Two Classmate's Blog!

    This week will be my last blog entry for the semester! I hope you have enjoyed reading my post this semester. For this week’s blog I will be commenting on two of my classmate’s blogs once again. I wanted to go back to the first two classmate’s blogs which I focused on in the beginning of the semester to see how they have progressed over time. I went back and looked at Alyssa’s blog on fast food and read her posts from the last time I tuned into her blog until now. Alyssa has done a great job integrating our class discussion into our discussion.

    One post which Alyssa posted on her blog was regarding qualitative research. I found this post very interesting which she posted, she included an article regarding an analysis of the fast food industry. The article explained how “analysis is a marketing research function that shows how certain fast food restaurants compare with their competitors on sales, service and even product quality.” One of the most recent posts which Alyssa has written was regarding survey research. For my class presentation I focused on survey research, so I was very interested to see what Alyssa had to say about survey research in the fast food industry. Alyssa discussed how in marketing and business survey research is a vital tool to receive feedback from costumers. Alyssa provided an article! Which discussed tactics used for restaurants to get costumers to fill out those surveys! Make sure you read your receipts! I really enjoyed reading Alyssa’s blog.

     My other classmate which I wanted to go back and read their blog is Sacha’s Blog. I really enjoyed reading Sacha’s blog last time because she focuses on non-profit public relations which coincides with my blog topic of American Cancer Society. One article Sacha posted which shocked me when I was reading was how research is very important for nonprofit organizations but! some organizations do not use their research! “How can non-profits then who are not as successful improve their skills so they can better help the community?” is a question Sacha raised in her blog post regarding survey research. Sacha provided an article which answered this question which you can read by clicking this link! Overall, this semester both of my classmates have done a great job and I really enjoyed reading their blogs.

      I still cannot believe this is my last blog of the semester I have loved writing each week and I hope you all have enjoyed reading it as well! If you would like to learn more about what American Cancer Society is doing each month or even weekly! Please visit their website!

Experimental Research!

            For this week’s Blog I wanted to talk about the concept of Experimental Research. Over this semester I have spoken about various research methods and types of research which you! can perform. Organizations throughout the United States use the tools of research to progress in their field; experimental research is one of those vital tools which they can perform.

            Experimental research is extremely important to the American Cancer Society, experimental research allows the organization and scientists to research cancer and create new innovative treatments. American Cancer Society is fighting back each and every day to find a cure for Cancer. On ACS’s website one can find multiple experimental research projects which they have performed and are currently performing over the years. One of the most interesting experimental research projects which ACS is currently discussing on their website is regarding breast cancer imaging.

ACS explains,

“Research in the field of breast imaging is continuing in order to

• Find more cancers even before they can be felt by the patient or her doctor
• Find even smaller cancers than those now detected by mammograms
• Find better ways to tell the difference between benign (not cancer) breast conditions and breast cancers”

This experimental research can be a huge step in the medical world for cancer and save thousands of lives and help celebrate more birthdays!

            Through research ACS has been studying the different forms of nuclear medicine. According to ACS, nuclear medicine “... (Also called nuclear scans) inject small amounts of slightly radioactive substances into the body and use special cameras to see where they go. Depending on the substance used, different types of abnormalities may be found. Unlike most other imaging tests that are based on changes tumors cause in the body's structure, nuclear medicine scans depend on changes in tissue metabolism.” Scintimammography (molecular breast imaging), Tomosynthesis (3-D mammography), Electrical impedance imaging (T-scan), Thermography (thermal imaging), Optical imaging are the types of experimental testing for research which American Cancer Society has been performing. Other experimental research is being done during this time for breast cancer imaging research.

If you would like to read more about these experimental research methods please visit this Link! ACS describes each nuclear medicine examples I have listed.

Survey Research!

For this week’s blog I will be focusing on the survey research method! And how the American Cancer Society uses this method to help improve their organization and help fight the battle against cancer! According to our textbook Advertising and Public Relations Research by, Donald W. Jugenheimer, Samuel D. Bradley, Larry D. Kelly, and Jerry C. Hudson a Survey is:

Survey:  

·         Is one of the most popular methods for collecting quantitative research for a topic

·         Surveys are commonly used by advertising and PR researches to provide information about populations to clients, government agencies, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and educators

·         The term “Survey” is used to describe methods of asking questions to respondents

o   Surveys are divided into two broad areas: questionnaires and interviews

o   The survey can range from 5-100 questions

·         Surveys can be  classified as cross-sectional or longitudinal

·         Survey is a vital tool for collecting data over a large population.

o   Due to technology and software, some forms of survey research by telephone or electronic methods may be automated with a pre-recorded messages, instructions and questions.

