War Zone PR: Inside the Embedded Journalist Program in Iraq March 25, 2008

It's year 5 in Iraq. Find out how PR and specifically, the embedded journalism program, is impacting our understanding and coverage of the conflict.

In the winter of 2003, Colonel Guy Shields, a U.S. Army public relations officer based in Kuwait, had a new task and a tight deadline: Help design the program that would embed journalists from all over the world with U.S. Armed Forces if the United States went to war with Iraq.

Shields, now handling public relations for Raytheon in Tewksbury, rose to the challenge, helping design and then direct an operation that eventually handled more than 3,000 embedded and unembedded journalists.

Shields and his public relations staff had to deal with everything from Fox-TV’s Geraldo Rivera inadvertently giving away troop movements to military maneuvers that resulted in the loss of civilian lives. Along the way, Shields worked with and received feedback from numerous journalists, including Steve Komarow, who was embedded for USA Today, learning valuable lessons that have helped him be a more effective public relations practitioner.

On March 25th, Shields and Komarow team up to present this unique PRSA Boston program, sharing more than just war stories. They will talk about:

– Building a public relations program virtually from scratch with a limited amount of time.

– Handling the international media, including marquee names such as Geraldo Rivera.

– Conducting successful public relations and handling crisis communications when the media has direct access to information and key sources.

– Coordinating and developing uniform messaging across both internal and external audiences.

REGISTRATION ON THE PRSA SITE IS REQUIRED.

Official Website: http://www.prsaboston.org/calendardetail.asp?ID=1