Directions and history

 

General PR Directions

As you have probably understood PR is a very broad field of activity, it includes not only advertisement, as you might think, but many other spheres.

The first direction is the most accepted and wide-known one – the economic PR or Business PR. It presumes all the range of economic levers. Its main feature is its focus on buying or selling something. This is what we may see every day: the flood of advertisements, that call for buying Coca-Cola drinks or some super-dry breathing diapers, etc.

The second direction the governmental or political PR, which presupposes what we call propaganda. Imagine for instance a demonstration, which is usually devoted to a certain cause or event, which is organized by certain people with certain aims, where you can hear appropriate mottoes & speeches, see appropriate posters, etc. The best example here will be an election campaign, involving all the people in a certain region as the target group.

The third direction is Professional Associations PR. A Professional Org. – is a group of people or organizations that belong to one sphere and have the same aim, such as American Medical Association, American Trade Chamber, International Gasoline Union, etc. Their activity presupposes organizing of conferences, expositions, lobbying of their interests, fundraising, etc.

Then go Non-Profit Organizations - I’m sure you all know what it is: Red Cross, Salvation Army and so on. These are created to solve eternal problems like diseases, illiteracy, poverty and so on. PR is quite the same here, it is all directed to attract people’s attention and raise funds to help. Kind of charity.

Then, Education. You are supposed at least deal with students and their parents, then your own stuff, mainly teachers, then local administration, which imposes some particular rules – you can’t teach children whatever you want – it must be somehow coordinated.

Sports and Entertaining! Good promotion, media coverage, at last defending your client from negative publicity. Attracting spectators, sponsors, financing, etc.

 

Apart from that PR exists on several levels, depending on the importance of the task.

The low level is determined by the advertisement function. It means commercial (marketing) and corporate PR.

The middle level is the so-called indirect PR. On this level there is no visible relation between the interests of those who order a PR action and the methods of influencing the target public. For example, no one can guess that the appeals of a certain medical firm X to stop buying textiles, containing synthetic fibers, because they are dangerous for the population’s health, are in reality based on the financial interest of cotton manufacturers.

The high level is the so-called global PR, serving the needs of larger economic & political groups, and affecting macro-economic & geo-political processes. International, ethnical, religious and other conflicts as well as political crises and even local wars can be among the global PR instruments.

 

History

Public relations is a twentieth-century phenomenon whose roots extend deep into histo­ry; in a sense it is as old as human communication itself. What I mean is as soon as people had learned to communicate, they started trying to influence the opinion of the others, the mass opinion, as we call it today. Social structure, including leaders and government was created long ago, since the dawn of time, and was called power, which implies some easiness of influencing people’s opinion and thus making them do what you want.

In succeeding civilizations, such as those of Babylonia, Greece, and Rome, people were persuaded to accept the authority of government and religion through techniques that are still used: interperson­al communication, speeches, art, literature, staged events, publicity, and other such devices. None of these endeavors was called public relations, of course, but their pur­pose and their effect were the same as those of similar activities today.

Just think of it: ancient art – comedies and tragedies, promoting morality; then writing glorious verses about Roman emperors, isn’t it the same as today election campaign; imagine a market, the first thing you’ll hear is: man, come here, look here, I have the best carpets, fish, furs, whatever, isn’t it a simple advertisement; speech writing in Plato’s times – the whole science of rethorics was created in ancient time and the main principles are still used: you must know the composition of your audience, never talk down to them, and impart information that will enlighten their ignorance, change their opinion, or confirm their own good Judgments.

It is clear, then, that the idea of using all forms of human communication—drama and storytelling among them—to influence the behavior of other people is nothing new.

