icfreeman

It is funny how people get ideas about an industry, and until something comes out to disprove their opinion, they just go with the flow.  From medicine to law,  forensics to pr, people just have major mis-perceptions about how each industry actually works.  And where do people find these misleading images?  Television would be a major culprit.  After all, with shows such as Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy, isn't all medicine some sort of joke, or a nice place to hook-up with a co-worker?  And with Boston Legal and the old Ally McBeal, there must be a lot of socializing and joking at law firms-- you know, all fun and games.  With these shows, some people think that they are exactly like the real world.  Now, some people realize that they are "glamorized", but it leads us to question, how much of this is real and how much is just "fluff"?  CSI and NCIS  shows us exact lab tests and evidence that may or may not be as plausible in real life.  I mean, can finger prints actually be taken off of ANYTHING-- or my favorite, playing pottery like a record to see what people were saying during a crime.  And with pr, it is not all glitz and glam.  There aren't parties every day that all public relations practitioners go to.  Sure, that's one aspect of it, but there are a lot more tedious aspects involved.  Making phone calls, writing stories, dealing with crisis situations.  Where are these aspects in the media?

I ask all of these because a student came in here to interview my boss for a paper she has to write in her public relations course.  She said that many people in her class just want to plan parties.  Well, if that's all they want to do, then they have a wake up call coming.  I mean, sure, there are firms that plan parties, but it is very difficult to try to get into them-- especially if everyone in the class wants to do that.  Truth is, public relations is down and dirty work.  You write stories, connect with the press, fight with printers, and so much more.  What you see is the result of months (usually) of hard work.  It's fun, but it's work too.