PR Open Mic: Social Network for PR Students and Faculty Worldwide.

A new social network for PR students, faculty and practitioners has been launched!!! Robert French a social media-promoting PR professor at Auburn University, launched a social network for PR students and faculty called PR Open Mic. In his blog, Robert French says: "The site is built upon the Ning.com platform, so it has a sort of Facebook-like appeal. The difference? No ads. No apps sending you numerous emails. Just PR people. Hey, I like Facebook for connections, but to do what we wanted to do … a mashup of content in one place … we had to have our own platform, in my opinion."
So far, the network has been operating for 20 days and the biggest number of members = students. But, the fact that "big names" have signed up there as well (and this is just the start), makes this project very attractive, useful for all PR related to fall into step!
Phil Gomes, the Edelman Digital stalwart, has started a group called "Ask Phil." Rather than just answering questions, he produces videos! There have emerged different other groups - for European issues, for students for whom English is not their first language, for jobs and internships, student bloggers etc. Students can ask questions they are interested in. Surely, as a student I was also interested in opinions of specialists to such questions like "What do PR writers REALLY have to know about AP Style?" and "Maximizing PR when there really is no budget." The events section is getting loaded up with conference and podcamp info, job offers, notes, gadgets, widgets and nobody seems shy about uploading photos and videos! :)
People, who's articles and blogposts I have read, presentations on Euroblog I have heard and theories I have studied - have joined from the PR social space—Elizabeth Albrycht, Jeremy Pepper, Constantin Basturea, Kami Huse, Paull Young, Eric Eggertson, Richard Bailey...Dr. James E. Grunig, easily the single most prolific public relations researcher and publisher in the world (!!!) and David Meerman Scott, the author of "The New Rules of Marketing & PR," (I have been hunting for his book lately in Estonia) and, of course, the list goes on. I’m looking forward to interaction between these voices and those in the academic world!!!
To my opinion, such social network, if successful, is an awesome opportunity for developing PR community to have "a real taste and touch" of PR through online interaction rather than just looking at PR from far as we are used to looking at Mona Lisa in the Musée du Louvre.

Vidzeme University College Announces 10th Baltic International Summer School

Vidzeme University College announces that Baltic International Summer School this year will take place on August 1-17 in two Baltic countries – Latvia and Estonia. The focus of the school this year will be "Communication. Technologies. Integration." and it will gather motivated journalism, public relations, new media and mass communication students as well as other interested individuals from all over the world.

More information about the event as well as online application for students can be accessed here. It is also possible to apply for scholarships! One of the organizators of BISS 2008 has created a blog, where everyone is welcome to ask questions and comment.

Last summer, I was the participant of Baltic International Summer School 2007, the topic of the summer school was "The Future of Public Communication in the Age of New Media" and lecturers from the Baltics, Europe and the United States lead different classes and workshops. Dr. Cindy Price, lecturer at the University of Wyoming Department of Communications (United States), Mr. Richard Lining, Board Member of IPRA (United Kingdom), Janis Garancs, artist of multimedia (Latvia, Germany), Lauris Liberts, founder of internet portal ”Draugiem.lv” (Latvia) were only a few among the 16 lecturers and instructors.

After lectures students also had an opportunity to participate in practical hands-on workshops and produce a web site about the future of communication. Also various social activities were scheduled, for instance, field trips, sports evening, Baltic film evening, folk dance evening and international food party, also a visit to the Riga Gulf to experience the beauty of the Baltic coastline. We had an opportunity to participate in European Information Day, organized in conjunction with European Parliament Information Office in Riga. Participants could acquaint themselves about the communication issues of the European Parliament, meet members of the European Parliament and independent European issues expert. This was really my Absolutely Best Summer! Here's a video!

The Impact of Social Media

Paull Young, Australian blogger/podcaster who now works with Converseon in New York City, talked about why new PR practitioners should be getting into the potential of social media. He spoke to Centennial students already in January 2007. You can look it up here. Time to start doing something about it in Baltics, don't you think so?

What blogs can do for PR?

Recently I had to write a paper for one of my university courses. Not going into details, but I had to highlight different aspects of new media. Broadly speaking, I took blogs as an example and analysed effects on society that blogs have had and may have in the future.
The obvious benefit of this media revolution is an explosion of creativity; people have no the opportunity to express themselves in different ways – by writing articles, sharing ideas, posting creative works, photos, videos online. Thanks to the interactive blog content, people today can decide for themselves what information is credible or worthwhile and what is not. Sometimes, the blogs’ audience has to rely on human editors of their choosing; at other times it is possible to search out for the collective intelligence, the opinions of others in the form of new filtering and collaboration technologies that are now being developed. The notion of blogs as a new media technology is that there are multiple sources of “truth”, and everyone has to sort it out on his own.

More over, blogs have created communities; they are places, where it is possible to meet like-minded people. Blogging is a great way to share ideas and enter into discussions with people who share the same interests. More over, the ongoing “era of blogging” has generated fair chances for people to acquire recognition. Blogging is a great way to achieve recognition and turn others on to one’s individual point of view.
So, what is the blogs' relation with PR here? Public Relations has many definitions, they are constantly being adapted and changed depending on various areas the communication is taking place etc. In my estimation, in general, Public Relations is about letting the audience know about you, as well as developing and maintaining beneficial and mutually good relationships between you and society. The above mentioned benefits and opportunities which blogs provide are great (and interesting!!!) tools for public relations practitioners.
As there are millions of people keeping active blogs (and bloggers often tend to look at other people's blogs), when they see something they like in their favorite blogs, bloggers will often link to and comment on it. This kind of linking has created the blogosphere - it consists of all the cross-linked blogs content of which can be explored just by clicking on the links. The blogoshphere is the platform where you can reach your audience. With the possibility for interactive content/commenting, PR people can easily create two-way communication, which is very important factor for receiving feedback on issue in order to improve things that should be improved. In article "Blogs as Excellent Public Relations Tools", contributed by Wayne Hurlbert, the author says: "Blogs provide a unique and personal way to communicate with current and prospective customers. By talking to people, in a conversational manner, a blog puts a human face on a company, that is difficult to duplicate in any other way. The more casual and comparatively unfiltered voice of the blogger creates the image of a business as being composed of real people like you. Instead of being a nameless and faceless corporation, the blog helps the people in the company to come alive in their posts."

What's the next great idea behind New Media?

What counts as new media is often debated, and is dependent on the definitions used. In general, “the idea of ‘new media’ captures both the development of unique forms of digital media, and the remaking of more traditional media forms to adopt and adapt to the new media technologies.”[i] With the rapid development of new media technologies including the internet, interactive television networks, and multimedia information services, their potential to increase interactive mass media, entertainment, commerce, and education can be emphasized. The rate of technological change that has transformed media and communication structures globally is reflected in the degree of attention paid to the converging media connections by the international community. One of the most attracting such new media technologies are blogs.
To add, PR area has grown rapidly during last decades and spread further to countries which haven't been realizing PR as a communication tool before. Until now, there have been lots of discussions, conferences, researches on new media tehcnology opportunities that PR practicioners can use. But, how far in Europe have these ideas been spread? Can we talk about blogs as "new PR tool" phenomena in Baltic countries, for example? What are the discussions among PR specialists like? What is the level of understanding and interpretations about blogs as PR tools?
This blog will try to provide insights into connections of new media and PR field in Latvia, find related articles, discussions and comparisons with other countries as well as analyse attractive public relations issues all over the world.

[i] Flew, Terry. (2002) New Media: an Introduction, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, p.11