I feel a rant bubbling under the surface, but I don’t currently have time or energy to give it the wrath it deserves, so I’ll desist for the moment.
If you read PR blogs, you’ll know that there’s another (yes another) little firestorm brewing on the subject of "the death of Public Relations" – well I say public relations but given many of the "knowledgeable" muppets writing these death posts don’t really have a grasp of what "Public Relations" is, what we’re really talking about is media relations.
While I go and implement my proven deep breathing heart attack avoidance exercises, I’m providing a list of some of the content (both pro- and anti- ).
- PR-Less Pitches – Peter Himler
- PR-Less launch kicks off a stack overflow of praise – Robert Scoble
- Why hire a PR firm – Todd Defren
- Does good tech need PR? – Marshall Kirkpatrick
- The PR roadblock on the road to blissful blogging – Michael Arrington
- PR is not dead – Brian Solis
- Can I get a big cup of STFU please – Jeremy Pepper
- Jeremy Pepper makes sense – Frank X. Shaw [Supplemental: Communications Evolution, again]
- Does the thrill of the chase make PR obsolete – Steve Rubel
- How Digital PR is changing – Drew B
- The changing role of Public Relations – Mark Hopkins
- PR is dead (again) – Morgan McLintic
Bonus links (not death related)
- By far the most amusing PR Week election post by Geoff Livingston
- Learning from Dell’s experiment with Twitter – Neville Hobson
Having been a senior practitioner for many years and now an academic, still with strong industry ties, it still amazes me that bloggers think media relations is the primary means by which public relations people get their messages across. Media relations only makes up a minor percentage of practice because professionals are using social media, and other methods to develop closer relationships with clients and trying to avoid having to deal with the media. Especially those who think by writing a blog they have become a “journalist”. That is still a task that requires training, mentoring,experience and ability.
Damien Mulley » Blog Archive » I really hope PR isn’t dead as companies will die too // Aug 18, 2008 at 11:28 am
[...] probably thinks I’m a muppet since I too am an outsider looking in and so I don’t understand his industry and have used [...]
Taking the pulse of PR: Dead? AGAIN?? « The Jiveman: // Aug 21, 2008 at 11:56 am
[...] well well. Couldn’t help belatedly noticing the ever interesting Tom Murphy’s raging post of linkage around the latest discussion about the ‘death of [...]
Donald,
I couldn’t agree more!
We often overlook process, experience and expertise in the rush to put everything “online”.
If PR people don’t start providing broader context around the reality of what Public Relations is, then we’re in trouble.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Tom