PR's reputation in 2007

Today I used a modified version of an exercise I described last spring to get students to analyze the reputation of public relations. The results were a little different from last year (just like last year, a reminder that this research is totally unscientific.)

Not surprisingly, Web sites from PR watchdog groups like PR Watch and Spinwatch continue to be negative. Mainstream media references to public relations were quite often neutral, with some positives thrown in. Blogs, however, showed the big change. Last year, the students found that of all bloggers, PR bloggers were the most negative about the industry (as Amanda Chapel commented, "shocking"). This year, they found many blogs were neutral (just mentioned the term PR, but not really about public relations, for example), many -- especially by journalists -- were negative, and the PR bloggers generally defended PR and spoke positively about it.

The stereotypes haven't changed, though: spin, deception, manipulation, and hype dominate pop culture references to public relations.