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V I E W P O I N T   The
Smithson Report:Removing Issues Management From Its Strait-Jacket by Kate Smithson cont from page 5 Then it will build its own pipelines to the world, establish direct contact with the global audience, create an unfiltered avenue for feedback, and conduct its own dialogue with the planet. The challenge is to embrace the idea of engaging the world. Another challenge is to remember that content is the key: technology is the means to distribute the content. The public relations industry must change its intent, its language, its role. Public relations must also adhere to the highest journalistic standards. The service it provides its clients is simple: it provides them with the ability to participate in the global discussion, using clear words, accessible information, and complete context. There is no spin here: there is only openness, accountability, and transparency. The corporation or entity that understands and applies this concept could become a global magnet for high tech investment, growth and job creation - to develop a computer literate, highly skilled workforce, with a broadband communications infrastructure, and a competitive business environment that would be the first of its kind. Imagine creating a leading edge public relations system - using highly skilled knowledge workers and new technologies. Now imagine you are the first in the world to have formally created such a system. You have created the best public relations communications system on the planet. Is there a business application there? You bet. Now you build partnerships with other governments and corporations who can see their public relations efforts are stuck in the last century. Imagine training centers, partnerships with universities and colleges, and having a stake in developing a new career economy that would open a whole new era of opportunity. Best of all, public relations companies could move into the 21st Century, and their clients could truly communicate with the digital world. (1) Arthur W. Page wrote the first press release
on August 6, 1945, after President Harry Truman dropped an atomic
bomb on Hiroshima. (2) The independent media movement is now a global
phenomenon. Check out the Seattle Indymedia site, and check the
links to similar sites. (3) A plea for corporate communicators to
speak with a human voice. |
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