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.
Event planning
A branch of P.R. in which you plan events for your publics (sponsors, investors, etc.). May try to thank them/get them to invest in your company.
Newsjacking
If everyone is talking about an issue, a company will latch onto it for free publicity.
Against brand
Focuses on how they are better than other brands. They do not dominate the market. Ex) Pepsi
Dominant brand
Does not need to mention other brands in their ad because they already dominate the market. Ex) Coca-Cola
Niche brand
A brand that most people don’t consume all the time, but people who enjoy it love it. Ex) Dr. Pepper
Management
To strategically manage P.R. in the workplace. Talking, making decisions, and having the power to impact decisions made.
Key words in defining PR
Deliberate: Meaning for something to happen.
Planned: Actually doing P.R.
Performance: Measuring performance of. P.R. in order to set goals.
Public Interest: Should be good for people (not meant to disguise bad things as good).
Two-Way Communication: Must know how the public feels about what you’re doing. Adapting to feedback.
Public affairs
All organizations have various ‘publics’. This is any job role where you are dedicated to serving the needs of a specific public. Ex) Government jobs.
Community relations
Spending charitable funds in a way that reflects positively upon your organization. Making sure that the views of those who receive your company’s. money align with your views.
Employee communication
Potentially working with H.R. in hiring employees. Creating employee welcome packages. Showcasing the people who have worked for your company. Creating employee newsletters.
Developmental
Fundraising (raising money for good deeds).
Crisis communication
Planning for a crisis (‘issues management’). When a crisis is out of one’s hands, it becomes an issue of ‘putting the fire out’. A P.R. person may plan for the worst-case scenario before they come to fruition.
Press agentry
Publicity of a very gimmicky nature. Ex) Photographers are purposely given a show.
Publicity
Uncontrolled media – no control over the message. Another form of marketing an influence. Ex) Photo opportunities (alerting the media when you know something is going to happen).
Public relations
The strategic management of relationships between an organization and its diverse publics through the use of communication, with the goal of achieving mutual understanding, realizing organizational goals, and serving the public interest. No licensing or practice to P.R.
Gatekeeper
Also known as a journalist or editor. These people control what is reported in the media.
Pseudo-Event
Wouldn’t exist unless a P.R. person orchestrated it, but it’s still news.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Optimizing your content based on what you think people are googling. Headlines are more important than content. Measures how often people click on links in and out of your website.
Utilitarianism
Greatest good for the greatest number of people. Dictates moral choice.
Absolutism
All things are either good or bad.
Existentialism
Questioning the meaning of life. Believing it’s up to you to determine the meaning of your life, and you have no choice but to do it.
Situationalism
In a given situation, what is the right course of action? There is no grand scheme of good or bad.
Nihilism
Life has no meaning. There is no particular point. There is no moral truth, good, or bad.
Who determines the PR code of ethics?
- Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
- Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS)
- International Association of Business Communications (IABC)
Categories of PR ethics
- Public(s) interest
- Employer
- Code of ethics
- Personal ethics
R.A.C.E. Formula
R – Research
A – Analysis
C – Communication
E – Evaluation
P.R. Process
- Defining P.R. problems
- Planning and programming
- Taking action and communicating
- Evaluating the program
Types of research
- Primary: YOU observe, survey, and interview
- Secondary: SOMEONE ELSE looks at articles, studies, etc.
- Qualitative: Research based on feelings and senses
- Quantitative: Research based on numbers
Public Opinion
Collective opinion of the group that we’re studying. What “most people” think. It is unstable, event-based, and not unanimous.
Opinion Adoption
Where opinions come from. The opinion adoption process is as follows:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Evaluation
- Trial
- Adoption
Opinion Life Cycle
- An issue arises
- Opinion leaders become involved (on both sides)
- Awareness of issue among publics
- Government action
- Resolution (either satisfying or frustrating)
Survey
Used to determine future action. Can be about many issues.
Poll
Snapshot about one issue. Involves a poll sponsor, a population sample (sizes vary), and a margin of error.
Potential problems with polls
o Low response rate o Only landlines o No such thing as a representative online poll o Mistakes in methodology o Open to manipulation
P.R. Publics throughout the ages
- Preliminary (pre-1900): Public be damned era. Buyer beware.
- Reaction to muckraking (1900-1917): Businesses began to react to bad publicity by trying to make things better, but still did not care very much about the public.
- WWI – WWII (1914-1945): Age of propaganda and misleading the public.
- Mid Century (1945-1965): Consumers began to care about two-way information. Polling started (Gallup Poll was invented).
- Mature (1965-1993): Two-way communication is important. Paying attention to your publics and doing good deeds matters.
- Rise of the Machines (ROTM) (1994 – present): Companies have to care about their publics. The public has their own owned media and can communicate with companies directly. Social activism is important in companies.
Branches of PR
- publicity
- press agentry
- crisis communications
- developmental
- employee communications
- community relations
- public affairs
What is PR really (terms)?
- multifacited
- changes always
- changes geographically
- situational
- no licensing
- roots are dodgy
- PR is a justification
What are 5 ways clients initiate the PR functions?
- we have a pr crisis
- we’re planning a special event
- we need better internal communications
- we don’t know how strategic social media works
- we need publicity
How PR contributes to the bottom line: creating awareness and disseminating information
Paves the way for new product ideas
How PR contributes to the bottom line: motivating employees and volunteers
Gets employees engages and motivated
How PR contributes to the bottom line: anticipating issues
Eliminates surprises, helps anticipate to social, economic, political, and technological trends
How PR contributes to the bottom line: identifying opportunities
Uncovers business prospects
How PR contributes to the bottom line: crisis management
Protects one’s reputation and acts as a buffer in time of conflict
How PR contributes to the bottom line: overcoming executive isolation
Keeps executives in touch, aware of publics, and social responsibilities
How PR contributes to the bottom line: facilitating change
Erases resistance
How PR contributes to the bottom line: social responsibility
Creates reputation
How PR contributes to the bottom line: influencing public policy
Removes political barriers (lobbying)
3 golden rules of PR
- get management support
- be more than a technician
- become issue-oriented
Barriers of professionalism
- job security
- prestige
- salary
- recognition
- “technical mentality”
Why do we do PR research?
- Describe a process, situation, or phenomenon
- Explain why something is or isn’t happening
- Predict what might happen
- Reduce uncertainty when making decisions.
Specifics for why research is necessary
- Test messages (determine which ones are most meaningful)
- Formulate action and communication strategies (don’t waste money on the wrong ones)
- Help management keep in touch (reality check)
- Monitor competition (use surveys to shape marketing strategy)
- Find out/sway public opinion
- Generate publicity
- Measure success (evaluative research)
- Prevent crises
- Help gain management support (facts, not guesses)
- Target your public (is your message reaching the right audience?)
