Socialist Pitch

Among the many submissions of the definition of Public Relations, the Public Relations Society of America defines it as   “Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”  ( Forbes.com ) There is a bridge between PR in theory and its practice that creates a conflict in young graduates mind when entering the PR and communication field. In many African countries; the practice of PR consists of paying the media in order to have some media coverage and exposure, to the contrary to the theory where PR is about persuading the media to have interest in one's story for coverage.  This challenged faced by firms within the continent puts in question the effectiveness of public relations and where to draw the line between paid "propaganda" PR and persuasive "real" PR. With all this in mind, the question of "is PR used effectively and achieving its full potential in...

So I’m doing my internship at the University of Johannesburg’s department of Strategic Communications, for the first time in probably my life, I realized how though the business world is. Kevin Welman MD at FleishmanHillard South Africa came to speak to my 3rd year Public Relations class and he highlighted things that made me think about my future. I realized that acquiring knowledge and experience is very important. He made an example of a young adult that came for a job interview, the candidate was able to run a database of FleishmanHillard and areas where they could grow etc. To think that such an intellectual graduate is our competition in the world place is kinda scary. This means that just having a qualification will not guarantee me a job, I need more than that. I might only be 21 but I feel like I’m falling behind regarding skills, knowledge and experience… From now on I will dedicate my time to being an all rounder and learn as much as I can…

I never thought that beauty queens played such a big role in helping their community. Listening to Miss South Africa and Miss South Africa 2nd princess at the University of Johannesburg Library last night opened my eyes. Not only are these ladies beautiful and ambitious, they have projects running to better their surroundings. I once entered a beauty pageant  myself, Miss Congo SA. I had entered to become an ambassador for my country and to inspire my people, but I don't think I was ready yet. These beauty queens made me realise that I don't have to wait to become a beauty queen to help out, I can start now and that when the time is right, if it's meant to be, I could win a beauty pageant and better my community. I come from a country where beauty queens are not taken seriously and I guess it is because the criteria for these young ladies entering are not inspiring enough for them to want to make a difference instead of doing it for the money and fame. I hope that ...

This topic got me thinking, when discussions around the days of colonisation (apartheid in South Africa) and transforming to be stronger and better nations. Where do we draw the line between good histor, that we want to keep? I personally get touched when people speak on renaming ancient monuments or any other infrastructural unit, because they promote the "apartheid" or "racist and colonial" times.  Do we consider the first sailer that arrived in our countries as bad history? Then what is good history, a native that became the first president, even if in his time he made more wrongs, (that tarnished his country's name) then rights? This arises the question of, how much of the colonial time history do we want to keep, as constructive information that will ensure the new generation not to forget their roots  and origins. Feel free to let me know what you think about these issues. ..

We all want to find a well paying job, drive a nice car, live in a beautiful house, but as young adults we do not realise how important it is for us to build ourselves now instead of waiting to graduate or get a real permanent job. While I was at work, busy with a research task assigned to me, I realised how important it is to have enough concrete professional information about yourself on the Internet. It's hard enough to find a job in this century,  but when all you have showing up in the searchresults when your name is typed is your Facebook account, how easy do you think it would be for your potential employers to be interested in you?

I have realized that it is very hard to find a job as a student.  Even a simple intership can be stressful to find. I am currently studying Public Relations at the University of Johannesburg and in order for me to graduate I need to do work integrated learning through an internship program. A lot of companies don't understand how stressful it is to find placement.  I think a lot of students like me do not expect permanent positions but rather appreciate it if we were given the opportunity to get some form of experience through internships and temporary jobs. I plead to companies and industries to be considerate to us students,  and understand where we come from, especially in this new era where we are required to have work experience to be able to be employed.