Monday, February 23, 2009

Things I'd like to discuss

1. Anything relevant, except global warming, it has been done to death!

2. Social Media.

3. Is there still place for face-to-face communication in the technology future?

4. How does PRP's stay afloat when we will be the first retrenched if companies need to "tighten their belts".

5. Will Barack Obama be a good president in the long run?

Friday, February 20, 2009

SA bands suck?

South Africa is known as the "rainbow nation", with diverse cultures and people. That aspect is displayed in the South African music industry, with great SA bands such as Freshly Ground, The Parlotones, The Dirty Skirts, Zebra and Giraffe to name but a few. SA bands suck? Are you insane? SA bands rock! (thank you Rudolf).

Have any of you actually taken the time to listen to Prime Circle or Crash Car Burn? Now that's good quality South African music.

We as South African's have the tendency to compare our local music to that of the international acts. There is no comparison. Had Freshly Ground not proven that? Staying true to their African roots, they won Best African Act at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards. What more do these bands need to do in order to prove, to the rough SA crowd, that they are of the best?

We don't always appreciate anything 'Proudly South African'. Besides SA rock bands, how many of us can honestly say we religously or even seldomly listen to kwaito? Kwaito is SA at it's best, and in my opinion, doesn't receive the credit it deserves. If any of you can honestly say that you knew Arthur Mafokate was one of the founding fathers of kwaito, I'd be very impressed.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

My take on Designer PR

At first I thought, ‘how in the world can Public Relations Management be a design course?’ Sure, it takes a lot of creative thinking, but design? Is that not way off the topic? “Public Relations is the management of perceptions” (PRISA, 1997). Nowhere in this definition is there mention of the ‘design of perceptions’. However, if we really get down to it PR requires PRP’s to design successful strategies in order to manage an organisations image and the perception its internal and external publics has. So, to what conclusion can we derive, simply put, the move to the design faculty gives PR so much more; for lack of a better word; scope. The article 'Designer PR' gives us students comfort, and has certainly helped me think further than my nose.