1

BA (JMC) 204
BASICS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
FOURTH SEMESTER

UNIT I: [Concept and Evolution of Public Relations]

1) Defining Public Relations: Functions and Types of Publics

2) Evolution of Public Relations
3) Scope of PR: Issue Management, Lobbying, Corporate Social Responsibility,
Public Opinion, Advertising, Propaganda, Publicity and PR as a marketing tool
4) Ethics in PR, PRSI Code, IPRA

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public Relations is Universal

It is only in the twentieth century that public relations came to be codified, formalized, and practiced as a
profession. Actually, however it is as old as the human race. Every organization, institution, and individual
has public relations whether or not that fact is recognized. As long as there are people, living together in
communities, working together in organizations, and forming a society, there will be an intricate web of
relationships among them. The goodwill of the public is the greatest asset that any organization can have.
A public that is well and factually informed is not only important; without it, an organization cannot long
survive. Therefore, the starting point for good public relations in any organization is the development of
sound policies that are in the public interest. Public understanding and approval must be deserved before
they can be earned.

What Is Public Relations?

Public relations is a strategic communication process companies, individuals, and organizations use to
build mutually beneficial relationships with the public. It is actually a composite of many different elements
like research, media relations, product publicity, graphics, public affairs; it is all these disciplines and
more. What draws them together is a common focus. From this can be derived a broad but accurate
definition of public relations as the use of information to influence public opinion. Public opinion is the
ultimate power in a free society, and the role of public relations is to ensure that the public has the
information it needs to take informed decisions.

The decisions may include whom to elect to public office, which, securities to invest in, which international
trade liaisons to establish, or which product or service to buy, or more subtle decisions may be involved,
adding up to favorable attitudes. Such attitudes are vital to the institutions and organizations of a free
society, and to none more so than to business and industry- which can operate only at the will of public
opinion.

It is clear, then, that:

1. Anything not in the public interest is an unworthy cause.

2. Prestige and good will are invaluable assets of any institutions.

3. An organization or institution has a clear responsibility to provide information and interpretation that are
truthful and realistic, because public distrust may be due to lack of
 2

PUBLIC RELATIONS DEFINED:

Over the years, Public Relations has become an integral part of organizations. However, PR practices
differ widely from organization to organization. The naming of the PR department also differs widely.
Some call it the 'Information and Public Relations Department'. Some have separate 'Internal
Communication' and 'External Communication' departments. Some call it the 'Press and Public Relations
Department'. Others call it 'Media Relations Department'. Public Affair Management and Public
Information Department are the other names given to PR.

Public Relations is thus practiced differently by different organizations. So deciding a universally

applicable definition is difficult. Many practitioners have provided a wide variety of definitions:

Public Relations is the attempt by information, persuasion and adjustment to engineer (garner or
gain) public support for an activity, cause, movement or institution. (Ed. Bernays)

Ed Bernays was the pioneer of PR and is considered to be a grand master of PR. His concept of
'Engineering of Consent' is still popular among most practitioners, despite having a manipulative angle.

Public Relations measures, evaluates and interprets the attitudes of various relevant publics;
assists management in defining objectives for increasing public understanding; and acceptance
of the organizations products, policies, plans and personnel equates these objectives with the
interests, needs and goals of the various relevant publics; and develops, executes and evaluates
a programme to earn public understanding and acceptance. (Professor Edward J. Robinson)

"Public Relations is finding out what people like about you and doing more of it, finding out what
they don't like about you and doing less of it". (John Maston)

One of the most commonly used definitions of PR is:

"Public Relations is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual
understanding between an organization and its public.” (PRSI)

In the end, here is one concise, clear and comprehensive definition by Sanat Lahiri, the first Indian
President of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA):

"Public Relations is negotiating changes with the minimum of friction."

According to Public Relations Society of America:

"Public Relations is a philosophy and function of management expressed in policies and

practices which serve the public to secure its understanding and goodwill."

Objective of Public Relations

The main objective of public relations is to maintain a positive reputation of the brand and maintain a
strategic relationship with the public, prospective customers, partners, investors, employees and other
 3

stakeholders which leads to a positive image of the brand and makes it seem honest, successful,
important, and relevant.

Advantages of Public Relations

 Credibility: Public trusts the message coming from a trusted third party more than the advertised
content.
 Reach: A good public relations strategy can attract many news outlets, exposing the content to a
large audience.
 Cost effectiveness: Public Relations is a cost effective technique to reach large audience as
compared to paid promotion.

Disadvantages of Public Relations

 No Direct Control: Unlike paid media, there isn’t a direct control over the content distributed
through the earned media and thus this is the biggest risk of investing in public relations.
 Hard To Measure Success: It is really hard to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of a PR
campaign.
 No Guaranteed Results: The publishing of a press release isn’t a guarantee, as; the brand
doesn’t pay for it. The media outlet publishes it only if it feels that it’ll attract its target audience.

Importance of Public Relations

With over 63% of the value of most companies dependent on their public image, PR has become a very
important topic today for numerous reasons:

 Builds up the Brand Image: The brand image gets a boost when the target customers get to
know about it through a third party media outlet. A good public relations strategy help the brand
builds up its image in a way it wants to.
 It’s Opportunistic: Public relations strategies make the brand capitalize on the opportunities.
Google was in the news for donating to Ebola. Facebook promoted the LGBTQ rights. Coca-Cola
did a PR stunt against obesity. These opportunities even attract many influencers to share the
brand story to their followers.
 Promote Brand Values: PR is used to send out positive messages which are in line with the
brand’s value and its image. This builds up the brand’s reputation.
 Strengthen Community Relations: PR strategies are used to convey that the brand is as much
part of the society as the target audience. This builds up a strong relationship of the brand with
the public.

