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Need to renovate Public Relations Education
Highlights
The ubiquitous discipline of relationships management, public relations, has come of age in India. Media Proliferation, economic liberalization and globalization, trade wars and the consequent competitive marketing environment and increasing demand for public information have brought in a sea change in the public relations practice and it has indeed become more focused and central to the government and corporate world’s thinking.
The Indian corporate world is growing by leaps and bounds but the Indian public relations profession is not adequately responding to its needs of supplying competent and professional public relations personnel. This is a matter of grave concern, says Dr. CV Narasimha Reddi, a veteran PR practitioner
The ubiquitous discipline of relationships management, public relations, has come of age in India. Media Proliferation, economic liberalization and globalization, trade wars and the consequent competitive marketing environment and increasing demand for public information have brought in a sea change in the public relations practice and it has indeed become more focused and central to the government and corporate world’s thinking. As such, career opportunities for public relations exist in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Information and Public Relations departments of 29 States, Health and Family Welfare, Rural Development Departments, Central and State Public Sector undertakings, Universities, major industries and multinational companies, IT firms, corporate hospitals, hotels, PR and Advt agencies, NGOs etc.
World’s Biggest Public Communication Network
As many as one lakh public relations professionals, over 30 lakh extension communicators including about 9 lakh community health volunteers on the one side and 94,000 newspapers, 500 radio stations, 900 television channels, 30 crore internet connections and over 100 crore mobile phones on the other, led to the world’s biggest information and public relations network.
The gigantic Information Technology enabled network is involved in public communication to inform, educate, persuade, motivate the people to be active participants in our democratic and development process. In the process, public relations in India has entered the “Age of Upswing.”
Two Great Achievements
Independent India must be proud of two great achievements. The first is, India has emerged as world’s largest vibrant democracy with over 81 crore voters. The second one is, India, which was known as a country of famines, starvation deaths and dependent only on imports, has now been transformed as global economic player and also as the 7th largest economy in the world poised to become world’s third biggest economy. Public relations communication network undoubtedly played a major role in these two significant achievements of our country.
State-of-the-Art
A million dollar question arises as to what is the state-of-the-art public relations? Public relations in India is a ‘mixed bag’, containing a few highly qualified and competent public relations practitioners, in-house PR departments and PR agencies on the positive side and many non-professionals without any professional education, and skills reflecting the negative aspect of the profession.
The distinguishing trait of Indian public relations is the “Quantity of PR Personnel, rather than the quality of the Profession”. In the colloquium on “Media and Public Relations: Challenges and Opportunities” organized by the Press Academy of Telangana in July, 2015, eminent journalists observed that only 10 per cent of press notes issued by PR professionals are worth publishing and that there is a lack of public relations strategy as well as required skills to communicate the messages.
The Indian corporate world is growing leaps and bounds but the Indian public relations is not adequately responding to its needs of supply of competent and professional public relations personnel. This is a matter of grave concern.
PR Education and Skills Matrix
One can describe this mismatch as “Public Relations Crisis”. The need of the hour is professional excellence. The panacea lies in evolving a ‘New Public Relations Education and Skills Matrix’ with the Indian universities as port of entry. In the west, Public Relations is offered as a major course as well as BA Hons, BSc (PR) at undergraduate level, while specialized courses in Public Relations at PG level are also offered as MA Public Relations; MS Public Relations. The University of Sterling in UK offers MSc (PR) both in regular and distance mode. Doctoral (PhD) degrees in public relations are also popular.
Misconceptions
Public Relations education in India is still in a nascent stage notwithstanding the fact that it is one of the growing professions. There are a number of misconceptions with regard to PR education. Firstly, Public Relations is restricted to media skills and therefore in the educational curricula of universities, public relations education is limited to half or maximum one full paper in the journalism or mass communication programme. It is a great injustice to the cause of Public Relations.
Secondly, it is expected that any professional programme should have a balance of knowledge and skills. Due to lack of infrastructure, trained faculty, case studies, most of educational institutions restrict their classroom inputs to theory and knowledge only, ignoring hands-on skills.
