Why I use the word “communicator”

Photo by?Jamie Street?on?Unsplash

Plenty of people ask me why I use the word “communicator” when discussing my work. Part of the answer is that I firmly believe the questions of equity and power I examine apply to any form of professional communication—particularly those done to meet an organizational purpose.

The other answer is the same reason that my Twitter profile declared I was "a proud professional communicator" until I started school — it's how I view the work and our role within organizations and society.

Contrary to popular opinion (and, yes, the historical roots of the field), I do not view the role of public relations and strategic communications professionals to be based on spin and manipulation. Instead, when I am asked to describe my professional work, I say, “I ensure organizations provide people the information they need, at the time they need it, and in ways they understand” (if you want an example, review my description of how I helped incoming residents AND staff at Housing and Residential Life by creating a concentrated Move-In Guide and Checklist). That is a purpose that I love, and it is why I firmly believe public relations and strategic communication have a place in building a better society.

Let me explain

People are busy, and they have a lot of interests. No matter how much you care, we all feel there is never enough time to follow all of the things you care about or research every decision that needs to be made to make—whether that is keeping track of what new laws are being passed, remembering what events an organization has come up, or determining what refrigerator to buy after another breaks. Additionally, different people want different things from communication — some want facts while others want emotion; others want complex technical reports while others demand messages that take no more than 30 seconds to read.

At the same time, the people who work full-time on those things are rightfully focused on their work. They are living it every day, so they don't think about the fact that they need to tell people what they are doing, and, if they do, they often can't explain it in ways that make sense to those who don't need every detail (think about it — don’t you have that one thing where you’re super passionate while those around you don’t seem to care? If not, I’m sure you can think of at least one person where the reverse is true).

That is where communicators come in

Public relations and strategic communications professionals are people with the skills, interests, and knowledge to understand both groups. We can serve as translators by taking in the information from those who have it and shaping it into something useful for the people who need it.

Sometimes, yes, that can make our work seem shallow as we recommend things like TikTok dances or pop-up events to grab people's attention (full disclosure, I've never recommended either of these, but you get the idea). It also can seem like we are making things too simplistic or dumbing them down as we will often want to eliminate a lot of the details and nuance those who are deeply invested care about (I was known to tell coworkers, "My job is to make this message as simple as possible; your job is to tell me when I've gone too far because the details matter").

But, whether we are turning ideas into soundbites or summarizing a report in a press release, we’re doing that so the message can cut through the noise (and cluttered email boxes) so that it will get to those who need it.

Now don’t get me wrong

I am painfully aware that this is not how all public relations and strategic communication professionals operate or think. I am also very aware that many for-profit people look at my work and assume it only applies to nonprofit and public-sector communications.

That is one of the reasons I decided to pursue my Ph.D.: I want to be part of changing what it means to be a public relations and strategic communications professional. I want each of us to understand the power and responsibility that comes with our roles as storytellers and gatekeepers of information. I want to make it an expectation that communicators will think critically about the messages they send and ask whether the organization can support strong statements with equally strong (and long-term) actions.

We craft messages with the express purpose of sending them out into the world. They shape ideas for how people see our organization and the world around them, so we must recognize that our responsibility does end at the walls of our organization.

So, that’s why I say “communicator.”