This week in PR (3 February)
Profession
“We should also look to the future – the fact that so many talented young people continue to come into the industry and build sustainable careers must give us cause for huge optimism.”⁰
Former IPR President, @SimonLewis_66, on the PR industry's future.⁰#CIPR75 pic.twitter.com/LQgaewwooM— Chartered Institute of Public Relations (@CIPR_Global) February 2, 2023
- Jill Spurr: The only way is ethics (1 February)
‘We can deliver the most complex and challenging messages with style, creativity and impact; we can effect life-saving behaviour change, we can speak truth to power… but we can’t consistently portray our own sector so that people understand we are ethical, well-trained, honourable, skilled.’
- Stephen Waddington: Owning public relations as a management discipline (1 February)
‘Public relations makes use of communication to understand, engage and influence relationships and the behaviour of individuals. The outcome is trust, reputation, and behaviour change.’
- Stuart Bruce: Edelman Trust Barometer 2023 upsets the PR Twitterati (29 January)
‘There is nothing intrinsically wrong, immoral, unethical or hypocritical in working for industries or governments that some people disagree with. It’s only wrong if the work done by the firm is unethical by seeking to lie or mislead.’
Purpose, climate and ESG
- Emma Drake: Talking to stakeholders about sustainability [podcast] (2 February)
‘This topic (net zero) needs to be high on our agenda as communications professionals. So here are some of my thoughts on this topic.’ - Ben Smith: The role of communications in ESG with Andrea Hartley, founder and CEO of Skating Panda [podcast] (30 January)
‘[ESG] needs to be embedded in the culture. If ESG stands for purpose and performance, then the ownership should lie with the CEO, ideally reported into by a lead function including department leads as needed.’
Gender, diversity and wellbeing
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- Martin Flegg: Fed up at 50 (31 January)
‘If you have a DEI communications strategy or plan in your organisation, does it sufficiently cover age as a characteristic and issue, as well as everything else. If not, why not?
Public and third sectors
Politics, public affairs and public sphere
"In recent years, lobbying scandals in Parliament and revelations of the extent of potential ministerial misconduct have further highlighted the woeful inadequacy of the systems that are supposed to protect integrity and standards in public life." https://t.co/tyvbpO7lj5
— Jon Gerlis (@JRGerlis) January 31, 2023
- Harry Brown: One Hundred Days of Rishi (2 February)
‘What have we learnt from the first hundred days that Sunak has been in power, and what are the PM’s plans for turning the country and the government’s fortunes around?’ - Charlie Rattigan: IMF predicts rainy days ahead (31 January)
‘Interestingly, the IMF report makes no mention of Brexit, however the FT have pointed to the fact that post-Brexit labour shortages following the pandemic have meant the UK has trailed behind other European countries, who are seeing an increase in people seeking work. This gives added weight to the Brexit impact argument.’ - Sabine Tyldesley, Dafydd Rees and Fraser Raleigh: TradeTuesday: Brexit three years on (31 January)
‘Three years on from the moment the UK officially left the EU, and more than six years since the referendum vote itself, Britain’s financial and business communities are surprisingly still not released from the ties that once bound the UK to the EU.’ - Stuart Thomson: What Is The Role Of Public Affairs In An Organisation? (31 January)
‘In the case of the Deloitte report, their findings show that the purpose or mission of the corporate affairs function is categorised in one of three ways – reputationally focused, as a strategic storyteller, or growth focused.’
Research, data, measurement and evaluation
- Paul Stollery: Hear me out: PR *should* guarantee media coverage (2 February)
‘This seems to be a very controversial topic and I’m really not sure why. In other disciplines, marketing professionals are happy to track and commit to outputs in the full understanding that nuance is required when reviewing them.’
Crisis, risk and reputation
- Dafydd Rees: How do you restore the reputation of an organisation once it’s been shattered? (31 January)
‘The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, is promising to address the culture of violence and abuse within his own force.’ - Rod Cartwright: Building bridges between crisis comms practice and academia – it’s communication, stupid! (26 January)
‘As many readers of this blog will have seen, Collins Dictionary last year made ‘Permacrisis’ their word of the year. And in the fifth annual PR Week/Boston University Communications Bellwether research find “the ability to handle crises” to be the most important PR skill.’
Behaviour and influence
https://twitter.com/AliveWithIdeas/status/1620842928590520320
Internal communication
- Liam Firtpatrick: What makes a good communication practitioner? (31 January)
‘You won’t hold the confidence and ears of the big cheeses for long if you can’t write, project manage or make the slides work. Your advice might be sharp and insightful, but it’s useless if your stakeholder if talking to someone else about logistics for their All Hands meeting.’
Media, digital and technology
- Ali Goldsworthy: Social media as a polarising force: Trump’s return to Meta (2 February)
‘Built around algorithms which reward content that engages and provokes, social media companies’ models can be easily manipulated meaning we see only the most extreme versions of the “other side”.’ - ChatGPT: Generative AI & Human Originality (2 February)
‘A guest post from ChatGPT in response to Brendon Craigie’s article.’
- Ian Silvera: The decline of local journalism should scare us all (31 January)
‘More than 300 local newspaper titles in the UK closed between 2009 and 2019.The survivors are operating with “diminished resources and fewer journalists”.’ - Sam Knowles: ChatGPT – the perfect apprentice for the data storyteller (30 January)
‘Note: none of this blog was written using ChatGPT.’ - Koray Camgöz: The future never seemed so close: 3 Tech Trends for Comms in 2023 (29 January)
‘The recent explosion of AI systems including ChatGPT have swept away any doubts over whether artificial intelligence will have a meaningful impact on the communications business.’
‘The Chief: The Life Of Lord Northcliffe’ is a superb book, Andrew Roberts celebrates the man who created modern newspapers – I don’t blame the Daily Mail for doing the same. He is the forgotten man of the industry. pic.twitter.com/SskXLdLYqT
— David Yelland (@davidyelland) February 2, 2023
#prstudent #CreatorAwards23
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Charlotte Smith (Leeds Beckett):
@charliebobs12 Early morning today for Uni 7:30 and finished around 2:30. First day back wasn’t to bad. Made some new friends for our upcoming presentation and also did some studying. WHOOOP SEMESTER TWO HERE I COME!!! #PRstudent #leedsbeckettuniversity #dayinthelife #dayinmylife #busyday #cleaning #toughmorning #studying #backtouni ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim
