PR’s Generation Gap

At Sunday dinners, I can usually predict the questions my Poppop will ask me: ”How are your classes?” “Are any boys bothering you?” “You’re not walking anywhere alone, right?” However, at our last family dinner, he threw me a curve ball by asking, “So what exactly is it that you do?” I had no response. An image I saw from a PR daily article popped into my head.

Before I could respond, he asked “spin stuff?” My mouth dropped open. My Poppop has been known to use four-letter words from time to time, but I could not believe he used THIS four-letter word! I started rambling off anything to make him believe PR is anything but spin. But looking back it makes me wonder, is there a generation gap surrounding PR?

Of course in the picture above there is a big question mark above “what my parents (and grandparents) think I do.” Being a veteran, my Poppop thinks of PR as propaganda rallying for the World Wars and protesting Vietnam. PR professionals were the ones “behind the scenes” to play up JFK’s young, attractive image and use it against Nixon.  He remembers them as the ones who “spun” scandals to cover political leaders. Remember learning about the Watergate scandal? How about Clinton’s famous lines “I did not have sexual relations with that woman?”

How do people see PR now? Well, the Samantha Joneses of the world would describe it as event planning, attending galas and getting your client to appear at the hottest places.  Just take a look at “what my friends think I do.” Not to mention, the belief PR professionals are glued to their smart phones tweeting like crazy (we DO still check Facebook!).

Both generations have it wrong! PR involves so much more than rescuing a politician or planning a gala. It takes the ability to think on your feet. The press release is not totally dead, so you need to be a strong writer. PR people must keep up with the latest news. You must understand the media’s side and know how to pitch journalists. Having a business sense is also highly recommended. PR is job that takes years to build up credibility and only a second to destroy it. If we really did “what our friends think we do” there would be a lot more broken AP style rules in our writing.

There are a million ways to describe what “we actually do.” But is there just one definition? Definitely not. How do you define PR?

This guest blog post was written by PRowl Staff Member Lauren Bentley.

Communication: The Generation Gap

These days it’s hard to get by without using technology in your everyday life. Email has become a staple in the business world, and it’s hard to imagine how people ever got along without it.  Text messaging seems to be following suit. Many people prefer to send a text rather than make a phone call.  Text messaging might be affecting more than just a person’s social skills and their ability to speak on the phone.  Text message lingo has been creeping its way into the professional world for some time now, and it’s something that needs to be addressed before emails between business partners are littered with OMG’s and LOL’s.

It has gotten to the point where teachers are now having to tell their students to specifically avoid “text-speak” in their papers.  This doesn’t reflect highly on the kids who are growing up to be the future of our country.  Another issue that has arisen is the lack of public speaking skills in young adults.  Every other word is “uh,” “um,” or “like”.  I believe this can be traced back to technology hampering our social skills by taking away the need for verbal conversation.

The business world is still run by people who grew up in a time where technology wasn’t popular. They had three TV channels and playing outside was more important than playing a video game.  They had to use the telephone, write letters with good grammar, and speak to adults in a professional and respectful manner.  Nowadays, people are starting professional emails with “hey!” and ending them with emoticons.  I’m all for the betterment of mankind through the use of technology, but there is a time and place for LOL’s and JK’s, and it certainly isn’t in the business world.  Young adults need to learn to keep their text speak between them and their friends because the adults who are reading their resumes and their emails are not going to find them as amusing as their peers do.

This guest blog was written by PRowl Public Relations staff member London Faust