APR cheat sheet

PRSA Code of Ethics core values are advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty, and fairness; the six provisions cover free flow of information, competition, disclosure of information, safeguarding confidences, conflicts of interest, and enhancing the profession.

Defamation elements: a false statement of fact, publication to a third party, identification of the plaintiff, fault, and harm; public officials and public figures must prove actual malice-knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth.

FTC Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255): material connections such as payment, free products, employment, or affiliate links must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously in the same medium as the endorsement.

Copyright fair use uses four factors: purpose and character of the use, nature of the copyrighted work, amount used, and effect on the market; transformative use weighs heavily but is not automatically decisive.

SEC Regulation FD: when an issuer intentionally discloses material nonpublic information to securities professionals or holders, it must disclose publicly simultaneously; unintentional disclosure requires prompt public disclosure.

GDPR: processing needs a lawful basis; data subjects have rights to access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection; a controller must notify the supervisory authority of a risky personal data breach within 72 hours of awareness.

NLRA Section 7 protects employees' rights to engage in concerted activity, including discussing wages and working conditions; employer social media policies cannot unlawfully chill those rights.

Conflict-of-interest rule: disclose any actual or potential conflict to the client or employer and recuse from decisions where impartiality is compromised; undisclosed financial interests in vendors or media are prohibited.

Ethics decision tests include the publicity test (would disclosure embarrass the decision?), reversibility (would you accept the same action toward you?), stakeholder analysis (who is harmed or benefited?), and the Potter Box (facts, values, principles, loyalties).

Formative research is conducted before planning to define audiences, messages, channels, and baselines; summative research is conducted during or after implementation to evaluate outputs, outtakes, outcomes, and impact.

Primary research is collected for the current problem; secondary research uses existing data such as census records, industry reports, media archives, or prior surveys, and must be checked for currency, method, and bias.

Probability sampling methods-simple random, systematic, stratified, and cluster-give every population member a known, nonzero chance of selection and support statistical generalization.

Nonprobability methods-convenience, purposive, quota, and snowball-are useful for exploration and hard-to-reach groups but do not support formal generalization to a population.

Margin of error at 95% confidence: MOE = 1.96 × √(p(1−p)/n); the worst case is p = 0.5, and n ≈ 384 yields about ±5 percentage points for a large population.

Reliability is consistency across repeated measurements; validity is whether the instrument measures the intended construct. Pretesting, clear definitions, and triangulation improve both.

Qualitative methods include focus groups of roughly 6–10 participants, in-depth interviews, observation, and content analysis; focus groups reveal language and perceptions but are not projectable.

Content analysis requires a codebook with explicit category definitions, trained coders, a sample, and an intercoder reliability coefficient such as Krippendorff's alpha or Cohen's kappa.

Research ethics require informed consent, voluntary participation, confidentiality or anonymity as promised, secure data handling, and IRB or ethics review when human subjects are involved.

SWOT analysis separates internal strengths and weaknesses from external opportunities and threats; PESTLE adds macro scanning of political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors.

Stakeholder power–interest grid decision rule: high power/high interest = manage closely; high power/low interest = keep satisfied; low power/high interest = keep informed; low power/low interest = monitor.

Root cause analysis uses the 5 Whys or a fishbone diagram to trace symptoms to underlying causes across people, process, equipment, environment, materials, and management before selecting corrective action.

Descriptive statistics: the mean is sensitive to outliers, the median is robust, the mode is the most frequent value, and standard deviation measures dispersion around the mean.

Correlation does not establish causation; causal claims require temporal order, a plausible mechanism, and control or ruling out of confounders.

Share of voice = brand mentions ÷ total category mentions × 100; results are comparable only when the query, time period, source set, and mention-counting rules are held constant.

Key message penetration = items containing the message ÷ total relevant items; coding rules must specify whether partial, implied, or negative mentions count.

Automated sentiment analysis struggles with sarcasm, negation, idioms, and context; validate a random sample manually and report the error rate before using sentiment as a KPI.

Segmentation bases include demographic, psychographic, behavioral, geographic, and needs/benefit; a useful segment is measurable, accessible, substantial, differentiable, and actionable.

SMART objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound; they state the desired audience outcome, not the tactic or deliverable.

RPIE follows research, planning, implementation, and evaluation; RACE follows research, action, communication, and evaluation. Both place research before tactics and evaluation after implementation.

Outputs are what the program produces, such as releases or posts; outtakes are audience awareness, understanding, or recall; outcomes are changes in behavior, relationships, or reputation.

Barcelona Principles: advertising value equivalency (AVE) is not a valid measurement of media value; measurement should prioritize outcomes, use qualitative and quantitative methods, and be transparent, consistent, and valid.

Logic model chain: inputs → activities → outputs → outtakes → outcomes → impact; each link should have an indicator and a data source.

A pre/post survey with a control group strengthens attribution; random assignment is the strongest design, while a simple before-and-after comparison is vulnerable to history, maturation, and selection effects.

Budget line items typically include staff time, media buys, production, research, travel, vendor fees, and a contingency of roughly 5–10%; track actual versus planned spend and scope changes.

