global discussion. local perspectives.
Ever since Edward Bernays proposed Public Relations as an attempt, by information or persuasion, to engineer public support for an activity, a cause, a movement or an institution, the practice definitely moved towards a publicity-propaganda style…..
Old models of public relations practice were framed around the hierarchical organisational structures created in the 19th and 20th Century. Business and organisational models have changed dramatically in the last five years, with new-born organisations/businesses increasingly adopting community-based, value-driven principles upon which to found their commercial or altruistic relationships….
Richard Edelman’s recent decision to withdraw his company from the US Council of Pr Firms on the grounds that ‘we disagree with the Council on a few fundamental points’… as well as the unexpected reactivation of a public debate in the US public relations community on licensing, after many years since Eddie Bernays in the early nineties lost his attempt to convince his peers to adopt it, have provoked plenty of interest in various professional...
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.
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…..
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.
As reasons for this, interviewees cite the reporting of facts which are either not true, or confusive, and in any case only opportunistic. Communicators also specifically cite the ‘lack of internal culture in organizations, which produces incoherence between stated values/principles and effective behaviours’.