Bernard Gauthier

As I write this first in what I hope will be a regular series of postings, I am a few miles away from the Ottawa River – an impressive body of water that serves as the border between the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. Some would argue, it’s actually a border between two solitudes, two distinct societies, two quite different cultures. I’ll save that discussion for a later posting but I do want to stress that the border that I live near to is real and important.

It’s appropriate that I chose to live near a border since much of my life has been spent living on or near borders of all kinds. I was born in Quebec City into a French Canadian family (14^th generation, no less) but grew up in Ottawa, very much in English Canada. I studied in Montreal and worked in Toronto. Now settled in Ottawa, I get to live and work with a foot in each world – on the border. 

Likewise, I have worked in public relations and advertising for more than 20 years, now working as Managing Partner for a truly great PR firm – Delta Media.  I also, however, completed a BA and MA in communications and am now working on completing a PhD at Carleton University in the same field. So here too I live on the border between an academic’s view of communications and a practitioner’s perspective. I often cross the border several times in a single day (thank heavens there is no passport required).  Even the teaching I do plants me squarely on the border. I teach a course in advertising theory and history to third year Mass Communications students at the Carleton School of Journalism and Communication – very academic, theoretical and grounded in the past 100 years. I also teach a course in public relations to fourth-year Journalism students at the same university – very practical, hands-on, and grounded in the present and future of PR. 

In spite of being a tad bewildering and conflicting at times, there are distinct advantages to life at the border. For one, it’s interesting and dynamic here. One minute I’m dwelling on Dewey, Barthes or Williams, the next I’m considering the impact of the long tail on media relations practice. Second, the view from the border is great. I get to approach both sides from a very different vantage point. Great thinkers in communications help me to see my daily work in a new light; the challenges my clients and I face every day help me to approach great thinkers in a more informed and more realistic way. Win-win, it seems to me.  So my task with this blog and website will be to share with you the view from the border.

If all goes well, I’ll introduce readers to some new ideas (even if they are in fact very old ideas), I’ll stir up a little controversy (how can I miss with a focus on PR, politics and persuasion?), and I’ll generate a little feedback from folks on both sides of the many borders on which I live. My first posting would not be complete without a nod to my friend, former colleague and former student, Ryan Anderson. In one of those wonderful twists of modern life, a student in my advertising history and theory course has become a teacher – encouraging me to explore the impact of social media on advertising, sharing his keen insights on the topic, and even helping me with the technical challenges of getting this site up and running. Ryan’s own blog serves as a model and inspiration for this one and is worth a close look.