THURSDAY 10 JUL 2014 9:52 AM

PROFESSIONALISM, COMIC BOOKS AND MOBSTERS AT PR SYMPOSIUM

Public relations, according to the CIPR, is about reputation. It is concerned with securing understanding and support for an organisation and maintaining goodwill between the organisation and its public audiences. For those academics, researchers, practitioners and others who study PR, a definition is only the starting point.

At the London College of Communications’ Network for Public Relations and Society ‘Public Relations & The Visual’ conference yesterday, definitions, explanations and thorough research were presented. The conference, which covered two main topics: visualising the PR profession and PR as visual practice, offered insight into the world of academic PR, with an eye toward changing the profession as a whole.

One of the key debates was on professionalism. One speaker explained that while PR strives for professionalism, it is at a time in which most other industries are deprofessionalising. Ian Burrell, assistant editor and media editor at The Independent, said PR has no public champions and that, in media and popular culture, the depiction of public relations is either nonexistent or incomplete, “PR people need to take control of their own narrative.”

Eva Maclaine, founder of Maclaine Communications and chair of the CIPR's international group, says, “LCC usually has interesting and thought-prooking conferences. This was no exception. A few of the presentations were a bit stuck in an old mould - I didn’t always recognise the sort of PR that I or my CIPR colleagues practice in them. Others, however, were amongst some of the best, most inspiring and interesting presentations I’ve heard. Gerry Hopkinson from Unity PR showed exactly what PR can be - a force for good." 

Later in the day, the focus shifted to visual aspects of communications. Speakers discussed everything from maps as an analogy for public relations to brand immersion and the Halo 4 launch and from Las Vegas’ Mob Museum to comic books and communications. These case studies provided not only an interesting discussion for the day, but a new way of looking at public relations as a profession. Practitioners and academics alike discussed the new viewpoints on communications gained from these presentations.

One speaker, Liz Bridgen from DeMontfort University, tweeted, “Thanks...for a challenging, inspiring, radical conference – other PR conferences could learn more from it!”

The PR & the Visual conference follows last year’s focus on disruption at which PR professionals and researchers discussed the future of communications and the impact of technology on PR. To read about that event, click here.