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Who knew graduate school would be so much work, leaving precious little time for blogging?  I am buried in reading but delivering this post on a topic that may seem obvious but is not taken seriously enough by students of public relations.

Today’s Sugar:  Know your media outlets!  In my Contemporary PR class, the professor asked us to name publications that we would use to target a luxury lifestyle product.  I was surprised that not enough people were contributing to the list of publications.  I couldn’t think of as many publications off the top of my head as I should have.  If I were in the office, I would have resorted to Googling.  Our professors require that we read the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Boston Globe, but we should also have a working knowledge of the myriad publications available to niche consumers.  I vow to take 10 minutes today to browse the local bookstore’s magazine racks.

Variation

I forgot how tiring it can be to move, especially when that move includes driving 3,000 miles in 7 days.  I am finally (somewhat) moved into my new home in Boston and have attended my first class at Boston University.

Throughout this semester I will mention the four classes I am currently taking: Writing for Media Professionals, Communication Research, Contemporary PR, and Financial and Strategic Management.  Today was my first day in my Communication Research class and in addition to introductions and choosing group members for an extensive semester-long project, we learned about variation.

Today’s Sugar: Our professor mentioned the word “variation” which will come to mean many things during the semester.  Perhaps I will mention some of these varying definitions in weeks to come.  For now, we are defining variation as the “diversity that exists in various aspects of life”.  The professor used the example of our class as a group.  We are a relatively homogenous group (we all have an undergraduate degree, are similar in age, have the same relative level of comfort with technology), and yet the pre-existing information in the minds of each of us as individuals is non-homogenous.  In the next few weeks I hope to learn more about how to identify variation in homogenous groups and use it as an advantage rather than a hurdle as I form and tailor messages.

P.S.  Speaking of variation, I took loads of photos and videos from the road as the terrain changed from desert in the Southwest to cornfields in the central time zone to undulating greenery in Pennsylvania.  The photo above is a snapshot from the road after a thunderstorm.