These are challenging times in the news business.
According to the 2012 State of the News Media report produced by Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, “newsrooms continue to shrink … but the remaining editors and reporters are also being stretched further by the need to generate content suitable for smartphones and tablets as well as establishing a social media presence. This is all in addition to putting out the print paper daily and feeding breaking news to websites.”
Editor’s note: In celebration of Black History Month in February, PRSA invited prominent black leaders in the public relations profession to offer their views and ideas for achieving greater racial and ethnic diversity in the profession. This is the third post in the series. A compilation of previous PRSA Black History Month blog posts can be found here.
At the writing of this blog, it had been roughly 24 hours since the untimely death of singing star Whitney Houston. I carry an extensive background as a trained musician and as a professional in various levels of the entertainment industry. So, I have always found the passing of any influential and prominent musician to be a very sad occurrence. But somehow, Houston’s passing struck me as being much sadder and more poignant than many. I found myself reflecting on my own contribution to my community, and to the world.
For the past three years the New York chapter of the National Black Public Relations Society (BPRS-NY) had been totally inactive. Some wondered what happened to the chapter, but never investigated. There were those who were not aware that the chapter ever existed. I was focused on my special events design and production business, but felt I had made my contribution to the chapter with years of work I had put in as a chapter member, vice president, and diversity officer on the board of directors.
Last July, it became clear to me that it was totally unacceptable that in New York City, media capital of the world, there was no active Black Public Relations Society chapter. I decided to try and re-boot the New York chapter.
To commemorate PRSA Ethics Month, PRSAY is offering a monthlong series of posts on important ethics issues facing the public relations profession. This is the fourth and final post in the series.
As I settled in and attempted to get comfortable in seat 1A on a puddle jumper to parts west recently, my conversation with the flight attendant turned to our life histories. Garrett H., age 55, shared with me that he’s been flying for the past five years, following a successful, 30-year career as an executive at an insurance company. Having been summarily “let go,” he came to realize that life at the top was no longer the thrill ride it once was. Yes, the perquisites were nice, but not worth having to endure petty politics and insecure executives, and certainly not worth compromising his personal integrity.
To commemorate PRSA Ethics Month, PRSAY is offering a monthlong series of posts on important ethics issues facing the public relations profession. This is the third in the series.
I was honored to represent PRSA and the public relations profession at last week’s “Next Ethics?” workshop, hosted by Kent State University and The Poynter Institute.
The sixth-annual workshop, held at KSU’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, explored the ways in which technology, innovation and “citizen journalists” are challenging established views on objectivity, transparency and the role of the press. The panel on which I participated, along with Alan Miller of the Columbus Dispatch, Lindsay McCoy of AkronNewsNow.com and Tara Pringle Jefferson of the Cleveland Foundation, discussed the evolving ethical issues at the intersection of journalism, technology and public relations.
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It’s been seven weeks since 11 workers were killed in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. The resulting oil leak continues to pour thousands of barrels a day into the Gulf of Mexico — despite all attempts to stop it — and now surpasses the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill as the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
