Public Relations of the Back Fish - Case Study Example

Public Relations Case Study of The Black Fish Name: Course: Institution: Date: Organizational overview The Back Fish is an international, European based organization whose mandate is to end illegal fishing in lakes and oceans around the world. The organization's approach involves gathering the benefits of the modern technology and interested parties into the development of strategies on how to protect oceans by enforcing environmental regulations. The organization is currently running about 28 projects in 12 countries within Europe. In terms of the workforce, The Black Fish is managed by a team of 30 international employees, hundreds of volunteers and support from different regions across the world. To ensure that it is successful in the realization of its mandate, the Black Fish through its citizen-led initiative puts ordinary citizens in charge of monitoring and reporting on illegal fishing within their communities. This has enabled the organization to influence a large scale of independent monitoring of fishing grounds in Europe. Through its Citizen Inspector Network, the organization has been able to train its volunteers to ensure that they possess adequate skills that enable them to be active in activities such as port inspection and coastal patrols. This is considered as an essential strategy aimed at eradicating illegal fishing activities. In addition, The Black fish also shares an affiliation with Wildlife Air service, which provides it with a platform of involving the aviation community with a platform of engaging in cost effective patrol flights within Europe. The organization’s Sea Ranger Services is also considered as an approach that enables direct cooperation between the organization and enforcement agencies, which engage in patrol activities aimed at tracking vessel involved in illegal fishing activities at sea. Situation analysis Internal factors Strengths A team of qualified international employees drawn from diverse backgrounds manages the Black Fish. In addition, the organization also attracts qualified and talented team of volunteers and supporters from different countries across the world. This enables the organization to conduct its activities in a professional and effective manner. The Black Fish embraces technology as an integral aspect in the development of states aimed at protecting the oceans from overfishing. Technology enables the organization to ensure effective monitoring and patrol of the sea and coasts lines in the targeted regions. The ability of the organization to develop programs and partnerships aimed at improving the capacity of the organization and the employees facilitates effective of operationalization. The Black Fish is a citizen led organization considering that it empowers ordinary citizens by involving the m in monitoring and reporting of illegal fishing activities in their communities. This enables the local communities to own the mandate of the organization, which is critical in ensuring success of its programs Weaknesses The Black Fish largely focuses its activities in Europe. This limits the ability of the organization to ensure that the impact of the program is experienced in all regions affected by illegal fishing across the world. In the process of eradicating legal fishing at sea the organization has been ineffective in training and creating awareness among large scale fishing industries in the threat of illegal fishing to the ecosystem. The Black Fish lacks the capacity to arrest and prosecute individuals and organizations engaged in illegal fishing activities. This makes it relatively difficult for the organization to ensure that polices are implemented to tame illegal fishing. External factors Threats Lack of political goodwill by governments in different countries threatens the success of the organization in terms of its ability to engage these governments into the development of legislations targeting illegal fishing. Established fishing companies in different parts within Europe engage in corrupt practices aimed at luring the staff and volunteers of the Black Fish into neglecting their responsbility of eradicating illegal fishing. Technological innovations embraced by companies and individuals engaged in illegal fishing threatens the ability of the organization to engage ineffective monitoring and patrol of oceans and coastlines within Europe hence delaying successful implementation of organizational mandate. Opportunities The success of the Black Fish is dependent on its ability to improve on its popularity across different region in the world. This will improve on its capacity in terms of workface, which is essential in ensuring efficiency in monitoring reporting illegal fishing. The organization must embrace the latest technology to ensure that it surpasses the technological apparatus used by illegal fishing entities. This will ensure that the organization is updated and strategic in terms of implementing its mandate. The objective of the Black Fish is to protect the ocean ecosystem from destruction caused by illegal fishing. This presents an opportunity of partnerships with other organizations in charge of environmental conservation as a technique of improving on their ability to develop effective strategies aimed at eradicating illegal fishing. There is need for the organization to expand its citizen led programs to the fishing entities. This will provide a platform for these entities to understand the dangers of illegal fishing practices to the ecosystem. In addition, through its citizen led program it will be possible to empower ordinary citizens with essenatil knowledge and information necessary in reducing illegal fishing in different parts of the world. The Black Fish message strategy The Black Fish uses technology as an essential aspect