1 Public Relations Defined
Stuart Ewen writes in his book PR! A Social History of Spin that we are living at the age of public relations. He is referring to the relevance that this communication dynamic that we call PR has in almost every single aspect of our society: politics, business, social values and concerns, mass media, etc.
The goal of this lecture is to help you understand Ewen’s statement.
And the first step is to analyze some definitions of our concept: Public Relations (PR).
1.1 – PR Definitions:
1.1.1 – I will first introduce two neutral definitions.
The first one was created by Grunig, James E. and Hunt, Tood, two relevant PR scholars, in his classic Managing Public Relations (1984)
“Public relations is the management of communication between an organization and its public.” (p.6)
The next neutral definition was crafted by Carl Botan in his article
“Public Relations as a Science. Implications of Cultural Differences and International Events” (1992)
“Public relations is the use of communication to adapt relationships between organizations and its publics” (p.20)
Some keywords to understand the meaning of those definitions:
Management: PR practitioners have the capacity to take decisions over personnel and budget (people and money). This is basically what a management function is.
Communication: PR is, first of all, a communication industry. Communication strategies and techniques are the instruments we have to achieve our goals.
Public or Publics: Publics, the plural form, is actually more accurate. One of the first steps in the PR process is to accurately define which the target audience of our messages will be. For successful messages need to be tailored to the characteristics of those audiences.
We differentiate between internal and external audiences.
Examples of internal audiences: In profit organizations, employees, or stockholders provide examples of internal audiences. In non-profit organizations, members, donors, volunteers are also considered internal audiences.
Examples of external audiences: Current or prospective customers of products or services, governmental officials, voters, mass media, comunity.
1.1.2 – These two definitions highlight the most obvious aspects of Public relations, but they do not help us understand which is the nature of the relationships that we are establishing with our target audience. Thus, we will need to keep exploring more definitions of PR.
The next two ones try to present the PR profession in the most positive light, both emphasizes the social function of PR.
Cutlip, Scott M. / Center, A. H. / Broom, G. M.
“Effective Public Relations” (1985)
“Public relations is the management function that identifies, establishes, and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the various publics on whom its success or failure depends”. (p.4)
Harlow, Rex F.
“Building a Public Relations Definition”.
In: Public Relations Review (1976)
“Public Relations is a distinctive management function which help establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, acceptance and cooperation between an organization and its publics; involves the management of problems or issues; helps management to keep informed on and responsive to public opinion; defines and emphasizes the responsibility of management to serve the public interest; helps management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change, serving as an early warning system to help anticipate trends; and uses research and sound and ethical communication techniques as its principal tools”. (p.36)
Some new key concepts in those definitions:
Mutually beneficial relationships: PR is an activity that will not only benefit the company or organization, but also the different target audiences we are dealing with.
To serve the public interest: Similar to what I just said. The PR activity fulfills an important social function.
Sound and ethical communications techniques: PR practitioners are (should be) committed to the ideal of ethical communication, which presupposes that communication can also be used unethically. We will see later on how.
As I said, these two definitions try to present PR in the best positive light.
However, it is evident that in many cases the public interest and the interest of your company or organizations may be in conflict.
Imagine this situation:
You are working for a big tobacco company and are asked to organize a communication campaign. You have following data available to start it:
- Not even 8% of the smoking population changes the brand in their smoking life.
- Not even 10% of smokers are able to quit smoking.
The first step in the development of the campaign would be to define your target audience. With those data, you will be addressing a very young target audience because you know that the probability that they change the brand or quit smoking is rather low. If the campaign is effective you will get long-term loyal customers.
In this case it is obvious that sometimes the benefit of the company is in conflict with the public benefit. You would be creating a dangerous addiction in people whose personality may not be completely formed yet.
Is it unethical to do PR work for a tobacco company?
Well, this will be the topic for our first discussion forum. But before you post your comments, you should read the next lecture in this module on the topic: Ethics and Communication.
(By the way, I strongly encourage you to watch the movie Thank You for Smoking, by Jason Reitman. In this movie you can learn some important lessons in PR).
1.1.3 – Now I am going to give you two realistic definitions of what Public Relations is. I prefer those definitions because they will better prepare you for the reality of this professional field.
Interestingly, the authors of those definitions are not PR scholars, but PR practitioners with long experience in the field.
Edward M. Stanton describes the activity of the PR practitioner as:
“working with clients on strategy and messages, and then delivering these messages to target audiences in order to persuade them to do something that is beneficial to the client.”
