My Blog

 I have been able to drive for the past six years and have been having to pay for my gas ever since I have been in college. I’ve never really noticed the prices before I had to pay for them, but now that’s all I look it when I’m driving down the road. Gas prices now have reached almost 3 dollars per gallon which definitly leads me to want to walk.

Today, President Bush made a statement that will hopefully help to decrease the price of gasoline. The president ordered a “temporary suspension of enviromental rules for gasoline.” He also stopped, just for the summer, for the “government to purchase crude oil for the emergency’s reserve.” This all come due to the pressure that the president was receiving from both of the political parties. In his statement, the president also said that our nation is addicted to oil and that “its a matter of national security concern.”

I’m glad that our president is recognizing the growing issue of gas prices and is coming forward to do something about it. I appreciate it more being that I am a college student and like most students, half a tank of gas will most likely overdraw my account.

As much as I dont want to say this because I love driving my 4Runner, but if gas prices continue to increase, I can see the want for SUV’s decreasing. Being that I used to have a small car, the bigger car definitly makes me feel safer on the road, but just half a tank of gas nowadays is almost 20 dollars. I hope that the president’s plan will take in some effects, because I might just start saving for a bicycle.

Celebrities now seem to have everything. Money, fashionable clothes, nice cars, happy families, sometimes, and VIP access to anywhere they go. Although this does sound ideal and even somewhat surreal, why are some of them ruining thier kids lives by giving them hideous names? In my opinion, it changes my perception of the celebrity because I know feel bad for thier kid.

For example, Gwyenth Paltrow named her daughter Apple and her son Moses. Courtney Cox Arquette named her daughter CoCo. The star from the tv show My Name is Earl named his son Pilot Inspektor, no I didn’t spell that wrong. And now, the latest craze, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes named their daughter Suri meaning “princess” in Hebrew. This is just to name a few. Is this a new fad that celebrities are trying to create? Or is it just some kind of scam because they are bitter that the attention now goes to the kids and not them? The most normal baby name that I have heard from Tinseltown is, and I know this is going to bad, is Britney Spears’ son Sean Preston. Even though that name still sounds like white trash, its still a good American name, I think.

I also do realize that it is the millenium and we have come a long way since the common names of Sarah, Lindsey, Nicole and names like that, but these celebrities need to realize what they are doing to thier kid. If I was in elementary school and the teacher was calling out roll and I heard the name Pilot Inspektor, I would definitly laugh. I’m sorry, but who wouldn’t? I guess these parents are thinking that at least they have a lot of money and are famous, because without that I can almost guarantee these kids would be in therapy.

Now that March Madness is over, an athletic and prestigious school like Duke University was probably ready for some calming down to end the school year. Well that’s exactly what they didn’t get. On March 13, a black, female student, as well as exotic dancer, of North Carolina Central University accused three members of the Duke Lacrosse team of raping her. Although nobody has been arrested yet, the lacrosse team’s season has since been cancelled and the team’s coach has retired upon receving allegations of these charges. As time has gone on, it seems that new evidence appears every day.
In addition, each member of the team, excluding the one black team member because the victim stated that her attackers were white, have gone through DNA testing and so far there haven’t been any matches with the victim. It has also come to attention that the victim has had a criminal past, leading the credibility of her testimony to decrease. There have also been some statements from supporters of the victim saying that if the accusation was from a student at Duke, harsher actions would have already taken place.

In my opinion, I think that something did happen, but that it may not be as severe as it is being portrayed to be in the media. First of all, the victim is an exotic dancer so I’m sure she has been treated inappropriately in the past, therefore for her to make such a big deal about this must mean something. I also think that it’s interesting how sudden the coach retired, could he really not handle a crisis situation like this? Or is he hiding something?
Like every other scandal, this will fly by and Duke will once again be one of the best academic institutions in the nation. Until then though, I wish the Duke crisis management team luck.

“Sometimes I think change is a good thing,” Katie Couric said on The Today Show. “Although it may be terrifying to get out of your comfort zone, it’s very exciting to start a new chapter in your life.”
As most of you know, Couric, co-host of The Today Show for the past 15 years, will be leaving and will now be anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News. Even though we all saw it coming, I’m sure some of us were still shocked…or maybe not. This past summer, I went to New York and visited the NBC studio and had the privilege of meeting Couric. Just by talking to her for the whole five minutes that we did, I could tell how busy and crazy her life was at the time and, not to be offensive, it looked as thought it was time for her to move on. In addition to this being a good business choice for Couric, I believe that this will also bring in more publicity and watchers for both CBS and NBC.