A Gantt chart displays tasks, durations, dependencies, milestones, and the critical path; the critical path is the longest dependent sequence and determines the minimum project duration.

ROI = (net benefit ÷ cost) × 100; the benefit must be monetary and reasonably attributable to the program, otherwise report cost-effectiveness or outcome metrics instead.

Inverted pyramid structure: lead with the most newsworthy facts-who, what, when, where, why-then add supporting detail in descending importance so editors can cut from the bottom.

Attribution rules: on the record = attributable; on background = information usable but source not named; off the record = not for publication; not for attribution requires negotiating the exact label before speaking.

An embargo is an agreement not to publish before a specified time in exchange for advance access; it is not a legal contract and should be explicitly accepted by each journalist.

A standard press release includes dateline, headline, subhead, lead paragraph, body, boilerplate, media contact, and an end mark such as ###.

A media kit typically contains a backgrounder, fact sheet, executive bios, high-resolution photos and logos, contact details, and selected prior coverage.

A message map has one umbrella message, about three supporting pillars, and proof points or examples for each pillar; it is used to prepare spokespeople and Q&A.

Bridging technique: acknowledge the question briefly, answer what can be answered, then transition to a key message with phrases such as 'What matters most is...'.

Native advertising and influencer posts must identify the paid relationship clearly and conspicuously; disguised ads and undisclosed material connections violate FTC standards.

Media monitoring should define the source set, time period, query, deduplication rules, sentiment coding, and message-penetration rules before counting reach, impressions, or share of voice.

Mission states purpose, vision states the desired future, values state guiding principles, and strategy states the choices about where to play and how to win.

Porter's Five Forces: rivalry among existing competitors, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, supplier bargaining power, and buyer bargaining power.

Business literacy: income statement = revenue − expenses = profit; balance sheet = assets = liabilities + equity; cash flow statement tracks operating, investing, and financing cash movements.

Reputation is an aggregate of stakeholder perceptions formed over time; measure it with stakeholder surveys and behavioral indicators rather than media volume alone.

ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance factors; materiality varies by industry and stakeholder, so the same ESG issue may be material for one sector and not another.

SEC Regulation FD requires that material nonpublic information selectively disclosed to securities professionals or holders be disclosed publicly simultaneously if intentional or promptly if inadvertent.

Stakeholder theory balances the interests of affected parties; shareholder primacy prioritizes shareholder value. Public relations strategy must align communication with the organization's stated governance model and legal duties.

Scenario planning identifies critical uncertainties, builds two to four plausible futures, and stress-tests strategy for robustness across those futures rather than forecasting one outcome.

KPI selection rule: each metric should tie to a business or communication objective, be actionable, be comparable over time, and have a defined data source; vanity metrics without decisions attached are excluded.

Issues management identifies, prioritizes, monitors, and responds to emerging public policy or stakeholder concerns before they escalate into crises; the issue lifecycle runs from emerging to current to crisis to dormant.

Coombs crisis types: victim crises involve low organizational responsibility, accidental crises moderate responsibility, and preventable crises high responsibility; response strategy should match perceived responsibility.

SCCT response strategies: deny (attack accuser, denial, scapegoat), diminish (excuse, justification), rebuild (apology, compensation), and bolster (ingratiation, victimage, reminder).

A holding statement acknowledges the situation, expresses concern for those affected, states that facts are being gathered, and promises updates without speculating.

Crisis team roles typically include a lead, spokesperson, legal counsel, operations, communications, HR, and IT; a decision log records time-stamped actions and approvals.

First-response principles: speed, accuracy, empathy, transparency, and corrective action; silence or speculation cedes the narrative to others.

A dark site is a prebuilt, unpublished crisis webpage with approved statements, contacts, and background; it is activated quickly to centralize verified information.

A tabletop exercise uses a scenario, timed injects, assigned roles, and an after-action report to test plans, decision rights, and spokesperson readiness.

Misinformation response: monitor, correct with accurate information, avoid repeating the false claim, use credible messengers, and evaluate whether correction reaches the affected audience.

Tuckman stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning; leadership should shift from direction to support to delegation as the team develops.

Situational leadership matches style to follower readiness: directing for low competence/high commitment, coaching for low-to-moderate competence, supporting for capable but variable commitment, and delegating for high competence/high commitment.

Transformational leadership inspires and changes through vision and intellectual stimulation; transactional leadership uses rewards, monitoring, and performance expectations; both may be appropriate.

Kotter's eight steps: create urgency, build a coalition, form a vision, communicate it, empower action, generate short-term wins, consolidate gains, and anchor changes in culture.

ADKAR diagnoses change readiness through awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement; resistance is located at the first missing element.

Thomas–Kilmann conflict modes are competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating; choice depends on stakes, relationship importance, time, and power.

BATNA is the best alternative to a negotiated agreement; a party's reservation point should be based on its BATNA, not on the opening offer.

Feedback rule: make it specific, timely, behavioral, and relevant; separate observed behavior from judgment and state the impact.

Delegation rule: assign the outcome and sufficient authority, define constraints and checkpoints, then avoid micromanagement; accountability remains with the delegator.