Nature of Public Relations

No one can provide a magic formula for figuring out what form and nature of PR and organization will
need. The approaches are many but the time constrains and budget limitation will prevent the
organization or the PR person from pursuing all the avenues at one and the same time. It would be
sensible to decide about specific jobs which are relevant to particular PR Programmes for an
organization.
 4

In any kind of human activity may it be in industry, commerce, education, health, local government or
social service, they need to understand and use public relations and communication. Public relations
involve two-way communication between an organization and its public. It requires listening to the
constituencies on which an organization depends as well as analyzing and understanding the attitudes
and behaviors of those audiences. Only then can an organization undertake an effective public relations
campaign.

Public relations should be seen as a management function in any organization. An effective

communication, or public relations, plan for an organization is developed to communicate to an audience
(whether internal or external publics) in such a way the message coincides with organizational goals and
seeks to benefit mutual interests whenever possible. Form of communication that is primarily directed to
image building and that tends to deal with issues rather than specifically with products or services. Public
relations uses publicity that does not necessitate payment in a wide variety of media and is often placed
as news or items of public interest. It would be better to make a checklist to find out the exactly the
organization wants and what the PR person himself wants to achieve.

1) Extent of PR function - To what extent the organizations use public relation? The PR function should
be recognized as central to good management and able to act as a unifying force within the organization
and in the way it’s itself. That way a schedule of activity can become campaign and a campaign can
become a programme.

2) Level of PR function - This depends on the nature of business or services being provided by the
organization. The point to think is corporations can be longer operating in an environment of
confrontation. They must have the acceptance of the government and the citizens. Moreover, in handling
sensitive issues, corporate management cannot do away with social, cultural, economic and political
ethos existing in the community.

3) Target public - ‘How to handle the target public’ is a frequently raised question for PR person. It has
been acknowledged by the management that the PR person is a necessary link between the
management and the various publics (audience). Fortunate this trust has arisen out of the services
rendered by PR as a professional.

4) Maintaining goodwill - In the long run goodwill always pays. In the early days business and industry
could function in total secrecy without public scrutiny. In the present competitive society all sections of the
economy i.e. private or public are under constant public gaze. It is equally important to guard the
reputation once earned.

5) Evaluation of work - PR person should always evaluate himself in his work environment. He should
always appraise his own competence, acknowledge potential weakness and thereafter seek expert
advice. One should be aware of and be sensitive to cultural environment or which one is working. While
improving his professional capability a public relation person has to recognize his organizations
responsibility

6) General areas of objectives - It is mainly known as which and what are the particular PR objectives
do we tend to achieve. It mainly consists of changes we want to bring about. Terms like market standing,
innovation, work performance and attitude and Public responsibilities are mainly comes in PR

7) Communication skills - Managing the strategy and skills of communication are an integral part of
business policy and decision making. Ultimately, PR is involved in the management of organization
behavior and also of the public important to them. PR decides about the methods and media of
communication and when and how to use the target public.

Functions of Public Relations

Public Relations is different from advertising. Public relations agencies don’t buy ads, they don’t write
stories for reporters, and they don’t focus on attractive paid promotions. They rather promote the brand by
 5

using editorial content appearing on magazines, newspapers, news channels, websites, blogs, and TV
programs.
Using earned or free media for promotion has its own benefits as information on these mediums isn’t
bought. It has a third party validation and hence isn’t viewed with scepticism by the public.

Like Marketing, Sales and Advertising; Public Relations is basically a management function and it reflects
the corporate philosophy. The sole objective of marketing, sales and advertising is to sell more of the
organization's product, services. These three activities are concerned primarily with the organization's
interest. Public Relations, on the other hand, attempts to sell the organization itself and gain acceptance
for it.

PR is concerned with both the organization's interest and public interest. And successful PR helps
immensely in the other management functions like marketing, sales and advertising. Advertising is a paid
form of reaching out with consumers. But Public Relations cannot be bought with money. It has to be
earned. It is earned by performance and reaching out. For this reason, PR is also described as 90% hard
work and 10% talking about it.

Public Relations is concerned with a lot of P's. It involves gathering information and interpreting the
philosophies, policies, plans, programmes and practices of the organization to the publics. Also it involves
gathering the perceptions of the publics about all these things and feeding it back to the organization.

To be successful, Public Relations have to achieve the following things:

o Credibility
o Confidence (of all people related)
o Reciprocity
o Goodwill
o To prevent alienation and to build relationships
o To be in harmony

To fulfill the above requirements, the following practices are adopted:

o Honest Communication (for credibility)
o Openness and consistency (for confidence)
o Fairness of action (for reciprocity and goodwill)
o Continuous two-way communication (to prevent alienation)
o Sustained research and evaluation

Public Relations accomplishes many objectives:

1. Facilitates Company’s Overall Operations: Public relations fosters prestige and reputation
which can help companies to sell products, attract and keep good employees, and promote
favorable community and government relations.

2. Aids Promotion: Public relations can help in promotion of products. Awareness and interest in
products and companies can be generated. Desire to buy a product is helped by unobtrusive
things that people read and see in the press. People increasingly understand that media has its
own interests to serve but still they are more likely to believe the story on a product appearing in
the media than the claims made by the company in its ad.

3. Helps in Tackling Social and Environmental Issues: Public Relations helps in handling social
and environmental issues and ensures that they are settled to the mutual benefit of all parties
involved. If the company has a good record of fulfilling its societal obligations and safeguarding
the environment, its occasional breach will be looked at with benevolence and the organization
will be allowed to mend its ways amicably by government bodies and pressure groups.
 6

The company will be spared the damages that would have befallen on it if the pressure groups
had been stridently opposed to it. The company gets the benefit of doubt in tricky and messy
situations and survives to live another day because of its impeccable public conduct in the past.

