject, which includes topics like abortion (and if it is morally and ethically correct), euthanasia (and if it’s should be legal around the world or not) and other several touching case studies related to “Ethical killing”. The theme that raised the biggest wave of reaction evidently was abortions (just to note: 9 contributors of the discussion were women and only one male participant).

The discussion lasted for several minutes and different interesting opinions and believes were raised. Culture, religion, social background, disability and many more issues that affect people judgments on abortions. I personally believe that it is preferable to prevent unwanted pregnancies effectively in the first place rather than be faced with the dilemma of whether or not to have an abortion. It can be done by educating man and  women of all ages about  contraceptive use and more accurate representation of sexual relationships and more accurate information about sexual health in the media

Some ‘food for thoughts’, facts and statistics about abortions:

Facts on abortions by ‘EDUCATION FOR CHOICE’: There is no evidence that women are opting to use abortion as a form of contraception. The vast majority of women requesting abortion have tried and failed to use contraception effectively. No 100% safe method of contraception is yet available, so for women who are sexually active and become pregnant, but do not want to have children at this point in their lives, abortion sometimes seems like the best option.

Statistics on abortion by ‘EDUCATION FOR CHOICE’: It is a continuation of a gradual increase in abortion numbers year on year. It is likely that the increase is down to two key factors: a desire by several women to have fewer children and a desire to delay childbirth until later in life

The statistics suggest that people in England and Wales continue to be sexually active regardless of their marital status or desire for children, and many see abortion as a useful last resort for those unable to contemplate pregnancy, childbirth and parenting at a particular moment in their lives.

Through this blog I would like my followers and colleagues to share some personal views on the case.

KRISTINA’S HINT FOR THE FOLLOWERS:

As this time sexually orientated subject was raised I decided that it is appropriate to remind everybody that abortions is not the only threat that nation could be facing, sexual transmitted disease could affect anyone. For example Chlamydia is a widespread infection amongst young sexually active people. You may have Chlamydia even though you have no symptoms. It can be easily treated so see visit this link below and get a free confidential test now.                   

 http://www.efc.org.uk/Foryoungpeople/FreeChlamydiatesting

PR student blog

This blog is designed to talk about any PR related topics and reflect on subjects that have been looked at during the lectures and seminars.

INTRODUCTION:

Hello,
My name is Kristina and I’m in my third year of studies at Southampton SOLENT University. During my final academic year we have been given the task of writing a blog, which slightly worries me as I have never blogged before and English isn’t my first language.  Bearing that in mind I will do my best and hopefully gain some devoted readers along the way.  Being new to this, it will be amusing to reflect back to my first blog posts in the near future seeing how my blog will have progressed.  My main objective at this point is improving the style of my writing, which will be accomplished by practice.

KRISTINA’S HINT FOR THE FOLLOWERS:

If you have never written a blog before, the best thing for you (as it was for me) would be to research other people and PR professional blogs gathering what you like and dislike and apply it to your blog. The styles of writing and the way they intrigue and interact with the reader will definitely give a big ‘kick off’ for any beginner in the field, as well as will give a good understanding of ‘how it should be done’. I would definitely suggest to all of my followers to have a ‘sneak peak’ at lower listed people’s blogs, you will also find some interesting topics to add to your own blogs.

List of PR student blog’s byMichael White

Guidelines for PR student blogs byRichard Bailey