Why do two organisations facing the exact same crisis end up with completely different public reactions? The difference almost always comes down to how well they understand and work with public opinion — not after the fact, but as an ongoing discipline. This Arab British Fellowship Training Academy training course is built around exactly that: giving PR and media professionals the tools to read, influence and responsibly shape how the public thinks and reacts.

Media itself — every commercial or non-profit, public or official channel whose core job is spreading news and information — has grown far beyond simple reporting since television reached every household, and now carries real weight in entertainment and public perception too. The course treats media as both a subject to understand and a tool to use, walking participants from the psychology of persuasion through to the practical skills of a confident broadcaster and communicator.

Who Should Attend:

• Directors and owners of PR departments and media production companies, plus communications and senior PR managers
• Corporate board members, executive directors, operations and project managers
• Brand managers, and marketing and corporate communications staff in the private and public sectors
• Communications staff in NGOs, and professionals in hospitality, banking and retail service industries

What Participants Will Be Able to Do After the Course:

• Study public opinion across a wide range of topics and correctly trace where attitudes originate
• Design and run comprehensive surveys, and interpret the results to manage crises and build PR plans that deliver results
• Convert raw survey data into clear, self-explanatory information
• Build media skills such as photography, video, news writing, design and press correspondence, plus report-writing and publication skills for books, magazines and brochures
• Apply persuasive communication and broadcaster-level public engagement skills

Module 1: Public Opinion: How It Forms and Why It Matters

• Concept of public opinion and the factors that shape it
• Types of public opinion and its core components
• Why public opinion carries real strategic weight for organisations

Module 2: The Psychology of Persuasive Communication

• Nature and concept of persuasive communication
• Theories and strategies behind persuasion
• Personal communication skills and how they support persuasion, plus methods for measuring the effectiveness of opinion-influence plans

Module 3: PR as a Strategic Function

• Concept, objectives and activities of public relations
• Its role in organisational management and in leading change
• Introducing a brand or product through PR, and linking the PR plan to organisational objectives

Module 4: Shaping the Organisation's Mental Image

• What a "mental image" is, and its key traits
• The relationship between an organisation's personality, identity and mental image, and how it differs from a stereotype
• Stages of managing that image, and the role of direct, mass and organisational communication in shaping it

Module 5: Working With Decision-Makers and Measuring Performance

• Engaging executive committees and CEOs, and understanding where authority sits in these relationships
• Developing PR strategy through organisational diagnostic techniques and communications control
• The most effective KPIs for running a PR department

Module 6: The PR Toolkit: Skills, Tools and Models

• Why PR experts matter, and the core skills they need
• Types of PR tools and recognised PR models
• The relationship between advertising and public relations

Module 7: Reputation, Brand and Crisis Communication

• Methods for enhancing an organisation's reputation, and how media shapes public opinion
• Increasing brand awareness through PR
• Crisis communication: managing reputation, formulating a response and easing damage when negative news goes public

Module 8: Internal and Media Relations

• Internal communication and employee relations within the organisation
• Building and maintaining close relationships with the news media
• News values and how they drive the media industry

Module 9: Broadcasting and Social Media Skills

• Skills of a successful broadcaster and presenter of talk programmes
• Media's relationship with society, and contemporary media applications
• Social and community media marketing: distributing messages to the right target audience