Guest Editorial
by Wilma Mathews

(Ms. Mathews is the only two-time recipient of our Measurement Maven of the Month award. She wrote this editorial in response to Katie Delahaye Paine's editorial last month: "Stop teaching people to write press releases: Teach them out to measure instead.")

Every now and then, I begin to despair about our efforts to bring good research/measurement into the classroom and the profession.

Case in point: I received a request from a public information officer who is conducting research on the impacts of high profile media events on government agencies. She wanted to ask me some questions and also shared with me the questionnaire she had already sent to jurisdictions that have been the site of major media events.

That's when the despair began. She had ten questions, most of which could easily be answered but would not provide substantive, valuable, insightful or useful information. For example, instead of asking "Did you evaluate your media coverage? If so, how? What did you learn from the evaluations? How will you put that information to use in the future?", she asked "What was your overall impression of the media coverage."

I don't know this person, nor do I know if she had anyone guiding her on this research. I am concerned that, if she had a faculty advisor, that person failed by not helping to develop better questions in order to get better answers.

We know that research/measurement are not taught well, if at all, in PR sequences in college. On the professional level, all of us work in the trenches to re-train professionals about the value of research/measurement.

Here's the real despair: Is the effort to improve this situation coordinated enough, and large enough, that we can directly influence curriculum both in the classroom and in the profession? What more can we do?

I have two suggestions for the professional arena: First, let's focus hard on making sure that awards programs do not acknowledge or pay homage to any program that used false measures (impressions, for example) to declare success. This might irritate some people who make their money by guaranteeing great gobs of impressions, but it will help keep the focus on agencies and companies that do understand bottom-line measurement.

Second, let's make sure that accrediting bodies like PRSA and IABC have real, bottom-line measurement in their accreditation process (I know that IABC does but do not know about PRSA).

By testing professionals on their measurement knowledge and usage -- through awards programs and accreditation -- perhaps we can, indeed, achieve some advancement.

And perhaps, then, my despair will lift.

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