The Bias on PR

Public relations has a bad reputation. Is this news? No not particularly. So why am I bringing this topic up? I'm in public relations. I know this comes as a shock, especially since my last three posts have been related to the public relations field.

I’m frustrated. I would like to whisper the message to the media world about my opinion. I say whisper because I am not one with great authority, but that doesn't mean I can't try.

I attended an international career forum where I got to meet government and non-profit representatives from various organizations. Initially, I was excited to network at this function where I could learn about careers in the international spectrum. I was also excited to meet representatives and propose my plan to one day become a foreign public relations representative. My dreams were squashed in the first ten minutes of the networking luncheon. How, you ask? It's because I'm in public relations.

Many of the students who attended this convention were students who majored in international studies, foreign language and business. Apparently, I was one of the few to represent the journalism major, which came to me as a surprise. Don't many of the careers across the globe depend on communications? This seems like an obvious fact to me. Organizations, government and businesses have to communicate somehow if they are in nations across the globe.

I felt like the stereotype of public relations overshadowed my presence to whomever I spoke to. These representatives were excited that I participated in this function and were impressed by my questions. "What are studying?" a representative would ask. "I'm in public relations, actually," I would explain with a proud expression. As soon as many would hear this, I could see the physical reaction of a frown reverse from the previous smile. Instantly, my chances at furthering the conversation were eliminated. This result remained consistent throughout the rest of the convention. I counted how many times a professional moved on to a different student or ended the conversation a minute later. It counted four out of five times.

Are we at a disadvantage if we are in the public relations field? Are we taken less seriously than other journalists? This should not be the case. Most public relations students and professionals should be recognized for the difficulty of their work and their strong writing skills. I feel like many in public relations are underestimated and are intelligent. We have gained a bad reputation from the media and the other poor performing professionals out there.

Next time, I will just say I'm a journalist.