National Media Conclave at Mt Abu

The two-day National Media Conference 2008 at Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India, was held on 20th and 21st September 2008.

You can read about the discussions at the conference and view pictures at PRPoint. Just click here to get the complete update on the Conference.

Dr. Kalam's Message to Youth

Our friend, Mr. Srinivasan of PRpoint met Dr Abdul Kalam, former President of India at Chennai on 24th July 2008. You can go to click here to listen to Dr. Kalam's message to the Indian Youth. CJ CorePR

India on the crossroads?

India is passing through a political crisis. May be for the time being. But it is great masala for all the TV channels which for the last two days have got a lot of fodder to munch around, and opportunities of "Breaking News" every hour of the day. Though India is passing through a crisis of sorts, it is time for our channels to 'make hay (the mullah) while the sun shines'.
Watching every Indian tv channel these days is an effort to find out what is the fact and what is the fiction, though for the majority of the viewers it is the entertainment value the channels are trying to offer.
What is the role of media in any national crisis? Mr Vijay Menon, former Secretary General of Asian Mass Communication and Research Centre, Singapore, in his Foreword to "Role of Media in National Crisis", writes, "The media, in the popular view, should play a healing role in times of national crisis. But there is a lack of clarity, leave alone unanimity, about that role.... The journalist is often in a quandry, torn between his professional duty to provide a true and complete account of developments or events and exhortations to temper candour with caution lest his reporting should inflame passions rather than cool them."
Looking at this definition one wonders how many journalists, especially on the electronic media, are really in a "quandry", morally, while reporting.
Let's think.
CJ

PR is not a substitute for truth

Last year there had been discussion on whether PR people lie and some of the senior PR practitioners at an international conference made no bone about the fact that 'yes they do lie on behalf of the client', that led to serious discussion on the issue, with many votaries for the business of lying.
Unfortunate indeed. Most corporates do not understand the need to be truthful, honest and ethical, and they run to PR agencies to white wash their image, who, again many of them, oblige with a smile.
As a firm believer in the ethical practice of all professions, and the dictum that Public Relations is NOT a substitute for truth, lays down the mandate for the practice of PR. It does not mean that the bad image cannot be corrected, provided the individual and/or the corporate is willing to learn and clean up its own act and adopt the right course of action.
The recent Hollywood release Hancock holds the message for the PR practitioners as well as the corporates. Here's a super hero who carries a bad image until he runs into a PR man, Jason Bateman, who helps him change his habits and his behaviour, and the good things follow...even attracting a positive media.
CJ

One of our members Paddy Padmanabhan very rightly pointed out about India's rank at 120 in the international ranking, and aptly mentioned about PR intervention.
It is time that Incredible India also wakes up to the reality of our times. There are numerous issues right from corruption, bureaucratic redtapism, injustice, poverty, health crisis, etc., that emanate from mismanaged communication. Living as we are in an interdependent world, and the good that the liberalisation process brought for the Indian economy, it is time to review and improve the situation further through re-engineering the old hackneyed systems of governance, and speed up the process of development.
The need is to communicate government's concerns and vision to all segments, horizontally and vertically, and roll out time-bound action plan, besides initiating the sensitisation process within the government machinery.
Even today, any corporate initiative is looked with suspicion and every possible hurdle is put in place where the formula of MBO-management by objectives (objections?) is seen in action. Lack of intra-departmental and inter-departmental communication where each works at tangent with maximum attempt to subvert any developmental process by hiding essential information from the stakeholders.
Despite the e-governance process being implemented the accountability factor in the government has yet to take appropriate shape.
Communication challenge involves putting their cards bare with all procedures and processes shared at one instance with defined timeline of approvals without which the responsibility shall never get fixed, and India shall continue to suffer in terms of its progress, and its image.

