This week in PR (1 March)
Profession and ethics
- Mandy Pearse: Artificial Intelligence and ethics (27 February)
‘Ethics boards should scrutinise the development of models. These could work in a similar way those in UK health which oversee research.’ - Jessica Pardoe: Why Ethics Is Important In Digital PR (27 February)
‘We all know that the papers that many of our clients want to be in love clickbait and outlandish stories, so the obvious answer is to feed them those to be in with a better chance of scoring links. This has always been a grey area in PR. Where is the line? And when is worth crossing it?’
Purpose, climate and ESG
SUSTAINABILITY COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA
- Clearly PR: ‘Greenwashing’ references in the media rise 50% in six months, research finds (29 February)
‘Despite widespread consumer condemnation of those brands and businesses who deliberately exaggerate their green credentials for the sake of driving sales and improving perception, a significant number continue to commit what is essentially marketing fraud.’
Consulting, skills and careers
- Emma Drake: Unlocking Success: Skilling Up in and refreshing your skills [podcast] (29 February)
‘Staying current is key to delivering impactful campaigns and driving results. It boosts your professional credibility and opens doors to career opportunities.’ - Chris Simmance: Episode 81 – Paul Stollery – Hard Numbers [podcast] (28 February)
‘We saw a gap for something that was 70% PR agency and 30% lead generation agency. We launched in June 2020 – an interesting time.’ - Sarah Browning: How to communicate your values (26 February)
‘Communications roles have many strands. We listen. We strategise. We understand. We collaborate and connect. We find and tell stories.’
Gender, diversity, health and wellbeing
- Katie Ormrod: IWD: Four women changing the world of finance (29 February)
‘I’m choosing to keep it positive in the run up to IWD this year and shine a spotlight on four incredible women who are changing the world of finance, one day at a time…’
Politics, public affairs and public sphere
- Dan Gold: Mark MacGregor on Power, Politics, and Public Affairs
(27 February)
‘Podcasts are an incredibly important way to acquire information and understanding. It gives you a chance to step back from the flow of news and listen to an issue in greater detail.’ - Jack Olins: Sunak battles to keep premiership on track (27 February)
‘The Prime Minister has endured a challenging start to 2024 and will be hoping he can use next week’s budget as an opportunity to turn around the Conservatives’ fortunes and put his party on the front foot. He has been determined to focus on the economy this year and put it at the centre of his election campaign.’ - Stuart Thomson: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Monitoring [podcast] (24 February)
‘To me monitoring is the bedrock of good public affairs; information and intelligence enables us to be proactive in terms of our outreach and engagement with a range of audiences.’
Brands, content, community and creativity
- Ben Smith with James Gordon-MacIntosh, Leila Mountford and Kim Allain: The global creativity review: February 2024 [podcast] (27 February)
‘I thought [the Lush Saltbomb] was a brilliant piece of cultural newsjacking, and has got everyone talking.’
Research, data, measurement and evaluation
- Scott Guthrie: Whalar’s Alex North talks measurement and evaluation [podcast] (28 February)
‘Last year the influencer market was valued at just north of $21 billion by Statista. With higher spend comes greater attention to the bottom line. How has measurement and evaluation risen to the challenge?’
Crisis, risk and reputation
- Amanda Coleman: 10 minutes with Rebecca Roberts
(27 February)
‘If you’re not talking about [an issue] or have a repository of information, they’re going to find it anyway. Often [young people] are seeing misinformation on TikTok before it’s even been reported.’
Internal communication
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA
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- Lolade Nwanze: Leadership-as-a-Service: Redefining successful leadership (no date)
‘In nearly two decades of working with teams from different African regions, India, US and the UK, I have found that people develop the fondest work memories at organisations where they felt valued, challenged, and were allowed to own a part of the company’s success in the time that they worked there. It’s collective yet it’s also personal – deeply personal.’
- Lolade Nwanze: Leadership-as-a-Service: Redefining successful leadership (no date)
Media, digital and technology
- Jed Backhouse: AI Weekly (29 February)
‘This week in AI news has seen a large amount of fallout from recent Google Gemini updates resulting in a new image generation tool being taken offline soon after launch.’ - Chris Norton and Will Ockenden: How to Navigate SEO and Online Reputation Management with Gerry White [podcast] (27 February)
‘We encourage people to look at online reviews and reply to them. We also encourage people to leave reviews.’
- Naz Zandi: Twenty years on – the Podcast revolution shows no sign of slowing (27 February)
‘The strong sense of community fostered by podcasts cannot be overstated as the conversational and often informal tone makes listeners feel like part of an exclusive club.’
