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PRSA APR Exam Practice Questions – COMPLETE SOLUTION
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You are responsible for an internal employee newsletter. A freelance photographer provides several photos you intend to use in the next issue. Your supervisor quickly reviews and approves the newsletter before leaving for an extended vacation. You are nearing your deadline and in final preparation of the files, you notice fine print copyright information by the photographer in the corner of the images. Which one of the following is the best course of action? A) This is work for hire so you can follow the directive of your supervisor and proceed with publication of the newsletter. B) Contact the freelance photographer directly to get verbal approval for publication. C) Coordinate with your legal counsel to review the contract terms before taking further action. D) Include the copyright information from the photographer in the photo caption and proceed with publication of the newsletter. - ✔✔C) Coordinate with your legal counsel to review the contract terms before proceeding with publication. (EPR 10th, pgs 157-158 and PR: S&T 10th, pgs 302-303) You are the public relations manager at a automotive manufacturer, reporting to the company president. Your company is about to announce an expansion, which will be a major economic boost for the community, at a press conference. Your boss would like to share some additional details about the acquisition "off the record" with several community partners following the press conference at a VIP event, which some media may attend. What counsel would you offer your boss?
- We trust our partners and this will improve our community relations
- It is acceptable to share these details if we inform the audience that what we share is off the record
- It is acceptable to share these details if reporters do not attend the event
- You should never share things off the record unless you really want it t get out - ✔✔4. You should never share things off the record unless you really want it t get out
(EPR p.231) Which of the following two statements are correct in order for you to use these photos in ads? A. The company hired and paid the photographer for the professional event photos and owns them for future use. B. These photos can only be used if the photographer has provided written permission to reproduce the event photos beyond the original purpose of an internal newsletter. C.The employees and family members photographed must have a signed consent release to have their photos used in an ad for the company. D. Company employees are not required to sign releases, but their family members would need to have signed releases to be used in the ads - ✔✔B. These photos can only be used if the photographer has provided written permission to reproduce the event photos beyond the original purpose of an internal newsletter. C.The employees and family members photographed must have a signed consent release to have their photos used in an ad for the company. Reference: Public Relations Strategies and Tactics (10th ed): Page 298: Photo Releases and Page 302: Photography and Artwork. As the internal communications officer of a large corporation, You've discovered numerous unofficial newsletters being published and emailed to 3,000 employees without your knowledge. On further investigation you discover in each newsletter a national ad appeared with the copyright symbol listed, but with digital modifications made to each ad changing the color and size. What three significant copyright laws were violated here? A. Downloading materials from the Internet, Fair Use, and Statutory Copyright B. Product Publicity, Photography & Artwork, Copyright Act D. Common law copyright, Fair Use Doctrine, and Infringement
a is unethical, b is plagiarism. Your new employee forgot to get an intern to sign a release form for her photo for the annual report. He also secretly recorded a phone conversation with a client that he was afraid would turn confrontational. As you debate whether to keep this employee in your agency, you have him write an essay on which of the following torts? Choose 2. A) Public disclosure B) False Light C) Intrusion D) Appropriation - ✔✔Correct answer - C & D. Secretly recording a conversation is a violation of intrusion and using a person's image or name without their permission is Appropriation. a is embarrassing facts or pictures that come out in public and B is when a truthful statement is out of context and puts a person or organization in a misleading context. Your public relations department wants to share a magazine article from another nonprofit organization with your members. For which of the following scenarios would you need to obtain permission from the copyright owner to share the article? (Choose 3.) A) If you email the article to the members of your organization B) If you send the members of your organization a link to the article on the other organization's website C) If you distribute the article to the members of your organization at its annual meeting D) If you reprint the article in your organization's newsletter - ✔✔A, C, D [From Cutlip & Center's Effective Public Relations, 11th ed., p. 140] While looking for material for the next round of commercials, a campaign staffer hands you a transcript containing unflattering information about the opponent and illicit affairs he's had with several women other than his wife. The staffer said that this information was overheard by a former staffer of the
opponent while at a local bar. Which would be the most ethical choice in this situation for handing the information you were given?
