Sarab Kochhar, Ph.D., Institute for Public Relations, 
Leslie Gaines-Ross, Weber Shandwick and Bradly Honan, KRC Research

Everyone from marketers to managers have an opinion about Millennials. Maybe that's why, according to a new study from Weber Shandwick and the Institute for Public Relations, Millennials are more cognizant of their reputation compared with previous generations.

Millennials take reputation at work seriously. Seven in 10 US adult social media users vote that their work reputation is more important than their social media reputation. Although Millennials have grown up in this digital revolution, they place even greater value on their in-person interactions at work and after-hours socialization than their older, less digitally-bred colleagues. Read more.
Ken Makovsky, Makovsky Integrated Communications

Seven years after the 2008 financial crisis, 78 percent of executives still say that the crisis has a major effect on stakeholder perceptions of their companies. In a recent PRNews article featuring the Makovsky Wall Street Reputation Study, Makovsky explains how to alleviate some of the damage done by a crisis. When adversity happens, a company must be transparent in the way it is handled. There is no room for finger pointing and a perception of it ruins authenticity.
 
Reputation is intangible but omnipresent. It can be elusive, but the real thing is felt and perceived easily. It's worth keeping in mind the words of Abraham Lincoln: "Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it-the real thing is the tree." Read more.
Juan-Carlos Molleda, Ph.D., University of Florida

For the first time in 17 years and 20 national elections, the Venezuelan opposition overwhelmingly won two-thirds of the National Assembly's seats with a noticeable participation of 75 percent of voters on December 6. Aiming to enhance the transparency of the overall elections and the voting process, Venezuelan Unity used a professional visual identity and transmitted non-stop programming the day of elections.

The live transmission featured experienced journalists and commentators interviewing a variety of experts with an audience of more than 90,000 subscribers. This political event is not only a rare victory, but also an example of how a political organization circumvented governmental media censorship and control with digital communications technologies. Read more.

The 2016 World PR Forum is one of the largest assemblies of public relations and communications professionals from around the world, and a unique opportunity to gather professionals with academics to advance the field of international communication. The deadline for submissions focusing on cross-cultural communication has been extended to January 14, 2016.

This year's theme is "Communication across Cultures" and will take place on May 29 - 31 in Toronto, Canada. Discussions will focus on topics such as cross-cultural communication, cultural thought leadership and storytelling across cultures. Read more. 
Institute for Public Relations | 352-392-0280 |  [email protected] www.instituteforpr.org