PUBLIC RELATIONS

Maciej Ulita Ph.D

University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow, Poland
 Evolution of Public Relations

• What PR are?

• When it started?

• How it started?

• What are PR used for?

• Are PR necessary?

• What would happen if we

did not know PR?

• Are PR science?
 What PR are?
• Public relations (PR) is a field concerned with
maintaining a public image for businesses, non-
profit organizations or high-profile people, such
as celebrities and politicians.
• An earlier definition of public relations, by The first
World Assembly of Public Relations Associations
held in Mexico City in August 1978, was "the art
and social science of analyzing trends, predicting
their consequences, counselling organizational
leaders, and implementing planned programs of
action, which will serve both the organization and
the public interest.”
 What PR are?
• Others define it as the practice of managing
communication between an organization and its
publics.
• Public relations provides an organization
or individual exposure to their audiences using
topics of public interest and news items that provide
a third-party endorsement and do not direct
payment. Once common activities
include speaking at conferences, working with the
media, crisis communications, social
media engagement, and employee communication.
 What PR are?
• The European view of public relations notes that besides a
relational form of interactivity there is also a reflective
paradigm that is concerned with publics and the public sphere;
not only with relational, which can in principle be private, but
also with public consequences of organizational behaviour.
• A much broader view of interactive communication using
the Internet, as outlined by Phillips and Young in Online Public
Relations Second Edition (2009), describes the form and nature
of Internet-mediated public relations. It encompasses social
media and other channels for communication and many
platforms for communication such as personal
computers (PCs), mobile phones and video game
consoles with Internet access.
 What PR are?
• Public relations is used to build rapport with employees, customers, investors, voters, or
the general public. Almost any organization that has a stake in how it is portrayed in the
public arena employs some level of public relations. There are a number of public
relations disciplines falling under the banner of corporate communications, such
as analyst relations, media relations, investor relations, internal
communications and labour relations.

• Other public relations disciplines include:

• Financial public relations - providing information mainly to business reporters

• Consumer/lifestyle public relations - gaining publicity for a particular product or
service, rather than using advertising
• Crisis public relations - responding to negative accusations or information
• Industry relations - providing information to trade bodies
• Government relations - engaging government departments to influence
policymaking
 What PR are?
Basically PR are to know what to say, when to
say it, and using what sort of communication
tool.

In other words –
PR means to control
communication.
When it started?
 When it started?
It seems that
It is important and
PR started when
usefull to be able to
„manipulate” others
people realized that
 Digression
Manipulation (Latin: manipulation – trick, stratagem) – in
psychology and sociology it is a deliberately inspired
social interaction which is to cheat a person or a group
of people in order to force them to act against their
good and interest. Usually a person or group of people
is not aware of being manipulated. The one who
manipulates is always willing to achieve some personal
goals.
In general – manipulation is a form of intentional
influence on others in order to make them act unwary
and to realize goals and needs of the one who
manipulates.
From ethical point of view manipulation is considered as
immoral.
 Digression
Persuasion – (Latin - persuasio) – an art of convincing.
Differs from manipulation because it will not be
harmful (for a person being persuaded) in future.
In persuasion three techniques of influence are used:
asking for taking certain position in discussion and
starting certain action, suggesting wanted
interpretations and evaluations, rational
argumentation of presented ideas.
Persuasion, at least in theory, is meant not to harm
anyone. It is just a way to look for compromise.
(Otherwise it becomes manipulation).
 What are PR used for?
• What is most important is the fact that PR is for
promoting the organization while marketing is
just for promotion of certain product.
• The main goals of PR are:
• Check the attitude of „surrounding”,
• Create strategy and procedures towards
public interest,
• Plan and run certain program in order to
gain „surrounding’s” understanding and
acceptance.
 What are PR used for?
PR specialists are basically „translators”. Their task is to explain
philosophy, policy, programs, actions and behavior of board to the
public, and public attitude and response to the board

In order to achieve it, they have to:

- Get attention,
- Get acceptance,
and what is most important:
Make public react
but first
They have to know what board thinks!
(and why… PR specialists have to know boeard motivation)
 PUBLIC BOARD
Complex meaning of
„PUBLIC”
PR
 PUBLIC or PUBLICS?
In order to show the true face of PR one should
say that PUBLICS is better to describe PR

because

PR are RELATIONS WITH VARIOUS GROUPS

FROM PUBLIC SPHERE
 Complex meaning of PUBLIC
• Internal and external – board and others inside
the institution and this what is not directly
connected with the institution (such as: media,
government, educational institutions, clients,
suppliers local community)
• Main, secondary and marginal,
• Traditional (what we have today) and future
(what we may have in some time).
• Followers, antagonists and undecided
 Banks
International
Trade Unions
community

Neighbours
Dealers
communities

Certain groups
Clients
of interest

Executive
20 most important groups Supliers

which are public

Legislative
(„surrounding”) for typical Multinational
corporation
Opponents

Academic
multinational corporation
society (Fraser P. Seitel, PR w praktyce, Warszawa 2003) Investors

Unions Media

Co-ownes and
Board
share holders

Administration Managers
Workers
families
 Complex meaning of PUBLIC
other criteria of classification built on life style
• Those, who make it real – poses the biggest wealth and
power
Characteristic built on life style may
• Fulfilled – have huge supplies, active specialists or
pensioners
be really useful for marketing and
• Believers – fulfilled but with no supplies
• Achievers – big supplies and they want to have position
PR decisions helping with
• Pretenders– with less supplies then achievers but social
establishing target groups
status is important for them
• Experiencing – huge supplies, active and have tendency for
risk
• Makers – small supplies, but actively working
• Strugglers – smallest supplies
 Summary
• Ethics, truth, credibility are values which
constitutes good PR whilst mistification, hiding
information and deformation makes it bed
• Building reputation needs time and effort
• PR must be permanent
• Abraham Lincoln said: Public opinion is
everything… with it nothing can go wrong.
Without it nothing can go right. One who forms
public opinion will go further than one who
makes laws or just announces decisions.
 Something to think about
1. Why PR is often misunderstood?
2. What is the meaning of Internet for PR?
3. Why PR specialist is basicaly translator?
4. What constitutes honest PR?
5. What ethic issiues appears for PR as a
consequence of development of Internet?
THANK YOU

©Dr Maciej Ulita