Field notes from a first foray into PR

I have to start by saying, to the field of Public Relations and all of its practitioners: I underestimated you. Or at least, I don’t think I understood you very well when I first chose you. But there was something about you that intrigued me, and I followed a hunch, and I think I was right. You were right for me, and I am excited to get to know you more! Now I’ve only had two classes so far, but I’ve learned a lot of surprising things. Three things in particular have topped my list.

1. PR, you take a lot of information in. I thought that I would like to work in the arts and cultural sector, or in community health, and to do PR in those areas, I would just top up my prior knowledge with some extra bells and whistles – a few new ways to turn a phrase, a formula for writing a press release, a few tips and tricks to get inside people’s heads. I didn’t expect to be asked to read the news. Ok, I do read the news, but I often skim through and only read certain sections. But over the last few weeks, I’ve had news stories and news alerts streaming into my phone non-stop, stories about business and politics and world issues. Taking this course has forced me out of my news-reading silo, and I can see now how it’s all relevant.  It’s important to stay current, because everything is interconnected.  These stories affect everyone, and everyone – the public – is important (more about this in #3!) And yes, I did feel overwhelmed at first, but I was inspired by Hobson & Holtz's discussion about “information overload”. They discussed a study from the University of Michigan which showed that the more competent a person is in finding, managing, and filtering the information, the more likely they are to be empowered by it, not overwhelmed.  And who doesn't want to be empowered?  So I took stock of my own "filter failure", reorganized my email, and discovered a newfound respect for the work PR professionals do in order to stay current.

2. PR, you relate to everything. After I started reading the news and seeing how current events affect many different spheres of our public lives, I had another "aha" moment.  I did not expect cultural literacy to be that important in PR, but oh yes, it is (and it even made the list of "What Employers Want" in class!). In retrospect, it seems obvious that understanding people is the first key step to communicating with people.  But this - the importance of cultural literacy - really opens the floodgates for me.  This means that through studying PR, I can also indulge my insatiable curiosity for, well, everything.  It's inspiring to be taking a course that encourages lifelong learning, to go beyond the boundaries of a discipline, and to read and learn about things that are unfamiliar in order to broaden your horizons.

3. PR, you're a two-way street.  I did start this course with the sneaky little misconception that PR was about advertising and brainwashing, it was about putting a message out to convince the public, and ignoring the response. I was pleasantly surprised by the value that is placed on public opinion, on being transparent, and on encouraging dialogue (even when the dialogue is trying your patience).  This is definitely not Mad Men.  With social media, feedback is instant and can go viral.  I think it's great that people can join the conversation and have their say, and I'm keen to learn more about setting the stage for productive conversations through PR.