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.
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...
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….
In a recent post about the Bled symposium on the communication of Europe, I referred to that typical syndrome of many of our clients/employers, who are so convinced to be right that if something goes wrong the fault is always to be found in the communication of a specific management policy or decision.
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.