Full article in English is available for reading here. - PRO-PR.com

Public relations as we know may not be dead yet, but it is time to plan a funeral
Richard Linning Fellow IPRA Fellow CIPR
Immediate Past President, International Public Relations Association
The dying process usually begins well before death actually occurs: a process that involves the
journey from life as we know it to the unknown of what lies ahead. Public relations is on just such a
journey.
Why this prognosis? Three reasons : the changed environment in which we operate (social media
the most significant change); the different expectations of public relations (strategic and business
input, ROI and ethical input); and the new skill sets that are required of practitioners.
We used to do primarily just three things – arrange publicity/promotion events, seek third-party
endorsement through the intermediary of the traditional media, and engage with target audiences.
Of these, third-party endorsement was top of everyone’s agenda. All that has changed. In just a
decade Google, Facebook , Youtube and Twitter etc have turned the world of public relations upside
down. It is the audiences not us who are now in the driving seat.
The date of birth and exact parentage of the practice of public relations are not known. Perhaps it
was the ancient Greeks who had a word sematikos (to signify), which semantically can mean how to
get people to believe things and do things. Not a bad definition of public relations.
With the birth of newspapers in 1605 1 , advertisers realised that the third party endorsement of
apparently independent editorial reporting delivered their message more cheaply – and arguably
more credibly – than paid advertising. Thus in the 17th century the publicist was born to service “the
fellow who cannot lye sufficiently himself [who] gets one of these to do’t for him” 2 .
This has been the pattern more or less until today. At the start of the last century Harry
Reichenbach, a New York-based publicist, made famous the Paul Chabas painting of a nude,
September Morn, by hiring boys to "ogle" the picture when he showed it to the moralist crusader
Anthony Comstock. Comstock was predictably outraged and his Anti-Vice Society took the store to
court for selling lithographs of the painting and lost. The case aroused interest in the painting, and
thousands of copies were sold. Today Benneton employ the same shock tactics to secure editorial
coverage.
1 Johann Carolus' Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien, published in Strasburg
in 1605, is usually regarded as the first news periodical - World Association of Newspapers
"Newspapers: 400 Years Young!"
2 Richard Linning, (2005) "Abuse and self-abuse – PR and its USP, plausible deniability", Journal of
Communication Management, Vol. 9 Iss: 1, pp.65 - 72

The advent of social media has sounded a death knell for third party endorsement as we know it,
through the traditional media intermediary, and for public relations practice which relies on it. As
the credibility of the traditional media has declined – globally fewer than half the public trust the
traditional media to tell the truth – so has trust in the new media grown. In the latest Edelman Trust
Barometer 3 social media, which consists of social networking sites, content-sharing sites, blogs, and
micro blogging sites, saw the biggest percentage increase (75 percent) in trust among media
sources. Online multiple sources, made up of search engines and news/RSS feeds also saw a jump of
18 percent.
With social media public relations can reach people more directly through Twitter and Facebook and
the ever-growing array of new platforms: it is now a case of B2P, where P stands for up-close-andpersonal
communication. Thanks to data mining and the public’s willingness to reveal all online –
search history, buying habits, likes and dislikes and the rest – targeting the individual is a no-brainer.
But the use of social media - particularly Twitter - to engage with customers can also backfire. The
rise of “bashtags” is an example of the power social media has given to the consumer.
The Australian airline Qantas discovered this last November when it encouraged people to use the
Qantas Luxury hashtag to share positive experiences of flying with the Australian airline,
incentivising participation with a prize of luxury pyjamas. Instead, it was inundated with thousands
of complaints and sarcastic comments from disgruntled customers 4 (bashtags)who felt the service
they received could not have been further from what they considered to be luxury.
McDonald's was also stung when it created the McDStories hashtag in January, hoping it would
unleash a stream of positive tweets. The fast-food behemoth reportedly stopped using the hashtag
after just two hours, saying the effort "did not go as planned" 5 following a barrage of negative
tweets.
In this environment public relations with its accepted origins in propaganda – the total control of the
flow of information – has in recent years gone from push, to pull, to the right of consumers to access
information to the current situation where the public is the principal source of the information.
Whistleblower, citizen journalist, blogger, tweeter etc etc. From being the proactive master in the
communication process which is public relations, practitioners now have to sprint 24/7 to keep up.
That is the first change in vital life signs which leads me to a prognosis of death for public relations as
we know it.
The second is the changing expectations of what public relations can deliver, or rather the evolution
in practice in two directions: more strategic counselling and different tactical implementation. The
current crop of public relations practitioners – and the students on the production line - on the
whole are ill-equipped for this new world of practice.
3 http://trust.edelman.com/trusts/path-forward/social-media-surges/
4 http://www.theage.com.au/national/a-qantas-luxury--not-having-to-face-flak-20111122-1nsy3.html
5 http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-mcdonalds-twitter-fail-20120123,0,7220567.story

