The Next 50 Years of Public Relations
When people talk about the “Death of Public Relations,” it doesn’t bother me at all. I know what they are talking about. They are talking about the death of MEDIA RELATIONS.
That’s what PR’s been all about for the past 50-odd years. After all, during that era, the only way to reach the masses in a reliable way was through mass media.
Now that that’s changing, our approach can change. PUBLIC RELATIONS can fulfill its mandate to improve RELATIONS with the PUBLIC.
Media Relations will still have a role. PR will not be subsumed by Customer Service. PR has a role as an overlay; a facilitator; we serve as both a counselor and tactician across these areas.
The next 50 years will be better than the last 50 years.
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Thanks for this reminder. It’s helpful to pull posts like this together as resources for industry folks–especially newbies.
I respect and share many of your opinions, Todd, but have to confess I’ve never seen such a short-sighted and simplistic explanation of media relations and its future in the era of social media.
Either you’ve boiled the message down to the point where there’s just no there, there … or you’re just drunk way too much of the kool-aid!
That’s ok, though. Reality is a great purgative …
This is good news considering my career choice
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Good graphic! I don’t think we know how this will all end up. It’s all being scrambled. Social and traditional media will morph. It looks like new media will continue to empower consumers and bypass large media companies. But I wouldn’t count out the power structure in this world to figure it out and try to put the egg back in the shell.
I totally agree that everything’s changing, and although I’m still a PR student learning a lot of the old stuff, I also feel really happy to be on the beginning of this new future.
I like where it’s going.
As someone who is just entering the PR world it is interesting to be a part of this transition. It seems as though it is not so much the death of media relations or public relations, but the reinvention of communication. Although there is less control over the way information is received there is now an opportunity for dialog between channels. As with blogging, there is a conversation rather than a one-sided stream of information. People are more receptive if they can participate in this dialog and it becomes less about advertising and more about working with audiences to understand what they are looking for. I look forward to seeing where the world of social media will take us.
As a PR student, I am entering this field because I see the potential and growth that it has. It’s exciting to think about where public relations will go, and I also don’t believe it is “dead”. There will always be a need for great communicators, people to “Improve relations with the public” as you stated. The changing times only means that practitioners need to adjust their thinking, strategize differently, and find new innovative solutions with PR programs that fit into a shifting, web 2.0 society. The times are changing and the way we communicate is changing, PR practitioners just need to stay aware and change with change itself. Like you, I have great excitement for the next 50 years of PR, and am looking forward to beginning my career at such an important time for communicators.
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… read @TDefren “The Next 50 Years of Public Relations” … [link to post]
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