Company Communication Audit
Due Friday, May 23

Communication Audit Report
Purpose:
The communications audit is an important tool for planning and evaluation in public relations.

An audit does three things:
1) Reviews how well an organization communicates internally and externally.
2) Focuses on messages exchanged, media used, and the outputs and outcomes of the communications process.
3) Helps identify missing linkages or blocked circuits in the communication process.

It’s an examination of an entire communication process.

Doing a Communication Audit. (n.d.). Retrieved May 7, 2014, from http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/Tactics/Articles/view/6C-129404/101/Doing_a_Communications_Audit#.U3AGd-ZdUSg

Specifications: Write a communication audit report for a global company of your choice (see the list on canvas of possible companies that operate globally that Prof. Price provided. These companies are companies that operate in the West and the Middle East). The report can be of any length and should contain appendices of communication pieces, which might be in the form of links. Please turn in a copy of the case study on CANVAS.

The format should be a mix of descriptive narrative, some market and media research, and evaluation and interpretation. We will follow a format similar to the process found here:

http://www.ccmc.org/sites/default/files/WorkingPaper1.pdf Sections might include:

1. Overview of Company This is the exploratory part of the report. Tell the story of company, some history, including products and service provided, who the publics are (primary, secondary, internal, external, latent, etc.) Organizational structure and something about the funding/financial information.
2. Data Collection and Organization Similar to the first step in the working paper linked above, This section might be a mix of charts, examples and market research. You are building a picture of what their strategic communication process looks like. The strategy, how it is implemented and the tactic outcome (see the chart on page 3 of working paper above), should be identified, defined and organized. Because you are not a working member of the company you are collecting mostly secondary information here. By exploring the company’s website you can identify what they think they have done well and for mostly an external public. The resources explored in the library guides Wednesday will help provide a broader picture. Media clippings may also be a very useful part of your data collection.
Basically you are discovering:
a) What their communication plan was (find their mission statements or internal plans, but most likely you will search for a pattern in what they said/printed/communicated; you might be able