It is a thankless and never ending job, battling PR’s image problen, but one that I enjoy doing my small part in nonetheless. Although the name of my blog might lead people to believe that it is more about score settling, that’s really not the case. I just want more people to appreciate the good and ethical work that the vast majority of our field is involved with.
On a related note, my post on the Social Fluency blog today discusses the portrayal of the PR field in books over the past 50 years – I explored this by by tapping into new book search capabilites from Google Labs.
Also, I spotted a post on Drew B’s blog yesterday about an article in the Economist. The article casts a dim light on the PR field. According to Drew:
The future of PR, according to The Economist (it’s not pretty): “Ever since [the early 1900’s] public-relations officers have been locked in an antagonistic, symbiotic relationship with journalists, with mutual contempt tempered by mutual dependency.” – The Economist, December 2010 It’s tough reading this article in the Economist. Try sifting through the comments to see what other readers think about the article. It’s not pretty.
I tweeted this and Judy Gombita, who blogs at PR Conversations, was kind enough to point out the PRSA response: Merely Image Men? Hardly, which starts out:
For the lay person reading this week’s Economist article about historical shifts in public relations, derisively titled, “Rise of the image men,” it would appear that public relations is viewed as the selfish younger brother or sister of advertising and marketing, desperately grasping at the glory and profits those industries have long enjoyed.
Fortunately, for the well-informed, The Economist’s pessimistic assessment couldn’t be further from the truth. Reality tells us that the profession is far more sophisticated, and delivers considerably more value, than it is often given credit for.
Thanks Judy, and PRSA: the good fight continues.
Bob, thanks for taking the time to blog about this article. I’ve only seen a handful of reactions to this article, which is surprising.
Here’s my own reaction, and I’ll add a link to this post at the bottom with the others.
The Economist and PR: Stereotypes and Reflections
Sorry, html didn’t take, with the link this time: http://bit.ly/flaF34