Public Relations Project - Essay Example

Public Relations Project Alcohol and drug abuse are serious problems that affect high school at an earlierage than in the past. High school students usually begin to experiment with tobacco, alcohol and other drugs during the middle school years. Smoking and other substance abuse have been established to be remarkably strong in high school more than any other academic level. Marijuana and Tobacco are the most commonly used drugs in high school students. Since many educators recognize that drug abuse is the chief barrier to the achievement of educational objectives, it is necessary to develop drug abuse prevention awareness among the use, so that students can identify the dangers and impacts of drug abuse in their health and success.

As the Public Relations staffer, I was hired by a non-profit organization to develop a broad communication plan in support of working to reduce smoking, especially among high school students, through our group, Stamp Out Smoking. The development of the communication plan usually starts with the assessment of smoking and other adolescent problems, which include examining the level of community risk factors, and the level of smoking in the community (Crano & Burgoon 145). The assessment results are used to raise community awareness of the seriousness and nature of smoking problem, and this information is used to determine the best program that is relevant to the students’ needs.

The next step is the analysis of the student’s readiness for prevention. This helps in identifying further steps that are required to lecture the students before the beginning of the prevention effort. The final step involves holding meetings with teachers and student representatives to help implement and maintain research-based programs (Crano & Burgoon 145). This requires resource development for management and staffing with the existing delivery systems. This plan identifies information dissemination as the most effective communication method for creating drug prevention awareness among the high school students.

This approach attempts to communicate the dangers of drug abuse by using a fear-arousal technique designs to frighten individuals and attract attention in to not using drugs, including the dangerous impacts of drug abuse on an individual’s health (Crano & Burgoon 259). The information approaches involve classroom lectures about the negative impacts of smoking, including printed materials, short films, and educational pamphlets, which imparts information to the youths about the dangers of smoking.

This program will also involve the use of police officers to lecture the students on law-enforcement issues, as well as drug related penalties, and crimes for processing and buying illegal drugs like marijuana. Health professionals and doctors will also lecture the students on the severe and irreversible health effects of smoking tobacco and marijuana (Crano & Burgoon 259). This planning process utilizes transactional model of understanding to create smoking prevention awareness to the students.

A communication development plan is perceived as transactional process, which involves a developmental interaction vis-à-vis the child and communicative partners (Crano & Burgoon 89). This approach stresses on the reciprocal, bidirectional impact of communication environment, child’s own developing communication competence, and responsiveness of communicative partners (Crano & Burgoon 89). The fundamental assumption of this model is that communication development is fueled by reciprocal, bidirectional interaction between children and their environment.

A change in the child’s environment significantly changes his or her environment. Like in this case, moving students to other schools will reduce the rate at which they smoke tobacco or marijuana. In conclusion, effective communication of drug prevention awareness among high school students can significantly reduce the rate of drug abuse among the youths. This planning process identifies information dissemination as the most effective communication method for creating drug prevention awareness among the high school students.

This is because it attempts to communicate the dangers of drug abuse to the students by threatening them. Transactional model of understanding can effectively be used to create smoking prevention awareness to the students. This model assumes that changing a person’s environment significantly changes his or her behavior. Smoking can be reduced among students by moving them from one school to another. This will change how they conduct their daily behaviors. Works CitedCrano W. D, Burgoon M. Mass Media and Drug Prevention: Classic and Contemporary Theories and Research.

New York: Routledge, 2002. Print