What is Public Relations?
Note: This section relates to material in Chapter 1 in the text.
Definitions of Public Relations
More than a hundred definitions can be found for public relations. In Chapter 1, the authors review
several good ones:
A simple definition focuses on the fact that public relations involves facilitating communication and
defines the practice as
o
the management of communication between an organization and its publics.
The word between is important. Today, public relations is considered a two–way function:
o
Outbound communication involves telling the organization’s story by delivering information and
news to important audiences, referred to as publics.
o
Inbound communication involves listening to those same audiences, collecting anecdotes and
gauging their opinions about the organization and its performance.
This is a modern approach to public relations and lays the foundation for two more advanced
definitions found in the book:
Long and Hazelton define public relations as:
o
a communication function of management through which organizations adapt to, alter or
maintain their environment [for] achieving organizational goals.
Cutlip, Center and Broom provide a four-part definition that suggests public relations is:
o
a management function
o
that identifies, establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships
o
between an organization
o
and the publics upon whom its success or failure depends.
These definitions suggest that public relations serves an important function in most organizations. Yet
these definitions can be somewhat abstract. Different organizations might define public relations in
different ways. As you read Chapter 1 and the first several chapters of the book, consider different
ways you might define public relations.
Components of Public Relations
Ideas represented in this wordcloud comprise the lexicon of public relations today.
One reason public relations is difficult to define is that the field often subsumes a large number of
activities. These are outlined in the text.
Activities commonly associated with public relations include:
o
Media relations
o
Publicity
o
Community Relations
o
Government relations/lobbying
o
Investor relations
o
Development/fundraising
o
Special events management
o
Promotions
o
Marketing communication
In addition, public relations people:
o
often advise clients on policies and practices that will make it possible to establish or maintain
good relationships with key constituencies, and
o
conduct research to support their counseling activities and to help organizations develop a
better understanding about people and their opinions.
Public Relations Versus Other Functions
A useful way to better understand public relations is to know what public relations is not.
Indeed, public relations can be differentiated from several other functions commonly found in
organizations. Public relations also differs from journalism, although it draws heavily upon journalistic
skills to create communications directed to key audiences. These differences are examined in the
second half of Chapter 1.
Public relations is not marketing.
Public relations is often confused with the marketing function because public relations people
frequently help to promote an organization, its products, services or cause. Going back to the
definition of public relations as the management of communication, public relations can be thought of
as a narrower field of endeavor that focuses on the exchange of information and news between an
organization and key publics.
Marketers are involved in an array of activities that extend far beyond public relations. They often
describe their function as the identification and fulfillment of customer wants and needs, usually for
products or services. Marketing thus involves 4Ps: product, price, place and promotion.
o
Product includes activities related to the development and design of products, including their
packaging.
o
Pricing involves determining how much to charge, including the possible use of discounts.
o
Place involves deciding where to make a product available, such as retail stores versus the web,
and all the logistics involved in distributing the product, including warehousing and the
management of retail outlets.
o
Promotion involves creating incentives and enticing a potential customer to purchase a product.
Here, marketers often think about public relations and publicity as part of the promotion mix.
Public relations is not sales.
Public relations is sometimes confused with the sales function in organizations. Sales involves the
person-to-person presentation of a product or service to a customer. Sales people often have sales
goals, and sometimes are compensated based on the quantity of sales they handle. Sales people also
are involved in negotiating terms of a sale, or in collecting funds from customers for services
rendered. Public relations people, as facilitators of communication, handle none of these duties.
The confusion between public relations and sales is evident because many sales people are told their
duties include "public relations," or establishing and maintaining personal relationships with
customers. They are encouraged to ingratiate themselves with customers, so that they personally
(and the organization) will be liked. However, individual sales people do not have organization–wide
duties; their communications activities are usually limited to one–on–one communications, such as
personal meetings, telephone calls or correspondence with particular customers.
Public relations is not advertising.
Although the two functions are often considered similar, advertising involves the purchase of space (in
print media) or time (in broadcast media) to promote products and services. Advertising, as an
industry, operates separately from public relations and generally earns its income from commissions
paid by media outlets, rather than merely fees paid by clients to produce messages.
