Environmental Scanning

Environmental Scanning

Environmental scanning is about constant reading, listening and watching of current affairs with an eye to an organization interests.

Broadly speaking, environmental

scanning is identifying the issues, trends,
factors, and institutions that affect or may potentially affect your client’s ability to operate.
Organization

use environmental scanning to monitor important events in their surrounding environment.
It is a
way to answer the q
uestion, “What’s happening in the external
environment that is likely to affect
my
client’s
future
–
either positively or negatively.
Scanning involves identifying and analyzing the issues and trends that have important implications
for
the
future
. For public relations practitioners, these factors include:
?
the size an
d nature of your client’s market
?
the activities of
current or potential strategic partners
?
competitors
’ successes and failures
?
legal constraints as well as legal protecti
ons
?
social issues of concern to your client or its stakeholders
.
When performing environmental scanning, pay attention to the news that d
eals with the following
:
?
news about your client. Is it positive, negative, neutral
?
?
news
about your client’s competitors. Is it pos
itive or negative?
Are they launching a new
product? Do they have financial challenges? A new CEO?
Lawsuits?
?
n
ews about p
olitical figures and elected officials
who might be instrumental in affecting your
client th
rough local support or
state or federal
legislation.
?
g
eneral
news about your client’s
industry.
What messages are be
ing published about this
industry? What source
s do they use? What type of
art
icle is written about the
industry
? Is it hard
news, soft news,
opinion piece? Is it positive, negative, educational, persuasive?
Why do public relations practitioners need environmental scanning?
After you have identified issues that are relevant to your client, think about how they might affect your
client’s abili
ty to operate. For example, BP’s oil spill crisis change
d the legal requirements for
offshore
drilling in the United States. As a public relations practitioner, you
need to
use your critical thinking and
be able to predict the consequences of the crisis
for your client and be prepared for questions from the
media, the government, and other stakeholders.
How does environmental scanning work?
Meet Mary. She is an account manage
r
in a P
ortland public relations firm.
Her morning starts with a cup
of coffee
and a newspaper. She scans newspapers and online news stories to determine whether there are
any stories about her clients or discussion of a
ny issues that may impact the
m
.
She finds an article in
The
Wall Street Journal
about an increasing risk of tainted food from foreign suppliers and makes a note to
have her student intern do some more research about
t
his issue. One of her clients is a restaurant chain,
and she senses the opportunity to capitalize on the media
intere
st by informing the media
an
d the public
about what her client is
doing to ensure the quality and safety of their meals.
Assignment instructions:
?
Scan
The New York Times
and
The Wall Street Journal
to see if there are any issues that are
relevant to your
client
or its
industry.
?
Use
this news story
and others in your environmental scanning report and provide a citation for
each article
(APA style)
, including the date and a page number.
?
Prepare a 300
–
350
word environmental scanni
ng report (one
and a half
pa
ge, double
–
spac
ed),
outline the issue and explain
how a particular event may have an impact on your client’s
organiza
tion
, and your recommendations for how
your client
should
respond, if at all.
If you do
not believe a response is necessary, briefly explain why.
?
Make sure to provide specific suggestions on how to deal
with potential threats and how to take
advantage of
any
opportunities.
?
If you are unable to find news that is relevant to your client
you are still required to complete a report outlining a news
story about a major current event and explain it is important

?
The report must be turned in as a hard copy at the beginning of the class period when due.
Recommendations and tips:
Environmental scanning helps you to identify threats and opportunities for your client that exist in the
external environment. When preparing the ES report, ask yourself these q
uestions:
?
Does this event/news affect my clients in any way? If yes, in what way?
What do I need to do to
be prepared for a potential crisis and/or for media questions?
?
Does this event/news provide an opportunity for my client to get positive news coverage?
Negative news coverage?
If yes, what should be done?
?
Does this event/news provide an opportunity for development for my client (market expansion,
customer service improvement, new product introduction, etc

?
Does this event/news affect my client’s industry? If yes, what are the potential consequences for
my client? What needs to be done to prevent any negative consequences?

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