PR in the time of Covid: how technology has kept the practice going

PR in the time of Covid: how technology has kept the practice going

Back in March, the UK entered a period of lockdown in an attempt to stop the spread of Coronavirus. The public health crisis has not been easy on practitioners overall. The profession’s relatively strong job security has been shaken by announcements such as M&C Saatchi’s salary cuts and Manchester agency SKV Communications being forced to wind up the business. It’s not all bad news though, as Edelman has guaranteed that all of its 6,000 employees’ jobs are safe. Practitioners have…

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Parler: the “non-biased” social media app gaining right-wing momentum

Parler: the “non-biased” social media app gaining right-wing momentum

Parler, named after the French word meaning “to speak”, is a social media app that describes itself as a “non-biased free speech driven entity”. Shortly after its launch in 2018, it received thousands of downloads following Twitter suspensions and bans of some high-profile US conservatives. Two years later, Parler has overtaken Twitter in the Iphone App Store rankings in the US; in May 2020 it received around 80,000 worldwide downloads. This is partly down to a campaign by Parler to recruit…

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Brand responses to #BlackLivesMatter

Brand responses to #BlackLivesMatter

The death of George Floyd sparked a global anti-racism movement. “Justice for George Floyd” quickly became the most signed petition on Change.org. Protests begun in the US, including at the site of his death in Minneapolis, and quickly spread to other countries around the world including the UK, Japan, France, Germany, Poland, Columbia, and Brazil. George Floyd’s death triggered a resurgence of Black Lives Matter, a project created in 2013 in response to the acquittal of the man who fatally…

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Cyber threats: Why is the PR industry ignoring its own vulnerability?

Cyber threats: Why is the PR industry ignoring its own vulnerability?

“EasyJet hit with £18bn lawsuit over massive customer data breach” “Gloucestershire Council staff leave after data breaches” “Honda’s global operations hit by cyber-attack” These are just three examples of major cyber incidents that hit headlines this month. It’s not surprising that cyber security is an increasingly talked-about issue; attacks are becoming more frequent. In May 2020, an estimated 8.8 billion data records were breached. The public relations industry is no stranger to threats of this kind because, as demonstrated by…

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How brands are building communities on TikTok

How brands are building communities on TikTok

When Grunig referred to digital media as the “latest fad in public relations” in 2009, he may not have imagined that by 2020 more than 3.8 billion people would be active social media users. Back in 2009, Facebook overtook Myspace as the social network with the most users, and Twitter also saw huge growth in its userbase. Still, there is some element of the “fad” about digital media, particularly with social sites. Today, Myspace is a “ghost town”, and Facebook…

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Are you sure you want to share that?

Are you sure you want to share that?

Earlier this month, Twitter announced a new feature on the platform: a prompt designed to encourage users to read articles before sharing them. The update came in the form of a Tweet that read: “Sharing an article can spark conversation, so you may want to read it before you Tweet it. To help promote informed discussion, we’re testing a new prompt on Android –– when you Retweet an article that you haven’t opened on Twitter, we may ask if you’d…

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Twitter, blogs, and trust in the Durham scandal

Twitter, blogs, and trust in the Durham scandal

Information is a crucial tool in the management of a pandemic.  Governments need quality information when forming public health strategies, medical workers use it to make appropriate decisions when providing healthcare, and the public need to know how they can keep themselves safe. The current Coronavirus outbreak has become a global crisis. In the UK alone, as of the 5th June, more than 40,400 people who had tested positive for Coronavirus had died. There has been a lot of debate…

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Robo PR: are practitioner’s jobs at risk?

Robo PR: are practitioner’s jobs at risk?

A recent guest blog by Eleonora Terzi on Wadds.co.uk discussed the need for PR practitioners to get ahead of Artificial Intelligence. In the post, Eleonora outlines the important questions she is addressing in her postgraduate dissertation, such as how AI will affect jobs and skills in the industry, and reassures readers that we are a long way from the feared situation of AI becoming too intelligent; the bots are not taking over anytime soon. “Like many other practitioners, I am…

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The show must go on(line)

The show must go on(line)

  In the midst of the current global pandemic, many businesses have had to temporarily close, leaving people without work. Theatres have been hit particularly hard by this. For the first time in recent history, shows worldwide are unable to go on. Artists and performers, stage technicians, and others in the creative industry have had current and upcoming projects and jobs cancelled. It’s not the first time that theatres have closed due to illness. In the 16th and 17th centuries,…

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