International PR- Guest Speaker #2

For my second guest speaker choice, I chose Richard Bailey. He is a PR professional and also a professor in the UK. In the 1980s , he wrote about business and technology , for a magazine in London. In the 1990s he focused more on the management side of PR.Now , in the 2000s , he focuses on teaching PR to practitioners. Bailey visited our class through Skype, we had technical difficulties at first but we ended up with a great result. Although video was lacking during the presentation, he still spoke to us through just voice. I really enjoyed his visit and lecture, I wish I could have the opportunity to hear/ see him speak again. Bailey spoke about many tremendous things pertaining to the PR field. Here is some of the things that I found very helpful during his visit.

Bailey talked about how our International PR class was different than many other citizens because we have been to other countries. He said that many students/ people he speak to have not visited other countries. Then he started speaking about the English language. Bailey says the reason why we speak English is because our founders were English. He asked the question of "Why do you think we speak English ?" to the class, he received many answers. The responses were: "because our parents speak English" , " because our grandparents speak English", "because that is all we know". After hearing these responses, Bailey then told us the correct answer. I really think that our responses were not the correct answer because we did not know the direction of the question. I learned a tremendous amount just from that answer and question session. I learned the big picture behind the question , and that is to think beyond the small stuff.

Bailey also spoke on sports and the future with soccer. He said that soccer will be the world's biggest event in the near future. The Soccer World Cup will be held in South Africa. This was very interesting to me because I played soccer in high school. During the time I played soccer, people always told me that this would not be a big sport in the USA, and now look at the sport. I am very happy that this sport is now picking up and becoming big ,this was a big part of my high school career.

Also, during Bailey's visit I learned that in the year 1909, the top nation was Great Britain. Britain was the top nation until WWI took place, this then caused a great amount of chaos. Now in the current year 2009, the top nation is the U.S.A. . The reasons why we are the top nation is because we have global influence, and military influence. Many countries look to the U.S. for guidance and assistance. This is why I am not surprised that we are the top nation today.

Bailey also spoke on Democracy, he says gave us some quotes that people have said about Democracy. They are as follows:

" Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those others that have been tried." --Winston Churchill

" So, two cheers fro Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism."

- E.M. Foster

These quotes are very interesting because I had never thought of Democracy in these ways. Bailey talks about Democracy because the UK does not have a Democracy. There are three preconditions that Bailey speaks on that is needed for a functioning Democracy. The three preconditions are freedom of speech, rule of law, and freedom of press. Bailey says that since his country does not possess these things , they cannot have a Democracy. This was very interesting to me , this was the first time that I have heard of the preconditions for a Democracy.

The last thing we talked about with Richard Bailey was global reach and the media. The media that Richard Bailey said had the most global reach was "word of mouth" . This media has the most global reach because everyone does not have a TV set, radios, and some people might not even be able to speak English. "Word of mouth" is a media that can take place regardless of where you are. Even if you dont have all of the other medias , you can still get news ,this is why "word of mouth" is really important to me.

Overall, I really enjoyed Richard Bailey's visit and hopes that I will be able to see a presentation by him again. Bailey has a blog, that address is : http://www.prstudies.com/weblog/. Please go on his blog and look at all the things that he has posted. He might have some things posted that pertain to you or someone you know. There are awards listed that you could win, tips on being a PR Practitioner, as well as articles or events that he has blogged on.. Enjoy!.