Quick news from the Global Alliance - Useful information for PR Professionals
Issue #2 - October 8th 2007

1. May we help you? Speak with us!

All the board of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management are looking forward to hear from member societies around the world. We want to know about your projects, your issues and your challenges and we want to know if we can be of help in any of those.
Now, with available VoIP technologies you can communicate freely with us. Search globalallianceforpr on your Skype software or alvesduartej if you are using VoIPBuster. Give us a call and let us know!

2. Ukraine becomes full member of the Global Alliance

The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management has accepted a formal request for full membership by the Ukrainian Association of Public Relations (UAPR) at a recent board meeting. The UAPR was formed in 2003 and its main achievements include the creation of a Code of Ethics, the organisation of an international conference, the creation of the first national PR contest and the formation of an academy which offers monthly workshops for professionals.
Colin Farrington, Chair of the Global Alliance and director-general of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, welcomed UAPR speaking at the European PR Congress 2007 hosted by this association in Kiev. UAPR becomes the newest full member of the Global Alliance network which expands to 61 member societies representing more than 160,000 professionals.

More about Global Alliance membership here

3. More PR Landscapes available on the Global Alliance website

Following the recent publication of the German Landscape on the Global Alliance website, it's now time to publish the 17th PR Landscape featuring Lithuania. This document was produced in cooperation with LRVS (Association of Lithuanian PR Specialists) and PRIME (European Association of Public Relations and Communication Students).
Lithuania's Landscape demonstrates the high growth potential of the industry and the opportunity to do more strategic counselling. Located in the Eastern Europe, Lithuania is one of the first countries in the Baltic Region to be covered by the PR Landscapes, but we hope more will follow shortly.

PR Landscapes are online guides on country-specific information that shapes the landscape for practicing public relations in that part of the world. They include descriptions of the political, economical, cultural and business realities as well as a description of the public relations industry with a view on the models of practice and links for important resources. The coordination of this Global Alliance project is done by Prof. Juan Carlos Molleda from the University of Florida (jmolleda@jou.ufl.edu).

More about the PR Landscapes here

4. Global Alliance supports forming PR Association in Nepal

The constitution of the Public Relations Association of Nepal (PRAN) is finalised after discussion and estimates are that by the end of October the registration process will be concluded and PRAN will have its legal base in the country. The Global Alliance Board, through its member Ajit Pathak (Public Relations Society of India), has been following efforts leaded by Shital Subedi to form this association and expressed their support at the last Board meeting.

Shital Subedi explained that PRAN's first challenge is ?to make people understand how Public Relations is also a profession, not only a tool for the day to day business?. This Kathmandu based PR professional also revealed that the establishment of a Code of Ethics will be a priority for the Association as well as the creation of PR training/ accreditation programs in Nepal to foster a greater understanding of the profession.

Nepal has a population of 23 million people, bordering with China and India, and is well known for being the land of Mt. Everest, the highest point of the Himalayas and the highest peak on earth at 8,848 meters.

5. Professionalism in PR being researched with the support of the Global Alliance

There are quite a number of cases in which Public Relations professionalism has been damaged by poor ethical practices in the field of dealings between news media and news sources.

That's why the Global Alliance is calling once again for your participation in a new research conducted by the Institute of Public Relations on bribery for news coverage. Several hundred people have already taken the survey ? which is a great turnout. But if you have not taken the online survey, now is the time to do it.

?The Study of Media Transparency and Payments for News Coverage Practice Worldwide? is being led by Dr. Katerina Tsetsura from the University of Oklahoma and aims to collect a broad participation in order to allow comparison of results between countries and regions. Please take the online survey here and help us also by sharing the word and inviting others to take the survey as well.

6. Personal Influence Model of Public Relations ? New Research requested
The Federation of Italian Public Relations (FERPI), together with the IULM University will host the 2008 Congress of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) in Milano and are announcing a special 500 Euro award for the best new research on the personal influence model of Public Relations presented at the Congress.

The prize is sponsored by The Institute of Public Relations (IPR) and intends to stimulate a greater research upon a model that describes a reality that worldwide PR professionals are very acquainted with. ?The personal influence model describes the predominant use of relationships with strategic individuals to achieve public relations objectives as the major factor in a professional's contribution to the organization,? said Frank Ovaitt, President and CEO of the Institute.

The congress in Milano, Italy, will discuss the broad theme of ?Institutionalizing Public Relations and Corporate Communications? and will take place from October 16-18, 2008. Submission of abstracts is open until by December 1, 2007 and a peer review committee will choose the winning paper among those submitted by scholars, researchers and graduate students.