PR Has A Trust Problem: Time To Take Professionalism Seriously
Welcome To The People founder, Christian Cerisola explains why, after a hiatus of more than 20 years, he has made the decision to rejoin a professional PR body. Welcome To The People is now a member of the PRCA.
There’s a really short answer to this question. And that is that being a part of a professional body representing the interests of those in the public relations industry never really seemed worth it.
No client ever asked whether I was part of a professional body. It meant nothing to them, and so Of course, the benefits of membership organisations are only felt when you dedicate as much as they do. I was probably guilty of falling into that category of someone being slightly disdainful from the sidelines.
But then in February of this year, the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) unveiled its new definition of PR.
"Public relations is the strategic management discipline that builds trust, enhances reputation and helps leaders interpret complexity and manage volatility - delivering measurable outcomes including stakeholder confidence, long-term value creation and commercial growth."
They don’t have ownership of a definition, and fellow professional body, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) has remained loyal to its own.
“Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.”
Splitting hairs? Maybe. Both lean heavily on elements of building and enhancing reputation. But there were ingredients of the PRCA’s definition that made me take note. Measurable outcomes, value creation and commercial growth for clients. There’s something that will help clients to lean in.
Moreover, it was the element of helping leaders interpret complexity and manage volatility. A sweeping generalisation, but most in the c-suite will likely associate a PR’s role as media relations.
It’s only one part of the job, and the most rewarding work I’ve undertaken since leaving my last agency has been to steer management functions through what can be messy and complex communications challenges. A seat at the top table that many in the industry, far more influential than me, have fought hard for. And the PRCA is leading the charge with that definition in helping those outside the industry really understand how those in communications can be a business or a brands eyes and ears.
That complexity and volatility is rearing its head in the media industry now. Reach, publisher of The Mirror, Daily Express and dozens and dozens of big city regional titles in the UK, has a growing whitelist of PR agencies that it trusts in a bid to crack down on a growing number of organisations providing fake experts.
It’s an easy, but deeply concerning practice. For many reasons, mostly to generate better search visibility on Google and show up in AI-led Large Language Models like ChatGPT or Claude, agencies will create a fake expert, with a fake CV, a fake face and automated ‘insights’ that gets sent to journalists. They’re often getting used without too many checks or balances.
We can argue the media should gatekeep far more efficiently. Like everyone, they’re busy people. Rob Waugh has continued to cover the practice, regularly reported on in the Press Gazette, that sees no sign of abatement.
So who’s providing fake experts? Largely operators without any background in PR or comms, and who appear to have sprung up very recently. As the founder of a new agency, veracity, trust and transparency became more important than ever.
The PRCA’s second move, in partnership with the CIPR, issued a joint statement underlining each organisation's code of practice that outlaws such activity. That was a trigger for me to want to make sure anyone can shine a torch on Welcome To The People’s practices and find no suspicious fingerprints.
Since joining, I’ve found an extensive training programme and excellent peer-to-peer opportunities. Arguably London-centric, but understandably so. It gives me, based in the North East, something to work on with them.
Watch this space on that one.
