11 universities are represented in the published top 20. The stats are taken directly from our much larger UK PR student lists on Klout and PeerIndex and are up-to-date at 10pm on 9 February 2012:

We introduced the #socialstudent list here, and updated and extended it in week two, week three, week four, week five, week six, week seven, week eight, week nine, week ten, week eleven and week twelve.

There are now a record 11 universities represented in the published top 20.

The stats are taken directly from our much larger UK PR student lists on Klout and PeerIndex and are up-to-date at 9pm on 2 February 2012:

We introduced the #socialstudent list here, and updated and extended it in week two, week three, week four, week five, week six, week seven, week eight, week nine, week ten and week eleven.

CIPR Approved: Yes

Offers placement year: Yes (not compulsory but allowed if student wishes to do so)

Overall:  5: The PRCA recently released an announcement, with a list of 11 “elite” universities for Public Relations. Buckinghamshire New University (formerly Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College), is included in this list. The lecturers have strong links within the industry that are able to help students get placements. Most recently, Bucks New Uni has become part of the Clare Business school (brain child of Mike Clare; UK entrepreneur who founded Dreams), lending it even more accreditation.

Teaching/Lecturers: 5: Lectures are fun, engaging and always relevant to the field, with fundamental theory being taught right from the word go. Notable lecturers include Bill Nichols, well respected within the field of Public Relations, along with Vic Davies, a founding member of Mediacom, a well sought after and wanted media planner within the industry he previously worked within. This, combined with the unique mix of part time teaching staff who are in the industry themselves, not only give a new and interesting insight, but also allow those lecturers to use current and real life examples, helping students to understand module content even more.

Support available: 5: Lecturers are very friendly and approachable, always willing to help and will give structured and constructive criticism. Any concerns raised are responded to swiftly and dealt with in a manner that makes the students feel valued. If there are ever any problems then lecturers are simply an email away.

Extra Opportunities available: 5: There are many opportunities available, which I am already beginning to take advantage of;  beginning to write articles on the topic of politics and current affairs for the student newspaper, as well as being a committee member on the board of Thames Valley branch of the CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing) here at Bucks, headed by Vic Davies which organises and runs events within the university on CIM’s behalf. This allows me to meet senior people in the marketing industry (having already met Thomas Brown, CIM’s Head of Insight, and Ash Roots, Head of Online at 3 UK) as well as attend CIM events and conferences across the country. There are many seminars available to us, with some I have attended myself being from Will King, the CEO of King of Shaves, and most recently a talk delivered by Jay O’connor, the ex- president (2010) of the CIPR.

Accommodation:  4: Accommodation is a good standard with clean facilities. More are currently being built to house more intake and are constantly being updated and made better.

Facilities (including library): 4: The library consists of four floors. There are PC’s and Mac’s on each floor,  with the fourth floor been a quiet area, as well as bookable conference rooms for small meetings. All buildings are iner-linked and the library can be easily reached from any other buildings on campus.

Nightlife: 4: The SU hosts a wide range of events, from club nights to gigs, to comedy (every other Tuesday). Notable recent acts that have performed there are Exit Ten, Fei Comodo and Charlie Simpson, with many more coming up (such as Young Guns). There are many bars to chose from in Wycombe town centre. Some host club nights, whereas others are more alternative. There are regular open mic and acoustic nights along with quieter bars and pubs if you just fancy chilling out.

Students Union: 4: The Student Union supports the students well and we are always reminded that they are there to help us if we ever need anything. Our views and opinions are always listened to and feedback is taken on board and responded to positively.

No longer do you have to wait several days to receive letters in the post; now you can send an email or log in to Facebook or Twitter and send messages instantly.

Long distance communication is as simple as popping next door. However in the wave of social media are traditional forms of communication being left behind before their time?

Lauren Symons: it's good to talk

We don’t talk anymore

Over the last ten years the mobile phone has developed from simply a portable phone into a portable computer. You can text, take pictures and videos, email, play games, download apps and post your exact location on Facebook for the world to see.

But alongside all that technology hidden under a variety of names, a mobile phone or a smart phone is still a phone designed to allow you to make calls wherever you are, as long as there is signal.

Surely this means that a telephone conversation is still considered important.

However this doesn’t seem to be the belief of certain businesses, my case in point is ASOS.

Call me

Recently I had a situation where an exchanged item was being delivered to the wrong address and it was impossible to speak to anyone about this. Instead of providing a customer service number which would give me a thousand options before being able to speak to a human being, I only had the option of email or Twitter.

I decided email would be considerably easier to explain my situation as I wasn’t restricted in word length. However I was restricted in the choice of subject line for my problem. I selected the most appropriate header listed and explained my problem fully in the body of my email. I received a very prompt yet generic reply which did not answer my question and helped me in no way.

I then resorted to Twitter, again I got a quick response which resulted in a handful of tweets back and forth as I tried to explain my dilemma and ultimately I was advised to email customer services.

