This week in PR (31 March)
It happened this week
https://twitter.com/dannyrogers2001/status/1641001305249394689
Misinformation and disinformation
- Paul Holmes: Change And Complexity Are Driving People To Embrace Disinformation (27 March)
‘Disinformation as an industry is very organized, it’s monetized, and it’s very sophisticated. It’s sophisticated in its ability to create content that resonates and it’s sophisticated in its understanding of human vulnerability, in its radicalization of individuals, and the polarization of our society.’
Purpose, climate and ESG
- Imogen Shaw: Wake me up when Green Day ends (30 March)
‘Today, the government has unveiled its plans to boost the green economy and deliver a green transition.’ - Tanya Meck: Navigating The Current Backlash Against ESG* (28 March)
‘Some critics say companies have no business “doing good” at all and accuse them of practicing what they call “woke capitalism.” Some have even acted against financial firms they see as overly ESG-conscious by threatening or actually disinvesting pension funds.’
Consulting, skills and careers
- Ben Smith: Lucy McGettigan, partner at The Romans on the PRmoment Podcast (27 March)
‘I think we were the fastest growing agency in the UK in 2021 with that 97% growth; we’ve become an international business in that time as well, launching in the US and Dubai; it’s been a wonderful whirlwind. The focus was on getting bigger without getting boring.’ - Paul Richards: I like to PROVE it, PROVE it (26 March)
‘Lest you think PROVE was dreamt up by overpaid management consultants, it has its roots in what Quintilian describes as the second part of rhetoric – arrangement.’ - Danny Rogers with David Andrews and Jim Houghton: How to sell and buy PR agencies, advice in a difficult market [podcast] (24 March)
‘[PR] is an industry that financial buyers often struggle with because it’s very people-led; your assets walk out of the door at the end of every day. But increasingly people are understanding the value of the services provided by PR agencies.’
Gender, diversity and wellbeing
- Johanna Hicks: Why making the workplace more welcoming and inclusive for autistic people benefits everyone: a personal view (no date)
‘[Autism] is a lifelong disability which affects how people interact with the world. Today there are approximately 700,000 autistic adults and children in the UK. One in 100 people have autism. - Stuart Baird: ‘Curtsey to no bugger’: overcoming social class bias in Public Relations (27 March)
‘They say that all Yorkshire folk are born with a chip on their shoulder. My experience of the miners’ strike and my family background gave me a whole bag full. When I started working in Whitehall, in the Tony Blair era, there was the entrenched Oxbridge set, and this was interesting – as I was a curiosity: an actual northerner from an actual mining town.’
- Robert Minton-Taylor: What is it that some men don’t get? (24 March)
‘Misogyny and sexism were very much present in the late 60s when I trained as a journalist and in the 70s, 80s and 90s when I worked as a public relations consultant both in-house and consultancy. But to learn that such behaviour is still prevalent in the third decade of the 21st century is truly shaming and woeful.’
Public and third sectors
- Dan Slee: VOTE ACTION: Here’s three things that local government people in the UK should do this week (26 March)
‘In England from May 2023, you’ll need to take a piece of Government-approved ID if you’re voting in person.’
Politics, public affairs and public sphere
- William Gould: Can Humza Yousaf lead the SNP to success? (28 March)
‘By winning with a narrow margin of 4%, over Kate Forbes after Ash Regan’s third round votes were redistributed Humsa Yousaf now faces the daunting task of proving himself both as a successful SNP Party leader and as a First Minister.’
- Daisy Robertson, Hannah Blackford and Ellie Summers: Through a difficult race, the SNP has crowned its next leader (27 March)
‘The race was ultimately a close one between Forbes and Yousaf, suggesting that the progressive agenda the party has adopted and pushed in recent years at the behest of Sturgeon, and embraced by Yousaf, may not resonate with as many of its members as expected.’
Research, data, measurement and evaluation
- Neville Hobson: Can we finally ditch AVE in PR please? (29 March)
‘If you do need a reminder of why AVE is an invalid practice, here are five.’
Crisis, risk and reputation
- Emma Drake: My ten steps to a short but effective crisis plan [podcast] (30 March)
‘In its simplest form, a crisis plan is an awareness and understanding of what you need to say and do, who you need to contact and who’s in charge should a situation happen that could halt your business or cause you reputation brand damage.’ - Amanda Coleman: Finding the crisis leader (28 March)
‘Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s control was at the heart of crisis communication. Businesses had the stranglehold over information and what they would say when. But not now.’
Internal communication
- Stephen Welch: Free the bees! (30 March)
‘What if everything written about experience, engagement, etc over the last 20 years is wrong?’ - Sarah Browning: 10 ideas for internal story-telling (28 March)
‘Teams can be so focussed on using their stories to engage external audiences that they forget internal ones.’ - Nick Helsby: Where have the internal consultancies gone? (Part two: In-house constraints vs consultancy freedoms) (24 March)
‘I asked twenty-five internal communications leaders, mainly working in FTSE100s, to name the consultancies that they knew or were aware of.’
Media, digital and technology
- David Linnett: Does Elon Musk’s call for an AI pause really have humanity at it’s heart? (30 March)
‘GPT5 is rumoured to be able to achieve AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) – which in plain terms, means AGI could be indistinguishable from a human in its capabilities.’ - Ian Silvera: I’m a blue ticker and proud (30 March)
‘Though Elon [Musk] has been (rightly or wrongly) criticised for his handling of Twitter employees and his takeover approach in general, he’s dead right on one thing: the platform has been unprofitable for years.’ - David Olajide: How AI-generated imaging is Changing Communications (27 March)
‘A few days ago, an image of Pope Francis donning a huge white puffer jacket with a cross hanging from it sent social media users into a frenzy. The photo was created using Midjourney – an AI image generator.’
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