Planning: Analyzing the Situation, Selecting Media; Media Skills: Email

· You are the head of public relations for a cruise line that operates out of Miami. You are shocked to read a letter in a local newspaper from a disgruntled passenger, complaining about the service and entertainment on a recent cruise. You need to respond to these publicized criticisms in some way. What audiences will you need to consider in your response? What medium or media should you choose? If the letter had been published in a travel publication widely read by travel agents and cruise travelers, how might your course of action have differed? In an email message to your instructor, explain how you will respond.

4.12. Planning: Assessing Audience Needs; Media Skills: Blogging; Communication Ethics: Making Ethical Choices

· Your supervisor has asked you to withhold important information that you think should be included in a report you are preparing. Disobeying him could be disastrous for your working relationship and your career. Obeying him could violate your personal code of ethics. What should you do? On the basis of the discussion in Chapter 1, would you consider this situation to be an ethical dilemma or an ethical lapse? Explain your analysis in a brief email message to your instructor.

4.13. Planning: Limiting Your Scope

· Suppose you are preparing to recommend that top management install a new heating system that uses the cogeneration process. The following information is in your files. Eliminate topics that aren’t essential and then arrange the other topics so that your report will give top managers a clear understanding of the heating system and a balanced, concise justification for installing it.

Ø History of the development of the cogeneration heating process

Ø Scientific credentials of the developers of the process

Ø Risks assumed in using this process

Ø Your plan for installing the equipment in the headquarters building

Ø Stories about the successful use of cogeneration technology in comparable facilities

Ø Specifications of the equipment that would be installed

Ø Plans for disposing of the old heating equipment

Ø Costs of installing and running the new equipment

Ø Advantages and disadvantages of using the new process

Ø Detailed 10-year cost projections

Ø Estimates of the time needed to phase in the new system

Ø Alternative systems that management might want to consider

4.14. Planning: Choosing the Direct or Indirect Approach

– Indicate whether the direct or indirect approach would be best in each of the following situations and briefly explain why. Would any of these messages be inappropriate for email? Explain.

Ø A message to the owner of an automobile dealership, complaining about poor service work

Ø A message from a recent college graduate, requesting a letter of recommendation from a former instructor

Ø A message turning down a job applicant

Ø A message announcing that because of high air-conditioning costs, the plant temperature will be held at 78° F during the summer

Ø A message from an advertising agency to a troublesome long-term client, explaining that the agency will no longer be able to work on the client’s account”