4. Ensures that Customers Are Treated Well: The company realizes that customers are habitual
storytellers. If a customer is not treated well by a company he will spread the story far and wide.
And if he perceives that the company has gone out of its way to be of help to him, he will be
equally profuse in its praise. The need to maintain good public relations ensures that customers
are presented with useful information, are treated well and have their complaints dealt with fairly
and speedily.

5. Helps in Attracting and Retaining Talented Employees: Public Relations creates and
maintains respectability in the eyes of public so that best people are attracted to work for the
company. It promotes the sense of identification and satisfaction of employees with their
company. Talented employees will stay in an organization only if they are proud of belonging to
the organization.

An employee will not feel proud of his organization if stories of the organization’s sordid deeds
and its shoddy behavior are out in the open. But when the public respects his organization he
feels good to be a part of it. Activities such as internal newsletters, recreation activities and
awards for service and achievement can be used.

6. Stakeholders Give It Benefit of Doubt: Public Relations helps in managing misconceptions

about a company so that unfounded opinions do not damage its operations. If the company has a
good reputation, the public gives the benefit of doubt to the company till the facts are verified, and
the truth is out. This period when the public suspends its judgement about the company till the
truth is out has become important these days as the media is likely to keep the company
embroiled in some controversy or the other.
It is debatable if the companies’ misdeeds have increased but they are definitely being reported
more now, due to the proliferation of media and its constant search for controversies to keep the
public interested. In such times, a company’s credibility among its stakeholders con be a strong
deterrent to media fetish for stirring controversies.

7. Develops Reputation as a Good Supplier and Customer: Public relations helps in building a
reputation as a good customer for its suppliers and a reliable supplier for its distributors and
customers. Customers and suppliers are likely to believe that a company with good reputation
with other stakeholders will also keep its commitments to them. With increasing globalization of
business, getting favorable international media coverage has become imperative for attracting
customers and suppliers from across the world.
When distances between a company and its suppliers and customers increases what appears in
the media about the company becomes a very important criterion in the decision of the suppliers
and customers to consider doing business with the company. Detailed evaluations obviously
follow but a company with bad media coverage gets blocked out right in the beginning of the
customers’ and suppliers’ evaluation process.

8. Politicians and Public Officials are Favorably Inclined: Public Relations influences the
opinions of public officials and politicians so that they feel that a company operates in public
interest. With companies looking at establishing designing, manufacturing, and marketing
facilities globally, perception of the host government about the company has become a very
 7

important factor in its success as a global player. A government is likely to expedite the entry of a
company in its country if it has a good reputation of becoming a good local citizen rather than if it
is known for rabid profiteering.

9. Responds Effectively to Negative Publicity: A company that understands the need to maintain
good public relationship with its stakeholders will respond quickly, accurately and effectively to
negative publicity. It understands that negative publicity can overwhelm a business sooner than
bad products and services and will put all its resources in setting the record straight. It will not
wait for the negative publicity to die down on its own.
It knows that stories in the media will cease to appear after some time but people will have
formed negative opinions and their interaction with the company will reflect the opinion formed. A
sawy company will counter negative publicity vigorously and will not rest till public confidence in
the company is restored.

Concept of Public Relations

You have already learnt that communication is a two- way process where messages and information sent
are just as important as those that are received. The same applies to public relations. It is all about
communicating with others, either through the spoken word or written word, or by using a visual or some
other means.
Communication and public relations are linked to each other and play an important role in a wide variety
of ways throughout our lives. You have learnt in the first module that we can communicate by merely
looking, by speaking, by our posture or by our actions. Communication, if used properly, can be used to
inform, educate, reassure, evoke sympathy of situations as and when they occur. Thus we can say that:

Public Relations involves:

i) A two way communication process between an organisation and its public

ii) Communication with a view to changing the mindsets of the public in a certain direction

We can therefore define public relations as a form of communication used to persuade or influence
people using ethical means. It is important to understand that communication here, i.e. in public relations
is a receiver phenomenon. It is controlled not by the sender but rather by the receiver or, in other words,
the audience. For e.g. if the speaker is gifted and delivers a speech effectively in Hindi but the audience
does not understand Hindi, no real communication takes place.

Therefore, the most important aspect of public relations is to focus on the ‘key public’ or in other words,
the people who will receive the communication. Let us consider the following list of products/services and
public who use these products/services.

Product / Service Public

Hospitals Patients
Merchants Customers
Schools Students
Television Viewers
Radio Listeners

In the above list, you will find that the target group or public that a hospital has to focus on are the
patients. Likewise, merchants have to address customers, schools, their students, television its viewers
and radio its listeners.

You will find that the desires, interests and needs of each of the above target public are different.
‘Understanding’ these differences and communicating in an ‘effective’ manner is a vital skill of public
relations. The key words here are ‘understanding’ and ‘effective’. The public relations situation is an effort
 8

to win the support of the public by addressing their wants, interests and needs rather than your own. The
sign board that you find on the roads is a simple example of public relations.

Thus in public relations, we can say that the process of communication involves the following three
progressive levels:-

AWARENESS - The message should reach the public.

ACCEPTANCE - The public should agree with the message.
ACTION - The public should act or interact accordingly.

To understand this, let us take the example of a television advertisement on a new brand of washing
powder. Some of the viewers are found to be convinced about the quality of the new product. So they
take a decision to buy the product and try it out.

