Posted on PR Nexus

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...

Posted on PR Motion

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...

Posted on PR Sphere PRoust Questionnaire

PRoust Questionnaire: Al Clarke

The PRoust Questionnaire provides a quick insight into a public relations practitioner’s interests and point of view, as well as his or her professional beliefs and values. If you are not familiar with the original 19th-century Proust Questionnaire, please see details at the end of this post. PRoust Questionnaire answers from Al Clarke: 1. What is your most striking characteristic as a PR practitioner? Always open to new ideas and committed to help make things work....

Posted on PR Axis

PR use of statistics on trial – where’s your evidence?

Guest post by Nigel Hawkes. Healthcare reform is controversial, as both the US and the UK have found. In Britain, a chorus of protest has been generated by a Bill to reform the National Health Service. Some of the most powerful interventions have come from the Royal Colleges – highly-esteemed bodies that exist to promote and improve the practice of different medical specialties. I’ve been struck not by the positions taken, which are strongly opposed...

Posted on PR Nexus

Public relations as a promotional industry

It is hard not to believe the PRSA’S #prdefined initiative has resulted in three proposed definitions supporting public relations as a profession.  Any reference to persuasive or promotional aspects of the occupation have been filtered out in preference to the more status-oriented relationship perspective of PR.  The end result will have an aspirational feel good factor, but will it reflect the reality of the experiences of many practitioners? Possibly even more important, the tendency to...

Posted on PRoust Questionnaire

PRoust Questionnaire: Léa Werthman

The PRoust Questionnaire provides a quick insight into a public relations practitioner’s interests and point of view, as well as his or her professional beliefs and values. If you are not familiar with the original 19th-century Proust Questionnaire, please see details at the end of this post. PRoust Questionnaire answers from Léa Werthman: 1. What is your most striking characteristic as a PR practitioner? I am known for my enthusiasm and passion. 2. What is...

Posted on PR Axis

Plotting PR narrative in social media

In public relations, narrative offers a way to enable ideas, opinions, values and meaning to be expressed within a broader framework than the concept of “key messages”, which tend to reflect slogans, headlines and other contrived statements. Key messages can be part of the organizational narrative but too often are simply BS corp-speak lacking any real human connection . Narrative draws on various literary and cultural principles, methods and practices; it is woven into the...

Posted on PR Mediums

Pink Ribbons, Inc. — Rage against the marketing machine’s "shiny, pink success story"

A “conversational” documentary film review by Judy Gombita and Madeline Lunney Question 13 of our PRoust Questionnaire: “Has a novel, film, play or other work of fiction ever influenced you as a PR practitioner?” Answer: Pink Ribbons, Inc. In early January, we were invited to a private screening of the National Film Board’s feature documentary, Pink Ribbons, Inc. (which premiered at TIFF 2011), directed by Léa Pool and produced by Ravida Din (NFB executive producer,...

Posted on PR Techster

Nurturing Knowledge – a job for PR

‘Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge’ – Wikipedia’s blackout protest statement is a reminder of the value and reliance placed on repositories of online information.  How many of us turn to Google, Wikipedia, digital dictionaries, social media or online news sources routinely when we want to know something?  The English-speaking student population is apparently distraught that its primary place for ‘cut and paste’ assignments is offline for a day.  The Digital Natives haven’t been so...