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 Motion

Arthur Yann: public relations in a fishbowl

An in-depth interview with the gent practising PR for the world’s largest organization of public relations professionals There’s an irony that public relations as a discipline struggles to manage the industry’s reputation. Why do you think this is the case? There’s some truth to the “shoemaker’s children” analogy, but the root causes go well beyond that. For one thing, the profession hasn’t done itself any favors when it comes to managing its own reputation. High-profile...

Posted on PR Mediums

A mediated dissertation on crisis coverage

Traditional news vs. social media: what’s different? Guest post by Bob Conrad, PhD, APR Picking a dissertation topic is not for the faint of heart or the unprepared. Narrowing an issue into components and sub-components involves, first, picking a topic, then exploring what others have researched in that area and, finally, finding your own niche. Crisis communications, social media and higher-education leadership were my interest areas, and it literally took years to find a topic...

Posted on PR Sphere PRoust Questionnaire

PRoust Questionnaire: Richard Bailey

Richard Bailey MCIPR experienced public relations educator (university and professional qualifications) and a former business journalist and PR manager/consultant. The PRoust Questionnaire provides a quick insight into a public relations practitioner’s interests and point of view, as well as their 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. 1. What is your most striking characteristic as a PR practitioner?...

Posted on PR Nexus

Public relations and the public interest: a matter of opinion

Recently the phrase “public interest” started an offline debate between two PR Conversations stalwarts, Toni Muzi Falconi and Heather Yaxley. This blog exists to encourage discourse about public relations and its role from a variety of perspectives, although normally, conversations are stimulated by a post, and then move into the comments section or onto Twitter. This time, we start with a private conversation, and invite you to expand the discussion further with your own comments....

Posted on PR Axis

PR rules not OK

For an occupation that depends on freedom of expression to operate, it seems there are many who relish nothing more than imposing rules on the practice – and even the conceptualisation – of public relations. First we have calls for a licence to operate, regulation, accreditation or registration of practitioners.  Even if you voluntarily join a professional body, there are codes of practice, guidelines, “best practice” mandates and a host of other prescriptive instructions on...

Posted on PR Vision

Truth to Power: A tribute to PR pioneer and critic, Chet Burger

Guest post by Ira Basen I think the hardest thing for anybody in life, certainly anybody in public relations or among management consultants, is to tell truth to power.” — Chet Burger (2008) Chet Burger spent half a century in public relations speaking truth to power. And his death from cancer last March at the age of 90, represented not just the passing of a true PR pioneer, but the silencing of an important voice...

Posted on PR Mediums

Super-sized sound bites regarding the Arab Awakening

What makes for a great sound bite from a thought leader or information researcher, gatherer or curator is the ability to distill or crystallize a bigger concept or original observation into a compelling, usually short (and easily remembered) weaving of words. Although it’s true that great sound bites can be (and often are) researched and crafted (can we say “media relations training?”), generally it’s the sound bites that appear to emerge thoughtfully, yet spontaneously—following the...

Posted on PR Mediums

A private viewing inside the Museum of Public Relations

Guest interview by Toni Muzi Falconi with founder of the fascinating non-profit venture, the Museum of Public Relations (http://www.prmuseum.com) Shelley Spector. 1. Why did you decide to establish the PR museum? I had toyed with the idea for some time, but the impetus to set it up was getting to know Eddie Bernays, who offered his full endorsement and sponsorship of the project. We met in the late eighties when we were both lecturing at...

Posted on PR Techster

There’s no such thing as online or digital PR anymore…

That seems to be the message from Philip Young who, with David Phillips, is editing a special edition of the online journal, PRism on the topic: Beyond Online Public Relations (to be published early in 2012). Philip claims that “Today ALL PR is Online PR” and is interested in papers that support or challenge the view that it is no longer meaningful to discuss ‘online PR’ (abstracts of up to 500 words to be emailed...