The Power of Publicity

What I've Done for SOS Classroom:

"If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing started with a dream and a mouse." -Walt Disney

That's always been one of my favorite quotes, not because it is about Disneyland but because it of its meaning. One can make the smallest of a dream (i.e. small, like a mouse) and make it happen. Of course, there is always a process to making that dream happen and it may take days, or even years.

SOS Classroom, in the beginning, was simply a little dream of Coach's. Once the class actually understood the importance of the project and impact it could have, everyone jumped aboard the ship to really make Coach's dream a reality. As Coach would say, "SOS Classroom sets sail!"

My involvement in SOS Classroom has been one of those small steps into helping a dream of mine come true, as well as many other children who are on their way to achieving a better education.

My role for SOS Classroom has been helping the PR campaign, particularly with viral marketing. This gave me a first-hand experience using social media for publicity purposes. Many of the blogs I have been following throughout the summer tend to emphasize the importance of Twitter and Facebook in the digital age of PR 2.0. I attempted to read a few of these blog posts in detail and tried to put the blog author's advice into actual practice.

However, I did not maintain the Twitter site after making it; I was lost on how exactly to use the site and how to update Tweets consistently every day. The Facebook group was also hard to viral market because many of mine and my classmate's friends on Facebook are mainly college students. I searched through Facebook trying to find groups/people that identified as a LAUSD teacher, parent or student. The general results of this search were rebellious groups against LAUSD and budget cuts. I chose not to post anything about SOS Classroom in these groups because it would send the wrong message across in the publicity campaign. Like we have said many times in class, we aren't trying to fight against LAUSD; we're just trying to help them in this hard time. Even if the Facebook group still has a small membership group count as of right now, it will always be available to join through a link on the SOS Classroom website.

Although I have used Facebook excessively for the past three years, I still did not know how to use it for marketing purposes. Truthfully, I began the viral marketing campaign thinking it would be very easy, but boy was I wrong. Just because I know how to create a Facebook group or Twitter account does not mean thousands of Internet users will stumble upon the site instantaneously after the accounts are made.

As I was lost with the viral marketing campaign, I got in touch with a PR professional, Ariel Carpenter of USC, for some advice (I found her while searching Twitter for LAUSD tags). She taught me the importance of a updating Twitter frequently and using hashtags with important key terms that can be searched easily, the importance of speaking like a friend to followers on Facebook and Twitter. Her advice for a publicity video was to interview those affected by the budget cuts as well as students who have used SOS Classroom. I really wanted to attempt to take a journalistic stance with a publicity video and follow Ariel's advice, but I took a different route when constructing my own publicity video, which is explained in the post below.

Moreover, I also attempted to work on a short hype video under the instructions of my PR partner, Matt. Matt wrote the script, edited the background music and found many photos on Flickr. I found other photos for the video on Flickr as well and began to edit it on Windows Movie Maker. Matt finished the project with a better version than what I had on my computer, which was a great step for SOS Classroom publicity.

Similar to the school liaisons work, I also sent multiple e-mails out to higher-ups in education reform and in the Los Angeles Public Libraries as well as interested parties, like LA MOM's Clubs, an activist group called Inner City Struggle based in East L.A and Edutopia.org.

Working aside my PR partner Matt and Coach has been a great learning experience for me, especially by listening to conversations between both of them as well as taken any advice or tips given to me. Although I may have not made many choices myself because I was weary of what I was supposed to do and realized that working in a team is much more complicated than I had previously thought, I was able to listen to choices being made about the PR campaign. The SOS Classroom publicity team definitely helped me understand what the PR profession is all about and just how one can make a difference through PR.

The Need for SOS Classroom

When I thought about the PR profession before I started writing this blog, I generalized it as just a business profession. I never would have considered PR a "public service."

Although no one really considers public relations as a "public service" (from what I found out by interviewing around five PR professionals), one can easily make it a public service by choosing who they would like to work for (i.e. nonprofit projects/organizations). Thus, my involvement in SOS Classroom has taught me that if I end up studying public relations next year I will have the power to decide what type of causes I would like to work for without being completely sucked into corporate relations.

Working on SOS Classroom gave me a preview of what it is like to work for meaningful causes. Education holds the key to a child's future. Without it, more political and social problems could arise later with the lack of education. Because SOS Classroom helps children learn and grasp on to important subjects in school like Language Arts and Math, it is one small, small step to making the future a better place. As USC football player Kris O'Dowd said in his speech to the children at CHAMPIONS summer program using SOS Classroom, "it can help you be the great leaders that you can be."

