PR Studies

Ridiculous PR and objectivity

Wikipedia requires contributors to write from a 'neutral point of view' and its founder Jimmy Wales discourages edits from PR practitioners because their view is deemed, as paid advocates, to be biased. (There's currently a lively debate on this topic on a Facebook group.)

This post is not about Wikipedia, but about the struggle for PR to be practised objectively. For, on the face of it, the paid advocate cannot ever be neutral.

It's because PR seems incapable of neutrality - and will always be vulnerable to charges of 'spin' or even deceit - that we should mind our language.

It is because we act as advocates (and have an intermediary role between the organisations and key groups) that we must be mindful of how the organisation is perceived. 

A stream of self-serving, upbeat messages can easily be dismissed as 'just PR'. To be effective, PR must adopt the language and values of news and be written objectively. How does this sound?

• 'Smiley Company are pleased to announce Fun Fridays'

It's wrong in so many ways. It put the organisation at the centre of the story, where it is unlikely to belong. It views the company as plural (we, they) and describes its state of emotion (who cares?). In short, it's not news. It may look like PR (and there's a lot of this about), but it's not ever likely to be effective public relations.

How can ojective public relations improve on this?

• 'Call for Fun Fridays to banish national gloom'

It's still weak, the softest of soft news, but it does raise a topical issue. It's not so smug and doesn't open the organisation to ridicule. At least it's not quite so readily dismissed.

When subjectivity is so inappropriate and so easily-spotted, why is it still so common in public relations statements? The answer has to be group think - the downside of organisational group dynamics - and the desire to please the boss or the client.

But what is more pleasing? Soft words that flatter the boss but fail to deliver any news (and may lead to ridicule); or a more objective approach that removes the self-serving publicity but may deliver greater news impact?

It's the difference between writing with the organisation/client in mind and writing with the reader in mind (the reader, conventionally, being a jaded journalist who has seen it all before).

It's easy to understand, but hard to put into practice. I raise it here because I see so many students and junior practitioners falling into group think and believing that PR means writing in an overly-promotional style.

To respond to Jimmy Wales, we may not be neutral but we can and should be objective.

 

Lies, damn lies and league tables

Scores matter. At university, we grade assignments as a percentage, and bracket degrees to indicate levels of attainment. In sport, matches are decided by scores and league tables are used to rank achievement. In work, salaries are a numerical indication of the value put on a person's role.

I'd been considering ways of recognising the out-of-class achievement of PR students, but did not want to create an alternative set of blogging awards. Besides, the existing awards were based on the subjective assessment of a panel of judges, and did not seem to me to reflect the wider picture.

With these two goals in mind - the value of a league table showing out-of-class progress and the need for objective measures - I have introduced the #socialstudent ranking at Behind the Spin.

The numbers are objective to the extent that they are independent and publicly available. All I'm doing is selecting UK PR students on full-time undergraduate or postgraduate courses and averaging their Klout and PeerIndex scores. The methodology is simple and transparent - and that is the only justification I'll make for it. (There's also no coaching involved: no current students knew of this league table before its launch, and my students are not required to blog and use Twitter as part of their course - though I do encourage them to.)

Klout in particular has been receiving much negative commentary based on its methods of calculating numbers and for its business model - but I don't seem much that's different from the contract we make with other players in the free world (Google, Facebook, WordPress etc). We allow them to learn much about us in return for a free service that's useful to us.

The attempt to measure influence is an important one to PR practitioners (it's the theme of Philip Sheldrake's new book). The #socialstudent ranking aims to encourage students to become aware of online reputation and influence and to showcase some outstanding talent (employers are continually asking me to recommend graduates).

It's a work in progress and we're still in the first half of the season, but the league table looks to me to be a promising concept and - let me be honest - a good way to draw attention to our online publication.

From fashion to politics: new themes at Behind the Spin

Want to break into the competitive world of fashion PR? Then you should get your name out there. Why not write for Behind the Spin?

We're looking for articles on fashion PR and entertainment PR for publication in January (deadline end of December; the earlier you submit, the sooner we'll publish). The ideas need to come from you, but we'd welcome:

• Articles about your work experience (like this, or this)
• Interviews with or profiles of experienced practitioners in the sector
• Commentary on the PR and promotional approaches of your favourite brands
• Discussion of the role of traditional and social media
• Roundup of fashion or celebrity blogs
• Reviews of books relating to the theme

Contact [email protected] with your ideas.

