Sunday 20 March 2011

UCU Action in Stirling

                                   
                                    


Staff at the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling are facing compulsory redundancy on 21st March. As a part of UCU (University and College Union) protest campaign, we had our Public Relations & Digital Media class at the University night club!

However, most of the students absolutely had no idea what was going on with the Institute of Aquaculture and the teach-in campaign in the University. Obviously, communication is needed amongst UCU, students and teachers. So I started to wonder what efforts has UCU (Stirling branch) been made in terms of online PR. Here are what I've found out:


   1.UCU Official Websites
  • News update on a daily basis

  2. University of Stirling Official Websites
  • No related news in terms of compulsory redundancy and strike

  3. Twitter (@UCUScotland)
  • UCU Stirling Branch doesn't have its twitter account

  4. UCU University of Stirling Homepage
  • No related news in terms of compulsory redundancy and strike

  5. Institute of Aquaculture Homepage
  • No related news in terms of compulsory redundancy and strike 

  6. Facebook page of the Institute of Aquaculture 
  • Frequently update about the campaign

      7. Facebook page of the University of Stirling
    • No information about the strike

      Five out of seven websites I mentioned above didn't even mention the strike or anything related to the UCU actions.The only two website which update often constrain the target audiences to a very limit scale. That could explain why most of the students in the University didn't know the coming strike.

      Therefore, to make sure efficient communication to the key publics and people's participation, digital media must be made full use of as one of the efficient PR tools, and the corresponding websites should be updated on a regular basis, or at least let the key publics know what is going on at the moment and what are UCU further plans.

      3 comments:

      1. I also found that there had been little communication about the strike and felt that little effort had been made to inform the student about the action, let alone trying to get them on board. Looking at what is happen in glasglow univeristy I think that UCU memberand other striking staff should have tried to get the student body on board as it will help made a bigger impacted to teh univeristy mamagement.

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      2. I like the thing you searched the sites to see if there is adequate information about the stikes and what is happening. There should have been more posters in the university and promotion of the stirkes through social media in order for students to know what is happening in their university.

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      3. I definitely agree that for efficient communication to the key publics and people's participation, digital media must be made full use of as one of the efficient PR tools.This improves UCU action.Thanks for sharing.

        ReplyDelete