I joke about PR being the “dark side” because I got involved with writing for public consumption on the other end, the journalist’s side. I have written at the Alestle for four years, and my degree will be in Mass Communications, but I find myself inching closer to the dark side, and I have plenty of reasons for this.
I never thought I would be in PR, let alone even a class on it. Early on in life I decided I wanted to write, I wanted people to read what I write and I wanted to go to lots of sporting events for free.
Pretty much all three of those things hold true in PR as well, and because I feel as though my personality kind of hinders me in journalism, PR is an overall better fit for myself.
Plus, I am not opposed to starting out with a higher salary than I would have with years and years of experience working at a newspaper.
My first professional venture into the world of PR is Wednesday. I have an interview with the St. Louis Rams for an internship position in Corporate Communications.
I am excited, as I have seen myself progress professionally to this point, where I actually know what I want to do and have an opportunity to get that first line of PR experience on my resume, and get a pretty good one at that, working with an NFL organization.
All-and-all, I figured I would blog about this just to bring up some conversation, how easy do you think it is for a journalist to transition right into PR? There are differences, but to me it is just about knowing your role, and journalists and PR professionals should be able to just trade hats and vice-versa. It’s the same style of writing with a different mission.
I found these tips to make the switch, but think they may be a little bit over-dramatic. I am hoping it goes seamlessly for me.
I think the biggest problem with public relations and journalism is that both sides seem to think the other is “evil.” Like you, I always say that PR is the ‘dark side,’ mostly because that’s what’s handed down from writing for newspapers since high school. But then the PR textbook talks about how to work with journalists and how to convince them to run your story or cover your event–making it seem like you have to beg, plead and pray with everything you have just to get a journalist to listen to you. If both sides calm down and think rationally, there could be a lot of benefit for both, rather than this unspoken tension.