SOS Classroom can't replace summer school, but it can help give children the extra boost they may need. With so many budget cuts in California's public education SOS Classroom has found a creative and free solution for many families.

It was simple idea, yet timely to create. There are so many free online web resources for children to use, but if they are not easily accessible no one is going to search for the sites and use them.

By tagging and searching, we have compiled all these resources in one place, which can have a great impact and be used for years to come. We live in a "digital age" where children generally know how to use computers and have access to them. Instead of spending their time on YouTube of Club Penguin, they can still have fun but learn at the same time by playing games on SOS Classroom.

It's an ongoing project that can always be updated and introduced to new children day by day. Likewise, SOS Classroom will always be google-able and thus accessible for anybody who wishes to use it.

And as for my blurb about PR and SOS Classroom, without publicity, many nonprofit causes like the SOS project would not reach the right people and audience. Even if the cause is a great purpose, it still may not be known about in the greater public without publicity. I can't say that I have been able to reach all the students, teachers and families I'd like to have spread the word to about the SOS Classroom -- and even if I only reached a few -- some of those in definite are aware of the project.

One step at a time, or should I say click at a time.

Presentation

In the way beginning of the publicity campaign for SOS Classroom, I'd say early July, I wanted to make a promotional video with a journalistic touch -- you know, like a type of Video News Release. I had no idea who to interview for it, though, and due to time constraints the PR team decided on only working on a hype video, which was more like an advertisement for SOS Classroom rather than a news segment.

Later in the summer, about two weeks before summer session ended, I got an opportunity to put my idea to work. Along with the class, I was invited to join Coach and two classmates Kris O'Dowd and Martin Coleman at Hancock Park Elementary School. Coach arranged for me to rent a video camera to particularly film Kris O'Dowd and Martin Coleman talking to the children of the CHAMPIONS summer program at Hancock Park Elementary.

Thankfully, I didn't leave the USC campus without consulting someone who actually knew what they were doing when editing a video; Coach insisted that I get in touch with Mira Zimmet, USC Letters, Arts and Sciences New Media Producer/Editor. She introduced me to the basics of filming and editing, as well as how to use the camera. Without her advice, I may have not known exactly what to do. She was very helpful and I greatly appreciate her taking the time out of her day to help a student in need.

With her words in mind, and a notebook full of scribbles of what she had told me earlier that week, I ventured to Hancock Park and attempted to film everything that happened. Of course my first time filming won't turn out spectacular (as I basically video taped the whole day in only one or two different angles), but it was a trial and error process. I'm no USC Cinema student, but I can always try to be!

At the end of the day I attempted to interview children using SOS Classroom, CHAMPIONS program leaders, Coach and two Writing 340 Students: Cara Murayama and Lyndsey Hoh. I wrote up interview questions to ask them the night before, but when I got on the spot my mind froze and went blank. Just because I read articles and books about how to effectively interview as a journalist does not mean it will be easy when I actually put the words into practice!
But to Coach and Lyndsey's help with interviewing, I got some great footage with some awesome answers.

I edited all the footage with Adobe Premiere Pro after I conquered all the technological errors with the files.

I'd like to refer to the audio tracks as audiotrocious (since they worked only half of the time when trying to edit) and also would like to confirm that Technology and I, well, we just don't get along.

Sooner than later, I was able to edit a video (which still needs a lot of polishing). Take a look!

The spin I tried to take with the video was "USC Students Making a Difference," although I think it turned out to be more of a promotional video for SOS Classroom explaining what it is, its importance and just how to access the site.

Along with the video presentation, I was able to practice journalism and news writing by writing an article focusing on the direction of "USC Students Making a Difference," which I will post later to this blog once it is edited and final.

It has been a lot of work so far, but I am just pleased that I was able to edit down the some one hour and thirty minutes of raw footage I filmed to at least 5 minutes. The video has a lot of room to grow (background music, creative titles, etc.), but it definitely gave me experience I will need for the future with editing video. I think the video will be a nice addition to the SOS Classroom website because now those who look at our site will personally -- or should I say technologically -- meet some of those who worked on SOS Classroom/used SOS Classroom through hearing them speak on the video.

As I look back, I am proud to say that I finally conquered technology and won the battle between the both of us.

TAKE THAT MAC AND DELL.

The Most Corporatized Place on Earth

I'm sure you've heard about the "Happiest Place on Earth." Actually, I'm sure you've probably visited the "Happiest Place on Earth."