Advertising agencies specialize in producing paid messages, such as TV commercials, to promote products and
services; public relations can be used to promote products but relies on free or "earned" media exposure, such as
features on TV news and entertainment shows and newspaper and magazine feature stories.
Advertising can be a tool used in many public relations campaigns, particularly when it's important to
control the timing and content of messages. However, public relations techniques often focus on
approaches other than advertising that often cost significantly less. People are often skeptical about
the motives behind advertising, but generally less resistant to public relations messages.
Public relations is not publicity.
One of the most commonly used tools in public relations is publicity. For purposes of this course, we’ll
define publicity as the dissemination of news and information about an organization, usually through
mass media (newspapers, magazines, radio or television). Sales people, for example, do not have as
one of their primary responsibilities gaining media visibility for an organization.
The confusion between public relations and publicity is not surprising. After all, public relations
evolved out of the need of organizations to use the news media to communicate with key audiences.
However, modern public relations is much more than publicity. For example, public relations activities
might be carried out without using the press. Examples include using the internet, printed
publications, group events and one–on–one communications. While many clients look to public
relations to optimize exposure in the press, public relations involves far more than publicity.
Public relations is not journalism.
Finally, it might be useful to differentiate between a public relations practitioner and a journalist. PR
people who are responsible for publicity and media relations often employ journalistic skills, such as
the ability to write an interesting, hard–hitting news story, to tell their client’s story. Yet public
relations practitioners and journalists have different responsibilities.
Although they often employ journalistic skills, public relations representatives typically serve as advocates for clients,
whereas as journalists seek out information they believe their audiences need or want to know.
A public relations practitioner serves as a representative for a particular organization, product or
service, candidate or cause. As such, the practitioner’s allegiance is to the client. The practitioner's job
is to articulate an organization's story forcefully and clearly. In this sense, PR people are advocates
who use journalistic skills.
By contrast, a journalist is a communicator who works for a third–party organization that is in the
business of providing news and information that people want and need. Journalists serve as an
important function in society by sifting through available information, summarizing it, and then
reporting it to their audiences.
In screening information, journalists serve as gatekeepers, who make judgments about the relevance
and veracity of all of the information available. In turn, their audiences expect journalists to supply
information that is informative, balanced and objective (provides alternative perspectives as a matter
of fairness). As a result, PR practitioners and journalists are sometimes at odds.
Why Public Relations?
Note: This section provides an overview for Chapter 2 in the text.
Consider this: In a perfect world, there would be no need for public relations.
People would be fully informed about what was happening in society. All public policy decisions would
be made for us to everyone's satisfaction. All our human wants and needs would be met. There would
no conflicts.
Unfortunately, we don't live in a utopian world. This makes the need for public relations essential.
As Chapter 2 details, modern public relations is mostly a creation of the 20th century. Although its
antecedents can be traced to ancient times, the ideas of publicity and public relations, as we know
them, evolved in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Three broad trends contributed to PR’s evolution.
Increased Complexity of Society
A variety of factors converged in the 1800s that made society more complex than in previous times.
Many people converged on cities in the 1880s and 1890s in search of employment and a better life.
Classical sociologists refer to this shift as one from community to society. This was a period in which
societies in Western Europe and America changed from being primarily agricultural to industrial.
People moved from the country to the cities. Immigration contributed to this urbanization, which was
made possible by the creation of jobs by large industrial organizations.
What were the consequences of all these changes? Many people felt disconnected, or lacked a sense of
community. The psychological effect was anomie, or a sense of alienation. Bringing together so many
diverse peoples—with different values and beliefs—created the potential for differences of opinion. The
period was a classic test of American democratic pluralism, or the notion that people with differing
viewpoints should be able to co–exist and that we should maintain respect for people holding different
opinions or values.
Rise of Large Organizations, Mass Media and Big Government
Along with the increased complexity of society came the rise of large industrial concerns. Companies
devoted to manufacturing and transportation became important economic forces. In their earliest
years, these concerns were able to produce and market products however they wanted. In 1882,
railroad baron William Vanderbilt summarized the attitude of business with his now famous quote,
"The public be damned." However, the public soon became alarmed about actual and potential abuses.
