Does PR Need Standardization?

Public Relations is a field that is slowly being recognized by more and more companies and professionals around the world. However, there is one question that the profession does face–whether it is completely legitimate or not. PR does not have standardized testing like medical and law degrees do. In the past I have had PR professors tell me that a degree is not needed to break into a career in our industry. This is a bit disheartening since this is what I have gone to school for, for the last 3 years! Though our industry doesn’t have standardization, there are different certificates that can be obtained like the ABC and APR. Do you think this is enough? Do you think companies looking to hire PR professionals need more to truly believe in what our industry can do for them? It would probably be a great task to form questions that could be answered by choosing A,B, C or D, to capture practices that the PR professionals use. Though I am not a fan of standardized testing, I would almost prefer some type of justifiable test for companies to see the value in what we do. Here is the link to a blog written by a PR professional that went through the accreditation process–see his views on accreditation and standardization.

Who is part of the media?

Have you ever actually wondered who the media is?  Sure we are exposed to the radio, television, newspaper everyday, but is there something beyond that?  On PR Squared I found a posting that discussed who exactly the media is composed of.  The reason you use media is to get information, hopefully creditable information.  The media uses the Internet to relay their information to a bigger audience by posting videos and articles, etc.  Where does the line stop on who is a medium?  What I am trying to get at is, are bloggers a medium?  Bloggers are credible most of the time.  Bloggers are people who are passionate about a certain topic and they research their information and have strong opinions on each topic they discuss.  It is hard not to fall into their opinions and agree with them, the passion grabs you and sometimes makes you take part in their point of view.  I wonder if at one point bloggers will become a main part of a legitimate way to collect information.  Of course there are different types of bloggers, but there is also different types of news sources that might not be considered media exactly.  It is just weird to look into the future to see how things can possibly change in the world and the way we obtain information and use it, as well as how we classify it in our lives.

Spin Alley – Necessary?

Have you heard of spin alley? I had not heard of it until I was watch the pre-debate coverage of the Oct. 7 Presidential debate on Fox News Channel. As a public relations student I was intrigued by this concept, so I did some research the next day. I found a column by Chicago Tribune columnist Phil Rosenthal. The spin room is essentially where representatives of each candidate spit information at the media saying how their candidate won the debate. Rosenthal argued that spin alley is no longer necessary because the candidate representatives just recite talking points, not on what was actually said at the debate. I agree with the statement because it serves no purpose. The media already knows the candidates talking points. Although public relations was not mentioned in the column I think the word “spin” implies it. As a future public relations professional I would not want to be associated with that word or the concept of the word. What do you think? Do you agree with Rosenthal or not? Would you work as a candidate “representative” and participate in spin alley?