This is PR
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
From the Wadsworth Series in Mass Communication and Journalism Rich, Writing and Reporting News: A Coaching Method,
Seventh Edition General Mass Communication Biagi, Media/Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media,
Tenth Edition Fellow, American Media History, Third Edition Hilmes, Connections: A Broadcast History Reader Hilmes, Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in
the United States, Third Edition Lester, Visual Communication: Images with Messages,
Fifth Edition Overbeck, Major Principles of Media Law, 2012 Edition Straubhaar/LaRose, Media Now: Understanding Media,
Culture, and Technology, Enhanced Seventh Edition Zelezny, Cases in Communications Law, Sixth Edition Zelezny, Communications Law: Liberties, Restraints, and the
Modem Media, Sixth Edition
Public Relations and Advertising Diggs-Brown, Strategic Public Relations: Audience Focused
Approach Diggs-Brown, The PR Styleguide: Formats for Public
Relations Practice, Third Edition Drewniany/Jewler, Creative Strategy in Advertising ,,
Tenth Edition Hendrix, Public Relations Cases, Ninth Edition Newsom/Haynes, Public Relations Writing: Form and Style,
Ninth Edition Newsom/Turk/Kruckeberg, Cengage Advantage Books:
This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations, Eleventh Edition
Sivulka, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising, Second Edition
Journalism Bowles/Borden, Creative Editing, Sixth Edition Davis/Davis, Think Like an Editor: 50 Strategies for the Print
and Digital World Hilliard, Writing for Television, Radio, and New Media,
Tenth Edition Kessler/McDonald, When Words Collide: A Media Writer's
Guide to Grammar and Style, Eighth Edition Kessler/McDonald, Cengage Advantage Books: When Words
Collide: A Media Writer's Guide to Grammar and Style + Exercise Book, Eighth Edition
Research and Theory Baran and Davis, Mass Communication Theory: Foundations,
Ferment, and Future, Sixth Edition Sparks, Media Effects Research: A Basic Overview, Fourth
Edition Wimmer and Dominick, Mass Media Research:
An Introduction, Ninth Edition
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
This is PR Eleventh
EditionPUBLIC RELATIONS
Doug Newsom Professor Emerita, Texas Christian University
Judy VanSlyke Turk Virginia Commonwealth University
Dean Kruckeberg University of North Carolina at Charlotte
* WADSWORTH CENGAGE Learning'
Australia • Brazil •Japan •Korea • Mexico •Singapore • Spain •United Kingdom • United States
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
This is an electronic version of the print textbook. Due to electronic rights restrictions, some third party content may be suppressed. Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. The publisher reserves the right to remove content from this title at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. For valuable information on pricing, previous editions, changes to current editions, and alternate formats, please visit www.cengage.com/highered to search by ISBN#, author, title, or keyword for materials in your areas of interest.
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
/ WADSWORTH CENGAGE Learning'
This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations, Eleventh Edition Doug Newsom, Judy VanSlyke Turk and Dean Kruckeberg
© 2013, 2010, 2007 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted,stored,or used in any form or by any means graphic,electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning,digitizing, taping,Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems,except as permitted under Section107 or108 of the1976 United States Copyright Act,without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Publisher: Michael Rosenberg Assistant Editor: Erin Bosco Editorial Assistant: Rebecca Donahue Media Editor: Jessica Badiner Marketing Program Manager: Gurpreet Saran Design and Production Services: PreMediaGlobal Manufacturing Planner: Doug Bertke Rights Acquisition Specialist: Amanda Groszko Cover Designer: Hanh Luu Cover Images: Don Carstens/Getty Images, Pixmann/Getty Images Compositor: PreMediaGlobal
For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706
For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at www.cengage.com/permissions
Further permissions questions can be emailed to permissionrequest@cengage.com
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011938130
ISBN-13: 978-1-111-83683-2
ISBN-10:1-111-83683-3
Wadsworth 20 Channel Center Street Boston, MA 02210 USA
Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solu- tions with office locations around the globe, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and Japan. Locate your local office at international.cengage.com/region
Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Nelson Education, Ltd.
For your course and learning solutions, visit www.cengage.com Purchase any of our products at your local college store or at our preferred online store www.cengagebrain.com Instructors: Please visit login.cengage.com and log in to access instructor-specific resources.
Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 15 14 13 12 11
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
To our students, from whose questions, observations and insights we continue to learn, and to our colleagues, academics and practitioners, who explore with their research and share with their publications and conversations.
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
About the Authors
Doug Newsom, Ph.D, APR, Fellow PRSA, is a Texas Christian University pro- fessor emerita of journalism and the senior coauthor of This is PR and Public Relations Writing. She has also written two other books, has co-authored three more and has written four current book chapters. She is a former member of the Commission on Public Relations Education, former chair of PRSA’s College of Fellows and is a past chair of the Accrediting Committee for the Accrediting Council on Education for Journalism and Mass Communications. She has been president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communica- tion, Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication, Texas Public Relations Association and both the Dallas and Fort Worth chapters of PRSA. Dr. Newsom has been the national faculty advisor to PRSSA. She has been head of the PR Division of AEJMC and has served as chair of its former division heads. Awards include the Institute for Public Relations’ Pathfinder, PRSA Outstanding Educator, Public Relations Foundation of Texas’s Educator of the Year Award, Texas Public Relations Association’s Golden Spur, the Asso- ciation for Women in Communications’ Headliner and in 2010 she was named to the Hall of Excellence of TCU’s Schieffer School of Journalism. She has served Fulbright teaching appointments in India and Singapore, presented workshops in South Africa, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland and Vanuatu and taught in Latvia and England. She has been chair of the Fulbright discipline committee, served 18 years on a gas research institute’s advisory council and was one of the first women to be elected to the board of a publicly held company, where she served 24 years until reaching mandatory retirement age. Currently her volunteer public relations work is for Rotary International.
Judy VanSlyke Turk, APR, Fellow PRSA, professor in the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University, served as its director from March 2002 to 2010. Previously, she was founding dean of the College of Communications and Media Sciences at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates, dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina, director of the journalism and mass communication program at Kent State University and a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma, Louisiana State University and Syracuse University. She is president of the Arab-U.S. Association of Communication Educators and is a member of the Accrediting Committee of the Accrediting Council on Education inJournalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC). VanSlyke Turk is past president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC) and of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). In 2006, AEJMC recognized her as its Outstanding Woman inJournalism Educa- tion. She has been chair of AEJMC’s teaching standards committee, Council of Divisions and the Public Relations Division. VanSlyke Turk is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society and past chair of the College of Fellows of the Public Relations Society of America’s College of Fellows. She was named Outstanding Public Relations Educator of PRSA in 1992 and in 2005 shared with This is PR co-author Doug Newsom the Pathfinder Award from the Institute for Public Rela- tions for her lifetime contributions of research. She is associate editor of Journalism Studies and is a member of the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations JournalPublic Relations Review and Journalism
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
About the AuthorsVIII
and Mass Communications Quarterly. In addition to This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations, she is co-editor of a collection of international case studies that was pub- lished by the Institute for Public Relations.
Dean Kruckeberg, Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA, is executive director of the Center for Global Public Relations and a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Previously he was a public relations professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Northern Iowa and coordinator of the Public Relations Degree Program and of the Mass Communication Division. He is a charter member of the Commission on Global Public Relations Research and a senior fellow of the Society for New Communications Research. Since 1997, Kruckeberg has been co- chair of the Commission on Public Relations Education. He served for two years on the national board of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), has been chair of the Educator’s Section (now Academy), was Midwest district chair of PRSA and was co-chair PRSA’s Educational Affairs Committee, of which he remains a member. He is the former national faculty advisor of the Public Rela- tions Student Society of America and a former advisor to Forum, the national newspaper of PRSSA. He is a past chair of the public relations division of the International Communication Association, former head of the public relations division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and former chair of the public relations division of the National Communication Association. Awards include PRSA’s outstanding educator in 1995, the Jackson Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Research Prize in 2006, the Pathfinder Award from the Institute for Public Relations in 1997, the 1997 State of Iowa Regents Faculty Excellence Award and the 1998 Wartburg College Alumni Citation. In fall 2011, he was presented with the Infinity Award, the top award for public relations professionals presented by the Charlotte Chapter of PRSA.
In addition to This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations, Kruckeberg is co-author of the book Public Relations and Community: A Reconstructed Theory.
