Mr. Edelman,

I really enjoyed your comments on Saturday. I too agree with your assessment that this is a fascinating time in public relations. Like never before, we are truly able to have a two-way relationship with our publics through social media and other Web 2.0 principles. I believe that this will revolutionize PR in the next few years.

Thanks for coming to SLC and letting the next generation learn from your experience.

Jarrod Morgenstern
University of Kansas PRSSA President

Sounds like a good time. I can echo many of your observations. Here are a few thoughts on two of them. Media consumption: I still see a lot of newspapers in the hands of PR students as well, but these papers are made available to us at no cost and students are not at a computer for most of the day as they are in class and may not want to lug around a laptop. Journalism and PR: At Syracuse I find there are many opportunities for PR students to perform journalism for various campus publications. The real divide comes from the curriculum which, in the interest of focusing on teaching more PR skills, only requires a basic news writing course. This of course varies by program. But if I wanted to write for the campus newspaper, my major would not keep me from doing so.

Thanks for having me out to SLC. I enjoyed my time with the students.

Good that you are writing for the newspaper at school. So should all of the PR students at other universities.

I was delighted to hear you speak at the PRSSA conference, since I could not meet with you when you visited Ball State University.

As you mentioned in the diversity section, I could see the progress at the conference, too. I was pleased to see quite a few Asian and Asian-American students at the conference. As a graduate student from Japan, I hope the diversification helps the future PR professionals understand international/diversity issues that the U.S. faces.

However, I’m not sure if I can agree with your comment, “The journalism departments have succeeded in keeping PR students out of their hallowed halls.” After receiving an undergraduate degree in journalism, I started my M.A. in business public relations. So, I believe that I can see the both sides. I feel that PR classes and PR student organization are not opening its doors to journalism folks as well.

Thank you for speaking at the conference. I’m sure everyone enjoyed your speech.

Mr. Edelman,

I really enjoyed the comments that you made on Saturday to the PRSSA students. The take home message that I received was the importance of transparency. I would like to make two comments on your observations from dinner with the 15 students. I wish that I was one of the 15 students, but I had the wonderful opportunity to eat lunch with your brother at BYU yesterday and that was a pretty incredible experience. For starters, I feel that working for the university's paper has really helped me understand how the media thinks and opperates. I really value the time that I have in the newsroom and the important messages that have changed my perception of media. Finally, I consider myself fluent in the Spanish language. How useful is Spanish in the US markets? I realize how many Latin Americans live in the US, but I also realize the future of business is moving into the asian market, therefore the future of PR is moving in that direction as well. How useful will my spanish really be in the future? What kind of things can I do now with my Spanish skills?

Again, thank you for your remarks on Saturday. You are an amazing bank of knowledge and experience.

Joseph Tateoka
President, Bradley PR
Brigham Young University

I too really enjoyed and appreciated your comments at the PRSSA National Conference. I was impressed that you have such an understanding of our generation - many of us do, in fact, get our news from the Daily Show rather than from the CBS Evening News. After your address and some of the others during the Conference, I've had somewhat of a paradigm shift about public relations -- the idea that we should be directing conversations rather than sending messages. The peer-to-peer communication model is so interesting - and quite different than what I'm learning in the classroom. Speaking of the classroom, at Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah) our public relations curriculum includes an entire semester of writing for the school's daily newspaper. During the semester I wrote for the Daily Universe, I wasn't thrilled to be a reporter, but looking back, I feel the experience improved my writing and gave me a better perspective and understanding of journalists - and I believe it will make me a better communicator.Many thanks for coming to Salt Lake City!

It was truly a unique experience to join Richard Edelman for dinner at the PRSSA 2006 National Conference. It was interesting to listen to him ask questions of all of us as we sat around the table. I was fascinated to learn of PR's new role in social media. As budding PR professionals we have a lot of work ahead of us. It's a great time to be coming into the field.

It was an immense pleasure to meet and hear you speak at the national conference this past weekend. Your speech Saturday morning helped me obtain a better grasp of the past and future of public relations and how I need to progress to avoid being swallowed by it. Your discussion of the paradox of transparency was especially intriguing for me, as I've been monitoring your blog this past semester for an online tactics course I'm taking. Reading your posts has given me incredible insight not only to the public relations field, but the world around me as well.

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to attend the conference and answering everyone's questions so thouroughly.

Amanda Vasil
Kent State University PRSSA Vice President

Mr. Edelman,
It was great to meet you in Salt Lake City at the Friday night social. I also enjoyed your comments on Saturday. You pointed out how the media world is changing. You mentioned how those who were once the consumers of the media are now the producers. You referred to them as "Prosumers."

