Relationships or affairs: which is it for you?
On the face of it, this doesn’t make sense. Many people are turning their backs on public relations because the phrase still doesn’t quite sound respectable. What are they turning to instead? Public affairs. Since when did affairs become more respectable than relationships, I wonder?
My evidence for this trend comes from a recent PR Week survey in the UK which showed that careers in public affairs were more highly sought after by graduates than those in technology or healthcare PR. I’ve also noticed it in the frequency in which practitioners seek to clarify that it’s public affairs work they do, not public relations. There’s also a respectability in the academic field, witness Otto Lerbinger’s Corporate Public Affairs published last year.
One of my placement year students is currently working in a junior public affairs role for a UK bank. She gets to her desk by 7.30am in the City of London in order to review the day’s newspapers and to compile reports on debates in the UK and European parliaments. It’s an untypical role for a PR student, but one she’s performing well and which will help her in her ambition to work in financial public relations.