Welcome
Season's Greetings let's celebrate 75 and a favour
Season's greetings to one and all. It's apt that the last edition of PR Futurist in 2023 is the 75th, as 2023 is also the 75th anniversary of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).
In this issue we've got the excitement and rapid disappointment of Google's Gemini AI, Prowly's look forward to the PR trends of 2024, research about media coverage of climate change, the Davos Communications Awards winners, and how the FT and WSJ are using LinkedIn newsletters.
We're looking forward to 2024 and have already got some exciting AI consultancy and training projects lined up for January with both in-house teams and PR agencies.
We've also a little favour to ask. Can you please forward this newsletter to one other person you know in public relations or communications and ask them to subscribe. Thanks. 🙏
Stuart Bruce and Tim Bailey | Purposeful Relations
News
Talking Alethia in Athens
Last week I was meant to be in Athens to give a keynote about AI in communications at the annual Greek Corporate Communications Conference. Unfortunately, family events meant I couldn't to go. However, I still gave my talk by video and participated in the panel discussions afterward.
It felt apt to be talking about Rolls-Royce's Alethia Framework for ethical AI as Alethia originated in Ancient Greek philosophy, with Parmenides, on truth and disclosure.
Stuart Bruce
Stuart Bruce | PR Futurist
Data, measurement, analytics
PRCA Measurement Conference questions answered by AI
Last month I spoke at the PRCA Measurement Conference as part of AMEC’s Measurement Month. I was part of a panel on Navigating the Future of Measurement and Insights moderated by Jonny Bentwood, Global Head of Data and Analytics at Golin.
To help kick start the debate Jonny shared some questions in advance. Jonny warned he was going to keep a count of how many times we mentioned AI, so I tried to avoid it. However, afterwards I thought it might be interesting to see what ChatGPT’s answers to the same questions were.
I've published the questions and ChatGPT Plus's answers on my blog.
Stuart Bruce
stuartbruce.biz
AI, digital and social
Google fakes viral AI video of Gemini launch
Google's launch of its Gemini AI was met with great excitement as Gemini quickly responded to challenging text and video prompts. The video quickly went viral as people were wowed by Gemini's responses. Except it turned out that Google had extensively edited the video as Gemini was actually fed comprehensive text prompts.
Stuart Bruce
bbc.co.uk
How mainstream news publishers like the WSJ and FT are using LinkedIn newsletters
Nieman Labs has published an interesting article on how traditional news publishers are using LinkedIn's newsletter feature. The main objective of most is to drive traffic to their own websites by repurposing existing content for their LinkedIn newsletters.
Publishers include Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, BBC News, El País (Spain), The Telegraph (UK), Washington Post (USA), CNN, Middle East Eye and MIT Technology Review,
Stuart Bruce
niemanlab.org
LinkedIn launches new newsletter publishing tools
LinkedIn has launched new tools and features to help those of us who use LinkedIn newsletters. The new tools include improved analytics, duplicating drafts (to provide templates to edit) and improved previews to see what the newsletter will look like when published.
There are more than 146,000 LinkedIn newsletters with more than 500 million professionals subscribed. If you want help with LinkedIn newsletters then get in touch as we offer a training course for PR professionals as well as specialist mentoring and coaching for CEOs and the C-suite on all aspects of LinkedIn.
Stuart is relaunching his LinkedIn newsletter in the New Year. Why not subscribe now to see it in January?
Tim Bailey
linkedin.com
Case studies
How Munch Museum is using AI to give its audiences new access to the history of art
The Munch Museum in Oslo is using artificial intelligence to create interactive experiences for both visitors and global audiences. It is working with Tata Consultancy Services on a project that uses a machine learning (ML) algorithm to delve into Edvard Munch’s artistic processes and allow audiences to connect with that data-led insight in creative ways.
When I spoke to the corporate communications conference in Athens I used an image created by DALL-E via ChatGPT Plus. I asked for it to be in the style of Van Gogh and it obliged. For this story I asked it to create an image in the style of Edvard Munch and it responded:
"I'm unable to generate an image in the style of Edvard Munch due to content policy restrictions. We can create a unique artwork that represents the opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence in the communications profession, focusing on the aspect of more opportunities than risks, but without specifically imitating Munch's style. Would you like to proceed with this adjusted request?"
Stuart Bruce
diginomica.com
Research and reports
PR Trends for 2024
PR software specialist Prowly has published a report on the top PR trends and challenges for 2024. Stuart was one of the 10 global industry experts it consulted. The report includes top PR trends, budget investment priorities and the biggest challenges faced by the PR industry.
You can download the full report from Prowly's website.
Tim Bailey
prowly.com
Media coverage about climate change is negative instead of about solutions
Media coverage about climate change is twice as likely to take a fear-driven approach as it is to highlight positive examples of climate action. This is the worrying finding of research by Simply Thought and Reputation Works in a report showing the critical role of the media in educating on climate change. The Simply Thought team analysed more than 2,300 articles from 45 outlets in 11 countries,
Just 7% of articles provide real-world examples of what can be done to reduce pollution.
Stuart Bruce
linkedin.com
Professional practice
Winners of the 2023 Davos Communications Awards announced
The winners of the 2023 Davos Communications Awards have been announced. There were entries from 20 countries with Brazil and Ukraine emerging as the big winners.
Stuart was the inaugural chair of the jury for the first Davos Communications Awards in 2021. This year's chair was Arun Sudhaman, CEO and editor-in-chief of PRovoke Media.
Karen Marshall
wcfaglobal.com