·         Surveys are customized to fit a specific research goal. Each question is developed to solicit information to expand knowledge about a particular issue.

·         The more specific you are in developing your goals, the easier it will be to collect quality data

·         Survey information and data are collected using standardized procedures for each question and project.

·         Each questionnaire must be pretested to confirm the accuracy of the question formatting

·         Researchers should protect the anonymity of respondents, and individually respondents should never be identified.

·         Reports of the data should be presented in such forms as numbers, percentages, and statistical tables and charts.

This made me think how the American Cancer Society uses the research method of Surveys to help their organization.  I went to ACS's website and found that they do a survey for every single cancer prevention study. This Link will show you all of the surveys which they have conducted for the different cancers.  For this research I found it very interesting to see the variety of surveys which the American Cancer Society has conducted over the years. This shows how the survey research method is a great tool for their organization.

November 1 Marks the start of Lung Cancer Awareness Month! Please visit American Cancer Society’s website and read about events such as The Great American Smokeout and facts and figures regarding Lung cancer in general.

Classmate's Blogs!

   For this week’s blog we needed to focus on two classmate’s blogs. I have been following two of my classmate’s blog for the previous posts and I wanted to try and find two new blogs which I have not read before and see what they have been focusing on this semester. I came across Lisa’s Blog, which focuses on the topic of entertainment. Lisa has been relating the world of entertainment to our discussion in class, as well as our textbook. One concept of Lisa’s blog which I found interesting was how she discussed the aspect of videotaping in regards to ethics and reality TV. Reality TV has been a phenomenon in the entertainment industry and Jersey Shore has become an obsession for many over the past two years. Lisa discusses in her blog how an incident was caught on videotape of a man punching Snooki in the face at a bar; however, even though he was caught on tape he did not give permission to MTV to air the footage. One other example which I found interesting from Lisa’s blog was how she related unobtrusive research to Lindsay Lohan’s situation. She discussed how paparazzi conducts unobtrusive research to find out the information they want to put into the media regarding Lindsay.  

 In Lisa’s most recent blog post she discussed Qualitative research and her presentation where she discussed ethnographic research methods. I found her presentation in class to be very interesting especially the part where she discussed the MTV documentary World of Jenks. I watch World of Jenks each week and I find it to be a great show to see other sides of people and how they are living their lives; it truly is a breath of fresh air from all of these reality shows like Jersey Shore.

For my second classmate, I really enjoyed reading Vanessa’s blog; PR in France. I was very interested in reading her blog because I recently studied abroad in Italy and traveled to France, so I  was very interested to see how France viewed Public Relations. My favorite post which Vanessa wrote was regarding the Louvre Focus Group.  The Louvre Focus Group is a facility where people can go to host their qualitative research in Paris. She posted the website  which I found extremely interesting, I had no idea that places like this existed! Vanessa also provided a link where you can take a virtual tour of the facility which is fascinating to see, you should really take a look! 

Qualitative Research

            For this week’s blog I will be focusing on Qualitative Research and how organizations depend on qualitative research. For example, “Qualitative research tries to describe things, such as meanings that people attribute to certain terms and derive from certain messages and media.” Qualitative research attempts, “to delve into concepts, ideas definitions, characteristics, meaning, and symbols.”

        The month of October is coming to an end, and what many fail to realize is that this month is of great importance to the American Cancer Society. This month is Breast Cancer Awareness month; according to their website, The American Cancer Society invests more in Breast Cancer research than in any other cancer type. "Society-funded research has led to the discovery of lifesaving breast cancer treatments, including Tamoxifen and Herceptin.” This made me wonder what other organizations are doing in terms of research specifically, qualitative research. I found a study completed by Wisconsin Women’s Health Foundation, Inc. They received a grant from Susan G. Komen Foundation. During their project, they used the qualitative method of focus group. A focus group is “a small number of persons, respondents and moderators, in the same room.” Focus groups are used to uncover opinions, experiences with a product or service, or with a generic category.  For example,

“Between August 2001 and August 2002, the WWHF conducted five focus groups to establish barriers encountered by women in Dane County during diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Four of these focus groups included women who had received diagnosis of and/or treatment for breast cancer from healthcare providers in Dane County. The remaining focus group was composed of men serving as caregivers for women receiving breast cancer care in Dane County. Focus group participants were stratified by insurance status to assess the presence of insurance-based differences in treatment. Results in this report are provided specific to each insurance status focus group but aggregate results representing common themes elicited from all groups will be reported when appropriate.