National PR Education Day

Global Forum for Public Relations has always been proactive in contributing to the knowledge of the public relations practitioners, and this time it has come up with another novel idea of designating 6th August as the National PR Education Day.
The day has been earmarked in honour of former National President of Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) and Editor of PR Voice, Dr. C.V. Narasimha Reddi, who turns 75 on this day.
Indeed a great tribute that we can pay to this great personality whose contribution to PR practice in the country is unparalleled.
The young aspirants who intend to adopt PR as a career are always at a loss to understand the nuances of Public Relations practice, primarily because of the lack of adequate literature, research, and studies on the subject in Indian context.
All PR practitioners are requested to send their ideas as to how we can perpetuate this day most meaningfully and contribute to the enhancement of PR educational resources.
Let 6th August be the Day of reckoning for all the PR practitioners, and chalk out plans as to how we would like to contribute to this cause for the next five years, to make PR education and its practice in the country to match, and even surpass the international standards, and establish benchmarks of its best practices here.
So put on the thinking cap and start writing back.
And wherever PRSI, PRCI, IABC, and other similar organisations have their chapters, must hold a meeting and brainstorm on the issue engaging the academia in this process.
CJ Singh, CorePR, Chandigarh

Global Forum for Public Relations: Awards function

GLOBAL FORUM FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS, the India International Association for Values and Ethics in Public Relations Profession, is organising an Awards and Felicitation Function at Hyderabad, on 18th July. Sri G. Vinod, Minister for Labour and Employment, Government of AP shall be the chief guest, and guests of honours include our very dear Dr. C.V. Narasimha Reddi, amongst various other dignitaries.

Rajayogi B.K. Karuna ji, Chief of Multimedia and PR, Brahmakumaris, Mt Abu; Sri Atluri Subba Rao, Former President, FAPCCI, Hyderabad; are to receive the Awards, while Shri Suraj Prasad Agarwal, President, FAPCCI, Hyderabad shall be felicitated.

PR Blogs

Google Blog Search is the new utility from the Google team. Just key-in your favourite subject and it would turn up links to all the bloggers from around the globe. What a resource for the public relations practitioners! A search for 'Public Relations' turned up 8,215,944 links to blogs on the subject. Imagine the vast treasure-trove available in the netspace for everyone to learn. Happy blogging!

New issue of PR-e-Sense available for download

The 27th issue of the most respected and read online ezine on public relations, PR-e-Sense, edited and published by Mr. K. Srinivasan of PR Point, is now available for download.
This issue focusses on the theme "PR Online Resources". Image Management and PR Point Groups complete 9 successful and active years and enters 10th year in June. To coincide with this, various PR online resourcs available today have also been included in this ezine.
This ezine will be a handbook for professionals and students to get all the top PR Resources.
Please enjoy this ezine and give your feedback to editor@corpezine.com.
Please Click here to Download the e-zine. Don't miss it.

Women in Media: Seminar Programme

Different sessions for the Women in Media scheduled next week in Chandigarh, includes:

Session 1: Major Problems of Women Journalists in Print & Electronic Media
Session 2: The Superiority Myth: Men vs Women
Session 3: Why coverage of women issues get a raw deal?
Session 4: Need for well-defined gender policy in print and electronic media

We shall welcome any views and opinions of the readers on the issue.

PR. What?

A usual question that befuddles everyone. Majority do not understand what PR people do? Perhaps you can find them in the morning having 'Power Breakfasts', whiling away time on their cell phones, courting media people at lunch, and having a cocktail bash in the evening.
Ask a student, and he would like to get into PR for its glamour, hefty pay packet, and because "he/she likes to socialise".
Ask a politician, and would squirm at the word 'PR' and would like him to be his henchman to see that his photograph appears next day in the newspaper, or is in camera on television in the evening news, for having inaugurated a eating joint.
Ask a journo, and he would scorn at the mere mention of the word.
The debate continues. The scorns, and preconceived notions about PR continue to rule the roost, except for ruing by the PR practitioners once in a while at various PR fora; pointing fingers or making critical comments, without any positive action plan to correct the situation.
Public Relations is a sacred management practice that manages an organisation or an individual's perceptions in the eyes of their stakeholders by managing communication in all its forms and shapes.
Its practice not only requires a basic understanding of psychology, semantics, management principles, human relations, behaviourial sciences, media processes and operations, research, etc. etc., but also a thorough knowledge and experience in devising creative communication solutions to manage issues and perceptions.
Public Relations is and remains the science and art of managing communication, which is based on truth.
There are numerous points of view on the issue of 'truth', and how truthful PR practitioners can be when the organisations they represent want them to communicate the message which they want, is definitely a point for debate, which we can discuss some other time. However, the fact remains, Public Relations is not a substitute for truth.