I am a recent graduate and my friends often ask me what I am doing now. I tell them “I work as a PR and Communications Consultant”. They look at me smugly and reply, “Oh PR. You mean spin?”

Firstly, I really expected more from my peers in the current digital times. With the power of social media and the Internet to disseminate information easily and cheaply, dishonest PR people wouldn’t stand a chance and would be exposed. Today there are so many two-way communication channels.

And do people really think that I sit at my desk strumming my fingers devising corporate deceit to spin out to the masses? It’s a bit ETV.

On the other hand, PR and Communications practitioners play a key role in shaping the perception of the industry and I am not sure we are much, if anything, to enhance that perception. It’s that lazy old saying cobblers’ children don’t have shoes. Well I want cobblers’ children to have footwear! Maybe I’ll start a campaign ‘shoe the kids’. 

Brian Solis, author and thought-leader in new media, claims the PR industry is in crisis. Richard Levick, CEO and president of US firm Levick Strategic Communications, thinks we need to grow up. The International Association of Business Communicators believes we need to be values-based. The dynamic times we live in demand more and the PR industry is being slow to respond. 

In the industry’s defence it would be unreasonably purist to believe that you can represent reality without the bias that’s a product of mediation - it’s the argument ‘can you directly access reality’. Language is embedded with cultural assumptions. Speak or think and you taint the ‘message’. 

But crisis, grow up, values-based – what does it mean? It means that things have to change. Public relations is just that – relating to your public (relationships). It is talking to people in a way that is meaningful to them and allows a feedback loop. PR and Communications is giving rise to a new style that is greatly being defined by conversation and community. 

It is a myth that anyone escapes bias as it’s the nature of communication, but you can communicate with your values and integrity intact and in a transparent way. This conversation began when the partners of Ideas Shop started the practice and values are the core of our business decisions and processes. 

If I am to ‘practice what I preach’ I guess I have a personal responsibility to talk about this and maybe the people who say: “Oh PR. You mean Spin?” are a small gritty opportunity for me to polish and evolve my response.

If you are interested in further reading, here are two good links:

The State of PR, Marketing and Communications: You are the future

New Media, New Influencers and Implications for the Public Relations Profession (opens to PDF)