Assess the usefulness of Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) four models of public relations practice in describing the reality of public relations practice. PDF

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An essay detailing the usefulness of Grunig and Hunt's four models of PR in modern times. ...

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Assess the usefulness of Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) four models of public relations practice in describing the reality of public relations practice.

In the hopes to provide some framework to Public Relations as a practice, Grunig and Hunt defined public relations into four models. Grunig points out that to improve the practice of public relations we must understand how and why organizations practice public relations in the way they do (Reagon, Anderson & Sumner, 1989). The four models of Public Relations have been a topic of dispute, as some scholars feel that PR is not as easily defined within just four separate models. This essay argues that Grunig and Hunt’s four models of PR are useful in describing the reality of public relations, however the models do not completely encapsulate all public relation practices. The four models are called Press Agentry, Public Information, Two-way asymmetrical and Two-way symmetrical. The first two models focus on the dissemination of information, strictly keeping to an agenda of one way communication with the public, the difference between the two is that Press Agentry does not place importance on how true the information they disseminate is. On the other hand, Public Information and the truth go hand in hand. The latter two models are different in their relationship with the public. Two-way asymmetrical uses research to persuade audiences to act the way that fits an organisations agenda (Hunt and Grunig, 1994). Two-way symmetrical however has a somewhat pragmatic approach to its communication model as it involves altering its messages using feedback that it gains from the public. The last decade brought with it a huge surge in the use of social media and interactive online technology which has increased the public’s awareness of current affairs as they have access to information they previously had not. Because of this, symmetrical models of PR are becoming a lot more common as organisations are now much more accountable to the public due to their new-found accessibility. Social media does also give practitioners the means to gather research and communicate with publics frequently and more efficiently therefore it can be seen that digital media is forcing practitioners to use symmetrical models of PR. (‘James Grunig: Excellence Theory’, 2013) As well as this the growth in social media can also be seen to allow more criticism of an organisation as the public have a platform in which they can express their opinions thereby making organisations more susceptible to a bad reputation. PR practitioners have to use social and digital media as effectively as they can to prevent this to maintain an organisations credibility as an organisation cannot practice good public relations without being responsible to its publics (Hunt and Grunig, 1994. Pg 10) This brings with it the point that symmetrical models of PR are becoming more and more common thereby suggesting that the two-way symmetrical model does have a foothold in the reality of public relations practice. However, queries have been raised about how much influence and power an organization actually has over their appearance on the internet. This raises the question whether an organization can monitor their image on the web in a meaningful way. (Stephen Waddington,) For example googling Nike returns with 1,080,000,000 pages, their twitter page has 6.68 million followers and each of their Facebook posts return with

Assess the usefulness of Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) four models of public relations practice in describing the reality of public relations practice. hundreds of comments. It would be impossible for Nike to analyse and take each person’s opinion into account. With this in mind, the idea that digital or social media promotes the use of the two-way symmetrical model is erased as communication is not symmetrical if the organisation does not have a say in how they are mentioned. Because of this we can assume that the models are idealistic as no true symmetrical communication can occur if data from the public is overlooked and this is where the symmetrical model is critiqued as being nothing more than a normative model which describes what practice should be rather than what it is. Criticism of the four models of public relations and the excellence theory is not hard to come by. One criticism derives from the idea of normative and positive theories. In the case of the four models a positive theory would be a theory that describes actual practice while a normative theory describes how a practice should be. The criticism comes when looking at the two-way symmetrical model as a normative theory as it simply it can be seen to describe how excellent public relations should be practiced. (Grunig, 2013 pg 291) This therefore shows that the four models theory does not necessarily describe actual PR practice but rather what it can or should be. This point has been contested in ‘Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management’ Grunig lays out how the four models fit the criteria in being positive rather than normative theories. Studies that he conducted showed that the models ‘can be reliably measured, they are valid and they do exist in real organizations’ (Grunig, 2013. Pg 297). One way to assess whether the four models describe the reality of public relations practice is through looking at real life examples of PR and applying the models to them. The assumption here is, if successful campaigns are abiding by the four models, other organizations will want to create similar campaigns. If this is the case, then Grunig’s theory would accurately portray public relations practice while avoiding the criticism of the models being normative. A campaign that fits the criteria of the Public information model is the ‘the truth’ anti-tobacco campaign. It distributes information to further its cause to the public through platforms such as their website which displays facts about smoking and promotes the campaigns events. Moreover, there is a distinct lack of two-way communication displayed on their website, the only voice that is given to the audience is an option of four ‘react buttons’ in the form of ‘Ugh, Why?!, EEE! And Gahh!’ This is very limited communication for the audience. This campaign does fit the criteria of the Public information model as it is just disseminating a message to the public with very little participation or response needed from the public. This does however raise questions as to whether two-way symmetrical communication is in fact a normative model. The model presented here contributes to that discussion by suggesting that advocacy might be especially valuable, to the extent that a public is less active, that is, less involved and less knowledgeable, in a particular topic or issue. (Hallahan,2000., p512)