of communication. This is because of the understanding that it is through technologies such as digital media that it is possible to sensitize a large population of concerned citizens with regard to embracing different initiatives aimed at eradicating illegal fishing. The Black Fish uses films in the communication of its strategy to targeted audience. The animated video communicates the existing situation in the fishing industry with regard to environmental destruction. The film is considered as an effective communication tool because it also provides the audience with essential information on the progress that different organizations targeting the eradication of illegal fishing have been able to implement. Furthermore, they also communicate the challenges that the organization faces from political and business entities in different regions on the world. Being a communication tool, aimed at expressing to the audience the relevance of the program, the message is also used in communicating the strategies that the Black Fish has been able to implement in the face of the challenges. According to the message, resilience, collaboration with different stakeholders and the development of polices provide a platform of the organization ensure successful implementation of the program. In the message, the Black Fish presents statistics on the reduction of the population of large fish in the oceans since 1950 when large-scale industrial fishing was introduced. In addition, it also provides information in the volume of sea life caught and discarded back to the sea as wastes. Other than providing statistics on the dangers of large-scale fishing, the message provides a future oriented approach towards understanding the dangers of large-scale fishing in the oceans. The message strategy of the organization also targets the audience with regard to their role in facilitating the objective of the organization. From the message, the audience is expected to learn something new and acquire additional information through the link provided by the organization. In addition, the message provides additional information on the best possible strategies that the audience can use as individuals or as partners with other organizations seeking to fulfill the same mandate. These include making donations towards the organization. This is because participating in marine activism is a costly activity that requires the financial and human resources to ensure successful implementation. The message strategy is considered as a campaign that will enhance on the ability of the organization through its workforce and volunteers to end illegal fishing in oceans. Implementation of the Black Fish message strategy The Black Fish message strategy developed in the form of a film can be considered as a public relations tool aimed at persuading the target audience to learn new information concerning the organization, to alter their emotions towards the objective of the organization with regard to ensuring they act in ways intended by the developers of the message. Persuasion and social influence were the strategies used in the implementation of the message stagey developed by the Black Fish. The Black Fish considered the use of technology as an essential platform in the implementation its message strategy. This is because the prevalence of the social networking sites and the availability of internet and Wi-Fi enabled mobile devices provide an easier way for majority of the population in Europe and in other regions around the world to access the intended information. The process of implementing the message strategy was in accordance with the diffusion theory. According to this school of thought, the process of making decision is dependent on five essential steps (Phillips & Philip 2009). The steps define the extent to which the targeted audience will understand the intended message and act in accordance with the intentions of the authors of the message (Al-Shohaib 2005). For The Black Fish, the fist step in the implementation process was the creation of awareness. This was facilitated by exposing the intended audience to the idea of ocean conservation through the eradication of illegal s and large-scale industrial fishing. The process of creating awareness was facilitated by the provision statistical data to the intended audience. For example in the information on the threat posed by illegal large-scale fishing, the Back Fish stats that about 90% of large fish pollution in the ocean has disappeared since 1950. In addition, the organization continues to create awareness by providing information that about 40% of marine life caught through large-scale fishing is discarded as wastes back to the sea hence causing more pollution. The process of creating awareness is also defined by projecting the future of the oceans by stating the possibility of having empty oceans by 2048 if illegal fishing practices are not mitigated. The second step was to arouse the interest of the audience. The audience regarded as entertaining and informative the use of film, as a tool of communication. This not only increased the likelihood that they will not only concentrate but also ensure that the organization was able to communicate the intended message (Heath 2010). The third step was evaluation, which requires the understanding of the audience that the idea presented by the Black Fish is useful. Black Fish is an organization that depends of the efforts of its employees, volunteers and partners to fulfill its objective. This means that through its citizen initiatives, it is able to present convincing information to the audience on the essence of their participation in reducing the effects of illegal fishing on the oceans. The fourth step in the implementation of the message strategy is trial. This involves the process of convincing the