- You can use the information because there is no reasonable expectation of privacy at a bar.
- You can not use the information since the former staffer did not give express permission to use what he said.
- The information is fair game since it was gathered during the bar's normal business hours.
- You can not use the information since you aren't sure if the source had a confidentiality agreement while as an employee of the opponent. - ✔✔Answer: 4 Reasoning: Similar to "tortuous interference" liability claim by tobacco industry v. CBS for using information based on a source who was party to a standard confidentiality agreement as an employee of the tobacco industry. Source: AP Stylebook 2012, Briefing on Media Law, p. 333. As the public relations director for your company one of the functions of your office is to take photos at official company events. For this particular event your company hires a photographer outside of the company to take photos. One of the employees emails you and asks for copies of a few of the photos. What is the best response to provide to the employee? A. I will provide you the photos after I provide them for legal review. B. The organization owns an employee's work done on behalf of the organization. C. The photographs can be found on the company's website and you can select the photos you would like to use. D. The photos that the company owns the copyrights that will be placed on the company's website once they are approved by the legal office. - ✔✔Correct Answer D Reference: APR Study Guide Edition 5, page. 106 You are the manager of a public relations department for a nonprofit organization. Your department director has asked you to help with selecting a summer intern. She says she would prefer that the intern will not be paid and receive college credit for the internship instead. You are unsure about the terms of this agreement. Specifically, you are concerned about whether it is ethical to offer the internship as an unpaid position. What is your next step in deciding how you will advise the department director?
According to EPR 10th Edition pg. 150 The Federal FOIA indicates nine categories of exemptions from disclosure one being "medical". Note, state laws are similar to that of federal statutes, but the extent varies considerably. Public relation practitioners should familiarize themselves with state access laws. Over the past three days, you've five phone calls and 10 emails from this customer, who is sharing graphic photos and stories about his discomfort and unrest. You have alerted the leader of your customer support team, who has conveyed that they are very familiar with this customer and have done "everything they can" to resolve his concerns, However, the customer stands firm that he does not want a new fitting but instead a full refund. Your policies prohibit a complete refund outside of 30 days of purchase.What is the appropriate response to this customer's most recent communication to you? A) Respond to the customer directly to let them know that you have been in touch with your customer support team and understand that they can issue a new fitting but cannot provide a refund. B) Escalate the customer's issue to the senior leader of operations and legal counsel for review and ask them to consider issuing the refund despite company policy. C) Acknowledge the customer support team has done what they can for the customer and disregard any further emails or calls from the customer. D) Contact the reporter you frequently work with at Channel 6 to provide background on this customer's issue, asking them to provide you advance notice if the customer reaches out. - ✔✔Answer: B Rationale:
- Define the specific ethical issue/conflict. Company policies are prohibiting a customer from receiving a full refund on a product they purchased. The customer has threatened to escalate the issue to the media if they do not receive the refund, which could become a reputation issue for your company despite the company's policies.
- Identify internal/external factors (e.g., legal, political, social, economic) that may influence the decision. Social and political factors influence the decision here as the community is sensitive to / protective of the treatment of war veterans.
- Identify key values. ADVOCACY (understanding the sensitive nature of your customer's background and their service field), FAIRNESS (to company policies and to customers), LOYALTY (to company, customers)
- Identify the parties who will be affected by the decision and define the public relations professional's obligation to each. COMPANY - Your loyalty must remain to the company that you work for. You are looking out for the reputation of your company and do not want this incident to negatively affect its reputation. CUSTOMER - The customer deserves fair and honest communication and support from your company and you are seeking that support on their behalf. You must, however, separate yourself from developing an intimate relationship with the customer; it's not your role to act on the company's behalf in providing solutions directly for them but to instead act as their advocate. STAKEHOLDERS - Your obligation to the stakeholders is looking out for the best interest in their investment to the company, which may be threatened if the company's reputation is at stake. EMPLOYEES - Your employees will be your company's greatest advocates if policies and procedures are communicated in a transparent and consistent way.
