Men’s perception of information

There exist some peculiarities of men’s perception of information. The today world is overloaded with information. Information has always been important to people: our five senses alone provide much info, that in most cases is the basis on which we make conclusions and act in a certain way. With the development of society the five senses grew insufficient for orientation. Human mind acquired the ability to perceive and analyze the info we get. And what is important our memory has the ability to filter the coming info in order to avoid an informational shock, that might be caused by an overflow of info. So human brain selects information.

So human brain tends to perceive not more than 10% of info intended to persuade. It means that every 10^th message only can possibly be perceived. The conclusion we can make is that the message must be distinguishable, outstanding, must catch people’s attention. That’s why PR is bent on using all sorts of sensations, hot news, or on the advertising level –creative decisions, like using music, distinctive texts, humor.

Then the quantity of the messages that are kept in mind afterwards is not more than 5% of all the perceived. And if the message contradicts your principles and your world view, you’ll simply ignore it. Thus the net-perception of the messages is as low as 3%.

As you see it is very difficult to influence people’s mind, but possible if you use some specific techniques and act according to some specific rules.

• Physiological needs. These are the constituents of self-preservation. They include air, water, food, clothing, shelter, rest, and health — the minimum neces­sities of life.

• Safety needs. These comprise protection against danger, loss of life or property, restriction of activity, and loss of freedom.

• Social needs. These include acceptance by others, belonging to groups, and enjoying both friendship and love.

• Ego needs. These include self-esteem, self-confidence, accomplishment, status, recognition, appreciation, and the respect of others.

• Self-fulfillment needs. These represent the need to grow to one's full stature — simply as a human being or in terms of some special talent, gift, or interest.

Effective messages carry components of these needs from the standpoint of help­ing people achieve them in some way. In sum we're talking about the self-interest of the audience. Indeed, if you can keep in mind the self-interest of your target audiences when formulating messages, you will be an effective communicator.

Most public relations activity is aimed at lower-level needs because people are generally more concerned about their families, jobs, and homes than they are about more abstract goals. Economics may get most of the attention, but don't forget that there are many people who do have non-economic interests.

Understanding the concepts of opinion formation, the process of information diffu­sion, and the psychological needs of audiences has a great deal of practical application for the public relations practitioner.

Public Relations and Public Responsibility

An organization has relationships with publics when it has conse­quences on those publics or they have consequences on the organiza­tion— that is, they affect each other. Preston and Post have described these relationships as those of "interpenetrating systems." They point out that organizations and publics are neither independent nor does one control the other. "Rather their relationship is better described in terms of interpenetration."

Because of the interpenetration of organizations and publics, the organization must be responsible to those publics if it is to have good relationships with them. Thus, Preston and Post use the concept of public responsibility rather than the more frequently used term "social responsibility," which often is cited as a goal for public relations. Social responsibility is a general term that suggests that an organization should be responsible to society. But "society" is a large and vague en­tity. "Publics" can be recognized more easily: They are groups that the organization affects, such as employees, communities, or stockholders.

Thus, the responsible organization is the organization that is re­sponsible for the consequences it has on its publics. It does so by com­municating symmetrically with those publics. Such communication effectively builds good relationships for the organization.