I received the same generic reply.

As day three of this frustration continued the people handling the twitter account finally gave me some useful advice and a correct reference to quote in the subject header of my email and my problem was resolved. This however could have all been sorted out through a short telephone call.

Bouquets and brickbats for ASOS

I praise ASOS as a company for their use of social media and their desire to communicate with their consumers; they were the subject of my university dissertation. Having monitored their customer service Twitter feed and measured their response times, social media had appeared to be a simple and effective way to manage traditional customer issues. However when faced with a unique problem their use of social media proved to be a hindrance.

Despite social media having a massive impact on how we communicate, it is definitely not time to retire the traditional methods. The telephone is still a vital part of communications and is not something to be written off yet.

Organisations looking to embrace social media need to remember that limiting the way consumers communicate with them may in turn limit the number of consumers who look to do so.

David Willetts, the Universities minister, stated yesterday that the introduction of higher fees has discouraged significant numbers of students from applying.

The provisional figures published by UCAS in November showed that the number of students who applied for places at UK universities was 158,387, down 23,427 compared to the same point a year earlier.

Overall, applications are expected to be down by between 7-8%, when overseas students are included.

2011 saw the final year for which tuition fees were £3000. This year tuition fees  have moved up the scale to around the £9000 mark.

Most universities and colleges are expected to try to charge up to or close to the new limit next year. But some experts predict fees will fall for 2013 as demand drops off, particularly for less prestigious courses.

Sarah Spencer, academic director of the distance learning centre Oxford College, commented:

“Even taking into account last year’s surge in demand for university places, this is a sudden, and severe, drop in applications. It’s not a pretty picture. With many universities now charging £9000 a year for tuition, the cost is clearly scaring off many would-be students.

“It’s years since getting a degree was any sort of guarantee of getting a good job. Now university fees are so high that a three-year degree course is increasingly looking like an expensive gamble. Among our students, we have seen a steep increase in interest in vocational courses like BTEC Higher National Diplomas. Many calculate that these sort of applied courses will give them faster and more cost-effective access to the relevant skills that will improve their job prospects.

“As even the ivory towers of academia are buffeted by the chill economic winds, students’ fears about cost and the anaemic jobs market are combining to change the shape of higher education.”

The stats are taken directly from our UK PR student lists on Klout and PeerIndex and are up-to-date at 2pm on 26 January 2012:

We introduced the #socialstudent list here, and updated and extended it in week two, week three, week four, week five, week six, week seven, week eight, week nine and week ten.

Did I mention my new bag?

The Hermes Birkin. The Chanel 2.55. The Mulberry Bayswater.

What are they I hear you say?

They are bags, beautiful, amazing, stylish, delectable, highly sought after bags.

Not just bags, ‘IT’ bags.

These bags claim to be classics. The sort that will never be unfashionable.

The sort that the wealthy buy in batches yet normal girls like me can only dream of owning.

And that I do. Every day I envision how my outfit would look if I could add the Mulberry Alexa in Oak Ostrich (my personal favourite bag of all time) to it.

But seeing as it costs almost as much as a year’s rent, I somehow don’t think my student budget will stretch that far.

On my first day of university I was introduced to my flat mate and quite frankly as soon as I met her I was over ridden with jealously. Hanging off her arm she had my dream bag, there in all its wonderfulness. I was in awe.

I later discovered she had even more amazing bags hidden away in her room, and I’m sure you can imagine my excitement when she told me, ‘you can borrow any of them any time you want’.  So of course I snapped up the offer, I chose to borrow her pale brown patent Mulberry Bayswater for a friend’s birthday meal and I can honestly say my borrowed bag got more attention than the birthday girl herself.

So why are bags such as these so appealing? I mean they are probably retailed at 10 times what they actually cost to make and when it comes down to it there just a leather handbag with a designer name or logo emblazoned on the front. They are usually quite plain and come in fairly standard colours, with hardly an evidence that it had been bought from one of the world’s best fashion houses.

Many people could look at a Hermes Birkin and not give it a second thought, but girls like me could spot one a mile away.

The scenes of Gossip Girl are full of these bags, Serena Van Der Woodsen appears to own every designer bag ever made and whatever she doesn’t own her best friend Blair Waldorf is likely to have in at least five different colours. Magazine pages are shrouded with the season’s top 10 pieces of arm candy. Victoria Beckham is rumoured to have over 100 Birkin bags all in different colours, the Kardashian Sisters between them must have about 500 designer holdalls, whilst Beyonce probably has enough to give the whole population of NYC a bag each.

Ok, so it all does sound a little superficial and shallow does it not? But we still all want one right? (at least us girls do ).  If Kim Kardashian can have a 10 Birkins why can’t we?

Well, I can only guess but I doubt Kimmy Khad to pay for any of her Birkin bags at all. This is because of the simply genius actions of the PR team behind Hermes. Their business strategy probably goes a little like this:

Step 1: Send a celebrity a few new bags.

