"Houston, we have a problem"

Over the weekend, I was invited to attend the Southern Public Relations Federation conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Going into the conference, I had absolutely no clue as to what specialization I wanted to go into in my major. My major is communications but unfortunately LSUA does not have a program where you can specialize into anything.

During the conference, I went to a panel where 3 women talked about their experience with the Gulf Oil Spill. The first woman was from the Restaurant Association in New Orleans, the second lady was one of the press secretaries to Bobby Jindal and the last woman was the Vice President of Public Affairs at Southern Mississippi. Hearing those 3 women speak made me realize what all they do and go through. Their jobs seem very stressful but they mostly deal with the press during a crisis. These people are the ones that have to come out and tell the public what is really going on. They have to be open and honest.

The woman who was on the Restaurant Association had to clear up with the public that no restaraunt woud be serving contaminated seafood from the gulf. So many businesses were losing business because they did not want to get sick and die from the oil. The woman who was the press secretary of Jindal was the gatekeeper of the media. She recieved all the press relaeases and picked through them to which ones would be printed and which ones would stay out. She had stories that were so untrue that she was glad to be able to throw them out. The last lady had a really cool job. She was called in by all these national broadcasting companies to plan  interviews with big people like Katie Couric. She would get her top researchers to speak to the press about the oil spill.

This panel really excited me. First reason is all of these people got to be on TV. Being on a national news outlet is probably the 2nd thing that I would love to be a part of as a profession. These 3 women got to deal with the press on the phone and in person. To me that is quite exciting.  Secondly these women had important jobs not only to the public but also to the government. Their jobs were so important to keeping the public calm in a crisis. I enjoy writing and I enjoy speaking too.

I am interested in so many fields of communication. I am really open to any job that I can get. I love TV, radio, marketing, advertising, public relations, and broadcasting. I would love to develop a campaign and do strategic planning. All of that excites me and I have developed a passion for it all.