For Monday, April 13th: Blogging Chapter 12 (Public Relations)

Chapter 12:

In reading chapter 12, I found it interesting to learn about the “dialogic” approach which has evolved emphasizing an approach to PR that is different from the traditional communication through the mass media broadcasting messages. This approach focuses on having a dialogue with and listening to your many publics, stakeholders, and consumers; one that is grounded in the social sciences. It’s about developing relationships and communicating with various publics versus sending mass messages to them in hopes that they will relate to them. To me it is a very targeted and deliberate kind of communication and as the text says “a two-way street for communication”. I see this as a great way for PR professionals to really understand and connect with their target publics.

Many PR professionals today say that PR has to re-invent itself with the onset of the digital media. Traditional tools once used to communicate with the media are outdated and no longer effective. It seems to me that this field is on the brink of great opportunities as professionals learn to leverage Web 2.0 in order to connect with their stakeholders, consumers and various publics. My question is will the Web be able to save a profession that has received a lot of negative feedback and be successful at re-inventing itself?

A “fact” I found interesting which is worth noting is traditional news/press releases today are primarily issued by public companies as a way of tracking events and information. The 21st century news release has been reinvented and gone digital, the social media news release. Since it is transmitted via the Internet it is interactive in nature with links to related blogs, websites, videos, etc. that are supportive collateral.

“Toxic Sludge is Good for You”

In previous comments by my colleagues it was noted that the film begins with a “Sci-Fi” like music, somewhat gloomy tones tapping into the limbic brain. Though this film’s main premise is that the PR industry main purpose per Professor Stuart Ewen is “to permeate messages that are designed to effect public behavior and thought”, this generalization obviously gives a negative connotation for the PR industry. In the example of the “Toxic Sludge is Good for You”, and the campaign by the Water Environment Federation it is worth noting that this organization was government funded by the EPA for its educational campaign. So it’s no surprise that the government would want to put their own spin on this idea of toxic sludge, renamed biosolids, as a good thing for the environment. I would challenge Professor Ewen in his last comment when he says that “In order to change and challenge the propaganda apparatus the only way to do it is for the communications system and the tools of public expression to become things that are more and more in the hands of ordinary people. Unless we begin to have a more democratic creation of the media environment the current system is not going to change. But the possibility is there and the tools are within reach.” Without knowing exactly when this film was created I can already see that today the PR industry is in the process of changing how it communicates with its publics. Through the Web PR professionals are realizing that they can no longer project their messages to mass media, but rather they need to communicate with ordinary people through blogs and other chat areas and engage in one to one conversations in order to connect with their publics.