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins 1 PR Roles and Responsibilities 1 2 PR's Origins and Evolution 23
Research for PR
3 Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 57 4 Stakeholders and Interactions 87
Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice
5 Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 109 6 PR Ethics and Responsibilities 141 7 PR and the Law 169
PR in Action
8 Strategic Management in PR Practice 205 9 Communication Channels and Media 223
10 Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work 253 11 Campaigns 297 12 Crisis and Credibility 313
Notes 335 Index 355
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins
1 PR Roles and Responsibilities 1 International Consistency of PR Practice 2 What Does Public Relations Practice Involve? 2 Role and Function for Organizations: 10 Basic Principles 4 m Why the Need to Know This About PR? 6 The Job of the PR Practitioner 6 m The Function of Public Relations in Business and Society 13
2 PR's Origins and Evolution 23 Seeking the PR “Source Spring” 24 m The Beginnings of PR in the USA, 1600-1799 27 Communicatmg/Initiating: The Era of Press Agentry and Publicity, 1800-1899 29 m Reacting/Responding: The Time of Reporters-in-Residence, 1900-1939 32 m Planning/Preventing: The Growth of PR as a Management Function, 1940-1979 37 m Professionalism: PR in the Era of Global Communication, 1980-Present 44
Part Two
Research for PR
3 Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 57 The Basics: Record Keeping and Retrieving 58 m Finding and Using Research Resources 59 m Using Research for Planning and Monitoring 61 m Using Research to Plan and to Evaluate Outcomes 65 m Informal Research 65 m Formal Research 70 m Audience Information 77 Research and Problem Solving 82
4 Stakeholders and Interactions 87 Identifying and Describing Publics 88 m Issues: Identification, Monitoring, Evaluation and Management 93 Issues and the Role of the PR Practitioner 95 m Perceptions and Public Opinion 99 Public Opinion Research and Public Relations 101
Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice
5 Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 109 Origins in Sociology and Psychology 110 m Organizational Theory 111 u Communication Theories 112 Persuasion and Change 114 m A Way to Look at Media: Source, Message, Source + Message, Media, Receivers 122
6 PR Ethics and Responsibilities 141 Complexities in Ethical Decision Making 144 Responsibility in Advertising and Sponsorships 154 u Responsibility in Publicity 158 m Individual Responsibilities 163
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Detailed ContentsXII
7 PR and the Law 169 The Liabilities of Practicing PR 170 m Government Regulations 175 u Court Rulings and Legal Responsibilities 185 u Revisiting the Hypotheticals 200
PR in Action
8 Strategic Management in PR Practice 205 PR’s Role in the Organizational Structure as Part of the Management Team 205 u Issue Monitoring and Managing for Organizations 211 u Planning and Managing PR Work 212
9 Communication Channels and Media 223 Choosing the Medium 224 m Choosing the Message—Advertising and Publicity 225 m Traditional Hybrid: Direct Mail 244 m Developing Hybrids 245
10 Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work 253 Advertising 253 u Publicity and Publications 258 u Publicity Through the Mass Media 271 On the Job with Media People 284 u Goofs and Glitches 291 u Talking Back and Correcting 291
11 Campaigns 297 Types of Campaigns 297 u Characteristics of Successful Campaigns 298 u Planning a Campaign 300 u Implementing the Campaign 302 u Evaluating the Campaign 303 u Campaign Outline 305 Changing Behavior 305 m Government Campaigns 309
12 Crisis and Credibility 313 Anticipating a Crisis 314 m Dealing with a Crisis 321 u Recovery and Evaluation 331
Notes 335 u Index 355
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
^Jublic relations will always be in a state of flux due to swift changes in publics/stakeholders, communication technology and cultural choices in the ways that people choose to communicate. Thus, much of the content of this text has to change with each edition. Our goal, however, is always to present the foundational consistencies of public relations while examining the impact of change.
Now that PR functions in a global environment, laws of all countries and their interpretation, such as privacy, have made for considerable additions to the law chap- ter. Instructors and their students may want to take more than one week to consider all of this material in a classroom setting. Sensitivities to customs in a global context can create miscommunications and may even generate crises. Therefore, the following chapters have been expanded: Chapter 3: Research: Planning, Processes and Techni- ques; Chapter 4: Stakeholders and Interactions; Chapter 8: Strategic Management in PR Practice; and Chapter 12: Crisis and Credibility.
