Deirdre Breakenridge

One of my Facebook friends, who is working on his dissertation, asked me a question: How is social media affecting the relationship between journalism and PR? Ask a PR person/blogger a question about a passionate topic and you may get a long blog response. Here’s how I answered his question about Journalism and PR:

I can’t remember a time in my PR career when a brand (B2B or B2C) wasn’t in some kind of trouble. From product recalls and e coli poisoning to airline flights cancellations and accounting scandals. Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Anderson resulted in Sarbanes Oxley and more financial transparency and stricter reporting procedures. I’m not sure if social media would have helped those companies. But, today is different. On any given day, a brand that is on top of the world (i.e., athletes and MLB) can fall from grace. Did anyone say Alex Rodriguez? There is a way to restore the trust.