Companies learned that they had to be more sensitive to public sentiment in order to be successful.
One of the most important changes that occurred was the rise of large–scale newspapers and
magazines. In the United States, for example, during the 1890s, newspapers and magazines became
increasingly influential with their audiences. This was the period of “yellow” (sensationalized)
journalism, which was quickly followed by the “Muckraking” period, where major magazine writers
started to challenge the practices of Big Business. A sympathetic government responded by passing
various laws to reform business abuses during the Progressive Era.
For–profit businesses recognized that they had to do a better job to communicate with the public. At
the same time, not–for–profit organizations started to realize that they could use the media to help
advance their causes. The mass media had become a force to be reckoned with.
Interdependency
A final factor that led to the rise of modern public relations was the interdependency of people on
organizations, and the need for information.
People became increasingly dependent on news and information from others, some of which they obtained through
new media, such as radio. PR people helped supply information people needed.
As organizations became more complex, it became incumbent upon them to supply information to
employees as well as people who used their products or services. Moreover, it became a necessity as
people started to ask them for timely and accurate information. Following the Stock Market Crash of
1929, new laws made it a requirement for public companies to furnish accurate and timely information
to stockholders. The demand for information led organizations to appoint staff members whose
responsibilities were to interface with people both outside and inside the organization. Information
became an important commodity that would facilitate the management of the organization, and
improve its effectiveness and efficiency. People
Historical Highlights
Note: This section relates to material in Chapter 2 in the text.
Chapter 2 examines the development of public relations through the years. Read the text to gain an
understanding of how public relations evolved in the context of major events taking place in society.
Don't try to memorize every name, date or accomplishment. Focus on developments that might be of
special interest to you.
To understand the milestone contributions of practitioners of the PR practice, it’s valuable to focus on
three key people of the 20th century—even though many other people helped shape modern public
relations.
Ivy Lee: A Focus on Truth and Service
Many people consider the "father of modern public relations" to be a former newspaperman with the
unusual name of Ivy Ledbetter Lee. Lee worked from about 1904 to 1934 for a wide range of notable
clients, including the wealthy Rockefeller family.
Ivy Lee
Lee was notable as the first PR counsel to stress the importance of truth and openness when business
organizations dealt with the press. Prior to Lee, much publicity work involved puffery or hype with
little regard to accuracy. Many publicists would say anything to get their client's name in the
newspaper. Similarly, organizations were notorious for not cooperating with the press. They were
frequently not available or simply refused to answer questions.
Lee advised clients that in order to deal effectively with the press, it was necessary to help reporters
get stories and to make sure that information was factual or verifiable.
His philosophy, which provided the foundation for modern practice, was contained in his Declaration of
Principles, which was distributed widely to the press in 1906. In part, it reads:
This is not a secret press bureau. All our work is done in the open. We aim to supply news. This is not
an advertising agency; if you think our matter ought properly to go to your business office
[advertising department], please do not use it. Our matter is accurate. Further details on any subject
treated will be supplied promptly, and any editor will be assisted most cheerfully in verifying directly
any statement of fact. …
Lee represented a markedly different approach from the way most publicists of his day worked. The
text reviews Lee's accomplishments and his legacy.
Edward L. Bernays: Applying Social Science Concepts
Lee began his career before World War I, and never used the term "public relations" until much later
in his career. At the end of war, a second major figure emerged in the field as a counselor to major
organizations: Edward L. Bernays.
Bernays was the first practitioner to describe himself as a "public relations counselor" and wrote one
of the first books on the field, Crystallizing Public Opinion in 1923. Note: Various books on modern
publicity were written at the same time. Bernays was also the first person to teach a course in public
relations, offered at New York University.
Edward L. Bernays
After working as a theatrical press agent before the war, and later on the staff of the Office of War
Information during World War I, Bernays began a counseling firm that was heavily involved in product
promotion in the early 1920s. His client roster came to match Lee's in terms of the prominence of
clients served.
Among the clients he served were the American Tobacco Company and the General Electric Company.
