This week in PR (1 September)

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Profession

• Son Pham: Does PR have a “warspeak” problem? (29 August)
  ‘At its core, warspeak reflects a broader cultural fascination with conflict, competition and conquest. Not only does it normalise the idea of constant struggle, us vs. them, but it also perpetuates the notion that success can only be achieved through aggression and domination.’

Purpose, climate and ESG

SUSTAINABILITY COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA

• Caroline Dewing: Time for the Unusual Suspects (31 August)
  ‘Taking the long view has never been easy. At a time of economic pressure when political, technological and environmental forces are making many of us re-evaluate some of our most fundamental assumptions, it is, perhaps, particularly difficult.’

• Anne-Gret Iturriaga Abarzua: Message from the IPRA President: A time of transition  September 2023 (31 August)
  ‘The belief that economic growth is the only answer to development is being challenged as an expression of one-dimensional thinking. We are living today at the expense of future generations. An understanding of sustainability in absolutely all areas of life has not yet taken hold, neither at the top nor at the bottom of society.’

• Paul MacKenzie-Cummins: Tone down your green claims if you want to ramp up your business (30 August)
  ‘Businesses need to rethink the way they talk about what they do and how they engage their customers so they can appeal both to those already onboard with their quest to be more responsible and others who remain rather nonchalant about the whole thing.’
• Nadia Khan: Faith Communities & the Climate Emergency (30 August)
  ‘Faith communities were successfully engaged and mobilised during the Covid-19 pandemic. They provided invaluable help to disseminate safety and health messages to seldom heard communities.’

• Anthony Hughes: Climate crisis messaging – are we going about this all wrong? (29 August)
  ‘If people are to make meaningful change and sacrifices to their lifestyles, the messaging also needs to be more local and contextually relevant to people’s daily lives. Climate messaging related to things like money, family, health, fairness, quality of life, are much more likely to get us to act than coverage of environmental crimes happening thousands of miles away however angry it makes us.’

Consulting, skills and careers

If I ever win the lottery, my PR request is not to pose with a comedy sized cheque that makes me look like a hobbit. pic.twitter.com/0rQsKCfqWn

— Kenon Man (@Kennyman82) August 29, 2023

• Mia Savastano: Why account managers have the hardest job in any PR or creative agency (30 August)
  ‘Great account managers are like unicorns. Hard to spot in the wilderness. Increasingly rare. Yet these kinds of account managers are really the lynchpin of any client servicing team. Managers must be a detail person on a Monday; a creative on a Thursday; a great writer and communicator and spreadsheet tracker on… well, every day.’
• Gabriel Hedengren with Laura Moss, Deborah Low and Shivani Lodhia: PRO’s internship programme [podcast] (no date)
  ‘I was an intern many years ago. At that time it was ‘desk in the corner: do some research’. You weren’t embedded in the company; you weren’t given clients. At least, that was my experience.’

Gender, diversity, health and wellbeing

• Stephen Waddington: Addressing culture, not confidence, is key to tackling representation (30 August)
  ‘Nearly one-third of individuals with professional family backgrounds secure elite occupations. In contrast, only 10 percent from working-class backgrounds achieve the same.’

Public and third sectors

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIPLOMA

Wow – this feels very significant
Its been bubbling away for a while with flip-flopping around protecting the environment over the last few years
The conservation movement has found its voice and is standing up, loud and clear, for nature https://t.co/kLjNo8l98u

— Mike Collins (@MikeyC74) August 30, 2023

• Robyn Evans: Gove waters down pollution rules to boost housebuilding (29 August)
  ‘The Conservative government has pledged to build 300,000 new homes every year by the mid-2020s, and pressure has been mounting on ministers to find a way to accelerate housebuilding amid Labour’s pledge to prioritise it as a major issue for the party.’

Crisis, risk and reputation

CRISIS COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA

• Amanda Coleman: 10 Minutes With Kjell Brataas

  (30 August)
  ‘You need to repeat messages – and you also need to follow up on fake news and rumours.’

• Andy Barr: A crisis comms playbook for bankers (29 August)
  ‘Our industry has been lobbying hard for PR people to have a seat at the top table of corporate decision-making for decades. In industries like tech and social media, this has become the norm. But in more traditional sectors such as finance and banking, comms directors can only look on in envy as they are often not invited to contribute to these big reputational calls.’

• Stuart Bruce: Crisis communications in football – Mason Greenwood, Luis Rubiales and Nike (29 August)
  ‘Manchester United and the Spanish FA both found themselves inside actual crises they had to react to. In contrast Nike decided to just do it and create its very own homegrown crisis.’
• Philippe Borremans: Risk Communication versus Crisis Communication – what do researchers think? (25 August)
  ‘Risk communication provides an opportunity for open and meaningful discussion. Crisis communication demands urgent coordination. Integrating both philosophies leads to cohesive, effective responses in any situation.’
  

PR professionals should always counsel clients/bosses on the Streisand effect. "The unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or censor information, where the effort instead backfires by increasing awareness of that information". #PR #reputation https://t.co/qlqTn9fP5f

— Steve Dunne (@SteveDunne) August 31, 2023

Internal communication

Internal Communication Diploma

• David Olajide: Building Trust with Transparency: A PR guide to creating a corporate culture of trust (30 August)
  ‘Workplace transparency is a fundamental principle that fosters candid and open communication between organisational leadership and employees within a work environment.’

• Louisa Clarke: Mastering difficult conversations (30 August)
  ‘Culturally, we are hugely conflict averse. Difficult conversations are so rarely modelled well that it’s no wonder for most of us the go-to strategy is to avoid them altogether. But here’s a reframe: when we’re equipped to have them, difficult conversations become a preventative and connecting measure instead of something to be avoided.’

Media, digital and technology

DIGITAL COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA

• Selina Jardim: Is AI compromising our curiosity? (30 August)
  ‘Did you know that three of the top five skills needed in business are based on curiosity? Analytical thinking, creative thinking, curiosity and lifelong learning. Curiosity is ultimately the basis of our expansion of knowledge and empathy of others; it drives creativity which in turn drives innovation.’

• Neville Hobson: ChatGPT, Claude, Bing, or Bard? (29 August)
  ‘I’ve been using four chatbots for quite some time, each one depending on the type of information I’m seeking. I find each of them invaluable research assistants who are significant helpers in my work and my personal interests. I use at least one of them several times a day.’
• Matthew Ford: How intelligent is AI? (29 August)
  ‘The Turing Test is fairly simple. If a panel of judges cannot distinguish a computer from a real human, when in conversation with it, then the computer has passed the test.’

Academic, education and training