Aug 21
UK PR trade bodies all at sea over lobby Bill
The Transparency of Lobbying, non-Party Campaigning, and Trade Union Administration Bill is soon to be debated in the UK'
3 min read
Paul Seaman
Analyst and PR consultant
Jul 12
My speech on change and disruption in PR
I don’t doubt that firms do have responsibilities to wider society. But to fulfil them, they must grasp that paternalism and liberalism conflict.
6 min read
Jun 14
Whither public relations?
I'm going to debate Professor Oyvind Ihlen at a one-day conference, PR and Disruption: Embracing and Surviving Change,
1 min read
May 31
Getting to grips with corporate and PR ethics
The word ethics derives from the Greek word ethos, which means character. Ethics governs how we ought to behave. To behave as one ought is to behave ethically. Yet modern PR professionals rarely possess a basic grasp of ethical theory or the moral philosophical reasoning that underpins it.
7 min read
May 25
Assessing PR's debt to Cicero
Cicero's legacy shows us two things. First, public relations primarily serves those who commission it: though popular and respectable, Cicero in fact represented Rome’s corrupt oligarchy. Second, despite this, PR can still possess an ethical and moral content that promotes social progress.
8 min read
Mar 12
Queen Elizabeth I: PR Icon (part 2)
This second installment of a two-parter on Queen Elizabeth I describes how PR acts in support of leadership and authority using rhetoric’s persuasive powers. It tells the story of the emergence of modern PR practice and the modern world it shaped.
22 min read
Mar 05
Gordon Macdonald (1953 - 1991), the greatest ever City of London press officer
The name Gordon Macdonald probably doesn't resonate today in the ranks of public relations practitioners. But it should.
12 min read
Feb 05
Queen Elizabeth I: Part 1
Here is the second in my series profiling important figures in PR. It is the first of a two-parter looking at Queen Elizabeth I of England (1558 – 1603). (I am working my back to the Romans and Greeks who got this whole game going.)
16 min read
Jan 07
Psychobabble will not make PR credible
The relevance of neuroscience to public relations is premised on a materialist understanding. It maintains human society is pre-programmed (or re-programmable) based on mind- and fuzzy cultural-genes or firing neurons; in other words evolutionary psychology. It is comparable to phrenology.
10 min read
Jan 01
The Beeb, Plod, HMG and PR
By Richard D North
The big picture
Anyone who cares about Britain, its government and its wider official culture is
12 min read
Dec 09
Muse on Leveson's muddle over police PR
Here is an on the record briefing about Lord Justice Leveson's proposals for "improving" the British police's PR. It begins with the paragraph where Leveson recommends altering the PR lexicon.
5 min read
Dec 07
Voodoo PR versus "Voodoo Academia"
My beef is not with what Mr. Edelman wants to achieve. I rebel, as do most people who are moderately sceptical of corporate humbug, to his pandering to the more infantile elements; the audience who cannot (supposedly) be told the truth because it would destroy their illusions.
5 min read