Step 2: The celebrity uses the bags and paparazzi gain pictures of them with the bag.

Step 3: Bag instantly comes more desirable to the public.

Step 4: sales of the bag increase

Simple isn’t it? And probably a lot cheaper than conjuring up an extravagant marketing campaign. It gets the bags seen by many different audiences and the picture of a celebrity with their bag has the potential to be all over magazines and newspapers supplying a business with perfect coverage of their product.

I just can’t see why Mulberry aren’t sending their newest recruit the Mulberry Carter … I’m a student, please mulberry have some sympathy!

David Piggott at Westminster for the Maggie Nally Memorial Lecture

I have to admit I was pretty excited when I got suited and booted for the CIPR Maggie Nally Memorial Lecture.

Not only was this West Country boy in the Big Smoke, but I was also going to have a chance to listen to Richard Gizbert. I’d looked at some of his work in the past and had a feeling I wouldn’t be falling asleep…unlike in some of my university lectures.

Task one was getting into the House of Commons; not so much a task, as a chance to imagine yourself in an episode of Spooks.

As I was in my wheelchair I had to enter a couple of lifts, which I like to think were scanning me and assessing my threat level.

Pretty soon technology will be so advanced that scanners will be able to work out your sarcasm level by how wide your smile is and how much glint is in the eye – if you seem too sarcastic a political strategist or pollster will come down and question you, showing you various political pictures and slogans all containing the words “new and change”, “does this make you feel more or less cynical” to which I would say: “Why is he smiling, he’s in politics?”

I tried to smile while I was having my photograph taken but it was taken before I was ready so it looked as though a raindrop had fallen directly into my eye. A good look I’m sure you’ll agree.

After taking the scenic route with my chair I arrived at Committee Room 10 and was met with a very warm welcome by Eva Maclaine, one of the organisers, which straight away put me at ease. It was good to see the interaction between different people in the room. There was no sense of hierarchy, just old friends and new acquaintances coming together to listen and learn.

The introduction to the lecture was given by Mathew Francis, chair of the CIPR’s International Committee. He outlined the purpose and the principle behind the Maggie Nally lectures before handing over to the main man, Richard Gizbert of Al Jazeera.

Hacks versus flacks

After putting the audience at ease with a joke Richard began by touching on the subject of the interdependent relationship between PR and journalism by using an example of the famous nemesis  movie quote: “We’re not so very different you and I”. This in itself was interesting to hear as more often than not the narrative of hacks versus flacks still prevails over the narrative of co-operation.

Richard spoke about the launch of Al Jazeera English and how under the Bush doctrine Al Jazeera was known as the ‘bad guy’ and how difficult it was to get the project off the ground due to negative perceptions and a hostile reception from the US government.

Richard discussed the harsh realities faced by those working at Al Jazeera Arabic, such as the death and injury of two Al Jazeera journalists caused by a US missile. Whatever people may think about the state of the media, it cannot be denied that those reporting from conflict zones do a dangerous but worthwhile job.  Throughout the talk Richard was able to deliver insight and reasoning on why leaders behave in certain ways and how policy in North American is shaped.

Arab Spring

Before moving on to the Arab Spring and the role of social and traditional media, Richard highlighted the gap between peoples’ political awareness and awareness of media influence. He stated that, while people in North America had become more politically aware, they had not managed to transfer this awareness to the media whose power has been compared to that of armies and weapons.

From this Richard moved on to talk about the show that he presents, ‘Listening Post’, which seeks to report on the powerful institutions that make up the media. ‘Listening Post’ has received critical acclaim and is seen by many as required viewing.

Media scrutiny

Speaking about the lack of scrutiny that the media receives, he said: “We do know there’s a level of self-interest involved. I’m not saying that other societal institutions aren’t important but if you look at the role that the US media played in Iraq and you just ask yourself the question, when was the last time a school helped start a war?” This quote really resonated with me as all too often it is easy for those working in and with the media to get trapped in a bubble and not realise the consequences that actions can have.

Richard’s view on the role that social and traditional media played in the Arab Spring was also very interesting. It’s his belief that the uprisings were helped by a combination of both social and traditional media working together. Richard spoke about needing to work in partnership with people producing the information and its need to be contextualised and collated.

This did have me thinking about how and by whom that information is presented. It’s well known that a sound bite or a story can be taken out of context to fulfil a news agenda. This is why it is important that journalists like Richard Gizbert continue to be the norm and not the exception.

Party in parliament

After the talk I was able to meet many people including fellow PR students.  It is always good to meet your peers and have the chance to exchange ideas and learn about different courses, while trying not to make a bad joke.

During this period I had an opportunity to speak with Patrick Nally, son of Maggie Nally and a bit of a legend in sports marketing. Just from speaking to him for a few minutes I could tell he was full of ideas and that he knew how to execute them.

Dinner was held in Cholmondeley room which had a magnificent view of the Thames; again I got to talk to many people, all of them warm, humble and hospitable a far cry from the Malcolm Tucker PR type. I would certainly recommend that any PR student check out the CIPR.

The event was thought-provoking, insightful and interesting. As a student of PR I can often be cynical about the fourth estate. Hearing a highly trained, highly ethical journalist speak on his work has renewed my faith.

On Thursday 23 February, from 7.00pm until late, 500 of the top PRs in the UK will come out in force at Shoreditch Town Hall in London in support of Bright One, the volunteer-run communications agency for the third sector.

For a ticket price of just £25, you will get:

• A ‘Brite Fizz’ signature cocktail upon arrival, courtesy of Eventbrite
• 3 free drinks from the bar
• Live entertainment from the amazing She Makes War
• DJ set from Matt Brawn
• A prom photo as a keepsake of the night
• Food provided by Eat.St:
• Mini wraps, mini rolls and mini portion of ribs from The Rib Man
• Stews from around the world from Stewed and Baked
• Imperial BBQ Pho Rolls, Op La Di Beef Pho Rolls and Fish Q Pho Rolls from Banhmi11 
• And more to come on the night…

Find out more at www.prprom.org

Alumni from the Taylor Bennett Foundation

In spring 2012 the Taylor Bennett Foundation is running its award-winning PR training programme in association with MHP Communications.

This programme has been designed to address the lack of ethnic minorities in the PR industry. The deadline for applying to the next Taylor Bennett Foundation Programme is Monday 27 February 2012.

Those selected for the programme will get:

• 10 weeks of paid training
• £210 per week (you will not be liable to pay tax and NI on your training allowance)
• All your travel expenses
• The opportunity to meet industry professionals and visit really interesting organisations (previous field trips have included Channel 4 News, Grazia Magazine, London Fashion Week, P&G, Adidas, Elle Magazine, BP, Save the Children, The Observer, The Financial Times, PR Week, the PRCA, the CIPR, the Home Office, Standard Chartered Bank, Edelman, Unity PR, Fishburn Hedges, Thomson Reuters, ITN, Fremantle Media, Whizz Kidz, The Times and Speed Communications)
• Top media training from journalists and PR professionals
• Weekly career advice sessions from the industry’s best headhunters

Previous interns are now in their first jobs in PR at firms which include Topshop, Brunswick, Cantos, Racepoint Group, Talk PR, Chatsworth Communications, Cable & Wireless, Pepsico, Mumsnet and Macbeth Media Relations and others have gone on to gain work experience at Ketchum, The Observer and Save the Children.

There are only eight places available on this prestigious scheme, so make yourself stand out from the crowd.

In order to apply you must:

• Be aware that this scheme is designed to directly address the greater need for ethnic diversity in the PR and communications industry
• Be a graduate in ANY degree subject.
• Have indefinite leave to stay in the UK.  Post study work visas and student visa holders are NOT eligible for this programme.
• Have an interest in embarking on a career in public relations
• Have strong writing skills

Some current interns

Whitney Brown is an Events Management and Public Relations graduate from London Metropolitan University. She has since worked in the US but says ‘knowing a trade and being confident at that trade are completely different. Overall doing this internship I want my confidence in writing to grow. Plus I want to learn more about the other writing tools such as communications plans and campaigns.’

Cindy Yau was an avid charity campaigner at university the first time around when at Northumbria University studying BA English and Art History where she loved working in events management, fundraising, and writing about my experiences for Oxfam, Coco, and UNICEF.

Lekha Mohanlal is a Media Studies graduate from Sussex University:

“I adore fashion and have also interned in-house at Lipsy and Brighton Fashion Week. It was my vast interest in fashion PR that encouraged me to apply for the Taylor Bennett Foundation internship sponsored by Talk PR. Receiving training and advice from company experts was the main selling point of the programme for me as it is not offered on many other internships. Although I am a self-confessed fashion freak I want to explore the world of beauty PR as I am a product junkie and have a genuine interest in writing press releases and promoting beauty brands.”

Rebecca Smith is a 22 year-old Roehampton University graduate with a Jamaican and British heritage:

“The process of being successful for the internship programme was tough but fair, and being prepared was key. The assessment day was eye opening and I feel was a reflection of the level of commitment and intenseness required to complete the scheme. “

Candice Allen is a 30 year-old mother of two:

“I believe that with this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games fasts approaching, the legacy of the games will bring opportunities for communications professionals.”

Wayne Rooney tweeted “Listened to some great music today from a young band from Liverpool, get following @TheHummingbirds”, and Colleen Rooney tweeted “Cavern tonight, seen a brilliant Liverpool band The Humming Birds!!! They got me dancing, really good x”, and with an appearance on Sports Tonight Live, it is only a matter of time before everyone in the UK knows about this amazing band.

They write all their own songs and play all their own music. What more could you want in this mass produced, X Factor generation?

With hits in the waiting like ‘Back In Liverpool’ and ‘Awaiting Your Call’, this band is a modern day Beatles, with a great folk sound.