Disneyland invites thousands of guests (literally, from anywhere between 30,000-70,000 a day) through its gates to have a fun-filled day with long lines, mediocre food and blazing 90 degree weather.

Well then, is it really the "happiest place on earth" like the PR campaign says so?

Maybe for the guests who don't mind cramming their way through crowds and crowds of people-- but not so much for the employees (excuse me, I mean "cast members").

I have recently become a cast member myself this summer to fulfill what I would call my "secondary dream" in life by becoming a cast member at Disneyland.

Disneyland was always my special place; it easily outnumbered my hometown or even a vacation to Hawaii. There was something magical about the place while growing up that I couldn't seem to grasp but always made me want to go back.

And I'm not the only one.

Many of the cast members I have talked to so far about their experience working at Disneyland have said that they applied and took the job for the same reason -- it was a dream of theirs, and Disneyland had a special place in their heart too. But now Disneyland is far from their favorite place, which is only to be expected. Like one of my co-cast members said, "That's what you think. But now you see the real truth."

And I have seen the real truth. Disneyland is more depressing than happy any day, far from what they advertise to the guests. Practically all the cast members I have talked to are lost in life, and working at Disneyland is their security blanket (please note that this is a generalization, and just what I have witnessed and felt so far as an employee). I have heard multiple times the same answer to why they work there: "Well, I have a college degree, but I hired in here and never left."

I've even heard from others that they want to quit before they hit the three year mark so they don't become what Cast Members call a "lifey" (i.e. one that stays employed at Disneyland he or she's whole life). The whole Walt Disney Company is based on the concept of "seniority." So, if one is a "new hire" like myself, you barely get any hours and are stuck with all the closing shifts because you have low seniority. Thus, they practically want you to become a "lifey" because by gaining those three years of seniority you will be able to pick your work schedule and hours. In other words, it's like Mickey Mouse's mouse trap.

The reason why I am blogging about this subject is because their PR tactics are far from having anything to do with social good, unlike Walt Disney's beginning PR tactics in the summer of 1955 when Disneyland opened (please excuse the very long post).

Walt Disney envisioned a magical place that was fun, educational and embraced cultures from around the world and America. Employees were part of this magic, and really made a difference by helping educate the guests.

For example, call this PR or not (Walt Disney tried to make a relationship with the guests when Disneyland opened by making the situations in Disneyland real) but the Rivers of America used to be river water from all the famous rivers in America. Also, It's a Small World (you know, the extremely beautiful but yet repetitively obnoxious ride) opened with children from all around the world and all different cultures adding water from their homeland into the ride to show that it "really was a small world."

Likewise, Disneyland had animatronic presidents that would talk to kids about American history. The park also used to have a ride that would take you through a microscope and into the human body. And the old Submarine Voyage taught children about the aquatic ecosystem and nature under the sea.

But what's the Submarine Voyage now?

A "Finding Nemo" ride -- all geared towards the little kids who love Finding Nemo and will do anything to see Nemo.

Does that have ANY educational purpose? Watching Dori chase Nemo on an underwater projector? If you think so, maybe you should take another biology class.

That's just one example of how Disneyland has become more corporatized than "happy" and how working there really doesn't have as much meaning as it would have back in the 50's and 60's.

Oh, I forgot to mention. The newly renovated "It's a Small World" that opened up last winter now has actual Disney characters incorporated into the ride like Ariel and Alice in Wonderland. Will someone PLEASE tell me what that has to do with the concept of "it's a small world" and cultures coming together? Isn't Alice in WONDERLAND, not the actual world? What does Alice in Wonderland have in common with a Native American, Muslim, or Asian culture? Absolutely nothing. Get her OUT of the ride!

I have to stare at Remey from the movie Ratatouille in the window of my restaurant every day. If I remember correctly, New Orleans Square is part of Disneyland because it was one of Walt Disney's favorite places and was one of the most interesting places in America that he wanted to teach people about. But I guess for some reason now it's an advertising place from the movie Ratatouille. Anything to make people want to spend more money in the park, like a little kid saying, "Oh mommy, there's Remey! Let's eat at New Orleans Café!"

