The convergence of print to online journalism is no myth. It is evident that many readers find online news articles are more accessible and interactive. With the advent of social media, citizens can share articles with each other and even write their own. As nice as these practices may sound; it is also a very challenging time for journalism. Profit is where the people are -- and that's online, ironically where most information is free. |
As this is a pressing issue in society right now, journalists and college students are trying to guide their way through the media world without becoming unemployed. That, in some journalist's eyes, may be "selling out" to the public relations (PR) profession.
On the other hand, for college students it may be lead them towards a PR oriented job because as most of these students have likely been told, "PR is where the jobs are." I know I've heard that one before! Sure, the PR profession is where the jobs mainly are in the media world today. But why do journalists feel like they are "selling out" to PR? Moreover, how can journalists STILL seek the truth, stand up for those who don't have a voice, and be a "watchdog" for greater society through practicing PR?
Back in the day, I was a young child with a dream; I was never interested in any other career path besides journalism. Believe it or not, I have been faithful to that dream from a nine year old elementary student to a current twenty year old undergraduate student. College students may be known to change their major and plans frequently, but I was one that always knew just exactly what she wanted to study: journalism. Having the power to expose injustice in society and help others through this public service profession always intrigued me. It even helped me develop my snappy and 'stand up others and what I believe in' type of personality. To sum up my thoughts exactly about the journalism profession:
"Good journalism does not often topple a president [in reference to Watergate],
but it frequently changes the lives of citizens, both grand and ordinary."
-Washington Post Reporters Lenoard Dowie Jr. and Robert G Kaiser, The News About the News
But then why am I focusing on PR in this blog?
Unfortunately, after transferring out of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and enrolling as an 'undecided' student at USC, I was not admitted to the Annenberg School for Journalism at USC last spring semester. Because of lengthy degree requirements for the journalism major, now the only program in the journalism school that I can apply to is the public relations program.
Don't get me wrong -- it's not like I have never thought about a degree in PR. I just never thought I would actually be applying to PR programs because I never had a doubt in my mind that I would not be a journalism student. But this journey is far from over: I will be a student in a journalism school; I can't give up just yet! However, due to the circumstances, I can say that it is now time for me to follow the yellow brick road of the media world and research the PR field. While doing so, I will never forget the concept that attracted me to a media profession the most: social change.
In this blog, I'd like to investigate the role public relations can play/or has played in any type of social change. I will tackle a broad range of topics that will be related to: the history of public relations and its relation to journalism, the meaning of "social responsibility" to public relations practitioners, different public relations strategies and campaigns (from the nonprofit sector to corporate relations), what it means to be a "PR watchdog" and the current day relationship between public relations and social media.
Everybody has the ability to make a difference in this world. The only thing different about such ability is how one approaches it. My approach is will be through PR, starting right about now with this blog -- hopefully it does the trick. Hold on tight, and embrace yourself as you embark on this journey with me to help me find my niche in the media world.
Welcome!
Profile Post: "Call the Spin Doctor!"
Help, my image is dying!
It's not unlikely for one to associate public relations solely with the concept of spin: a public relations practitioner's attempt to favorably shape the news media's image of a politician, corporation, or the likes, especially after a crisis.
It's a win/lose situation. A "spin" may better the client's image, but bury the respectability of the PR profession, even if there are only a couple "spinsters" among the hundreds of other honest PR practitioners.
In the blog titled F.A.D.S. -- The Fight Against Destructive Spin, various PR professionals of a PR firm named Arment Dietrech write about PR spin. These professionals are "committed to improving the reputation of [their] industry and educating the public. PR is misunderstood, so F.A.D.S educates the public about what we do and the important role we play in society." The purpose of this blog is therefore to expose the 'destructive spin' concept of PR, and restore the profession's integrity. This blog reports and criticizes on the use of 'spin' in current day PR and the media, touches on truthful and 'good spin' practices within the PR and media industry and encourages discussion among readers about the issues and PR ethics. With posts appearing every 1-5 days, readers are able to read and discuss on a weekly basis. F.A.D.S.' Technorati rank may 588,858, but don't let that large number fool you -- this blog is a perfect place for online discourse about the integrity of the PR profession.
For instance, in one post titled "Astroturfing is WORSE than Spin!" a F.A.D.S. blog contributor, Gini Dietrich exposes a dishonest PR campaign conducted by Dewey Square Group. Dietrich is sure to explain what exactly astroturfing is for those who may not know PR lingo:
"What’s astroturfing, you ask?
It’s a political, public relations, or advertising campaign designed to create the impression of being spontaneous, or grassroots, behavior (hence the reference to artificial grass)."