On 2 February 2012, The Hummingbirds are playing The Dry Dock, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds. The gig starts at around 9:30pm, free entrance.

Come and see this band before you have to pay over the rate ticket prices to see them in arenas and stadiums!

The Hummingbirds band members

Jay Davies – Lead vocals & guitar

Matty Brougham – Guitar

Mic Kountis – Guitar & backing vocals

Richard Smith – Backing vocals & Cajon & Percussion

Ryan Lewis – Bass

(We introduced the #socialstudent list here, and updated and extended it in week two, week three, week four, week five, week six, week seven, week eight and week nine.)

The stats are taken directly from our UK PR student lists on Klout and PeerIndex and are up-to-date at 2pm on 19 January 2012:

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains
by Nicholas Carr
384 pages. Atlantic Books; 2010.

The rise of the information age, as represented by the Internet, is often lauded as helping us become smarter. Whether you’re looking to become smarter academically, save time and money, or just access more information and what’s happening in the world around you, the internet is posited as an answer to a long-standing problem: how to become a better version of yourself using the least amount of energy. Or, in our increasingly information-saturated world, how to become better in the shortest amount of time.

It is this assumption that Carr questions in this rather renowned critique of the web (it was, after all, a finalist for 2011′s Pultizer and PEN Center prizes and translated into over 20 languages). Carr tracks the rise of the internet most notably, and unsurprisingly, through Google and Facebook. Unlike our surface scanning of these everyday internet tools, however, Carr tracks their popularity from the inside: what the motives of these companies initially were, and how they have changed and adapted to our cultural and psychological tendencies over time. Writing in the style of a confidante (using rhetorical questions and a sense of divulging a secret), Carr asserts that the internet is indeed informing us, but in a most unhelpful way. Simply put, the information age is raising idiots under the guise of informing them.

But how does Carr assert such a blasphemous statement in our age of net adoration? He starts from the beginning, the now almost unimaginable age: the age without the net. In this pre-computerized age, most information was gleaned from books. To glean information from books, one first has to learn to skim-read, but skim-read in a contextual manner; to find the piece of information we want, we first must be looking for it and second will find related information around it to give that information context. As such, to read books is to read in depth. It is this characteristic of books, Carr claims, that engenders inspiration and thought: we have enough time, quiet, and context with which to think of new ideas. Better still, because these ideas are generated in a calm atmosphere and in context, they are well thought out: they make sense. This leads Carr to attribute many of our most inspired philosophy and invention to this age of reading in depth, when we could devote time to critical study.

The invention of the net was successful, Carr claims, because it caters to our biological tendencies rather than our rational ones. Through books, we trained ourselves to become more rationally calm and immersed in the subject. The internet, however, is attractive to our sense of play: our love of distraction. Pop-ups and links saturate our every sight as we scan numerous pieces of information: advertising, gaming, and increasingly material that might appeal to us based on past searches. We click, click, click: but not for any rational thought out reason. It is more for our love of distraction than information that we become addicted to sites like Facebook. They offer us the paradox of the information age: being informed about things of little or no significance. Yet because of our biological tendencies, which seek for opportunity and threat, we feel that to not have access to that information is to be out of the loop, forgotten. Carr’s explanation of our strengthening ties to the net is well-supported, well-thought out, despite his confession to the same addiction. It is easier to agree with his argument not only because it makes sense, but also because he writes as a comrade rather than a condemner, a downfall of many past net critics. Plus, it is very easy to read.

The above arguments fold nicely into Carr’s main claim: that the Internet is actually making us dumber. Pairing an information overload (which paradoxically provides us with too much information for our comprehension) with the billion-dollar business that has for many years been distraction, the Internet is for many just another example of fool’s gold: waste posing as wisdom. An information overload means there is no one to edit the information provided: the net holds too much junk. The net’s distraction attraction stops us from being able to read in depth, thus curbing inspired ideas that might otherwise have flourished. All of the net’s smoke and mirrors act as actors in a typical fable setting, with Google the arch-enemy who profits from the peasants click by click.

An elegantly evidenced tale, one believes Carr, but in a hopeless, defeated sense. We can escape the web for a few days, but in a world where knowledge and power are intimately intertwined with being aware of all that happens, the net holds the key to success in more ways than one. This book is a must for those interested in how their own brain patterns develop, but it is a far cry from being a self-help book or a key to increased brainpower. It’s a great argument; more’s the pity for the solution.

Danielle Whitburn is a PR and events co-ordinator for an advertising agency in Auckland, New Zealand. She regularly blogs, reviews and covers events for newspapers across the region. Find her on Twitter and read her blog.

If you’re interested in writing a book or film review for Behind the Spin, get it touch with the section editor Clare Callery via email: cs.callery @ gmail.com (no spaces)

If you’re a student, the chances are you can scarcely imagine a world without Google. You’ll have to ask your parents about fax machines, about when news was received in print and a time when phones were used only for voice conversations.