No matter how much Disney changes and molds into a profit hungry beast, I will still love it. But I would like to confirm that working for Disney's PR team (as my father has suggested to me many times) will NOT cut it. The park does not have its educational purpose anymore. Connecting with the public by submitting press releases about the new "Finding Nemo" Submarine ride, or announcing in a press conference that Johnny Depp will now be featured as an animatronic character in the Pirates of Caribbean ride (which, may I please remind you was Walt Disney's favorite ride that they completely butchered by commercializing it with Jack Sparrow) does no good for society except persuade them to spend about $90 to visit the park. If kids can't learn from it, it is not doing society any good. If only Disney's CEOs now realized that it isn't all about profit, but rather education and magic like Walt Disney did in the beginning then maybe I would have a different opinion. But for now, I'd like to call Disney the most "corporatized place on earth" instead of the "happiest place on earth"; I think my fellow Cast members would agree.

At least some of us will always remember Walt Disney's original ideals.

Literature Review

The relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists has been a conflicted, and yet symbiotic relationship. Various studies have centered on what is regarded as a 'source-reporter relationship' -- an ongoing relationship between the two professions where PR practitioners try to "manage the news and journalists try to manage the sources in different direction for their needs" (Shin 2006). Previous studies are concerned with the perceptions of each profession, the origin of conflict between professions, how conflict would be characterized, and what factors (education, personal, experience, etc) impact the perceived relationship between both professions.

White and Shaw (2003) proposed that journalists who have taken undergraduate or graduate classes in public relations tend to have a less negative perception of PR practitioners, and journalist educators' perceptions of PR tend to be more positive than expected. Negative perceptions of PR may be rooted in journalism culture by exploring the history (and previously deceiving) profession of PR in the late 1800's.

A couple interesting points this study made when defending PR practitioners was that the author noted that many [good] PR efforts are not visible outside the organization and therefore not acknowledged when discussing the PR profession. What is acknowledged by journalists is mainly that PR is all about media relations (in other words, publicity) and PR practitioners will do whatever it takes to earn some space in print or broadcast media (hence, the stereotype of 'spin doctors' and 'obstructionists'), which is actually quite different from the overall practice of public relations.

Both professions in this study acknowledged that "journalists depend on public relations-originated material due to "inadequate staffing levels in most newspapers." Thus, it may be noted that dependency is changing due to the changing world of journalism, which could be a good or bad change depending on a PR practitioner's ethics and morals.

Other than journalism educators and journalists, Pincus, Rimmer, Rayfield and Cropp (1993) previously surveyed business, news and sports editors of major California newspaper publications about their perceptions of PR practitioners. Sports editors were more prone to PR practitioners, whereas news editors were more skeptical. These differing opinions could influence the relationship between different PR practitioners and editors. Non-profit PR practitioners may have a harder time exchanging an information subsidy rather than sports PR practitioners, even though the issue proposed in the non-profit news release may be more relevant, newsworthy and meaningful.

More importantly, however, two recent studies were done on actual conflict within the source-reporter relationship. These may be the most relevant because of their timeliness and proximity to the issues of 21st century journalism, especially the fact that many major publications are combined under one corporate umbrella. Shin (2006) presented a paper at the International Communication Association Convention based on the organization-public relationship (i.e. PR-journalist relationship). This study "integrates conflict and conflict resolution models to the contingency theory in PR." The contingency theory is elaborated by a relational scale of pure advocacy to pure accommodation in the source-reporter relation. The study analyzed the different strategies journalists and PR practitioners use to respond to conflict in the relationship between the professions. It was concluded that various factors influence conflict in the relationship, like struggle for power, resources and ethnocentrism. Journalists are more likely to escalate any nature of conflict in the relationship, while PR practitioners are likely to negotiate and accommodate with journalists and organization's views. However, with the changing structure of journalism, journalists may approach conflict in the source-reporter relationship like PR practitioners generally do and try to accommodate with the PR practitioner's needs, as well as the newspapers needs.

In 2009, another paper was presented on the source-reporter relationship at the International Communication Association Convention that added more to Shin's study focusing on behavioral and verbal conflict in the source-reporter relationship. The results were quite surprising, supporting that both professions agree with each other that they have experienced similar behavioral and verbal conflict with each other. PR practitioners, however, believed that they had experienced more conflict rather with journalists than journalists believed they had experienced with PR practitioners. Thus, this may be an opening in the source-reporter relationship because journalists don't see as much conflict, which could potentially make journalists more open to information subsidies.

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Although these are in-depth and well researched studies, I would like to compliment this research by investigating how the downsizing of newsrooms and peril of journalism in the 21st century will affect the source-reporter relationship. Will journalists be more open to (and dependent on) information subsidies? Will they be forced to because of economic constraints? If so, will they be a little less skeptic of the PR profession? Will PR evaluate their work based on individual ethics and morals, and present journalists with honest and necessary information?