Following, this campaign involved a forged letter to the editor of a newspaper by a PR professional to promote a good image for the Dewey Square Group. Dietrich ends the post stating bluntly: "I'm disgusted."
I absolutely love the ending of that post. It shows just how much one of the contributors of this blog really cares about the integrity of his profession, as well as its social responsibility to tell the truth. The authors have the courage to show faults in the PR world, as illustrated in this post among many more posts, which makes this blog so powerful.
But this blog doesn't only expose the bad -- our favorite Disney conscience, Jiminy Cricket, must have jumped in and did some talking because these bloggers know just how to see the good in PR.
Speaking of Disney, one post entitled, "Great PR in Rough Spending Times" contributor Tom Short enters the conversation of good PR practices by illustrating Disney's newest PR strategies related to the corporation's movie Earth. For every person who attended the movie during the opening week, Disney planted a tree in Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Short comments about the PR campaign:
Not only is Disney making money, but they are also promoting a caring image.
Likewise, this blog makes sure to point out that Disney is having an impact on the environment through PR, just one of the biggest social problems of our times.
With the help of this blog, I will be able to research PR campaigns that are far from helping society, and learn the difference between 'bad' and 'good' PR. Nonetheless, I will also be able to learn about the good practices PR entails, which is one of the sole purposes of my own blog. The posts may be sometimes short, but that's the job of a PR practitioner anyways: to get the most important information out in a simple and condensed manner. Because these are all PR professionals contributing to this blog, I feel that it is a very respectful source of information about PR, social change, and wrongdoings in the profession. As this site is built upon the ideals of confronting the PR stereotype of "spinning," my blog will differ in its emphasis (that being social change) but at times easily touch on the issues presented in this blog. Because this is a very engaging blog, hopefully when I become more knowledgeable about PR I will be able to discuss avidly with other PR professionals that read this blog.
Voices Post -- Vivid Creativity
Blogs aren't just black and white. They are usually dressed up in vivid color by the author's voice that keeps readers interested -- whether that voice is colorfully humorous, or even intellectual. When searching through different blogs that were related to PR, one blog I came across was PR-Squared. This blog is written by Todd Defren, a PR professional at SHIFT Communications. Defren discusses the changing PR industry. Sounds like another one of those blogs that duly identifies PR strategies using social media, right? Well, think again. Defren uses an informal, conversational and creative voice to engage the reader and effectively share his thoughts about PR.
Although Defren's blog does touch on lengthy PR strategies that are highly detailed, he writes as if he is personally speaking to the reader as if the reader was a colleague. For example, in one post discussing the future of public relations, Defren emphasizes:
I absolutely love the ending of that post. It shows just how much one of the contributors of this blog really cares about the integrity of his profession, as well as its social responsibility to tell the truth. The authors have the courage to show faults in the PR world, as illustrated in this post among many more posts, which makes this blog so powerful.
But this blog doesn't only expose the bad -- our favorite Disney conscience, Jiminy Cricket, must have jumped in and did some talking because these bloggers know just how to see the good in PR.
Speaking of Disney, one post entitled, "Great PR in Rough Spending Times" contributor Tom Short enters the conversation of good PR practices by illustrating Disney's newest PR strategies related to the corporation's movie Earth. For every person who attended the movie during the opening week, Disney planted a tree in Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Short comments about the PR campaign:
"Yes, Disney does have the money to do that anyway, but it shows there are big
companies that don’t just care about the money and themselves."
Not only is Disney making money, but they are also promoting a caring image.
Likewise, this blog makes sure to point out that Disney is having an impact on the environment through PR, just one of the biggest social problems of our times.
With the help of this blog, I will be able to research PR campaigns that are far from helping society, and learn the difference between 'bad' and 'good' PR. Nonetheless, I will also be able to learn about the good practices PR entails, which is one of the sole purposes of my own blog. The posts may be sometimes short, but that's the job of a PR practitioner anyways: to get the most important information out in a simple and condensed manner. Because these are all PR professionals contributing to this blog, I feel that it is a very respectful source of information about PR, social change, and wrongdoings in the profession. As this site is built upon the ideals of confronting the PR stereotype of "spinning," my blog will differ in its emphasis (that being social change) but at times easily touch on the issues presented in this blog. Because this is a very engaging blog, hopefully when I become more knowledgeable about PR I will be able to discuss avidly with other PR professionals that read this blog.
Voices Post -- Vivid Creativity
Blogs aren't just black and white. They are usually dressed up in vivid color by the author's voice that keeps readers interested -- whether that voice is colorfully humorous, or even intellectual. When searching through different blogs that were related to PR, one blog I came across was PR-Squared. This blog is written by Todd Defren, a PR professional at SHIFT Communications. Defren discusses the changing PR industry. Sounds like another one of those blogs that duly identifies PR strategies using social media, right? Well, think again. Defren uses an informal, conversational and creative voice to engage the reader and effectively share his thoughts about PR.