- Select ethical principles to guide the decision-making process. Free flow of information, Enhancing the profession.
- Make a decision and justify it. After weighing the immediate threats to your reputation and the persistent nature of this customer, you ask the senior leadership team to reconsider the company's refund policy and make an exception to avoid negative media attention and an upset to the community and customer base. You are the public relations manager at an active adult community reporting to the community's developer. The community is about to announce an expansion, which shows growth, and is intended to drive awareness of available lots. Your VP would like to share this news via the company's blog and Facebook page. What are the benefits of using these information channels?
and community members to attend; and send informational materials to your local state legislators. These efforts are examples of which communication theory or model (choose one). A. Diffusion of Innovations Theory B. Agenda Setting Theory C. Shannon-Weaver Model - ✔✔Answer: B - Agenda Setting Theory - Source: APR Study Guide (page 26) - The agenda setting process is a very fluid, dynamic attempt to get the attention of the media, the public, and/or policy makers. The agenda is a "set of issues" that in order for them to become effective and part of the process, must be communicated. Reply You work for a major multinational corporation which has just implemented a new salary and bonus administration program. The director of compensation calls you into his office and lets you know that the calculations allow management to receive a bonus but based on the formula, the manufacturing employees did not earn a bonus. He wants you to put a "spin" on this scenario for the communications plan. The scenario best demonstrates which ethical principles of public relations practices. Choose two. A. Avoid conflicts of interest. B. Do not damage the reputation of others. C. Use honesty and integrity as your guide. D. Ensure accuracy and truth. E. Deal fairly with all publics. - ✔✔ANSWERS: C and D.
Rationale and Source: APR Study Guide Ethics and Law Common Ethical Principles of Public Relations Practice, page 20 and 21. The two best are C and D. A and B pertain more to agency relationships. E is a possibility. However C and D , particularly not to disseminate false and misleading information takes a higher priority. An employee in the sales department has turned in her two week notice, and one month later, your supervisor calls you in to discuss a negative posting on a company review site that she believes was the former employee.Your supervisor accuses this former employee and would like to explore the option of pressing charges for defamation of character. Your supervisor asks you to confirm that the former employee made these same negative statements in her exit interview.Which one of the following is the best course of action? A. Contact the former employee and inform her that the company is looking into a defamation case. B. Provide your supervisor with the exit questionnaire filled out by the former employee at the exit interview. C. Share your personal reactions to the exit interview. D. Discuss previous conversations other employes have had with the former employee. - ✔✔Correct Answer: B You have been tasked to put together a web page containing op-eds pertaining to your organization's mission that members might be interested in. Which of the following do you not have to seek copyright permission for: a. Publish the entire article on the web b. Publish excerpt of the article on the web
