Apples' non-existent PR

In 2004, Apple announced that Steve Jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. Since then, not much has been heard about it, until recently when they announced Steve Jobs was taking a medical leave. This caused a drop in their stocks.

Steve Jobs being sick causes a lot of problems for people who own stock in Apple. Steve jobs is the brain of Apple and if anything were to happen to him, it could cause a lot of people to lose thousands, maybe millions, in investments.

Have they thought about how much trouble they might be in if Steve Jobs dies? I don't think so. I read an awesome article called "Apples' PR elephant in the room".  It is true that Apple is allowing Steve Jobs health to be a large elephant in the room. No one wants to discuss what they should do in case something were to happen. The COO, and possible successor Tim Cook, hasn't even been seen in public. If he is suppose to take over the company, he needs to show the public who he is and what he will do in replacement of Steve Jobs.

The best suggestion, the author of the article had for Apple, was to make a public appearing about what is the "vision" of Apple. Since Steve Jobs is seen as the founder, maker and brain of Apple, shouldn't they show the public that if he dies, the company won't die with him? The best way to ensure this is to have a conference with all the leaders of Apple and have them discuss how they see Apple staying ahead in the technology world without Steve Jobs.

Whatever Apple does, they need to do it quickly. Everything is so secretive. You can't be completely secretive when you are a BILLION dollar company with thousands of shareholders. Otherwise, Apple may never recover if something were to happen. Hopefully, Steve Jobs is going to be okay. Let's all pray for the best.  

Race, Gender and the Media Class Discussion Jan. 24th

In our last race, gender and the media class, we discussed race and local TV. We had a long discussion about the Antoine Dodson video that went viral. I completely agree that, as a TV station, there was no need to put that entire comment on the air. They should have edited the information more. Also, there should have been information about the suspect.

Our other discussion was about minorities always on TV for crime. I think minorities are always tied with crimes on TV because they usually are tied with crimes in real life. Most crimes take place where there are drugs and money. Both of these things run rampant in the projects and low-economical neighborhoods. Does this mean that all minorities do crimes? No. Should they be portrayed this way? No. The only way to fix this is having TV stations show less crime and find better alternatives about minorities in the community.

Race is always going to be an issue. Someone is always going to be unhappy and will be pointing a finger. I sometimes wish the word “race” would be dropped because I feel like everyone who lives in America is American, no matter what color you are. It just seems like the people who always bring up race are the ones who say they want “racism” to be non-existent. Who knows. I think this class will be interesting but I can see, from the list of things we talk about, that there will be a lot of disagreements. I’m just going to have to control what I say and how I say it.

Important of Ethics in Business 4470

“The moral sense of conscience is the most noble of all the attributes of man.” –Charles Darwin

Ethics are like social norms. Do you ever wonder where we get some of our social norms? Like standing in line for a bathroom stall? Or how no one talks to strangers in the elevator with them? These are silly questions but are things that everyone does because it’s become innate. We learn from childhood that social norms are what people expect of us and if you don’t follow them, bad things happen. Ever seen someone cut a line? Precisely.

Ethics are the same way. They aren’t laws that people have to follow but more like guidelines that people expect others to follow. They are guidelines to make sure people do the right thing. From childhood we learn what is right and what isn’t right. The problem is ethics is subjective. It means different things to different people.  

Even with it being subjective, ethics keeps everyone on the same page in business. This is why ethics are so important. Having such guidelines keep businesses from doing the wrong thing because, when they do perform an unethical situation, they usually never recover. An example of this is Enron.

Ethics are extremely important in business. They help companies build good reputations. As PR practitioners, our job is to build an ethical and honorable relationship with our organization and the public. We have a duty to our organization and the public to perform ethically in all situations. PR is already seen as a “lying and spinning” business and so we have to work extra hard to make sure we are reputable.

Imagine what the world would be like without social norms. There would be chaos. Now imagine business without ethics. Get the picture?

Barnett Shale Under Investigation

The concerns of hundreds of people in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area are coming true. In Parker County, a gentlemen called the Environmental Protection Agency because he started to notice gas was being leaked into his well contaminating his drinking water. Not too far from his home is a Barnett Shale drilling station done by Range Production Company. Of course there are investigations to see if the gas in his well is in fact from the drilling nearby because natural gas has supposedly been found in wells around his before. Since Texas was once filled with natural gas pockets, it's supposedly not uncommon to find gas in wells. Some say it's gas that's naturally in that area, while some say it's caused by a leak from the drilling nearby. This makes Barnett Shale look pretty bad since they have been saying for years that the drillings would be safe. The worst part of this article says that EPA mentions that they have problems like this nationwide.

This article hit so close to home since they are planning on putting a Barnett Shale drilling station near my house. I know our drinking water will not be affected but I would assume that, if gas is leaking into water sources, that there is going to be environmental damage. Barnett Shale should understand that their obligation is to those around their drilling stations and to prove that they will investigate and get the matter under hand. Otherwise, this is the kind of thing that can shut a company down.

Read the article. It hits too close to home for a lot of people in the north Texas area.

http://www.dallasnews.com/investigations/headlines/20110122-gas-in-parker-county-home’s-drinking-water-puts-drilling-epa-in-national-spotlight.ece

Assignments

So i'm not much of a blogger or writer. My mother is usually the one who is witty enough for these kinds of things but unfortunately i'm having to have a blog for my class. So here we go.