Categories: Articles

McGill University Public Relations Program On Blogs

I had a really fun and interesting night. I was asked by a friend, Elizabeth Hirst, who also happens to be in charge of the curriculum at McGill University for their Public Relations program, to speak to her Media Relations class.
It was a good group and all were more than eager to hear my take on Blogs, new media, instant personal publishing and how they can become better communications professional. I was also happy to see that only a handful did not really know what a Blog is, and there were even a few who had started their own Blogs.
I’m still a little disappointed.
I think public relations programs and courses really need to wrap their heads around how people are consuming media. I shudder to think about how many hours these PR students spend on spinning convoluted press releases instead of learning how these new – and more powerful – conversations are taking place.
There’s still hope. There were a lot of great comments, questions and enthusiasm from the students. I really want to see the enthusiasm that they exhibit matched by a curriculum and books that will truly give them the arsenal they’ll need when they graduate.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.