Welcome to PRMM201

Public Relations Origins

Propaganda and the Psychology
of Persuasion

Quick challengeIs PR spin?

What does public relations mean to
1.Yourself
2.Family
Think of an example of a Public
Relations company that engages in
PR. IS THE DEFINITION
ABOUT PERSUADING
YOUR AUDIENCE AND
Definition (PRIA) REPRESENTING YOUR
“The deliberate, planned and ORGANISATION’S
sustained effort to establish and INTERESTS? WHAT
maintain mutual understanding WORDS COULD BE
between an organisation and its INCLUDED TO MAKE IT
publics. This effort can be directed MORE INCLUSIVE?
inwards to employees or outwards
to stakeholders”. (PRIA, 2010)

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 Four Models of Public Relations

Table 8.1 Source: Adapted from Grunig and Hunt 1984: 22

The origin of
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/docum
entaries/features/shtml. public relations
Edward Bernays
Bernays is said to have invented the public relations
profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take
Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses.
He showed American corporations how they could
make people want things they didn't need by
systematically linking mass-produced goods to their
unconscious desires.
Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern
techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every
trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and
outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar.
His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on
women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes
were a symbol of independence and freedom. But
Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a
way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political
idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the
inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified,
people could be made happy and thus docile.
It was the start of the all-consuming self which has
come to dominate today's world.

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 Public opinion

DISCUSSION:
What factors had a big influence on the emergence of
PR?

“….

(Edwards, 2009)

Propaganda
• Does your definition of “propaganda”
provide a positive or negative connotation
to public relations?

• Refer to table 13.1 on page 256 of your

textbook

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 Persuasion

! Persuasion (PR practices oriented towards persuading

audiences to think or act in ways that benefit the client
organisation)
!
!

Persuasion
• Close links with Public Relations
• Goes back over 5000 years, made famous by
Eyptians, Greeks, Romans and even used by
Chinese Emperors
• Often thought by scholars as being less ethical
than negotiation and compromise
• Study of persuasion involves

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 Persuasion
•
•
•
•
•

Persuasion and propaganda

• Both terms encompass the transmission
model of communication:
1. ____ says
2. ______
3. in which _____
4. To _____
5. with what _______.

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 Persuasion and psychology
- ____ says (Question of credibility)
• _____ - the character of • Which speaker would
the speaker you choose for the
• ______ - the nature of following event?
the speaker • Launch a new treatment
• _____ - the attitude of for lung cancer to
the audience medical profession:
(a) TV medical
• What makes a correspondent
spokesperson credible? (b) Lead researcher from
research NSW Cancer
institute
(c) Person suffering from
disease.

Says _____:
nature of the
message

A model of
persuasion
The ELM
model
Figure 13.1 Elaboration likelihood model
Source: Adapted from Petty and Cacioppo 1986

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 Personality types

Table 14.1
Source: Based on Bettinghaus and Cody 1994

Are you a high self monitor?

1. I have considered being an entertainer
2. I’m not always the person I appear to be
3. I may deceive people by being friendly when I really
dislike them
4. I guess I put on a show to impress or entertain others
5. I can make impromptu speeches even on topics about
which I have almost no information.

Implications for communicators ……

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 Changing attitude and belief

• ____- a commitment to something,

involving intellectual assent
• ‘I believe that red cars go faster’
• _______ underpin our reactions to
people and events, they are the lens we
see through
– If we understand attitude this does not
mean we can predict behaviour but it does
give us a insight 15

Some theories
•
•
•
•

16

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 History of PR campaigns
• Was it dedicated to publicity?
• Consider the opening of the Sydney
harbour Bridge on 19th March, 1932.
• Sesquicentenary (150yr) celebrations
and mourning in 1938

History continued … examples

• Conscription referenda of the first world
war – not just a recruitment drive
• Shrine of remembrance – lobbying

Source: http://www.ahoy.tk-jk.net/MoreImages6/ShrineOfRemembrance.jpg

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 History cont …. example
Message: “populate or perish
–”
Films were shown in cinemas,
aboard cruise ships, at Australia
IMMIGRATION
House in London.

History cont …. examples

1940-89
• General Macarthur and the military in 1942.
• 1943 - Australian News and Information Bureau
(NIB) formed in New York to publicise Australia’s
efforts to war cause
• 1948 – New Zealand Post introduced damage
control role
• From 1957 (closure of Argus newspaper)
journalists responsible for PR and public affairs
emerged in numerous corporations

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 History cont ….example
Snowy Mountains Hydro
Scheme

Tumut opening ceremony – 1962

Source: http://www.bing.com/image Audiences
Source: http://www.cecaust.com.au/

History cont ….example

The Grim Reaper – AIDS
awareness 1987
• The most widely
recognised and
controversial campaign
of the 1980s.
• Awareness of disease
was widespread, but
affect on different
audiences was not.
• Extensive research
undertaken by Lee
Patterson & Assoc and
NACAIDS

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 What about me?
If you are ever in a position where you are
utilizing PR skills, please remember be;

• Truthful
• Authentic
• Show respect
• Equity (show fairness)
• Be socially responsible

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