global discussion. local perspectives.
All hell broke loose in our community these last few days following the British media stampede on the news that Blair’s government had trebled its public relations expenses in the last ten years. Read this sample from the Daily Telegraph.
The other day, Italian Premier Romano Prodi, in saluting his young compatriots sailing off to Lebanon to form the larger part of the UN military peacekeeping force, unabashedly called this ‘an historic event’. For the first time in many years, under strong pressure from the Italian government and with a grudgingly active support from Jacques Chirac, the EU gained its first explicit leadership of a major peacekeeping effort. Many critical observers, in Italy and elsewhere,...
On 24th August 2006, a landmark debate was initiated in the UK. Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary launched the government’s new Commission on Integration and Cohesion ‘to look at how to counter tensions between people of different ethnic groups and religions’. While acknowledging the economic, cultural and social contribution that migrants have brought to the UK, Kelly went on to state that ‘it is now time to engage in a new and honest debate about...
In every country, the public relations profession is being constantly and increasingly criticized by mainstream media and social critics for its buffering mode of action. Most recently it was Der Spiegel in Germany, but all one needs to do is keep a close eye on http://www.prwatch.org and most of the arguments used by our critics can be easily traced. Personally, I do not believe that a new definition, as Jack O’Dwyer seems to imply in...
The full assumption of a mentality coupled with an appropriate language, both coherent with today’s managerial culture, are mandatory ‘conditions’ if we -as public relations professionals- are to obtain (and keep!) that legitimate seat at the table of our dominant coalitions. A seat well justified today by the relevant content of the many tasks which we are increasingly called upon to perform by the (private, public and social sector) complex organizations we work for…..
Does the public relations profession hinder or enhance our democratic institutions? This question, proposed a few weeks ago in a debate format at the Annual General Meeting of UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations, has been around for a long, long time within our global community (in its professional, research and educative segments). The only possible diplomatic answer, in my view, is….
Until today most efforts in evaluating and measuring the economic impact of public relations in a given country have analysed public relations as an industry where demand and offer are mostly, if not solely, observed in the private sector, and have not looked at public relations as a profession increasingly performed in the public and social sectors of society.
The very recent formation of a confederation of public relations associations of Islamic Countries is a good reminder of the role of a professional association.
In its 2006 budget document, the preceding Government of Italy (Berlusconi’s) issued an order to public sector organizations to slash all 2004 public relations and communication expenses by 50 per cent.
Two intense days (7-8 July) of critical debate (www.bledcom.com) for one hundred public relations scholars on the European Commission’s White Book calling for a new communication policy to shorten distances between Citizens and European Institutions.