http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/19444
“Snake-oil hustlers or global diplomats — no one can doubt the power of the PR industry. With the industry bringing in over $3.5 billion in revenue last year worldwide (according to the Council on Public Relations) and growing by over 140 percent in the past five years (PRWeek), we are talking about a major source of public information.
Is deceit endemic to the profession or does public relations simply need better PR? PR practitioners are aware of their image, of course, which is why the Public Relations Society of America has a "Reputation Management Division".
To the pros, the critics totally miss the point: that the purpose of PR is to help companies and governments communicate with — and listen to — the public. PR firms don't just step in to cover up messes, but are increasingly involved in helping shape policy and practice with a sensitivity to the public's concerns.
In fact, they say, the practice of public promotion, whether for huge multinationals or tiny nonprofits, is exactly what enables democracy to flourish. PR's critics often seek publicity, too, so are they just jealous of the good connections and sophisticated techniques of the big guys? Or is this a case of access apartheid, where the powerful have the ear of the press and their detractors can't get calls returned?” From AlterNet
Media Access: Tricks Of The Trade Activists, consumer groups and critics often condemn PR as corporate media manipulation — but they too can benefit from public relations strategies to get attention for their issues and opinions. When it's done by professionals, they call it PR, but when individuals use media and communication skills to get their story or position out, they call it "Media Access." Check out our Media Access Toolkit: guides, tips and resources from our affiliates on all aspects of publicity, from writing a press release to holding a demonstration. From The Media Channel,
PR: It's A Woman Thing Since women are still not treated with parity in the business world, perhaps it's no surprise that they're most present in an area considered somehow peripheral to the corporate mission: public relations. Asks Salon's Janelle Brown: Are women able to break into PR because it's marginalized, or is PR marginalized because it's "women's work"? Either way, this may change as the information economy increases the importance of communication and marketing skills — and thus, perhaps, female practitioners. From Salon.com,
The Birth Of Spin According to PR historian Stuart Ewen, the origins of modern public relations lie in the radical labor movement and the disaffected middle class of the early 1900s. Corporations needed to protect themselves from the anti-corporate publicity of the progressive movement and, following the advice of John D. Rockefeller's PR man, Ivy Lee, their power from being usurped by the masses. At some point PR also became a way to increase corporate power and profits. From AT&T's efforts to overcome anti-monopolism and recreate itself as Ma Bell to Edward Bernays' campaign to connect cigarettes with feminism, Ewen reviews what he sees as PR's "illegitimate" history. From The Media Channel,
All In The Family Sigmund's great-grandson, boyfriend of Rupert Murdoch's daughter and member of a family full of notables, Matthew Freud is not only a fixture in the British tabloids, he's also a professional at shaping what's in them. As head of London's successful Freud Communications PR firm, he evokes another relative, Edward Bernays, the godfather of modern public relations. This profile of England's "PR guru" offers a peek into how Freud uses synergy between clients and exclusive access to big names to excel in what he calls the "art form of controlled media manipulation." From Guardian Unlimited,
Preserving DemocracyTo Fraser Seitel, PR professional and representative of the Public Relations Society of America, PR critic John Stauber is paranoid, angry and way off the mark. Serving the public interest is a fundamental lesson of PR, writes Seitel, and it is good business for corporations to be good corporate citizens. In fact, he argues, it is precisely the communications techniques of public relations that allow ideas to be tested in the courts of media and public opinion, enabling democracy to function. "More often than not, in fact, public relations strategies and tactics are the most effective and valuable arrows in the quiver of the disaffected and the powerless." As for Stauber's claim that most news is undiluted PR, writes Seitel: "I wish." From The Media Channel,
MERCHANTS OF COOL
The past decade's wave of media mergers has produced a complex web of business relationships that now defines America's media and popular culture. These relationships offer a massive opportunity for cross promotion and selling of talent and products among different companies owned by the same powerful parent corporation.
Examine the charts breaking down what each of the five U.S. media giants now control (as of February 2001). Also included on this list is Bertelsmann AG, which in globalizing has bought up several large American media divisions. From FrontLine
Bizarro Media Analysis, Part I
"I think there are a lot of reasons to be critical of the media in America. I think that a lot of times the media sensationalize or magnify things that aren't - that really shouldn't be. I do think there's a big move away from actual reporting, trying to report facts. It's in newspapers and and everything you read - that a lot more is opinion," said First Lady Laura Bush, in an interview with Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor." From Associated Press
Bizarro Media Analysis, Part II
"At this late stage, media companies have grown so large and powerful, and their dominance has become so detrimental ... that there remains only one alternative: bust up the big conglomerates. ... We've done this before: to railroad trusts in the first part of the 20th century, to Ma Bell more recently. Politically, big media may be on the wrong side of history," wrote Time Warner board member and Turner Broadcasting System founder Ted Turner, in an article for Washington Monthly magazine. Turner admits that he's benefited from media consolidation, but writes, "Yet I felt then, as I do now, that the government was not doing its job."From Wall Street Journal
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