Prior to the conference, I learned a concept similar to "prosumers" called citizen journalism in my Online PR Tactics class at Kent State University. This concept can be extremely useful to pr professionals because messages are considered more credible if they are objective or unbiased. However, content produced by "prosumers" or citizen journalists can inhibit our ability to control the messages published about our company. What I would like to know is: Is it ethical for pr professionals to pitch "prosumers" or citizen journalists? If so, what are the ethical guidelines for pitching them? and are there any advantages or disadvantages to pitching a "prosumer" that are not apparent when pitching a professional media source?

Mr. Edelman:

Thank you for taking your time to speak at the conference this past weekend. Your advice was some of the most valuable I have received in my three years in college, and I will take it with me throughout my public relations career.

Public relations professionals walk the line between being an advocate for their company and aiming for a "journalistic level of accuracy." Thank you for being a role model for public relations students and setting high standards for the future professionals.

Mr Edelman;

I am both amazed and shocked to learn about nos. 2 and 7. As an American, I meet few Americans abroad. I can theorize why. But it amazes me that someone who works in PR would not even consider getting some experience overseas. I may be biased, as I have lived a total of 5 years overseas, but still...

And as for no. 7. I'm incredulous. Is it possible? When you say relatively few, I am assuming under ten said they don't read blogs. Many graduates and young people I know in the States grew up (professionally-speaking) reading blogs and learning how to deconstruct theories and spin and offer opinion through blogging. How can it be that PR-savvy people don't expose themselves to blogs?

What is your theory on that, Mr. Edelman?

Many schools may have kept Public Relations out of the Journalism department. At Kent State University a PR major can't graduate without writing for the school newspaper. We are also encouraged to read blogs. Bill Sledzik, one of our professors, has a blog about PR education. (The link is to Bill's Blog)

Hello again Mr. Edelman,

Thank you so much for speaking to our membership at PRSSA National Conference. I asked several of our members about your speech. Each member cited a different media trend that surprised them, including the daily 25 percent of high school graduates that don't receive any news at all.

One trend that does not surprise me is the migration to online resources for news. I was surprised at our dinner to hear that 14 of 15 students regularly read a print version of their local newspaper. I will go on record as the odd man out. I do, however, check a list of Web sites daily for news and know that many other students do the same. To summarize, I felt our group at dinner was somewhat of an anomaly for the college student demographic. I later spoke with a representative from your Seattle office who agreed.

PRSA published a dialogue in the fall edition of The Public Relations Strategist titled, "The Paper Chase: What Lies Ahead?" A panel debates the future of newspapers and elaborates on several of the points you discussed Saturday morning. Take a look if you get the chance.

Thank you once again for reaching out to our students.

Sincerely,

Kevin J. Saghy
National President
The Public Relations Student Society of America

I understand your point and agree with it. I just thought it was such an anomaly that it was interesting.

That is a really good thing. Bravo Kent State.

It is an amazing time for Americans to work overseas. It should be seen as a smart “to do” also to study overseas for a semester

Thanks for the warm reception in Salt Lake City. I enjoyed preparing for the speech and my time with the students.

Of course we should be in touch with "pro-sumers." They are the citizen journalists who are most vocal about specific brands. Just tell them who you are and why you are contacting them.

The Kent State crowd gets my vote for most active in posting comments to my blog. Thanks for coming to my speech.

Don’t direct conversations, participate in them. Really important distinction for you to remember.

Spanish is very important in the US market, especially in key cities of NY, Miami, LA, Chicago, Dallas, Houston. Keep up the studies.

Fair comment. But I still think that PR folks should be on their school newspapers. Maybe I am old generation but it certainly helped me!

Mr. Edelman,

I am the BYU chapter historian, and have been organizing some Conference feedback with our members and some outside the chapter as well. It's amazing how many of them are referencing your messages, either directly or indirectly, in their responses about their Conference experience. Thank you for your address and down-to-earth connection with our organization - you are making quite the impact on PRSSA.

Sincerely,
Brooke Eddington
Brigham Young University PRSSA Historian

Mr. Edelman,

Thank you for these very interesting notes, it is worrying to me to read that YOUNG future PR professionnals in the US are not aware of major trends such as blogging when you would expect them to be ahead and guide their future clients through them. The lack of international skills is another problem, knowing they will probably face clients who expect them to have some basic knowledge of the outside world.

Mr. Edelman,

I wanted to thank you for taking the time to speak with our membership on these important issues for young professionals. Many of our members said that meeting with you and hearing you speak was the pinnacle of their pre-professional careers. I couldn't agree with them more.

I was also amazed to hear that so many students are taking an eager interest in reading print media. It certainly shows that our pre-professionals are already strong, knowledgeable advocates for public relations and its future.

Thank you again for taking the time to speak with us.

Sincerely,

Jessica Randazza
Vice President of Chapter Development
2006-2007 National Committee
The Public Relations Student Society of America