John Naughton’s new book is an attempt to relate ‘what you really need to know about the internet.’ So it should be useful for students who may lack perspective (‘the strange thing about living through a revolution is that it’s very difficult to see what’s going on’) – and for parents and employers who are bemused and wonder if it’s really such a big deal.

The author is a good guide to the subject: he’s a Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology and an Observer newspaper columnist. The book is written in a popular and non-academic style (though it’s brim-full of ideas and it cites many other thinkers).

Naughton the university lecturer makes good use of metaphors to explain key points. Using a railway analogy, he describes the internet as ‘the tracks and signalling technology of the system’ and web pages as just one of many kinds of traffic that can run on this infrastructure (some others being email, file downloads, instant messages and voice conversations).

Naughton the scientist challenges Naughton the journalist over the meaning of ‘media’. In biology, media are used to cultivate living organisms. So there’s something more essential to life here than just a means to transmit messages. This introduces us to one of the author’s favourite concepts, the media ecosystem.

This approach, borrowed from McLuhan, shows why bloggers can coexist alongside journalists – and why one does not mean the end of the other. ‘One of the laws of communications technology is that new media are generally additive rather than substitutive, which is a fancy way of saying that new technologies generally don’t wipe out older ones… New media don’t wipe out old media. But their arrival does change the ecosystem.’

Living with complexity

‘My hunch’ writes Naughton ‘is that over the next decade, the Internet will move to become the dominant ‘species’ in our ecosystem.’

It’s an increasingly complex ecosystem, in which the whole is more than the sum of the parts (a process described as ‘emergence’). ‘Anyone who seeks to understand the Net has to realize that disruption is a feature of the system, not a bug, so we need to accept that complexity is something we have to live with. It’s not a temporary aberration, but the new reality. And it’s likely to increase.’

The author then suggests what this means for public relations practitioners and business managers:

‘Organizations which seek stable equilibrium relationships with an environment which is inherently unpredictable are heading for failure’. Success will require ‘openness to change, accidence, coincidence, serendipity.’

In another important section, Naughton deals with the tension between of copyright law and creativity. ‘[Common sense] should revolt at the idea that doctrines about copyright that were shaped in a pre-Internet age should apply to a post-Internet one’.

In general, it’s an enlightening and positive read. ‘We need to rise above the optimist-pessimist, Utopian-dystopian dichotomies that characterize our current discussions about the Internet,’ he argues. ‘Like electricity, the networked information environment is here to stay.’

I’m struggling to find fault with this brilliant and readable book, but noticed that US academic Yochai Benckler was variously introduced as a ‘legal scholar’ and a ‘network scholar’. I also question the capitalising of internet and web in such an accessible book. Surely the use of lower case better proves the point that they are now established fixtures in our lives and our vocabulary?

This full day event will see a variety of panel sessions and speakers discuss the many different aspects of public relations from working within an agency or an in-house team; the difference between sectors such as consumer, sport, local government, and issues such as sustainability.

A panel of the brightest young PR professionals will discuss what entry level PR is really like, followed by two master classes on breaking into the industry and the ever popular topic of digital PR.

The day will then conclude with a tailored session on CV and interview advice from experts in graduate recruitment.

The full day costs £25 for students on courses at PRCA partner universities (listed here) and for PRCA student members, £30 for all other students and graduates.

Further event details and a link to a booking form are available here.

Katherine Shenton

During her first year as a PR student, Katherine Shenton wrote a blog post called “So you want to work in sexy, star studded PR?” (It’s still one of the most popular posts on my PR Studies blog, ed). That was back in 2004.

Is PR as glamorous as it’s often made out to be?

“PR may have the reputation of being glamorous, but it is not the case. You need to be hard-working, prepared to work long-hours, start from the bottom and work your way up and continue your learning as the industry and channels available are ever changing,” she tells me.

Katherine graduated in 2006 with a First Class Honours degree from Leeds Metropolitan University. She has since won “CIPR PRide North East Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year 2010” and “CIPR PRide North East Best Freelance Practitioner of the Year 2011”.

During her time at Leeds Met Katherine undertook a number of regular placements with agencies such as Citigate Smarts, Golley Slater and Ketchum.

She also took it upon herself to approach small businesses and offer to do PR for them on an unpaid basis; this experience helped her gain plenty of portfolio items to choose from during her time at university. A combination of Katherine’s First Class degree and large amount of ‘real’ client experience has led her to amazing success during the six years that she has been working in the industry.

The bottom line

I asked for her favourite thing about working in the PR industry:

“As you work your way up in the industry you discover that in PR you really can make a difference to the bottom line – this has been my biggest incentive as it’s not just about page views, likes, followers or number of cuttings it is about what difference you have made for that brand and how you have helped generate new business enquiries or sales.”

