Week two's readings

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings were Grunig and Hunt’s ‘four models’ approach, namely the press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetric and two-way symmetric models.

Press agentry model is concerned with generating publicity for the organisation. This model is associated with explicit publicity-seeking stunts, and practitioners would do almost anything to get attention for their organisation. An example of the press agentry model would be part-timers hired by Telecommunications giant StarHub to walk up and down Orchard Road in Singapore, wearing a banner that displays information of a new promotional mobile plan for students.

The public information model’s purpose is to accurately disseminate information, and this is done in a one-way direction on behalf of the organisation. Information from the organisation is objectively reported to the public. An example would be the news release from a ticket promoter having to cancel a show at the last minute due to certain unforeseen circumstances.

The two-way asymmetric model is two-way PR work that is very much concerned with getting the organisation’s message out to the public, rather than responding to replies from the public. The two-way symmetric model on the other hand, is one where the targetted publics benefit as much as the organisation itself.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that most organizations in the world today operate using the two-way asymmetric model, as well as the reasons behind as to why the two-way symmetric model is unrealistic for organisations to adopt.