Find out how PR helps manoeuvre opinion and the news
Public relations, strangely enough, doesn't have great PR. Most people tend to think that PR involves being manipulative and saying whatever is in the employer's best interests. Authors Trevor Morris and Simon Goldsworthy, both PR professionals, don't disagree.
"There is much more gray than black and white in the field of PR ethics," they write in PR: A Persuasive Industry? Spin, Public Relations and the Shaping of the Modern Media. They call PR amoral, an instrument for good or evil purposes.
Industry professionals come down on both sides of the issue. Some say that PR is generally truthful, while others believe that white lies are part of the occupation. Polls of insiders revealed that most don't feel telling the truth is a duty of PR.
Corporate PR is what comes to mind when discussing the PR industry. But NGOs, such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International, also rely on PR.
A group that often mocks PR professionals is journalists, who often see themselves as truth-seekers forced to deal with press agents in order to get data. Yet without the PR industry, Morris and Goldsworthy argue, there would be little news. A 2008 study of news stories in U.K. newspapers found that more than 50% contained mostly Public Relations material
Good PR is often subtle, informing an even larger percentage of news stories, the authors say. "If journalists do not get their stories from PR, where else do they obtain them?" the authors ask. Most journalists tend to be alerted to newsworthy stories, and most alerts can be traced back to PR.
Evaluating the efficacy of PR campaigns is difficult. Because of the relative low cost of PR (vs. high-profile advertising), many companies are reluctant to invest much money to determine the usefulness of PR. It is hard to attribute a rise in sales to PR, for example, when other factors — price reductions or advertisements — are involved.
Since PR often involves countering the effect of bad publicity, it is almost impossible to measure what damage might have occurred.
In spite of drawbacks, the PR industry is growing by more than 30% annually in countries like China, Russia and Turkey. For a free press to function, Morris and Goldsworthy argue, PR is essential.
People gravitate to PR for a number of reasons: variety of the work; prospect of high pay; chance to be your own boss; glamorous lifestyle.
Perhaps the most alluring thing about being a Public Relations consultant is that no formal training is required: no certification, no universally acknowledged test, no courses offered at many prestigious universities (although some colleges offer PR studies). Essentially, there are no barriers to entry. Acknowledging the general bad reputation of public relations, the authors feel the need to offer a defence, calling PR "a wholly legitimate aid to the exchange of information and ideas in society."
That may be true. People want help to best convey their ideas, and PR can provide it to citizens in a free society. The authors explain much about the industry: that PR is amoral, difficult to define and difficult to measure. However, if you are looking for a book to conclusively answer your Public Relations questions, keep looking.
Source: Media Recruitment
"There is much more gray than black and white in the field of PR ethics," they write in PR: A Persuasive Industry? Spin, Public Relations and the Shaping of the Modern Media. They call PR amoral, an instrument for good or evil purposes.
Industry professionals come down on both sides of the issue. Some say that PR is generally truthful, while others believe that white lies are part of the occupation. Polls of insiders revealed that most don't feel telling the truth is a duty of PR.
Corporate PR is what comes to mind when discussing the PR industry. But NGOs, such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International, also rely on PR.
A group that often mocks PR professionals is journalists, who often see themselves as truth-seekers forced to deal with press agents in order to get data. Yet without the PR industry, Morris and Goldsworthy argue, there would be little news. A 2008 study of news stories in U.K. newspapers found that more than 50% contained mostly Public Relations material
Good PR is often subtle, informing an even larger percentage of news stories, the authors say. "If journalists do not get their stories from PR, where else do they obtain them?" the authors ask. Most journalists tend to be alerted to newsworthy stories, and most alerts can be traced back to PR.
Evaluating the efficacy of PR campaigns is difficult. Because of the relative low cost of PR (vs. high-profile advertising), many companies are reluctant to invest much money to determine the usefulness of PR. It is hard to attribute a rise in sales to PR, for example, when other factors — price reductions or advertisements — are involved.
Since PR often involves countering the effect of bad publicity, it is almost impossible to measure what damage might have occurred.
In spite of drawbacks, the PR industry is growing by more than 30% annually in countries like China, Russia and Turkey. For a free press to function, Morris and Goldsworthy argue, PR is essential.
People gravitate to PR for a number of reasons: variety of the work; prospect of high pay; chance to be your own boss; glamorous lifestyle.
Perhaps the most alluring thing about being a Public Relations consultant is that no formal training is required: no certification, no universally acknowledged test, no courses offered at many prestigious universities (although some colleges offer PR studies). Essentially, there are no barriers to entry. Acknowledging the general bad reputation of public relations, the authors feel the need to offer a defence, calling PR "a wholly legitimate aid to the exchange of information and ideas in society."
That may be true. People want help to best convey their ideas, and PR can provide it to citizens in a free society. The authors explain much about the industry: that PR is amoral, difficult to define and difficult to measure. However, if you are looking for a book to conclusively answer your Public Relations questions, keep looking.
Source: Media Recruitment