Transcript Defining Public Relations - Al Akhawayn University in

AL AKHAWAYN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Defining Public Relations
Dr. Mohammed Ibahrine
Defining Public Relations
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1. Prominence of Public Relations
2. What is Public Relations?
3. Planned Process to influence Public Opinion
3.1 Public Relations as Management Interpreter
3. 2 Public Relations as Public Interpreter
4. The Publics of Public Relations
5. The Functions of Public Relations
6. The Curse of "Spin"
7. What Manner of Man or Woman?
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1. Prominence of Public Relations
Five trends are related to the evolution of public relations
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Growth of big institutions
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increasing incidence of change, conflict and confrontation
in society
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Sophistication of people worldwide as a result of
technological innovations in communications
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Growing power of public opinion in this new century
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Exponential growth of Internet-based communication
tools, including social software
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2. What is Public Relations?
• In 1923, PR was understood as
• “The business that provide information given to the
public, persuasion directed at the public to modify
attitudes and actions, and efforts to integrate
attitudes and actions of an institution with its publics
and of publics with those of that institution”
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2. What is Public Relations?
• The Foundation for Public Relations Research and
Education defined PR as: (1975)
• “a distinctive management function which helps establish
and maintain mutual lines of communications,
understanding, acceptance, and cooperation between an
organization and its publics; involves the management of
problems or issues; helps management to keep informed on
and response to public opinion, defines and emphasizes the
responsibility of management to serve the public interest,
helps management to keep abreast of an effectively utilize
change, serving as an early warning system to help
anticipate trend; and uses research and sound and ethical
communication techniques as its principal tools”
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2. What is Public Relations?
• This textbook works with the following definition:
• “Public relations is a planned process to influence
public opinion, through sound character and proper
performance, based on mutually satisfactory two-way
communication”
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2. What is Public Relations?
• It is still difficult to have one definition of PR,
• yet practitioners have a clear understanding of what pubic
relations is
• The fact is that there are a number of definitions of PR
• Let us define PR from a Moroccan perspective
• Student’s definition (2006)
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2. What is Public Relations?
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A communications tool
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Activities that support public recognition and respect
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Describes the relationship between organization and public
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Communications tool to influence public opinion favorably
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Protects image in a moment of crisis
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Integral part of advocacy
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2.1. Planned Process to influence
Public Opinion
• What is the process through which public relations
might influence public opinion?
• John Marston suggested a four step model based on
specific functions:
– 1) Research: Research attitudes about the issue
at hand
– 2) Action: Identify action of the client in the public
interest
– 3) Communication: Communicate that action to
gain understanding, acceptance and support
– 4) Evaluation: Evaluate the communication to see
if opinion has been influenced
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2.1. Planned Process to influence
Public Opinion
• Whenever a public relations professional is faced
with an assignment – whether promoting a client’s
product or defending a client’s reputation.
• He or she should apply Marston’s R-A-C-E approach
• No amount of communications - regardless of its
persuasive content – can save an organization
whose performance is substandard
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2.1. Planned Process to influence
Public Opinion
• The process of public relations as Melvin Sharpe has
put it,
“harmonizes long-term relationships among individuals and
organizations in society”
How Question
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2.1. Planned Process to influence
Public Opinion
• To harmonize Sharpe applies five principles to the
public relations process:
• Honest communication for credibility
• Openness and consistency of actions for
confidence
• Fairness of actions for reciprocity and goodwill
• Continuous two-way communication to prevent
alienation and to build relationships
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2.1. Planned Process to influence
Public Opinion
• No matter what definition one may choose to explain
the profession,
• few would argue that the goal of effective public
relations is to HARMONIZE internal and external
relationships so that
• an organization can enjoy not only the goodwill of all
its publics but also stability and long life
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2.2. Public Relations as
Management Interpreter
• In our modern time, every organization has public
relations, whether it wants or not
• The trick is to establish GOOD public relations
• Public relations affects almost everyone who has
contact with other human beings
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2.2. Public Relations as
Management Interpreter
• All of us, in one way or another, practice public
relations daily
• For an organization, every phone call, every letter,
every face-to-face encounter is a public relations
event
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2.2. Public Relations as
Management Interpreter
• Public relations professionals are the real interpreters
of their organizations:
• They must interpret the philosophies, policies,
programs and practices of their management to the
publics
• They must convey the attitudes of the public to their
management
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3. Public Relations as Public
Interpreter
• Interpreting the public to management means finding
out what the public really thinks about the firm and
letting management know
• The savviest institutions – be they government,
corporate, or nonprofit – understand the importance
of effectively interpreting their management and
organizational philosophy, policies, and practices to
the public and even more important, interpreting how
the public views their organization back to
management
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4. The Publics of Public Relations
• Public relations people must communicate with many
different public –each having its own special needs
and requiring different types of communication
• The lines that divide these publics are thin, and the
potential overlap is significant
• Definitions differ on precisely what constitutes a
public
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4. The Publics of Public Relations
• In public relations a public is a group of people with a
stake in an issue, organization, or idea
• Publics can also be classified into several into
several overlapping categories:
• Internal and external: Internal publics are inside the
organization: supervisors, clerks, managers,
stockholders and the board of directors
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4. The Publics of Public Relations
• Internal and external:
• Internal publics are inside the organization:
