Q&A Hero

Q: Identification of key audiences and publics should be among the first steps that a PR practitioner considers when diagnosing an organizational problem or opportunity.

Q: When planning a campaign, after campaign objectives are established, the measurements and magnitude of the impact of a campaign is set.

Q: Media relations may take longer to achieve a communications goal than the use of paid outreach.

Q: When addressing stating problems, it is recommended that they be conceptualized as positive challenges.

Q: Paines recommendation of measuring what matters pertains to setting communications goals only where they can make an impact.

Q: If consumers have misconceptions about a brand and its uses, it is preferable to abandon that brand and establish a new brand using different descriptions for consumers.

Q: A campaign budget is NOT considered a reliable way to examine a campaigns potential impact.

Q: After defining objectives, it is essential to conduct budgetary planning and all associated fiscal processes.

Q: An organizations communication goals can bridge a gap between which one of the following? a. target audiences and the communications goals the organization sets for them b. mission and vision, and campaign objectives and tactics c. desired accomplishments and those who can affect reaching those accomplishments d. an organizations stakeholders and its audiences

Q: Balanced public relations planning requires involvement with which one of the following? a. adherence to the organizational mission b. being responsive to changes c. respect for audience needs d. availability of funding sources

Q: Wilson and Ogden describe goals and objectives as which one of the following? a. Goal is the direction, objective is the destination. b. Goal is the destination, objective is the direction. c. Goal is the value, objective is the outcome. d. Goal is the measure, objective is the magnitude.

Q: What complicates the planning process at the research stage of a project? a. Leadership may steer projects in the direction they prefer. b. All the questions that need to be answered cannot be known at the beginning of the process. c. Outside sources interject unrelated viewpoints through the research process. d. Stakeholders may obstruct projects they deem unnecessary.

Q: In the realm of goals and research, which one of the following characterizes iterative planning? a. Objectives are planned, goals are measurable. b. Goals are based on research, research in turn is based on objectives. c. Research is measurable, goals are actionable. d. Goals lead to research, research can lead to goal revision.

Q: With regard to diagnostics and solutions, public relations practitioners help an organization in which stated way? a. to ensure that organizational mission and values are present in communications solutions b. to adhere to organizational mission and execute its policy c. to review and develop organizational mission and values d. to see challenges and address them with communications

Q: For the PR practitioner, research about an organizations internal and external environments precede a thorough understanding of the organizations goals.

Q: Objectives act as a compass for a public relations campaign, pointing practitioners toward the goals and strategies.

Q: A communications objective would do which one of the following? a. Identify measures and magnitude to determine effectiveness. b. Identify the problem at hand. c. Refer to the organizational goals. d. Describe how often a particular medium will be used.

Q: Which one of the following is NOT typically part of a budget consideration in goal-setting? a. the priority of the project b. budgetary limitations c. stakeholder influence d. considerations of anchor strategies and tactics

Q: Organizations should observe which one of the following principles when staffing over the long term on its communications projects? a. Teams with skill shortages should supplement with paid expertise. b. Generalists will typically outperform specialists. c. Teams with evenly distributed skills are generally more cost-efficient. d. Specialists will typically outperform generalists.

Q: When developing a campaigns goals, the most important points to establish are which one of the following? a. the impact of the communication, and the scope of the campaign b. the scope of the campaign and the expected audience reaction c. the staffing of the campaign and the intended audience reactions to it d. the staffing of the campaign and the impact of the communication

Q: Kane emphasizes that public relations campaigns need to employ what kinds of goals? a. goals that are the same as those of the organization b. goals that can be affected through communications c. goals that are relatable to the target audiences d. Goals that can be supported by internal stakeholders

Q: Campaign communication goals first must have which one of the following sets of characteristics? a. They need to be measurable and cost-effective. b. They need to be executable and measurable. c. They need to be based on organizations priorities. d. They need to be relatable to target audiences.

Q: An organization that works to have the uses of its brand better understood in the marketplace, it may choose which one of the following goals? a. a brand introduction goal b. a brand familiarity goal c. a brand definition goal d. a brand reminding goal

Q: Which of the factors below are NOT identified as part of the SCOPE of a campaign? a. available resources b. team expertise c. preferred timeline d. message relevance

Q: PR practitioners evaluate audiences based on the probability of achieving the campaign communication objective. What is a typical consideration in audiences? a. the demographic makeup of the audience b. the relative size of the audience c. the potential audience response to a communication d. the geographic makeup of the audience

Q: In selecting an audience to reach out to, what helps identify how a campaign communication might be tailored to a specific audience? a. audience research b. audience size c. media cost and availability d. past audience responses

Q: A clearly identified communication goal would do which one of the following as a result of that communication? a. State a desired identifiable change. b. Describe the audience and its makeup. c. Refer to the organizational mission. d. Identify magnitude and measures used to determine effectiveness.

