Posted on PR Axis Seasoned Posts

An honest role for PR in integrated reporting vs. sustainability propaganda

By Mojca Drevenšek What is the role and importance of public relations professionals in fostering integrated reporting (IR) practices in corporations and other organizations? This was the theme of my 2012 Bledcom paper, highly influenced by an earlier conference paper by Benita Steyn and Estelle de Beer, “The Strategic Role of Public Relations in the Process of Integrated Reporting” (republished on PR Conversations). In this guest post I outline my paper’s most important concepts. Defining...

Posted on PR Vision Seasoned Posts

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...

Posted on PR Nexus Seasoned Posts

A journey to Mars: how planet PR used to be

One discussion theme emerging at PR Conversations during 2011 has been the role of women in public relations.  Although PR has become a feminised occupation since the 1990s, many issues remain such as salary differentials, dominance of men in senior positions and 90% female intake on undergraduate degree courses, which we’ve debated in one post or another. As this is the traditional time of year for looking backwards, I’m not talking about these current debates,...

Posted on PR Motion Seasoned Posts

Do you know where you’re going to? Public relations career advice

What was your route into public relations?  In 1943, Averill Broughton (a public relations and advertising executive with his own firm) interviewed leading PR executives for his book, Careers in Public Relations: The new profession. He observed that these successful practitioners had: “backed into the field, as it were, by accident, and sat down. Afterwards it seemed natural enough, and their preliminary experience seemed as though it created public relations opportunity later” Has much changed...

Posted on PR Sense Seasoned Posts

PR is what PR does – a question of ethics

Not surprisingly there’s been a great deal of discussion of ethics in relation to the News Corp phone-hacking scandal.  Although journalism and corporate governance are facing the real ethical questions, public relations has been brought into the mix by many commentators.  Indeed, the Vancouver Sun attributes any ethical lapses in journalism to the practice of PR, whilst the UK’s Guardian newspaper drags out the lazy PR disaster label. We’ve also seen the usual implications that...

Posted on PR Nexus Seasoned Posts

Why don't PR Awards walk the talk on evaluation?

The Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles for public relations have been discussed and even endorsed by professional bodies and industry publications around the world – but there’s little evidence of “walking the talk” if you look at the Award programmes they run. In particular, use of AVE is neither prohibited nor penalised whilst a lack of clear, measurable objectives (ideally based on research) as noted in a post by Sean Williams, compounds the limitations of...

Posted on PR Mediums Seasoned Posts

In just one book – Global Public Relations: spanning borders, spanning cultures

Global Public Relations: spanning borders, spanning cultures   Review by Toni Muzi Falconi I’ve now been teaching Global Relations and Intercultural Communication at New York University’s Master’s in Public Relations for five years, including reviewing my (ever-changing) syllabus involving some 150 students to date. From the very beginning, as mandatory course books I have opted to use the Vercic and Sriramesh’a Global Public Relations Handbook (edition 1, and then 2), in tandem with the fundamental Post, Preston, Sachs’ book. Redefining...

Posted on Classic PR Conversations PR Mediums Seasoned Posts

The big question: What is PR?

In May 2008, Catherine Arrow produced a useful edited publication: What is PR? which brought together a range of posts from PR Conversation touching on the “big question” that seems to be of eternal interest to practitioners, academics and of course, students.  Toni Muzi Falconi commenting on two recent events recommends re-reading this document.  He writes: The Bled Symposium this year was not up to the excellent standards that I am accustomed to expect from its organizers.  But this...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Have More Walls Come Tumbling Down?

 Co-authored with Mike Klein In the later part of the year that ends today, much attention has been paid to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But another wall seems to have been definitively torn down this year with much less brouhaha: the distinctions between social, political, commercial and employee communication. The Public Relations model of defensive “representation” is thus beginning to give way to the political campaign model of proactive...