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clerks,
supervisors,
managers,
stockholders
and the board of directors
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4. The Publics of Public Relations
• External publics are those not directly connected
with the organizations:
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the press,
government,
educators,
customers,
Suppliers
and the community
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4. The Publics of Public Relations
• Primary, secondary, and marginal:
– Primary publics can most help or hinder the organization’s
efforts
– Secondary publics are less important
– Marginal publics are the least important of all
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4. The Publics of Public Relations
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Traditional and future:
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Traditional publics are employees and current customers
Future publics are students and potential customers
Proponents, opponents and the uncommitted:
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An institution must deal with differently with those who support
it and those who oppose it
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4. The Publics of Public Relations
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For supporters, communications that reinforce
beliefs may be in order
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But changing the opinions of skeptics’ calls for
strong, persuasive communications
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Often, particularly in politics, the uncommitted
public is crucial
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4. The Publics of Public Relations
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Another way of segmenting publics is to do it based
on values and lifestyles
Public relations should be sensitive to all
constituent publics
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6. The Curse of "Spin"
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Public relations has become so pervasive to the
point some Americans are worrying about the
power of public relations to exert a kind of thought
control over American public life
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This led to the notion that spinning the facts is
synonymous with public relations
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6. The Curse of "Spin"
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Spin is antithetical to the proper practice of public
relations
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In public relations, if you lie once, you will never be
trusted again, particularly by the media
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7. What Manner of Man or Woman?
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What kind of individual does it take to become a
competent public relations professional?
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The Report of the Commission on Public Relations
Education in 1999 listed a dozen areas of competence
that emerging public relations students must have to
succeed in the new century:
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6. The Curse of "Spin"
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Spin is antithetical to the proper practice of public
relations
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In public relations, if you lie once, you will never be
trusted again, particularly by the media
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7. What Manner of Man or Woman?
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What kind of individual does it take to become a
competent public relations professional?
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The Report of the Commission on Public Relations
Education in 1999 listed a dozen areas of
competence that emerging public relations students
must have to succeed in the new century:
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1. Academic competencies:
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Communication and persuasion concepts and
strategies
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Communication and public relations theories
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Relationship and relationship building
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societal trends
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Ethical issues
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1. Academic competencies:
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Legal requirements and issues
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Marketing and finance
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Public relations history
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Uses of research and forecasting
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1. Academic competencies:
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Multicultural and global issues
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Organizational change and development
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Management concepts and theories
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2. Specific technical skills:
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Knowledge of the field: the underpinnings of public
relations, culture, and history, philosophy, and
social psychology
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communications knowledge- the media and the
ways in which they work, communication research,
and, most important, he writing process
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Technological knowledge – the computer, the Net,
the World Wide Web, all are imperative in the
digital age
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2. Specific technical skills:
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Knowledge of what is going on around you –
current events and factors that influence society:
history, literature, language, politics, economics
and all he rest
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A public relations professional must be, in the truest
sense, a Renaissance man or omen
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Business knowledge – how business works, a
bottom-line orientation, and a knowledge of one’s
company and industry
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2. Specific technical skills:
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knowledge of bureaucracy – how to get things done
in a bureaucratic organization, how to use and gain
power for the best advantage, and how to
maneuver in a politically charged environment
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Management knowledge – how public policy is
shaped and what pressures are responsibilities fall
on senior managers
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3. Specific attitudinal orientations
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Communication orientations – a bias toward
disclosing rather than withholding information they
should want to communicate with the public and
believe that the public has a right to know
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Advocacy – a desire to be advocates for their
employers
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Public relations people must stand up for what their
employers represent
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3. Specific attitudinal orientations
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Counseling orientation – a compelling desire to
advise senior mangers
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Personal confidence – a strong sense of honesty
and ethics, a willingness to take risks, and, not
unimportant, a sense of humor
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Public relations professionals must have the
personal confidence to represent a role in any
organization
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Possible exam Questions
• Please formulate one possible exam
question
• Reflect on it
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