For American Tobacco, he helped popularize the Lucky Strike brand and made it more socially
acceptable for women to smoke in public. Although the encouragement of smoking might be
considered questionable today, Bernays' work in 1927 for American Tobacco led to a major change in
public attitudes. Two years later, he orchestrated for General Electric a worldwide celebration for the
50th anniversary of the invention of the electric light bulb, the "Golden Jubilee of Light." Although his
client was hardly even mentioned, GE benefited from the effort to recognize the contribution of
Thomas Alva Edison (who was still alive) and the contributions that the light bulb made to progress.
Using a worldwide radio broadcast, the Jubilee included the simultaneous switching on of lights by
people around the world.
Bernay's major contribution to public relations was his focus on understanding and modifying human
behavior through the application of social science. Bernays had an advantage because he was the
nephew of Sigmund Freud. Bernays applied many of his uncle’s ideas involving psychoanalysis to
human behavior.
Easter Parade
In the case of women smoking cigarettes, for example, Bernays embraced and promoted the
psychoanalytic argument that cigarettes represented "torches of freedom" for repressed women. In
1927, he convinced a group of New York debutants and their escorts to walk down Fifth Avenue in the
Easter Parade while smoking cigarettes. Their women's action caused a sensation and was widely
covered in the newspapers. Within six weeks, New York theaters opened their smoking lounges to
women.
Bernays argued that public relations was an applied social science and that successful PR involved
understanding psychology, sociology and anthropology.
See the text for additional details on Bernays and his wife and professional partner, Doris Fleischman.
Arthur W. Page: Integrating Public Relations into Corporate Management
Arthur W. Page
The third important figure in the early development of PR was the first vice president of public
relations at American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The company had historically demonstrated
enlightened views about dealing with the public. This focus was necessitated by the fact that ATT was
an amalgamation of local, independently owned telephone companies that were brought together
beginning at the turn of the 19th century. Every acquisition involved carefully addressing local
concerns about the loss of control over the local telephone system.
In 1927, Arthur W. Page was editor of Working World and a principal in the magazine's New York–
based publishing company, Doubleday & Page.
When Page was asked to join ATT, he said he would only do so on his terms. He insisted that he have
a role in formulating corporate policy and that public relations serve in a major advisory capacity, not
merely perform publicity activities.
For the next two decades, Page was a trend–setter in the field. He was one of the first to recognize
the importance of good internal communications. By informing employees about what the company
was doing, Page thought that employees could do a better job in representing the firm. He also was
one of the first corporate executives to embrace the new technique of survey research, which was
made possible through the discovery of statistical sampling theory. Surveys allowed ATT and other
organizations to measure public opinion quantitatively.
Page was also an early advocate of corporate social responsibility. Page's enlightened views are well
summarized in this now–famous statement about the responsibility of business. It serves as a useful
credo for any organization today:
All business in a democratic society begins with public permission and exists by public approval. If that
be true, it follows that business be cheerfully willing to tell the public what its policies are, what it is
doing, and what it hopes to do. This seems practically a duty.
Major Trends Important to Public Relations
Note: This section relates to material in Chapter 2 in the text.
Chapter 2 concludes by outlining a dozen trends in contemporary society that have important
consequences for organizations and that are also shaping the need for public relations in the 21st
century.
These trends are not materially different from what was happening a hundred years ago when public
relations emerged as a professional discipline and as a set of activities in society.
The complex society in which we live continues to influence public relations through the increased
attention being devoted to issues management, and the proliferation of publics with different
priorities. The potential for conflict is readily seen in protests about foreign political involvements and
environmental concerns.
The rise of the mass media has been succeeded by the advent of even more challenging forms of
communication, including satellite broadcasting and the Internet. These new technologies have
collapsed our notions of time and space. Organizations today must be able to communicate rapidly, in
real time, and not merely produce a news release for tomorrow morning's newspaper.
The interdependence between people and organizations is evident in the globalization of the economy
and of media relations. The rise of the multinational organization has created new challenges for how
organization managers relate to ever–divergent populations around the world.
These trends make public relations a challenging—and rewarding—field for everyone involved in the
practice.