Behind The Spin: Now we know!

Alexandra Cook (left) and Nicola Wilkinson wonder why students sign up for PR courses when they don't have a clue what it involves

After three years at university it's hard to remember why you chose that city, much less why you selected one particular course. Indeed it becomes evident that some students didn't decide; the choices were made for them. Some of these stick it out, even learn to enjoy it; others do not.

PR is a difficult discipline to define; almost impossible at university entry level, marginally easier on graduation, though perhaps only so because after three years you become used to justifying the wide range of working possibilities that fit within the "broad church" that encompasses our profession. So why do students sign up to study PR, if they don't clearly understand what it is? Few, we suggest, come to study PR based on a definite view of what it actually involves, and with a reasoned ambition to enter the business. Others - count us amongst them - are guided by a relative, teacher, or friend who claims to recognise some facility or attribute that suggests "you're a natural for PR". And so, without any great depth of knowledge or expectation, you sign up for a critical three years of your life on the basis of faith in that recommen-dation, or for lack of a better idea.

But is this a good basis to guide a lifetime's career path? In Behind The Spin issue 9, Sarah Newton writes that her studies at school ill-prepared her for a world of PR beyond spin doctors, stunts, and celebrities, and she questions why she had not been better prepared for the professional business communications discipline that she rapidly learned to study. Leaving aside for now how schools and sixth form colleges could better consider PR (where they consider it at all), we decided to investigate what fellow Lincoln students thought they were going to get when they came to study PR, and how their opinions changed during the course of their degree.

At the same time, we spoke to various other groups about their understanding of PR, and it is interesting (though perhaps not surprising) to compare how student perceptions draw closer to those held by their lecturers, and in turn to compare these with the views held by the industry itself - those who use PR - and the general public. The purpose of this secondary piece of work was to establish whether, during their voyage of discovery, students felt they were heading towards a desirable destination, and whether their view of the end goal was similar to that described by both lecturers and industry practitioners.

Changing perceptions
First we surveyed 100 students split equally across the three years. It was clear that their views of what PR involved changed rapidly from their early weeks at university - 70 per cent of the first year students claimed significant changes even at this early stage - and their views continued to develop; by the second year, the figure had risen to 81 per cent, and by the third year, 93 per cent.

Students at all levels were asked specifically about what they had thought PR involved before their course had started, and there was a high level of consistency. Comments including "I thought it was more about parties and celebrities"; "I didn't really have a clue, I just thought it would be interesting"; "really totally unsure", were typical.

Interestingly, over time the list of what PR was thought to comprise before their course started became shorter (is this because the more embarrassing aspects had been mentally edited out?) the list of elements which students began to fold into the PR heading grew.

After just a few weeks at university, in an unprompted survey, students defined PR in terms of reputation, relations with the public, promotions, communications, and influencing / persuading (in order of times mentioned). These five items are joined by a further seven by year two, with crisis management, leadership, analysis of social trends, and prediction of consequences being the more significant additions. By year three, the list of 12 items has grown to 14, with media relations, investor and stakeholder relations, internal PR, and event management starting to figure significantly in students' thinking (see figure 1).

It's encouraging to note a consistency - the five items cited by the course newcomers are still in the top half of the list at year three, suggesting a coherence in teaching across the course. We noted too how the depth of student knowledge had altered, with those surveyed in their final year mentioning twice as many topics as the first year students, from a much wider range of options.

Some still don't get it
But how do these perceptions and understandings of PR match those held by other key audiences, namely their lecturers, and PR practitioners? The increased enthusiasm for the subject over the course of a degree is matched by a growing ambivalence, frustration even, about apparent misunderstandings of what PR is, what it comprises, and what it is thought to be by those outside the profession (see figure 2).

Perhaps PR needs a dose of its own medicine, and the industry's own reputation could use a boost. The general public - on the basis of casual interviews conducted amongst Saturday shoppers on Lincoln High Street - held a similar view of PR to that of entry-level students: parties, pop stars, and the TV "15 minutes of fame" reality shows, with a touch of what students are starting to think of as opportunistic publicity and promotion, rather than PR as a tool for business (or brand) benefit.
What should we do about this? It's a well-rehearsed irony, the discussion about whether PR itself needs good public relations. But what changes can be made to offer a better image of the industry? It's comforting that none of the students we spoke to decided they were going to abandon PR on the basis that it would be too much of an uphill struggle explaining or justifying their career choice. Indeed, most seemed determined to act as ambassadors for the profession, and to work from within to improve the public's perception.

Note the similarity between the responses of students, their lecturers, and practising PR professionals (see figure 3). At the time of this research we were PR students and our views reflected those of our colleagues. We too favoured pulling back from the oft-cited "broad church" to limit what could properly be called PR. Lecturers and practitioners went further, in seeking a tightening of the professional qualifications, even a licensing system before operators could use the description PR. We'd favour this as a means to clarify what people understand by our chosen profession, and to enhance its standing.

Whilst what we know of public relations now shows it to be a very different animal to that we set out to study three years ago, the fascination has grown (as have the challenges), and we enter the working world clear that there's a job to be done not only for our future clients, but also for the world of PR itself.