The PR business has largely advised institutions to ignore or denounce the seismic shift in public opinion that led the USA to Trump and the UK to Brexit. Some PR professionals have also urged their clients to align themselves more closely with the very agendas that sparked the mass public backlash. But Biden's narrow victory over Trump demonstrates that instead of healing divisions this strategy has made society even more polarised. There is a crying need for the public relations business to help bring people together, to put an end to the disunity within our societies. Here I examine some of the underlying issues. I also suggest some alternative approaches to today's increasingly ineffective corporate PR strategies, mantras and fads. More »
Nobody can be anything but shocked by the devastating impact of the earthquake and Tsunami on Japan. The scenes were on a scale hardly envisaged by a Hollywood disaster movie. Yet that’s no excuse for the media’s seeming loss of nerve and perspective over the troubles at Fukushima nuclear power plant. Read on ›
Working at Chernobyl in 1995 was an amazing experience. I was the only westerner living in the new town of Slavutych that was built to replace the abandoned city of Pripyat. In addition, I was the only westerner working full time at the power station. This gave me an insight into a closed world that was as thrilling as it was unique. Read on ›
We PRs cannot avoid philosophical matters because, as Martin Sandbu says in his new book Just Business – Arguments in Business Ethics, decisions made by business have consequences for other people. Read on ›
Public relations professionals don’t really do philosophy: we’re in the people business, and sound-bites suit us better than Immanuel Kant’s Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals (1785). As for our clients, well, we’re bound to note their lust for the latest guru-speak getting lift-off from an airport bookshop. Read on ›
In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion, here is a review of Voices From Chernobyl, The Oral History Of A Nuclear Disaster, by Svetlana Alexievich (translated by Keith Gessen) Dalkey Archive Press, 2005. Read on ›
Now Mr Mubarak has fled Cairo the significance of social media in Egypt should become plainer to see. Its work in fomenting and facilitating popular revolution has been done. Was it anywhere near as great as its fans suppose? I think not. Read on ›
Categories: Big oil / CSR reality check / History of PR / PR issues / Trust and reputations
10 February 2011
One comment
This essay first appeared late last year in A Sorry State: Self-denigration in British Culture, edited by Peter Whittle with a foreword by the historian Michael Burleigh. I’m very grateful to Peter Whittle for allowing me to share it with you here. Read on ›
The story of the murdered blogger Khalid Said has been an inspiration for protest in Egypt in recent weeks. But many of the claims made in mainstream media about how this struggle played out on social media should be treated with care. Read on ›
In Egypt the authorities have imposed curfews, restricted access to the internet, Twitter and Facebook. Even mobile phones are not working properly. That’s what states do in a crisis; close-down the streets and cut communication links. Let’s explore this some more. Read on ›
In 2006 I exposed the myth-making of an important, Swiss state-funded, UN sponsored website Chernobyl.info. As part of my work for the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster I’ve revisited the issue and discovered things have got worse. Read on ›