I asked Katherine for any advice she could provide for success in the industry, she told me, it’s about hard work and understanding everything before looking for promotion. She also said to keep current (checking Twitter etc.) and to remember that “the PR industry is smaller than you think and you never know when you’ll need to rely on someone or need their help so treat everybody with respect and be helpful, even if you’re busy or stressed as this will be remembered.”

Katherine has seen first hand the changes that have occurred working in the PR industry, “especially the development and importance of social media channels such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Tumblr etc.”

There have also been changes that have occurred because of  the recession. “Clients and agencies are a lot more lean and conscious of costs. As a result budgets are smaller so you have to be smarter and more efficient, this is also a reason why I think social media channels have grown as they are relatively cheap to manage compared to large scale events.”

Geordie Shore, a ratings success

Currently Katherine is working freelance as a publicist for MTV’s ‘Geordie Shore’, a campaign she is proud of.

“I worked with the team to promote the show and the cast to drive people to watch the show. This paid off as it is MTV UK’s highest ratings show…ever!”

Katherine also told me about her favourite campaign to date. She described transforming brand Maddi Alexander from a candle brand sold solely online to an expansion to an entire body collection, which is now being sold in Fortnum & Mason as well as being featured in ‘Stylist’s Hot Picks’!

Freelance ups and downs

I asked about the pros and cons of working freelance, as she herself had left an agency to start her own consultancy. She told me: “Working freelance is great is some respects, you have complete control of your day, what hours you work… You also feel closer to companies than you do in an agency as you really are viewed as working for them in a different location. However there are some negatives such as the difficultly in taking holiday, you have to be extremely disciplined to get things done and on time and you have to be able to work by yourself.”

Finally I asked Katherine if when starting her degree she ever envisioned her success to be so great so soon, her answer was so humble, and just reminded me of how much the little things really do matter in PR…

“I think if you just put in the hard work the rest will follow. You can’t be too focused on success or winning awards as you then take your eye off the ball and your job, which is detrimental. I always had a rough idea of where I wanted to be when, and of course I hoped I might pick up an award along the way. I feel exceptionally lucky to be where I am and to be doing what I’m doing, but I know I have got here by putting the hours in and doing the best I can.”

After all people will always remember you for the relationship you have built with them and the impression you have left them with.

So how do you obtain a full-time position in PR today? Certainly, the age-old adage: “It’s not what you know, but who you know” still stands. But there’s much more to it than simply networking to land the job of your dreams. A bit more homework goes a long way too.

Getting a foot in the door

The first thing to recognize when seeking your first full-time job is the importance of internships.  Internships can open doors that interviews for full-time positions cannot. Despite the dearth of companies hiring for permanent staff at the moment, most still have internships available and, hopefully, paid ones at that!

My time at Aspectus PR began as an internship and subsequently flourished into a full-time position.

Experience shows that internships not only provide the perfect opportunity to get a feel for the industry in which you want to work, but come with a real possibility of a permanent position. You will then have had both the experience of working in your chosen field and the opportunity to get to know your fellow team members and office culture.

The other great thing about searching for an internship or full-time position is that job sites typically allow you to search for either. If you’re a soon-to-be graduate, start with your school’s career services centre. Most offer CV boot camps and interview workshops and should also have a job site for your use. A few of the best commercial sites to search for jobs or internships however, are Reed, jobsite.co.uk and Monster.

Getting your CV in shape

Once you’ve found a vacancy that’s right for you, it’s time to get your CV in shape.  Relevant and appropriate contact information is a must, as are accurate grammar and spelling: ensure the email address listed is one you check frequently (and sounds professional – not hotpants@hotmail.com for example).

Proof the entire document and then proof it again. Ideally, you should then have someone else you trust to give it a final onceover.

It is also important to tailor your experience such that your key attributes best meet the skills-set sought by your potential employer. Although job specs vary, management experience and team-work are always valued, so be sure to highlight how you have demonstrated these.

When applying for a PR position, you will also need to showcase any experience in communications – and writing in particular. Be sure to include any past internships or previous positions you’ve held. And keep it to one page, unless you are extremely experienced in your field or have held a number of relevant positions previous.

Be prepared

Once you’ve secured your interview, the next step is to prepare for it. Begin with reading relevant publications. PR Week and Marketing Week are excellent sources for those looking to break into marketing, advertising and PR. In addition, read the papers and magazines closest to the industry sector you are targeting. Some of the news sites we read daily are The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Bloomberg Businessweek. It is also critical to take time to conduct some research on the company to which you are applying.

Once all the written work and research has been completed, CVs sent and interviews secured, networking is the final task – specifically social networking. Similar to your CV, your social networking profiles will tell any potential employer a lot about you. It is therefore advisable to Google yourself, because your employer almost certainly will.

Also, don’t forget to check the privacy settings on your Facebook and Twitter pages to ensure that your information available for public consumption is just that! Lastly, keep your LinkedIn profile current. Employers scour LinkedIn for new hires and frequently advertise open positions on their company pages, as well as checking regularly on Twitter and Facebook for potential candidates.

