History Of Public Realations

Definition:

The History of Public Relations. PR has been around for almost 100 years. While
many believe that Edward Bernays invented the public relations profession in the
1920s, others point to Ivy Lee, who opened a “counseling office” in 1904. One of his first
clients was the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Many PR agencies in the U.S. feel like they are “pushing on a piece of string.” It
is harder to pitch stories these days because U.S. media companies have cut 70,000
jobs since June 2000. Something more fundamental is also at work. The irresistible
force of search engine optimization (SEO) has hit the immovable object of public
relations (PR). The result is both a threat and an opportunity

Early History:

Public relations (PR) is not a recent invention. The importance of communication

with the public and maintenance of positive public image was known as early as in the
antiquity but the beginnings of modern PR are traditionally dated in the 18th century
London. One of the first PRs was Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire who
heavily campaigned for Charles James Fox and his Whig party. PR in the real meaning
of the word, however, dates only to the early 20th century. The first real PR specialist
was according to some Ivy Lee (1877-1934), while the others see Edward Bernays
(1891-1995) as “the father of public relations”.

Ivy Lee or Edward Bernays:

Whether the founder of modern PR is Ivy Lee or Edward Bernays remains a

matter of debate. Both historians who consider the first PR specialist Ivy Lee and those
who see Bernays as the founder of modern PR have strong arguments to support their
views. We will not get into the debate who of the two men had a greater influence on the
future development of PR. Instead, we will take a closer look at the work and
contribution of Lee and Bernays to the modern PR.

Ivy Lee is best known for his services to Standard Oil and its founder John D.
Rockefeller. But those who are familiar with PR history know him better for introducing
the term “public relations” and for pioneering the modern press release although he
mainly used it as a one-way propaganda for his clients.

Edward Bernays refined Lee’s press release as a PR tool but he also contributed
a lot to the development of the theory of PR. He is said to be influenced greatly by his
uncle and professor Siegmund Freud in his concepts of PR. Bernays has written several
books on PR, of which are best known “Crystallizing Public Opinion”, “Propaganda” and
“The Engineering of Consent”. In his works, Bernays argued that PR is an applied social
science which manages and manipulates the public opinion by the use of sociology,
mass psychology and similar disciplines.

PR and Propaganda:

Although Lee, Bernays and other PR pioneers such as Carl Byoir and John W. Hill
played an important role in modern PR, they were also responsible for the profession’s
close association with propaganda by the public. As a result, their successors did not
have an easy job in changing the profession’s “bad” reputation and even today, PR is
sometimes equated with propaganda.

PR After the Advent of the Internet:

The Internet has changed communication dramatically. The public is increasingly

turning to the world wide web for information and as a result, PR must keep up with the
changes in transmission of information if it wants to retain its role as a communicator
between the public and organisations. Modern PR thus besides the traditional tools also
implements online tools and tactics, including social media such as blogs, content
publishing,

Common Public Relations Techniques:

Throughout history, there have been examples of successful public relations

campaigns. The following strategies and tactics are common to all effective campaigns:

Public Relations Strategies:

 News pegs:
 Audience interest
 Positive appeals (love, patriotism, etc.)
 Negative appeals (fear, guilt, bigotry)
 Personalizing and humanizing issues
 Audience segmentation
 Activist organizations
 Organizing group
 Orchestration of messages
 Single-minded (often extremist) presentation of the central message
 Leaks to media
 Third-party endorsement & use of opinion leaders
 Sustained campaigns
 Slogans
 Songs
 Symbols
 Themes
 Public Relations Tactics
 Planned and staged events
  News media
 Essays & commentaries
 Multimedia saturation
 Petitions
 Serial publications
 Stand-alone publications
 Speeches
 Meetings

Information Era (early 1900s):

The public information era of public relations saw the founding of many agencies
and departments whose purpose was to provide the public with accurate, timely,
honest, and favorable information about an organization or client.

A pivotal figure in this era was Ivy Ledbetter Lee, known as the first public
relations practitioner. Among his contributions to the field was his "Declaration of
Principles," which called for honest communication with the public on behalf of a client.

