Changing Face of Media

One of the most fascinating and exciting parts of being a potential PR graduate is the opportunity to use various new mediums of media in campaigns. The changing face of media opens an exciting world of prospect for PR agencies.

With the media landscape changing at a rapid rate, it is essential that mainstream media companies adapt to this change and provide various services for the public. It is with this current change in media, PR consultants should be using this to their advantage to reach their clients.

Internet usage amongst younger audiences is at an all time high, this is reducing the readership amongst newspapers. As mentioned in one of my earlier rants, the advent of My Space and Face Book allows PR consultants the opportunity to target this particular audience. I have just read how politicians are now using My Space to attract votes for this coming federal election.

A couple of the most interesting and important functions of new media from a PR point of view is its instantaneity to the public, the fact that it is global and available perpetually. With the arrival of this technology, PR campaigns can be launched globally almost at an instant.Although more traditional media are still an active and required source amongst PR campaigns, they will gradually be overtaken by these forms of new media as the tool of choice and therefore should be embraced.

PRIA and Other Societies

Ok - now here is a shameless plug for the wonderful people of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) and many of the other governing bodies, if I may call them that, around the world.
PRIA is the peak body for Public Relations and Communication professionals in Australia. The institute represents and provides professional support and recognition to various individual practitioners and consultancies, across Australia.

As a student member these bodies are quite an important tool in many aspects. They provide networking opportunities, provide further educational training, conduct information seminars and employment assistance.

It is with the institutes and associations, such as PRIA and various others, to promote public relations as a profession and enhance its image to the broader community. The institutes members are drawn from in-house and agency practitioners across sectors of various industries, particularly from corporate, government and community sector. Individuals are required to meet strict criteria for full professional membership.

The institute maintains high ethical standards and all members are required to make a commitment to a stringent Code of Ethics. These Codes of Ethics are governed by a senior group of practitioners. The Code of Ethics also governs consultancy members. This is to ensure that the institutes beliefs about what is right and wrong are upheld by its members.

PRIA also provides members with professional accreditation, and recognition and maintains a continuous professional development program, where members undertake relevant study of up to 20 hours a year to maintain the high standards that PRIA desire for the industry. The [1]PRIA website identify seven main areas of continual development as:-

• Formal Courses (minimum of 1 hour) - Lectures & seminars conducted by the PRIA including conventions; in-house training sessions by employers; and courses provided by other recognised educational, professional or industrial bodies.
• Formal Individual Study - includes correspondence and off-campus courses, programmed learning courses and audio-courses.
• Formal Discussions - includes committees, discussion groups and meetings organised by the PRIA as well as professional, educational or industrial bodies involved in the preparation and review of professional material.
• Preparation of Lectures - of a relevant nature for presentation at PRIA or other professional, education or industrial functions.
• Written Materials - preparation of articles or papers on public relations or professional research study projects for publication.
• Board and Institute - active involvement with either the National Board or State and Territory Institutes by serving on committees or sub-committees.
• Unstructured CPD - reading of relevant books, periodicals, journals, technical bulletins, and research reports, as well as discussions with specialists on relevant matters.

Volunteer committees comprising members from each State division, organise and run networking, information and training events and programs each year, to help improve members professional skills, business and personal networks and opportunities. As a student or recent graduate this is an excellent chance to meet potential employers or arrange work placement, learn more potential skills and to create a greater understanding as to how work in PR after university is like. One of the most inspiring things about PRIA is no matter what your level within the PR industry; it will always have something to offer you as a consultant.

Shameless plug now over!

[1] PRIA: www.pria.com.au

Networking Advantages for PR Grads

One of the most important things recent or upcoming PR graduates should get involved in is networking. Networking gives the opportunity to:

• Exchange information
• Development of reliable and professional contacts to assist with obtaining advice and support and
• Create business opportunity

Due to the times we currently live in, PR grads have some excellent tools to help them market themselves, or their company to other PR consultants and even more importantly, clients. The opportunity that various mediums of new media can provide is quite outstanding. Normally networking was left to functions where like-minded people exchanged business cards over a luncheon and some chardonnay. Today, computers, iPods and various Internet tools push the boundaries of networking to another level. But what are some of these new tools and how can they be effective in self-promotion of PR grads?

