Monday, August 31, 2009

Mission statements

http://www.unilever.com/aboutus/purposeandprinciples/

http://manonamission.blogspot.com/

Mission statements vs. actions

Dove's campaign for real beauty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=321Kb8pBu5s

The spoof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwDEF-w4rJk

The critique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI7pQFyjso

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Teens and Twitter

A link from the New York Times today, about why Twitter is more popular with 20-somethings than with teens. Also includes information about technology saturation and adoption by age group.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

How does our culture define public relations?

... and how does our profession? These views are quite divergent.

Let's check out a few. First, from activist culture, probably the most vocal organization is PRwatch.org (and sourcewatch.org). We'll look up public relations in the sourcewatch encyclopedia.

Here's a short video from John Stauber, co-author of Toxic Sludge is Good for You and co-founder of PRwatch.org.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rPQCPwdwHQ

He defines PR as propaganda. Another Youtube video that's a longer look at this perspective is "The wires that control the public mind." Later in the semester, we'll also look at some views of PR related to Edward Bernays, who is considered to be a founder of the profession in the United States.

Of course, there are other legitimate and real definitions of PR, but I thought I would share the bad news first. That bad news is the perception of the profession, and even confusion about the profession from some of its own practitioners.

What I'll call the "publicity stunt" view of PR is contained in this spoof of that viewpoint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ1R1_sN_co

Another video showing a benign view, one that is more in line with our textbook is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niChw9BEMy0

The comments posted under these videos are almost as interesting as the videos themselves. Be sure to check them out.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Welcome to TCU's JOUR 30403: PR Principles

We'll use this blog as a gathering place for links, musings on class discussion, and reminders. Another place to find some of these things will be at eCollege. If you are especially interested in social media, then read posts made between February-June 2009, on this burgeoning tool for building relationships and messaging audiences, one person at a time.