Grunig PR Masterclass: Insight into diversity and excellence

This post offers a video recording of a recent lecture given by Larissa and James Grunig at New York University – courtesy of Toni Muzi Falconi, who kindly introduces the video below. In addition, Heather Yaxley provides a brief overview of the highlights of the lecture. We extend our thanks to James, Larissa and Toni for offering the video to PR Conversations.   Introduction by Toni Muzi Falconi A few years ago, PR Conversations published...

Contending for content – PR, journalism and marketing

Back in the 1970s, there was a vision of a paperless office; whilst the futurist, Alvin Toffler predicted increased technology was creating information overload. The reality is that we’re using more paper than ever – alongside an ever exploding volume of online content. I’m sure I could find data to illustrate the trend, but I’m overwhelmed with infographics, slideshare presentations, YouTube videos and a zillion other sources. There’s so much stuff out there (and increasingly...

Beyond Ground Zero: shifting the public relations discourse

Beyond Ground Zero: shifting the public relations discourse to an American Muslim identity and global alliance of moderates Toni Muzi Falconi’s conversation with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf on the value of public relations Recently I was granted the privilege of an extensive conversation with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in New York, following up on our first direct encounter in Kuala Lumpur at the inaugural Muslim PR Congress. Just like my report on the Congress, I...

Transparent Swedish filmmaker Fredrik-David vs. aggressive Dole-Goliath PR

An exclusive interview with Swedish documentary filmmaker, Fredrik Gertten, about his 2009 BANANAS! film and his currently screening (at film festivals around the world) Big Boys Gone Bananas!* documentary. In particular, we talk about Dole’s aggressive corporate public relations and media campaign, which worked to prevent WG Film’s BANANAS! documentary from screening in the USA on multiple fronts (including Swedish media). “In 2009, Fredrik Gertten’s documentary, BANANAS!, chronicling a lawsuit against controversial food giant Dole...

Transparent Swede filmmaker Fredrik-David vs. aggressive Dole-Goliath PR

An exclusive interview with Swedish documentary filmmaker, Fredrik Gertten, about his 2009 BANANAS! film and his currently screening (at film festivals around the world) Big Boys Gone Bananas!* documentary. In particular, we talk about Dole’s aggressive corporate public relations and media campaign, which worked to prevent WG Film’s BANANAS! documentary from screening in the USA on multiple fronts (including Swedish media). “In 2009, Fredrik Gertten’s documentary, BANANAS!, chronicling a lawsuit against controversial food giant Dole...

Closing the door on the gatekeeper role in PR

At a Sustainable Conversations event earlier this week (organised by Kantar Media), I started to think about the impact on both public relations and journalism of ongoing communications changes. In particular, it is clear neither occupation can maintain their traditionally exclusive roles as ‘gatekeepers’ in filtering and controlling the flow of information that is communicated to publics. With anyone and everyone potentially able to express an opinion and be listened to, many of the taken-for-granted...

Lies and Secrets: the currency of public relations

You don’t have to dig too far to find criticisms of public relations as involving lying and other less than ethical practices. The normal response from the industry is denial, citation of codes of conduct and finger pointing at isolated ‘others’. But is lying really an absolute ‘do or don’t do’ matter? In reality, doesn’t everyone tell lies to some extent on a regular basis? So as professional communicators, doesn’t that mean PR practitioners trade...

Occupy Next (CBC Radio documentary)

New CBC Radio documentary: Occupy Next We’re interrupting our regularly scheduled PR Conversations programming to tell you the exciting news that that Ira Basen has another documentary, airing on Sunday, April 1st (no joke) on The Sunday Edition. I asked Ira to tell me what this one was about: “Occupy Next looks first at the rather extraordinary impact the Occupy movement has had on American politics and culture in its first six months. It then...

Italian women in PR: challenges and opportunities

Op-Ed by Enrica Orecchia Italian women in PR: challenges and opportunities The gender-balance question in our PR discipline continues to be a topic of interest, as evidenced by a recent poll and discussion in LinkedIn’s Public Relations Professionals Group, “Why are there more women than men in PR?” That debate inspired me to write my own blog post. And because I translated into Italian some blog post comments by Heather Yaxley and Judy Gombita, I...

Career moves in public relations: Climbing ladders, revolving doors and musical chairs

Are you looking for a career move or new opportunity in public relations? Judging by my own observations of the use of hashtag #PRjob on Twitter, there are plenty of opportunities around for a change of direction, as well as work placement and first jobs. What isn’t clear is how these jobs differ, if at all, from those traditionally offered in public relations. The classic Dozier & Broom model proposes practitioners occupy technician or management...