Transcript Chapters 2, 3 & 4 - Sites @ Brookdale Community College

COMM 106 – Intro to Public
Relations
Chapters 2, 3 and 4
Fall 2013
Instructor: Tara Rummell Berson
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CHAPTER TWO:
THE HISTORY AND
GROWTH
OF PR
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.
publishing as Prentice Hall
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The Fathers Of Modern Public
Relations

Ivy Ledbetter Lee
◦ Entered PR work in 1903
◦ Based his work on honesty and candor

Edward Bernays
◦ Entered the field in 1913 and became the first
true “public relations scholar”
◦ Wrote first seminal works in public relations,
including “Crystallizing Public Opinion”
◦ Taught the first PR course at NYU in 1923
◦ Helped pave the way for women in public
relations with wife, Doris Fleischman
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CHAPTER 3:
COMMUNICATION
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Goals of Communication
To inform
 To persuade
 To motivate
 To build mutual
understanding

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Pat Jackson’s Theory Of
Communication
Building awareness:
• Use all standard PR vehicles (like advertising, press releases, word of mouth) to develop
awareness of your company
Developing a latent readiness:
• At this stage, people begin to develop an opinion about your company, based not just on
facts, but on emotion.
Triggering event:
• This is a trigger with the consumer that makes them want to change their behavior.
• A triggering event can be natural or planned by you.
Intermediate behavior:
• This is the thinking and investigative phase of behavior phase.
• At this point, the consumer is seeking facts to support what they believe.
Behavioral change:
• The sign of success - the consumer has changed their behavior.
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3 “Message” Theories

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The Content is the
Message: the real
importance of a
communication is what it
says, not how it says it.
The Medium is the
Message: the content of
the message is less
important than how you
hear about it.
The Person is the
Message: the
charismatic appeal of the
speaker is the biggest
influence.
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The Content is the Message
Accurate and
complete content
 Careful crafting and
word choice based
on the audience
 Requires greatest
writing skill
 More often seen in
written reports,
press releases, PSAs,
etc.

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The Medium is the Message
Where the message is read or
heard has a direct effect on how
it is perceived
 Depends on the reputation of
the medium conveying the
message
 Personal bias is in effect
 Hardest to control

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The Man (or Person!) is the
Message
Charismatic delivery
influences people’s
perception of the
message more than
the content or
medium
 Cults of personality
arise
 Strongest “brand”
attachment occurs
here

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What biases the receiver of the
message?
Stereotypes:
• The receiver has biases against certain groups.
• Knowing this can help you tailor your message.
Symbols:
• Use of an iconic symbols common to a group can influence them.
• A company’s logo can have ramifications with different groups.
Semantics:
• Words hold different meanings for different groups.
• Tweaking the language can help the message.
Peer groups:
• These influence attitudes and actions
Media:
• The power of the media may be the determining factor, especially in politics.
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Feedback – hearing from the public
A communicator
must get feedback in
order to know what
messages are or are
not getting through
 All future
communications
depend on this.

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What happens next?
It may change attitudes: the best possible
outcome, but also the rarest.
 It may crystallize attitudes: you have
succeeded in getting people to take actions
that they’ve been thinking about taking, but
hadn’t done yet.
 It may create doubt: you have forced a
person to modify their point of view, or to
question their thinking on a subject
 It may do nothing: sometimes you are just
not successful. However, it may be that
change will come in time.

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CHAPTER 4: PUBLIC
OPINION
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FICKLE FINGER OF
PUBLIC OPINION

The best public relations campaign in the
world can’t build trust when reality is
destroying it. If your product doesn’t work, or
your client is a liar, then no amount of public
relations will change that.You must change the
“action” before credibility or trust can be
built.
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Public opinion is determined
by three major factors:
Attitudes
Opinions
Actions
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.
publishing as Prentice Hall
416
What are attitudes?
Personal - specific to the individual
Cultural - environment and lifestyle
Educational - the level and quality of a person’s education
Familial - what a person has been raised to believe
Religious - a person’s belief system
Social Class - position within society. Also includes wealth
Race - ethnic origin
Gender and Sexual Orientation
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Changing attitudes - Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs theory:
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Biological demands
Safety and comfort
Love and acceptance
Esteem, recognition
and prestige
Self-actualization/selffulfillment
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Changing attitudes - The
Power of Persuasion
 People
understand things in terms
of their own experience
 People are persuaded by evidence
 To persuade, you must cite evidence
that coincides with people’s own
beliefs, emotions and expectations.
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What kinds of evidence persuades?
Facts
• Good PR programs always
start with research: the facts.
Emotions
• We can think, but we also
respond to emotional appeals.
Personalizing
• People respond to personal
experiences and stories.
Appealing to
“you”
• People want to know, “What’s
in it for me?”
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Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.
publishing as Prentice Hall
Cantril’s Laws of Public Opinion
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Opinion is highly sensitive to important events.
Opinion is determined more by events than
words.
At critical times, we are more sensitive to the
adequacy of leadership.
Once self-interest is involved, opinions are slow
to change.
People are able to form opinions more easily on
goals than on methods to reach those goals.
If people in a democracy are provided with
education and access to information, public
opinion reveals a hard-headed common sense.
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.
publishing as Prentice Hall
421
Managing your client’s image
Polishing the
image:
Managing
reputation:
• Credibility is a fragile
commodity
• To maintain and
improve public
support, your client
must have the
“implicit trust” of
the public
• Reputation is gained
by what one does,
not what one says
• “Reputation
management” or
“relationship
management” is a
growing PR sub-field
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Tylenol Case Study: Managing
Reputation

Tylenol’s response is the most notable
example of proper public relations
practice in the face of crisis
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