global discussion. local perspectives.
On the 4th of November this post opened a fruitful dialogue between professionals from two European countries (Italy and Romania) and sparked an interesting debate with the participation of visitors and commentators from many other countries ranging from New Zealand, Austria, Canada, the Uk, the USA, Portugal, Latin America and South Africa.
I received a friendship request today on a social networking platform for communicators. I have no idea who this person is, and I suspect that he is a consultant randomly inviting other people to be his friend in order to expand his prospect list. His message basically just says hello and provides no info on why he wants to be my friend (and after looking at his profile, I still have no idea). In the...
I sometimes think that we get a little obsessed with what PR is and isn’t, and I am not always sure that these conversations do anything more than keep us busy navel gazing. What I’d like to think about is what PR is becoming…and that’s everything. My personal belief is that formalized communications evolved because it was the only way to manage as organizations grew in size. What is happening today, in my opinion, is...
Is it fair to state that unethical PR practice results primarily from a marketing focus on publicity? Aren’t spam press releases, pseudo-events, poorly conducted surveys and spin all about gaining attention regardless of the truth? Can we blame PR’s poor reputation on an increased focus on promotional communications for competitive differentiation (the reductionist view of PR as solely a subset of marketing)?
Please do take a good and quick look at Larry Foster’s very recent acceptance speech of the Alexander Hamilton Medal at IPR’s annual event at the Yale Club in New York. For those of us who are (or believe they are) ‘geeks’ so-to-say it amounts to a back-to-basics wake up call! For the others, many of whom remain luddists or, in any case, thorough sceptics on the application of new technologies to public relations (the...
PR Conversations welcomes a guest post by Bill Sledzik, associate professor, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Kent State University, Ohio, U.S.A. Collectively, we quite like his regular blog posts (i.e., thought process, rigour and sense of humour), and felt that our international readership would enjoy a taste of some Tough Sledding, too.
Something awful is happening in my country (Italy) these days, with many implications on public relations (specifically in the sense of public diplomacy) which I feel we should all be aware of. …
Kirk Hallahan, professor at Colorado State University, is the 2007 recipient of the Institute for Public Relations Pathfinder Award for outstanding scholarly contributions. Hallahan has focused his recent research on the application of online technologies to PR practice. In a column available on the Institute website, he summarizes much of what he has learned in four observations.
As we have done once before, because we very much value the opinions of one of France’s most senior and thoughtful professionals, we offer you, from his agency’s newletter (I&E), his most recent opinion…
I’ve asked Caroline Wilson to share some thoughts on the power of PR to change people’s behaviour around environmental issues, which she regularly explores at GoodGreenPR: I sometimes think the ‘green’ issue for people working in PR is very similar to the familiar debate about the role of PR generally. Should PR be about skilfully promoting and communicating the image, products and community profile that others high up the management tree set out? Or should PR...