Developing a worldview of public relations
All conversations about public relations reflect specific worldviews – and this is something we should examine when developing theory, considering practice or undertaking research in the field. Our opinions, prejudices and arguments are the outcome of personal and professional experience, our educational background, our values and perspectives on how things are – or should [...]
Public relations – career agency or apathy?
In 2011, I asked Do you know where you’re going to? in relation to careers in public relations. Beyond the individual career context, this question continues to have relevance for organizations and the wider occupation.
Within the wider occupation, debate is often over whether PR is a profession or a craft. However, each has specific [...]
500 PR Conversations
This is post #501 – which seems a useful milestone to reflect on the previous 500 posts at PR Conversations, and invite you to contribute your views on the blog overall.
For me, PR Conversations has provided a global platform for debating and considering a wide range of classic and contemporary developments in public relations. [...]
Fifty shades of PR
What shade of PR do you practice? I believe that “PR is what PR does” which offers a broad perspective encompassing many shades.
In a recent PR Conversations post, Fraser Likely, said he didn’t “do” PR. Rather he advises on the management of PR functions. This is a shade of PR.
Similarly, the Melbourne [...]
Grunig PR Masterclass: Insight into diversity and excellence
This post offers a video recording of a recent lecture given by Larissa and James Grunig at New York University – courtesy of Toni Muzi Falconi, who kindly introduces the video below. In addition, Heather Yaxley provides a brief overview of the highlights of the lecture.
We extend our thanks to James, Larissa and Toni [...]
Closing the door on the gatekeeper role in PR
At a Sustainable Conversations event earlier this week (organised by Kantar Media), I started to think about the impact on both public relations and journalism of ongoing communications changes. In particular, it is clear neither occupation can maintain their traditionally exclusive roles as ‘gatekeepers’ in filtering and controlling the flow of information that is [...]
Plotting PR narrative in social media
In public relations, narrative offers a way to enable ideas, opinions, values and meaning to be expressed within a broader framework than the concept of “key messages”, which tend to reflect slogans, headlines and other contrived statements. Key messages can be part of the organizational narrative but too often are simply BS corp-speak lacking any [...]
Public relations and the public interest: a matter of opinion
Recently the phrase “public interest” started an offline debate between two PR Conversations stalwarts, Toni Muzi Falconi and Heather Yaxley. This blog exists to encourage discourse about public relations and its role from a variety of perspectives, although normally, conversations are stimulated by a post, and then move into the comments section or onto Twitter. [...]
Marriage of European and North American PR thought leadership
By Fraser Likely
Even for those in the public relations and communication management field who paid the slightest bit of attention to international developments over this past summer, the Stockholm Accords and the Barcelona Principles came as a surprise. Certainly, for those of us based in North America, the surprise may have had an element of [...]
Public relations should embrace not deny its marketing links
Many people think that PR is a subset of marketing – they are wrong [See this classic: ToughSledding post/comments if you don’t agree]. But so are those working in PR who seek to put great distance between what they do and marketing. The denial of the close relationship with marketing which is necessary in most [...]