I'm waiting for my retailing class to start (and let me tell you, I am PUMPED about that) and I came across this interesting blog posting about earning a degree in public relations. I found the author's point of view very intersting, especially since I studied over in London for a few weeks about international public relations.
A little background information might be helpful to fully understand this article. The way people in England view college education and degrees is how the U.S. once viewed them. No one really goes to college in England, so earning a college degree is very prestigious and usually you can obtain a very secure, well paying job by having that little piece of paper.
Now, I understand how the author can think that earning any degree can get you into PR, but I do not agree with this. Yes, anyone can enter public relations if they want and they don't even have to go to college to become a practitioner. However, individuals who study specifically PR in college do know what they are doing better than others and should obtain the jobs at PR agencies. I know a great amount of agencies will only take you, even as an intern, if you are studying PR in college.
I become so frustrated and irritated when people think PR is only publicity and so easy that anyone can do the tasks associated with the position. While studying PR, students learn the necessities of the field, how to use the RACE model and how to create a successful campaign. We are ahead or right with the trends, learning how to make our client stand out and how to use PR 2.0 and Web 2.0 to our advantage. Someone with a English Literature degree will not know how to do this. They might be able to write like no one's business, but they won't know how to use this skill to their advantage. Maybe I am slightly biased since I am a PR student, but I am standing by my statements.
What are your thoughts?
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4 comments:
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I definitely agree with your statements. I think the work and thought that goes into public relations is underestimated by a majority of people. Maybe people without communication degrees can get a public relations job. But are they an asset to the organization they're representing? Or are those the people that unintentionally give PR a bad rep by not utilizing the most effective strategies simply because they haven't had proper training on them?
Thanks for the link Katalyn and I completely understand your post. I don't think I made the point clearly enough that I was referring to UK degrees specifically. I wasn't saying any degree can get you into PR but instead that you can get into PR with various degrees. In the UK, the subject you're studying doesn't necessarily have to relate to your career path as long as you've learnt skills which can relate to the job. Someone studying PR would most likely learn more skills or more relevant skills to getting into the industry but someone studying another subject could learn other skills that could help with PR. I'll be adding this to my blogroll! And here is the link to the original post...
http://flawlessbuzz.blogspot.com/2008/09/is-pr-degree-best-way-to-get-into-pr.html
I stopped reading after the first few sentences. THAT IS ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT! Almost everyone in the uk has a degree whihc is why its so hard to get a job.
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