Crystal Crowd

CNN are querying the predictions of 4 to 5 million people turning out in Washington for Barack Obama’s inauguration as President. Ben Macintyre in today’s Times calls the possibility the “largest political crowd in the history of the planet”. He draws attention to Nobel prize-winner Elias Canetti’s

Canetti

seminal work “Masse und Macht” (Crowds and Power) which analyses crowd psychology and gives vivid examples of crowd behaviour. Some elements of groups he refers to as “The Pack” which reminded me in a very  loose way of Seth Godin’s Tribes. I liked Canetti’s image of crowds breaking down into crystals.

Tribes

Seth’s tribes were however looking for a leader whereas Canetti’s packs gathered more by instinct.

Macintyre writes of the great crowds that assembled in Britain after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Canetti identified crowd symbols for countries with the sea representing Britain. He didnt (as far as I am aware) identify a symbol for America.

I remember the feeling in Britain of the crowds for Diana’s cortege marking in some way a turning point in history. It felt momentous. Perhaps the forecast mass gathering a Washington will similarly be a positive moment for change in America’s history. The individuals will be there to bear witness to the first African American president . I can feel the pull of the crowd.

I do feel a fear of crowds however. It isnt only the fear of being touched which Canetti says we all have and which is overcome by being part of a crowd. Echoes too perhaps of Freud’s “Totem & Taboo” about group psychology. As a schoolgirl in Fife, some of my classmates were killed in the Ibrox disaster of 1971 when 66 people were crushed in a stairwell. It was my first experience or encounter with death. A crowd that had come together to enjoy their two tribes competing at sport yet resulting in such a horrific death for so many.

I shall look forward to the inauguration and hope that the crowd is peaceful and joyful.

Engagement with politics

It is interesting in the post-Obama campaign world to think that in 2000 Kevin Moloney was writing about the perceived “Niagara of spin” from PR practitioners in the UK. The perceived wisdom was that PR was “bad for democracy”. He argued that a PR, propoganda and democracy could co-exist as a ‘compatible triad’.

Rethinking PR

 

Not long after that, the Rowntree Trusts set up an Independent Inquiry chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy  to examine the apparent malaise in British politics. So are we in a new world now?

Helena Kennedy QC

 

The Power Report found that apart from a decline in party membership, there was a “well-ingrained popular view across the country that our political institutions and their politicians are failing, untrustworthy, and disconnected from the great mass of the British people.” Can the Obama use of new media change this landscape?

 

The Power Report gave three recommendations following the Inquiry based on three major shifts in political practice:

• a rebalancing of power away from the executive and unaccountable bodies towards Parliament and local government;

• the introduction of greater responsiveness and choice into the electoral and party systems; 

• allowing citizens a much more direct and focused say over political decisions and policies.

 

Surely it is the final recommendation which will resonate from the USA electoral experiences?

 

Credit Crunch Christmas

So will it be a happy Christmas season?

For those of us working as interim managers, the public sector marketplace still seems active – if more cautious than before. The health sector in particular still has need of corporate communications advice.

Despite the caution, the media are highlighting today as Mega Monday when all of us on-line shoppers are going to go wild to buy everything we’ve never needed in time for Christmas!

Christmas Cheer?

It cant feel very seasonal for the 450 staff at Woolworths who have lost their jobs. A real chill in the High Street.

Big job losses in the USA with Dow Chemicals the latest employer to announce 5,000 jobs to go and the closure of 20 plants. The Obama-Biden transition web-site continues to attempt a direct dialogue with the American people. Barack Obama has a weekly address on the site to give his opinions and plans to tackle the key policy areas. The site also encourages the public to leave their own stories and to enter into debate. There is a Your Seat at the Table section with a commitment to publication of official documents. But despite the optimism surrounding the inauguration on 20 January, the President Elect was quoted on the news blog as saying that things were likely to get worse before they get better: “We’ve got to provide a blood infusion right now, make sure that the patient is stabilized,” he noted. “We’ve got to get the economy moving.”

But worse forecast for the UK…..So, for those of us in trauma at the imminent departure of David Tennant as Dr Who, what can 2009 have for us to look forward to? Unless the Doctor is off to help the new Prezz???

David Tennant

Apart from an excuse to feature a photo of Young David, may I also offer some advice to those of you who have not posted your Christmas cards on this Mega Monday? I recommend a great site from an artist called Jacquie Lawson.

Why PR Cannot Be Taught

(With homage to James Elkins and his book ‘Why Art Cannot Be Taught’)

There is often debate about the value of a degree or other qualification in Public Relations or Corporate Communications. Practitioners can argue that the only way to learn is through experience.

So…can PR be taught?

Taught?

Elkins attempts to define teaching and learning in his book. He writes that both teaching and learning share “intentionality”: the teacher intends to give knowledge, or share an insight, or to steer a student. Similarly, a student intends to learn about the subject or skill or whatever. Elkins apreciates all the ‘right brain’ creative stuff, but was trying to find some rational and identifiable aspects that can be analysed.

The people who argue that art cant be taught – nor creativity for advertising or PR, can be thinking back to Plato’s concept of inspiration or mania.  The idea that creativity is unconscious, inspired by the gods. Aristotle wrote about poetic rapture (ecstaticos). Somehow it is difficult to see how this can be captured or taught intentionally. And this is often the reason it is argued that PR cannot be taught – it has to be experienced.

The creative industries use different methods to attempt to bring this creativity or innovation to life in a work environment from ‘brain storming’ to ‘War rooms’ to unusual/quirky office spaces. (At Sport England , their offices on Southampton Row were designed around the theme of sport with spaces including bastketball hoops, fake turf and chairs with striped backs like football jersies – great fun)!

Creative hands

Oscar Wilde wrote “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught”.

So if creativity, innovation and inspiration cannot be taught. What can be taught with relevance to PR or Corporate Communications? Again, with homage to Elkins, can I suggest:

• we can learn the terminology and language and concepts of the specialism: what is Public Affairs, what is a ’sound bite’, what is a Blog?
• how to get along in the PR?Corporate Communications world: what do agencies do? How do in-house practioners work? What are the commercial aspects of setting up a consultancy?
• how do we evaluate what is successful?
• we can learn techniques: how to write a press release, how to construct a PR plan, how to manage crisis communications.

So, if we can be taught the techniques of PR is this the same as being taught PR?

Interesting stuff!