Thinking about public relations

December 14th, 2009 / 3:19 pm

I watched this BBC documentary series over the weekend, and it got me thinking about the origins of public relations, including its connection to psychology and early practice as propaganda. I suspect that many fellow PR people would be interested to watch The Century of the Self:

In watching the series, it struck me how so many PR people seem to know little about their own industry’s often wartime roots, and made me feel proud about how far PR has progressed ethically and in terms of sophistication since its early crudely manipulative origins.

I also just wrote a rambling article on this topic, much too long for a regular blog post: Thinking about public relations.

Categories: blog, thinking
comments(0) Tags: bbc, persuasion, PR, propaganda, psychology

---

subscribe

fresh posts

• Image and reputation in the age of digital communication
  (9/1/2010)
• Telling the story
  (9/1/2010)
• Happy 25th anniversary to B-M China!
  (8/31/2010)
• The Brand Management Dinosaur
  (8/30/2010)
• Interview with China’s PR Magazine
  (8/21/2010)
• The rise of Asia in the world of PR
  (8/17/2010)

categories

• Asia
• Burson-Marsteller
• careers
• crisis communications
• culture
• digital
• friends
• measurement
• media relations
• news
• persuasion
• PR industry
• psychology
• publicity
• radio
• speaking platforms
• talent
• thinking

tags

analogue apology communications asia asia-pacific b-m billionaires canada careers china cialdini continuous improvement crisis communications culture digital digital storytelling edelman environment ethics management friends hill & knowlton japan journalism korea language lindstrom management marketing measurement media media relations metaphors narrative ngo persuasion PR presence propaganda psychology publicity public relations public speaking radio social networks thinking zaltman

friendfeed