The fight for the recognition of the potential contribution of public relations has been won: we are
accepted inside the boardroom, one of the team given the opportunity to give advice on every
aspect of the organisation’s activity – issues, politics, financial etc. But as Lord Chadlington,
chairman of the Huntsworth Group (UK) observed at the recent IPRA PRWC ’12 in Dubai 6 “we are
inside, but we cannot deliver the goods”. Why not? Because we are competing with members of
other professions – lawyers, financial experts etc – more confident working with CEOs and with
greater credibility than the journalists-turned- public relations practitioners that populate the
industry currently.
When the purpose of public relations activity was to gain free publicity it made sense: a journalist
knows the media world best. But when its role is to contribute to the strategic direction and success
of the business then public relations has to speak the language of business. For this to happen
experts have to be recruited into public relations. Chadlington illustrated Huntsworth’s response to
this by revealing that one in three members of global healthcare practice now has either a PhD or
tertiary education in a medical or pharmaceutical discipline.
Complementing them must still be the worker bees. While there is still a need for those who
arrange publicity/promotion events, who needs press release writers when the medium of
communication is the 140 character tweet? Increasingly these come from the ranks of geeks who
know how to harness the potential for 24/7/365 connectivity with or without going through the
filter of the traditional gatekeepers. The digital world is about content and the business of public
relations is to create content. The new media gatekeepers are obtaining ever increasing amounts of
their content from online posts. Twitter has added another dimension. Its 140 character Tweet limit
means using the shorthand of embedded links to articles, blogs, websites to convey fully new
information and ideas.
Thats what the new PR’s do, but how do we prove it? Agreed standards are needed for the conduct,
and measurement of the impact and ROI (Return on Investment) of public relations activity.
The third of the deteriorating vital signs is evidence that the education system is failing to cater for
the changing needs of the public relations industry. The results of a recent study in the United
States (for example) indicates that while the number of graduate programs has nearly tripled since
2000, inconsistent curricula and degree requirements may be lowering the perception of its value 7 .
This is probably the same across the globe. “(I)t shows we have a long way to go before an
advanced degree in our field has clear meaning and value,” according to the study’s principal
investigator, Professor Elizabeth L. Toth, of the Department of Communication at the University of
Maryland.
There are two camps in the measurement debate – the output measurers (clippings and AVEs) and
the outcome measurers who tend towards more sophisticated – and costly- measures (internal
reviews, opinion polls etc).
6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P_K7sqBoEo
7 http://www.commpred.org/news/news101711.htm

However change may be in the wind. The measurement industry, meeting in Barcelona in 2010,
agreed on seven principles, (the Barcelona Principles) 8 , which are an industry consensus on what
works and what doesn’t. Yes, goal setting and measurement are – or should be - fundamental
aspects of any PR programme. Measuring outcomes – including business results - is preferred to
measuring media results. And most important of all - Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs) do not
measure the value of PR .
But if we don’t use AVEs, then what are the right metrics? How do we make sense of all the
competing approaches, with hundreds of suppliers pushing different measurement techniques?
Until turkeys vote for Christmas there can be no an industry wide standard.
Professional standards of practice too have to be raised. The words ethics and transparency are
in danger of entering the lexicon of clichés. Edward Bernays, a father of modern public
relations, liked to say, "What I do is propaganda, and I just hope it's not impropaganda."
Too often unfortunately - as Berthold Brecht put it – (f)irst comes a full stomach, then
comes ethics. Too often an ethic of service to society is at war with a craving for gain.
The new IPRA Code has eighteen points which deal with integrity, transparency, accuracy,
deception and exerting improper or undue influence on public officials, the media or other
stakeholders. The full text can be can be downloaded in any one of twenty-three languages
from www.ipra.org . IPRA has also developed with journalists and publishers a Charter for Media
Transparency which sets out standards for best practice in the relationship between pr practitioners
and the media, including the social media.
Unless and until we as practitioners have the courage to stand up for those principles in our
daily employment by refusing to participate in unethical communication practices – from
manipulation and propaganda, to misrepresentation, lying and spin-doctoring then our
many critics will be proved right: the term ‘public relations ethics’ itself is an oxymoron.
In my opinion, the obvious prognosis for all these reasons is that while public relations as we
know it may not be dead yet, it is time to be planning for its funeral. In English there is a
traditional proclamation made following the passing of a ruler and accession of a new
monarch: The King is dead. Long live the King (or Queen). The practice of public relations
will not disappear but Phoenix like it will – it must – rise up from the ashes of its past.
(ends)
8 http://www.slideshare.net/iprmeasure/barcelona-summit-declaration-slides-final-22-july-2010-5407374