Politics is suddenly interesting again. There's Occupy London, the threat of public sector strikes, the Eurozone crisis and the Arab Spring; next year there's the US presidential election and a London mayoral election.

Our guest edition in April 2012 is on the changing face of public affairs and political communications. Again, ideas and offers to write are welcome: please contact guest editors Sarah Roberts-Bowman or Paul Simpson.

In addition to these special themes, we always welcome articles of interest to students and young practitioners: reports on work experience, reviews of your courses, book reviews. Please contact the relevant section editor (see the About page for details).

Why articles don't get published

We're a friendly bunch at Behind the Spin.

We welcome ideas and articles - and even enjoy receiving some press releases.

But not every article submitted appears on the site.

Here are the top reasons why articles don't get published:

• It's not original (part 1). Please don't publish your piece on your blog first, then send it to us. Like most publications, we prefer original content. If we do publish the same article, then we open the door to detailed scrutiny of those changes we often make to make an article more readable. No editor wants this (we're not Wikipedia).
• It's not original (part 2). This is more subjective. We frequently receive articles on the same themes (finding placements, choosing PR courses etc). While we're happy to publish several, we prefer to publish those that say something original - or which simply make us smile.
• It's not original (part 3). If we ask you to research some opinions to add 'colour' to your feature, we expect real words attributable to real people. Not links to anonymous websites.
• It's good, but it's not clever. This is the most difficult one to explain to students. We receive some articles that are heartfelt and well-written. Yet we sometimes won't publish them if we judge it against that student's best interests. For exampe, a whinge against your placement employer could leave a big black mark against your Google searches visible to all future employers. Yes, it's a form of censorship, but we're trying to help.
• Is it legal? We have never had any correspondence with lawyers on this magazine - and we hope to keep it that way. We almost certainly don't have copyright permission to use that photograph of a celebrity you've sent us with your article. If in doubt, we'll leave it out. And the lack of original photography makes a celebrity-focused feature much less appealing to readers.
• It lacks a voice. It's true we teach you to write in an objective way in your academic essays, building your argument based on referenced reliable sources. But we're not an academic publication. We want to hear voices and listen to real opinions. Bland objective pieces complete with academic references belong elsewhere.

My thoughts on references and recommendations

I'm often asked to write references - and now so many are on LinkedIn, recommendations too.

I'm willing to help, but if you're thinking of asking then here's how you can help yourself first. Here's what I need if I'm to write an informed and positive reference or recommendation:

• I need a clear recollection of you, and something memorable to write about. (This sounds like my memory problem, but there are several things you can do to help me.)
• I would hope to have had some connection with you since we worked together, or since I taught you. (I'm not asking for Christmas cards - some connection on social media should be sufficient. I love career updates and even maintain a blog to record your achievements.)

Smart students already view their lecturers as potential mentors, not just as teachers. But most don't yet realise that although we may only have limited power (of awarding grades), we may have surprising influence in terms of workplace recommendations and connections.

On the day we learn about record levels of youth unemployment, I would like more students and graduates to appreciate this mentor role and get over the pupil-teacher relationship.

Back to earth. Back to reality.

There's a feeling of 'back to school' this week. But that's not the reason for the jolt.

The reality check is the decision to fold the Media Guardian supplement (and Education and Society supplements too) into the main paper. Clearly, this is a commercially-driven decision taken because of the migration of job advertisements from print to online (and elsewhere). Decades ago, before the world of the web, each Monday's Media Guardian had page after page of job ads and was the place to find a whole range of graduate opportunities. Times change, and so does technology.

The second jolt relates to this first one. Here's a very lucid perspective on the issue of unpaid internships from an MSc Marketing student. The phrase that leaps out at me is this uncontentious-looking one: 'I’m 23 and aspire to a career in advertising'. Only connect. The Guardian loses its well-established Media supplement  because of the migration of classified ads online. Then ask some questions about the future of display ads and print media.