During this period, the following "firsts" were observed:

1900: First public relations agency (Boston)
1904: University of Pennsylvania publicity bureau
1905: YMCA publicity bureau
1906: Penn Railroad & Ivy Lee
1906: Standard Oil hires publicist
1907: Marine Corps publicity bureau
1908: Ford employee newsletter
1908: AT&T public relations department
1908: American Red Cross publicity program
1914: Colorado Fuel & Iron hires Ivy Lee
1917: Creel Committee on Public Information
1918: National Lutheran Council press office
1919: Knights of Columbus press office
1921: Sears & Roebuck public relations

Advocacy Era (mid 1900s:

During the middle and latter parts of the 20th Century, much of public relations activity,
both research and practice, was built on the advocacy model, in which organizations
tried to influence the attitudes and behaviors of their publics. Much of the
communication research was related to the war-time interest in propaganda,
brainwashing and social manipulation. In the post-war era, many researchers and
practitioners continued to explore their interests in persuasive communication.Following
are some of the highlights associated with this era:
1922: Walter Lippman wrote Public Opinion
1923: Edward Bernays wrote Crystallizing Public Opinion
1922: Bernays taught the first college class in public relations (New York University)
1939: Rex Harlow became the first full-time college professor of public relations
(Stanford University)

Social reform continued to be a key impetus for public relations activity, and many
techniques were successfully employed on behalf of issues such as child labor, workers'
comp, prostitution, regulation of big business, food safety and other early consumer
issues.

Trends within Public Relations:

At the beginning of the 21st Century, public relations is evolving in several ways:

 From manipulation to adaptation

 From program to process
 From external to internal
 From technician to manager
 From firefighting to fire prevention
 From mass media to targeted media
 From isolation to integration

Major Practices of Public Relations:

One thing that is not commonly known about the Public Relations industry is that
it is a very complex business that involves many different elements and areas of
expertise. Counseling, Research, Media Relations, Publicity, Employee/Member
Relations, Community Relations, Public Affairs, Government Affairs, Issues
Management, Financial Relations, Industry Relations, Development/Fund Raising,
Minority Relations/Multicultural Affairs, Crisis Management, Special Events and Public
Participation and Marketing Communications are all elements of Public Relations
according to the PRSA Foundation.

Media Relations deals with communicating the organization’s messages to

selected reporters and editors and then, following up to see if the message is reported
accurately. Evaluation is an important and often overlooked part of this process. Public
Affairs has to deal with developing effective involvement in public policy and helping an
organization adapt to public expectations. Also, it is also a term used by military
services and some governmental agencies to describe their public relations activities.
Issues Management is identifying and addressing issues of public concern in which an
organization is, or should be, concerned. Industry Relations is dealing with other firms in
the industry of an organization, and with the trade associations related with that
organization. Marketing Communications is a combination of activities designed to sell a
product, service or idea, including advertising, collateral material, publicity, promotion,
packaging, point-of-sale display, trade shows and special events.
 An organization of today cannot operate in a vacuum. Many audiences are
listening and watching. When something negative happens, there are groups that will
use it to attack the organization. The best crisis plan is PREVENTIVE, not reactive.
Identifying the possible things that could go wrong that would have a negative impact on
the organization is a key step in the crisis management process. Prioritize them as to
likelihood and degree of negative impact. Then address each by asking “what are we
doing now to prevent this from happening?” A Crisis Plan should include responses to
the list of possible problems and who’s responsible, what to say and what NOT to say
during a crisis.

Maintaining a favorable relationship with the communities in which the

organization has an interest is also crucial. Community Relations is continuing, planned
and active participation with and within a community. Before beginning a Public
Relations plan, the client must be made aware of how they stand in the eyes of their
publics. The best way to do this is to run a Communication Audit. Communication Audits
are strategic, research-based processes of evaluating an organization’s
communications (and sometimes, marketing) program by using interviews of key
audiences, focus groups, surveys, evaluations of an organization’s communications
vehicles. The end result is a report that includes the research as well as
recommendations on how the organization can improve its communications.

On top of the different major practices of Public Relations, there are also different
areas of expertise. Corporate PR, Entertainment PR, Government PR, Technology PR,
Finance PR, Health PR and Sports PR are all different areas of the business. Each of
these areas is self-explanatory, but are not limited to only practicing in one area. For
example, if you work for a famous athlete, one would need to exercise Sports PR and
Entertainment PR. Consequently, there are many different areas of Public Relations in
which to apply all the major practice areas. One of these areas is Media Relations.