Rachel Todd: My Spin on PR

Yesterday the PR MA students at Leed Metropolitan University were lucky enough to be invited to a CIPR talk, ‘PR and the Digital Frontier’ that was given by Rob Brown formerly of McCann Eriksson.

My classmates and I really enjoyed the talk, as it is always interesting to a different perspective on new media and it was especially interesting to see how the practitioners reacted to what they were being told. However I was particularly surprised at how much of the presentation had already been covered in our New Media module. The reason that I was surprised is that it was very apparent that as students and digital natives we were much more aware of social media and its uses, than some of the practitioners were.

As a student I am very aware of all of the practical learning that I still have ahead of me, so it was great to know that as a digital native I have new skills that I can bring to the profession. That’s not to say that there are not many practitioners and agencies that take social and new media onboard, some well known examples include webitpr and Shift Communications. It also appears that other practitioners are looking for these skills from their staff, for example Angie Moxham of 3 Monkeys told PR Week that she looks for these new media skills in graduates coming to her for a job.

New media to me, is a chance for students and young graduates to show their worth and make a mark in the profession. Its often hard to shine straight away in an industry where experience and skill is crucial and I see new media as a chance for us to spread our wings and fly.