I think the two key points to remember from this week’s reading are that people should rethink their views on what Public Relation is all about, and that the practice spans over a wide range of skills.
People get the negative impression that Public Relation practitioners are ‘spin doctors’, which big companies rely on to cover up for their scandals like the recent melamine case between dairy company Sanlu and China’s search engine, Baidu. [1]
If they didn’t think that, they’d think PR to just be a form of marketing or advertising.
While they are right to a certain extent (even the spin-doctoring part), I’d like to believe that PR has a nobler role in the society today. PR is now being defined as ‘the ethical and strategic management of communication and relationships in order to build and develop coalitions and policy, identify and manage issues and create and direct messages to achieve sound outcomes within a socially responsible framework.’ [2]
The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that it is not as easy as it seem. I, like the general public, used to think PR as a rather shoddy job, but it actually takes great personal skills to be a successful PR practitioner. The generic requirement of good interpersonal and communication skills aside, you would need be up-to-date with current trends and technology, have in-depth industry knowledge and are great thinkers, to name a few.
Public Relations isn’t as much of a cookie-cutter job as we thought it was.
Resources:
[1] “Leaked memo alleges milk ‘cover-up’”, 28th September 2008
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4708639a11.html
[2] What is Public Relations?, Public Relations: Theory and Practice 2nd Edition, Johnston, J. and Zawawi, C.
People get the negative impression that Public Relation practitioners are ‘spin doctors’, which big companies rely on to cover up for their scandals like the recent melamine case between dairy company Sanlu and China’s search engine, Baidu. [1]
If they didn’t think that, they’d think PR to just be a form of marketing or advertising.
While they are right to a certain extent (even the spin-doctoring part), I’d like to believe that PR has a nobler role in the society today. PR is now being defined as ‘the ethical and strategic management of communication and relationships in order to build and develop coalitions and policy, identify and manage issues and create and direct messages to achieve sound outcomes within a socially responsible framework.’ [2]
The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that it is not as easy as it seem. I, like the general public, used to think PR as a rather shoddy job, but it actually takes great personal skills to be a successful PR practitioner. The generic requirement of good interpersonal and communication skills aside, you would need be up-to-date with current trends and technology, have in-depth industry knowledge and are great thinkers, to name a few.
Public Relations isn’t as much of a cookie-cutter job as we thought it was.
Resources:
[1] “Leaked memo alleges milk ‘cover-up’”, 28th September 2008
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4708639a11.html
[2] What is Public Relations?, Public Relations: Theory and Practice 2nd Edition, Johnston, J. and Zawawi, C.
As someone who works with PR practitioners and agencies (and also those companies who do not believe in PR!), I fully agree with you that it is not an easy role to fill, and it is certainly not a cookie-cutter job.
ReplyDeleteEveryday, PR agencies have to come up with new ways to represent their clients' products or brands in a refreshing way -- yet they must still retain the essence of the brand name. It is not easy to be new and familiar at the same time!
On top of that, there are the more menial tasks to fulfill, such as dealing with media requests, disseminating information and other tasks.
It's not all fun and games.
I'm glad you pointed out the part about fulfilling menial tasks, because I don't think many PR students are fully aware of how much work there is to do.
ReplyDeleteIt reminded me of a time in poly during Final Year Project period, my team had to convince a school why it would be beneficial to have our film shooting there. Many hours were spent emailing back and forth information about our project, how the students would have an insightful experience being in a film, and how our project would be shown to the public.
We also had to get sponsors, particularly MacDonalds, since we wanted a happy family scene (Happy Meals = happy kid = nice parents). Sadly, our proposal was rejected, but the rejection showed the flaws in how we composed our pitch.