#1 HTP 102

Public Relations: The Profession and the Practice

Chapter 1
Outline
1. What is Public Relation
a. Public Relations as Management Function
b. Public Relations as Communication
c. Public Relations as a means of influencing
public opinions
2. The Nature of Public Relations Work
3. Public Relations Challenges
4. Crisis Communication
5. Social Media
6. The Changing Institutions of Public Relations
Overview of PR

a. History a. Media

The Practice
a. Research
The Process

The Publics
The Profession

b. Theory b. Consumer a. Not for

b. Media c. Employees
c. profit
Organizational c. Action d. Financials b.
decision making relations Governmental
d. Evaluation e. Community c.
d. Law, ethics,
relations Corporation
and social
responsibility f. Government
bodies and
agencies
What is Public Relations?
“Public Relations is distinctive management
function which help establish and maintain mutual
lines of communications, understanding,
acceptance, and cooperation between an organizations and
its public; involves the management to keep informed on
and responsive to public opinion; defines responsibility of
management to serve the public interests; help
management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change,
serving as an early warning system to help anticipate
trends; and uses research and sound and ethical
communication techniques as its principal tool’s. “
-Frans P. Seitel-
What is Public Relations?
“Public relations is a leadership and management
function that helps achieve organizational objectives,
define philosophy, and facilitate organizational change.
Public relations practitioners communicate with all
relevant internal and external publics to
develop positive relationship and to create
consistency between organizational goals and societal
expectations. Public relations practitioners develop,
execute and evaluate organizational programs that
promote the exchange of influence and
understanding among and organization's constituent
parts and publics.”
- Working definition by Otis Baskin-
What is Public Relations?
“Public relations is a strategic communication
process that builds mutually beneficial
relationships between organizations and their
publics.”
- Public Relations Society of America(PRSA)-
a. PR as Communication
The deliberate or accidental transfer of meaning.

Nature or type of communication:

- Intrapersonal communication
- Interpersonal communication
- Group communication
- Public communication
- Mass communication
- Online or machine assisted communication
Communication
Elements of communication
 People (sender and receiver)
 Messages (verbal and non verbal)
 Channels
 Noise
 Context
 Feedback
 Effect
Communication Process
Six Crucial Characteristics of
Communication
1. Communication is Dynamic
2. Communication is unrepeatable and irreversible
3. Communication is affected by the culture
4. Communication is influences by ethics
5. Communication is competence based
6. Communication is being transformed by media and
technology
4 Specific ways to relate PR role and
communications:
1. Skills: The ability to speak and write effectively as
basic prerequisite; ability to conduct research,
formulate plans and evaluate results
2. Tasks
3. Established Systems
4. Systems operations
b. PR as Management Function
By constantly monitor and interact with all the
publics in the organizations’ environment, PR often
possess information to:
a. Defining objectives, philosophies, and policies

b. Helping organizations change

c. PR as a means of influencing
public opinion
PR as been seen as the planned effort to influence
public opinion.
3 major persuasion objectives in mind when develop
PR strategies:
1. Maintain favorable opinion
2. Create opinion where none exists, or where it is
latent
3. Neutralize hostile opinion
PR is about:
 Developing relationships based on two-way
communications.
 Influencing groups, policies and issues.

The Publics in PR: a group of individuals tied together by

a sense of common characteristics of influences.
Public sentiment is everything.
With public sentiment,
nothing can fail; without it,
nothing can succeed.

- Abraham Lincoln -
Distinguishing PR from Related Field
2. The nature of PR work
Careers in PR (PRSA Booklet):
a. Programming
b. Relationships
c. Writing and editing
d. Information
e. Production
f. Special events
g. Speaking
h. Research and Evaluation
3. Public Relations Challenges
a) The increasing need for effective strategies for crisis
communication.
b) The increasing avenues of interaction with
stakeholders through the new social media
c) The evolving global public relations community and
practice.
d) The changing organizational structure needed to
meet these challenges.
4. Crisis Communication
The Nashville Institute for Crisis Management identifies
four basis causes of a business crisis:
a. Acts of God. Storms, earthquakes, volcanic action
floods, and the like fall into this category.
b. Mechanical Problems. Include a ruptured pipe or
falling skywalk.
c. Human Errors. An employee open the wrong valve
and causes an oil spill, or miscommunication about how
to perform a task results in serious injury.
d. Management decisions /indecisions.
Sometimes, management don’t take the problem
seriously enough, or they think no one will found out.
5. Social Media
Basics on how social media have fundamentally
changed how journalists and business operate:
 The internet alters the way people get information
from organizations
 Communication is not just top-down or one-to
many.
Implications → the ‘gatekeeping’ function in an
organization is no longer viable.
6. The Changing Institution of PR
 Rethinking internal communication
 Changing organizational structures and setting
Key Terms
 Public
 Internet
 Public affairs
 Public relations
 Crisis
 Social marketing
 Communication
 Social media