The Evolution Of Public Relations

Perhaps no one has had a greater impact in the field of public relations as Edward Bernays. He was named one of the 20th century most influential people by LIFE magazine, yet most people don’t even know his name. Known as the “father of public relations”, Bernays was born in Austria in 1891, but his family moved to New York when he was one year old. He would go on to graduate from Cornell with a degree in agriculture, but instead of becoming a farmer he decided on becoming a journalist. During World War 1 he helped the Woodrow Wilson administration to promote the idea that US efforts would bring democracy to Europe. It was during this period that Bernays began to understand the power of propaganda and wondered if it could be used just as effective

Ever since Bernany’s work, public relations have continued to become a vital part to businesses success, as the field continues to grow. While this progression has occurred, different public relations functions also have developed. Specifically,

I do not know much about public relations (PR), but if I can attempt to put it in a single definition it would be the communication or process in connecting to the mass media. The mass media is any consumer, voter or supporter of that particular company or person. When I envision what a person might do in a career in public relations I immediately think of Olivia Pope from ABC’s popular show Scandal. Public relations is involved with creating press releases, curating charities and essentially anything that will helps improve that business’ brand or that party’s’ image significantly. Unlike a management position, public relations comes in and consults during a crisis or scandal that affects the public and leaves when the situation is resolved.

Public relation is communication process placed strategically to build mutual and beneficial relationship between organization and public on products, leadership and organization policy. Since the two depend on each other, they have to interact and have amicable relationship (Hunt and Grunig 1992). Throughout human history public relation provide right information, persuading public to uptake the information and has public to integrate with the information given. (Edward 1971). In any society people who live, work and interact in all levels must have relationship which intricately joins them, (Richard W. Darrow 1996).

As public relations and journalism, the PR practitioners and the journalist are always related to each other nowadays. Both of them are important factors of the modern mass media, which aim to influence public opinions since the early twentieth century (Coombs and Holladay, 2010). In order to sharp citizen’s opinions, Charron(1989) mentions that the PR practitioners and journalists often prefer to work together and share information as cooperation. The dependent relationship, as Coombs (2010) explains, the PR practitioners scheme to cover through media, while the journalists are exploiting

The most recent definition of public relations, according to the Public Relations Society of America (2012), states that “Public Relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” Through the rapid advancement of modern media and technology, there have never been more outlets and opportunities available for accomplishing the goals of public relations. Believing the development of social media has not created serious changes in the way public relations practitioners go about their duties would be foolish and a fast track to falling behind in this rapid world of communication. The main goals of public relations are “to

Public relations has changed drastically since the early 20th century. In its earliest forms it was more focussed on the idea of publicity and advertisement. However, more recently it has been seen as a way to engage and build relationships between an organization and it’s publics. Public relations deals with promotional activities that foster a positive public image of a company or organization.

o Public relations is the practice of managing the spread of information between an organisation (eg a company) and the public. For example; print, online and reputation management campaigns.

Public opinion is not just a belief, but rather an expression of a view that is central to a functioning democracy. In 1965 Krugman stated that advertising doesn’t change attitudes, it simply changes the perception of what should matter when buying. Whether what that citizen is buying is a certain brand of coffee or the idea of going to war, communication is the cornerstone for how our society functions as a whole. Public relations is not just for products and companies, it shapes ideas and movements. With an increasing global market and issues the need for public relations has and will continue to grow.

It is described as the direction, as well as the scope of a firm over the long-term. It gives a firm advantage through configuring resources in a challenging environment in a bid to meet market demands and fulfill the expectations of the shareholders. A central description of strategy has been accepted and given in five definitions. These include strategy as position, ploy, system, pattern, and perspective. The bottom line of all these definitions is that they aim at attaining some future goals. The goal of every organization is to survive competition and become successful in the market. Consequently, firms have public relations departments to ensure their goals are realised. The public relations is mostly concerned with improving interactions through improved communication. PR achieves this by employing different perspectives such as rhetorical and system aspects. Rhetorical theory concerns the use of human symbol, whereas the system perspective is concerned with the relationship between the environment and organization wherein public relations helps in coordinating the two to ensure survival. The application cannot be done without tactics to ensure efficiency. This is where public relations and strategy come out clearly. In the case study, the rhetoric framing theory has been applied largely. Rhetorical scholars have

"Public Relations is the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends." (Effective Public Relations, 2005, p.1)

Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics’ (PRSA, 2012). Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders’ (AMA website, 2004).

Job Outlook explains, “Public Relation Professionals plan, develop, implement and evaluate information and communication strategies that create an understanding and a favourable view of organisations, their goods and services, and their role in the community.”

The theory explains that the value of public relations in organization and society lies in socially responsible managerial decisions and quality organization to public relations. Organisations must behave in ways that solve the problems and satisfy the goals of the stakeholders as well as the management in order to be effective. Good relationship with organisation’s strategic publics is helpful in developing and achieving goals desired by both the organization and its publics, reducing costs of negative publicity, and increasing revenue by providing products and services needed by stakeholders. Practitioners identify publics who are affected by or affect organizational decisions and communicate symmetrically with them to build high quality long term relations.

As the name of the discipline implies, public relations is how an organization builds beneficial relationships with its key stakeholders. With effective communication as the practices’ primary tool, modern day organizations have taken advantage of proficient practitioners to boost exposure of their company and its message across to international audiences.