Yes, but surely broadcast ads have bounced back in the past year. Perhaps; but what's the wider picture? The future of advertising isn't in advertising. It's in creating ideas, delivering compelling communications, fostering communities and managing digital campaigns (as this student is already aware). In other words, the future of advertising looks very like public relations...

Hopefully smart graduates are alert to this. Hopefully their lecturers and textbook authors are too. But I very much doubt that university marketing and management teams are when they offer courses that appear to promise glittering careers in glamorous twentieth-century industries that evoke a Mad Men world.

Bump. Back to reality.

The future of public relations education

Guess which university is currently recruiting for a part-time public relations lecturer? Newcastle University (here's the ad).

This is worth noting because for past two decades undergraduate PR degree courses have only been offered in the UK by the 'new' universities (ie former polytechnics). Public relations was seen as too commercial and unsufficiently academic for the more traditional universities.

Now every HE institution is confronted by a more competitive landscape in which money follows students - and public relations ticks several boxes, notably for graduate employability. There's now a Centre for Corporate Reputation at Oxford University; I understand Leeds University has hired our former colleague Lee Edwards from Manchester Business School to boost its public relations and communications team; and Newcastle University is now offering public relations (within a media and cultural studies context).

This move towards academic respectability is good news for public relations as a discipline; it's good news for the professional bodies such as the CIPR; it's good news for students who have greater choice. It may be bad news however for some of the 'new' universities who may not be prepared for this more bracing competitive landscape.

To draw on an analogy, there are 92 professional football clubs across the four English divisions (Premier League, Championship etc). Despite promotion and relegation, the top teams remain remarkably stable from season to season. So it is with universities (though there are currently more than 92 of them).

Just as some football clubs go into administration (though remarkably few given the poor finances of most of them), some universities may not survive in the new landscape.

You don't have to buy a ticket to a professional club to watch football. Similarly, you don't have to go to university to study public relations. There have always been qualifications and training courses aimed at practitioners (and would-be practitioners).

Yet university remains valuable for those who can benefit from the rounded experience on offer and the useful half-way house between the structure of school and the challenges of the workplace. Public relations combines the intellectual rigour of a university degree with practical applicability and very high rates of employability.

I wasn't faced with tuition fees and was encouraged to 'follow my interests'. While this remains good advice, it also makes sense to consider the future before committing to student debt. In this context, I'm confident in what we're offering and am pleased that more universities are coming to share this view.

 

My review of my year

We encourage students to become 'reflective learners' - but in general undergraduates are poor at reflection. Some assume they're perfect and all assume that they're perfectible works-in-progress.

I know differently. I've never been perfect and with age my character flaws have grown ever more apparent. But my strengths are equally clear and as adults we become proficient at masking the one with the other.

So here's my reflection on my (academic) year, starting with what's gone well. For context, I returned to a full-time role in September after an inexplicable year of trying something different.

Positive

• My teaching hightlight was leading a large, lively and experimental postgraduate module (Public Relations and New Media). Not all welcomed the wilfully unstructured delivery - but it forced everyone to think and there was some very strong student work from a very diverse group.
• I have spent my adult life trying to turn a love of history into paid work in public relations. This year I turned a PR-for-PR project into a paper at a History of Public Relations conference.
• We're in a recession and graduates are sometimes derided for lacking workplace skills. Yet I'm still aware of more employers seeking good graduates than good graduates lacking suitable work. Nothing pleases me more than connecting the one with the other.
• My own research is limited (see below), but I'm delighted that a postgraduate who I supervised has had a paper accepted at the Euprera Congress 2011 (which we have both been involved in promoting).
• I've become something of a professional qualifications expert, and helped with delivery of the CIPR Diploma in another country (in addition to location-based and online delivery).
• I've edited online magazine Behind the Spin for over four years. We have a viable and valuable student magazine (with cash in the bank) - and I should now start looking to pass this on to a suitable home.
• I blog infrequently at PR Studies - yet it's still what I'm best known for. Perhaps this is a weakness (see below)?

Negative

• What have I written? I'm not a traditional academic focused on 'research outputs', but I should be capable of some original thought or interesting publication. So where is it? Are the blogs and tweets merely a displacement activity?
• I was fortunate to have gained a very good education in the humanities, during which quesions were always more interesting than answers. Yet I'm more often teaching people who expect a didactic and definitive approach to knowledge. (Knowing my weakness, I get an opportunity to work on it: I'm leading a new module for first year undergraduates - Principles of Public Relations, a chance to teach theory rather than practice.)
• I'm impatient with process and paperwork. I regret this where students are involved, but still feel there's a point to be made at an institutional level. I could be wrong...

