Commission on Public Relations Education Report

I've just looked over the recently released report from the Commission on Public Relations Education. It's refreshing to see a reexamination of Public Relations curriculum.

First, if you're looking for a perspective on the new report head over to Forward for Paull Young's interview with the report's two authors, Dean Kruckeberg and John Paluszek.

As I read through the report I noticed two topics in particular (this will be the first post in a series) that I think are worth mentioning.

Firstly, Kruckegerg and Paluszek lay out three different models of undergraduate PR curriculum:

Journalism/Mass Comm;

Communications/English/Liberal Arts;

Business Management;

As I read over the descriptions of each of these programs, I think my coursework at the University of Maryland consisted mostly of the comm/english/liberal arts model. As a corporate communications professional, I’m asked to know lot about certain companies. I could interact with the IT, legal, marketing, and finance departments all within one organization in a given day.

This type of interaction makes wonder if I wouldn’t be better prepared in my line of work had I been offered the Business Management Model. Don’t get me wrong, the University of Maryland’s Public Relations program did a fantastic job of preparing me for life in an pubic relations agency, but I think some of those more business oriented courses would have helpful.

I wonder how many recent graduates are in my similar position: a corporate communications professional with a background with a more liberal arts PR degree. I’d bet more young public relations professional are in that boat than the opposite: a non-profit in-house communications professional with strong coursework in business PR.

If I’m right, and there are a large number of young pr pros wishing they could more fluently speak with, say, the marketing and finance folks, then I’d be a proponent of universities adopting the report’s Business Management model. I’d be eager to hear the thoughts of other young pr pros on this one…

UPDATE: I caught up with Dr. Kruckeberg, one of the authors of the report, via email this evening. He had this to say regarding my idea that, as young PR pros are asked to take on a wider variety of business tasks, it becomes even more important to have a business oriented curriculum with which to fall back on:

"The Commission's research and analysis certainly support your contention, which is also implicit throughout the Commission report when it isn't explicit. Most certainly, you are not saying anything counter to the Commission's recommendations, and recognition of the importance of this business knowledge has been pervasive in the discussions of Commission members as they have prepared this report during the past two years. As an example of a public relations education program that emphasizes business as a critical curriculum component, the major at my university, i.e., the University of Northern Iowa, requires a course in each of these: economics, accounting, management, marketing and consumer behavior"

Thanks to Professor Kruckeberg for taking the time to shed some light on the business oriented curriculum and to speak with young PR bloggers!

I think this report is especially important to young public relations professionals and I'll be posting more about this in the coming days...

Blogging: Is Your Organization Ready?

As I’ve posted earlier, I studied under James Grunig, author of the Public Relations Excellence Study (among others), at the University of Maryland. He preached the value of the two-way symmetrical model of public relations and used his own research as proof of its effectiveness in the classroom.

Here’s a brief run down of some of the main tenets of the two-way symmetrical model taken from the 1992 Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management textbook:

Two-way symmetric public relations ...

• requires organizations engaging in public relations to be willing to make significant adjustments in how they operate in order to accommodate their publics;
• relies on honest and open two-way communication and mutual give-and-take rather than one-way persuasion;
• focuses on mutual respect and efforts to achieve mutual understanding;
• emphasizes negotiation and a willingness to adapt and make compromises;
• seems to be used more by non-profit organizations, government agencies, and heavily regulated businesses such as public utilities than by competitive, profit-driven companies.

Many of clients I work with on a daily basis are looking to us for advice on how to connect with the Web 2.0 generation. Our clients know blogging has enormous potential as a communications tool. Many of these companies are eager to launch themselves into the blogosphere, but nearly all of them struggle to adapt to some or all of the points of two-way symmetrical model of public relations.

Blogging seems to be the new litmus test in determining whether or not organizations can become excellent communicators. Earlier generations of PR pros who wanted to adhere to this model may have conducted focus groups or held speakers bureaus to get real feedback from consumers. Now it’s the blogs serve as the vehicle.

When clients ask our firm whether or not they should respond to or start a blog I simply point to a theory developed over 20 years ago and ask:

“Blogs will ‘require organizations engaging in public relations to be willing to make significant adjustments in how they operate in order to accommodate their public’ is your organization ready….?