Transcript Public relations

PUBLIC RELATIONS
A HISTORY
PUBLIC RELATIONS
• The modern idea of public relations in the United
States is fairly recent—20th century.
• The idea of working with the news media, giving
them story ideas, and relating openly to their
questions to improve goodwill toward a
company—that was not part of 19th-century
thinking.
PR UNPOPULARITY
• Not only was PR unpopular among businesses, it
also was unpopular among news media.
• Reporters traditionally mistrusted “flaks” who misled
reporters into publishing promotional material, or
did not tell reporters the truth.
PR BEGINNINGS
• Actually, however, public relations was an
advancement over the old way of doing things.
• The idea of a “press agent” did exist in the 19th
century.
• But this kind of “agent” usually existed not to help
the media, but to block it.
• The agent acted as a wall between the company
and the media, to keep secrets and block reporters
trying to get information from company leaders.
PRESS AGENTS
• Old-style press agents usually did not provide press
releases or other material to the media.
• This was because most companies could see no
good reason to deal with the media at all.
• It was up to the newspapers to get information, not
to businesses, who would not easily give it.
STONEWALLING
• Should a company be involved in some kind of
disaster or scandal, the press agent’s job was to
stonewall.
• That is, he would try to keep any news secret, and
tell reporters nothing.
A NEW APPROACH
• Around the turn of the century, 1900, a new idea
developed.
• Advocates of new PR suggested that when a
company was faced with a need to communicate,
it should not stonewall, because that would not
increase goodwill for the company.
• The most famous proponent of modern PR was Ivy
Ledbetter Lee.
IVY LEE
• Lee, an 1899 Princeton graduate,
began work for New York
newspapers.
• But he decided to leave to try
something new—a public relations
bureau, called Parker and Lee.
(George F. Parker was a Buffalo,
N.Y., journalist.)
• He brought to his new business his
knowledge of what reporters need
from public relations people.
IVY LEE’S IDEALS
• Lee said PR practitioners needed to practice
openness with media. His motto:
Accuracy.
Authenticity.
Interest.
• He argued for an honest, open approach.
PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD
• The 1906 Pennsylvania RR incident gave him the
opportunity to test his new concept.
• Railroads at this time were the most powerful
businesses in the United States.
• But moving goods and people from one place to
another occasionally led to accidents.
• After a railroad accident, the typical company
response was to try to suppress news of the incident.
• Lee thought this ought to change.
RAILWAY ACCIDENT AND PR
• In response to the Pennsylvania Railway accident
Lee, who represented the company, did the
unexpected.
• Lee actually invited reporters to the accident scene
at company expense.
• This approach was popular with reporters, who now
were “spoiled.”
• They expected other companies to do this as well.
ANOTHER RAIL ACCIDENT
• So when New York Central Railway responded to a
later accident with the usual secrecy, reporters got
angry and gave it negative coverage.
• Lee’s insistence on “absolute frankness” with the
media changed the way American industry dealt
with the public.
COAL STRIKE
A year before, a miners’ union hired Lee to represent
the group in a coal strike. He tried something new: a
“press release.” Journalists were skeptical. In response
he emphasized the difference between PR and
advertising:
• “This is not a secret press bureau. All our work is
done in the open. We aim to supply news. This is not
an advertising agency. If you think any of our
matter ought properly to go to your business office,
do not use it. Our matter is accurate.”
LEE AND ROCKEFELLER
• Lee became famous for his public
relations experience representing John
D. Rockefeller, one of the era’s great
tycoons.
• Rockefeller was famously aloof. Lee
urged him to appear in public more
often, mill about with his employees,
and so look more “human.”
• Rockefeller’s union-busting and trust-building by this time
had turned him into one of the country’s most hated men.
Lee had a challenge.
LEE AND ROCKEFELLER
• Rockefeller took his advice, and did manage to
improve his image.
• He became particularly remembered for appearing
in front of children in orphanages, and giving out
dimes.
• By the time he died in 1937, he had given away a
fortune, was often seen in public, and died as a
fairly well-liked public figure.
THE TRUTH
Lee believed public relations practitioners should
tell the truth,
never try to deceive,
and never, ever offer payments to the press to
publish non-advertising material—a common tactic
at the time.
• Businesses might pay a newspaper for running an
article, while the newspaper would not disclose the
article was paid for. Lee believed this was unethical.
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EDWARD BERNAYS
• At about the same time, Edward Bernays grew to
become the other most significant figure in U.S.
public relations development.
• Bernays was Sigmund Freud’s nephew. He grew up
steeped in the new ideas regarding the power of
the unconscious, and the irrational, emotional
nature of people’s thinking and motivations.
EDWARD BERNAYS
• Bernays did agree with
Lee’s principles.
• But he wrote three
influential books arguing
for the essentially
irrational responses
people make to PR, and
other communication.