e. Consent - ✔✔Correct answer: e Citation: Cutlip and Center's Effective Public Relations. 10th ed. Chapter 6. On your first day on the job, you learn that one of the company's servers has been hacked and client information has been compromised. Information has been leaked to the press about the security breach and reporters are calling. The CEO asks for your counsel. He also wants you to limit the amount of information given to key publics as a "security" precaution. You immediately identify the ethical dilemma and work on gathering data to justify your decision regarding the best course of action. What is your next step? Choose one option below. a) Work with internal departments to compile a contact list of key publics. b) Meet with the company's designated spokesperson to coordinate media interviews. c) Review company policies and SEC regulations to influence your decision. d) Identify key values and ethical principles to support your recommendation. - ✔✔Answer is c. Reference: APR study guide pg 21-22. Example of the ethical decision-making process. You represent a large pharmaceutical company. Your client asks you to develop a public relations campaign for a new drug that will be released soon. What is your first step? a) start planning an official launch party b) research the industry and similar products in the market c) hold a focus group to review and offer feedback on messaging options d) call a member of the media to offer them an exclusive on the story - ✔✔Correct Answer: B
http://www.praccreditation.org/aprdemo/htmldemo/item_12_ans.htm You were recently hired by AARP in Baltimore, MD. Your first project is to convince city government to increase the discount qualified seniors can receive on their quarterly water, stormwater and sewer bills from 35% to 50%. The incentive you have to offer to city government is a list of guaranteed water suppliers that will make the discount possible. Which of the following does AARP not have to do on your behalf? A. Report contact info for anyone who contributes $10,000 or more in six-month period for this project B. Report the water suppliers' contact info to Congress C. File financial reports twice a year for this project D. Register you as a public relations practitioner under the Foreign Agents Act of 1938 - ✔✔The answer is D based on the requirements of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 listed on p. 153 in Cutlip & Center's Effective Public Relations, 10th Edition. XYZ Corporation just received a painting created in 1913, with significant history and monetary value, from an art dealer on loan from the artist's estate. The painting has not been copyrighted, but a photo of the painting was published in Life Magazine, March 1916. You have decided the same photo of the painting will serve as the visual centerpiece for the community art initiative public relations campaign. What best states that you are able to use the photo of the painting as your visual centerpiece for the community art initiative public relations campaign without violating copyright permission? (Choose one.) A. The painting was never copyrighted. B. The photo appeared in the Life Magazine more than 75 years ago. C. The photographer who supplied the photo is unknown. D. The artist created the piece before 1990. - ✔✔Answer B. - EPR - Chapter 6, page 157 - 158 The photo is now in the public domain in that it was first published in 1916 by Life Magazine, which is a copyrighted magazine, for which the issue's copyright has expired according to the 1909 Copyright Act.
One of your team members writes a humorous email describing the meeting and portrays the woman as hysterical, ignorant and obviously "off her medication." By the time you see the email, it has been accidentally sent outside the company. In hours, it's posted to the neighborhood's forum, where it sets off a firestorm of negative comments. The woman, who turns out to be a lawyer, calls to say she's suing for libel. Your boss calls you into his office and asks: is this libel and what do we do?
- No. Libel is a defamation that is published in the media. We need to apologize to the woman, but let it lie. This will blow over.
- It's not libel. It has been published, but it is opinion which courts have specifically protected by the First Amendment. You need to call the woman to apologize personally, reassign the writer to another project, and I'll write an apology to post on their forum.
- No. It's not libel because the woman thrust herself into a public debate making what he wrote fair comment. It was an internal document, and we're not responsible for it being published on the forum. We need to apologize and hold another meeting with the neighborhood to smooth things over.
