Friday, October 13, 2017

If PR is over 250x more common why use Stategic Communication at schools?

A job search for my students shows over 2500 public relation jobs but only 99 Strategic Communications jobs. I will share findings on 5 large job search sites soon. Yet many graduate show have degrees in Stat Comm.  What is the trouble with "PR"?  The abbreviation is too often "spat" as a mere pithy insult. Public relations is still the most common descriptor represented by the largest professional Public Relations Society of America.  Strategic Communications is merely an important but partial step in public relations which reminds us of the failure of MBA and business schools to teach or conduct research on various publics  or stakeholders. The latter word is a personal favorite for richness and exclusivity  but even past US Presidents have a hard time gaining acceptance.  The quickly dated "content" practice phrase and even the more valuable and clever "context" management are transitory but useful. In conclusion, stay the course with public relations or even Public Relations. However, if "reputation management", "crisis management" or a more free wheeling discussion of so-called "uncontrollable variables in Economics could be managed by my former colleagues in the accredited business schools I might "pivot"!