Why did the shy girl pick PR?

So I’m over halfway through my first semester as a PR student, it’s weird to think that this time next year I could be potentially working in the field doing real client work, writing pieces that the media could rely on…scary, yet exciting.

Many people who know me are usually surprised when I tell them I’m in public relations. I was never the most talkative person in school, however, I think the first time I was really into the idea of public relations was in my first year social research class when we were learning about ethnography.

Ethnography is the study of social interactions, behaviours and perceptions that occur within groups and communities. The goal of an ethnography study is to provide rich, holistic insights into people’s view and actions. As an ethnographer, your main objective is to document the culture, the perspectives and practices, of people in a specific setting (Source).

This qualitative research method has been adopted from its roots in Anthropology to now being used in market research to analyze how a specific audience spends their time in their daily lives.  But how does this fit into public relations? Well, I feel this skill is necessary to understand your audience, which is a huge part of any solid RACE/Communication plan.  Being able to communicate a message to a specific audience will be achieved more greatly when you actually understand the audience you are dealing with.

So hopefully I don't come across as too much as a stalker, but I truly find people interesting in how they communicate and act with other groups of people. I challenge you to try to conduct your own: start with something small like how people interact on a bus, or waiting at the bank. You'll be surprised that after a while you start to see same patterns in how people act to one another. Of course the results cannot be generalized to replicate the attitudes of a large populationn, but it's still has beneficial results when looking at specified groups.

 

 

 This video explains how ethnography is used heavily in market research (and some drawbacks). Interesting points and really shows a new insight on how important perspective is.