• Blogs: The Internet can provide valuable information to society in general about a person. Blogs are an easy and effective way to not only get a particular message ‘out there’ but also offers the opportunity for PR grads to practice their writing skills and critical thinking – something which I have touched on within my Work Placement spiel. As this is my first attempt at a blog, I can safely say that it has indeed had me thinking about certain issues within PR and what my particular beliefs or thoughts on these may be. Technorati, an internet search tool for blogs, has indexed over 75 million blogs worldwide. Now that is one hell of an audience!
  Of course, you can beyond the menial world of a ‘normal’ blog (c’mon, mine isn’t that bad!) and integrate various different technological advancements in to your blog.

• Podcast: A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that are distributed over the Internet using feeds for playback on portable media players, such as iPods and personal computers. People can "subscribe" to your podcast and get all your latest views on certain issues. Certain podcasts however, can be broadcasted live and can be interactive, thus allowing other podcasters the opportunity to communicate live and direct.
  
• Networking Websites: Networking websites such as MySpace, FaceBook and Graduates.com, amongst others are valuable mediums to promote yourself as an employable PR consultant. Although mainly used for social aspects, websites such as the ones mentioned, allow graduates the opportunity to show various skills and ideals relevant to the PR industry to perspective employers. Of course there are downsides to such networking websites, such as explained here: http://theprlawyer.blogspot.com/2007/05/digital-dark-ages.html

Nathan’s Internship Experience

So what is the work placement actually like and what work do I complete whilst I am there? Well, as I can only tell you what I have accomplished through my own experiences. Having doing my work placement at two separate companies, both different types of businesses, I covered many different roles. I won’t go in to too much detail, as I would probably be typing away for days, but I shall give a brief run down on the events that I encountered.

My first work placement was at Zing Communications at Surry Hills in Sydney (Hi Guys!) Zing is a fully integrated, boutique below-the-line PR and marketing agency with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles and New York. They specialise in Integrated communication programs, media relations, product launches, promotion and sponsorship, publicity, strategic PR planning, marketing communication, copywriting and event management for a variety of industries such as beauty, media, entertainment, telecommunications, food & beverage, retail and sport.

Now obviously I wasn’t pitching for multi million dollar deals during my time here! But while I was at Zing I drafted press releases, research for different clients, helped create press kits, media follow ups, started the organisation of a competition with regional radio stations nation wide and various office duties. Oh and we also drank champagne on Friday afternoons!

My second work placement was with Corrs Chambers Westgarth Lawyers in Brisbane. Corrs Chambers Westgarth is one of Australia’s leading law firms. They are recognised as one of Australia’s most innovative and fastest growing law firms.They advise leading corporate, commercial, financial institution and government clients across a range of practice areas. My time here was probably the complete opposite to my Zing experience, but the basics were still the same. I basically had a couple of roles to accomplish at Corrs. I helped co-ordinate and run the major client function held at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). This function had 300 guests in attendance, mainly from high profile businesses Australia wide.

Secondly, I helped with the organisation and running of a networking arm of the firm for called Corrs Young Professionals. This was held at Customs House and had 130 young professionals attend. These types of functions are great for PR graduates to attend for networking purposes and I implore to all grads to attend as many of these as possible!

Both internships were quite different, but provided me with the ability, skills and confidence to work in PR full time.

Finally, one thing you must do. Find out as much as you can about your workplace. Nothing can be more embarrassing than turning up wearing a suit where the consultants are wearing shorts and shirts! Silly me!

PR Work Placement and its Advantages

For those of you students who have yet to complete your work placement, then this is for you! Work placement for students is a very important process in the grooming of a student to a PR professional. It provides the crucial link between being a university student and forging a career in the field of PR. There are many advantages of completing work placement while approaching the end of your time at university, such as:

• Provides you with knowledge of the industry area
• Consolidates the job experience
• Generates an awareness of the working environment
• Develops appropriate attitudes and behaviours to the industry in particular, and work in general
• Development of transferable skills
• Enhancement of existing social skills and
• Increased confidence and independence
  

The main advantage of such placement is the fact that you can further understand if public relations is a career that you wish to pursue.

Although work placement can be nerve racking at first, it is really a time to show what skills you have learnt during your time at university. I believe it is an opportunity to turn heads at your host organisation and use such skills as the following:

Writing: It seems to be a fairly unexciting and predictable, but being able to clearly express yourself in writing is absolutely critical and a necessary skill when considering a role in public relations. During your time as a student on work placement you will often be given work based on your ability to write. You will be asked to draft press releases, contribute to PR plans, case studies and general office duties. It is essential that students writing skills be of a high standard, as your host organisation will not want to be re-writing any work that you may have produced with grammatical and spelling errors.

