Public relations are seen as a practice that relates to ‘common sense’ using ‘writing/speaking skills’ in a way that slightly undermines what a PR practitioner does. If it is true that, to some extent, public relations are about maintaining relations in different forms, it cannot only be reduced to a public performance or an act. While the practice remains very accessible unlike medicine or law, mistakes can also cause just as many consequences.
Handling public relations crisis for instance, require more than skills and field experience. It takes a person with some wisdom, some psychological knowledge, some theoretical mind and a good anticipated crisis communication plan. One good safety net in that case is a university degree in public relations, which gathers a panel of skills and theories that give one person the basics to handling a public relations situation.
From soft skills like networking events, internships, workshops, debates, to ‘hard’ skills like putting together client briefs, PR campaigns, reputation audits, press conferences, university degrees offer a wide range of necessary and modern skills for an aspiring PR practitioner. It also teaches about accurately using multimedia tools like video editing, design, social media, in accurate PR contexts.
Anne Gregory, president of the Institute for Public Relations, supports that idea and says “We should welcome the increase in PR degrees. If people are prepared to learn about their career it shows they're committed to it and understand what PR can achieve.”
She also says “Experience means always looking backwards; education helps you look forward and question how you do things” (Bowman, 2004).
Some professionals may argue that public relations are all about connections and maintaining relationships. The Edelman Public Engagement Model for instance explains that professionals and academics no longer determine influential people. Influential people are instead people who can happen to be amateurs in a particular field and therefore more legitimate in talking about it (e.g. food bloggers). An influencer is a person who experiences passion and shares knowledge about a given topic for which they will be entitled to. This approach to public relations — and business — has proven to be effective; who better than a mother can talk about the efficiency and safety of certain baby products, and who more influential than a food blogger that has a passion for gastronomy or cooking can persuade the general public on the quality of a product? As the Edelman Public Engagement Model defines, public relations campaigns work more effectively since practitioner started to involve influencers, the message therefore came off as more accurate and the audience was more trusting.
This theory is thus true and effective, as well as being less of a ‘manipulation’ than older public relations practices. However, it seems important that a professional and certified public relations practitioner stands behind the non-professional influencer. Just as Anne Gregory claimed, education helps one person look forward and question how they do things, including how to prevent mistakes or deal with the consequences.
References
Richard Edelman, “Public Engagement,” Richard Edelman 6 A.M., October 30, 2008, http://www.edelman. com/speak_up/blog/archives/2008/10/public_engageme.html
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