target audience to become part of the movement (Newsom et al 2013). For Black fish this was facilitated by the ability of the organization to provide the audience with information of the part the can play in joining the organization or donating towards the efforts of the organization. Adoption, according to the diffusion theory, is the last step of implementing a public relations strategy (Diggs-Brown 2013). Upon understanding the message presented, the audience has the responsbility of deciding the extent to which the information provided is relevant for adoption (Gregory 2010). Through the provision of links on how to access the website for additional information, the Black fish made it the audience discretion to decide their level of participation in the process of eradiation illegal fishing in the oceans and seas. Evaluating the success of the campaign The success of the media campaign developed by the Black Fish was based on the desire by the organization to ensure that the existing evidence collected is made available to the public as a strategy of providing relevant and updated information. This is encouraging more members of different communities in affected region to join in the process of eradicating illegal fishing practices. The success of the media campaign can also be based on the ability of organization to develop a film that persuades the target audiences towards aligning themselves with the mission of the Black Fish. The objective of using persuasion as an approach towards the realization of an objective is that it attempts to enhance the generation of some form of cognitive, affection or behavioral changes in the target audience (Caywood 2012). The process of persuasion also involves the act of social influence on the target audience to ensure that are intended changes to their thoughts and feelings about the phenomenon in question (Singleton 2013). The success of the media campaign was based on its ability to create awareness among the audience (Johnston & Sheehan 2014). The issue of illegal fishing practices in the ocean is considered as one of the major threat to the ecosystem. The provision of this information on the social networking sites provided the organization with a platform of boosting its popularity as a leader in advocating for the interests of the environment. Successful media campaigns are also considered as those with the ability of altering the attitudes of the target audience. This is because attitude involves the ability of individual to like or dislike an idea (Oliver 2010). The media campaign was successful in this quest considering that through statistical data it provided evidence of the dangers of the activities of large-scale fishing companies to the ecosystem. Statistical data was also considered as an essential approach towards the alteration of existing beliefs concerning the large-scale fishing. There are additional factors that influenced the persuasive public relations campaign to ensure that it was successful in the realization of the organization’s goals and objectives. The source of the message was considered as an essential aspect in communicating the objective of the organization (Diggs-Brown 2012). The Black Fish is considered an international organization that has gained its reputation through engaging in processes aimed at the environmental sustainability. The success of the campaign was also based on the Black Fish to develop a message that was relevant to the target audience with was generated through the incorporation of different aspect of communication that could appeal to the behavior thoughts and attitudes of the audience (Lymer et al 2015). By appealing to the emotional and the cognitive elements of the targeted audience, the message communicated the environmental threats resulting from uncontrolled illegal fishing. This was through public relations concepts of quality evidence, language intensity, and message sidedness in favor of the organization (Breakenridge 2012). Conclusion The Back Fish is an international organization whose mandate is to end illegal fishing in lakes and oceans around the world. The organization's approach involves gathering the benefits of the modern technology and interested parties into the development of strategies on how to protect oceans by enforcing environmental regulations. The success of the media campaign developed by the Black Fish was based on the desire by the organization to ensure that the existing evidence collected is made available to the public as a strategy of providing relevant and updated information on the dangers of illegal fishing to the ecosystem. Through persuasion and social influence Black fish developed a message appealing to the emotional and the cognitive elements of the targeted audience. References Al-Shohaib, Khalid Ali. 2005. Diffusion and adoption of the internet among public relations practitioners in Saudi Arabian organizations. Breakenridge, Deirdre. 2012. Social media and public relations: eight new practices for the PR professional. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: FT Press. Caywood, Clarke L. 2012. The handbook of strategic public relations and integrated communications. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Professional. Diggs-Brown, Barbara. 2013. The PR styleguide: formats for public relations practice. Boston, MA: Wadsworth. 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Online public relations a practical guide to developing an online strategy in the world of social media. London: Kogan Page. http://www.dawsonera.com/depp/reader/protected/external/AbstractView/S9780749457426. Singleton, Alex. 2013. The PR masterclass: how to develop a public relations strategy that works! http://site.ebrary.com/id/10814690. http://theblackfish.org/about/approach/ http://theblackfish.org/film/ Read More