Publics in Publics Relations

In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the
public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to
the sociological concept of the public sphere. The concept of a public has also been defined in political
science, psychology, marketing, and advertising.

Publics and Stakeholders- A public is any group whose members have a common interest or common
values in a particular situation.

A stakeholder has a stake in an organization or issue that potentially involves the organization. All
stakeholders are publics, but not all publics are stakeholders.

The publics in PR can be categorized in many different ways: traditional and nontraditional; latent, aware,
or active; intervening public; primary and secondary publics; internal and external; and domestic and
international.

In public relations and communication theory, a public is distinct from a stakeholder or a market. A public
is a subset of the set of stakeholders for an organization that comprises those people concerned with a
specific issue. Whilst a market has an exchange relationship with an organization, and is usually a
passive entity that is created by the organization, a public does not necessarily have an exchange
relationship, and is both self-creating and self-organizing. Publics are targeted by public relations efforts.
In this, target publics are those publics whose involvement is necessary for achieving organization
goals; intervening publics are opinion formers and mediators, who pass information to the target
publics; and influentials are publics that the target publics turn to for consultation, whose value
judgements are influential upon how a target public will judge any public relations material.

In sum, it’s important to understand who all of your publics are including those who have many stakes and
those who aren’t aware of their ties to your company. More than just knowing who they are, we must
understand their views of our companies and their values. Categorizing these publics helps make
distinctions about how to best use resources in managing relationships with these numerous publics.

Types of Publics

The Public's in Public Relations:

 Traditional and nontraditional publics

 Latent, aware, and active publics
 9

 Intervening publics
 Primary and secondary publics
 Internal and external publics
 Domestic and international publics

Traditional publics: Groups with which organizations have ongoing relationships. Examples of some
traditional publics an organization might have are employees, the news media, governments, investors,
consumers, multicultural communities, voters, and other businesses.

Non-traditional Publics: Groups those usually are unfamiliar to an organization. Non-traditional publics
are often sparked by changes in society, such as a growth of viral videos and related technologies. Ex:
Gay and lesbian publics

Latent Public: A group whose values have come into contact with the values of your organization but
whose members haven't yet realized it; the members of that public are not yet aware of the relationship.

Aware Public: Group whose members are aware of the intersection of their values with those of your
organization but they haven't organized any kind of response to the relationship.

Active Public: Recognizes the relationship between itself and your organization. It is also working to
manage that relationship on its own terms.

Intervening Public: Any public that helps you send a message to another public is called an intervening
public.

Primary Public: If a public can directly affect your organization's pursuit of its values-driven goals---if it
possesses resources that you must have.

Internal Publics: Inside your organization

External Publics: Outside your organization

Domestic Publics: Those within your own country

International Publics: Those beyond your country's borders

Opinion Leaders: The decision makers for the public. Ex: Stockholders often turn to successful
investment analysts for advice.

Decision Makers: People who have the authority to dictate action sand establish policies for publics.

Demographic Information: Provable data about who a public is. Ex: Besides telling us how many
members a public has, a demographic profile might include information about age, sex, income,
education and the number of children per family.

Psychographic Information: Data about what members of a public think, believe, feel and value.

PUBLICS FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS:

 Employees: Staff and teachers

 Customers or clients: Students (past, present and potential) Parents of students, all those
organizations giving employment to the students.
 Potential employees: Those who wish to work for the institution.
 Suppliers: Those who supply books, equipment, etc.
 The industry: Other educational institutions.
 10

 Opinion leaders: Educational bodies such as boards, departments, and other funding and
regulating organization like CBSE, UGC, AICTE, etc.
 Media: The press, radio and television which help others know above the institution.
 The community: People who live around the institution.

PUBLICS FOR A LOCAL GOVERNMENT:

 Staff
 Trade unions
 Local residents
 Professional bodies
 Govt. departments
 Local MLAs and MPs
 Local authorities
 Local trade and industry
 Tax payers
 Users of public services
 Investors
 Suppliers of goods and materials
 Potential residents
 Potential industries and commerce
 Visitors and tourists

PUBLICS FOR VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS:

 Members
 Subscribers and benefactors
 Supporters
 Potential supporters (or workers and donors)
 Opponents and critics
 Govt. departments
 Local authorities
 Opinion leaders

PUBLICS FOR MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

 Customers
 Dealers and distributors
 Trade
 Banks and Insurers
 Community neighbors
 International community
 Special interest groups
 Suppliers
 Competitors
 Investment community
 Stock holders,
 Media,
 Families of employees,
 Labor associations
 Regulatory authorities,
 Government (local, state, national)
 11

Organizations have many public and they are required to communicate with all the public on a direct and
frequent basis. The communication must be sensitive to the interests, desires, and concerns of each
public. Successful PR requires harmonizing of relations to win and maintain support among all the public.

Types of Public Relations

According to the functions of the public relations department/agencies, public relations can be divided into
7 types. These are:

 Media Relations: Establishing a good relationship with the media organizations and acting as
their content source.

 Investor Relations: Handling investors’ events, releasing financial reports and regulatory filings,
and handling investors, analysts and media queries and complaints.

 Government Relations: Representing the brand to the government with regard to fulfillment of
policies like corporate social responsibility, fair competition, consumer protection, employee
protection, etc.

 Community Relations: Handling the social aspect of the brand and establishing a positive
reputation in the social niche like environment protection, education, etc.

 Internal Relations: Counseling the employees of the organization with regard to policies, course
of action, organization’s responsibility and their responsibility. Cooperating with them during
special product launches and events.

