The Senior Vice President of Public Relations and Strategic Planning of CJRW, Stacy Pittman came to speak on campus today. The lady talked about her age and her family, both are tied to the walk of public relation.
Ms. Pittman was born in 1961 and had a bachelor degree in liberal arts. Her father was a journalist-turned public relation high-rank administrator for many entities. He sent her to take journalistic writing course in a summer semester. Graduated with a BA degree focusing on psychology, Ms. Pittman went to work in human resources development. She was transferred to work for internal communications in the first job she landed on. From there, she stepped into the industry of public relation.
The reason that Ms. Pittman did not go to public relation directly is because she did not like the industry when she was young. According to Ms. Pittman, public relation used to be one-sided communication in the early years. Even though the codes of ethics had been developed in the mid 1950s, the first American public policy degree was developed only in the 1970s in Boston University. Most of the public relation practitioners in the 1960s were recruited from people with journalism background for the reason of their good writing skills.
Giving advices about what makes a good public relation professional, the first point Ms. Pittman emphasized is to to be able to write well. "To be a good writer is such an important thing. If you can write well, you will be wanted forever because there are so few good writers in the world."
Her first comment can be verified by an annecdote I read. General Charles-André-Joseph-Marie de Gaulle had never had any life-time good friends. He had never allowed his staff to work more than two years in the presidential office. His strategy of making decisions was to learn from writing. A typical example is that the speech articles his writers prepared for him were actually prepared for the General to locate counter opinions he would have to debate before he went to wrestle with the real situation. The only person General Charles-André-Joseph-Marie de Gaulle had ever relied on throughout his whole life is a popular French novelist. Besides, the General himself is a writer of six books.
In my opinion, a good writer should first be a good thinker. This probably is why the lecturer amazed me today. Ms. Pittman mentioned strategic planning in public relation. As my internship and the Internet research have told me, Ms. Pittman also told us that it is very difficult to teach how to be strategic. Although she mentioned none direct information about how strategic planning had get involved with the public relation business, the changes in the public relation industry she had illustrated clearly evidenced why and how this happened.
According to Ms. Pittman, public relation has become a two-way, or even multi-dimentional communication in today's American society.
Ms. Pittman was born in 1961 and had a bachelor degree in liberal arts. Her father was a journalist-turned public relation high-rank administrator for many entities. He sent her to take journalistic writing course in a summer semester. Graduated with a BA degree focusing on psychology, Ms. Pittman went to work in human resources development. She was transferred to work for internal communications in the first job she landed on. From there, she stepped into the industry of public relation.
The reason that Ms. Pittman did not go to public relation directly is because she did not like the industry when she was young. According to Ms. Pittman, public relation used to be one-sided communication in the early years. Even though the codes of ethics had been developed in the mid 1950s, the first American public policy degree was developed only in the 1970s in Boston University. Most of the public relation practitioners in the 1960s were recruited from people with journalism background for the reason of their good writing skills.
Giving advices about what makes a good public relation professional, the first point Ms. Pittman emphasized is to to be able to write well. "To be a good writer is such an important thing. If you can write well, you will be wanted forever because there are so few good writers in the world."
Her first comment can be verified by an annecdote I read. General Charles-André-Joseph-Marie de Gaulle had never had any life-time good friends. He had never allowed his staff to work more than two years in the presidential office. His strategy of making decisions was to learn from writing. A typical example is that the speech articles his writers prepared for him were actually prepared for the General to locate counter opinions he would have to debate before he went to wrestle with the real situation. The only person General Charles-André-Joseph-Marie de Gaulle had ever relied on throughout his whole life is a popular French novelist. Besides, the General himself is a writer of six books.
In my opinion, a good writer should first be a good thinker. This probably is why the lecturer amazed me today. Ms. Pittman mentioned strategic planning in public relation. As my internship and the Internet research have told me, Ms. Pittman also told us that it is very difficult to teach how to be strategic. Although she mentioned none direct information about how strategic planning had get involved with the public relation business, the changes in the public relation industry she had illustrated clearly evidenced why and how this happened.
According to Ms. Pittman, public relation has become a two-way, or even multi-dimentional communication in today's American society.
The rising of cable TV and Freedom of Information Act brought advertising to a local level. Many choices of television channels, magazines, newspapers defused the lump sum an advertiser would give to major media agent only. In the situation that it was hard to tag along with fragmented media audiences, advertisers found that human resources and human labors are more crutial in the fast-growing world.
