By studying the works/speeches of Robert McChesney, Tom Kelleher, Stuart Ewen, C. Wright Mills, and Scott McClellan, I would like to come up with my own concise definition of Public Relations going into the year 2010.
McChesney: In his speech, McChesney talks about the history, theory, ethics, and issues of the media. By going through the changes in the media, McChesney showed how changing media is going to effect the ethics of businesses. For example, with more ways to put media in the public eye, businesses are going to try harder not to do things that are wrong and they are going to try to make more ethically correct decisions. According to McChesney, media will keep changing. His theory is that if we take the right steps towards media perfection, the government will not be able to keep information from the public, which will provide the public the freedom that they are guaranteed. The media is dropping the ball on a lot of issues in the government, which is allowing them to get away with things that the public would not approve of. This is a huge issue that needs to be changed, according to McChesney.
Kelleher: In his book, Kelleher talks about the emergence of media online. With the new and emerging technologies, there are so many more opportunities for public relations. For example, it is much easier to communicate with the public through blogs, social media websites, and other new media. It is also much easier to give information through viral video, Facebook pages, and other free websites. According to Kelleher, videos on the Internet will be one of the most effective ways to create better public relations.
Ewen: Ewen’s book is a great book for an intro class. I say this because technology is changing so quickly that this book is not up to date. Most of this stuff would be considered the history of PR, which is actually very helpful in this class. Seeing the differences between what Ewen is writing about and what is going on today, we can draw conclusions about what is to come. By making patterns from this book, I think that going in to 2010, the Internet is going to be the most useful PR tool. No longer will we need to rely on billboards, phone calls, and mail. It will be so much easier to post these things on the Internet for everybody to see and take advantage of.
Mills: Mills talked about many issues involving the media in the documentary “War Made Easy.” Issues of the government lying to the public in order to go to war and do other things that the public would not agree to unless they were lied to. This was a very interesting documentary because there were a lot of ideas about how to change that, all of which involved the media giving more information to the public. This is very interesting because nowadays, some normal people are becoming the media by uploading videos to YouTube or other sites. For example, if somebody takes a video from their cell phone of a famous person doing something wrong, it would be very easy to post publically. Taking advantage of new media will eliminate the issues brought up by Mills.
C. Wright Mills
McClellan: I think that this was my favorite video. Everything about this speech is about ethics. McClellan was lying, contradicting himself, and trying to deceive the audience throughout his speech. I found this very interesting because although he was trying to give vital information about the government, he was still being criticized for being involved in it at all. I think that this shows the importance of ethics in the government. If you are involved in something unethical, people are going to find out and you will not be able to shake that reputation. With new technologies, you need to understand that if you do something wrong, people will find out and your public relations reputation will be ruined.
By studying all of these works, it shows that going in to 2010, the Internet and new technologies will be the most influential PR tool. Everything revolves around where the audience is, and that is on the Internet. For 2010, my definition for public relations is as follows: “Utilizing the Internet and available new technologies to reach the greatest audience in order to give your client a good reputation, within the law.” I say this because without using the Internet, PR will not exist.
