Book Notes for Public Relations Exam 1 Chapter 1 Defining Public Relations In the 21st century few societal forces are more powerful than the practice of public relations o Especially when combined with social media In a society overwhelmed by communications the public is bombarded with nonstop messages every day o The challenge is trying to cut through this clutter to deliver an argument that is persuasive believable and actionable Prominence of Public Relations In the initial decade of the 21st century public relations has grown incredibly as a field o Multi billion dollar industry o Practiced by 320 000 professionals What is Public Relations The fact is that there are many definitions of public relations due in part that it is still a very young profession No matter the official definition public relations officials must always engage in a planned and ethical process to influence the attitudes and actions of their target audience Planned Process to Influence Public Opinion RACE o Research o Action o Communication o Evaluation Public Relations as Management Interpreter On the one hand they must interpret the philosophies policies and practices of their management to their public On the other hand they must convey the attitudes of the public to their management Public Relations as Public Interpreter Interpreting the public to management means finding out what the public really thinks about the firm and letting management know The Publics of Public Relations Internal and External Primary secondary and marginal Traditional and future Proponents opponents and the uncommitted The Functions of Public Relations Here is a partial list of the many functions o Writing o Media relations o Planning o Counseling o Researching o Community relations o Consumer relations o Investor relations o Crisis communications The Sin of Spin Putting a positive slant on a negative story The association with the word spin has greatly injured the field Spinning to hide an answer or the truth is just lying What Manner of Man or Woman Seven Characteristics of a Successful PR Career o Diversity of experience o Performance o Communication skills o Relationship building o Proactivity and passion o Teamliness o Intangibles personality The History and Growth of Public Relations Chapter 2 Several society trends have influenced the evolution of the public relations industry o Growth of big institutions o Heightened public awareness and media sophistication o Increasing incidence of societal change conflict and confrontation o Globalization and the growing power of global media public opinion and democratic capitalism o Dominance of the internet and growth of social media Ancient Beginnings Leaders in virtually every great society understood the importance of influencing public opinion through persuasion o Greek sophists o Julius Caesar o The Catholic Church of Propaganda Early American Experience The American public relations experience dates back to the founding of the republic o Thomas Paine Crisis Papers o Slogans Taxation without representation is tyranny Later American Experience The Federalist Papers Into the 1800s o Press agentry and PT Barnum Focused on getting attention without regard of the truth The public be fooled o Andrew Jackson hired Kendall to influence public opinion Emergence of the Robber Barons o Vanderbilt JP Morgan Rockefeller etc o The public be damned o Treated workers terribly Enter the Muckrakers o Journalists the documented the terrible conditions of work houses under the control of the robber barons Upton Sinclair The Jungle Ivy Lee The Real Father of Modern Public Relations The key to business acceptance and understanding was that the public be informed Hired by Rockefeller to help heal the wounds the muckrakers caused him Lee issued the Declaration of Principles The Growth of Modern Public Relations Government o Woodrow Wilson established the Creel Committee under the leadership of George Creel Tried to influence public to support the war and purchase bonds Office of War Information Nixon and the Watergate scandal o Counseling The Publicity Bureau the nation s first public relations firm Edward Bernays Nephew of Sigmund Freud Wrote the first PR textbook o Crystallizing Public Opinion Taught the first public relations course Thought of PR as a behavioral science o Corporations Arthur Page became the first PR vice president AT T Public Relations Comes of Age Growth of big institutions Heightened public awareness and media sophistication Globalization and the growing power of global media public opinion and Increasing incidence of societal change conflict and confrontation democratic capitalism Dominance of the Internet and growth of social media Chapter 3 Communication Communication is the process of exchanging information imparting ideas and making oneself understood by others Goals of Communication To inform To persuade To motivate To build mutual understanding Traditional Theories of Communication Two step flow theory o An organization would send a message first to the media which would then deliver that message to the great mass of readers for their response Concentric Circle Theory o Ideas evolve gradually to the public at large moving in concentric circles from great thinkers to great disciples and all the way to the politically inert o People pick up ideas from leaders whose impact might be greater than the media S E M D R Process Dissonance Theory o Source Encoding Message Decoding Received o People seek out messages that agree with their own attitudes o They avoid messages that disagree with their attitudes Contemporary Theories of Communication Constructivism o Knowledge is constructed not transmitted o It is important to have background information on receiver to understand where they currently stand on any issue Coordinated Management of Meaning o When we communicate we construct our own realities of what is going on and what kind of action is important Grunig s Four Models o Press Agentry Get attention with no regard for truth o Public Information o Two Way Asymmetric Inform public with factual information Allows an organization to put out information and to receive feedback from its publics about that information o Two Way Symmetric Free and equal information flow between an organization and its publics based on mutual understanding The Word Communication begins with words Words can mean different things o Semantics the study of words o Connotative contextual meaning of
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