Environment Scanning and Issue Tracking
NM5208 Communication Campaigns — Prof. Linda M. Perry

Each member of the campaign team will scan for issues that can affect your organization. Remember that an issue implies a controversy. As you scan the environment for these issues, identify one that is important to the organization and that you can track all semester. You will need to settle on the issue by Sept. 17, when team directors will report the issues to be tracked.

As you track the issue over the semester, write a brief summary of each clip as you would for top management. As the issue and your monitoring progress, your summaries need only contain updated or new information and developments. At the end of the semester, the summaries will be used in an annotated bibliography, and the clips or copies of the articles collected will be submitted with a 9-10-page team report. The paper will report the results of your team's scanning activities, analyze the top three to five issues tracked and recommend strategies to manage the issues' impact on your organization and its publics.

The report should have the following sections and appendices:

(1) An executive summary: While it will appear first in the report, following the title page, the executive summary should be prepared last. It should briefly summarize the report’s main findings and recommendations and be no longer than one page, double-spaced.

(2) A summary of all the issues considered in the environmental scan: List several issues identified in the scan. Assign priority to the issues and explain how you arrived at your conclusions. In evaluating issues, consider the mission of your organization, its goals and objectives, its key publics and the potential impact of the issue on the organization’s goals and stakeholders (1-2 pages.)

(3) Summary of each issue (individual reports): Summarize the issue, including its historical development. Attach your annotated bibliography and clips or copies of the articles. (3-4 pages)

(4) Analysis of top issues (team): Analyze the top issues and their potential impact on the organization and stakeholders. In the analysis, be sure to identify opinion leaders on the issue. Include facts, arguments, premises, conclusions and policy recommendations of the opinion leaders. The analysis also should include an issues-forecasting section outlining whether and/or how the issue will continue, change, affect public opinion, mobilize opinion leaders and activists, and/or result in legislative action. (2-3 pages.)

(5) An issues management analysis and recommendation: Drawing on past classes and the literature, identify the theories, strategies and tactics being (or not being) employed to manage the issue by the organizations and people involved. Then, citing the appropriate literature, identify those theories, strategies and tactics you would propose to manage the issues' impact on your organization's goals and stakeholders (2-3 pages.)

(6) A bibliography: Append a bibliography of the works cited to support your analysis and recommendation. (1-2 pages.)

The report should be packaged for presentation to your client. The report is due in class Oct. 29.