global discussion. local perspectives.
Few would argue that, at its core, the public relations role is about engagement. It’s about conversations and building relationships with stakeholders, both identified and unknown. In the social media sphere some proclaim that there are new rules for engagement…but I don’t actually think that much has changed
The King Report on Governance for South Africa 2009 and the King Code of Governance Principles (King III) plus the Practice Notes that support it, were released at the beginning of September. According to Toni Muzi Falconi, “it constitutes a dramatic acceleration of the growth of our profession. Can we now prove to be up to the challenge?” In March this year, just after the draft King III Report was published for comment, I invited...
Most visitors of this blog are well aware of Jim Grunig, if not for other reasons, because they remember an extensive interview he gave us almost a year ago. Since then, while visiting colleagues, speaking with students or professional associations around the world, I often am asked a question which seems to be looming about out professional body of knowledge. What comes after Grunig? Now, for the exclusive curiosity of cherished visitors, take a look...
Recently, I’ve been involved in a lot of debate and chatter about the implications of social media. As a consequence, Toni Muzi Falconi asked me whether I’d like to draw some lessons for PR Conversations. Thanks, Toni, and here goes: It is often said that we are witnessing the birth of a media revolution which amounts to a social, economic and political transformation. I don’t agree. I’m almost sorry what follows isn’t a bold settled...
Recently, I’ve been involved in a lot of debate and chatter about the implications of social media. As a consequence, Toni Muzi Falconi asked me whether I’d like to draw some lessons for PR Conversations. Thanks, Toni, and here goes: It is often said that we are witnessing the birth of a media revolution which amounts to a social, economic and political transformation. I don’t agree. I’m almost sorry what follows isn’t a bold settled...
News that celebutante Kim Kardashian is to produce a ‘reality’ show on public relations sent shivers of dread down my spine this week. More than anything else, it highlighted (for me) the fact that as a profession, we are in the midst of a cusp catastrophe that requires attention from us all. For several months now I have been pondering this phenomenon, evidenced by the multiplicity of practice ‘realities’ that surround us – of which...
As I was reading the thoughtful article by Carne Ross in Europe’s World on the need to re-think national diplomacy, I was struck by the parallels with discussions of the evolving role of public relations as a profession. For instance, he states, “For some reason, diplomats and governments have believed that somehow the message about the role of governments can be separated in the public’s mind from what they actually do.” You could easily substitute...
In an analysis of the speech John Brennan delivered yesterday about the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism efforts, Steven R. Corman notes that one of the five elements seems to be “stop framing this as a conflict of interests and start framing it as a pursuit of common interests.” In my view, this is exactly the point of public relations, and I find it interesting to see this principle so central to the administration’s new policy. Thanks...
As our global public relations community intensifies its discussion and analysis of the storytelling approach to organizational communication, may I strongly suggest you make good use of this link to the just distributed issue of Warren Feek’s The Drum Beat newsletter, entirely dedicated to storytelling? As editor Kier Olsen DeVries writes in his introduction: This issue of The Drum Beat focuses on stories, asking: what do we mean by the use of oral history, or...
For the last 50 or so years, advertising money has made the world go round. Despite the fact that Viscount Leverhulme (or was it John Wanamaker – either way, both were early pioneers of advertising for their companies) is quoted as having said: I know that half of my advertising budget is wasted, but I’m not sure which half The fact that half of the spend was considered to be worthwhile was enough to compensate...