PR Studies

New theme: music and public relations

I've had some enquiries about running a music theme in Behind the Spin - so here's your chance to write about your favourite topic. We're a public relations magazine, remember, so here are some possible angles:

• Use of social media to promote music
• Festival promotion 
• PR careers in music 
• The decline of the hit and rise of the long tail (and what this means for the industry)
• Downloads, copyright and legal issues 
• Who's who in the music press
• The use of sound in public relations 
• The revival of radio 

Your ideas and articles are very welcome over the coming weeks. editor@behindthespin.com 
  

Call for contributions: Behind the Spin magazine

We're looking for ideas and writers for the next two major updates of Behind the Spin.

March 2009: Public Sector PR (local government, health service, police etc)

June 2009: PR consultancies & technology sector PR

As well as these changing themes, we always welcome articles on PR careers, courses and placements and also off-topic but publishable examples of writing from PR students and young practitioners.

Articles from PR students are particularly welcome. You don't have to be an expert on your topic, but you will need to do some research. Here are five ways to get started:

1. Request an interview with a senior practitioner - or shadow them for a day - and write a profile or interview piece based on this.

2. Start with a theme (or a question), and speak to as many people as possible who can help you answer the question. Example: 'Do ex-journalists always make the best press officers?'

3. Write an opinion piece based on your own views and experience.

4. Conduct a survey on a topic or question and report your findings.

5. Take an existing research project (your dissertation, say) and turn it into a general interest article.

General guidelines

Articles should be of around 1000 words and of interest to our readership of PR students and young practitioners.

Copy deadline is the end of the month before publication (end of February for March publication). But it's always best to contact the editor first with your outline proposal before researching and writing your piece (do this as soon as possible).

Contact: editor@prstudies.com

Round-up

• The Economist puts blogging into perspective (Oh, grow up). It's no longer new and exciting - but it has entered the mainstream. Is that so bad?
• Facebook's also no longer new, but it's unquestionably popular. And it's continuing to grow. The reassuring thing is that it does such normal, conventional things: it allows people to talk to their friends and form communities of interest.
• I'm putting some time and energy into the PR student magazine, Behind the Spin after a long, sleepy summer break (what's the summer equivalent of hibernation: estivation?). There's some new content up there with more to follow. And we're always looking for ideas and for articles; check it out.

Practitioners: 'what do you read?' meme

I'm keen to start a regular 'bookshelf' column in Behind the Spin magazine. This will give PR practitioners a chance to say which books they most often consult. In previous issues, Lord Chadlington has mentioned his admiration of the novels of Anthony Trollope. Currently, Karl Milner praises Drew Westen's The Political Brain (a timely read about the pyschology of US presidential campaigns).

They could be books on politics, business or society; textbooks, style guides, self-help manuals or novels. They could be standards or surprises. Either way, I think it will help today's students and young practitioners.

Here are the groundrules. Choose up to ten books, and write up to 100 words explaining each choice. Send these to me with your portrait photo in JPG format (email address on right). You're also welcome to cross-post to your own blog.

To get you thinking, here are the top ten books I most often refer to (space does not allow descriptions):

1. The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell
2. Strategic Communication Management, by Jon White and Laura Mazur
3. The Empty Raincoat, Charles Handy
4. The Economist Style Guide
5. Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky
6. Journalism: Truth or Dare?, Ian Hargreaves
7. Naked Conversations, Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
8. Permission Marketing, Seth Godin
9. Evaluating Public Relations, Tom Watson and Paul Noble
10. The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, Al Ries and Laura Ries

Toby Young's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People came surprisingly close to being picked and this morning I found myself recommending Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene whilst admitting I've never read it myself...

Call for contributions

We're planning a new edition of Behind the Spin for June. This means I need your proposals by the end of April, words and photos by the end of May. The new themes for the next issue are:

• Media relations
• Retail sector PR

In addition, we always welcome news and features on PR courses, careers, skills, professionalism and book reviews.

Tip for students: don't assume you have to be an expert before writing something. Why not speak to an expert instead? This is your chance to interview a senior practitioner or to visit the PR team at a major retailer.

You can contact me at the university, via this blog, on the Behind the Spin Facebook group or at editor@behindthespin.com.