What is Public Relations?DefinitionsA business of a interpretingA need to please both management and the public even if the have different needsWhy we have trouble defining public relationsIn its formal sense, public relations is only about 100 years old and is still defining itself.Sometimes when we say public relations, we really mean one of its functional parts.Communication between management and the public (middle man)Started at the turn of the 20th centuryJournalists turned to work for capitalistsFunctional Parts of Public RelationsPress Agentry- to get the client noticed or talked about by the pressEX: PT Barnum, sports, politiciansPublicity “information” hopes that the media will share for freeInstitutional Advertising- “selling” a class of products. As a result it influences the publicEX: Got Milk? Campaign the Campaign not telling you to buy a specific brandPublic Affairs- do a lot of community relationsEX: Relations between Air force and community; this promotes the militaryIssues 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 researchLobbying- to pass or defeat legislation through influencingInvestor 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 financiallyDevelopment- “Fundraising” is another word for it. Spend your time asking people for money; donationsQuantifying Public RelationsX+YZX= what an organization or individual does (action)Y=how public interprets itZ= the public opinion that is formedMost important is Y “perception is reality” how people perceive or see thingsTrends Affecting PRGrowth of big institutionsGrowth of big institutions came with a lot of problems b/c they treated workers horrible3 major erasManufacturing era Information (1900s)Huge problems emergedPoor treatment of workersTerrible working conditions2/3 of all jobs are related to some sort of communication today60 % (2/3) jobs used to be all manufactuingHeightened public awareness and media sophisticationCable, smartphones, InternetInformation can be delivered and discovered in minutesIncreasing incidence of societal change, conflict and confrontationGlobalization and the growing power of global media, public opinion, & capitalismThe entire world is connectedDominance of the Internet and growth of social mediaInternet is running everythingEverything you want to know is at your fingertipsAncient Examples of PRAgricultural parchment on cropsOldest known document was found in a bottle between Euphrates & Tigris Rivers & told you how to build more and better crops.Persuading people to do things in PR does not even have to be directly saidGreek Sophists on political candidates and issues (early lobbyists)Greek sophists were people who spoke in public places about politics & government issues & tried to persuade people to voteJulius Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic WarsMagna Carta 1215- Forced King John into signing documentCatholic College of PropagandaGroup of priest who trained people to go out and talk about the Holy Roman Church and persuaded people to joinRevolutionary War EraSlogans to foster participation‘No taxation without representation’SymbolsJesus fishToday - recycling sign, donkey and elephant, McDonald’s archFirst to pressGive your story first and then the others reactEveryone wants to be first, all other sides are on the defenseEX: Boston Massacre (story exaggerated)Staged public relations eventsBoston Tea PartyOccupy WallstreetDemocratic and Republican ConventionsOrganizations for actionSons of LibertyPublicationsThomas Paine “Common Sense”FundraisingPost Revolution“History’s Finest Public Relations Job”Articles of ConfederationEach tax had own militiaStates taxed each other from imports and exportsThe Federalist Papers. A selling job to convince people to vote for new constitutionCreation of EventsWhen Andrew Jackson hired Amos Kendall to be press secretary. He hired him to do a bunch of special events to help him look better.Created events and took credit for them to build a relationship with the publicPress AgentryP.T. BarnumModern Political CampaigningWilliams Jennings went out and started campaigning and making speeches (v. Mckinley)This was never done beforeFirst Corporate Public Relations DepartmentFounded by George WestinghouseFirst pubic relations departmentEarly 1990sEvents happened that caused PR to really happenThe MuckrakersJournalist who write about the bad things that were going on in big businessesEX: Upton Sinclair- “The Jungle”First Public Relations FirmThe Publicity Bureau, founded in Boston and specialized in general press agentryPublic Relations Journal foundedRex HarlowTalked with other people in public relations businessAT & T- Theodore VailPresident of AT&T, “We have responsibility to our customers”It only existed as far as the public allowed themThey are only in business because of the public ( because the public lets them exist)Early 1990sIvy LeeJournalistRockefeller hired Lee to be his spokesperson after the muckrakers attacked himLee turned the perception of the peoples thoughts about Rockefeller after the strikes1906 Pennsylvania Railroad Strike1914 Colorado Fuel and Iron StrikeSome workers wanted to have unionsSome people diedLee fixed everything changed perception of RockefellerDeclaration of PrinciplesWill assist the press and help them outRevolutionaryPR used to just shut out the pressFirst to use hand outs (Fact sheets)Bullet points with factsGave these sheets to press before an interviewFather of modern public relationsWorld War IPresident Wilson realized that he had to sell the Americans the positive perception of the war - 1917Public needed to be informed about GermanyGeorge CreelCommittee on Public InformationHeaded by George Creel, his job was to create news releases“Four minute” menpeople telegraphed overseas to Washington DC who telegraphed to all over the countryWithin 4 minutes these people would be out in the streets talking about what happened overseas.These people would tell the American public the newsThe 1920’sArthur Page: AT & TCorporate Vice President of PRArthur Page in society was very prestigiousCreated a
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