The globalization of public relations is also responsible for a new orientation for the text. The approach of the book follows the practice: everything is global, and the only predictable trend is “change.” Thus, we have removed the global inserts in each chap- ter as well as the chapters on a worldwide view of PR practice and on trends to incor- porate the global oudook on PR throughout the book.
New guidance for strategic communication and counsel in practice and in education comes from the 2010 Stockholm Accords. This historic document, which was pro- duced by the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, offers more assurance of greater global commonalities in a field striving for profes- sionalism across borders. The Instructor’s Resource Manual for this text includes video interviews with several officers and board members of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management—a supplement unique to this text.
Additional Resources
Resources for Instructors Instructor Companion Website. The instructor companion site contains rich online resources, including test banks, and an online version of the Instructor’s Resource Manual, both chapter-by-chapter and in its entirety. Chapter-specific PowerPoint slides that highlight chapter highlights are available for download from this text’s website www.cengagebrain.com.
Online Instructor's Resource Manual. The Instructor’s Resource Manual contains resources designed to streamline and maximize the effectiveness of instructors’ course preparation. This helpful manual includes suggestions for developing a course syllabus, chapter objectives and assessment tests. Each chapter includes a chapter outline, sug- gestions for class activities and discussions, supplemental readings and true/false and multiple-choice test items. The activities provide innovative ways to present relevant concepts in each chapter; they include group projects, out-of-class assignments, role plays, lecture ideas and audiovisual suggestions.
PowerLecture CD-ROM.This disc contains an electronic version of the Instructor’s Resource Manual, ExamView computerized testing and ready-to-use Microsoft PowerPoint® presentations that correspond with the text. This all-in-one lecture tool makes it easy for instructors to assemble, edit, publish and present custom lectures for their courses. More information about ExamView follows.
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
xiv Preface
ExamView® Computerized Testing. ExamView enables instructors to create, deliver and customize tests and study guides (both print and online) in minutes, using the test bank questions from the Instructor’s Resource Manual. ExamView offers both a Quick Test Wizard and an Online Test Wizard that guide instructors step-by-step through the process of creating tests, while it’s “what you see is what you get” interface allows instructors to see the test you are creating onscreen exacdy as it will print or display online. Instructors can build tests of up to 250 questions, using up to 12 question types. With the complete word processing capabilities of ExamView, instructors can enter an unlimited number of new questions or edit existing ones.
Acknowledgments We would like to thank the team at Cengage Learning that helped us develop and produce this edition: Michael Rosenberg, publisher; Rebecca Donahue, editorial assis- tant; and Erin Bosco, assistant editor.
And of course we owe much to our academic and professional colleagues, whose scholarship and practice inspire and inform our updates.
We gready appreciated the suggestions from the following reviewers as we worked on the book:
Daniel Jorgensen, Augsburg College Tom Branigan, Marquette University
Lisa Fall, University of Tennessee at Knoxville Tamara Gillis, Elizabethtown College
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
To understand the role and responsibilities of public relations-in public and private companies, nonprofit organizations, agencies and firms. To recognize the difference between strategic planning and execution that relies only on tactics and techniques. To appreciate the value of public relations in solving problems and making policy. To understand why individuals as well as institutional credibility are critical to public relations practice. To appreciate the international scope of public relations practice.
o you realize that public relations is an international occupation? It is, even if you never physically leave
your country. Technology now enables public relations practitioners to have an instant interconnectedness that is an asset with increased responsibility. What you do is electronically borderless, and differences in practice worldwide are diminishing.
Relationships among public relations practitioners around the world have been building through the years by joint projects, shared research and educational opportunities.
Associations for groups, such as the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management and a number of associations for individual practitioners as well as research and educational efforts by many institutions have strengthened international ties.
At least a decade ago, seventy countries formed the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management to examine how public relations is practiced in different parts of the world and how practitioners can share information and learn from each other. The out- come of this worldwide collaboration is “The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Manage- ment Accords Analysis.” (See www.stockholmaccords.org for updates, and visit www.globalalliancepr.org.)
The Accords, “a product of collaboration between public relations and communication management industry leaders
“All public relations should exist to pre- serve a consistent reputation and build relationships.”
