PR Studies

How we learn: paddling pool or immersion?

Like many people involved in teaching, I like nothing more than learning something new myself. It's a pleasant bonus when the lesson comes from a student.

There's a lesson for me in the apparent contradiction in what one of our placement year students writes about how to learn about two areas of public relations practice.

On crisis communications, she writes: 'crisis is an area that you can only gain experience from when you are thrown in at the deep end'. Yet, on social media just a page later: 'I spoke to a lecturer regarding the lack of social media tuition at university and the opinion was that since we are of a younger generation ... we are assumed to already have this knowledge. This is not true and there is an academic gap that needs to be addressed.'

So, for one area of public relations it's 'learning by doing'; in another, it's 'back to the classroom'. This contradiction is the subject of a paper on 'teaching social media' I'm jointly presenting at the Stirling 21 conference in September, so this is a timely contribution.

Desperately seeking symmetry

Every student of public relations learns about the 'two-way symmetrical model', considered to be the only excellent approach to public discourse by organisations. Though published 25 years ago (by US academics James Grunig and Todd Hunt) this model stands up remarkably well in an internet and social media age that prizes conversations and transparency.

I've just read a batch of essays stating that blogging exemplifies the two-way symmetrical model. Let's agree that blogging is (or should be) a two-way process. Readers can comment, they can continue the discussions on their own blogs through trackbacks and hyperlinks. But how is this symmetrical? A blog post always has more prominence than the comments; comments (particularly on corporate blogs) can be moderated and deleted. This is no more symmetrical than a newspaper that has a page for readers' letters and which prints occasional corrections (though rarely with the prominence of the original story).

If not blogging, then are there better examples of two-way symmetrical forms of social media? Conceptually, wikis are the most democratic form - since anyone (or any member of the community) can have equal rights to create and correct content. In reality, though, this is idealistic. Wikipedia (the most celebrated wiki of them all) has increasingly strong editorial controls and an army of volunteers policing changes and new content. So there's asymmetry here too. Besides, participation inequality (the 90-9-1 rule in Groundswell) suggests that very few members of any community are willing to do more than passively lurk - so we're back to one-way communications. Forget the conversations.

As for podcasts and videos, it's hard to argue that they're even two-way channels since they are products of editorial control (though the ease of creation and the way they are shared makes them a form of social media).

What about twitter? This is close to the ideal of unmediated voices in the public sphere (within the contstraints of 140 characters). Conversations can be joined and followed and there's apparent equality of voices because of the lack of editorial control. Clutter means we need filters, though, so Shirky's power laws still apply. Those with more followers have unequal conversational power.

Where are the social media examples of two-way symmetrical communications?

Dissertation research process simplified

Here's a diagram I used on Friday to simplify the research process for those conducting small, structured academic research projects.

This group are beginning their CIPR Diploma projects, but the approach comes from talking to many undergraduate students about their dissertations.

What's needed, I suggest, is a topic that's broad enough for there to be an existing body of literature. And a research question that's narrow enough for the student to be able to attempt to answer it.

The literature review is an account of what others have written on the topic; the research methodology outlines the approach you are going to take to answer your question.

The great PR degree debate

Wofstar's Jed Hallam has sparked a lively debate on the value of a PR degree (and has shown ingenuity in using other communications channels to encourage comments).

There are 22 responses to date; I've had my say over there so won't comment further here.

We're hiring again

In the week the Governor of the Bank of England and the Prime Minister mentioned the R word, I'm still concerned with recruitment. We took on two colleagues in the summer to deliver our new BA Journalism degree, we've already hired one lecturer on a one-year contract and we now need another. Our public relations and communications teaching team now has around 14 members.

Universities are not immune to the wider economy, but they work on different cycles. Student numbers overall are still increasing, and Master's courses are growing in popularity. Recruiting students from outside the EU helps with income, as does research and consultancy work.

One of our star researchers has gained public funds for a one-year research project, so we're looking to replace her. We welcome applications from practitioners, but we need someone with a strong interest in theoretical concepts for this post. Here's the advertisement on the university website.

A one-year post might suit someone returning to university lecturing or looking to make the transition into the sector full time. Please contact me if you'd like to discuss this informally, but do avoid the telephone while we resolve the problems with our new IP phones...

A 'two-way symmetrical' with James Grunig

You must have noticed. The emergence of Twitter (twitch-speed) and Facebook (fun, frivolous and frankly personal) has allowed blogging to settle into a comfortably reflective niche in the personal publishing ecosystem.

This means it's suitable for discussing, debating and disseminating ideas - but preferably in everyday language (note how Seth Godin does this, but not the debating bit). PR Conversations has lived up to its name by debating public relations and social media with James Grunig.

