"A Burning Question"

            Ok so we all know what global warming is (the gradual increase of temperature of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans) well, if you didn’t now you do. But, do we REALLY know what damaging effects it will have and what is has already caused? Communication is crucial to improving public understanding of environmental problems. Media and Public Relations play a huge role in the publics knowledge and opinion on global warming. Unfortunately the topic of global warming can sometimes shine a bad light on public relations practitioners, and skew our opinions on the issue. This was brought to my attention in the documentation, “A Burning Question”.  This is where ethics and public relations come into play.

            The documentation focuses on Ireland, with opinions and insights from “experts”, “scientists”, “leaders”, basically anyone they could find with someone of a bragging right title. The problem is the media’s attempt to give both sides of this global warming debate. Too many people are left with the “50/50” impression, and therefore are not concerned with global warming at all.  The documentation showed so many differing messages and what people are predicting, that people stop listening. I found that many people interviewed had the attitude of, “well it hasn’t affected me in any way and will not affect me, so I don’t care” or they’ve heard global warming is fake and out of our control. Many companies and organizations that might do things that pose as a threat for global warming, promote the idea that global warming is not real, thus creating that 50/50 idea in our heads.  It is that company’s public relation practitioner’s job to cause that doubt in our opinions.

            This documentation is just another example of how the media and public relations play such a large role in the opinion of their publics. It also brings attention to how important ethics is in every aspect of public relations. It leaves the question; How far is too far in hopes to change an opinion?

How I Feel About Writing

“If you were a pencil write about how you would feel”, that was my first assignment in one of my poetry classes my freshmen year of college. Just when I thought I loved writing and declaring it as my minor was a good choice-that was thrown at me. I sat at my laptop every day before it was due just staring at a blank word document, until it finally came to me-I haven’t had to be this creative in a long time. I was so accustom to being assigned a specific topic or idea to write about. I was like a machine just drilling out papers left and right. For example, a research paper or analysis-so, I’ve completely forgotten how to be creative. Although I struggled with this first assignment, I found that throughout the semester my creative pieces kept getting better and better, and my love for writing did not stray away too much.

I’m not going to lie, I don’t think I will ever love writing about my feelings, expressing myself, or having to dig down deep and be creative. But when it comes to having to write a research paper, analysis, press releases, fact sheets, or other writing assignments, especially ones that have to do with public relations, I actually won’t mind writing them at all.

My love for writing began my junior year in high school. I took an advanced writing workshop, which touched base in almost every style of writing. Not only did my teacher stress the importance of writing and drafting, she emphasized most of her lectures on grammar. She would have us pick apart sentences to a T-naming; subject, predicate, noun, adjective, pronoun, object pronoun, proper usage of words, spelling- literally picking apart sentences until we couldn’t anymore. Sure it would get annoying at times, but I believe that’s why my writing skills improved so much. Once I found myself correcting mistakes I would have made in the past, I realized I actually really enjoy writing.

So, when I came to Eastern I chose Communications as my major with a focus in Public Relations, which is what I hope to pursue. I chose writing as my minor to keep up with my writing skills, and explore all different kinds of writing styles. Which will hopefully prepare me my aspiring future public relations jobs. I’ve really enjoyed my writing classes thus far, so my love for writing continues!