—Robert I. Wakefield
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
2 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins
on every continent,” was endorsed June 15, 2010, in Stockholm at the World Public Relations Forum of the Global Alliance.2 It is “a global call to action on the role of public relations in the evolving digital society,” according to John Paluszek, APR, Fellow PRSA, chair of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, senior counsel at Ketchum (New York and Washington, D.C.) and representative to the United Nations (UN) for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).3
The six major points of the Accords are agreement on the role of public relations in organizational sustainability, governance at the highest level of organizational responsibility for two-way strategic communication, practice of public relations as a management function, oversight of organizational internal communications policies and action, oversight of organizational external policies and action and coordination of internal and external communication. (See the Accords document for details and explication.) Looking at the dimensions of the each of these six points in the following discussion will give you an idea of what public relations practice is today.
The eventual direction for the Accords is to develop an international core curriculum for public relations education, says Paluszek, a member of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications as well as the Commission on Public Relations Education; the latter published guidelines specifically for the USA that have been adopted and used by other countries.
The idea of a global core curriculum is not new. In 2008, the Global Alliance started a collaborative study of PR education coordinated by the U.S.-based Commission on Public Relations Education and funded by the Public Relations Society of America Foundation. (Visit http://www.prsafoundation.org/ research.html.) The effort is a topic supported by Bruce Berger, a member of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA). In an article for the organization’s online journal, Berger details a 2009
survey conducted by the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) that looked at educational programs in mostly Western European countries and another in 2008 that examined Eastern European countries.4
Why all of this concern about what public relations students the world over are being taught? Hie situation is best explained by the international desire for consistency in practice and the question of professionalism.
International Consistency of PR Practice
Some consistency of the practice, despite differences in the social, economic and political climates in vari- ous parts of the world can be traced to the growing body of knowledge about and the general acceptance of what public relations is. The creator of public relations’ international code of ethics, Lucien Matrat, offers these thoughts:
Text not available due to copyright restrictions
This means developing a communications policy that can establish and maintain a relationship of mutual confidence with an organization’s multiple publics.
What Does Public Relations Practice Involve?
The public relations (PR) practitioner serves as an intermediary between the organization that he or she represents and all of that organization’s stakeholders/ publics.
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Chapter 1 / PR Roles and Responsibilities 3
Consequently, the PR practitioner has responsi- bilities both to the institution and to its various pub- lics. He or she helps set organizational policies that will affect its stakeholders and distributes informa- tion that enables the institution’s publics to under- stand the policies, which may then be adjusted in response to feedback from those stakeholders.
Public relations involves research on all stake- holders: receiving information from them, advising management of their attitudes and responses, helping to set policies that demonstrate responsible attention to them and constantly evaluating the effectiveness of all PR programs. This inclusive role embraces all activities connected with ascertaining and influenc- ing the opinions of individuals and groups of people. But that is just the communications aspect. As a man- agement function, public relations involves responsibility and responsiveness in policy and information to the best interests of the organization and its publics.
The First World Assembly of Public Relations Associations, held in Mexico City in August 1978, defined the practice of public relations as “the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organizational lead- ers, and implementing planned programs of action which will serve both the organization and the public interest.”
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) defines public relations as a management function that involves anticipating, analyzing and interpreting public opinion, attitudes and issues; counseling management at all levels with regard to policy deci- sions, courses of action and communication and tak- ing into consideration public ramifications and the organization’s social or citizenship responsibilities; researching, conducting and evaluating on a continu- ing basis and being involved in strategic planning for the organization. Yet another definition of public relations as “reputation management” has gained currency as expressed by the British Institute of Public Relations (IPR):
and then solving it. In the long run, the best PR is evidence of an active social conscience. The various practitioner organizations have codes of ethics, even though there isn’t now a truly international code of ethics, as Matrat recommended.
The move toward a universal educational core would direct the practice of public relations more toward what is generally considered a profession.
Career, Job (Field) or Profession? Some commentators argue that the very fact that any- one would question whether PR is a profession proves that public relations is not a profession. Another clue that PR may not be a profession is the lack of practi- tioners’ commitment to continuing education.
One criterion of a profession is that its practitioners have command over a body of knowledge. Although the PRSA has developed a body of knowledge, it is for the USA only and has been criticized by the International Public Relations Association for its parochialism. The Institute for Public Relations’ Commission on Global Public Relations is attempting to catalog and codify public relations literature globally. An additional cri- terion of a profession is general acceptance of a stan- dard educational curriculum. Although this exists to some degree in the USA, what is being taught in the USA is not necessarily what is being taught elsewhere, where the availability of specialized education in pub- lic relations is growing at an explosive pace—thus, the emphasis in the Global Alliance to move in that direction.
