Public Relations 1 Flashcards
Types of news
- Impact – effecting a large group of people.
- Timeliness – most recent is usually most popular.
- Prominence – when something happens to a well-known person.
- Proximity – it’s close to you.
- Bizarre – something strange happens.
- Conflicts – conflicting viewpoints/arguments.
- Currency - an idea whose time has come.
- Human Interest – usually stories with a positive spin.
PR Societies
PRSA: Public Relations Society of America
CPRS: Canadian Public Relations Society
IABC: International Association of Business Communicators
APR: Association of Public Relations
What it the ultimate goal of PR?
Mutual understanding
What is a PR person’s greatest skill?
Writing
What is a PR person’s greatest asset?
Reputation
Office of War Information Counsel (Second World War)
- Formed by President Franklin Roosevelt and Elmer Davis
- created to encourage cooperation with the war effort
- propaganda, movies
- “white bombs”: leaflets to spread terror
The Creel Committee (First World War)
- Organized by George Creel, journalist and propagandist
- first propaganda office
- worked with American Government to encourage support in war
- super racist against other countries
Tylenol cyanide poisoning
- Manufactured by Johnson & Johnson
- 7 people initially died, copycats followed
- no crisis management
- took responsibility and made recall
- cooperated with media
- advertised triple-lock caps
Pepsi syringe crisis
- Crisis communications
* reported that syringes were hoaxes
Ben and Jerry’s
- community relations
- oil drilling, occupy wall street, global warming, same sex marriage, BLM, other liberal crap
- Good P.R. = good sales
Edward L. Bernays
- Father of event planning
- nephew of Sigmund Freud: adopted his ideas
- ran two PR companies with Doris Fleishchman
- Light’s Golden Jubilee: recreated invention of the lightbulb to celebrate 50 years since its invention, sponsored by the General Electric Company
- Torches of Freedom
- Green Ball
Ivy Lee
- Considered “father of PR”
- First PR firm, disguised ads as stories
- Crisis Communications
- Author of the Declaration of Principles
- Accused of being a Nazi propagandist
PT Barnum
- First practitioner of P.R.
- Owner of Barnum’s Museum
- Used Jenny Lind – also known as The Swedish Nightingale - to elevate his public profile
- example of press-agentry
James Grunig’s four models of PR
- Press Agentry/publicity: One way: Promote organization
- Public information: One way: Inform as truthfully and accurately as possible (informational, not necessarily persuasive)
- Counselling: Two way asymmetric: Research to hep your organization to be successful, persuasion to get the public to agree
- Management: Two way symmetric: Create dialogue between organization and its publics to help the organization meet public needs (“mutual understanding”)
PR vs J
PR: Multi-faceted J: Writing PR: Managerial skills J: Interview skills PR: Subjective J: Aims to be objective PR: Many publics, variety of media channels J: One audience, one media channel
PR vs AD
PR: Free publicity AD: Paid space and time PR: Uncontrolled media AD: Controlled media PR: Generating mutual understanding AD: Selling products PR: Internal and external publics AD: External audiences PR: Strategic management function AD: Strategic creative PR: Used to support advertising AD: Used as PR tool
PR vs Marketing
PR: Make money MK: save money PR: Build relationship with publics MK: Build markets for goods and services PR: Internal and external publics MK: External markets PR: Persuade and inform MK: Persuade to sell PR: Management, communication, publicity, promotion MK: Limits PR to publicity and promotion
Transfer
Associate yourself with someone/something with high status to gain some of that status.
Bandwagon
Choosing to support someone as they gain popularity (making it look like it’s already been decided).
Testimonial
Friends of politicians or celebrities promoting them.
Plain folks
Politicians and advertisers like to be perceived as a person with humble beginnings.
What is the most difficult persuasive outcome to change?
Changing hostile opinions.
Principles of Persuasion: Clarity principle
To communicate, you must employ words, symbols, or visuals to which the receiver comprehends and responds.
Ex) Uses slogans/symbols to capture the essence of a message – visuals that enlighten or dramatize.
Principles of Persuasion: Principles of familiarity and trust
Unless the listener has confidence in the speaker, the listener is not likely to listen or behave in the desired manner. Must establish credibility with your target audience.
Principles of Persuasion: Action principle
Provide an easy means of action to lessen the likelihood that people will shrug off your appeal. People. Seldom buy ideas separated from action.
Principles of Persuasion: Identification principle
States your message in terms of how it affects your audience. Most people will ignore an idea, opinion, or point of view unless they see how it affects their lives.
Principles of Persuasion: The “Nobody cares” rule
People will not care about what you are trying to sell them unless it impacts them. People’s ideas don’t normally change unless an event changes them.
PR Agencies
- P.R. Agencies: Consultant firms where a client hires you.
2. P.R. Corporate: You’re employed by your client.
Propaganda
- P.R. has its roots in propaganda
- Usually biased, one-way communication
- “Card-stacking” (one side tells the story)
- Information meant to influence (though it’s often incomplete information)
Specialty areas of PR
- Event planning
- Media Relations
- Lobbying
Spin
Usually has an element of truth
• Could be completely true
• P.R. people are known as spin doctors
• Grey area between spinning and lying
Lobbying
Attempting to influence the government to pass legislation that benefits your company. Tends to have a bad reputation with the public. Ex) U.S. gun lobbyists.
Media Relations
Managing a company’s owned media and going in front of the camera. Media Relations employees often become the face of a company. “Spinning” bad situations.