Public Relations Mid-term

Public Relations Mid-term

1. WHAT IS PR?

   • Strategic message delivery made possible by a continual process of collecting information from all publics.
   • Community, Media, Coporate, Employee, Special,

2. HISTORY & GROWTH

   • American Revolution-Samuel Adams-Committees of Corespondance
     • The Constitution- speak for what you believe in
       • Press Agentry- P.T. Barnum-master publicist with questionable tactics
         • American Industrial Revolution- Robber Barrons (corporate)-Muck-rakers(journalists)
           • Ivy Lee-honest, acurate, forceful. Distinguished "press agentry and "publicity" from Public Relations
             • WW1-Creel Committee-Liberty Loan publicity drives
               • 1900 America's first PR Firm - "The Publicity Bureau" followed by others such as Bernay's
   • Growth of large institutions
     • Heightened media sophistication
       • Heightened public awareness
         • Increasing incidents of societal change, conflict and confrontation
           • Growth of globalization
             • Dominance of the internet and social media

3. COMMUNICATION

   • GOALS
     • To persuade
     • To motivate
     • To build mutual understanding
     • To inform
   • THEORIES
     • 2 step flow (from the organization to the mass media to the public)
     • Elmo Roper-Concetntric circle (ideas evolve gradually to the public by travelling through the concentric circles that are the publics)
     • Pat Jackson
       • Build awareness
         • Develop a latent readiness
           • Triggering event
             • Intermediate behaviour
               • Behavioral change
     • S-E-M-D-R (the source sends an encoded message to the reciever who decodes it and takes action)
     • Neumann - Spiral of silence (the silent majority will vote with the minority)
     • Constructivism
     • Coordinated management of meaning
     • Grunig-Hunt
       • Press agentry/publicity
       • Public information
       • Two-way asymetric
       • Two-way symetric
   • WORDS
     • Semantics
     • Bias
     • Stereotypes
     • Symbols
     • Peer-groups

4. PUBLIC OPIONION

   • Persuade people to change their opinion on an issue, product or service
   • Crystallize uninformed or undeveloped opinions
   • Reinforce existing opinions
   • MOTIVATING
     • Elaboration likelihood model (make arguments strong, logical and RELEVANT to the person you are motivating)
     • Maslow - heirarchy - needs must be satisfied in order
   • PERSUADING
     • Systematic (a person has carefully considered the argument - acrtively, creatively and alertly)
     • Heuristic (a person has skimmed the surface of the problem or issue)
     • Facts, Emotions, Personalizing, Appealing to 'you'
   • INFLUENCING
     • Important events sensitize public opinion
     • Events are more powerful than words
     • At critical times - people are more sensitive to the adequacy of their leadership
     • Self-interest trumps others' interest
     • Opinions on goals are easy to form. Opinions on meathods to reach goals are more complicated.
     • Democracy + Education + Open access to info = common sense type of public opinion
   • DANGER?
     • Union strikes
     • Taking $ from corporations
     • Boycotts
   • BONUS?!
     • Influence legislation
     • Garner campaign support
     • Unify a nation

5. MANAGEMENT

   • A bounary role (PR function on the edge of the organization as a liason)
   • PR acts as the corporate concious
   • Reports to the CEO
   • Conceptualizing the Plan
     • Environment
       • Business Objectives
         • Public relations objectives & strategies
           • Public relations programs
   • PR Management Process
     • Defining the problem or opportunity
       • Programming (formal planning - defining publics , strategies, tactics & goals)
         • Action (in this case - communication)
           • Evaluation (what worked, what didn't - how to improve)
   • Internal PR vs.
   • PR Firms
   • Whats in a name?
     • Corporate Communications
     • Reputation Management

6. ETHICS

   • PSRA Member Code of Ethics
     • Advocacy
     • Honesty
     • Expertise
     • Independence
     • Loyalty
     • Fairness
   • Corporate Codes of Conduct
     • to increase public confidence
     • to stem the tide of regulation
     • to improve internal operations
     • to respond to transgressions
   • Corporate Social Responsibilty
     • corporate way of life
   • Ethics in Government
   • Ethics in Journalism
   • Ethics in Public Relations

7. THE LAW

   • 1st Amendment
     • defending 1st amendment important for PR professionals
   • Defamation Law
     • libel - a printed falsehood
     • slander - an oral falsehood
   • Insider Training
     • know the laws that govern your industry
   • Disclosure Law
   • Ethics Law
     • Fed. regulation of lobbying act of 1946
   • Copyright Law
     • protects writers with fixed work-permanent
   • Internet Law
     • Censorship
       • COPA 1998-2009
     • Intellectual Property
       • eg. Napster
     • Cybersquatting
       • taking/using domain names in bad faith
     • E-Fraud
       • same as regular fraud
   • Litigation Law
     • Learn the process
       • Develop a message strategy
         • Settle fast
           • Anticipate high-profile variables
             • Keep the focus positive
               • Try settling again
                 • Fight nicely