Although Defren's blog does touch on lengthy PR strategies that are highly detailed, he writes as if he is personally speaking to the reader as if the reader was a colleague. For example, in one post discussing the future of public relations, Defren emphasizes:
"When people talk about the "Death of Public Relations," it doesn’t bother me at
all. I know what they are talking about. They are talking about the death of
MEDIA RELATIONS. . .Now that that’s changing, our approach can change.
PUBLIC RELATIONS can fulfill its mandate to improve RELATIONS with the
PUBLIC."
Like in this post, Defren uses an abundance of capital letters to state his opinion on the subject matter, and clearly show the reader what is important in the post. He also uses italics and bolds as well to make his point clearly in other posts -- especially at the end of the posts to ensure that the reader gets the 'take home message.'
Moreover, commas, colons and periods are the magical figures of Defren's use of punctuation. They help gather his big ideas into short and straightforward sentences. It is not likely to find a any post in this blog with run-on sentences. Thus, his use of punctuation helps characterize his professional and informal voice because he knows enough about the subject of the posts to be able to condense his ideas into such short sentences. Like Defren would say,
Ideas win.
In other words, he knows what he is talking about.
Aside ffrom writing posts about the future of PR, he actually mimics the voice of a PR client when talking hypothetical situations:
I found this adding some creativity to his voice, which actually complements the content of this blog. These hypothetical quotes exaggerate dialogue of a PR client, or PR professional through the use of punctuation!!!, swearing, underlining and italicizing to show just how much an effect the subject of his post(s) can have on the PR profession.
Even if he makes up his own quotes in these situations, he doesn't fake his conversational lingo between himself and the reader. A favorite phrase of Defren, as seen in many posts is, 'eh?' like: "Not recently, not often, eh?"; "Yet more and more marketing agencies are hurtling into the social media vortex, eh?"
Through these examples of his voice, you would think there is little strategy when choosing diction because these examples are more conversational than poetic. However, he uses an abundance of daring adjectives and adverbs in his posts. Among the ones I found striking being "bulletized," "atomized," "newsy," etc. To complement his daring diction and informal voice, Defren enacts playful links in this blog. For example, he talks about working at SHIFT Communications:
Moreover, commas, colons and periods are the magical figures of Defren's use of punctuation. They help gather his big ideas into short and straightforward sentences. It is not likely to find a any post in this blog with run-on sentences. Thus, his use of punctuation helps characterize his professional and informal voice because he knows enough about the subject of the posts to be able to condense his ideas into such short sentences. Like Defren would say,
Ideas win.
In other words, he knows what he is talking about.
Aside ffrom writing posts about the future of PR, he actually mimics the voice of a PR client when talking hypothetical situations:
"The brand enthusiast created by great online experiences becomes an even
bigger threat when they become disgruntled by the lack of attention paid to
all other customer service channels: "Treat me like a STAR one day,
and give me a nightmarish experience the next day, just because I’ve
reached out via a different channel? F* you! I’m gonna tweet about
this — you are a fraud!!"
I found this adding some creativity to his voice, which actually complements the content of this blog. These hypothetical quotes exaggerate dialogue of a PR client, or PR professional through the use of punctuation!!!, swearing, underlining and italicizing to show just how much an effect the subject of his post(s) can have on the PR profession.
Even if he makes up his own quotes in these situations, he doesn't fake his conversational lingo between himself and the reader. A favorite phrase of Defren, as seen in many posts is, 'eh?' like: "Not recently, not often, eh?"; "Yet more and more marketing agencies are hurtling into the social media vortex, eh?"
Through these examples of his voice, you would think there is little strategy when choosing diction because these examples are more conversational than poetic. However, he uses an abundance of daring adjectives and adverbs in his posts. Among the ones I found striking being "bulletized," "atomized," "newsy," etc. To complement his daring diction and informal voice, Defren enacts playful links in this blog. For example, he talks about working at SHIFT Communications:
"Lots of really cool people want to work here; we work hard but it’s usually pretty
fun."
The link seems a little tricky -- what exactly could "pretty fun" link to? Well, it links to another blog post about SHIFT Communications being named one of the best places to work in the SF Bay Area. I have got to say, that's a pretty creative choice of a link. As you have already seen, creativity runs deep in this blog. Defren's titles, i.e. "Social Change's Bloodless Revolution", "Terrorized into Excellence", "Your Personal Brand is Crap!" "Can't Hurry Love", etc. help make Defren's overall creative persona.
As a reader, one can see that Defren has the skills, determination and creative voice that anyone needs to work in and educate the communications world.
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