And don’t be so sure about the lack of cause in driving someone’s choice of PR as a profession.

According to The Cleveland Plain Dealer‘s Connie Schultz, some anonymous journalism professors are fretting over the loss of students to other disciplines – PR, marketing and advertising, to name a few.

“We’re losing so many hard-news students to public relations, advertising and marketing,” one professor told me. “They just want to make money.”

Welcome to another “bash PR” and “toss around your favorite trite anecdotal misrepresentions” column. This one is from Cleveland. That will be important later.

I understand their concerns, but the rationale presented in this article oversimplifies the issues.

For future journalists, it’s cash, not causes

One journalism professor told me that hordes of women are opting for the softer — and more lucrative — career in public relations.

“A lot of them want to be event planners,’ ” she said. She nodded at my raised eyebrows.

“Seriously,” she said. “They want to plan parties.”

Well, yes – I’ve seen some of that. But the reporter and the interviewee – again – oversimplify. Is anyone surprised?

There are many other aspects to PR and event event planning. Also, they are not the same thing. No where close to the same thing. One (event planning) is but one aspect of PR – ‘if’ it is even incorporated into a campaign. Is event planning the path I would have chosen? No. But, I actually did ‘event planning’ of a sort for 10 years. A soft lifestyle? Eight AM to Midnight was not uncommon. And, I turned the lights out at the events when journos had already gone home to bed. The pay? HA!

Every college and university, for example, has at least a few event planners. Those faculty members have likely benefited from their services along the way. Further, think of the hotel industry. Event planners abound. Non-profit organizations? Political campaigns? Have you ever heard of fund-raising? The opportunities for event planning do exist, but the problem is – the students don’t grasp the reality of the job’s characteristics.

The faculty member calls PR “softer”. They obviously do not understand PR, at all. Most people burn out quickly. Soft would only be used to describe the career by naive and ignorant people.

Starting salaries are similar to those in journalism. The hours? 14 to 16 hour days is a ‘soft’ lifestyle? The detailed work of PR is soft? If Connie Schultz and the anonymous faculty member paid more attention to detail, they would not make such erroneous statements.

Now, all that being said – I do agree that ‘some’ students are driven by the capitalistic glory our country offers. But, there are also students seeking to engage in PA activities for government and non-profit organizations.

Does Schultz cite any hard and fast enrollment figures? No. Does Schultz cite any surveys of said student populations and their motivations? No. And, the most puzzling of all – no cited sources in the column. All anonymous. All anecdotal. All the time.

Schultz’ article spends too much time rehashing trite anecdotal observations and furthering incorrect perceptions of PR.

Does this one post here prove that PR is deeper and more atuned to detail and reality than journalism? No. But, if I followed their line of reasoning, the case could be made – albeit weakly and incorrectly.

If I said, Connie Schultz writes for the Cleveland Plain Dealer where Mitch Albom did a ‘job’ on truthful reporting, I could improperly apply his work ethic to hers. Ergo – her column must not be truthful. Anecdotal and thin on facts / reality. That’s the problem with Schultz’ column – among other things. A little truth mixed in – just to keep it interesting.

But, it is a column – therefore opionion. Actually, given the vague content in the column, she should blog. Perfect for a LiveJournal blog. She could join the 12-18 year old journal-ists just throwing out ideas.