Do you remember the advent of social media when they were praised for being disruptive, positive innovations? The talk was of long tails, wisdom of crowds, the end of old-fashioned business models (dead tree press is dead) or statements like the new world is bottom up – or flat – rather than top down. Now they are being discussed by the same enthusiasts as if they were managed by oligarchical villains selling addictive, toxic products and lifestyles to an inert public that is blind to reason. But the commentators’ new-found pessimism is as misguided as their abandoned optimism. Read on ›

The other day I came across an article that I wrote many moons ago. I am now pleased to be publishing a lightly edited version of that original anatomy of rhetoric, which I thought I’d lost forever. Read on ›

Professor Anne Gregory and Jean Valin have asked readers of PR Conversations (PRC) to get involved in their project to produce a Global Body of Knowledge that defines the capabilities that proficient public relations practitioners should possess.  I am taking up that challenge here by critiquing their attempt to elevate public relations into a respected profession by defining the professional qualifications that PR pros must acquire. Read on ›

This essay dedicated to Marshall McLuhan (1911 – 1980) was first published in 2011 to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth. It is both a critique and a celebration of McLuhan’s insightful thinking.  Read on ›

One would think that because everybody can speak, everybody could master rhetoric and the refined arts of influencing others (read public relations). But that’s not quite how it is. Cicero’s great work Oratory and Orators describes how Rome produced many more talented poets and commanders of the army than persuasive orators of note. Read on ›

Back in January, I gave a lecture on the moral bankruptcy of the shame culture in ancient Greece to Associate Professor Josh Greenberg‘s fourth-year undergraduate class. Afterward, a debate arose about Isocrates’ legacy. It revolved around whether his ideas and lived-example laid the foundations for what some practitioners refer to as the morality of modern ethical two-way symmetrical public relations. Read on ›

Here is the first of two essays on the rise to power of public opinion and the origin of public relations. This one deals with archaic Greece (circa: 800 BC – 500 BC). It outlines the emergence of artistic freedom and individualism on the rocky road toward democracy. The second will interrogate the contest system, the shame culture, mistrust, and openness to change and risk in Classical Athens. It will look at what happens when public opinion is not engaged critically. Read on ›

The UK is currently debating the Transparency of Lobbying, non-Party Campaigning, and Trade Union Administration Bill. So it is worth revisiting the great battle out of which came today’s liberty to influence political debate, politicians and policy outcomes that some claim is now being put in jeopardy. Read on ›

When I look at Cicero’s legacy my purpose is not simply to focus on ancient Rome. My intention is to produce a narrative that distils one of the pivotal moments in history to illuminate how Cicero influenced the birth of modern public relations and the world it inhabits. Read on ›

This second installment of a two-parter on Queen Elizabeth I describes how PR acts in support of leadership and authority using rhetoric’s persuasive powers. It tells the story of the emergence of modern PR practice and the modern world it shaped. (It is work in progress for my book: On Message: Propaganda, persuasion and the PR game.) Read on ›