The Way I See PR

Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Ellie and I am a PR student at Bournemouth University but I am currently on a placement year in the world of PR. I thought it would be a good idea to just clarify where I stand in terms of my views on PR, so here goes...

I believe there are two sides to PR. The first of these is spin. When I tell people that I am studying PR, they either don't know what it is or they think that I am working in a world of lies and distortion. There are certain areas of PR where I would say that spin is the main aspect of the job, for example in politics. But making yourself or your company look good by lying is never going to work. Although you may be saving reputation in the short term, in the long term, the truth will always come out. With such a savvy bunch of media in the UK, unless you are representing a company that no one has even heard of, and so will never care about, you are always going to be waiting for the day when a journalist rings you up and you know they know the truth. Exposing it in a double page spread makes the revelation even more damaging. When six months ago, it would have been a small article at the side of the page, the fact that you covered it up for so long makes it infinitely worse. I think it's fair to say that I never intend to work in the world of spin. So what is the other side?

The other side is what PR should be - honest communication with people, making sure you have got your message across and that people understand what you or the company is trying to say. I am not going to pretend that there isn't an element of positivity thrown in to a neutral or negative message - often, PR practitioners will omit certain things that bring down the story and do not add to it, but they should never hide something potentially negative which the public have a right to know about. I believe in wielding the truth, but telling the truth in a way that will benefit you or your company. PR departments are there to support their companies and so it would be stupid to say that they are going to divulge everything. But when issuing any information, it must be honest, and it must be backed up by fact. 

We live in a world today where I feel like a lot of things are treated with scepticism. PR is partly to blame for this. People don't know what to believe anymore. They are bombarded left, right and centre by so many messages, adverts and news pieces that it is difficult to distinguish between a product that is actually good and really works, and a product that says it works and has distorted research to back it up. Spinning the truth is a euphemistic way of saying lying, and I hope that in my future career, I can avoid all aspects of it. The game of PR is trying to maintain your company's reputation through honest means, otherwise you're just cheating.