Harold Burson, the chair of the firm Burson and Marsteller, together with Hill and Knowlton, perhaps the most important PR firm in this country – and this is to say in the world – defines his own work as follows:
“We are advocates, and we need to remember that. We are advocates of a particular point of view – our client’s or our employer’s point of view. And while we recognized that serving the public interest best serves our client’s interest, we are not journalist. That’s not our Job”.
New key words in those definitions:
Persuasion: PR is a persuasion industry. You will have to create messages and the objective of those messages is not to look for the mutual benefit, but to persuade a particular target audience.
Advocacy: I like the idea of presenting the PR people as advocates. Advocates have to defend their clients – even if they are aware that their clients are guilty. In case of Conflict between the Public interest and the interest of your employer you will have to choose: either to defend your employer, or to quit the job.
1.2 – Related Terms
In our next step, we will try to explain how Public Relations differ from related fields and concepts: journalism, marketing, and advertising, and propaganda
1.2.1 – Journalism and PR have always gone hand in hand – Most of the pioneers in this professional field had been working as journalists before they started their PR careers. And the main function of those pioneers was to serve as link between the company and the different corporations they were working for. As a matter of fact, they called themselves press agents.
Also nowadays those fields are strongly related. Still, there are some differences that you to need to understand:
Work – the PR-practitioner has to work closely with the media because this is the channel that we use to reach our target audiences. PR practitioners need to know how to write press releases, features stories, opinion pieces, etc. They should also be familiar with audiovisual strategies to produce audio or video news releases or public services announcements.
However, the scope of the professional activity of the PR practitioner is broader. PR agencies also offer counseling services, event planning, research programs, etc…
Objective –The job of the journalist is (should be) to inform his/her audience.
The PR Counsel tries actually to persuade this audience.
Audience – Journalists have a mass-audience (not well defined and anonymous). PR practitioners have to carefully select the segment of the population they want to address and to tailor their messages to the characteristics of those audiences. This will be a recurrent idea in this course.
1.2.2 – Marketing and PR are also closely related. PR is part of he so-called Marketing Mix, and thus, subordinated to the strategic goals of the marketing department.
We regard marketing as the activity to build and/or maintain markets for the organization’s products or services.
PR contributes to this generic goal creating a favorable opinion, a friendly environment toward the company.
1.2.3 – Advertising is also a form of persuasive communication, which is the reason why sometimes this professional field and PR overlap.
Advertising messages normally focus on a specific product or service. They directly tell the target audiences the advantages of those product or services.
The traditional function of PR is different. We do not directly talk about the excellence of particular products, but aim our messages to the creation of TRUST in the name behind those products.
Plus, Advertising normally pays for time (Radio, TV) or space (Newspapers, magazines) to place their messages. PR is a more sophisticated activity. PR practitioners try to get the attention of the media with special events. They also sent news releases to the media to get the attention of their target audiences without having to pay for it.
1.3 – Basic Knowledge and Skills
Now that we have an exact idea of what PR is, we should briefly go over the basic knowledge and skills a PR practitioner should posses.
1.3.1 –Strategic and Operational Management Knowledge:
Most of the definitions discussed in this lecture emphasize that PR is a management function. If you decide to start a career in this professional field, you will have to be able to develop strategies to reach established objectives.
You will also have to deal with budgets and people.
1.3.2 – Public Opinion
The title of the first book ever published on the subject PR was “Crystallizing Public Opinion” (by Edward L. Bernays). – This is also the best description of what PR is all about. You will have to know and to understand which is the nature of this social-psychological phenomenon, in order to be able to deal with it.
1.3.3 – Research, Public Opinion Research:
Market and Media Research – find out the different audiences.
Research is the basis of the communication strategies in Public Relations.
You have to find out the bias in Public Opinion, or the opinion in the public segment you want to influence.
This knowledge is also important for the evaluation of your campaigns, when you try to find out the outcomes of your campaigns.
1.3.4 – Mass Media:
The PR practitioner is also a Media-Specialist. – Mass Media are the vehicle PR people use to reach their target audiences. They have to know exactly which is the difference between those vehicles, so that they are able to choose the right one. PR specialists also need to be perfectly aware of the Effects of Mass Media on individual and society.
1.3.5 – Persuasion:
PR – I will have to repeat this idea several times in this course – is a persuasion industry. Thus, we must familiarize ourselves with different strategies to maximize the influence on attitudes and behaviors of our target audiences.
1.4 – PR Services
PR companies normally offer a variety of services. The most relevant of those services are:
1.4.1 – Promotion of Product and Services
As a part of the marketing communication mix, PR departments and firms help promote Product and Services. To this end, they use a plethora of instruments, such as news releases, brochures, media tours, etc.
