Jan Felt is a soon to be graduate of University of New York in Prague and an aspiring blogger . He is interested in anything to do with marketing communication, writing, and PR. Feel free to reach him at honza@cyberfootprint.eu.
——————————
Being Czech, it is rather difficult to evaluate the local PR industry without venturing into an area of personal opinions and biases. For the sake of limited time and attention , let’s take a look at the Czech PR scene via the lens of ethics and new media.
Overview
- The market is small. You can fit the population of the entire state into the city of Los Angeles. That limits the PR scene, but gives a great opportunity for niche marketing
- The industry is young. PR has only been around for 20 years which explains some of the ethical problems
- Online PR is rarely used and is still considered niche. This will be challenged by the upcoming financial crisis and budget cuts.
- Ethical behaviour is questionable in the discipline of digital PR
Use of New Media in Czech PR
In the Czech market it seems there is a lack of exploitation of new media. Blogging and social media in general are perceived as ‘something for the geeks’ by the general public. Factors like the nature of the small market, language restrictions and a low number of early adopters cause social media PR to be left without a broad audience yet.
Agencies and clients predict that as soon as the recession impacts the Czech Republic, there will be a rise in new media campaigns. This provides only little comfort, because the audience problem still remains unresolved.
Some agencies are trying to change that by blogging, even though it’s often an ‘on and off’ relationship with cyberspace. Dissemination of press releases solely online is uncommon, and social media news releases haven’t made their appearance yet. However, given the current situation (like in most PR markets) where journalists are flooded with Word doc emails, one would think that digital press centres would make them happier.
Setting up social media departments seems like a perfect idea to stimulate public’s interest in the online world. However, big agencies will have a hard time justifying time and energy investments into social media with uncertain returns. Thus, I see the future of online PR in the hands of smaller and more flexible agencies. At the very least, every agency can set up a blog and contribute to this development.
Ethics
As anywhere in the world, there are problems with unethical execution of clients’ plans. Nearly a half a year ago, an agency created fake blogs to promote their clients’ products. Worse yet, they lied about their intentions and shed negative light on common PR practices.
Posting biased information on the web under the disguise of someone else was also popular for a while, but since the public became savvy to this wrongdoing the practice has been discontinued. And thank goodness for that!
PR in cyberspace is about creating conversations, full disclosure and transparency. This mindset has not arrived to most of the Czech PR professionals. There is a residue of Machiavellianism amongst the marketers and PR folks. Yes, they are facilitators of public opinion, but that doesn’t mean that they stand above the ordinary consumer. Unfortunately, the PROs in CZ sometimes think otherwise.
“The end justifies the means” perspective dominates the scene. I firmly believe that this perspective is why PR often lacks credibility in the eyes of some. We need to change it fast by educating the young professionals in a different way.
The prevalent philosophy nowadays is “If you behave unethically and get caught, you will be punished.” So far, it did not work, because too many agencies focus on not getting caught, but not eradicating the bad behaviour. I don’t have a universal solution for that, but I wonder what Richard and Karen think about it.
Proposition for non-Czech PR professionals
The door is open for anyone who wants to acquire international experience over here.The Czech PR market offers a blend of large network agencies along with smaller consultancies.
For students and young professionals there is an obvious benefit of putting something extra on your resume. On the other hand, the experienced PROs have an opportunity for self-actualization on an emerging market. The standards are not yet fully developed, so why not to take an advantage of it?
You can find out more about Czech PR agencies from a recent report (pdf) by the American Chamber of Commerce.
Conclusion
For the Czech PR scene to progress, and for up and coming local PR professionals to advance in their careers, it would be more suitable for the industry to adapt a more European approach to the professiona. This is particularly true when it comes to the adoption of new media tools and ethics.
At this point of time, there is not enough peer pressure among the agencies that would help to rid the industry of the unethical behaviour and craft new standards. We should all strive to minimise the social inheritance of unethical conduct and phase it out as soon as we can. It all starts with the individual responsibility.
And finally, even though the Czech PR industry is small and young, it provides very attractive opportunities for grassroots activities as well as niche PR in general. Online PR in the Czech Republic is still a blue ocean but it’s ready to be exploited.
Stephen is a communications consultant based out of the UK. You can connect with him on Twitter or check out his LinkedIn profile. | Email Stephen
Stumble it
Digg it
Deli.icio.us
Tweet this
Jon Clements
Jan
Thanks for the interesting post – doubly interesting for me as I both work in PR and lived in the Czech Republic for two years in the early 90s.
The fact is that poor social media practices by PR departments or agencies will be unearthed, highlighted and then shared for general ridicule around the Internet. This is not unusual, as handling social media well takes a fundamental change in what has become the traditional mindset of many PR practitioners. One way communication has been the norm for so long – and the social media revolution is happening with such rapidity – that it’s easy to make mistakes.
Those venturing into social media need to focus on that key word: “social”. In “offline” social situations – the ones we inhabit day in, day out – trying to deliberately mislead or lie to someone is considered unacceptable; why should it be any different online?
But the question of ethics is particularly relevant for a country that only 20 years ago was still under one party, centralised and corrupt governmental control. Some of the ways people were treated by authority – and as customers – was a shock to me coming from the UK. I returned to Prague in 1997 (14 years after my first stay) to find that while a lot had changed, there were still instances of corruption that I assume were learned behaviour.
The Czech Republic is a great country and one which I’m particularly fond of. But old habits die hard!
Honza
Jon,
Thank you for your insight. Your stay in CZ helps to relate to most of the concepts in the article, doesn’t it?
Concerning the social aspect of the social media, this is going to be difficult. Lives of many of my fellow Czechs are strictly split in public and private. Reluctance to blend both of them is preventing the social media to really take off, especially among the older generation. I think, the online PR is going to need some BIG picture approach.
Karen Russell
As to what I think about the ethical issue — people will not stop unethical behavior unless it doesn’t pay. In other words, if Czech consumers and other PR pros don’t call out unethical behavior and hold the companies or PR people accountable, there is no reason for them to change. I think the social media space must self-regulate.
Stacey Trottier-Mousseau
Hi Jan,
I came across your post while conducting research for a school assignment. I thought it was very articulate and well written. I am a post graduate student in PR and have been given an assignment to present on the topic of PR in the Czech Republic. I am not having a lot of joy locating specific information. I was hoping that you might be able to point me toward some helpful resources. One of the topics that I am specifically interested in is the qualification requirements for practitioners in Czech. I would like to find out information on programs that are available at the post secondary level and their level of popularity. Do most PR practitioners have specialized training. Along with that – a point toward any other relevant resources would be helpful.
Katherine
Hi Honza,
Great article – I’m working for a magazine in Prague for a short time and I’ve had many conversations with expats about PR here but not much of an inside perspective.
Do you think that Czech culture will embrace new media in the near future? From an outsider’s perpective…. Conversation with strangers seems to be discouraged, as well as expressing personal opinions publicly.