Letter from Bled: communication warfare and the COVID-19 pandemic legacy

Public relations academics and practitioners explored a diverse range of societal and communication issues at BledCom.

It’s good to be back in Bled. After a two year hiatus an international group of public relations academics and practitioners gathered on the shores of Lake Bled in Slovenia over the past two days to share their research, ideas and thinking at the 29th International Public Relations Symposium.

The COVID-19 pandemic inevitably inspired much of the content. The public health emergency has provided researchers with a unique set of circumstances and wealth of data to investigate.

The event was pitched as a reboot of internal and external communication for stakeholders. The diverse range of topics reflected this broad perspective.

Communication warfare

The conference opened with a powerful and emotional keynote by Dmytro Oltarzhevskyi, a Professor at the Institute of Journalism, National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv.

Speaking live from Ukraine, Oltarzhevskyi said that communication had become a tool of war that had yet to be recognised by humanity. He said that the origins of the war could be traced back five years or more to Russian propaganda that created the conditions to alienate the Ukraine and remove the freedom of its citizens.

Quoting Edward Bernays and Arthur Page, Oltarzhevskyi said that communication had the potential to find a solution to the Russian war in Ukraine.

Human stories are the primary means of countering information warfare according to Oltarzhevskyi however he called on professional communicators to apply their agency with care.

“We need an environmental-type standard for communication,” he said. He challenged communicators to think about the useful benefit and outcome of their work.

Oltarzhevskyi was critical of social media platforms. “These are platforms without leaders and yet organisations work hard to appear in these spaces,” he said.

Misinformation corrupting public conversation

Misinformation on social media platforms was the topic of a massive study of posts on the World Health Organisation Facebook page by the University of Sherbrooke, Canada. The lack of proactive community management meant that misinformation was rife in comments.

The study was undertaken manually. The researchers said that it is difficult to determine emotion of social media posts using a software tool.

Public relations practitioners are also guilty of spreading misinformation. The role of professional communications in the manipulation of data in sustainability reporting was the topic of a presentation by researchers from IULM, Italy. It demonstrated how corporate communicators distorted graphics in order to present data in a favourable way.

Brand backlash: modern slavery and Boohoo

Issues related to modern slavery were highlighted in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged in response to the brutal murder of George Floyd in May 2020. The boohoo crisis case study was examined by Faye Clarke and Kevin Read of Pembroke and Rye, UK, and also Yijing Wang of Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Internal communications emerges as a management function

The pandemic has provided the basis for significant studies of employee communications. It has become a critical function in hybrid environments and places new responsibilities on communicators supporting organisations in driving change and improving productivity. Several presentations at BledCom addressed these topics. Managing hybrid communities and workforces is set to be an ongoing challenge for public relations research, practice, and teaching.

Competency for management communication

A competency framework for a full stack communications practitioner was presented by Lindsay MacKenzie of McMaster University, Canada. It consisted of five areas of competence: influencer, problem solver, dot connector, empathiser, and data translator.

MacKenzie borrowed the full stack term from software development to define the capabilities of someone that is able to manage interface design and integration into existing systems. It’s an original perspective.

Who cares for the communicators?

Anne Gregory of the University of Huddersfield, UK, gave a standout presentation on the impact of the pandemic on professional communicators in the NHS. The impact of practice on individuals is rarely explored. Communicators emerged with new skills in managing complexity but need management clarity and professional recognition.

BledCom 2022: contribution of public relations to supporting sustainability

BledCom itself was an experiment in the ongoing mix of hybrid and in person working. The majority of the delegates attended in person but around a fifth joined via Zoom. It was a good compromise but it was challenging for the two communities to interact.

The hybrid environment meant that there was only one speaking track for the 60 presentations. It was well managed but inevitably led to longer conference sessions and less time for discussion.

Next year is the 30th anniversary of BledCom where the theme will be the contribution of public relations to supporting sustainability. It’s an optimistic perspective. My growing view as Oltarzhevskyi suggested in his keynote is that public relations does as much harm as good in polluting not just the public conversion but also the planet.

Photos via the BledCom Facebook page with thanks.