1.4.1.a – Events Management
The most common strategy to promote product or to enhance the visibility of the company is the staging of special events. Some examples of those events are Press Conferences, Anniversary Celebrations, Symposiums, etc…
1.4.2 – Speech training
PR firms have specialist in speech writing and delivering. Frequently the prepare speeches for top managers and executives and also for politicians.
1.4.3 – Research and Evaluation:
Scientific research of Public attitudes and perceptions as well as media analysis are essential to design communication campaigns. Information is, also in PR, gold.
1.4.4 – Crisis Communication:
Crisis communication is, no doubt, the most fascinating research field in PR. On the other hand, it is the worst time for the PR practitioner. When corporations get into the eye of the media hurricane, they need the assistance of professionals. Some PR firms specialized themselves in crisis communication. We will dedicate one of our leaning modules to the subject of crisis management.
1.4.5 – Intern Communication:
An important part of the PR activity is directed toward internal audiences. In the case of profit organizations, the goal of such internal PR actions is to motivate the own employees, to create a positive working atmosphere so that employees identify themselves with the objectives and values of the company.
1.4.6 – Community Relations:
In this case, the strategic goal is to create a friendly environment around the Company, so that it can get official and public support if, for example, the management wants to expand a factory or build a new one.
1.5 – PR Actors
Finally, we will mention the 4 basic actors in the world of Public Relations. We can establish following categories.
1.5.1 – private and profit seeking organizations
(any corporation you can name)
1.5.2 – private and not profit seeking organizations
(Red Cross, Greenpeace, Sierra Club, MADD, etc. Characteristic of this group is that they are financially independent from the state.)
1.5.3 – public and profit seeking organizations
(it is difficult to find examples of this group of organizations in the U.S. In Europe, many airlines, railway companies, banks, even tobacco companies belong to the state. In the U.S. there are some lottery organizations that belong to the state and try to generate revenues for it. If you can think of any organization that belongs to this group in this country, please let me know).
1.5.4 – public and non profit seeking organizations
(to this group belong all the governmental agencies, public universities, and institutions that are funded by the state).
2 Ethics and Communication
Have you ever heard the word SPIN referred to the PR activity?
It is frequent that this word is used, above all in the media discourse, as synonym of PR. In some cases, PR counsels are called “SPIN doctors”.
Of course, this word, SPIN, has mostly pejorative connotations. It assumes that the job of PR people is “to spin the truth”.
Click on the link bellow to see an example of a “spin doctor” in action.
To understand this negative image of the PR business, it is necessary, first of all, to discuss the power of communication as a means to influence masses of people. In this regard, we need to deal with the term PROPAGANDA. Then we will analyze the relationship between Propaganda and PR.
2.1 – Propaganda:
Let me start this brief digression about propaganda recommending you a book:
“Age of Propaganda”, by Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson
These two authors define propaganda as follows:
“Propaganda is mass suggestion or influence through the manipulation of symbols and the psychology of the individual”
This definition is a reminiscence of the one crafted by Harold L. Laswell, one of the pioneers in the scholarly field of communication studies.
Laswell defined propaganda as
“The manipulation of symbols as a means of influencing attitudes on controversial matters”
In the first case, propaganda is presented as a form of mass persuasion, i.e. the goal in propaganda messages is always intended to reach mass audiences.
Both definitions emphasize that propaganda works on the basis of a manipulation of symbols. Symbols, which are normally attached to strong values, are always effective when it comes to create a common ground with the audience. Symbols are an important instrument in the PR practice, as well.
Still, characteristic of PROPAGANDA is not the use of symbols, but their manipulation.
What does the word manipulation mean? And how can symbols be manipulated?
The next definition by J. Michael Sproule (1994) gives us a clue:
“Propaganda represents the work of large organizations or groups to win over the public for special interests through a massive orchestration of attractive conclusions packaged to conceal both their persuasive purpose and the lack of sound supporting reasons”.
In persuasive communication, we talk about manipulation when we are hiding the persuasive intention of our messages. We manipulate symbols when we use the values attached to them to create a common ground with the audience we try to persuade and without them being aware that we are trying to influence their attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. The strong emotional effect of symbols can also be used, in case of manipulation, to avoid a critical and rational approach to the contents of the persuasive messages.
It seems that nowadays the word PROPAGANDA has an eminently negative meaning. The term is mostly applied to designate the dark side of the communication business. Communication can become a powerful weapon, and it can be use with devastating effects. In such cases we talk about propaganda.
However, the word propaganda did not always have such pejorative connotations.