Assess the usefulness of Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) four models of public relations practice in describing the reality of public relations practice. The idea presented is that symmetrical models of practice are not necessarily the desired practices. This is because a certain group of publics may benefit from positive theories such as press agentry as it simply lays out to the public what the message is and why they need it. Although this does not necessarily make the models any less useful in describing the reality of public relations practice it does show that the existence of inactive audiences creates certain atmosphere’s in which symmetrical models are not normative. An example of a public relations campaign that can be considered symmetrical in nature is found in Heineken’s “Reinvent the Draught Beer Experience” campaign. ‘ All participants had to do was share ideas on how to deliver an engaging and energizing experience that challenges the way draught beer is traditionally served and drunk.’ The campaign was very well received and generated a lot of brand awareness. As well as this Heineken also got to hear what their customers wanted from their brand so the campaign doubled as a way of finding out how they could improve their product. This campaign was based on communicating with publics to gain research (Hunt, Grunig 1994) into how they could better be presented as a brand thereby negotiating with their audience on how they should do business. These articles develop the argument for the models usefulness as they are successful examples of non-symmetrical and symmetrical models. This success implies that other public relations practitioners would seek to follow these examples. However, it should be noted that these examples are very limited in describing all public relations practice, they do show that the models are at least applicable to particularly successful campaigns but they fail to address the usefulness of the models on a wider, more global scale.

The four models of public relations were developed because of research Grunig carried out in the industry within the USA. Although a lot of development of the industry was made in the United States, in this newly globalised world it would be unfair to apply theories developed in a western society to practice found in eastern cultures. For example, a study indicated that the models, again mostly developed in the united states, do not fit the same public relation function in South Korea perfectly (sriramesh, 2003). Due to factors, such as the level of democracy and a pre-modern press system, the development of models has been slow and has forced practitioners to skip the developmental stage of the public information model. (Y. Kim & Hon, 2001. P.271) This shows that practitioners in South Korea are developing their own models, or at least, developing the same models in a different way suggesting that there are alternate models surrounding the already existing ones. Alternate research suggested that although practitioners would like to practice the two-way symmetrical or two-way asymmetrical models, they are more likely to practice ‘the craft models’ of press agentry and public information. (Heath, 2001) Another example of the models being translated into an alternate culture is the case of Bulgarian practice of public relations. Because Bulgaria is still developing public relations, it is a good example of how the models are created and implemented. Bulgarian practitioners are not shying away from the practices of the west. Also, the more practitioners can use professional public relations models, the higher is their job satisfaction. (Karadjov Et al. 2000) This promotes the use of the four models as it shows that the practitioners of public relations in its developmental stages is aspiring to implement the models in their practices. This therefore suggests that the four models do

Assess the usefulness of Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) four models of public relations practice in describing the reality of public relations practice. accurately describe the realities of public relations practice on a global scale, or at least, they seem to lay a groundwork for developing countries to aspire to. In Theakers ‘The Public Relations Handbook’ she references studies in Slovenia that showed similarities to the excellent PR Grunig describes however they simply were not practised nearly as much as in Grunig’s studies (Theaker, 2011). The main weakness found within the four models is the idealistic nature of the two-way symmetric model. Because the model be the ideal form of communication with an organization and its publics it is not often practiced in real life (Theaker, 2011) Le’Tang also draws attention to the weakness of the other three models as a weakness of the theory and describes how the idealistic nature of the fourth model will lead to a sense of failure in the practice of the other three. ‘Vast areas of activity (three of the four of Grunig’s models) can be seen as public relations that is not quite right, dysfunctional. Although there may be objective causes, such as the structure of the organization, which do not allow the excellent model to be practised, nevertheless there is an implication of failure’ (Le’Tang, 2012) Later she compares the following of the models to the following of the ten commandments saying that the models appear problematic to those who operate outside of them. This criticism explains that the four models be a point of view that views any practices outside of the framework of the models as insufficient even if the practitioners do not understand the ideas of excellence that are proposed through Grunig’s theory. This further shows that the two-way symmetrical model is there to promote a perfect ideal of public relations practice. This comes as a weakness to Grunig in the case of this essay as an ideal situation of public relations is not describing the reality of public relations practice but rather describing what it should be. This would suggest that Grunig’s excellence model is more of a benchmark that practitioners should aim for rather than a description of the practice in the real world. (Szondi, 2006). To summarise, the criticisms of Grunig and Hunt’s four models mostly derive from the idea that they do not encapsulate all public relations practice and they simply do not reflect practice in the real world effectively. The models do translate into real life practice as shown by the examples of the ‘Truth’ and Heineken campaigns so the models do have a certain amount of accuracy in describing the practice. However, the analysis of public relations on a global scale does limit the usefulness of the models as they do not translate completely to countries with economic / political issues or with extremely different cultures than that of the United States. The other problem that the models face is the development of social media and internet usage among audiences. This development further reinforces the idea that the symmetrical model is idealistic and therefore a weakness in the theories ability to describe the reality of public relations practice. To conclude, it seems that although Grunig and Hunt’s theory encapsulates the reality of practice in general terms it fails to address intricacies such as geography, culture and new technology. The models do achieve a certain accuracy as many public relations campaigns fit into the criteria of the theory. As well as this the models, do lay a framework of strategies that organizations can follow depending upon the campaign they create. However, it seems that the theory proposed in 1984 is outdated and therefore inaccurate in describing the reality of public relations practice at present.

Assess the usefulness of Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) four models of public relations practice in describing the reality of public relations practice.

Anderson, R., Reagan, J., Hill, S. and Sumner, J., 1989. Practitioner roles and the uses of new technology. Public Relations Review, 15(3), p.53.

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Assess the usefulness of Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) four models of public relations practice in describing the reality of public relations practice....