Running Head: Exploring Through Public Affairs

Exploring Through Public Affairs

Hayley Welch

The University of Kansas

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Public Relations, according to BusinessDictionary.com, is the profession or practice of

creating and maintaining goodwill of an organizations various publics. As I did research on

what job I wanted to explore, I came across Public Relations. In a society like todays, media is a

main contributor in transferring information to the public. According to Lake, a public relations

specialist is the person in between the media and the organization making sure only the positive

information is given out. Many companies, sports teams, military, and school have a public

relations specialist and rely on them to make them look good. In my paper, I am going to focus

on three main points about public relations. These points include, what is a Public Affairs

specialist, information about my interviewee and her job, and why this is the job for me.

To further my knowledge of Public Relations specialist, I wanted to narrow my search

down to a specific organization. The organization that I choose to research was the United States

Navy. In the military, the Public Relations Specialist is known as a Public Affairs Officer or

PAO. These people prepare formal statements and write speechs for an organizations

representative and superior officer, they train and brief executives to speak with the public, and

manage a response to negative events that may occur.

Before any of that fun stuff begins, according to Bureau of Labor Statisitcs (2015) , you

have to posses a four-year bachelors degree in Public Relations, Journalism, English, Business,

or Communications. In order to be a public relations specialist in the Military, you have to

receive additional training from the Defense Information School in Indianapolis. According to

Study.com (2015), with a four year degree comes with benefits ranging from the starting salary is

between $60,000 and $100,000, sick and vacation leave, and health benefits.
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The second thing that I would like to talk about is whom I interviewed and what her

profession is. The person I interviewed was Beth Baker; she claims the position, Director of

Public Affairs for the Navy Region Mid-Atlantic command. She manages six positions in her

office and a total of 22 civilians throughout the region. The region stretches from North Carolina

to Maine and west to the Great Lakes. Beth got her degree in Organizational management from

the University of Delaware and also graduating from the Defense Information School in Fort

Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis (B. Baker, personal communication, March 28, 2017).

Before Baker became a PAO in 1992, she was the Executive Director at the Norfolk

Chamber of Commerce. She eventually began becoming very active in expanding the armed

forces committee and which led her to the Navy. While working with the Navy, a position as

Deputy PAO opened up and Beth applied. At the time of her applying, the Navy was not

allowing hiring outside of the Department of Defense. She quickly applied to appeal the case and

soon became the first civilian to hold this position and with in twelve years she was promoted to

the director position (personal communication, March 28,2017).

The PAO community is very small and consists of Active Duty, Civilians, Reservist,

Mass Communication Specialist, and Contractors. A PAO for the Navy has various jobs, for

smaller offices like Beths; they handle everything from dealing with the media to training and

budget. Another role that a PAO does, which arguably may be the most important, is to tell the

Navys story to a vast audience across the country and world. Which leads to the Mid-Atlantic

regions motto being support the fleet, the fighter, and the family.

In order to capture people attention and to tell the Navys story in a positive way, the PAO

puts together major events for civilians. The largest event that is ran through Bakers office is

Fleet Week New York. According to Military News, this is a two weeklong event in New York
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City over Memorial Day weekend, consisting of multiple ships, sailors and marines, and special

guest. The PAO is responsible for the media outreach, overall schedule of events management,

tour program, social media, and the developments of special events. Even though a big event

like may sound exciting and beneficial, it may also come with a big crisis because they are

completely unpredictable. For example, about four years back a fighter jet crash into Mayfair

Apartments in Virginia Beach. Bakers office was in the lead for the incident and handle

everything media. Eventually the media got a hold of it and it went from local news to national

news in less than a week. Making sure that the media being transferred is accurate and beneficial

is a major role of a PAO.

Public Affairs Specialist plays a major role in an organizations reputation. The job comes

with long hour and stressful work. One thing B.M Baker said that really Interest me was I

absolutely love when a story we are working on that highlights our young sailors is well received

and reaches a broad audience(Personal communication, March 28,2017) That statement left me

with a positive image about this profession because being able to impact not only one person but

also the person family is what I want to do in my work. Yes, this job may come with a lot of hard

work but the positives out weigh the negatives.

As mentioned above, public relations play a huge role in creating and managing a

positive image for organizations. Being able to make a negative situation into a positive one and

making an organization look good in the community is what Public Affairs really. This research

and interview left me with a positive image about being a PAO. I look forward to continuing my

career focus on Public affairs and making the best of it.

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References

Baker, B. M. (2017, March 28). [E-mail interview].

Lake, L. (n.d.). Public Relations: Explore the Benefits. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from

https://www.thebalance.com/public-relations-explore-the-benefits-2295945

Mid-Atlantic, N. R. (n.d.). Fleet Week New York | Home. Retrieved March 31, 2017, from

http://militarynews.com/app/fleetweeknewyork/

Public Affairs Officer: Job Description and Education Information. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30,

2017, from

http://study.com/articles/Public_Affairs_Officer_Job_Description_and_Education_Infor

mation.html

Summary. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2017, from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-c

ommunication/public-relations-specialists.htm

What is Public Relations? (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2017, from

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/public-relations.html