 Customer Relations: Handling relationships with the target market and lead consumers.
Conducting market research to know more about interests, attitudes, and priorities of the
customers and crafting strategies to influence the same using earned media.
 Marketing Communications: Supporting marketing efforts relating to product launch, special
campaigns, brand awareness, image, and positioning.

EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public Relations (PR) is often regarded as a relatively modern profession, only emerging in the past few
decades. However, the reality is that PR dates back as far as the ancient civilizations with Julius Caesar,
and Cleopatra as the earliest figures of public relations in history. These practitioners had relished a
massive PR success without the Internet or any technology at their disposal.

PR in its earliest forms was all about press releases. Today, it has now rapidly transformed to include
social media and other modern platforms to adapt to the fast-changing society. PR agencies are
consistently finding new ways to establish connections to clients while the consumer base is becoming
smarter and more involved.
While it seems that PR has received a total transformation, its key elements – information, persuasion,
and building trust – and its roots, remain intact.

GROWTH OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

During the 1940s and 1950s, public relations underwent a period of tremendous growth, which continues
today. The initial period of growth as stimulated by the followings:

 Increasing government regulation of business and industry, and a perception on the part of many
that government was increasingly making itself responsible for much in society that had
 12

previously been the concern of individuals or the private sector-for example, care of the poor and
the aged.

 The growth of organized labor in numbers, in political clout, and in legislative gains. A higher level
of education and of social concern among the public, giving rise to such social movements as civil
rights, environmental consumerism, and the like.

 Increasing recognition by organizations and institutions of all kinds, including government itself, of
their dependence on public approval and of their need to communicate.

Today, much of this has changed. The 1980s have seen increasing deregulation business. At the same
time, some government agencies- the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States
may be one example. That were once seen as antagonistic to business, are now generally regarded as
helpful. Organized labor, though still highly visible and vocal, has lost much of its strength in numbers and
no longer can be viewed as a political monolith.

Such social movements as environmentalism, consumerism, civil rights, and the like have, on the other
hand, continued to grow and have become enshrined in public agencies at all levels of government. And
new ones, such as feminism and antinuclear activism, have been born and have gained tremendous
strength. The growth of Public Relations started since the times of Greeks & Romans even though the
name is comparatively of recent origin.

1. From Greeks & Romans to 1914

Great care & attention was devoted to the Public opinion even in during the times of Greeks & Romans.
Public Relations appears to be an integral part of Greek & Roman Government. The Romans dramatized
the importance of Public opinion in the slogan Vox populi, Vox die - the voice of the people in the voice of
God.

Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton & Thomas Jefferson used voice
& pen to make a profound effect on the public opinion & started American Revolution. They wrote in the
press, circulated pamphlets & lectured to spread their revolutionary ideas.

2. During 18th Century

The methods used by Jonathan Swift & Daniel Dejoe in England in the 18th Century to propagate their
ideas are similar to present day public Relations practice. Similarly the work of Huxely to promote the
evolutionary ideas of Darwin & the writings of Charles Dickens to expose the social evils of his time are
similar to present day PR.

The PR is the proliferation of the idea consequent on the Industrialization and intensification of modem life
and the availability of the new means of communication. The former has created the need for public
relations; the new mass media have provided the tools.

In the United States:- The first actual use of the phrase "public relations" is thought to have been made
in 1807 when President Thomas Jefferson, drafting his "Seventh Address to Congress" in his own hand,
scratched out the words, "State of thought" in one place and wrote in "public relations" instead. It is to the
United States of America too, that the world owes the modem development of public relations, although
Great Britain and other countries have proved apt pupils who may outstrip their mentors in due course.

Ivy L.Lee, a reporter in 1903 and a press agent and personal advisor to John. D. Rockefeller in 1914 used
the term "Public Relations" in 1919 for the first time. Lee contributed many of the techniques and
principles that characterize public relations today and he was among the first to realize the fallacy of
publicity unsupported by good works. His success in altering the Public image of John D. Rockefeller,
Sen., from a "Greedy old capitalist" to a kindly old man who gave dimes to children and millions of dollars
to charity has become a legend.
 13

3. 20th Centenary Developments:

Public Relations as practiced today is peculiarly a 20th Century phenomenon, although the origins of
public relations are traced back to the dawn of civilization. Its fundamental elements informing people,
persuading people, and integrating people were basic to earliest society just as they are today.

Goals, techniques tools, and ethical standards change with the passage of time; Primitive leaders for
example, were concerned with maintaining control over their followers through the use of force,
intimidation or persuasion. If these failed, magic-totem, taboo or supernaturalism was invoked. Attempts
to control opinion were conditioned by the fact that the individual had not then developed a sense of
individuality. Evaluation of personality was a late development in the history of the human race.

With the invention of writing, methods of persuasion changed significantly. Public opinion started playing
a major role. Governments spent money; and efforts in creating and enhancing the reputation of their
rulers.

The rise of democracy is the actual beginning of the current concept of public relations. However, it can
be traced in the United States in the Presidency of Andrew Jackson. When the common man won the
ballot without property qualifications, a great democratic middle class came into being. The common man
began to concern himself with issues, and more widespread free education followed. The Industrial
Revolution was making itself felt.

With the industrial Revolution, modem states started an accelerating trend towards urbanization and
mass production and an increase in wire arid rail communication. Railroads were the first big business
they were followed by giant corporations in oil, steel, coal, meat, packaging and public utilities. Through
unprecedented growth and uncontrolled mergers, giant monopolies became common.

The term public relations did not come into general use until after World War I. In the early 19th Century,
U.S. newspapers frequently granted space in their news columns to publicity stories in return for paid
advertisements. Other papers inadequately staffed.

