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What the world needs now is “Intermediaries”. Help has just arrived.

 

Good news: Thousands of “intermediary” candidates are now preparing for that role in society at many hundreds of colleges and universities in the U.S. and around the world.

They’re called public relations students. And their teachers just received new guidance on how to better prepare these students for service in the globalized post-modern world.

“Hold on”, you may say. “That’s not what I’ve been led to  believe about “public relations” as a vocation and as a role in society”.

So talk to any of the many dedicated academics at the hundreds of schools delivering an educational concentration in public relations. You may well become convinced that this is, well, a profession essential to social, economic and political progress, mutual understanding and cooperation and — yes, even harmony — at multiple levels of post modern intercourse. The range is almost infinite: from the millions of daily commercial and financial transactions around the world to myriad intellectual exchanges and even reaching to international public diplomacy (public relations between/among nations).

The profession applies two-way communication to building and maintaining reciprocal relations at the interface between an organization, institution or government and its publics. Public Relations.

So now comes, FAST FORWARD FOUNDATIONS+FUTURESTATE.EDUCATORS+PRACTITIONERS.https://bit.ly/2quJ4Vy . Published by the Commission on Public Relations Education www.CommissionPRed.org, it is the outcome of some 60 thought leaders from around the world offering their best thinking on the elements now needed for a high-quality public relations undergraduate education.

It opens with this entreaty:

“To all educators, practitioners and practitioners-to-be:
 
“The work we do matters. Public relations practitioners make a difference daily, and our work makes the world a better place. Stay the course, with ethics as our true north, and be proud of what you do.” 

The report is sweeping in scope. Sixteen chapters range from the foundation, “Undergraduate Curriculum: Courses and Content to Prepare the Next Generation of Public Relations Practitioners” to key elements of that preparation including ethics, theory, research, technology, educator credentials, online teaching, internships, diversity and global perspectives.

 

With the publication of the report yesterday at the Institute of Public Relations Research two-day Bridge conference in Washington D.C. https://bit.ly/2qvWP6z  the Commission marked its 45th year of service to the public relations profession and education.  During that period it has published a series of in depth reports recommending curriculum and related support for undergraduate and graduate education as the profession — and global society  — has evolved.
 
Significantly, in holding its 2018 board meeting concurrently with the IPR Bridge Conference, the Commission also developed a series of initiatives emerging from the new report that will build on its momentum.