PR and modern society

So for our first practise assignment for the CIPR Diploma, we were asked “What contribution does public relations make to modern society?”. I kind of turned this question on it’s head, and instead I discussed “What contribution does modern society make to PR?” Admittedly not the assignment we were given, but something more interesting and relevant to my area of work…

“PR is a relatively new discipline and its role in society is a constantly evolving one. So to are the theories that guide its practice. The profession is continually facing new challenges from developing modes of communication in the Web 2.0 era to an increasingly complex and diverse society who need to be communicated with.

Previous dominant theories that have guided PR practice are becoming less relevant as new approaches are needed to respond to this changing media landscape.

In systems theory, the idea of PR practitioner as ‘boundary spanner’ between organisation and audience is harder to understand as boundaries become more flexible. Cutlip, Center and Broom (2000) emphasise the presence of an ‘established boundary’ between organisation and audience but with increasingly abundant channels of communication across the boundary, the PR practitioner can no longer be was viewed as ‘gatekeeper’ and must become facilitators enabling flow of information.

The 21^st century has seen a massive rise in the number of people publishing content online. Access to new technologies and the availability of web publishing has introduced two fundamental changes for communicators and audiences: who provides information and how audiences get the information they need (Holtz, 1996).

New communications channels such as blogs, social networking sites, RSS feeds, video-sharing sites, wiki’s allow publics to become more discursive and find their own voices and communities who share their voices. The dialogue’s that user-generated content allows is in keeping with more recent rhetorical perspectives.

Heath (2001) supports the rhetorical approach as the primary perspective through which PR should be viewed: “Through statement and counterstatement, people test each other’s views of reality, value, and choices relevant to products, services and public policies”.

Skerlep (2001) also advocates the rhetorical approach as it allows multiple viewpoints to be given on situations, allowing the PR practitioner and audiences to arrive at the truth; “The ‘truth’ can only be reached through argumentative dialogue that reveals which of the participating parties has better arguments” (Skerlep, 2001). By rigorously questioning and challenging statements, we can arrive at the ethical truth. For this approach to be truly ethical, the PR practitioner must be responsive to these multiple viewpoints and not ignorant to them.

As new challenges are emerging for PR practitioners, Mackey (2003) suggests that more traditional PR theories are left wanting. In the globalised world, we are witnessing a more “plural society that is becoming even more postmodern and difficult to stereotype”. New theories of communication are needed that help map the apparently teeming and far harder to see and understand lateral communication between targeted publics and others (Mackey, 2003)

PR practitioners are required to continually address the challenges that are encountered as society evolves, re-evaluating the boundaries of the profession. Whilst this is necessary for its practice it can also confuse the publics understanding of the profession. PR practitioners must continue to look at new challenges to communications whilst re-enforcing the role of the PR professional in society as a facilitator of information exchange.”

References

Cutlip, S. M., Center, A. H., and Broom, G. M. (2000) Effective Public Relations (8^th ed) Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice Hall.

Heath, R. L. (2001) Handbook of Public Relations, London: Sage

Holtz, S. (1996) Communication and technology: The complete guide to using technology for organizational communication. Chicago: Lawrence Regan Communications.

Mackey, S. (2003) Changing vistas in Public Relations theory. PRism 1(1)

Skerlep, A (2001) Re-evalutaing the role of the rhetoric in public relations theory and in strategies of corporate discourse. Journal of Communications Management 6(2) 176-187

Bad practice: Bimbo

Crowstone Dental Care have a great photo on their homepage of a smiley, blonde girl, with really great teeth – a good image for a dental practice… But visit their website, right-click on the image, ’save image as’ and look at the filename…

Not very professional although rather amusing. Not sure it would be quite enough for a lawsuit for defamation?

There is a chance that when you read this, the image on the Crowstone Dental Care website will have changed (if someone is nice enough to warn them of their error and reprimand the webeditor!) so just in case you missed the joke, the filename was ‘bimbo.jpg’

Lesson: think about what you name a file before uploading it to your website!