Thriving for Patients

Bureaucracy, rule bound, limited, hassle, cost focused, profit, uncompassionate and paper work.

Those are just a few words that are associated with healthcare by the general public. Healthcare companies usually do not have a ravishing and helpful image among patients.

Yummy, money, profit, wealth!

But what if a company actually really did care about your well-being and promoted healthy living and had a positive image? Would you be excited to apply for healthcare with that company? Would truly believe that your well-being was their first priority?

A couple of nights ago at the dinner table I was talking to one of my friends (who is a PR major) about PR and social change. We discussed what kind of routes you could take with PR to help society -- like nonprofits, healthcare, etc. (you get the gist). I asked her if she had any suggestions on campaigns she learned about in any of her PR classes that I could research. She suggested Kaiser Permanente's "Thrive" Campaign, saying that it was "a really good PR campaign." The $40 million "Thrive" campaign appeared for the first time during the 2004 Olympics with nothing but a picture of broccoli. The commercial stated (in summary),

"We stand for broccoli. For pilates. And dental floss. We believe in the treadmill and its siblings Stairmaster, and elliptical. In SPF 30 we trust. We stand for safe sex, seat belts, and mammograms . . ."

The whole gist of a remarkably brilliant campaign was to show that Kaiser, a [hence] health care company really cared not only about "protecting" one's life, but also cared enough to advocate and condone healthy living. I definitely have to give the PR practitioners credit who worked on this campaign credit; the campaign is very creative.

Not surprisingly, Kaiser launched this campaign to "change perceptions among people whom might not be familiar with the organization's benefits or might have negative impressions about the company," said a PR practitioner who worked on the Thrive campaign to the Oakland Tribune. Well, there you have it. A PR practitioner hard at work, glitz n' glammin' Kaiser Permanente's image to the mass media.

The quote sounds so constructed and easily brushes over the facts -- the real reason why Kaiser launched this campaign -- which many that formerly worked for Kaiser would consider it to be a "dirty PR tactic."

According to a Kaiser presentation on "Brand Positioning Discussion," a key bullet point states:

"75% of people who are offered Kaiser Permanete probably or definitely would not consider us for their health care coverage. The goal of all our communications and operational efforts is to positively impact these negative perceptions."

Translation: 75% of people will reject Kaiser. How can a positive image help us profit? If Kaiser is really worried about the amount of people that will not consider them for health care then why would they spend millions of dollars on this PR campaign? Just compare the two quotes. Obviously the 75% was left out of the quote to the Oakland Tribune -- 75% of people is a lot, and Kaiser knows that and that those people equal an abundance of money!

I understand one would never quote the 75% in any interview with the media because it will give the health care company bad publicity. But if it's all about profit for these health care companies (we can't forget Michael Moore's movie Sicko) I would have to believe that inviting the public into a friendly campaign for health isn't really about helping others. Kaiser's last PR campaign before Thrive, "KP Promise" was actually not that successful with recruiting new patients.

This kind of throws me off thinking that working with the health system and PR could help society. If Kaiser had as many patients (or clients, as you may call them) that they need, do you think they would have launched the Thrive campaign?

I'm thinking no.

The Search for Jiminy: A Wide Range of Online and Print Resources, He Could be in One of These!

Last semester my journalism professor told my journalism history class that the most important article is placed strategically on the right side of the front page every day, because the eyes always gaze at the right side of the newspaper when the reader picks up the paper.

---> After browsing through front pages from various newspapers, I then was able to understand the generic front page layout, and that's exactly the same layout I have applied to my PageFlakes. The most important part of my PageFlakes, my annotated bibliography that I have compiled for my own research purposes and others to use is placed on the right side, of course.

<--l--> In the middle is my universal blog and news search, and below that are my Diigo bookmarks and my Bookmarking soulmate (remember her?!) below the searches. Just like a newspaper, I placed what I thought to be less important on the bottom below the end of the computer screen, or in the journalism world you'd say that was below the crease of the front page.

<-- On the left side of my PageFlakes, we have ten RSS feeds from blogs I follow on Conscience Communications. Once again (through my own judgment), I placed the blogs in order of quality or importance to the subject of PR, social change and social responsibility.

So, let's take a look at the right hand-side "article," my annotated bibliography.

If you browse through the various sources that I have displayed you will find some odd ones in there that are very specific and don't have any of the key words, "social change" "social responsibility" "public relations" or "activism" in their titles.

