The modern practice of public relations, though tied to the historical concept of rhetoric, is but a century old.
Barbados, a small developing nation, has probably been an active participant in this industry for less half of that time and certainly the industry is still burgeoning.
What is certain is that there currently does not exist any formal public relations institution catering specifically to the sector.
The local universities and colleges are yet to offer a degree and our practitioners seem content just to join regional and international bodies.
Lyrical Lava PR is pleased to announce that it has begun to champion the establishment of what will hopefully be the Barbados Public Relations Association.
Our desire is for Barbadian communicators and other professionals domicile in the island, to join us at www.bajanpr.ning.com and discuss how we might establish such a body for the further advancement of this mushrooming sector.
So far we have received very positive feedback and the word is spreading swiftly. Certainly, anything less among us would be totally out of character to say the least.
We will be following this process with an eagle eye and a lion heart as we seek to form the BPRA, which is also envisioned to have an avant guard annual calendar and a strong corporate responsibility in the nation of Barbados.
IABC Barbados Presents: Does the boss listen to you?
Featuring: James E. Lukaszewski, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA
Monday, October 1, 2007
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2 comments:
I agree. Public Relations has not been given the respect it deserves for a number of reasons both academic and practical. The University of the West Indies offers a communications course which barely covers the topic of PR (CARIMAC, UWI, MONA) but is otherwise relatively sound while there is a continuing studies course at UWI, Pine, Barbados. The Community College offers an Associate Degree in Mass Communications. To date, there is still a great deal of confusion as to what public relations really represents. Most PR reps are fromer journalists, this helps but only to a degree. I believe in formal training and exchange of ideas.
In my humble opinion, public relations is just that. It also represents a myriad of areas and not just rhetoric or "spin" or as the British say "sexing up" stories with the wine and cheese cocktail group. That is not what we do, we are a strategic part of the image building and institutional strengthening and business to business relationship building of your organization. Not to mention, the community relationships, stakeholder relations and media relations that must be honed and maintained over time.
The industry here is new and has been reduced to just releasing press releases and hosting events. I suggest we get serious and as an association stamp our collective seal of our profession on the Nations of the Caribbean.
October 2, 2007 2:51 PM
Thank you Kim for sharing on our blog and for joining us at www.bajanpr.ning.com. For those who want to play an integral part in the formation of the Barbados Public Relations Association, please join us or subscribe to this blog and get the highlights of our activities.
Christal P. McIntosh
Chief Innovation Officer
Lyrical Lava PR
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