Public Relations… In the Furute #2

After reading several blogs from professional and non-professionals alike, I realized there are some mixed emotions on the future of public relations. And I feel the exact same way.

Seth Godin’s look into better technology making PR practitioners more lazy is something I definitely agree with.  Spamming multiple people with information they are probably not interested in doesn’t make the cause more credible or interesting it just makes public relations work seem pitiful.  Like PR people are begging for support from people who don’t care about them.  Keep the message focused at a target audience and the message will automatically become more credible and noticed.

This video was also extremely interesting and followed through with a lot of important aspects of public relations.  One major idea I notice was “everyone and everything connected.”  Since PR people should want to get as much information out to audiences, shouldn’t they want to get just as much information back?  This would definitely help in the evaluation and research phases of any campaign; as a continual and ever changing source of information.  The rest of the video is great too with tons of information on the future possibilities, and how social media releases should break through! 

 All About Public Relations with Steven R. Van Hook was also another helpful site that focused on the job force for public relations students.  Although the future looks bright ahead with the growth of PR jobs rapidly increasing, there are TONS of students graduating with public relations degrees.  The dopplegangers are attacking and fast, but with a good education and experience it looks like students will have no problem breaking into the field of PR with fresh, innovative ideas. 

Also during my research I found a really good list by a flustered blogger and PR practitioner, Brendan Hodgson, who was told to know where PR would be by 2030.  Really all of his thoughts seemed complete and coherent with my favorite being:

“7. “Change Communications” will simply become “Communications” because change, to abuse an over-used euphemism, will be the only constant (yeah, kick me).”

He is completely right though.  Communication is ever changing and so will public relations the consumers and clients will become more involved.  He also goes on to say evaluations will become more complete as well as the definition of “value,” not simply monetary, but function, reputation and credibility.

Brendan has great ideas and I completely agree.  Bravo! 

Many other sites I came across said the new tactics would blend with old.  However, with a more intelligent and stronger background in the future of PR, I think the old tactics with morph into new ones with the new technology available as long as it is used accurately and credibly.

Public Relations Practitioner To Be,

Cori Urrutia

Public Relations… in the Future

The future of public relations is a sensitive topic. There are so many possibilities, but from what I’ve learned in class thus far I would have to say one big change would be the media release.  It will be more interactive and have a better flow of information.  It will not only strengthen the relationship between the PR practitioner and the reporter, but also allow for stronger stories to be published. 

Also, PR people will have more opportunities to speak directly to the public to hopefully strengthen their credibility and become more successful at their job.  Relations with the public are obviously essential, so in order to gain trust PR people must better their relationships with the average people not just where they work.  

PR people will always be needed as long as business majors don’t learn the skills of dealing with the public and communicating effectively.  Also, there will always be a need for knowledge about the media and how they function, which is what PR people handle.

Technology will continue to change the business world, thus PR practitioners will need to continue to learn about the technological changes and adapt to them.  But for the moment we have e-mail at our finger tips and cell phones everywhere, which makes communication that much easier.

As for my future, I hope to be working at an international firm.  Not too sure what I want to do, but so far from what I’ve learned I will be doing a little bit of everything and that fits my personality perfectly.  If I choose not do international PR I would love to work for a non-profit organization.  Another amazing job would be working for a large hotel (like in Vegas!) and planning social events.

So really, I have a lot for ideas for the future and I’m excited about all of them, especially seeing where the PR industry takes me and where I take it.

Cori  

A Media Catastrophe?!

Since one day I am hopefully fated to become an international genius of public relations, I have a strong interest in the Prince Harry War Issue.

My first thought:  Why would the media hide such information?

Then my second thought:  What really makes him more important than my own Dad who is fighting for the same efforts in the same war?

Thus, the dilemma.  BUT after hours of deliberation, I decided that the media greatly failed at its job, and gave the average person another reason not to trust them. 

Even if they had told the public that Prince Harry had been deployed to Afghanistan, they would not need to tell the specific location, which shouldn’t happen anyway. 

If Prince Harry really wanted to be there then he shouldn’t have been afraid to tell people he was going to Afghanistan.  War is dangerous and deadly, and just because the public doesn’t know the Prince is involved doesn’t mean he couldn’t die along with the thousands of other soldiers.

Not telling the media just feeds into the thoughts that the government wants their citizens to risk their life in a the war, but will not act in the same way for a country they run on a daily basis. 

This is a media disaster compared to everything I have learned during my short time at OSU in the journalism broadcasting school.  All we are ever taught is to tell the truth, so what’s the difference with Prince Harry?

 If he really thinks it is a “shame” that he was ”unexpectedly withdrawn” then he should probably be apologizing for having the media hide is war efforts.

I just don’t think it’s fair to hide information from the public, especially when the person is doing something positive; like protecting freedoms.  People fighting in the war should praised, not hidden away by the media in hopes of a safe return.

People will then only become more caustious and less trusting of the media and that gets both parties nowhere.

Hiding the story is was a waste of time.  The secret was going to be told sooner or later and now it looks even worse because people feel like they have been lied to, which is upsetting.  The media are news providers, and if a Prince goes to war that is fairly newsworthy to me.

Cori

WOW! I am so excited… :)

So after weeks (more like a week, but who is really counting… it felt like an eternity!) of waiting I finally heard back from the JB Ambassador position…. I GOT IT!  I am so excited and can’t wait to see what it’s all about.  I love Public Relations, so shouldn’t everyone else?  Well, anyway I am just ready to find out more!

Let’s see more exciting news… I am going home Sunday for my Grandma’s birthday.  Mom is cooking Italian food, so that means it’s going to be a fat weekend!  Yes!

 Another thing… I have gone to the gym 4 days in the last 6.  I think that’s pretty awesome and I feel great.  Just another exciting thing.

So, on to more PR-ish type things….

American Airlines has some explaining to do.  A woman, who suffered from diabetes and heart disease, died on a plane becasue she couldn’t breathe, but flight attendents are supposed to be trained in emergency situations.  After reading the article, it seems like they did everything they could to help the poor woman, but it just didn’t work.  Scary situation.

Will churches start running PR campaigns? Actually it might not be such a crazy thought if people keep changing religions.  Seems like adults are now choosing their own religions instead of staying with the one they were given or not given at birth.  Really interesting… maybe a little increase in PR could help.

Ok… that’s enough PR for the day  Two more VERY exciting things:

Go Obama! (Ok, kinda PR.)

And….

I just completed my FIRST blog!

Cori

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