The perception of PR

To paraphrase American singer/songwriter, Jimmy Buffett: “Public relations, public relations, boozing and schmoozing that's what I do ... public relations such hullabaloo ... ego inflation, that's what I do … it’s only public relations, who’s screwing who … just give me some time and I’ll make it come true.” I play it to students in their first tutorial. Mostly they think it’s a nice tune but don’t really listen to the words.

Unfortunately, Buffet’s image of PR reflects the still commonly-held perception of what many practitioners do. And therein lies the problem: the perception of PR.

For a profession that is all about perception, what are professionals doing about it? Not much. If professional bodies such as the PRIA were serious about it, they’d be mounting a PR campaign to counteract the skewed perceptions we suffer. TV shows such as Ab Fab, Absolute Power (to name but two) do nothing to enhance our standing in the business community. It riles me when all students are taught is they must fight to “get a seat at the boardroom table” so they can influence decision-making. Yeah, right.

The accounting profession has adopted a great series of (US) advertisements that push the benefits of having a CPA working for business. What have we got? Zilch, that’s what. Unfortunately, the PRIA’s membership numbers couldn’t afford to subsidise a TV ad campaign. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates there are 11-14,000 people who classify themselves as PR practitioners. The membership of the PRIA is under 3000. That’s another story.

Dr Karl debunks clean coal PR myth

Good to see Dr Karl Kruszelnicki today debunk the government's PR stunt on clean coal. Karl, a physicist, is standing in the election as a Climate Change Coalition candidate for the Senate. Clean coal, along with the government's preference for climate change instead of global warming, are two simple PR tactics of giving something dangerous a more friendly name.

Into the election

We're just finishing week one of six in the federal election campaign, highlighted by John Howard's promise of tax cuts and a negative advertising campaign. Opposition leader Kevin Rudd has shown nothing, except a nice wardrobe.

I would have thought Rudd could have matched Howard's $34 billion "promise" with a counter plan to spend the equivalent on government services, such as health, education, water, roads (well, maybe rail).

People have indicated they would rather the government spend money that way. Rudd should be pushing the line that by the time the tax cuts start next year (and end in 2011), they will be eaten by inflation.

Tax cuts are really a simplistic offer to a mostly gullible public, who can't remember what Howard promised before the last election.

Let's have some real vision. What about de-politicising the Public Service?

TV media polls way off the mark

Channel Nine's A Current Affair, a national program, tonight promoted yet another of those ridiculous polls. This time, who would you vote for in the federal election: John Howard or Kevin Rudd?

These type of polls, where viewers simply dial a number to register a vote, are a scandal. The results are meangingless, as anyone can ring in multiple times. In other words, the result is probably biased.

The Liberal Part is renowned for marshalling its members to ring talk radio shows and vote in these pointless pseudo polls.

Unfortunately, as I previously mentioned, most of the country gets its information from television. So does a loaded result have the power to persuade voters? If the result is biased in favour of the government, will this cause people to rethink their support one way or the other?

Meantime, the broadcast goes unpunished. Idiots. My advice: read more newspapers.

Howard calls election at last

It took him long enough. After months of fake campaigning and pork-barrelling, John Howard has called the federal election for November 24.

Now we'll really start to see and hear some spin ... though it's more likely to be seen, as elections these days are fought on our television screens.

The media maniuplation will be (hopefully) interesting to watch/see/hear. Every day a new photo opportunity and plethora of sound grabs. The same methods will be employed by Labor.

However, I detect that voters are wise to the tactics and have already cast their ballots. Certainly the polls have been consistently predicting a Labor victory for months.

As they say: "watch this space" (and lots of others).

Media complicity

Here in WA there are two Australian Football teams - the Eagles and the Dockers (the Dockers are actually down the river from Perth in Fremantle).

Media coverage of these teams border on fanatical (and at times, farcical). They get saturation coverage, and that’s in the off-season.

The presence of so many young, over-paid, ego-inflated sportspeople creates many problems for these teams at regular occasions throughout the year/s. The Eagles always seem to have someone in trouble (crashing cars while drunk, swimming across rivers to avoid a police breath test, drugs, indecent behaviour, psychological problems, more booze, assaults, association with bikie gangs and other criminals).

Sadly, one of the Eagles former players, Chris Mainwaring, 41, died on 1 October. Media reports suggest there were a cocktail of drugs and alcohol involved, plus marital and financial problems. Mainwaring had a history of being a “party animal” to the point of probably being an alcoholic.

The Eagles management, however, has not been able to change players’ behaviour. This is a worrying sign for a supposedly professional outfit. Chairman “Delta” Gooding just seems to smile every time he’s fronted by the media, with an attitude of “well, what more could we expect?”

More worrying is the media’s role in not exposing more of the antics these guys get up to. When I asked a senior club official how they managed to keep things out of the media, he replied they just ring the journos and ask them to “go easy”. The journalists know that if they break any negative stories they won’t get any future information. To put it in sports journalism’s language of talking in clichés: they don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them.

The biggest story in many years about Eagles captain Ben Cousins abandoning his car and swimming the Swan River to avoid a police breath test late one night was broken by ABC talkback announcer, Liam Bartlett, now with 60 Minutes. Bartlett had nothing to lose by naming and shaming Cousins, who has recently finished a drug rehab program in the US, and was also one of the last people to see Mainwaring alive.

I’d say the Eagles’ media/PR department is not strong in presenting a case to management on how the club should be focusing on its corporate reputation. That’s blindingly obvious, following the ANZ Bank’s departure as a sponsor. They seem to operate with a narrow, media-only focus, without knowing much of the other areas involved in modern communication.

Meantime, Channel 7 will telecast Mainwaring’s funeral, once again elevating a football player to demigod-like status. The more these people are put on pedestals, without exposing their insidious antics, the more we can expect the youth who follow them to accept this behaviour as normal and something to aspire to.

The local media have much to answer for.