In a brief essay,discuss the different tools for measuring the impact of media relations and PR.What are their advantages and flaws?

An older standard for PR measurement is Advertising Value Equivalence or AVE,which seeks to estimate the relative value of a news story generated by PR by comparing it with a paid advertisement.This method is considered scientifically invalid.Impressions are based on the number of subscribers to a publication or viewers / listeners to a broadcast.The obvious flaw is that no one can say for sure that all of the paper's subscribers saw and read the paper / article on a given day.Nonetheless,PR firms will use it as a default way to show the reach and impact of a news story.Another method is to evaluate the tone and visibility of key messages in the coverage that is generated.This analysis can be very helpful in demonstrating the value of PR efforts,determining if the assessments are fair and objective.Clients and management can understand and trust these more than other measure since they are observable and do not depend on a false formula like AVE or impressions that estimate the potential audience.The most common process is to use a scale of "Positive,Negative or Neutral" and assess the article and its impact accordingly.