Chapter 12 Book Notes - Summary Mass Communication: Living in a Media World PDF

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Chapter 12 summary over public relations...

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Chapter 12: Public Relations  

Kraft shortage was actually beneficial From Press Agentry to Professionalism  Public Relations (PR)—“The management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends”  All about relating to a wide range of publics  Public—any group who share a common set of interests and goals. These include internal publics, which are made up of people within the organization, and external publics, which consist of people outside the organization o The Origins of Public Relations  Go as far back as the Revolution to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (built the case for the colonies’ break w/ England)  Generally seen as growing out of the Industrial Revolution  Advances in communications helped  Really took off w/ invention of the penny press  Press Agentry—an early form of PR that involved sending material from the press agent to the media w/ little opportunity for interaction and feedback. It often involved conduct that would be considered deceptive and unethical today  One-Way Communication  Dealt more w/ building publicity than managing or creating a specific image  Realized in the early years of the 20th century that they needed to respond to criticism from populist and progressive political groups  The Beginnings of Image Management  First major users of PR were railroads o Bribed reporters so they wouldn’t spread the word that railroads were monopolizing  Utility and telephone industries followed  Ivy Lee  Had publicity firm of Parker and Lee  One of the two key founders of modern public relations (brought strong understanding of economics and psych) o Public reacted more to symbols and phrases than rational arguments  Practicing spin control as early as 1910  Brought about that telling the truth was effective  Declaration of Principles (1906ish) o Outlined how he thought public relations out to be carried out (openly and honestly supply accurate and timely news to the press)  Edward L. Bernays  Another founder of modern public relations

First to apply social-scientific research techniques in the field Engineering Consent—the application of the principles of psych and motivation to influencing public opinion and creating public support for a particular position  Promoted clients and PR as a profession (Crystalling Public Opinion and Propaganda) o WWI: The Federal Government Starts Using Public Relations  Committee of Public Information (CPI)  Built support for the war  Used advertising, billboards, posters, newspaper, opinion pieces, articles, and pamphlets  Enlisted 75k “four-minute men” who took messages to church and services by delivering four minute speeches  Opinion Leadership—a two-step process of persuasion that uses respected and influential individuals to deliver messages w/ the hope of influencing members of a community, rather than just relying on the mass media to deliver the message  Journalists, politicians, businessmen, scientists, etc. used  WWII used Office of War Information in a similar way o Public Relations Becomes a Profession  Colleges and universities began teaching classes in the 40s and the 50s  Became critical in the 60s and 70s when institutions had to actively manage their images The Business of Public Relations o What is Public Relations?  Ed Bernays described three functions  Informing—sending info to a variety of publics  Persuading—induce members of various publics to change their attitudes or actions  Integrating—bring publics and institutions together o EX: Charity auction  “the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends”  it’s a management function—central to running a company  establishes mutually beneficial relationships—benefits organization and the publics  depend on various publics o The Public Relations Process  (ropes)  Research  Look at the opportunities, problems, or issues that the organization is facing  Public opinion research—finding out how the public views the company or product, its actions, and its image  

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Content analysis—analyzing what is being written or said about the company in the media  Focus groups—bringing together members or a particular public to talk about how they perceive an organization, a product, or an issue  Objectives  Set specific and measureable objectives for the campaign  Effective campaign is determined by what the client wants to accomplish  Should be something that is measureable  Programming  Plan and implement the activities necessary to carry out the objectives  How the promotion will be carried out  Evaluation  Test the messages and techniques before using them, monitoring the programming while it’s being delivered, and measuring the results of the program  Happens at every stage of the process  Stewardship  Maintain relationships created through previous steps  This with the company/medium they used to promote as well as with the general public o Who are the Publics?  Internal Publics—people who work for the company  Easy to target  Can be done through e-mail, company paper, web video, closedcircuit TV, and satellite conferences  Intranets—computer networks designed to communicate w/ ppl inside an organization. They are used to improve two-way internal communication and contain tools that allow for direct feedback. They are a tool for communicating w/ internal publics  External publics  Press is important one bc its how organizations communicate to many of their publics  Media relations—two-way interactions between PR professionals and members of the press. These can involve press conferences, press releases, video news releases, or interviews. Typically, media relations involve the placement of unpaid messages within the standard programming or news content of the medium o Good are typically good relations w/ the public at large  Unpaid messages gain credibility bc they come from the press and not directly from the corporation o Crisis Communications  Crisis—any situation that is perceived by the public as being damaging to the reputation or image of an organization. Not all problems develop into crises, but once a situation develops into a 