Like any profession, public relation is concerned with gathering information about particular interests,
understanding the policies of specialized agencies, and determining the abilities of these agencies to
meet these interests. Public relations should aim not only to inform the public but also to secure better
understanding of public attitudes towards business and that positive steps should be taken to gain public
understanding, and goodwill.

The Indian Concept of Public Relations

According to J. M. Kaul public relations is an applied social and behavioral science that measures,
evaluates and interprets the attitudes of the relevant public, assists management in defining objectives for
increased public understanding and acceptance of the organization’s products, plans, policies and
personnel, equates these objectives with the interests, needs and goals of the relevant public, and
develops, executes and evaluates a program to earn public understanding and acceptance.

Public relations, according Samar Basu, is the attempt to engineer public support for an activity, cause,
movement or institution by information, persuasion and adjustment.

R. K. Balan opines public relations as a profession that does not make you consent without your consent
by highlighting the rewards of ‘mutual understanding’ and the risk in misunderstanding between
individuals, groups, government and nations in this restless world of ‘man, the unknown’.

The history of PR in India can be divided into three broad phases according to G. C. Banik.
 14

1. The era of propaganda.

2. The era of publicity
3. Modern public relations.

The era of propaganda is as old as the history itself. Propaganda has been using in some form or the
other by the rulers and great leaders. The great rulers, from the Mauryas to Mughals to the British East
India Company used propaganda techniques to keep an eye on the intrigues of their enemies. The
statement of Ashoka the great that ‘the king should be like a father’ is considered public relations to gain
the goodwill of his subjects whom he treated like his own children. Public relations involve an old and
simple political instinct.

Although there is no clear demarcation, the era of publicity can be traced to the first war of Indian
independence. After the great revolt, Queen Victoria of England took the reins of Indian administration
and the British government started their public communication strategy through newspapers. The
establishment of the Editors’ Room in 1858, and the institution of the post of First Press Commissioner in
1880 were landmarks in the publicity stunts of the British government. The formation of publicity boards
during the First World War, and the Directorate of Information and Broadcasting during the Second World
War were significant developments in the publicity history of India.

The modern public relations, starts with the country’s independence from the clutches of the British.
Independent India assured freedom of speech and expression and laid more emphasis on the importance
of information between the government and the public. Since independence, public relations became a
fast growing profession in India against the backdrop of a fast changing political, economic and industrial
scene. The profession got more impetus with the coming of multinationals due to open trading-
privatization and liberalization. During the sixties there was rapid growth in industries. Though the private
sector companies started their existence the core of business remained with the public sector companies.
Government was the sole investor in the public sector companies and was answerable to the Parliament.
Therefore, there was accountability and transparency.

Public sector organizations like Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), Steel Authority of India Limited
(SAIL) etc. have very good PR set up. Growth in economy and infrastructure were seen in the seventies.
This period had also seen the tight government regulations and control which became infamous as
“Licence Raj”. During this period PR became prominent in the public sector organizations due to growing
profitability and consequent expansion programs.
The eighties was a remarkable period for the public relations in India. This period marked the proliferation
of the business media and also marked the surface of investigative journalism on business and politics.
This brought the business houses under public scrutiny. Due to this Indian businessmen had to rely on
their image building techniques. This period also marks the coming of PR agencies either as units of
advertising agencies or independently. Among the firsts were Ogilvy & Mather PR and Mel-cole PR
followed by IPAN of Hindustan Thompsons and Good Relations of Taj group of Hotels.

Globalization and liberalization with deregulation in industries are significant landmarks of the nineties and
the present times. The Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) the professional body of Indian PR
practitioners was established in 1958 and affiliated to the International Public Relations Association
(IPRA).

By this time there were institutes established to train the profession. The nineties are remarkable years in
the history of public relations in India since this period happened to be the watershed period of Indian
economy. New Economic Policy introduced in 1991 deregulated the industries and started the process of
liberalization and globalization. That attracted the foreign investors bringing in MNCs. And with the
coming of these foreign investors, new PR cultured also started.

EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN INDIA

Now let us see how public relations evolved in India. You must have read stories about kings who went
around in disguise to see for themselves what the people felt about their administration. The Arabian tales
 15

relate how the celebrated Sultan Haroon-Al-Rashid used to wander about every night in disguise to see
for himself as to what the people really felt about his administration.

Professional bards were invited to sing the glory of kings and queens. There were people who reported to
kings about popular feelings and views. In the Ramayana there is a character called Bhadro who used to
report to Rama about popular feelings and perceptions.
All these are examples of public relations which existed in one form or another in ancient India.
All our religious teachers from Gautama Buddha to Sankaracharya to Nanak and Kabir communicated in
a language which the common people found easy to understand. They were all master communicators.

Another outstanding example of a master communicator is that of Mahatma Gandhi who succeeded in
bringing the entire country together to achieve independence. All of them preached in a language which
was understood by the masses with a view to changing their mindset in a particular direction. Spiritual
leaders like Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravishankar have also been successful in developing a huge mass
base consisting of their followers by their simple and direct approach.
However, a systematic practice of public relations in India began with the INDIAN RAILWAYS in the
1920s. They utilized public relation activities such as exhibitions, festivals and advertising in newspapers,
both in India and England, to attract tourists to India.

SCOPE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public relation is a window of the corporation through which management can monitor external changes
and simultaneously a window through which society can affect corporate policy.

Today most social conflicts are caused by changing values and higher expectation from the superiors. We
find regular conflicts between employer-employee consumer-manufacturer, management-shareholders,
citizens-government and so on due to misconception and misunderstandings. These are generally the
major challenges where public relation practitioners can play a crucial role. They should get to know the
psychology of the public mind and acquire skill in solving and also avoiding such conflicts.