I personally have become prone to listening to Couric, along with Matt Lauer and Al Roker, every morning while getting ready for the day, rather than sitting down and watching it. I know that the first time Meredith Vieira, co-host from The View who will be taking over Couric’s position on Today, is on I will make a point to sit down and actually watch her and see how she compares to Couric and to get an idea of how the show will be from now on. Coming from someone who never watches the evening news, I also know that I will make a point to watch it the first time Couric is on, just to see if she truly did make a good career decision.

I am looking forward to now becoming used to Vieria’s voice in the morning, especially since I have enjoyed her the few times that I have watched her on The View. I wish Katie Couric the best of luck and here’s to a brand new 15 years.

In a country that has been at war for over 3 years now, is making a movie that recreates the event that triggered the war to begin a good idea? In my opinion, I personally don’t want to relive it, but others may see it as therapy.

Universal Studios said that its main challenge is “how to promote a film about the tragedy without seeming to exploit it.” Like many other movies that have come out this past year, I know for sure that this one is going to cause controversy and I still think its too early to put a movie out like this.

In some ways though, I do understand why people would want to put a movie like this. First of all, we as Americans can’t and shouldn’t go around pretending like 9/11 never happened. We need to come forward with it and realize that our country is working for, even though this does sound cliche, the ideal world peace. Second of all, the people who were directly affected by this tragedy may want to see how other people have been affected or how they view the situation happening. Granted this could be the main cause of controversy, but seriously what would America be without controversy?

I wish Universal Studios luck on promoting this film and putting it out there. But more importantly I pray for our soldiers overseas to come home safely.

I just got back from my last spring break and life is now even crazier since I finish classes in 4 weeks and will be moving to either New York or Denver. Unlike the typical college spring break, my best friend, roommate, and two of my best friends that go to school at the University of Colorado went on a road trip out west. We began in Denver, then drove to Vegas for two nights, then to San Diego for four nights then back to Denver for one more night. It was one of the most memorable trips I have ever been on and I’m so glad we went. Some of my friends back here went to Destin, Fla., which dont get my wrong would be great, but I wanted something unique and original in which I knew would end my spring breaks with a bang.

One of the main things I noticed though before and during my spring break was the advertisements for the “spring breakers.” Before I went on my trip, all I saw around campus were advertisements for spring break in either Panama City, Fla., Cancun, Mexico and Destin, Fla and nothing for out west. Which I was fine with, but I thought that it was rather interesting. One of my friends went to Alcapulco, Mexico and even there the pictures that I saw from her trip there were signs that said “Welcome Spring Breakers.” There was nothing like that in any of the places out west. On the other hand, in Vegas there were a lot of college students, but I didnt see much of advertising for them to go spend thier spring break there. Even though I loved Vegas and now I want to go back at least once a month, I understand one of the main reasons why Vegas doesnt market to college students : money.

In San Diego, which is more of a neighboorhood community town anyways, there were barely any college students and definitly no advertising for spring breakers. But, my friends and I found our places to go and things to do and I wouldnt have traded the time I spent there for anything.

  A couple of weeks ago in my Style and Design class, my teacher introduced us to the new concept of Skype. Skype, according to thier website, is “a little program for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who has Skype.” In class we spoke to someone who lives in Spain, for free, and to someone who lives in New York, again for free. In my opinion, I feel that this is going to be a very beneficial to many people and will become even more popular fast. 

 One example that I could see Skype being almost a necessity is for those who have loved ones and friends overseas. My roommate’s boyfriend is currently in Iraq and he has been there ever since last May. Before he was deployed, my roommate and he both got a camera that you can put on your computer screen in order to be able to see each other while they chat online. As soon as he arrived in Iraq, he bought a cell phone and they talk almost every day. 

The only downfall to these two communication tactics that my roommate and her boyfriend use is that it’s expensive. In order for them to talk on the phone, she has to buy a calling card almost every month in order to be able to talk long-distance. Since he also has access to his own computer, if they both downloaded Skype they could talk to each other for free as well as see each other by the camera that they each have. He is coming home the beginning of May, so it may be too late to start this now, but if they knew about it earlier I couldn’t imagine how much money that would save the both of them. 