Another criterion of a profession is control over entry and exit to the field, and public relations, at least in the USA, lacks any such control. One aspect of that control consists of PRSA’s requirement of continuing education of all practitioners to maintain standards of practice by ensuring that practitioners learn new developments and update skills. But that is not a requirement for practicing public relations. In fact, there are no educational requirements that would preclude anyone from saying he or she is a public relations practitioner.
Although practitioners refer to professional stan- dards and encourage educational experiences, per- haps it is a mark of honesty that PRSA’s bylaws, with a slogan that reads: “Advancing the Profession and the Professional,” identify the organization thusly: “The Society is organized and shall be oper- ated as a not-for-profit trade association ...” (See PRSA.org/AboutPRSA/Govemance/.)
Public relations is about reputation—the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. Public Relations Practice is the discipline which looks after reputation with the aim of earning understanding and support, and influencing opinion and behaviour.6
As a practical matter, good public relations involves confronting a problem openly and honestly
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins4
3. Because the public relations practitioner must go to the public to seek support for programs and policies, public interest is the central crite- rion by which he or she should select these programs and policies. (PR practitioners must have the guts to say “no” to a client or to refuse a deceptive program.)
4. Because the public relations practitioner reaches many publics through mass media, which are the public channels of communication, the integrity of these channels must be preserved. (PR practitioners should never He to the news media, either outright or by implication.)
Role and Function for Organizations: 10 Basic Principles
As the definitions for public relations suggest, the result of public relations efforts must be the real behavior of the organization and perceptions of that behavior by its publics/stakeholders. Therefore, among the various titles now being used for the role of the public relations function are communications management (or sometimes strategic communications management or just strategic communications), repu- tation management and relationship management.
5. Because PR practitioners are in the middle between an organization and its publics, they must be effective communicators
Text not available due to copyright restrictions
onveymg information back and forth until understanding and (ideally) consensus are reached. (The PR practitioner probably was the original ombuds- man or ombudswoman.)
We can describe the function and role of public relations practice by stating 10 basic principles:
1. Public relations deals with reality, not false fronts. Conscientiously planned programs that put the public interest in the forefront are the basis of sound public relations policy. (Transla- tion.; PR deals with facts, not fiction.)
2. Public relations is a service-oriented occupa- tion in which public interest, not personal reward, should be the primary consideration. (PR is a public, not personal, service.)
6. To expedite two-way communication and to be responsible communicators, public relations practitioners must use scientific public opinion research extensively. (PR cannot afford to be a guessing game.)
7. To understand what their publics are saying and to reach them effectively, public relations
In attempting to agree on what public relations is, many researchers have wrestled with a definition that seems suitable and internationally acceptable. When some in the UK began to call public relations “reputation management,” that caught on in the USA. The U.S. notion of “branding” that came from integrated marketing communications likewise caught on in Europe. In working on the European body of knowledge, researchers struggled for a paradigm that would cover private relationships, not just those in the public sphere, and broader social issues that public relations should address. This is not new to the social responsibility concept of public relations: being responsible first to a broader public welfare and then to the organization it represents.
Although that is understood, European researchers urge a reflective approach that looks at society’s changing standards and values and then adjusts the organization’s standards accordingly.
In terms of how public relations practitioners themselves define the discipline globally, a model emerges that involves education, government, business and cultural norms and values—religion- based or not.
Read “On the Definition of Public Relations: A European View,” by Dejan Vercic, Betteke van Ruler, Gerhard Butschi and Bertil Flodin in Public Relations Review, 27 (2002), pp. 373-87. Look at the Practice Matrix for the Cultural-Economic Model of International Public Relations Practice (Table 10-1) in Patricia A. Curtin and T. Kenn Gaither’s International Public Relations (2007) and Bridging Gaps in Global Communication (2007) by Doug Newsom.I
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Chapter 1 / PR Roles and Responsibilities 5
practitioners must employ the social sciences— psychology, sociology, social psychology—and the literature of public opinion, communica- tion and semantics. (Intuition is not enough.)
8. Because a lot of people do PR research, the PR person must adapt the work of other, related disciplines, including learning theory and other psychology theories, sociology, political science, economics and history. (The PR field requires multidisciplinary applications.)
9. Public relations practitioner