Death of my hard drive is, well, it’s serendipity

Update 8/29/08: Back in Kent for a few days — enough time to do laundry and hit the road again for 3 more weeks. Tech Help called to say my MacBook has a new hard drive and is ready to go. I’m pretending I didn’t get the message. By the time I return, I’ll be itchin’ to get all digital again. Or not.

I promise to get that last segment of PR 101 up when I return. And I’ll tell you about the ‘business” part of my trip, which includes F2F discussions with some leaders in social media. Oh yeah — let’s not forget the Friday afternoon beerfest in the bleachers at Wrigley. Gives new meaning to “road trip.” I swear Belushi was there! He had to be.

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I’ll be on the road for the next month, or most of it. And thanks to the timely crash of my MacBook yesterday, I’ll be disconnected much of that time. I’m relieved, to be honest, and I’m not seeking a replacement laptop. I consider the crash to be serendipitous.

Regular readers know of my angst over being “too connected” and too wrapped up in the distractions of the online universe. Being computerless for 30 days might be the ideal remedy. Hell, I may even talk to some people face to face.

Oh, I’ll hit a public library here and there to check email and Facebook, and I’ll steal some Internet time from friends I see along my route. But instead of jumping online to browse blogs or check the feeder, I’ll be picking up a newspaper and testing my skills against the New York Times crossword puzzle — the paper version. Bring it on, Will Shortz. Give me your best Saturday punch. (Note: This photo comes from a great piece about Will that appeared in Reader’s Digest last year — classic old media!)

Because of my travels:

• The 4th and final segment of my “PR 101″ series — “Symmetrical PR meets the Cluetrain Manifesto,” will have to wait a few weeks, as you can’t compose a blog post on a paper notepad.

• Comment approvals may be a little slow. I’ll check this site once a day until August 30. After that, I may not see it at all until Sept. 17.

I could tell you where I’m going, but it’s a secret mission tied to my one-semester professional leave. Yeah, I won’t be in the classroom poisoning young minds until January.

Was that a cheer I heard coming from Kent, Ohio?

The ‘4 Models’ of public relations practice: How far have you evolved?

While preparing to teach my first PR class back in ‘85, I happened upon “Managing Public Relations,” by Jim Grunig and Todd Hunt. Though I lost track of my copy long ago (never loan textbooks to students — never), one element of that book influenced how I taught and practiced PR for the past 23 years.

Grunig & Hunt’s “4 Models” of public relations practice went on to became the most talked-about theory in the discipline. The “4 Models” describe distinct approaches to public relations in the context of a 130-year timeline that shows how public relations has evolved. In the process, Grunig & Hunt identify an “ideal” approach to public relations — something they call the 2-way symmetrical model — and place it at the top of the evolutionary pyramid.

For me, the 4 Models became more than a teaching tool. When Grunig & Hunt published their theory, I was a full-time PR practitioner working for marketers who saw PR as promotion and publicity, period, and with no ethics component. The 4 Models helped me see the potential of public relations and, in part, inspired me to open my own shop so I could get beyond marketing and do some serious PR.

Here’s a summary of the models. If you’re like most of us, you’ve spent a little time in each of them.