There may be trouble ahead

We have a problem. There's a perfect storm approaching for students and universities. Oversupply of graduates is meeting a shrinking jobs market just when the cost of higher education is about to jump.

What's a young person to make of this? They should shop carefully and decide whether and when higher education is the right decision for them. Education is priceless and the opportunity university brings is valuable. But it's not about the degree certificate alone; it's about the journey. Where should you begin your journey (which city, which university)? What should you study?

Students will have to become more businesslike, starting with 'brand me'. Most are already holding down one or more paid jobs while studying, and should gain credit for their work outside the classroom where it adds to their independence and employability.

What's a university to do? We have to prove our value in a crowded and competitive market. Value starts with staff and buildings but extends to alumni and other networks. What have former graduates gone on to do? What do they say about the course? What do employers think of our graduates?

There's more to education than money and more to degrees than careers. But we can't ignore the cost-benefit analysis that young people and their parents will be conducting.

I anticipate a shift from 'full-time' education of 18 to 21 year olds towards different patterns of adult education, workplace learning and continuous professional development. None of this is new, but there will be renewed impetus from 2012. University buildings will need to be occupied for more than half a day for half the week and half the year.

I also anticipate a shift in emphasis from producing employable graduates to developing entrepreneurial young people. This is exciting - but very problematic for business schools. Would an entrepreneurial young person be better advised to invest £50,000 in their business or in their education (an approximate cost of tuition fees plus living expenses over a degree course)? It depends...

A suitable candidate for company graduate schemes is likely to be a conventional team player. The successful  entrepreneur is likely to be a stubborn, thick-skinned individualist. Which personality type suits the classroom better?

Then there's a cultural problem. Mass higher education has worked hard to reduce failure and so operates in a fail-safe culture. Innovation requires lots of experimentation - including much failure. Since failure is the necessary flip side of success, we will need to learn to embrace it. Risk will need to be taught as a good thing, not as a problem as now.

Trouble ahead? If I think as an entrepreneur, I see plenty of opportunity in education. In the meantime, we're celebrating another batch of graduates next week.

Photo by digitalkatie on Flickr (Creative Commons)

Graduateness without a degree (21 by 21)

I spoke to a class of sixth formers about university this week. They, remember, will be the first group having to fund fees of up to £9,000 a year if they choose to go to university.

I told them that except for a few specific professions (like medicine), a degree is still not an absolute essential - but gaining 'graduateness' will be vital for their future success. (I told them I wanted them to go to university, but even more than this I wanted them to want to go.)

The challenge now is to articulate what I mean by graduateness. To kick this off, here's a list for discussion of '21 things to achieve by age 21' - suitable for graduates and non-graduates alike. What would you add or change?

21 by 21

21 things to have achieved by age 21

Citizenship

• Have raised money for a good cause
• Have campaigned in an election or for a cause
• Have written to your MP
• Have a track record of volunteering

Media literacy

• Have had a letter published in a newspaper or have appeared on television
• Have your own blog or personal website
• Have a following on social media (eg 500 Facebook friends; 100 Twitter followers)
• Can name your five favourite novels (and say why you've chosen them)
• Can discuss and explain the day's news headlines

Entrepreneurship and independence

• Have started your own business
• Have gained demonstrable team-building and leadership qualities
• Have lived independently and learned to budget
• Have cooked a meal for six or more

Global outlook

• Can speak a foreign language
• Have lived abroad (not just visited on holiday)
• Are sensitive to cultural and religious differences

Personal achievements

• Have the expected grades and qualifications - plus something extra
• Must have sound basic literacy (spelling) and numeracy (counting) skills
• Endurance (eg have run a marathon; have walked 100 miles)
• Can explain your passion for sport/fashion/celebrity/music etc
• Have in addition to this some notable musical, artistic or sporting skill, or an unusual hobby

Am I too unambitous? I can think of some current first year students (who may be 18, 19, 20, or 21) who have already ticked off most of this list.