2/11 - Mike London Summary, Erin O'Toole (Jesse Grab)

Erin O'Toole
Discussion leader: Jesse Grab
Mike London Discussion

This week’s guest speaker was Mike London his discussion on the business of public relations caused a great deal of discussion with the class. The discussion began with the main function of public relations; the class came to a consensus that it was to get reporters information that could simply not attain on their own.

Jesse than proposed the question whether or not the class thought there would be a role for public relations if reporters did their job fully. The class responded that there would always be a role for public relations because there is no way even the best reporter could know about every event, have that many contacts or be able to collect such a great amount of information in the time it takes before deadline.

The next topic addressed was the ethics of public relations or the lack there of according to some students. A main point discussed was the ghost writing that took place at the Hartford Courant. Students could not wrap their mind around editors allowing this practice to take place. It got pretty heated especially when the topic of this being our fault as journalists for not picking up on the “sleazy” PR tactics.

But there were some students that thought because it is opinion pieces that are anonymously written, why does it really matter who said it. Another point that the class argued was that maybe it was not the public relations firm, who is in fact doing their job but the publication for weak policy. The question of how much newspapers should enforce their policies or if this is a clever public relations method.

However another student brought up if what the PR firm is writing is the view that their client is looking for, and the client has seen the column and approves than why should it matter who writes it. One student blamed the ghost writing on the laziness of publications, not wanting to put in the effort to check the background of who is writing in for the columns.

Then the question of harm arose. Most students agreed that it would be difficult to trust a paper that is not bring honest with its readers. They felt that the newspapers were tailing to the public relations firm instead sticking to its code of ethics and having transparency to its readers. A quote by one student that summed up the argument well was, “Public relations is like shoplifting its ok if you don’t get caught and nobody asks any questions.”

The topic moved on to how much influence PR firms have in the real world beyond newspapers for instance when athletes apologize for something. The Michael Phelps was the example, because it said all the right things and people are not really thinking about it anymore.

Then the discussion moved on to some of the better aspects of PR, like the need for PR for the non- profit industries. However the class agreed that VNR’s in any situation was bad and lazy journalism. Most students even seemed disgusted with the idea of taking a cookie cutter package and without editing air it on networks across the nation. But some students did say that it should not be a burden if it done correctly.

Then the conversation about money began. There are many ways that London talked about staying moral in the business but he did mention that there are many traps set up to make a person be unethical and make a lot more money. Most people agreed that even in journalism people have to sacrifice their ethics at times. Ultimately students said that in the PR business it is possible to be ethical you just have to come up with your own moral code.