In our market economy there are information gaps which cannot be filled by the interaction of supply and
demand via cost, wages or prices. Here public relations activity steps in. It provides relevant information
on planning technical and organizational developments, inventions and their potential utilization, etc.

The relations activity is becoming more and more important for the procurement of economically essential
production factors. It makes it easier to tap the money-market or financing their projects by issuing bonds
or shares.

If the corporation cultivates public relations, it is easier for them to acquire land from a community and
bring in own interest in harmony with these of the community. Today the public relation profession has
even entered into the fields of non-commercial organizations, government departments, hospitals,
universities and other non-profit organizations. According to Edward L. Bernays, the fundamental laws
and the necessity of public relation may be expressed in three words, information, adjustment and
integration.

The scope of public relation is wide and also include political filed. Entrepreneurs, teachers, political
leaders, social workers, religions, leaders are all involved in public relations day in and day out.

In business public relation is tool of management like marketing, production and finance. It is investing
and creating asset for an organization which is finally reflected in improved performance profitability, and
growth of the organization. Successful public relation can be measured by its ability to convert negative
situations into positive ones.

Public relations can do the following:

 16

(a) Help win friends, influence people, persuade individuals, groups and in difficult situation bring about
goodwill where needed and maintain goodwill where it is existing.
(b) Create and build up image and reputation of individual, organization and nation.
(c) Public relations can bring out reward of mutual understanding and risks involved in misunderstanding
between individuals, groups, government and nation.
(d) Help the public to love life and work for better or for worse without condition.
(e) Forestall attacks by opponents or competitors.
(f) Counsel employees to recognize that as human beings they are more of a complete structure.
(g) The possible areas where public relation plays its role are promotional opportunity, new image,
competitive challenge, rumour, crisis, conflict of interest, ineffective communication.

ISSUE MANAGEMENT

Issue management is the process of identifying and resolving issues. Problems with staff or suppliers,
technical failures, material shortages – these might all have a negative impact on your project.
In the course of business operations, there is a wide variety of issues management, problems that must
be analyzed and resolved. While some problems are small and easy to solve, there are others that have a
large impact on employees, customers, vendors, partners, and investors. By creating plans to manage
these issues, companies can handle problems quickly and effectively.
Issues management sounds like a fairly broad area but in public relations terms it refers to keeping an
eye on any issue that has the potential to disrupt or damage your business reputation. So you might be
thinking now that issues management is not for you but there isn't a business out there that doesn't have
'issues' that could dent their reputation.

Of course there are businesses that have bigger and more complex issues to handle because they are
larger and more exposed to multiple stakeholders like Woolworths which faces a myriad of issues every
day. These range from big ongoing things like market domination and go right down to stray shopping
trolleys at individual store level.

So what should you do about issues management? Some would say you just deal with things as they
arise but there are ways you can 'plan' in advance so you are at least prepared to handle issues. After all,
most crises were just a minor issue before they became a full-blown crisis for a business. Many a
business reputation has been sullied online without the knowledge of the business. In extreme examples,
the business notices a significant drop in sales before they even become aware that they're being
discussed online. For some it may be too late to salvage the lost reputation.

A great way to avoid online conversations getting out of control is to monitor them yourself. Identify
forums that are relevant to your business, get yourself on Twitter, Facebook and other relevant social
media channels for your business and get familiar with them. See if your competitors are there too. Then
set up RSS feeds to relevant forums, websites, etc to keep an eye on what is being said about your
business and industry.

You could also come up with a list of potential issues that could affect your business and then think about
how you could respond. This will vary from business to business so there's no one answer here. For
example, if you have a workplace with manual workers and there's potential for an accident, have all the
relevant phone numbers for unions, insurers, etc on hand so you can react quickly if the worst happens.

The key to issues management is being prepared. Don't let a small issue because a big one and do real
damage to your precious reputation.

Companies may face issues that affect consumers or the public and must have a plan for managing these
issues. Along with resolving the problems, the issues may need to be communicated. Using public
relations effectively can help handle the management of the issues.
 17

Public Relations of Issues Management

When a problem arises, the way the company handles the issues can have a positive or negative effect
on their brand. Public relations is the process of providing information regarding the problem and the
plans the company has to fix the situation.
Let's imagine you own a produce company that has a wide variety of fruits and vegetables that are sold to
retail stores, wholesale accounts, restaurants, and other corporate accounts. You have recently found out
the shipment of lettuce you received was tainted and has E.coli. You've already shipped a large supply of
lettuce to over 10 accounts and are worried their consumers and guests will eat the lettuce and get sick.
You realize you need to inform the accounts, create a plan, and initiate a public relations campaign to
alert potential consumers of the germs on the lettuce.

Steps for Issues Management

There are five steps to managing a public relations issue:
1. Identify potential issues - When you identify a potential issue, you become aware of a current or
likely problem based on feedback from customers, employees or vendors. As you learn of a problem, you
can move forward to the next steps to manage the problem.
2. Set priorities - Take time to understand what needs to be done, which steps need to be handled first,
and how the issue will be managed.
3. Establish a position on the issues - Create a plan for responding to the problem, what the company
will share about the problem, and how the issue will be presented to the public.
4. Develop the response - Once you have clarified your position in the problem, you can now create a
response that will be shared with the affected party and media, if necessary.
5. Monitor the issue - Watch the response to the issue, how the resolution is working, and if changes
need to be made to the plans.