Prof. P.L.Vishweshwar Rao, former Dean of Arts, Osmania University, rightly pointed that “Public Relations that is now part of journalism course has developed into a vast specialized profession and that is certainly not synonymous with journalism. A most appropriate course of study would be to make public relations as an independent academic stream as being practiced in the West. It need not be tied up to the apron strings of journalism”. Prof. Afzal Mohmmad, former Vice-Chancellor of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar Open University, agreed with this observation in toto.
UGC Role
The University Grants Commission (UGC), the cradle of Indian universities, not only recognized Public Relations as an academic discipline but also appointed this author as National Professor in Public Relations for a period of two years in 1989. It also issued guidelines to all conventional universities to launch exclusive courses at UG and PG level, namely BA Public Relations and MA Public Relations.
In the same vein, the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) issued guidelines to introduce two new specialized public relations courses: (1) BA Mass Communication and Public Relations; (2) MS Mass Communication and PR. Unfortunately, no conventional university in India has cared to the UGC guidelines to launch PR courses in regular mode except a few universities in distance mode. The Osmania University, Sri Venkateshwar University, Madurai Kamaraj University, etc. are a few to quote. The Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, offers PG Diploma in Advertising and PR in regular mode.
Model PR Course
Dr. B.R.Ambedkar Open University which has been the pioneer in launching Bachelor of Public Relations in 1992 has again become number one university in introducing a combined post Graduate Professional programme in MA Mass Communication, Public Relations and Journalism from the academic year 2013-14. A unique feature of this innovative programme is that five core subjects applicable to both Public Relations and Journalism including Mass Communication are offered in the first year, while specialized courses of Public Relations and Journalism are introduced in the second year. The students who opt PR specialization in the second year will be given the degree of MA Mass Communication and Public Relations. Likewise for journalism.
The Future of PR with Five Point Vision
As the future of public relations practice is very much dependent on the increased investments in Public Relations education, research and training matrix, it is highly essential to design a new model of PR education with a vision. The changing technology will shape the future of Public Relations. It will be technological public relations, leading to e-public relations as well as e-learning. Here is a five point vision for the future of public relations education.
1.UGC: The UGC as an apex body of higher education should constitute an expert committee on Public Relations studies to make an objective assessment of the present status of professional education and issue guidelines with model curriculum to launch Mass Communication and Public Relations courses both at UG and PG level in all the major universities in the regular mode. Necessary funds may also be provided.
2.Skills and Training Strategy: As in the case of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) at the national level, each State Government must establish Mass Communication and Public Relations Academy at the State level for the purpose of induction and in-service training for all officials involved in public communication including public information officers under RTI Act. The Lok Ayukta of Andhra Pradesh recommended that the State Government should establish Mass Communication and Public Relations Academy for the purpose of training. Public Relations skills should be integrated with ‘Skill India’ Programme.
3. PR Textbooks: Public Relations textbooks of international standard are the need of the hour. There is a dearth of standard textbooks and case studies in the Indian environment. We still look to the West for such books – a most regrettable feature. UGC, State Councils of Higher Education and Universities must come forward to bring out textbooks with the help of senior academicians and practitioners.
It is a creditable achievement that Dr. B.R.Ambedkar Open University has brought out five textbooks for MA Mass Communication, Public Relations and Journalism (1st year) and eight textbooks four in English and four in Telugu for Mass Communication and Public Relations at UG Programme. Eight textbooks relating to Public Relations and Journalism (specialization) for the 2nd year are in the offing. Publication of professional journal is a testimony to the growth PR profession. Public Relations Voice is the only quarterly journal for the Indian PR professionals. More journals must be brought out to enrich and update the knowledge of professionals.
4.Research and Measurement: Research is a major missing link in the PR practice. As a result, PR is not in a position to show results and gain due recognition. Research therefore must be integrated as part of the Public Relations budget to undertake evaluation and measurement of their activities by internal resources and external research agencies.
5.University-Industry Linkage: The ultimate aim of PR education is to meet the demand of government and industry for Public Relations professionals. It is, therefore, essential that PR academics, practitioners and industry sit together and obtain clear understanding of the needs of the industry and thereafter develop appropriate syllabus for the aspiring PR students. The industry also should be invited for interaction with the students to gain the insight of industry’s expectations.
A new Public Relations Education and Skills Matrix, if implemented in letter and spirit will undoubtedly produce professional PR practitioners who can serve the cause of Indian democracy and development effectively and efficiently.
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