Timothy Curtis 21/12/2010
Why I chose PR?
My name is Timothy Curtis I’m aged 19, and currently studying PR and Marketing at Leeds Metropolitan University. When challenged to explain why I chose PR, with a view of pursuing it as a career. I realised that my response wasn’t going to be as complex as I had expected it to be. In actual fact it breaks down into a handful of set goals that I wish to achieve over a period of years.
I have a great interest in sports, especially football which leads me onto where I wish to take my Public Relations and Marketing qualification in the future. With PR beginning to take over journalism I wish to set my sights on representing a large sporting organisation such as, The FA or RFU for example to gain a broad range of experience. Due to the size of the organisations in question I feel it’s a lot more realistic to expect to gain a position with them as a post graduate.
However after establishing myself with in such an organisation I would be looking to represent a football club as part of their Public Relations and Marketing team. Agreed I have set my targets high but after giving the course content a thorough read, I feel it will equip me with the necessary skills and qualifications tackle PR in the real world. With the course offering a year’s work experience it would allow me walk into a PR role with a lot more transparency and ease that someone who had not.
The reason for me wishing to be a part of the sporting PR world is because I believe that the media, in some cases, are generating a lot of fabricated and negative stories. This in turn is damaging to the image of certain sports, individual clubs and sports players. Admittedly the behaviour of some individuals only exacerbates the negative attitude towards them.
I’m perfectly aware of the amount one person can change but in rising through the ranks for whichever organisation I happened to be representing. I would hope that I could both market and defend that organisation without, adding fuel a potential fire or misleading the public in anyway. Hopefully in a higher position it would be possible to change opinions and influence in the public.
Another big factor for me choosing PR is that I feel my people skills coupled with my competent understanding of the English language, would play a big part in me being able to sway people’s opinions and reach a good level of understanding with the public. I
Although it seems I have a pretty key holed direction in which I wish to take my PR career this isn’t to say that something won’t turn up during the next few years which changes my plans all together. I refuse to rule anything out but this is why I originally chose to study PR. Hopefully I have successfully listed my reasons for choosing PR as a course at Leeds Metropolitan University.
I'd say you are in a good place to gain experience of sports PR. Did you follow up the opportunity I introduced at the start of the course to write reports on university sports teams?
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