Academia

I was speaking to a friend of mine the other day about attending college, studying PR. His complaint was that most of what he is learning is not applicable to doing a job. I remember when I was getting my degree, I had the same complaints. Theory, that is what academia teaches. I wonder how long they would last if a college opened up that taught students how to be better employees, rather than the rote memory book learning curriculum they currently teach. Imagine that, a college graduate with skills to do the job you have hired them for. That begs the question why isn't there more hands on experience for students and less theory. I suspect that academia (sorry for generalizing but if the shoe fits, wear it, if it doesn't then don't wear it) have their noses so high in the air that they don't even realize that the theory they teach is only applicable to their career fields. When was the last time you thought, oh this falls into this theory, when you are trying to solve a problem or market your product? I suspect never, I know I don't. I challenge some the business executives of the world to start a college that focuses on the skill sets needed to succeed in today's world and put the academics out of work.

Corporate Responsibility

I see many flyers, brochures and emails regarding Corporate Responsibility, it sounds like a fascinating subject. What I am wondering is why is there nothing on Government Responsibility. How do the feds know what the American public expects of the government? Is there a standard. If not then why not? Did you know that the US federal government is the largest employer in the nation? If you break it down by agency the Dept. Of Defense is the largest of them all. Even when you exclude all the other agencies in the federal government the Dept. Of Defense is the largest single employer in the country. Yet all the focus is on Corporations. I think that the PR field is missing the boat when they neglect to acknowledge government PR people. It is a tough job, so many rules and regulations to restrict what can and can't be done. Yet many government PR people run effective programs with little money and even less support. Corporate and agency PR professionals could learn much from the government PR professional. The Army has already recognized that they can learn much from Corporate PR. They acknowledged it by developing training with industry program. This program offers an opportunity to the upper managers in Public Affairs an opportunity to spend 6 months working in either an agency or corporate environment. I have yet to see a corporation knocking down the doors of an army organization to provide a "new" perspective on PR for their folks. You know the old saying, ...Walk a mile in my moccasins...

Media training, whose got it, who doesn't and why aren't the trained doing the talking?

This has been a debate for some time in my circle of friends. We spend years perfecting our ability to talk to the media and then we have to put the top guy on camera. He isn't even believable when he passes you in the hallway and says "how are you doing?", now we are putting him in front of a TV camera? I know there are many PR professionals that don't agree with this, but does this make sense? Engineers design and build very technical things, but, for the most part they aren't good communicators. I have had conversations with engineers and lawyers about the public's understanding of the meaning of a word. This frustration, I am sure has caused many a communicator to role his/her eyes in dismay many times. This came up because I had a student ask me recently, when do you put the CEO instead of the press secretary in front of the camera.