Yet another word from IPRA in difficult times

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4 years, 6 months ago

Dear IPRA members, allow me to provide a third update on how IPRA is adapting during the covid-19 pandemic, along with some helpful research and links.

Virtually virtuous

Happily the IPRA secretariat has been a virtual one, avoiding the cost of renting physical offices, for some years. Thus communication with me and our Member Services Manager Janice remains as usual. Our annual competition, the Golden World Awards, has just closed and took all submissions for entries online. To make it easy for those working from home we have simplified the requirements for PDF submissions for finalists. Typically in July we have held a physical meeting of the judges to select the winners. This year we will do that process online too.

The Edelman Trust Barometer Spring 2020 update

• Half of people believe business is doing poorly, mediocre or failing at putting people before profits; only 43% believe that companies are protecting their employees sufficiently from covid-19, and 46% do not believe business is helping smaller suppliers and business customers stay afloat.
• Trust in government is up by 11% to 65% since January in 6 of 11 markets surveyed, and government is the only institution trusted by the mass population (62%).
• 67% of respondents believe that those with less education, less money, and fewer resources are bearing a disproportionate burden of suffering, risk of illness, and need to sacrifice, and more than half are very worried about covid-19 related job loss.
• 67% of respondents are worried about false and inaccurate information being spread about the virus.

So, it is just as well then that we can report on these global efforts below.

Increased global efforts to counter covid-19 fake news

We are seeing pleasing if belated efforts to counter fake news.

• The European Commission has launched an information website with numerous links including one to counter misinformation.
• The United Nations Department of Global Communications (with whom IPRA co-operates) has launched a new initiative which aims to push back “against the tide of lies” that has risen in tandem with the covid-19 pandemic. And the UN is asking for volunteers to help: https://www.shareverified.com
• The OECD has a platform to help co-ordinate global efforts here.

European Communication Monitor 2020

This study surveyed 2300 professionals in 44 countries producing the following highlights.

• Ethics in communication: digital channels bring along new moral challenges but the majority of communication professionals lack up-to-date resources to tackle them.
• Gender issues: three out of four communication departments employ more women than men, but still only one out of two leaders in the field are women.
• Cyber security: communication practitioners fear the hacking of websites and social media accounts but while they are often involved in handling cyber security issues, they are seldom asked to build resilience.
• Competency development: large competence gaps exist in the fields of technology and data, although communication professionals are doing some relevant training.
• Key platforms: mobile communication is (not surprisingly) on the rise.

Tempus fugit

And finally, as we in PR know all about the importance of perception, enjoy this article which explains why time seems to be going faster while we are in lockdown.

Philip Sheppard
Secretary General
www.ipra.org

 #stayhealthy  #stayhome  #prforgood

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