Tom Watson is undertaking a study into the priorities for research in public relations and would like input from communicators via his blog.

If you go there, you’ll find a posting title, “What are the priorities for future public relations research”  It asks you to nominate up to 10 topics from a list of 24 (and to add others if you consider there are gaps). The aims of this study, which includes academics, practitioners and the leaders of PR professional and industry bodies around the world, are to:
 
1.      Identify the gaps between academic research and the industry’s needs

2.      Identify current and new trends in research from theorist and practitioner perspectives.

3.      Map out the best way for knowledge to be exchanged.

4.      Define the research areas for which funding can be sought.

This is the first step of a project to consider ideas on how best to promote knowledge exchange between academics and practitioners. Please do participate!

Glenn

During the First Geneva Communicators Breakfast, we spoke about the validity of blogs and other social media and the possibility that they will replace more traditional media.

I mentioned a forthcoming book on this subject, written by a journalist (the most threatened species by social media it seems), which you can read about further in this article, the invasion of the web amateurs.

Glenn

DELIVERING THE BEEF

IABC members from the Europe/Middle East region took part in EuroBlog 2007, the second pan-European survey conducted by Euprera (European Public Relations Education and Research Organisation) to explore the use of blogs in professional communications.

Eighty-five percent of the respondents are convinced that blogs and social software are changing dramatically the way in which we communicate, while eighty-nine percent agree that blogs and wikis are becoming main-stream communication platforms to the same extent as websites.

Doubts, however, still exist about the monetary impact of social media on the bottom line and companies are finding it difficult to recruit people with new media skills. To quote the survey, they have not yet found an answer to the question: “Where is the beef and who can deliver it to me?”

The results were presented at the International EuroBlog Research Symposium in mid March in Ghent, Belgium.

View the full results here (pdf)>> 

Thanks to the newsletter of IABC Europe/Middle East for this item.

Glenn