Anybody Think That Things Might Change A Lil'?

As a student of public relations at Colorado State University, it seems that every time that I hear a lecture or complete a public relations assignment, it is immediately outdated with another common practice that has just recently emerged.

For instance, I learned something that was completely wrong in my first semester as a public relations student. While studying marketing concepts my freshman year, my professor said that increased advertising on mobile devices in the future was proven to be flase; reasoning that prices for text based services were generally too high. And they were high; because I cannot recall my cellular provider not offering unlimited text services four years ago. But they offer them by the family pack at Verizon Wireless these days, and CSU now teaches that text based advertising can actually be distributed effectively for a reasonable net cost. In essence, the tactic was “proven” unpractical my freshmen year, and has become another weapon in the cache of advertising options by my senior year. Instead of teaching that there isn’t any way that text based advertising was possible, why not teach that PR and marketing change a lot, so don’t rule it out.

What’s my point? Public realtions is a very quickly changing notion, and it shouldn’t be taught the same as infinitive concept like math, where the content isn’t as dynamic. I think that PR classes should be a bit more about adapting to an ever changing world than conforming to a structured set of rules and ideas. You can learn something one day and the next it is rendered completely useless.

So, with this “untaught” public relations lesson at CSU, I can expect to get a job where they tell me to do one thing one day, and replace it with another thing the next day. I mean it is pretty obvious, but while sitting in class and learning stuff, you always have to remember that “one day this won’t even be true”. Just a little on relating to the public.