For example, this one citation is about animal rights:

Scudder, Joseph and Mills, Carol Bishop. "The Credibility of Shock Advocacy: Animal Rights Attack Messages." Public Relations Review 35.2 (2009) 162-164.

While researching, I like to find a few very broad resources that encompass a wide range of topics in the field I am researching, and then I like to get pretty specific. The citation above is an example of my specificity. This article is about how PETA's PR was effective in gaining awareness towards slaughterhouse issues, which is directing public attention towards a social problem -- animal abuse.

With that said, many more of my sources in my annotated bibliography focus on specific topics in PR, whereas many of the peer-reviewed books I researched are broad; this approach to research has never failed me.

In other words, if it is a peer reviewed article most likely from Public Relations Review or Public Relations Research then expect the information to be specific. Likewise, if the source is a book it is most likely to cover many topics.

Now I will walk you over towards my Searchin' Flake that has a universal blog and news search that is updated frequently.

I used the term in the box "public relations social responsibility" because "public relations social change" did not yield many results, so bare with me. This key word search should be broad enough to bring in news and blogs about PR's relationship with society, as well as many corporate social responsibility news items.

Next, if you scroll down, you'll come across my Diigo bookmarks. I have quite a few from the last few weeks surfing the web, but they are in no particular order of importance or subject. All the book marks are just ordered in the way I randomly found them online while skimming through others' bookmarks, PR websites and the like.

A little farther down we now come across my social bookmarking soul mate's Delicious bookmarks. If you want to know more about my social bookmarking soul mate and what kind of topics you can research through her bookmarks, feel free to head over to one of my earlier posts this month about Andrea.

And last but not least, we stop this tour on the left side of the page at my RSS feed to various blogs. Blogs accompanied on this list all made it through a rough dismissal process. I recently had around 20 blogs that pertained to the subject of this blog, but I picked the ten that I think are the most helpful and useful for anyone who is interested in PR and social change too; I hope you find them as helpful as I have found them so far!

Enjoy my PageFlakes and research I've complied. Glance through the sources and try to help me find just where Jiminy Cricket is hiding in the PR world! Is he in a blog post, a news article about a PR campaign? If you find that conscience before I do, let me know!

Hey PR, Take Me to Corporation Heaven

Back to a topic I mentioned earlier in this blog about the role public relations plays in society and how exactly PR practitioners would define the term "social responsibility."

I have an answer for those PR practitioners that work for businesses and nonprofit organizations-- and that's corporate social responsibility.

In a study published in the Public Relations Review in November 2008, researchers Kim Soo-Yoen and Bryan H. Reber collected data from 173 PR practitioners about their role in society and thoughts about practicing corporate social responsibility.

The study was researched in the context of two questions I am very interested about. They are basically the exact questions I had when I started this blog, just in the researchers words:

Are there identifiable roles of public relations in social responsibility?
What do public relations practitioners see as their contribution to social responsibility?

What a golden find!

In summary, many of the PR practitioners that were interviewed believe that they can influence the corporations or organizations they work for to be socially responsible, as well a leader in the community they are part of. Those who worked in the nonprofit PR sector believe that PR is "central" in promoting social and political issues of importance that NGOs try to tackle.

Likewise, interviewees said the role of CSR directly mirrors the values and ethical guidelines of a corporation or organization that PR practitioners will follow. But we can't forget that a business needs profit. Thus, there are times where good CSR could be conducted by a corporation but is not because it is not profitable or does not improve the image of the corporation. Even if a PR practitioner has a different view, all they really have got to do is follow the Public Relations Society of America Code of Ethics, which may force the PR practitioners to just follow the guidelines but not go farther and really reach a hand out to society through CSR.

One really interesting information to note: this study also found that some PR practitioners think that PR is actually the organization or corporation's conscience. Hence, my blog name -- conscience communications!

It all sounds great until you realize the actual words in the phrase "corporate social responsibility" -- CORPORATE social responsibility, not PUBLIC RELATIONS social responsibility. The power is truly under the wings of the CEOs of these companies or managers of the organizations. If they grant their PR practitioners the power, then low and behold and watch the PR practitioners fly the corporation or organization to heaven, as the rest of the employees listen to the conscience of communications.

The good thing is that PR practitioners really can have an influence on acts of social responsibility by corporations and organizations, and channel good publicity through the airwaves of the community. If only the PR practitioners were the CEOs, THEN we would maybe really see some social change!