Does PR deserve to be an academic discipline?

As a Public Relations undergraduate, I have to defend my unfinished degree about as often as I tell people I’m a PR major. Acquaintances struggling through organic chemistry or Arabic language courses might have questions like “Isn’t that what the guy in Thank You For Smoking does?” or “What do you do with all your free time?” or “Does it hurt to be inferior?”

I’m exaggerating, of course, and no one means to offend when asking questions about Public Relations, but I do sense that the hard sciences and even the humanities look down on us media majors. And why should Public Relations majors need to argue for academic legitimacy? It seems unfair. I go to college. I work hard. What’s the deal?

Perhaps the most obvious reason is that Public Relations is an academic discipline in its infancy. Edward Bernays, often called the father of modern Public Relations, taught the first course in Public Relations at New York University in 1923. Faced with respected fields like philosophy and mathematics that have been around for millennia, Public Relations really is the new kid on the block – the new kid who is kinda short and trying really hard to make friends. But even considering the relative newness of the discipline, Public Relations is a rapidly expanding research area and branch of learning – we should be proud of this.

Another reason for the disrespect from my hard science peers might be that Public Relations is a science predicated on fields like communication theory, sociology and psychology, which are already seen as nebulous and esoteric. Considering the criticisms already directed at our theoretical foundations, Public Relations researchers must work that much harder to show causal relationships grounded in hard data. As an undergraduate unburdened by the research responsibilities of graduate students and professors in the college, that’s easy for me to say, but I’ll say it anyway. I’m getting involved in research this year in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida and I hope I’ll be able to update here about my work there.

But hey, despite all the hate I may get from friends in other colleges, I really love my major for one reason: its potential for real-world applications. If you’re a PR major, this is the #1 reason why you should be proud of your degree. Shout it from the rooftops! Public Relations needs lovin’ too!

China practices crisis communications 20 years too late, and poorly

Assuming these men blocking a view of Tiananmen Square with umbrellas are doing so at the behest of the Chinese government, their actions represent one of the worst ways to deal with the media. (Background: If you weren't aware, today, June 4th, is the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre).



Because of the Chinese government's inane policy, the BBC has downright creepy footage from a country that is either:

1. evidently embarrassed of its own history and expressing this sentiment through policy,
2. so grossly incompetent that it actually believes umbrellas will prevent the media from filming, or
3. so grossly incompetent that it actually believes umbrellas will hide the story from the public eye a full 20 years after the Tiananmen Square incident occurred.

So, in trying to cover up its violent, authoritarian history, China looks more Orwellian than ever. How can Chinese officials justify this policy? Where are the apologies? If China expects to be taken seriously on the world stage (which it does), policies like the one shown in the video must end.