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Public Relations: All Have Sinned?

3/17/2012

6 Comments

 
I found myself drawn to a fascinating online discussion spawned by a presentation by Dr. Bob Batchelor, assistant professor at Kent State University's School of Journalism and Mass Communications. The topic: "Is PR Evil?" Dr. Batchelor's answer is "yes." My good friend Sean Williams at Communication AMMO took exception to this, and thus the dialogue began. I encourage you to check it out here.

Since I did not attend Dr. Batchelor's lecture and thus don't know all the details, I'm on shaky ground if I take a firm stand for or against his statement that, yes, PR is evil, and that one cannot redeem it merely by stating, "But I'm working ethically." His point is that the profession is in disarray, largely because of the widespread misuse of public relations to manipulate and deceive.

And yet I'm troubled by the conclusion. As I look back on the discussion, it seems the opinion of whether or not PR is evil is a bit like deciding whether a Glock-17 handgun is evil: It depends what you do with it. If I'm using the Glock to, say, become good at target shooting, or as a means to defend my family against attack, that's one thing. If I use the Glock to relieve the local convenience store of its financial gain, or a disagreeable person of his life, that's something else.

Likewise, PR itself is neither inherently good nor inherently evil. It is a function, a tool for sharing information, creating relationships, and influencing perspectives and action. If it's done honestly and transparently, that's good. If it's done with the intent to mislead, that's wrong.

I do think Dr. Batchelor makes an excellent point about the misuse of PR. It happens often, and it's surprising how easily even the most "ethical" practitioner can be drawn into it. Matt Friedman, co-partner at Tanner Friedman, has pointed to the example of press releases and company spokespersons insisting that a 60-something CEO's sudden departure is merely "to spend more time with family." It's a lie, we know it's a lie, and yet we perpetuate it because that's the reason we're given, and we still want to have a job to go to tomorrow.

Where I'm willing to agree is that evil certainly exists within public relations, just as it exists within the human race. And even if we individually practice the highest ethical standards, we cannot simply rest upon that laurel. We need to preach the gospel, as it were--fairly easy to do--and call out those who defy that gospel--not so easy to do, for we'll surely face persecution for doing so.

And yet, I certainly agree with Dr. Batchelor's other conclusion: Public relations is worth saving.


6 Comments
Terri Brogan
3/18/2012 02:32:38 am

Bravo. Brilliant. I couldn't agree more.

Reply
Essex public records link
6/19/2013 08:41:13 pm

You truly seized a persons vision of the many, apparently, head out!

Reply
Australia people finder link
6/23/2013 03:44:26 pm

Do you have any video of that? I’d love to find out some additional information.

Reply
Rick Chambers
6/23/2013 08:09:10 pm

Australia, sorry I do not know of any video, but you should be able to use the links and connect with Dr. Batchelor or Mr. Williams directly to continue the discussion. Thanks for reading!

Reply
South Yorkshire public records search link
6/26/2013 05:19:28 pm

I all the time emailed this website post page to all my friends, because if like to read it then my friends will too.

Reply
roku.com/link link
11/15/2019 11:11:44 pm

I all the time used to read article in news papers but now as I am a user of net thus from now I am using net for articles or reviews, thanks to web.|

Reply



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