Let's Hear from my Public Relations Research Classmates!!!!

“If you are refreshing your page to see new updates and statuses, or even searching for a particular person to see what they are up to, you are conducting unobtrusive research” said Laura Valenti in her last blog post, You Heard it Right Out of the Horse’s Mouth! In Laura’s Blog Post 5, she writes about unobtrusive research in the social media world. I found the above quote to be extremely enticing because everyone is conducting unobtrusive research many times a day and aren’t even realizing it! Laura first points out that you must conduct research from a credible source. This is something that should be stressed over and over! There is so much information that we can conduct research on but if we believe what is published from a non credible source then our research will not be accurate. Before beginning research remember to always look for reputability and credibility. Laura explains that unobtrusive research is beneficial in obtaining an honest answer about a certain topic, but from a celebrity you can never tell if what you are receiving is honesty or all lies because they have to watch most everything that they say. Yes, unobtrusive research is useful in researching celebs but in my opinion maybe not the most trustworthy approach!

Now let’s take a look at Post #5, written by Sam Roman who has participated in unobtrusive research at her own job! Sam explains that she worked for a well known retail store this summer and that her store had a unique policy. Not to confront someone even if they were seen shoplifting because if they were wrongly accused a lawsuit might occur along with more work for the PR department. Sam writes, “In recent year, unobtrusive research has done a lot in prohibiting shoplifters. Store employees are trained to looks for suspicious people - not to judge on what they look like or wearing, but on their behavior. If they fail to make eye contact, barely look at any of the items for sale but take huge piles of clothing anyway, neglect to grab the proper sizes or constantly refuse help, they are showing blatant signs of possible shoplifting. The knowledge of all of these behavioral tactics was a direct result of the performance of unobtrusive research in retail stores.” Unobtrusive research seems to come into hand when it comes to shoplifting! Unobtrusive research is cost efficient and allows us to gather results immediately. Now every time I go into a store or refresh my Facebook page I will be reminded that unobtrusive research is being conducted!