✅ Monday briefing: Pandemic whiplash for public relations
The public relations industry has reverted to its pre-pandemic status
More evidence of the pandemic whiplash impacting the global public relations industry was published this week by PRovoke.
The industry’s 100 most powerful communicators reported a drop in public relations investment in the past 12 months of more than $1bn, from $4.8bn to $3.7bn. The Influence 100 is PRovoke Media’s annual compilation of the most influential in-house communicators worldwide. It gathered data in June 2023.
This downturn partly reflects the economy but is mainly due to public relations reverting to its pre-pandemic status. It's a point made by EMEA Editor Maja Pawinska Sims. The data from comparable cohorts was $4.2 billion in 2020 from $4.8 billion in 2019.
The pain is being felt throughout the industry. The relationship between employees and employers has been reset. Hiring freezes and redundancies have replaced conversations about the cost of living and inflationary increases.
The situation is also reflected in reporting lines. The number of CMOs and CCOs reporting to their organisation's chief executive or chair is back down to 74% this year from 81% in 2022 and 72% in 2021.
The PRovoke data is consistent with my research studies at Leeds Business School. I have quickly discovered that crisis events, such as the pandemic, are among a handful of situations when public relations practice is elevated in management. The situation reverts as soon as the crisis is over.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the birth of Ivy Lee, one of the founding practitioners who applied public relations in management. An annual initiative called World PR Day, spearheaded by Nigerian agency BHM under the leadership of Ayẹni Adékúnlé and Enitan Kehinde seeks to promote public relations practice.
Check PRovoke for further insight on teams, budgets and agencies, and watch for more on diversity and future challenges this week.
Artificial intelligence
🔥 AI COPYRIGHT BATTLE: Sarah Silverman is suing Meta and OpenAI, claiming they used "shadow libraries" to train their AI chatbots. This lawsuit is part of a growing trend of creators taking legal action against AI companies for copyright infringement. More: Tortoise Media.
🌐 ETHICAL ACADEMIC AI: The Russell Group universities have agreed on five guiding principles to address the ethical use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in academia. The principles aim to support AI literacy, in a shift in attitude towards AI from previous concerns about plagiarism and cheating. More: Quartz.
Industry
🔒 DATA AGREEMENT: The European Commission has approved the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, stating that the US provides adequate protection for personal data transferred from the EU. It includes new safeguards to address concerns raised by the European Court of Justice. More: European Commission.
🔵 SOCIALLY MOBILE: We've opened applications for paid and funded places for the final Socially Mobilecohort of 2023. The application deadline is 20 August, and classes start on 14 September. Check the website for more information, and hit the button on the top right to apply. More: Socially Mobile.
💰 ALTERNATIVE FINANCE: Sources of finance such as debt and equity come with a business cost. Alternative funding sources include grants, R&D tax credits, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, and Creative Growth Finance. More: Wadds Inc.
Social media
🧵 CHRONOLOGICAL THREAD: Threads is set to introduce an alternative home feed showing posts in chronological order following user complaints. Other updates in the pipeline include editing posts, translation options, and improved account switching. More: BBC News.
💥 THREAD BOOM: Early insights suggest positive brand engagement on Threads, with brands experiencing significantly higher likes per post than Twitter. While it's still too early to draw definitive conclusions, the initial indicators are encouraging, particularly as notable figures and world leaders join the platform. More: Social Media Today.
Media
👎 SUN SCANDAL REDUX: The Sun is facing a backlash after publishing a report alleging that BBC newsreader Huw Edwards paid a 17-year-old for explicit images. Edwards is now in the hospital for mental health issues, and The Sun is backtracking on its story, blaming other media outlets for misinterpreting its reporting. More: The Guardian.
😦 BBC CRISIS ANALYSIS: The News Agents podcast provides an interesting perspective on the Huw Edwards story, highlighting the potential implications for media structures and laws in the UK. It raises important issues related to the imbalanced relationship between The Sun and the BBC, and privacy and transparency. More: The News Agents.
🚨 CRISIS COMMENT: 10 Yetis’ Andy Barr and Wadds Inc’s Sarah Waddington CBE have both provided a public relations perspective on the Huw Edwards story in mainstream media interviews. Both conclude that it is a crisis for The Sun, rather than the BBC. Waddington called for Leveson to be revisited along with greater protection for individuals. More: BBC Scotland.
⛔ FAKE JOURNALISTS: The Bournemouth Observer, a new local news website, has been found to use fake journalist profiles and stock images to create an illusion of a functioning news team. More: Hold the Front Page.
Tools
📊 DATA SCIENCE HACK: If you are still waiting for access to ChatGPT Code Interpreter, you can access data science features by copying and pasting spreadsheet snippets into a chat window and requesting an analysis of results based on your objectives. Use abbreviations for data safety. More: OpenAI.
🤖 AI MEDIA EVALUATION: Andrew Bruce Smith has been experimenting with ChatGPT Code Interpreter for media evaluation and analysis. He reports on its ability to perform named entity recognition, keyword extraction, and topic modelling. More: House of Marketing & PR community of practice.
🏢 PERSONAL OFFICE AI: Google Labs has opened a US waitlist for NotebookLM, an experimental AI tool that leverages language models to help users generate creative ideas based on Google Docs. The tool will create document summaries, spot patterns between documents, and help extract information. More: Google.
✨ BARD UPDATE: Google’s AI language model has added more features and 40 languages. New features include customising the tone and style of responses, pinning and renaming conversations, exporting code to different platforms, sharing chat conversations, and utilising images as prompts. More: Google.
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Thanks to Andy Barr, Katrina Gallagher, Alan Morrison, Maja Pawinska Sims, Andrew Bruce Smith and Sarah Waddington CBE for sharing content featured this week.