Where PR programs fail their students

I stumbled on this post from Todd Defren of SHIFT Communications.

I agree with much of what he says, but am still pretty disappointed that he fears hiring PR newbies. While both of my PR programs have had a strong hold on both theory and current practice, they occasionally lack sufficient attention to business side of the industry that likely leaves Defren loathing hiring PR newbies.

Business etiquette and how recent graduates should conduct themselves in the work environment are things that are often skimmed over in PR management courses, but fail to sufficiently take hold unless they are able to actually use what they've learned in an internship or other professional experience.

While the world of PR academics is certainly not without its failings, there is one thing that academics seem to teach far better than most in the industry: research and evaluation. It is always disappointing to see superbly run campaigns whose final measurement is nothing more than counting media placements or TV time instead of trying to quantify relationships built or changes in the opinions and knowledge of key publics.

I still agree with Defren on many of his points, but when your own industry is not without its own failings, the rocks you throw should not be too heavy.

Serving up cable: A la carte

Choosing from the cable menu.

While serving cable A la carte may have its benefits, it is putting the scare in the niche channels. All I know is that if given the opportunity, I’d pay for mostly all niche channels and only a small hand full of major networks.

Podcasting: social and multidirectional?

Micropersuasion's Steve Rebel recently published a post about the qualifications of podcasting as a social medium.

Podcasting today, is undeniably a less social medium than blogging is, but that does not mean that podcasting lacks the ability to surpass blogging’s ability to perform as a social medium. Podcasting certainly lacks the ease of use that has brought blogging as far as it has come, but boats many advantages that blogging lacks. Blogging is far less of a mobile media, and for lacks the ability to communicate with audio and video.

Far more can be communicated through one’s voice and facial expressions than may ever be communicated through a keyboard.

"No medium is inherently social. Each medium that gets utilized is as social as the creator wants it to be."- Rob Safuto

I think that as time goes by, podcasters will begin to make their content more and more community driven. Blogging communities certainly did not exist at the birth of the medium, but grew as blogging did.

Blogs, podcasts, wikis, etc are simply places where it is possible for people to gather and talk about similar topics and create digital communities. Just because a blog exists, does it automatically make it a social medium? No. Granted the current state of podcasting is far less social than blogging is today, but the advantages that podcasting has over blogging gives it some pretty big opportunities for growth.

No love for the RIAA

RIAA sues family that doesn't own a computer.

It is hard to violate file sharing or copyright infringement laws when you are not connected to the internet, let alone don't own a computer. Is this story even serious? Granted, the RIAA has not made a point of being friendly with music fans anywhere over the past few years, criminal or otherwise, but seriously, do they really understand what they are doing?

With all the DRM and file sharing suits flying around these days, the RIAA and the MPAA are turning into pretty dirty words. Personally, I haven’t really understood why the general public hasn't begun to throw up their arms and bring some attention to the ridiculous things that they are doing. I am all about managing copy written content, but seriously, when "rights management" is nothing more than a laundry list of restrictions on how and when you can use the content that you paid for, someone is beginning to overstep their bounds.

Hopefully this is just a simple mistake that slipped through the legal department without enough research, but at the very least it is a funny story.

The Philips Ad Enforcer

While the growth of on demand media is everywhere through VOD, DVR, iPods, RSS.... Philips has a patent pending for technology that would prohibit people with Tivos and DVRs to fast forward through commercials.

While some have already said that this looks like one step closer to a Clockwork Orange advertising model where we all have our eye lids peeled back and our faces locked in place in front of the television screen, I think it is more of a sign of advertisers' ignorance than anything else.

If this technology was ever actually put into place, customers would run away from your product as fast as they possibly could, with me leading the stampede. You can't give customers all the benefits of a digital video recorder, only to realize how much you have pissed off your second most important public, your advertisers, and have to take it away and lose your most important public, your own customers.

With Tivo secretly deleting certain shows after a designated amount of time and this new emerging technology developed by Philips, I'm not even sure how I feel about cable in general anymore. I've got Netflix, podcasts, IPTV, and Comedy Central's Motherload do I even need to be shoveling out another $50 a month just for a bucket load of channels I rarely watch and better reception? Hmm.... I'll have to get back to you on that one.

-Jamie

Fishing for a career, blog style

It looks like someone has decided to take my secret and spread it to everyone. How inconsiderate! Haha.

While I have been subscribing to a whole mess of blogs and PR podcasts for a while now, I am still pretty fresh on the blog writer side of things. It has definitely given me some idea of what it is like and what types of things to consider when creating different posts. While at this stage, this is more of an experiment than anything else, but I think it is going pretty well.

Disagree? Comment.

Calling all Boston Bloggers...

Susan Getgood wants the Boston PR community to get together on April 29th on Saturday evening. If you are interested Susan asks that you send her an email or post a comment on her Boston announcement post.


If I am in there area, I will definitely be in attendance. Maybe I'll see you there.

My trip to Boston

Three days in Boston, and it went amazingly.

Weather? Amazing. People? Amazing. Boston Marathon? Three days too late. I wish it was on Friday instead of Monday so I could have seen it, but I guess it was for the best, since it would have put a big wrench in my schedule and made walking around pretty hard.

Every PR agency I visited was amazing and I made me SO excited about moving to Boston next month. So if we met last week and you are reading this, thanks for everything and hopefully we will be meeting again before too long.

Peter Reid? Unfortunately that was the only one out of my dozen appointments around the city that had to get cut because I was just so exhausted by the time Friday night came around. Sure I was disapointed, but for my job-related road trip, if I'm able to get all my job stuff done, I'm happy.

ALSO! I think I fixed my RSS feed so all you beautiful people out there can get a fresh batch of jamesonbull.blogspot.com delivered to your desktop whenever it comes out. I must admit, it is the first time I have initiated an RSS feed, so if it breaks or doesnt work, let me know by email or post a comment.

Mixing Business and Triathlon

As mentioned in the previous post, this is going to be a crazy week. Thankfully, I was tipped off by a member of the Wheelworks Multisport team that the three-time Ironman champion, Peter Reid, is going to be at Belmont Wheelworks to speak on Friday. Best of all, it is my favorite price, free.

I figure too much business isn't good for the body. It should be a good time and it will be interesting to hear what a guy with this much experience has got to say.

Check back for my reactions next weekend.

Crazy Schedules

My schedule has been pretty crazy lately, and most of it has been scheduling and rescheduling my visit to Boston, Mass. next Thursday and Friday. It has been quite an experience trying to juggle a whole mess of different appointments scattered around the Boston area, but so far it looks like everything is under control.
I have been increasing my triathlon training and am on my way out the door to the pool as we speak, but I should have time for a more satisfying post later on today. Be patient kids. I heard it is a virtue.

-Jameson Bull