Knowing PR Tools and Techniques: Another essential skill as an intern is that of knowing and using basic public relations reference tools and techniques. If you are able to utilise these tools during your stay with your host organisation, you are half way to succeeding in your public relations internship. It is important to know these tools as hands-on experience with writing and delivering a full public relations campaign may be part of the curriculum within your host organisations internship.

Critical Thinking: To become a truly valuable and accomplished public relations consultant, students need to know how to dissect and solve problems without step-by-step instructions. This is a skill, along with writing, is a skill that is generally overlooked and lacking in not only students but practicing consultants as well. How can one improve on their critical thinking? Basically, it just comes down to common sense and hard work. Read a lot, ask questions to your peers and management, and assume a learning philosophy and being curious about everything you attempt while on work placement.

Image Problem? How does PR look from the outside?

Now, I am not normally one to make assumptions here, but I am sure that most PR consultants are aware of the perception that some members of the public hold toward them.
For those not in the know, we can characterise the way they see practitioners in two easily identifiable individuals:

The Edina Monsoon Consultant: From the BBC comedy from the nineties, “Absolutely Fabulous’. [1]Edina Monsoon is a PR consultant who is fad-follower and fashion victim with highly questionable dress sense. Her alcohol consumption and capacity for outrageous behaviour are surpassed only by the excesses of her best friend, Patsy. She lives off the income generated by her two businesses, Monsoon PR and its TV production arm, Radical TV.

The Charles Prentiss Consultant: Another one from the stable of the BBC (am I seeing some type of pattern here?) with the critically acclaimed ‘Absolute Power’. [2]Charles Prentiss, played quite aptly by Stephen Fry, is a brilliant, soulless, manipulative, Machiavellian. Charles is the puller-of-strings, the king of spin, a liar's liar. He places ludicrous stories in the tabloids, destroys the reputations and careers of his enemies, and makes heroes out of the lowest of the low. It is said that you can't polish a turd but Charles can - and his charges invariably end up the shiniest turds on the block. Such talents could have given him a good career in politics but, as Charles says, he chose public relations because he 'wanted to work where the real power and money lay'.

Obviously, for us in the know, we know that is not the case. Although I am sure we have probably all met consultants such as the aforementioned.

A recent study from the Texas Technology University has delved deep in to society’s thoughts on PR consultants, particularly within the United States. The University, via a telephone survey, collated data and from there, created a standard opinion poll.

Now that the results are in I’m sure you would be shocked to know that the reputation of PR consultants is not considered healthy! The most common complaint is that many consultants are viewed as a paid mouthpiece for particular companies. Thus, the feeling amongst non-PR people is that there is not only a lack of truth preached by consultants; there is also a lack of ethics and morals. But why is this the case?

Firstly there is the Prentiss syndrome. I have named this after our esteemed colleague from the BBC series. It all comes down to stereotypes, about the image portrayed in various media. Let’s look at it this way. What do we think of when we think about Lawyers? Instantly the term Ambulance Chasers springs to mind and images from Ally McBeal and Boston Legal pop in to my head. Having a legal background I can assure you that this stereotype is quite untrue. But does PR suffer from the same stereotypes? Well, to be honest, yes. If all citizens are exposed to are the Charles Prentiss’ of this world (co-incidentally, he is on television at the moment), then that is what they would believe all PR consultants are like.

How can PR consultants change such perceptions? One thing needed is to actually educate people what PR is actually about. One of the major problems is the misperception that people have of PR, often confusing it with marketing and advertising, which also suffer from similar image problems. I believe it is up to national associations to educate the public about the actual role PR plays in society. If the public can be educated in what positive actions PR undertake, then half the battle is won.

I believe it would also be beneficial for PR agencies and consultants to all be registered with their particular state bodies. This is common practice with law firms and practitioners. Eg: All lawyers in Queensland are governed by statutes and rules of the Queensland Law Society. If this were to happen it would make the PRIA Code of Ethics a binding agreement for all individuals practicing public relations and not just members, thus ensuring that any consultant that does not adhere to the Code of Ethics, may face some type of disciplinary hearing.
Although this would be quite difficult to enforce, it would hopefully eliminate any behaviour that would be deemed inappropriate and the Charles Prentiss’ of this world would just be seen on the television!

[1] Absolutely Fabulous: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/abfab
[2] Absolute Power: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/a/absolutepower