Skills and professionalism in PR

Again… There is still a debate whether public relations should be a profession, maybe like medicine, law or accountancy. Seriously, is it a craft, technique or profession? How important are specialised knowledge and skills, and personal
competencies to PR practice? What are the main personal and educational skills criteria to work in PR? Writing? Communicating? Good manners? Creativity? Can we measure creativeness? (see my post from December, 2007)

Although many public relations scholars acknowledge the importance of professionalism in public relations (Grunig 1992; Cameron et al., 1996; Stacks et al., 1999; L‘Etang & Pieczka, 1996, L’Etang, 2004), public relations is still seen as a common occupation for a number of reasons. Nevertheless the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) was awarded a Royal Charter in February 2005 due to their significant and robust contribution to the UK’s political, economic and social development.

Global business companies already value the importance of public relations in improving their organizations’ communications. In Kazakhstan, where I am from, education and professional skills for PR practitioners could have been more essential to some factors indicating low recognition of the profession, a shortage of qualified practitioners, a lack of regulation, and a lack of credibility among practitioners and society. Ralph Tench and Johanna Fawkes (www.bledcom.com) argue that 'the majority of employers consider that public relations education makes a positive contribution to the industry, and is an essential component of the drive to achieve professional recognition, as it is for most professions.' Concerning the quality of the competencies of PR practitioners, nurturing PR professionals is vital to meet the growing demands and challenges of the PR industry, which requires the establishment of an exclusive qualification and training school. Although experience and exposure to this field are considered very important criteria, possessing the right academic and professional qualifications as a knowledge base is what I think can enable practitioners to practice the profession professionally.

Challenges of New Media

Recent developments on the Internet are posing serious challenges to the business model of traditional media. Paid circulation of newspapers is declining in most countries and advertising revenue, as one of the main source of profitability, is shifting from print to on-line.

With an increasing number of everyday emerging new cutting edge tools the role and communication channels of Public Relations have been changing. This process is naturally following from era of so called new media.

Do these changes mean that old PR dependant on old media, and new PR is dependant on new media? New media channels can provide with infinite opportunities where each reader can be a writer, an editor and a publisher. There are vast capabilities to distribute information within a very short period of time and to reach maximum readership. Sounds terrific, but it has a bitter taste as well. When a crisis occurs, do we need this information flow with a light speed? Since Internet provides with an instant communication and unfavourable and dangerous comments which can immediately be used by media. Is it controllable? How far we can supervise the situation and information resources?

CSR: fashion, business or goodwill

Having looked through the websites of the most influential corporations in my country I found out that the only Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives they take are sponsorships and rare single philanthropic actions. I guess the reason they implement these initiatives is only because they try to meet “the game requirements” of current international business and not to be perceived underdeveloped. It is sad, especially knowing how many advantages of better communication and trust this PR tool can bring: mutual understanding, credibility, and mostly important, trust and belief that business cares and is accountable for its actions. Probably, their point is coming from theory that organisation’s reputation is considered to be impossible to be quantified? If it cannot be measured then it cannot be managed, and if it cannot be managed, then why invest in it? CSR is about to strengthen reputation, improves media relations and improves company’s image, and as a bottom line , increases sales and market share. Would my country ever look at positive and successful examples of CSR principles and implementation? I think the time is now.

Are women better communicators?

Today we had a debate in class on an unbalanced ratio between male and female employment in top positions within UK PR industry. Personally I found this discussion very subjective. According to statistics, the majority of PR practitioners in UK are female, howerver executive positions are laregely dominated by men.

May we think that this happens because women naturally have a better sense of guiding communication? Do women have attributes which give them a competitive advantage over men?
It can be dramatically different in other countries which historically have a different attitude towards women. Even today, top positions are not given to women, particularly in the communications industries.Although there are some women in executive PR roles we have agreed that this number could have been bigger. "Women traditionally in PR have been held to more of a technician's role, hired and paid to do the work of PR -- the craft, the writing, the media relations, the special events," explains Larissa Grunig, a public relations professor at the University of Maryland who studies the feminization of PR. "Women are over-represented in technicians' ranks, and under-represented in management."
"Companies consider PR as marginal to organization function, not central like finance or marketing. They're not afraid to give women a shot at PR because the risk factor is low," says Grunig. "This is a place where companies traditionally hire women within the executive ranks. If an organization pays lip service to affirmative action and the importance of hiring women, but doesn't trust women to be as effective in management, PR seems like a safe place to put women."
For instance, in my city the top positions are traditionally given to men, although this tendency has been changing. Since PR industry itself is still a kind of a new field women are in executive positions’ minority. I can explain it by fact that traditionally women were not given high authorities.

In years to come, large PR firms will not be able to afford to upkeep a patriarchal employment model. A new paradigm is on the advance and so is a new school of highly educated female practitioners.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4422/is_4_18/ai_77010728