- Yes. It's libel. She was a private individual held up to ridicule out of malice, not negligence. We should offer an immediate apology as a type of retraction. - ✔✔The best answer is 2. Rational: Effective Public Relations: Page 162. "In all libel actions, the defendant has a number of legal defenses available to counter a libel lawsuit. Opinion defenses: the definition of libel is that there be a false statement of fact. Traditionally, courts protected opinion from successful libel lawsuits because the punishment of opinion involves the punishment of ideas, and this is at the heart of the First Amendment protection for speech and press freedom. You start a Facebook page for a hospital birthing center. Several people "Like" your page and start posting comments about wonderful experiences they have had in your birthing center. You share them with your VP of Women's and Children's Services, who immediately says she wants to use those comments as testimonials on the hospital website. a) You contact each of the people who posted positive comments and ask for their written permission to use their comments on the hospital website. b) You use the comments on the hospital website, but leave out the names of those who posted them to protect patient information and privacy. c) You post a request on the hospital Facebook page, thanking people for their support and asking them to send you their comments for the hospital website. d) You do not post the comments, but you do link to them from the hospital website. - ✔✔Answer: C. The power of social media is the honest sharing of good and bad experiences. Asking permission to
reuse a comment for marketing purposes, when that comment was posted out of good will, is not as ethical as soliciting fans to submit comments and letting them know specifically how you will use them. As the public affairs officer for a military installation, you must be fully informed about both state and federal open access legislation. If you are searching for information and meeting notes from a government agency meeting, you would use which of the following to obtain access to those records: A) Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 B) Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946 C) Freedom of Information Act of 1966 D) 1996 Electronic Freedom of Information Act - ✔✔Answer: C. Freedom of Information Act of 1966 from Cutlip & Center's Effective Public Relations, Tenth Edition, p. 150 You are the marketing director for an independent nonprofit hospital in a competitive market. Your new supervisor, vice president of marketing, at a department meeting, requests that your staff start writing anonymous posts bashing a competitor in a local newspaper's popular "Talk of the Town" daily column. You: A) Figure she must know what she's doing and let your staff proceed. B) State your opposition to her privately and see where the chips fall. C) Report her request to your legal department for review. D) Refuse to partake but suggest appropriate actions that don't deceive stakeholders. - ✔✔Answer: d Reasoning: Honesty and integrity need to be your guide to act in the public interest. You also want to maintain ethical relationships with the media and maintain the credibility of your organization which would be tainted if people knew who wrote these anonymous comments. (General principles underlying public relations practice) You have been informed by your boss that the government organization you work for is going to hold an off-site meeting and team-building activity. The meeting will start at 2 and end at 4, which is the normal office closing time for the organization. When you ask, you are told the team-building exercise is
You receive call from a reporter about a new hotel opening, what should you do when talking to the press?
- Talk about how it benefits the organization and not the public
- Argue about the design of the hotel
- Respond with direct answers if the reporter asks direct questions
- Respond to a question even if you don't have the right answer - ✔✔Answer: 3 Effective Public Relations / page 259 Chapter 10 You are the vice president of corporate communications for a Fortune 500 company that is within a day of announcing plans to divest and then merge its distribution facilities into a newly formed entity. In reviewing your packet of internal and external communications for tomorrow's announcement, your CEO is suggesting that you share this good news with a local business reporter to help spark interest and excitement among potential investors and community leaders. Which of the following steps should you take? A. Remind the CEO that American Stock Exchange disclosure policies require simultaneous release of investment-oriented announcements. B. Caution that a premature public announcement defies the company's shared value to inform employees of organizational developments first. C. Voice concerns that favoritism to a single reporter over others will damage important relationships with national and regional media. D. Recognize the benefits of the early announcement and promptly contact the reporter with the exciting news. - ✔✔Answer: A
Rationale: According to Cutlip's Effective Public Relations, page 156, announcements of material information must be shared at the same time with national business and financial news wire services, the national news wire services, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Moody's Investors Services and Standard & Poor's Corporation. This is done in compliance with federal legislation (Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) and Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange rules all aimed at increasing transparency and eliminating unfair advantage in compensation or stock trading. Your supervisor provided you the presentation materials and in preparation for the first workshop you conduct research to better position yourself for responding to questions. As part of this research, you discover that several statements in the presentation are misleading and promote changes to the home that are not energy efficient upgrades and even recommend a specific contractor to complete this work. Is it ethical to present the workshop information as provided by your supervisor? (select 2) a. Yes, If you present this information you are acting in the public interest. b. No, If you present this information you are not using honesty and integrity as your guide. c.Yes, loyalty to your employer and management comes before other obligations. d. No, If you present this information you are not avoiding a potential conflict of interest. - ✔✔Correct answer: B & D Rationale: "The application of ethics to the practice of public relations is critical to our profession" Common Ethical Principles of Public Relations Practice Act in the public interest. Find the greater good for the majority of the people. Use honesty and integrity as your guide. Ensure accuracy and truth. Do not disseminate false and misleading information. Avoid conflicts of interest. Disclose interests of yourself and others.
