As Britney sings – “Oops I did it again!”
That’s right, I did it again. That is – I have some exciting news to share w/ you all.
I am extremely proud to announce I have a new book coming out in August. While it is not a dedicated social media book – it is a public relations book!
I would like to introduce you all to Discovering Public Relations: An Introduction to Creative and Strategic Practices.
The book cover design originated from a drawing from my younger sister Karla. Karla is one of the most talented artists I know – and she’s one of the kindest and bravest people I know. She also has autism – and when I asked her to design a book cover for me, she created a drawing with a set of lightbulbs with icons in them – the glow represents the spark that ignites new, fresh, and creative ideas. It also represents a nod to PR history with Edward Bernays and his campaign to celebrate the invention of the light bulb.
If you look closely – there is a diverse group of icons there, along with a chess piece to give praise to my social media book. Thanks, SAGE!
Let me tell you how this book came about. My journey though in PR started much earlier than this book.
The beginning of my PR journey
I have been practicing and studying public relations ever since 2002 when I first took my class in public relations at the University of Florida. I did not know I would be ending up in public relations when I first started at the University of Florida, I originally started off as a pre-med major switching then to psychology with a business minor. I had always known that I wanted to be a professor and teacher at a university but I just didn’t know in what subject.
However, little did I know how one conversation with a student-athlete academic advisor would change my world and direction forever. I have always been passionate about telling stories creating content and being an advocate for my own personal brand. In high school, I was able to create my own personal website and share my story and who I was as a person who was competing in track and field for coaches and others to follow along on the world wide web. I also was contributing to various track and field websites through blogs and newsletters and even had my own email newsletter called “K-mail” that I would send out updating my community about my performance has any updates and news I had along the way and news coverage. At the time, I did not know that was part of public relations.
I was called into the office of the student-athlete academic advisor at the University of Florida to talk about my majors. I had signed up to be a Psychology major, but she said after looking at the material that I had done in track and field with my website and newsletters, she said “Karen, I think you need to major in public relations instead.”
I had two questions for my advisor. First, I asked her if public relations was a real major. I brought this up with the only concern that I had with student-athletes who would be choosing or placed in Majors that really were not “real majors.”
My second question for her was exactly what is public relations. I did not know what public relations really was and the only experience that I had in any kind of PR element was what I was doing on my own as a student athlete. she smiled and said that I should take the introduction to the public relations course and see what I thought if I didn’t like it I didn’t need to pursue the major.
I remember walking over to Weimer Hall at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communication, and I sat down in my first lecture hall in the principles of public relations course. as soon as we went over the syllabus discussing the expectations and areas that we would be covering, I knew this was the field for me. This was the journey I was going to be embarking on.
What is Discovering Public Relations all about?
In our field and public relations, we are explorers going where no public relations professional or client or brand has gone before. Okay, I went a little Star Trek there, but it serves the point. The goal for field is not to only be aware of what is familiar, but I’m covered new ideas, case studies, stories, and best practices that will help Advance our understanding and application of our ideas in the field.
The second part of the title of the book focuses on creative innovations to evidence-based practices. Public relations is a very creative field but in order to be creative, we first have to be strategic and how we apply these Innovations through our daily practices. This comes of course through diligent research not just from academic resources, but true industry expectations and client experiences. The full title of the book illustrates both parts very nicely.
Why I wrote this book
Throughout these years at UofL, there is always something in the back of my mind that says something was missing. Each year, as I was teaching strategic Communications and seeing what the public relations field was doing, I was growing more and more frustrated.
You may ask, why was I frustrated? The answer was simple. I was frustrated with the lack of innovation and forward-thinking relations field was providing in the classroom.
The textbooks were the same, the case studies highlighted were the same, and everything was focused on what the public relations field has done and the past and what is it doing presently. I was seeing in real time how big the gap was between industry and academia, and it was scary to see.
As a professor, my goal has always been to make sure my students are prepared with the skills, knowledge, and experience to be successful in their future ventures – whether it was in pursuing graduate studies or going into industry. In addition, there was no discussion on where the future of public relations was going. Limited discussions were had on how public relations Is integrated within marketing and advertising and other related disciplines as a hub concentrated for fraction that is based on scientific and creative Innovations.
We need more public relations professionals to be able to push the envelope just a bit more. If we are satisfied with what everything has been done in the past how are we going to evolve? The public relations relations field for decades has been running around like a hamster and a hamster wheel – circling around doing the same thing, discussing the same ideas, citing the same research articles, and continuing discussing the same cases over and over again. This is not a model that supports or encourages innovation to happen.
Sometimes we have to take a lesson from Daenerys Targaryen of Game of Thrones, and break the wheel. I’m not saying to take your dragons and put a blaze the entire field a public relations. That would be a bit drastic in my opinion. But what I am saying is sometimes in order to make the field stronger, we have to break the mold and what we’ve always known it to be,
Ultimately, in order to make change happen in the field, you have to do it yourself. The time is now for the field to finally move forward in the new and innovative direction. Looking at the profession, I knew that there had to be something that had to be done. So, fast forward a few months, long nights, and lots of research and typing – and we have Discovering PR!
What is featured in the book?
We have a lot of resources, exercises, activities, case studies, and stories to share. The biggest feature I think really is the stories from those who are essentially changing the game for the PR field. That’s why I called this feature the Game Changer Feature!
We also have a designated Facebook Group for the community. This is where professors, students, and pros can come to share, create, build and support each other as they work through their classes using the book. In addition, professors will also have direct access to me as the author. Q+As, guest lectures, brainstorming sessions on how to apply and integrate coursework into their classes, etc. I am excited to see how this community will thrive!
Also, another feature we have here is a Spotify playlist. You may be asking yourself – Karen, why would this be relevant for your book? One of the things we have seen being done in classes is start each class playing some music to get the students in the mood to learn the material for the day. My Mom (original Dr. Freberg!) started doing this in her classes with great successes. So, I decided to ask all of the game changers which song they would choose to either 1) walk out to or 2) say represents their field. We have a lot of great choices here! Listed below are the songs of the game changers and their designated song choices.
I am very honored, excited, and thrilled this project will be coming out. I could not have done it without the kindness, support, and encouragement of my family (Mom, Dad, Kristin, Karla, Scott, and Marcus), friends, colleagues, fellow PR professors, students, and more!
We are looking at the book being available in August 2020. Let me know if you all have any additional questions! More than happy to answer them.
Thanks and have a great day!
Best Wishes,
