Civic professionalism in the world of PR: (Are we) creating common good (?)

Today we all suffer from increased flow of information that clogs up our brains. Not to mention cheap media, PR practitioners are responsible for a big part of what gets to our mental pipeline and gets stuck there. There are some serious calls from scholars addressing the gap between society and PR (which are often overshadowed by business practices, because who cares about those geeks in the labs, right?). Academia calls PR practitioners to be fair, responsible, and reflective, match organizational goal with needs of society and therefore serve it better (Porter, 2009). OK, but what does it really mean?

Brigitta Brunner has addressed the issue, which is summarized as a need for civic professionalism from the PR practitioners (Brunner, 2015). What makes the paper even more interesting is the methodology used. The author interviewed PR practitioners with extensive experience in the field. In other words, the author assessed current status of the field in terms of civic professionalism.

This short article says more than enough about faults of PR profession. It’s what we all already know: information is usually being provided for the good of the organization rather than public (not to mention common goal). Sure, PR specialists use a very attractive surface logic of ‘we do care’, but seriously? It is quite obvious what makes scholars concerned. While ethics of PR are something that’s usually defined, civic professionalism is yet to be discovered.

And that’s proved by the author. Many of interviewees thought that the concept of civic PR profession is something that they would need to explain to their colleagues, because it’s not very common to understand it. Moreover, they thought that many colleagues would see this as ‘not a part of their job’. Scary, right? Although some said that if it was linked to their organizational goals that might increase their interest. Which again leads us to the beginning – organizational goals VS society.

But what benefits can civic professionalism in PR bring to organizations? The author names a few: it helps to build reputation, it helps to maintain credibility, and it’s a chance to show that organization cares (which brings us to two previous points). Organizations have capacity which is necessary to voice problems and particular events in society that receive too little attention. This does also foster a relationship between organization and society.

I strongly suggest that you look into this more. Even though I’m sure there are very little real civic PR examples (although there are). I therefore conclude that PR should pay attention to their publics not only as a source, target, enemy, or a friend, but as a counterpart in the same quest for truthful, credible and civic PR. PR should not mislead and use, but cooperate and produce the efficiently working society.

Karolis Damanskas