Question 1

The management function most often confused with public relations is:

Accepted Answer

Marketing is often confused with public relations because both involve promoting a company and its products or services, but they have different focuses and strategies.

Question 2

Which specialized part of public relations identifies emerging trends and anticipates their potential impact on an organization?

Accepted Answer

Issues management is the specialized part of public relations that identifies emerging trends and anticipates their potential impact on an organization. It involves analyzing data and monitoring the environment to identify potential issues that could affect an organization's reputation or operations. This enables organizations to be proactive in responding to emerging trends and issues, rather than simply reacting once they have already become problematic. Public affairs, public opinion, publicity, and lobbying are all important components of public relations, but they do not specifically focus on identifying and managing emerging trends and issues in the same way that issues management does.

Question 3

When is it appropriate for practitioners to use an advertorial?

Accepted Answer

Advertorials are used by practitioners for various reasons, including dissatisfaction with media portrayal, addressing public misunderstandings, supporting a cause, and desiring control over the message's content, placement, and timing. All these scenarios are appropriate for using advertorials.

Question 4

Which of the following identifies needs and wants, provides products to meet them and deals with customers?

Accepted Answer

Marketing is the process of identifying customers' needs and wants, creating products or services to meet them, and promoting and distributing those products to customers. It also involves building relationships with customers and dealing with them effectively to ensure their satisfaction with the products or services offered. Advertising is just one aspect of marketing, and lobbying, personnel, and development do not necessarily have direct involvement with customers.

Question 5

Introduced in the mid-1970s, ________ is the term used to describe the practice of identifying emerging trends, setting priorities, and implementing strategies to respond to environmental changes.

Accepted Answer

Issues management is a term used to describe the practice of identifying emerging trends, setting priorities, and implementing strategies to respond to environmental changes. Public affairs refers to the management of an organization's relationships with stakeholders, while public opinion refers to the views and attitudes of the general public. Publicity is a tactic used to generate media coverage and attention for an organization or individual, and lobbying involves influencing decision-makers on particular issues.

Question 6

Rather than the image of a cigar-chomping, well-connected insider handing out stacks of cash in the halls of government, which of the following is a more accurate description of what lobbyist do?

Accepted Answer

Lobbyists do all of the above. They research legislators' positions, create information to educate and persuade related to issues, study government and legislative process, and mobilize like-minded individuals for grassroots lobbying efforts. This is a more accurate representation of the work of lobbyists than the image of corrupt individuals handing out cash.

Question 7

Public relations typically does not have responsibility for which one of the following?

Accepted Answer

Improving product design and packaging falls under the responsibility of product development and marketing departments, not public relations.

Question 8

Which of the following is practiced more to attract public attention than to build understanding?

Accepted Answer

Press agentry is primarily focused on attracting public attention, often through sensationalism or stunts, rather than building understanding or fostering genuine communication.

Question 9

The armed forces and many government agencies typically use which one of the following to designate the public relations function?

Accepted Answer

The armed forces and many government agencies typically use the term "public affairs" to designate the public relations function. Public affairs involves building and maintaining relationships between an organization and its stakeholders, including the media, community, and government. It includes activities such as media relations, crisis communication, and community outreach.

Question 10

Which specialized part of the practice deals with an organization's "number one public" and its "most important asset"?

Accepted Answer

Internal relations deals with the communication and management of relationships between an organization and its employees, who are often considered the organization's "number one public" and "most important asset."

Question 11

The method that provides the practitioner with the greatest control of content and placement in media is:

Accepted Answer

Advertising allows the practitioner to have complete control over the content and placement of the message in the media, as they are the ones paying for the space and creating the content. Other methods such as lobbying, issues management, and development rely on persuading media outlets or stakeholders to cover certain topics, but do not provide the same level of control. Marketing also involves creating and placing messages, but may not have as much control over media placement as advertising specifically does.

Question 12

Which of the following is devoted to directly influencing government legislation and regulations?

Accepted Answer

Lobbying is specifically dedicated to directly influencing government legislation and regulations. Advertising, marketing, personnel, and development may indirectly impact government decisions, but they are not solely focused on this goal.

Question 13

Information from external sources used by news media based on its news value is:

Accepted Answer

Publicity refers to the information from external sources that news media use based on its news value. Unlike advertising or public relations, which are controlled and paid for by organizations, publicity is not directly paid for and is selected by media outlets for its news value.

Question 14

According to the text, what is the major difference between publicity and advertising?

Accepted Answer

The text states that "the practitioner controls advertising placement but not publicity placement," indicating that this is the major difference between publicity and advertising.

Question 15

The contemporary concept of public relations is based on which of the following key words?

Accepted Answer

The contemporary concept of public relations is focused on creating mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its various publics, which is reflected in the keywords "reciprocal," "mutual," and "between." This approach emphasizes open communication, two-way dialogue, and a focus on building trust and understanding between the organization and its stakeholders.

Question 16

Which of the following casts corporate practitioners in the role of serving as liaisons between their corporations and governmental units?

Accepted Answer

Public affairs professionals often serve as liaisons between corporations and governmental units, managing relationships and communications.

Question 17

The specialized part of corporate public relations designed to build and maintain community and governmental relations is:

Accepted Answer

Public affairs is specifically focused on managing an organization's relationships with community groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and government entities. It involves monitoring and analyzing public policy, and developing strategies to address issues that could affect the organization's reputation or bottom line. Public affairs professionals are typically involved in lobbying, grassroots campaigns, issues management, and crisis management.

Question 18

When one author wrote, "Very simply, my job was to get the client's name in the paper," he was describing the role of:

Accepted Answer

The statement about getting the client's name in the paper suggests a focus on publicity rather than objective journalism or broader public relations efforts such as reputation management. This aligns with the historical practice of press agentry, which prioritizes generating attention and hype through the media.

Question 19

When a practitioner attempts to make a new product newsworthy in order to get media and public attention, it is called:

Accepted Answer

Product publicity is the act of making a new product newsworthy in order to get media and public attention. This can be done through press releases, media events, and other promotional tactics. Consumer relations, issues management, product advertising, and institutional advertising are all related to public relations but do not specifically address the act of making a new product newsworthy.

Question 20

Effective Public Relations (text)introduces the management function dealing with:

Accepted Answer

Effective Public Relations deals with managing relationships between organizations and their stakeholders. It focuses on building and maintaining a positive image of an organization, enhancing its reputation, and creating goodwill among its stakeholders. It involves various activities such as media relations, crisis management, event planning, and community outreach, all aimed at fostering open and honest communication between an organization and its publics. The other options, B, D, and E, are not accurate descriptions of the management function of public relations.

Quiz 1: Introduction to Contemporary Public Relations