Q: Effective organizational communications mean that communications must be ______. a. focused on a specific audience b. considerate of diverse viewpoints c. based on input from stakeholders d. aligned with organizational goals

Q: Which one of the following does the PR practitioner use as framework for addressing organizational problems and opportunities? a. marketplace environment conditions b. the organizations stakeholders c. target audience research d. the organizations mission

Q: According to author Stacks, a communications goal should be informed by which one of the following? a. research in the marketplace b. research on the organization c. consumer viewpoints d. stakeholders priorities

Q: In the goal-setting phase, public relations practitioners are cautioned about which one of the following? a. requesting budgets that appear unrealistic b. assigning inadequately skilled staff to specific projects c. attempting too many strategies and tactics d. requiring organizational leadership to do too much in a campaign

Q: When it comes to addressing organizations challenges, Wilson and Ogden recommend which one of the following? a. accounting public perception in strategies to address the challenge b. considering how the challenge may alter the organization c. stating the problem as an opportunity d. seeking input from the organizations stakeholders

Q: What are two key factors for any public relations practitioner to consider when defining opportunities for a public relations campaign? a. organizational mission and its audiences b. organizational structure and its business model c. outside regulations and legal requirements d. the organizations status as for-profit or non-profit

Q: For large organizations, large numbers of internal stakeholders and audiences can be difficult to work with. What is often thought of as a factor that offsets this difficulty? a. Larger organizations usually have greater resources with which to address problems and challenges. b. Larger organizations usually have better ties to their audiences than smaller organizations. c. Larger organizations can often take more time to address problems and challenges d. Stakeholders in larger organization will often have greater influence over target audiences.

Q: In the planning and implementation stages of public relations, strategic PR practitioners will commonly do which one of the following? a. Base new strategies on what was most effective in the past. b. Refer to the research it is conducted in relation to the problem or challenge. c. Take into consideration the best practices from other similar-sized organizations. d. Relate their actions to organizational goals.

Q: A PR practitioner who represents a book author stays abreast of what is happening in the publishing field by reading book-trade journals. What kind of research is this? a. industry research b. primary research c. background research d. secondary research

Q: Of the things that affect the value research, which one of the following is NOT cited as one of them? a. the budget set out for research b. the number of people undertaking the research c. the timelines/deadlines set out for the research d. the experience of the researchers

Q: Research that is found to have little relevance to what it was trying to measure is said to lack which one of the following? a. confidence interval b. correlation c. significant difference d. validity

Q: In qualitative research, multiple sources of data are used to confirm that the study has validity. This use of multiple sources is called ______. a. triangulation b. configuration d. correlation d. confirmation data

Q: A specific source of secondary research that is NOT cited in the text is ______. a. scholarly research b. case studies c. government data d. citation data

Q: Think-tank research has been cited to have which of the following characteristics? a. It may be biased. b. It is often crowd-sourced. c. It is done by independent contractors. d. It usually addresses controversial topics.

Q: Research produced by trade associations often possess which of the following characteristics? a. It is produced by think-tanks. b. It is produced by third parties. c. It is produced with an industry purpose in mind. d. It is produced using foundation grants.

Q: An organization conducts a survey to gauge various reactions in a new product. This is an example of ______. a. market research b. primary research c. secondary research d. social research

Q: Primary research differs from informal research in which one of the following ways? a. Primary research is often more costly than informal research. b. Primary research is often more timely than informal research. c. Primary research is more unbiased than informal research. d. Primary research is more often conducted by experts with statistical expertise than informal research.

