USC Annenberg and the Los Angeles chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) brought together industry analysts and professionals for the 19th annual Kenneth Owler Smith Symposium to discuss one of the foremost questions in the minds of public relations practitioners, “Global Recession: Public Relations Calamity or Opportunity?”.
Dean Ernest J. Wilson III opened the event by posing additional questions as to the adequate level of leadership and engagement between public relations programs at universities and practitioners within the professional community. In doing so, he framed the discussion around an industry-wide focus on improving the quality of both practitioners and practices in the context of global economic instability and a lack of job security across all disciplines.
Keynote speaker Paul Holmes, editor of The Holmes Report and veteran industry analyst, took to the stage to impart his perspective on the present and future situation of public relations, calling the global recession a “critical inflection point” for the profession that will yield “a lot of winners and some big losers” but with ultimately great long term prospects.
“We are living in a world where information and misinformation can spread across continents instantaneously which puts organizations under greater scrutiny and pressure, making public relations more important than it has ever been,” Holmes said.
Holmes said public relations has traditionally been viewed strictly as a communications function within many organizations, but in our age of technological advancement and readily available information, a heightened call for corporate transparency requires public relations to function as a mechanism to shape behavior. More than ever, organizations must consider the implications of each decision made with regard to their image and reputation, and Holmes has observed that the public relations industry continues to rise to this challenge of helping create and communicate authenticity.
The public relations industry, according to Holmes, has managed to remain more resilient and robust than expected, mostly attributed to changes in marketing and advertising. For the first time during a time of economic recession, Holmes has noticed a shift in corporate resources from advertising to public relations.
“Control is the enemy of credibility,” Holmes said. “If you control a message, people won’t believe it.”
An attitude of general distrust has made controlled messages nearly obsolete—public opinion is now most effectively shaped by the messages of the blogs and social networks of Web 2.0, practices perfectly suited to the public relations process of disseminating a message through informed individuals, at one time represented by the media. This “crisis of distrust” has also lent itself to a demand for corporate social responsibility that requires the consultation of public relations practices.
While Holmes did touch upon the “bad news,” as he so labeled the typical reaction of agencies to downsize during times of economic decline as well as his concern over in-house public relations practitioners not being offered a “seat at the table” in the high ranks of corporations, his conclusion was one of hope and excitement for the chance of public relations professionals to truly engage with the public.
“Engagement is the great opportunity of our time,” said Holmes. “Public relations is entering a golden age.”
Geoffrey Cowan , University Professor and director of the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, followed Holmes’s address by moderating a panel of industry leaders including Don Spetner, Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Korn/Ferry International; Phyllis Piano, Vice President, Corporate Communications and Philanthropy, Amgen; and Margery Kraus, President and CEO, APCO Worldwide.
Out of their discussion, panel members reached the consensus that rather than a calamity, the global recession represents a challenge for the public relations industry to establish itself as a necessary and respected function of the corporate community. In addition, the coming years present an opportunity for public relations professionals to be creative and hone their practices in preparation for the golden age that is to come.
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