Opinion

“Opinion can be void if not presented from both sides” Preston (2004)

The wise words of Samuel Preston of the Ordinary Boys – a good example of rhetorical theory. You may wonder where I am going with this, but I have recently started studying my CIPR Diploma so thought I would try and make the theory more entertaining by relating it to another of my interests – popular culture!

Rhetorical theory according to Heath (2001): “Through statement and counterstatement, people test each other’s views of reality, value, and choices relevant to products, services and public policies”. Heath supports the rhetorical process as the primary perspective through which PR should be viewed.

For rhetorical theory to be ethical, Heath states that the dialogue must be conducted on a level playing field. But how can a playing field be level in the corporate world? Surely there is an argument here about big fish in little ponds? The louder the voice, the stronger the message?

Skerlep (2001) also advocates the rhetorical approach as it allows multiple viewpoints to be given on situations, allowing the PR practitioner to gain new perspectives. By rigorously questioning and challenging statements, we can arrive at the ethical truth. For this approach to be truly ethical, the PR practitioner must be responsive to these mutliple viewpoints and not ignorant to them.

“In the situtation of public contention on a controversial issue, the speaker can only marshall the best arguments for his or her case… The ‘truth’ can only be reached through argumentative dialogue that reveals which of the participating parties has better arguments” (Skerlep, 2001).

I agree with Skerlep to an extent, but I think ‘debates’ are desirable rather than ‘arguments’ which marks the PR practitioner as an antagonistic challenger of opinion. Although the word ‘argument’ does convey the persuasive nature of these dialogues.

Finally, more words of wisdom from Samuel Preston “A healthy argument to start the day, what better way?” – he must be an advocate of rhetorical theory!

Word of mouth…

What contribution does PR make to modern society?

So this is the first ‘critical reflection’ assignment I have been given for my CIPR Diploma.

Critical reflection is the ability to analyse carefully and logically, information and ideas from various perspectives. It involves gaining an understanding of, and evaluating, claims and viewpoints from wide-ranging reading. You need to demonstrate an ability to think, not simply show knowledge.

At the moment my answer is a stream of thoughts including the following…

PR as a relatively new discipline…problem of defining PR…role of journalism…changing media landscape…web 2.0…user generated content…diversity of audiences…professionalism in PR…

Not much of a ‘critical reflection’ yet – I think I need to consult the text books. Anyway, that’s just a rough idea of some of the ideas I want to discuss in my meager 500 word limit.

Feel free to share your views on the role of PR in modern society and I will read them with great interest!

Online Communities

Century of the Self: Happiness Machines

The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud’s ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn’t need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.

Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar.

His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile.

It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today’s world.

Taken from BBC Four

Too many ‘logs’

I am just reading about the use of blogs in public relations and there are references to ‘clogs‘ (corporate blogs) and ‘flogs‘ (fake blogs).

No one really uses these terms do they?

Sony Bravia – Colour Like No Other

In my opinion, Sony Bravia have been inspiring with their Colour Like No Other advertising campaign. Would it make me buy a Sony Bravia LCD TV? Probably not but it does make me think they are very very clever!

Would these adverts make you buy a Sony Bravia product?

The bouncing balls advert (Jose Gonzalez, Heartbeats soundtrack)

The making of the bouncing balls advert

The paint advert

The making of the paint advert

Play doh bunnies advert

Making of the play doh bunnies advert

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I hope it will be about things that interest me in life from my work to my social life, family and friends, music, books, illustrations, thoughts… thing’s that inspire me.

I work in Public Relations and am interested in online communications and new media. I have recently started a professional qualification with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations so I hope to use this space to record my thoughts as I develop my own views. I’ll try not to make it too pretentious!

I love music so expect some song lyrics, videos and music to provide some light relief from the pretentious PR chatter… I also like illustrations, cartoons, photos and anything else that inspires me. I love books and often buy them quicker than I can read them.

Anyway, that’s enough about my intentions for this blog. Thing’s rarely turn out how you intend them to so we will see what happens…

Whatever my blog becomes, I hope you enjoy it.