Through their research their main objectives were to find out and “report common barriers to care encountered by women in the four focus groups and to establish their collective voice regarding the improvement of breast cancer care in Dane County.” What I found very interesting was how for their focus groups, WWHF “employed a third-party moderator to direct the discussion during each 2-hour session. Each group consisted of five (5) to eleven (11) women of the same insurance status." Overall, WWHF is a prime example of how qualitative research is used within an organization. If you would like to read more into their focus groups and project please visit this website.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk!! is this Sunday October 24!!, in New Haven, CT! Hope to see some of you there! If you would like more information please visit this website.

My Comments on Two Classmate's Blogs

For this week’s blog I will be focusing on two of my classmate’s blogs. I immediately thought for this blog that I wanted to see how my classmate Sacha’s blog was progressing due to the similarities of our blogs. Sacha has been focusing on nonprofit public relations this semester for her blog. In Sacha’s last post she focused on how donations are a main component for nonprofit public relations. Through my research and personal experience with American Cancer Society, I have been able to see the importance of donations to a nonprofit organization. Through unobtrusive research Sacha explained how it can be a vital tool for an organization. For example, Sacha stated “By analyzing past records of people and corporations who donated over a period of years, researchers could see who stable donors are. If the same people have donated the past 5 years it is likely that they will continue to donate.  It is very important to see who is an annual donor because it saves 20% of money that it would cost to find new members.” Sacha provided viewers with an article that explains the importance of donations and how one can increase donations within their organization. The article explains various ways of getting charitable donors for your organization. American Cancer Society relies on their donations, and making sure their donors understand fully where their donations are going and how they are helping others is of great importance.

            For the second blog I have chosen the blog written by Meghan Parmentier, Meg’s Munchies. I really was interested when I saw the title and wanted to find out more. In Meg’s most recent blog she discussed unobtrusive research methods as well. One aspect which I found extremely interesting was the article regarding a restaurant in the Netherlands in 2007. Meg explains in her blog how this restaurant was “equipped with several unobtrusive cameras to monitor their diners' eating habits and meal preferences.  The cameras were aimed to find out what the customer preferred in color, noise, smell, food preparation, packaging, taste and even light stimulus.” I found this form of unobtrusive research to be extremely risky but rewarding. It will allow the restaurant to monitor the clients and see their reactions to certain things such as wait staff, food and much more. The kitchen staff was also monitored during this research to see how they were working behind the scenes. One aspect of this research which Meg mentioned was how they signed a consent form. When I read this I automatically thought that it could have changed they way the clients reacted in the restaurant. Here is the article if you would like to find out more about this research performed in this restaurant.

            Overall, I feel that both of my classmates are doing a great job with their blogs and I look forward to seeing what they will be writing about for the rest of the semester. If you would like to get involved or donate to the American Cancer Society please visit this website!

Unobtrusive Research

For this week’s blog I would like to focus on the aspect of Cancer Awareness and Unobtrusive Research. The month of October represents Breast Cancer Awareness across our nation.  Thousands of women and men are affected by this disease each and every year. The American Cancer Society each year conducts research to find out how many people have been affected by each type of cancer. By using an unobtrusive research method known as secondary research I will analyze the data which the American Cancer Society provides. Through my research I read the American Cancer Society’s Facts and Figures of 2010. I found out through the research that a total of 209,060 people are affected by Breast Cancer in 2010. Out of the 209,060 a total of 1,970 men have been affected by breast cancer. An estimated 40,230 deaths in 2010 are due to breast cancer. If you would like to read more about statistics on specific cancer’s here is the Cancer Facts and Figures

 The amount of people diagnosed with breast cancer each year I found truly shocking. I wanted to provide everyone some information regarding ways to donate and get involved with the fight against breast cancer. Each year American Cancer Society holds their Annual Making Strides for Breast Cancer Walk. One question which everyone should ask is What can you do about Breast Cancer? American Cancer Society provides information regarding early detection, donations, and events for Breast Cancer located on their Website. 

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is an event of true inspiration, it is an event where many families, friends, and individuals affected by Breast Cancer come together and fight back. According to the American Cancer Society’s website “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is a non-competitive walking event that takes place in communities across the United States every year. Since 1993, nearly six million walkers have raised more than $400 million. In 2009 alone, nearly 700,000 walkers across the country collected $60 million to save lives from breast cancer.” This event is truly remarkable and I encourage everyone to get involved. There will be a Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in New Haven CT on October 24.  Here is the official Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Website if you would like to find an event near you or would like some more information.