Here's the key discussion point I take out of this. James Grunig says:

I think public relations is headed in two incompatible directions... I call these two competing approaches to public relations the symbolic, interpretive, paradigm and the strategic management, behavioral, paradigm.

Practitioners who follow the interpretive paradigm emphasize messages, publicity, media relations, and media effects to put up a smoke screen around the organization so publics cannot see the organization’s behavior as it truly is.

In contrast, the behavioral, strategic management, paradigm focuses on the participation of public relations executives in strategic decision-making so that they can help manage the behavior of organizations...The strategic management paradigm emphasizes two-way communication of many kinds to provide publics a voice in management decisions and to facilitate dialogue between management and publics both before and after decisions are made. The strategic management paradigm does not exclude traditional public relations activities such as media relations and the dissemination of information.

I see public relations moving in both directions. I hope it will move away from the interpretive approach and become more of a strategic management approach. I have done everything I could do in my career to move it in that direction. However, I believe practitioners who emphasize marketing communication and media relations in their work are pushing hard to maintain the interpretive approach.

This is a good start point for our discussions in the class running on Friday and Saturday.

Where is PR?

More interesting than discussing 'what is PR?' is the question of 'why do PR?' Most interesting of all is the question of where PR sits in the organisation - the theme of the upcoming EUPRERA congress, awkwardly titled 'institutionalizing (sic) public relations and corporate communication'.

Dr Tom Watson has just presented at a management forum in South Africa and has this to say about the locus of public relations education:

If PR is to gain continuing recognition as a management function, programmes need to either be situated in business schools (separate from marketing programmes) or have a strong managerial focus if placed elsewhere.

PR dissertation: how to do it badly

I get more correspondence on this topic than any other. (I don't flatter myself: a simple Google search throws up my previous Dissertation problem page.) Here's a recent example: 'NEED HELP. I am just starting an MA program in Communication Studies. I am faced with choosing a topic. I am so confused and I need help. I just read the PR blog and I find it very interesting, but I still need help... Hoping to hear from you soon.'

Let me turn this on its head and list the most obvious mistakes students can make with their dissertations:

1. Google is truly the wonder of our age, but not everything that can be known can be found by a Google search (yet). Your best starting point for your dissertation is still the library. Start by reading some books and see what questions interest you. Then keep on reading.
2. You fail to choose a clearly defined subject area (eg internal communications). If you are struggling to write a concise title, it may be that you don't have a clear subject in mind.
3. You don't ask a specific question about your subject area (eg Is internal communications the most important PR channel for FTSE 100 chief executives?).
4. Your literature review is descriptive rather than critical. By this we mean that you list the books you've read and describe their contents, but you don't show that you've read them with the intention of helping you to answer your question.
5. Your primary research is too little, too late. How does a student focus group help you to answer the question we posed about internal communications? You don't say because you don't know.
6. You don't connect your literature review to your research findings. If the two things are consistent, what does this suggest? If they are very different, what can explain this?
7. You don't reach any valuable conclusions because of the reasons given above. Nor do you redeem yourself by proposing any recommendations (eg about further research).
8. There are more online sources cited in your references than books (see point 1 above). References are inaccurate (that's silly: this is one thing you're allowed to copy without us calling it plagiarism. But you need to read some academic texts to see how they do it.)
9. You don't develop a working relationship with your supervisor. This is also silly: they will be marking your work. They may frustratingly believe that questions are more interesting than answers, but they are there to help you, so co-opt them in your project.
10. Last, but not least: you leave it too late.

On uncertainty and disruption

There's no Labor Day holiday in the UK, and only a minority in this country are starting to observe the month of Ramadan. But for university lecturers like me this is New Year's Day, the start of the new academic year.

I've had an optimistic conversation with Anderson Lima about the uncertain future facing the worlds of marketing, public relations and academia. Optimistic because change is a constant, and change brings opportunities.

Another person embracing disruption is Stephen Davies, who has started his own online communications consultancy, 3W PR. Stephen is a pioneer whose moves are always worth watching. 'The world has changed; so has PR'. I certainly hope so.

We could be gloomy about the state of the economy or the threat of a new Cold War, or we could welcome the opportunites presented by disruption. Fortune favours the bold. Happy New Year!

Summer transfer news: we're hiring

Our Communications and Public Relations group has already made two appointments in preparation for the new Journalism degree course and still has a one-year full-time vacancy to fill, teaching undergraduate public relations students. The notice will appear soon on the university's vacancies page, with an application deadline of 29 August (and interviews to follow in early September).

I'm keen to answer any questions about this vacancy, though my response through any of the usual channels (email, blog, Facebook, phone) may be slower than usual during the holiday season.

UPDATE: Here is the vacancy notice.