Q: Chapter 5: Research, Part 2: Goals

Q: When a PR practitioner reads a small sample of the output from a media outlet to get a feel for how a topic is covered, this is called which one of the following? a. spot research b. informal research c. focused research d. issue research

Q: A researcher is analyzing all the articles in the past five years for the occurrences of a particular phrase or idea. This would be an example of which one of the following? a. a literature review b. informal research c. formal research d. sample research

Q: Research that attempts to measure the tone of conversations about a given client or topic is ______. a. social research b. quantitative research c. qualitative research d. semantic research

Q: Some research attempts to measure phenomenon with the goal of predicting future events. This is called ______. a. quantitative research b. qualitative research c. predictive research d. social research

Q: An example of content analysis research would be ______. a. an examination of how news editors selected stories to publish b. the number of voters who understood the intended message of a political candidate c. a comparison of how two different media covered the same news story d. a count of how many times a particular phrase is used in an article

Q: One mark of high quality research would be ______. a. having one researcher review all the data b. having multiple researchers review the same data c. being sure the collected data came from the same time frame d. making allowances for differences in how the data was collected

Q: All formal research begins with ______. a. background of the problem b. a theory of the problem c. measurable expectations d. a problem statement

Q: Informal research in the diagnostic stage of a project typically has which characteristic? a. It is produced the scientific method to enhance reliability. b. It is NOT produced with the scientific method. c. It addresses current situations as well as historical contexts. d. It results in the research problem being refined.

Q: A particular distinction of informal research is which one of the following? a. It is less costly than formal research. b. It is produced faster than formal research. c. It requires greater numbers of people to produce than formal research. d. It is not usually generalizable to larger groups.

Q: Chapter 4: Research, Part 1: Diagnosis and Developmental Research

Q: A successful public relations campaign begins with ______. a. a diagnosis of the organizations needs b. a commitment of resources to the task or assignment c. assigning qualified individuals to manage the campaign d. reporting to the organization leaders about the nature of the campaign

Q: According to Jugenheimer, Kelley, Hudson and Bradley, which one of the following is NOT cited as a benefit of research? a. clarifying organizational values b. saving money c. adapting to change d. improving internal operations

Q: What is a common problem that PR professionals make at the beginning of a campaign? a. not budgeting enough time to carry out all phases of a campaign b. adhering to organizational historical practices c. moving ahead without an understanding of audiences and publics d. allowing organizational leaders influence the direction of the campaign

Q: Which one of the following is NOT cited by PR expert Stacks as pertinent to a campaign? a. refinement research b. developmental research c. historical research d. evaluative research

Q: Finding out about the organization and communications environment is part of which one of the following? a. situational research b. institutional research c. background research d. developmental research

Q: What is a challenge the PR practitioner faces as work begins on a campaign? a. Organizational leaders may require extensive vetting of anyone outside the organization that will be involved in the campaign. b. Organizational leaders may exert influence to control the direction of the campaign. c. Organizational leaders may withhold information or not fully understand the problem at hand. d. Organizational leaders often want to limit the use of outside service providers to a campaign.

Q: Why is it valuable for an organization to consider broad questions regarding its aspirations and place in its field? a. It can create transparency for the public. b. It can help lead to an understanding of the role of public relations in the organization. c. It can shine a light on the organizations strengths and weaknesses. d. It can be the foundation for developing effective campaign tactics.

Q: Bloom and Dozier say the gap between what a group of people perceive and what is actually desired is called ______. a. the communications problem b. the communications goal c. the research hypothesis d. the communication dichotomy

Q: Surveys can often reveal what kinds of information from interview subjects?

Q: Describe some of the limitations of using a large-scale survey such as an opinion poll.

Q: Content analysis research can be done both manually and in an automated manner. Compare both with regard to efficiency and effectiveness.

Q: A research study follows two identical experiments, with only one factor being different between the two experiments. Explain why.

Q: Explain the primary purpose of completing the developmental research stage is to a PR campaign.

Q: Explain the difference between developmental research and refinement research.

Q: Explain the value to the organization of evaluative research.

Q: In the developmental research phase of a project, members of an organization may hinder the public relations practitioner in what way?

Q: What characterizes the general nature of how informal research is gathered?

Q: Name three sources of secondary research a public relations practitioner might use?

Q: Gathering information from external sources such as viewpoints and expertise from sources outside the organization should always be done using formal research.

Q: Informal research is generalizable to a larger context.

Q: Research that is found to have high relevance is said to have high validity.

Q: Qualitative research is better at measuring the tone of a social media content than quantitative research methods would be.

Q: In the realm of experimental research, the independent variable represents that which is likely to be changed.

Q: Research from trade associations often has an industry purpose in mind. Ans: T 12 Correlational research measures if one factor causes a change in another factor. Ans: F 13 Interview research is particularly good at determining which one of the following? Ans: F

Q: Post-interview data should be reviewed by multiple reviewers.