The term – a Latin one – was used for the first time by Pope Gegory XV in the 17th Century (1622) when he established a new congregation:
the SACRA CONGREGATIO DE PROPAGANDA FIDE
(The “Sacred Congregation for propagating the catholic faith).
The substantive PROPAGANDA comes from the Latin verb PROPAGARE, and this verb means “to propagate”, “to spread”.
Originally, the meaning or the word was totally neutral. The goal of the new congregation was to spread the catholic faith around the world.
Which is then the origin of the bad reputation of the word propaganda today?
The answer to this question is the misuse of communication by some groups and political regimes in their propaganda efforts in order to achieve their political, religious, or economic goals.
Please read carefully the following statement about propaganda principles:
“A carefully built up erection of statements, which whether true or false can be made to undermine quite rigidly held ideas and to construct new ones that will take their place. It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. What after all are a square and a circle? They are mere words and words can be molded until they clothe ideas in disguise”.
The author of those infamous words is Dr. Joseph Goebbels. Maybe you are already familiar with this name. If not, you should know that Goebbels was Adolph Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda. Goebbels was certain that any idea, if it is effectively communicated, will be perceived as truth, even that a square is a circle. Words – the language – are flexible and can be adapted to the objectives of the propagandists.
Other cardinals rules in the NAZI propaganda:
– appeal to emotions
– constant repetition of a few ideas
– use of Stereotypes
– constant search for enemies of the state
– Concentrate in one special enemy for special vilification
Examples of Nazi Propaganda:
With such images, Goebbels was able to mesmerize the German Population. An this in spite of the Millennial tradition of the German Culture (German was the language of Goethe, Schopenhauer, Kant, Hegel, and Germany was the country of Beethoven and Brahms)
Joseph Goebbels was aware of the power of the mass media – in this regard he was a visionary – and controlled print media, radio stations, and even movies. Every film produced in Germany during the Nazi regime had to be revised and accepted by Goebbels’s Ministry of Propaganda.
2.2 – PR and Propaganda
The Nazi propaganda is one of the reasons why the word has now such negative connotations. However, if we are able to put aside the contents, we will see that strategies, techniques and channels of propaganda do not differ much from the ones used in PR.
PR is also a form of persuasive communication that frequently uses symbols to appeal to the emotions of large target audiences in order to achieve its strategic goals. Those goals can be ethically impeccable, like, for instance, persuading people to donate blood.
The German communication scholars Michael Kunczik and Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, both very familiar with the strategies of the NAZIs, even deny that there is a difference between PR and propaganda. They affirm that the rise of the term PR is an attempt to avoid the bad connotations the word propaganda had gained throughout history.
Now, even the term PR has some negative connotations, which is the reason why, as I said at the beginning of this lecture, the word spin is frequently used to refer to the PR activity.
PR scholars and practitioners dedicate serious efforts to clean up the reputation of the professional field. They frequently emphasized the commitment of PR professionals to the idea of “sound and ethical communication techniques”.
3 PRSA’s code of Ethics
In the film Days of Wine and Roses, directed by Blake Edwards in 1962, we can see an example of an ethical deadend that is inherent to the PR profession.
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is the most important professional association in this field in the United States.
If you go to the following link you will find a exhaustive discussion of the code of ethics elaborated by this organization. First of all, the members of this organization state the values inherent to the profession. Then the specify principles of conduct in situations that commonly occur in the actual professional practice.
Here, you will also find a summary of this code of ethics.
FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION
Core Principle
Protecting and advancing the free flow of accurate and truthful information is essential to serving the public interest and contributing to informed decision making in a democratic society.
Intent
- To maintain the integrity of relationships with the media, government officials, and the public.
- To aid informed decision-making.
COMPETITION
Core Principle
Promoting healthy and fair competition among professionals preserves an ethical climate while fostering a robust business environment.
Intent
- To promote respect and fair competition among public relations professionals.
- To serve the public interest by providing the widest choice of practitioner options.
DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION
Core Principle
Open communication fosters informed decision making in a democratic society.
Intent
- To build trust with the public by revealing all information needed for responsible decision making.
SAFEGUARDING CONFIDENCES
Core Principle
Client trust requires appropriate protection of confidential and private information.
Intent
- To protect the privacy rights of clients, organizations, and individuals by safeguarding confidential information.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Core Principle
Avoiding real, potential or perceived conflicts of interest builds the trust of clients, employers, and the publics.
ENHANCING THE PROFESSION
Core Principle
Public relations professionals work constantly to strengthen the public’s trust in the profession.
Intent
- To build respect and credibility with the public for the profession of public relations.
To improve, adapt and expand professional practices.