 

So, let’s look closer into the history. The first person to use the expression Public Relations was Thomas Jefferson. It was in 1807 in his speech for the Congress. The establishment of PR as a science took place only in the 20^th century. In 1900 the university of Harvard had a Department of Publicity, in 1904 in Pennsylvania a whole office of Publicity was created, in 1918 it was opened in the University of Illinois, then in 1923 in New York. The first book on PR was published in the same year – 1923, its name was “Crystallizing Public Opinion” and it was written by Edward Bernaus, doctor Freud’s nephew. Then in the 30s it grew as a self-operating sphere, several companies were established and PR launched its development. In 1955 in London the IPRA (International PR Association) was created, which employs more then 65 countries now. It’s clear that the study was born in the States, then only in the 70s PR moves fully into Europe.

Actually there’s a story which all over the world is considered to be the launch of PR activity. It is connected with the name of Rockefeller. John D. Rockefeller – an American legend. The famous owner of the “Standard Oil Company”. Once its reputation was absolutely blackened by an American journalist Ida Tarbell, she wrote a criticizing article titled “History of the SOC”. And of course it affected the company in a most devastating way. Even Rockefeller’s family relationship went down. It was a scandal. Rockefeller was a wise man and he is considered to be the first who let the PR Jinni out of the bottle. He hired a journalist – Ivy Lee, who wrote a series of articles that were devoted not to the company itself but to the family of Rockefeller, what a good father and husband he was. It was a success. Americans are sensitive to such things and the result was that the company’s prosperous state was turned back.

 

The public relations field is most extensively developed in the United States, where organizations spend an estimated $10 billion annually in such activity. However, con­siderable growth also is taking place in Europe and Asia.

Claudio Belli, head of international operations for the Hill and Knowlton public relations firm, estimates that European companies spend $3 billion annually on public relations, a figure that continues to increase through implementation of the European Community (EC) and the opening of Eastern Europe to private enterprise.

The second area of major growth is Asia. Shandwick, the world's second largest public relations firm, sees growth of 20 to 30 percent in Asian nations on the Pacific Rim. Increased privatization of national industries and expansion of free market economies also are fueling major growth in Latin America.

In sum, public relations is a global activity with excellent prospects for growth. The challenge is to define and practice public relations in such a way that it fosters greater understanding and harmonious relationships among nations and organizations, in the public interest

 

PUBLICS. PUBLIC ATTITUDES AND OPINIONS. COMMUNICATION SCHEME.

 

From above it appears clear that the main purpose of PR is to form and direct the public opinion according to certain aims. The basic PR purpose is to persuade. The objective is to create favorable public opinion about something. The objective is to influence people. And we have also defined PR as communication with the public. Let’s look closer at what the terms public and public opinion mean.

What is public? Is it the same as people, population? No, of course, it’s not the same. So, what is the actual difference between them? Public is a part of population, and not just some part, but the part which affects and is affected by your organization. Public is the audience that is somehow interested in your organization.

A crucial distinction for segmenting a population into publics is the extent to which they passively or actively communicate about an issue and the extent to which they actively behave. Publics are more likely to be active when the people who constitute these publics per­ceive

¨ that what an organization does involves them (level of involvement),

¨ that the consequences of what an organization does is a problem (problem recognition),

^¨ and that they are not constrained from doing something about the problem (constraint recognition)

If none of these conditions fits a group of people, these people constitute a "nonpublic"; they are of no concern to an organization. Whenever an organization does something that has consequences on people or whenever people have consequences on the organization, there is a likelihood that they will perceive an involvement and recog­nize a problem. Thus, consequences produce at the minimum, a latent public—a public that is passive but has the potential to be active. As the level of involvement and problem recognition increases and con­straint recognition decreases, however, these publics can become aware and active.

Publics generally move from the latent to the aware and active stages, therefore, as strategic management of public relations moves through the first three stages of the process.

Public opinion is not just mass opinion. It is the sum of individuals' opinions on a subject that affects them. For example, the stockholders of a factory (a public) may favor moving to another location, while the employees (a public) may vigorously op­pose the idea. Meanwhile, the general public may be unaware of the controversy or aware but indifferent. The reason for the varying opinions is the variance in attitudes.