• Bernays also considered
the principles of modern
of propaganda.
BERNAYS AND WORLD WAR I
• After World War I, Bernays and his ideas based on
Freud became more accepted in the highest
circles. President Woodrow Wilson invited him to the
Paris peace conference in 1919.
BERNAYS AND HISTORY
• Bernays’ somewhat bleak assessment of public
irrationality relating to persuasive techniques
seemed to be vindicated after Adolph Hitler’s Nazi
party used such techniques to great success in
1930s Germany.
LEE VS. BERNAYS
• Lee was less pessimistic.
• Lee said pubic opinion was not irrational, but only
interested in self-gain.
• The terms “propaganda” and “public relations”
were more interchangeable then than they are
today.
• Lee said both public relations and propaganda
were merely “the effort to propagate ideas.”
• He felt both were all right, as long as the public
knew the source of the ideas.
DISILLUSIONMENT
• But Lee was like many journalists after World War I—
disillusioned by propaganda power and “facts.”
• Lee claimed there was no such thing as facts, just
personal interpretation of facts.
• This meant presentation of information depended
on who presented it; every fact was colored.
FACTS AND BERNAYS
• Bernays agreed with Lee on both the nature of
facts and the nature of people’s self-interest.
• Bernays further emphasized people clearly held
opinions for irrational reasons.
• Neither public relations pioneer, obviously, held a
very optimistic viewpoint regarding public opinion.
• Lee died in his 50s, of a brain tumor. Bernays lived to an amazing 103, dying in 1995.
PUBLIC RELATIONS AND WAR
• Both men were influenced by the success of
propaganda/public relations efforts in World War I.
• That success, as we discovered earlier, led to
discredit of propaganda. Bernays’ ideas added to
the discredit, and the distrust of public relations as it
was confused with propaganda.
THE ATROCITY STORIES
• Propaganda stories of German atrocities during the
First World War were universally believed—and they
inflamed public opinion to high levels of hate
against the enemy.
• But after the war the public discovered many of
these stories had been made up. They felt
manipulated.
ATROCITY AND WORLD WAR II
• So when in the late 1930s atrocity stories started to
come from Nazi Germany describing concentration
camps and extermination of Jews, homosexuals or
disabled people—skeptical Americans often didn’t
believe. Sources were “crying wolf.”
• This time, however, the “propaganda” was only too
tragically true.
WORLD WAR I AND PR
• The success of World War I PR influenced by those
who were amazed by its power, and those who
feared it.
• In particular, journalists became fearful. Editor and
Publisher attacked public relations as simply a way
for business to promote for free what should be
paid advertising.
THE “MENACE”
• Bernays’ public relations is still considered today to
be among the most influential ever seen in the
United States. However, some mass media research
has begun to question some of the influence
suggested in this video.
AMBIVALENCE
• Reporters and editors were ambivalent.
• On the one hand they were disgusted or
embarrassed by PR people.
• On the other hand, they appreciated the
helpfulness and usefulness of PR people.
• News people even before the development of PR
long used ready-made interviews, canned
speeches and other material from institutions and
organizations.
WHY THE DISTRUST?
• Why did journalists so distrust PR people?
• Perhaps because at based it threatened the very
idea of reporting.
• Instead of reporting events, you are reporting those
facts provided to you from the point of view of the
PR people.
• If that were the case, Lee was right: there are no
facts, only interpretations.
CAMPAIGNS
• Journalists also were worried about PR campaigns.
• These could manufacture “news.”
• For example, Lee publicized Rockefeller’s donation
to Johns Hopkins University. It was widely covered.
• Lee commented later to Rockefeller that it was not
news, yet the newspapers paid so much attention
to it.
• Success of that campaign Lee attributed was to the
image (not the facts) the PR people were able to
create.
CREATING NEWS
• Bernays agreed with Lee that PR people were
creating news.
• Despite media misgivings, PR become more and
more popular. Government agencies and
businesses all hired public relations people.
• Despite distrust from both business and media, PR
clearly was useful.
PUBLIC RELATIONS GROWTH
• Today the majority of businesses have public
relations staffs.
• A large number of what used to be called “J-School
grads” go into public relations.
• It’s become a respectable major available in many
communication programs.
• But many people nevertheless view public relations
as a slightly tainted profession because it involves a
clear bias and possible skewing, or spinning of the
facts.
OBJECTIVITY?
• We know today that objectivity is really hard to
attain.
• Still many people don’t like to see obvious bias from
the PR side.
• However, today we also know PR doesn’t
necessarily have the kind of power Bernays or Lee
might have believed.
• Nevertheless, in the right situation we know it has a
strong influence.
FOR GOOD OR NOT?
• Is it a good or bad thing for society that this
formalized, professional industry dedicated to
persuasion has indeed become so persuasive in our
culture?