crisis, it can be damaging to an organization’s reputation even if information  Principles of Crisis Communication  Be prepared o Have a crisis plan o Some things unlikely, but would be enormously damaging if they did happen  Be honest o Lying often caught o Cover up looks worse than the actual action  Apologize, and mean it o Use real action  Move quickly o 45 minutes to 12 hours is critical; after that ppl will have made up their minds and its hard to get them to change  Communicate w/ the press and other constituencies o Includes ppl that work for the company  The Tylenol Scare  Johnson and Johnson was completely honest  Immediately stopped advertising and took Tylenol off the market in Chicago, then took it off the market nationwide  Relaunched the product w/ tamper-resistant packaging  Great PR helped the company survive  The Exxon Valdez and BP Oil Spills  Exxon considered at fault (difficult to defend when they’re at fault)  Lack of effective crisis plan  Didn’t take immediate control  Didn’t accept responsibility right away o Public Relations and the Internet  A New Information Channel  Websites can be a credible source for reporters o Present info in the way the company wants it  Internet allows companies to find out what ppl are saying about them  Challenges from online media o Once crisis hits the internet, it cant be contained o Internet makes it easy for confidential info to be leaked o Rumors flourish on the net (or accelerate the process)  Coming to Terms w/ Social Media  Opportunity for interaction w/ various publics  Domino’s: Fighting Back Against Social Media  Initially delayed response, but then handled it well  Companies need to do several; things to prepare for online crisis communication o Identify crisis team—PR professionals, lawyers, and digital communication specialist

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o Imagine nightmare scenarios—make sure when crisis hits, company’s website comes up first o Track blogosphere and other social media—know what ppl are saying o Don’t wait—limited time to respond  Rumors on the internet  Spread v quickly and apologies often overshadowed Public Relations and Society o Public Relations Supports the News Business  Anywhere from 40-90% of the news originates w/ public relations efforts  Press conferences, press releases  Press conferences/ press releases is where the news comes from and reporters report off of it o Public Relations and the Government  Government relations: lobbying and building goodwill  Government is a major practitioner of public relations  All elected federal officials have a press secretary and many have a communications director  Military involved in PR since WWI o Spin Control: A more personal form of PR  Began in the 70s  John Scanlon cited as top spin doctor  Things spin docs do:  Selectively leak into in advances so reporters will pay more attention to it then to info received later  Contact members of press immediately after an event in hopes of getting them to adopt the desired interpretation of the story  Push idea that theres two sides to every story o Public Relations and Political Activism  People can promote activism to make a change o Public Relations and the Civil Rights Movement  Action, words, and visibility needed to make a change  Practiced in churches, hotel rooms, and jail  King knew that if protests weren’t covered by reporters, theyd be ineffective

Kraft capitalized on a minor shortage for this cheese product, and turned it into an opportunity to discuss the product across social media, gaining free publicity o Velveeta A group of people who share a common set of interests and goals are known as o Public The pr profesion rose to prominence during what era o The industrial revolution This entrepreneur garnered publicity by writing letters to the editor under fake names, accusing himself of fraud

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o PR Barnum What company was an early user of pr tactics o AT&T, Illinois Central Railroad, Chicago Edison Ivy Lee, one of the founders of modern PR, focused on campaigns built around the importance of __ o Symbolism Ivy lee is remembered for his advice to John D. Rockefeller Jr. to ______ bc “sooner or later the public will find out anyway” o Tell the truth Edward L. Bernays introduced the technique of ________, which used psychology to manipulate public opinion o Engineering consent The two-way model of interaction between ______ is the central notion of modern public relations o The institution and its publics In 1923, Edward L Bernays also taught the first academic course in public relations. At what university was the course taught o NYU The US government launched the Committee on Public Info as a public relations after the US became involved in what international event o WWI What did PR efforts by Rita Hayworth and Rihanna mentioned in the text have in common o Both were part of stories announcing they’d won nonexistent awards One major function of pr, the act of communicating to a variety of publics, is known as __ o Informing The function of public relations seeks to convince various publics to change their attitudes or actions o Persuading This function of public relations seeks to bring publics and institutions with shared actions, goals, and attitudes o Integrating The ROPES process centers on the idea that public relations is concerned with creating, developing, and nurturing ________ o Relationships CNS’s plan to test their ad campaign material during each stage of the process is an example of which element of ROPES o Evaluation Why would an internal audience be an important public for a company to consider? o They work for the company...