Stay visible

'Stay visible' says Joe Richards

Finally, just as it’s important for brands to remain top-of-mind, it’s equally important for job seekers to remain visible to potential employers and those who might be able to help connect you with the right people: stay connected with former employers and lecturers while maintaining conversations with others who might be helpful.

The great news about learning to network properly and presenting yourself in the best way possible, both in person and on paper, is that it will set you up for success wherever you go.

You’ll be able to interact well with your coworkers, clients and business prospects and, if you change companies down the road, you’ll be ready to market yourself again.

Here at Aspectus, we are always looking for talented interns and professionals, so please don’t be shy and reach out to us at: internships@aspectuspr.com or info@aspectuspr.com

(We introduced the socialstudent list here, and updated and extended it in week two, week three, week four, week five, week six, week seven and week eight.)

The stats are taken directly from our UK PR student lists on Klout and PeerIndex and are up-to-date at 9pm on 12 January 2012:

Adam Burns (right) with his Two Birds One Stone co-founders at Queen Square

A Leeds-based creative agency which was co-founded by a Leeds Metropolitan University student and two recent University of Leeds graduates has been given funding for office space by the Enterprise Office at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Two Birds One Stone combines the PR expertise of the Bell Pottinger Academy (the student arm of Bell Pottinger) and the design and marketing talent of Magpie Communications, who both have experience working with youth brands such as Oxford Stationery, Leeds Corn Exchange and a number of universities and colleges across the UK.

The young team, which recently announced its third client win in the shape of bagel and coffee chain Bagel Nash, will move in to the new home at the Leeds Met Enterprise Department on Queen Square this week.

Adam Burns, Co-founder of Two Birds One Stone, said: “It’s fantastic the university has recognised what we are trying to create.  Having an office on the university campus is hugely important to us; it gives us access to the insight of thousands of students and for the right brands that is very attractive.”

“As an employer of students and graduates I am well aware of how competitive it is in the job market, so we hope through Two Birds One Stone we can offer students paid opportunities whilst they study to develop skills, build a portfolio and make themselves more employable.”

Andrew Slade, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research and Enterprise at Leeds Met, said:

“Students are now being asked to pay considerably more for their education, so ventures like this go a long way to enhancing the student experience at Leeds Met and considerably increase the chances of employment after graduation.”

Audio Notetaker for Mac users is a note-taking tool that makes audio, rather than text, the basis of the user’s notes.  Audio Notetaker’s approach to note taking makes creating comprehensive notes from interviews, meetings, presentations and lectures a simple and time-efficient process, requiring very little user input.

The Audio Notetaker technology allows the user to display phrases from recorded speech as bars, allowing them to interact with the recording as if it were text. The ability to quickly annotate audio recordings with colour or words makes the need to transcribe entire recordings a thing of the past.

Roger Tucker, Managing Director of Sonocent, said: “With Apple’s emphasis on simplicity and ease of use, the Mac has always seemed a very appropriate platform for Audio Notetaker.

“We didn’t want to simply port the Windows version, but rather transfer the Audio Notetaker concept into the Mac way of doing things. It’s taken a long time to develop, but we think it will revolutionise the note taking technology industry and save users hours and hours of time.”

Audio Notetaker’s visualisation of audio makes it very easy to quickly work through a recording. Important phrases can be marked with colour, and bars can be formatted into sections and labeled with text and images allowing the user to easily reference key parts of the audio.

Claire Smith, a staff writer for a national sports magazine and a regular user of Audio Notetaker, said: “The solution literally revolutionised the way I work. The colour coding was a dream, it makes it so much easier to revisit the material. Not every interview gets run immediately so Audio Notetaker lets me go back to old stories for reference.”

Audio Notetaker works with both recordings imported from a digital recorder or computer, or by recording live straight into the software. The latter gives the advantage of being able to mark phrases as they are being said, without breaking up the flow of the interview, an extremely time saving measure.

As well as being used to record interviews and meetings the Audio Notetaker is a vital piece of technology for those who find note taking difficult. The new technology will not only be convenient but indispensible for international students or those with dyslexia, who struggle with note taking during lectures.

Andrew Campbell, a psychology student at the Open University stresses the importance of this technology:

“I used to come in the bottom of the class, but since using Audio Notetaker I have come in the top 3%. It is the most important piece of assistive technology software I have.”

The tool also has the ability to import Powerpoint slides or PDF files so that students can link their lecture slides, written notes and audio all together. Deleting bars will delete the corresponding audio, making it possible to condense long lectures down to the essentials.

Ghislain Mumbari, a student from Cameroon now studying in the UK, said “Audio Notetaker is truly amazing; it’s like you’re in class over and over again, but this time just getting the main points. I think my grades would have been vastly improved if I’d had the software earlier”

Audio Notetaker will be showcased at the British Educational Training and Technology Show (11-14 January 2012 at Olympia, London).