Since I am finishing classes and then interning and graduating this year, I feel that Skype is going to be a great way to keep in touch with my friends and family. Also, just like almost every other recent graduate, it will save me money which is something I will definitely need to be doing. 

 

 In order to apply ethics to public relations, one of my PR books, my Case Studies book to be specific, says that you must use the Golden Rule as an ethical guide. The Golden Rule is used as follows, “If we do unto others as we would have them do unto us, harmonious public relationships will result.” When I was in high school, I worked at a jewelry store called James Avery Craftsman. When I first started working there, the relationships between the employees and the management were ideal and would have been envied by many businesses, but once the management chanced, so did the atmosphere of working there making it difficult for everyone. 

 The new manager, Becky, had many personal issues of her own and took her anger and frustration out on her employees. She wouldn’t allow anyone to have personal phone calls yet her husband must have called at least five times a day and she would just talk about nothing for many minutes. This was the start of the hostile environment because there were many mothers that would there that would want to talk to their children or spouses at least once a day but didn’t want to risk it for the sake of Becky getting upset with them. Becky would also cook the police officers, who came in at night for security, dinner and her relationship with these officers became somewhat to close making the other employees there feel uncomfortable. These were just some examples of how Becky acted which lead to the working environment not only being hostile within the business, but also outside of it. The customers and others could tell how bad it got to work here making Becky and others beg for people to come and work during hard times like Christmas. Even the owner, James Avery, could tell the “bad PR” that the store was giving off to its customers and at one point had to come into the store and try to enhance the relationships. 

I will personally use the Golden Rule when I get into the PR professional field not only because of what I’ve learned from it, but also from my experience working here. In my opinion, if Becky had used the ethics of the Golden Rule, James Avery Craftsman would still have been one of the best places to go to work and to shop. 

 

 

 As apart of one my PR classes, we learned about employee relations and how it is an important part of PR. This past August, eight executives of KPMG, one of the four wealthiest companies in the nation, admitted to and were charged with criminal wrongdoings. These executives admitted to allowing their clients to avoid having to pay taxes. In my opinion, I believe that this could lead to a lack of credibility and trust between the employees and the managers or the other executives throughout the company. Since the investigation has concluded that the top executives of this powerful company have been breaking the law, the employees began not knowing who to trust or how to continue doing their job correctly. As far as they know, the entire time that they’ve worked under these executives they could have been breaking the law as well. 

  The reason why these executives allowed their clients to avoid paying taxes was because it “helped to offset big profits elsewhere.” The firm agreed to pay over $400 million to make up for their wrongdoing and to also have less of a punishment with the law. Besides the employees not being able to trust their managers or executives of this powerful company, the employees looked at this situation with another approach. In the article on AOL News, in which I read about this situation from, it stated that the employees learned from this mistake and rather than tearing the company apart it brought them together to be a stronger and more powerful company than before. Because the firm had to pay such a large sum to make up for this crime, the employees should and most likely are now, work harder in order to gain the money back and keep their high status. 

 

 Like I have mentioned many times before, I am currently in the process of applying for and interviewing for potential internships for this summer in order to graduate. With the excitement that I have to actually get more involved with the field of PR, I am just as stressed out because of the application process. Some places that I have applied to ask for just your resume, some ask for your resume and a cover letter and some ask for your resume, cover letter, and writing samples. My main question is though, even though a certain firm may not ask for a cover letter, should I go ahead and send one anyway? Or would that look like I’m giving too much information and if they needed it they would have asked for it?

About a year ago, I took a communications in organizations class that taught me basically all the proper business etiquette that one will need in order to survive in the “real world.” For my cover letter, I have used the basic outline that I was taught to use in this class and I hope that it works effectively. What I was taught was that in a cover letter, you should simply state what you’re applying for, summarize your resume but not repeat anything state why you feel you are the most qualified for the position that you are applying for. Is that alright? Is there anything that I should add that would make my cover letter more effective?

In addition, the writing samples that I have sent are ones that I wrote in my intro to PR class and ones that I used in my PR writing class. These include basic opinion essays as well as mock press releases and feature stories. I know that a great deal of journalism is involved with PR and I hope that these stories enhance the writer that I am. I am nervous and excited about the outcome of where my internship will be and ask for any advice that anyone may have until that time comes.