Class Notes What is Public Relations Definitions 10 08 2012 o A business of a interpreting o A need to please both management and the public even if the have different needs Why we have trouble defining public relations o In its formal sense public relations is only about 100 years old and is still o Sometimes when we say public relations we really mean one of its defining itself functional parts o Communication between management and the public middle man Started at the turn of the 20th century Journalists turned to work for capitalists Functional Parts of Public Relations Press Agentry to get the client noticed or talked about by the press o EX PT Barnum sports politicians Publicity information hopes that the media will share for free Institutional Advertising selling a class of products As a result it influences the public brand military o EX Got Milk Campaign the Campaign not telling you to buy a specific Public Affairs do a lot of community relations o EX Relations between Air force and community this promotes the Issues Management started in late 70 s They look in future to predict what will happen to manage what it might cause how to minimize these future potential problems This is done through research Lobbying to pass or defeat legislation through influencing Investor Relations big job is to take complicated financial statements turn into plain English so people can understand Government requires it so people can understand if more people can understand the more potential investors and they know how the company stands financially Development Fundraising is another word for it Spend your time asking people for money donations Quantifying Public Relations X Y Z X what an organization or individual does action Y how public interprets it Most important is Y perception is reality how people perceive or see things Z the public opinion that is formed Trends Affecting PR Growth of big institutions workers horrible o 3 major eras o Growth of big institutions came with a lot of problems b c they treated Manufacturing era Information 1900s Huge problems emerged Poor treatment of workers Terrible working conditions o 2 3 of all jobs are related to some sort of communication today o 60 2 3 jobs used to be all manufactuing Heightened public awareness and media sophistication o Cable smartphones Internet Information can be delivered and discovered in minutes Increasing incidence of societal change conflict and confrontation Globalization and the growing power of global media public opinion capitalism o The entire world is connected o Dominance of the Internet and growth of social media o Internet is running everything o Everything you want to know is at your fingertips Ancient Examples of PR Agricultural parchment on crops o Oldest known document was found in a bottle between Euphrates Tigris Rivers told you how to build more and better crops o Persuading people to do things in PR does not even have to be directly said Greek Sophists on political candidates and issues early lobbyists o Greek sophists were people who spoke in public places about politics government issues tried to persuade people to vote Julius Caesar s Commentaries on the Gallic Wars Magna Carta 1215 o Forced King John into signing document Catholic College of Propaganda o Group of priest who trained people to go out and talk about the Holy Roman Church and persuaded people to join Revolutionary War Era Slogans to foster participation o No taxation without representation Symbols o Jesus fish o Today recycling sign donkey and elephant McDonald s arch First to press o Give your story first and then the others react o Everyone wants to be first all other sides are on the defense o EX Boston Massacre story exaggerated Staged public relations events o Boston Tea Party o Occupy Wallstreet o Democratic and Republican Conventions Organizations for action o Sons of Liberty Publications o Thomas Paine Common Sense Fundraising Post Revolution History s Finest Public Relations Job o Articles of Confederation Each tax had own militia States taxed each other from imports and exports o The Federalist Papers A selling job to convince people to vote for new o When Andrew Jackson hired Amos Kendall to be press secretary He hired him to do a bunch of special events to help him look better o Created events and took credit for them to build a relationship with the constitution Creation of Events public Press Agentry o P T Barnum Modern Political Campaigning o Williams Jennings went out and started campaigning and making speeches v Mckinley This was never done before First Corporate Public Relations Department o Founded by George Westinghouse o First pubic relations department Early 1990s Events happened that caused PR to really happen The Muckrakers o Journalist who write about the bad things that were going on in big businesses EX Upton Sinclair The Jungle First Public Relations Firm o The Publicity Bureau founded in Boston and specialized in general press Public Relations Journal founded agentry o Rex Harlow AT T Theodore Vail Talked with other people in public relations business o President of AT T We have responsibility to our customers o It only existed as far as the public allowed them o They are only in business because of the public because the public lets them exist Early 1990s Ivy Lee o Journalist o Rockefeller hired Lee to be his spokesperson after the muckrakers o Lee turned the perception of the peoples thoughts about Rockefeller after attacked him the strikes o 1906 Pennsylvania Railroad Strike o 1914 Colorado Fuel and Iron Strike Some workers wanted to have unions Some people died Lee fixed everything changed perception of Rockefeller o Declaration of Principles Will assist the press and help them out Revolutionary PR used to just shut out the press o First to use hand outs Fact sheets Bullet points with facts Gave these sheets to press before an interview o Father of modern public relations World War I President Wilson realized that he had to sell the Americans the positive perception of the war 1917 Public needed to be informed about Germany George Creel o Committee on Public Information o Headed by George Creel his job was to create news releases o Four minute men people telegraphed overseas to Washington DC who telegraphed to all over the country Within 4 minutes these people would be out in the streets talking about what happened overseas These people would tell the American public the news The 1920 s Arthur Page AT T
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