Posted on Current PR Conversations PR Nexus PR Sphere PR Vision

Maximising resilience of health and well-being assets in crisis situations

A comment left by New Zealand PR consultant, Catherine Arrow, on a recent post on my personal Greenbanana blog indicated that the topic (the language of grief and a biopsychosocial perspective on mental health issues) was worthy of further investigation. The following is the result of our subsequent shared musings concerning the impact of crisis situations on the health and well-being of public relations practitioners. If you have any thoughts on this topic, we invite you to continue...

Posted on Current PR Conversations PR Vision

From classroom to boardroom – crisis management lessons from the auto industry

Aaron Shardey gained a first class honours degree in public relations at London College of Communications this Summer with his undergraduate dissertation offering case study research into crisis management in the automotive industry. Given the topicality of the VW crisis, PR Conversations asked Aaron about his research and the lessons he would take from the classroom to the boardroom: One of the things you quickly realise when you study crisis management is that there are...

Posted on PR Techster

Six social media and digital communications trends for 2015

One of the most enjoyable hybrid academic-practitioner experiences I have had this year has been as course leader of the PR Academy Digital Communications Certificate course. The reason is that we have been able to incorporate a lot of contemporary thinking around ways of learning as well as the emerging field of digital communications and social media. This includes blended approaches to online and offline learning (with Stuart Bruce leading a face-to-face session, alongside my...

Posted on PR Vision

Getting serious about PR crisis case studies

Whenever an organisation experiences a ‘crisis’ (or more commonly an incident of lesser magnitude), it is invariably jumped upon as a PR disaster by the online PR pundits who cannot resist the opportunity to criticise how the situation was handled. The view is almost always: “I wouldn’t have done it like that”, accompanied by a list of rules which, in the opinion of the supposed PR expert, should have been followed. Rarely is any research...

Posted on PR Vision

Making sense of the impact of social media on crisis communication

An MA thesis focused on making sense of the impact of social media on crisis communication By Tegan Ford Given the number of crisis situations gaining high-profile attention through social media, I decided to look at how the addition of social media to crisis scenarios has disrupted the field of corporate communications. This research forms the foundation of my Masters of Arts in Communications program at Carleton University. This post looks at my thesis findings to...

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 Vision

PR lessons from 2010 – the year of the mega crisis

Undoubtedly 2010 has been the year of the mega crisis, which as the Guardian’s City editor, Richard Wachman recently commented [when talking about BP’s reaction to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill] provide ‘a textbook example of how not to do things and will be studied by students of PR for years to come’. Not suprisingly, the PR advice from Wachman is to be high profile and apologise.  If only life was that simple –...

Posted on PR Vision

An international view of crisis management of the Chile mine disaster

On the face of it, the handling of international media relations following the Chilean mining disaster has been a triumph.  It appeared to strike the perfect balance between control and lightness of touch. The open communications approach that was evident from initial reports of the collapse of the mine reflected the leadership style of the Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera.  Recently elected, engaging and able to undertake interviews in English, he was the perfect figurehead for...

Posted on PR Nexus

Public Relations before, during, after acquisitions and mergers. Fascinating lessons from Poznan, Poland!

Ok… it took me more than 20 hours by van to return to Italy, while an Icelandic dust closed all of Europe’s airports… courtesy of two young polish drivers (found via the Internet the evening before by one of my benefactors Monika Bogdal from Poznan’s University of Economics… the power of social media…)… yet I was thrilled, honoured and inspired to have been granted the privilege by Prof. Ryszard Ławniczak to participate to the EconPr...