CSR

Corporations are applying Corporate Social Responsibility programmes to show to society that they are more than a company that only cares about providing products or services that produce profits. They want to do contribute to society by improving life and helping the environment. However, many critics believe that some companies apply these programmes only to get good coverage in the press and having a better reputation, and they question their motives of their honest action to help society and the environment. They also question some business’s nature arguing that they will never be credible to the public eye about the application of CSR programme. For example, oil companies by nature will never help the environment or tobacco companies will affect people’s health.

It is important all corporations have a CSR but most importantly are the companies such as British American Tobacco, petrol BP and others implement CSR programmes and not as a distraction to unethical behaviour due to their core operations. I am not saying that all corporations will be ethical and socially responsible for having a CSR programmes. On the contrary, I am saying they need one and they have to implemented ethically and not only to get good press.

Therefore it is important that the PR practitioner in the corporation has the authority to change unethical practices of their company or client. At the end of the day the costumers and the community will know if a companies is doing good through their actions and not their promises.

Most companies announce in their webpage their CSR and if you are interested in a specific company you only have to Google it!

Feminisation of PR

In the Anglo-Saxon countries the debate around the feminisation of public relations is in vogue. Interestingly enough I Google “mujeres y relaciones públicas” and I did not get a single article about this topic. This made me think that this issue (if it is an issue) was only happening in the UK and US.

After reading a few articles, statistics and studies I came to the conclusion that the feminisation of public relations is a really but, also, that they are not promoted into highest positions within the agencies and in-house organisations.

Is this bad or good? Well, I would have to say that I do not know and it is very subjective because each individual is different and maybe particular circumstances have not given the opportunity to women to be in bigger positions. I do believe that women are more than capable to excel in their work and both genders should have equal opportunities and salaries.

Once a person asked me if I was proud that Michelle Bachelet won the Chilean presidential elections. I answer that I did not mind who won as long as he or she was a good leader.

In this century in most countries, women have great opportunities to develop professionally. More and more young girls are going to university and recent graduate girls are eager to work hard. I currently we can see many examples of exceptional women leading in different industries.

Two views on "Women in Public Relations: How Gender Influences Practice" is an article reviewing the book and talking about the feminisation of public relations in the UK.

Can any industry be ethical?

That is the main question! Now a day’s is the Banking industry that is in the spotlight due to the economical crisis or credit crunch. Next, probably, it will be the Oil industry…? There is always someone to blame about unethical decisions and practice in each profession. So why mark PR as an industry that maybe will never be ethical?

Public relations department manages the communication flow between the client, shareholders and community. They are the responsible ones to communicate any type of news, from bad to good ones. In some organisation the communication director would work with CEO drafting the company’s mission statement, strategies and vision. The PR stuff is also in charge of managing a crisis. PR is the mediator between client and public. I we cannot forget our dear friends the journalist. So maybe because the PR practitioners are in that unique position they are the targets of all criticism.

I do believe that is come to each individual to blame responsibility when they have worked unethically and not the whole industry.

PR associations have created Professional Codes of Conducts as guidelines for the PR practitioners. Academics have developed and analysed several ethical frameworks to understand the origins of approaches that practitioners could use when a dilemma arises. In an essay I wrote in the first semester I discovered that the decision-making theory was the most accepted in the PR industry. Also, PR practitioners sometimes will find their self in a case of loyalty conflicts and in those cases it is important to remember that practitioners must be responsible to society and above all public interest but without living aside clients, employees and especially oneself.

A problem with the Professional Codes of Conducts is that each association has their unique approach to make their codes effective and enforce sanctions when their members have committed unethical decisions. Therefore, having o many PR associations it is difficult to who is the conscious voice in the PR industry.

To know more about Professional Codes of Conducts please click on the following associations:

PRSA

CIPR

IPRA

Obama's campaign will go to history and some will not.

Thanks to our American classmates in yesterday’s class we had an entertaining and interesting presentation of Barack Obama’s campaign. It was his unique massage and innovative ways of reaching people from all spectrum of society that made this last long campaign much more exciting.

Obama’s PR advisor marked a new way of how political candidates should take their campaigns. The most innovative tool was the use of the new media. Facebook, YouTube and MySpace are some examples of how social networks can help you boost your profile among younger people and how they can support your battle.

No longer the old slogans and proposals can be used as the only way to reach voters. Political PR practitioners have new opportunities to create more appealing campaigns.

In the analysis of Obama’s new media campaign we can see different elements that made his campaign a success and something that other PR practitioners can look at.

There are also examples when political PR goes wrong. John Plunkett from The Guardian wrote about, according to PR Week, When political PR stunts go wrong. It is not a long article but it is funny to remember old political stunts that went wide of the mark.

For the public it funny when the stunts do not according to plans, however, political PR also has a dark side, the “spin doctors”. According to Wikipedia, “spin is providing an interpretation of an event or campaign to persuade public opinion in favor or against a certain organization or public figure.” In the UK, the most well-known “spin doctor” is Tony Blair’s Director of Communication and Strategy, Alastair John Campbell (click on name to see his webpage).

Confessions of a Spin Doctor by Eric Sparling is an article published in PR Watch. He talks about lying and manipulating information whilst he was working in a PR agency.