In the history of public relation industry, Watergate (1972-1974) becomes the first event that brought in changes. It delivered crisis communication to the industry. The next bomb that changed people's view about public relation industry exploded when CNN started a 24/7 news coverage on June 1, 1980. The new way of information distribution changed the traditional way of information collecting. Today, most news clues come from public relation media agencies. When computer became common in the late 1980s and the Internet promoted so many new forms of media in the 1990s like e-mail, short text messages, instant messages, Weblogs, podcast, it is time to conclude that technology is a catalyst that delivered the third change in the history of public relation industry and it will direct more significant changes in all industries in human being's history.
Fast development of new technologies had swirled and has been shuffling American society and industries. A book Ms. Pittman mentioned today, The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, probably have talked about why public relation has been taking over the traditional occupations of an advertising company.
As today's most advanced technological products could become cheaper and less valuable in just few months, the capabilities that only human beings owned in terms of thinking, a process of self-correction, and study, a process of self-updating become so precious. Today's world is a fast-paced world. Any new technology developed today would be outdated so quickly. Having been spurred by the needs of economic development and ethics establishment, the world today needs applicable new ideas coming out in cycles as short as months or even weeks.
Fast development of new technologies had swirled and has been shuffling American society and industries. A book Ms. Pittman mentioned today, The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, probably have talked about why public relation has been taking over the traditional occupations of an advertising company.
As today's most advanced technological products could become cheaper and less valuable in just few months, the capabilities that only human beings owned in terms of thinking, a process of self-correction, and study, a process of self-updating become so precious. Today's world is a fast-paced world. Any new technology developed today would be outdated so quickly. Having been spurred by the needs of economic development and ethics establishment, the world today needs applicable new ideas coming out in cycles as short as months or even weeks.
An issue emerged in technology-facilitated communcation is that human communication has turned to be more mechanical. Ms. Pittman said that her company had fired a vice president for the reason that he sent e-mail more often than he went to to reach the real people. Several years ago, I heard that a supervisor was not very satisfied with a manager in another department for the reason that the manager always prefered e-mails to communication in person. In today's lecture, Ms. Pittman acknowledged that face-to-face communication is better than e-mail communication.
This probably is because that so many people in the world are not able to write efficiently. To communicate in person with other people not only clarifies the difficulties for some capable thinkers with poor writting skills, but also shortens the communication process and provides chances for brainstorming unexpected new thoughts, which may later turn into profitable projects. Be able and willing to communicate in a personalized way could be a talent a competent strategic planner has to hold.
This probably is because that so many people in the world are not able to write efficiently. To communicate in person with other people not only clarifies the difficulties for some capable thinkers with poor writting skills, but also shortens the communication process and provides chances for brainstorming unexpected new thoughts, which may later turn into profitable projects. Be able and willing to communicate in a personalized way could be a talent a competent strategic planner has to hold.
To sit and work with decision makers on the same table requests the public relation practitioners to be more than a good writer. A good public relation practitioner has to be technology savy, a student of history and news, a varacious researcher. These all contribute merits to a strategic planner.
A good thing to work in a PR firm that Ms. Pittman mentioned is to work with customers who recognize common ethical values. She had "fired several customers" for the ethical reasons. I believe her strength comes from the services and markets her firm owns today. According to the information given in today's lecture, CJRW is the largest PR firm in the South. On the flier of her company's services, there are six sections of public relation services. These are research, advertising and marketing, public relations, creative, media, and interactive. To tell from the flier, creative is a section to do traditional design, writing, and clerical jobs. Interactive has the same function with creative but focuses on more technologically skillful digital media products and person-to-person interaction, for instance, tradeshow, corporate meeting support, etc. (2/19/2006)
A good thing to work in a PR firm that Ms. Pittman mentioned is to work with customers who recognize common ethical values. She had "fired several customers" for the ethical reasons. I believe her strength comes from the services and markets her firm owns today. According to the information given in today's lecture, CJRW is the largest PR firm in the South. On the flier of her company's services, there are six sections of public relation services. These are research, advertising and marketing, public relations, creative, media, and interactive. To tell from the flier, creative is a section to do traditional design, writing, and clerical jobs. Interactive has the same function with creative but focuses on more technologically skillful digital media products and person-to-person interaction, for instance, tradeshow, corporate meeting support, etc. (2/19/2006)