LOBBYING

Lobbying, persuasion, or interest representation is the act of attempting to influence the actions,
policies, or decisions of officials in their daily life, most often legislators or members of regulatory
agencies. Lobbying is done by many types of people, associations and organized groups, including
individuals in the private sector, corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or advocacy
groups (interest groups). Lobbyists may be among a legislator's constituencies, meaning a voter or bloc
of voters within their electoral district; they may engage in lobbying as a business. Professional lobbyists
are people whose business is trying to influence legislation, regulation, or other government decisions,
actions, or policies on behalf of a group or individual who hires them. Individuals and nonprofit
organizations can also lobby as an act of volunteering or as a small part of their normal job. Governments
often define and regulate organized group lobbying that has become influential.

The ethics and morals involved with lobbying are complicated. Lobbying can, at times, be spoken of
with contempt, when the implication is that people with inordinate socioeconomic power are corrupting
the law in order to serve their own interests. When people who have a duty to act on behalf of others,
such as elected officials with a duty to serve their constituents' interests or more broadly the public good,
can benefit by shaping the law to serve the interests of some private parties, a conflict of interest exists.
Many critiques of lobbying point to the potential for conflicts of interest to lead to agent misdirection or the
intentional failure of an agent with a duty to serve an employer, client, or constituent to perform those
duties. The failure of government officials to serve the public interest as a consequence of lobbying by
special interests that provide benefits to the official is an example of agent misdirection.
 18

Etymology

A report carried by the BBC, has shown that "lobbying" finds its roots in the gathering of Members of
Parliament and peers in the hallways ("lobbies") of the UK Houses of Parliament before and after
parliamentary debates where members of the public can meet their representatives

The term "lobbying" also appeared in print as early as 1820.

Dictionary definitions:

'Lobbying' (also 'lobby') is a form of advocacy with the intention of influencing decisions made by
the government by individuals or more usually by lobby groups; it includes all attempts to
influence legislators and officials, whether by other legislators, constituents, or organized groups.

A 'lobbyist' is a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest or a

member of a lobby.

Overview

Governments often define and regulate organized group lobbying as part of laws to prevent political
corruption and by establishing transparency about possible influences by public lobby aa briefs both to
share their expertise and to promote their positions.

The lobbying industry is affected by the revolving door concept, a movement of personnel between roles
as legislators and regulators and roles in the industries affected by legislation and regulation, as the main
asset for a lobbyist is contacts with and influence on government official. This climate is attractive for ex-
government officials. It can also mean substantial monetary rewards for lobbying firms, and government
projects and contracts worth in the hundreds of millions for those they represent.

The international standards for the regulation of lobbying were introduced at four international
organizations and supranational associations: 1) the European Union; 2) the Council of Europe; 3) the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; 4) the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Lobbying in India: In India, where there is no law regulating the process, lobbying had traditionally been
a tool for industry bodies (like FICCI) and other pressure groups to engage with the government ahead of
the national budget, one reason being that lobbying activities were repeatedly identified in the context of
corruption cases. For example, in 2010, leaked audio transcripts of Nira Radia. Not only private
companies but even the Indian government has been paying a fee every year since 2005 to a US firm to
lobby for ex. to the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. In India, there are no laws that defined the scope of
lobbying, who could undertake it, or the extent of disclosure necessary. Companies are not mandated to
disclose their activities and lobbyists are neither authorized nor encouraged to reveal the names of clients
or public officials they have contacted. The distinction between Lobbying and bribery still remains unclear.
In 2012, Walmart revealed it had spent $25 million since 2008 on lobbying to "enhance market access for
investment in India." This disclosure came weeks after the Indian government made a controversial
decision to permit FDI in the country's multi-brand retail sector.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially
accountable — to itself, its stakeholders, and the public. By practicing corporate social responsibility, also
 19

called corporate citizenship, companies can be conscious of the kind of impact they are having on all
aspects of society including economic, social, and environmental. To engage in CSR means that in the
normal course of business, a company is operating in ways those enhance society and the environment,
instead of contributing negatively to it.

Consumers consider more than quality goods and services when choosing a brand. Many are prioritizing
corporate social responsibility (CSR), and holding corporations accountable for effecting social change
with their business beliefs, practices and profits. In fact, some will even turn their back on their favorite
companies if they believe they're not taking a stand for societal and environmental issues.

"Corporate responsibility is simply a way for companies to take responsibility for the social and
environmental impacts of their business operations," said Jen Boynton, vice president of member
engagement at 3BL Media. "A robust CSR program is an opportunity for companies to demonstrate their
good corporate citizenship … and protect the company from outsized risk by looking at the whole social
and environmental sphere that surrounds the company."
 20

To illustrate how critical CSR has become, a 2017 study by Cone Communications found that more than
60 percent of Americans hope businesses will drive social and environmental change in the absence of
government regulation. Most consumers surveyed (87 percent) said they would purchase a product
because a company supported an issue they care about. More importantly, a whopping 76 percent will
refuse to buy from a company if they learn it supports an issue contrary to their own beliefs.

Ways to practice CSR

Recognizing how important social responsibility is to their customers, many companies now focus on and
practice a few broad categories of CSR:

1. Environmental efforts: One primary focus of corporate social responsibility is the environment.
Businesses regardless of size have a large carbon footprint. Any steps they can take to reduce those
footprints are considered both good for the company and society.

2. Philanthropy: Businesses can also practice social responsibility by donating money, products or
services to social causes. Larger companies tend to have a lot of resources that can benefit charities and
local community programs.

3. Ethical labor practices: By treating employees fairly and ethically, companies can also demonstrate
their corporate social responsibility. This is especially true of businesses that operate in international
locations with labor laws that differ from those in the United States.

4. Volunteering: Attending volunteer events says a lot about a company's sincerity. By doing good deeds
without expecting anything in return, companies can express their concern for specific issues and support
for certain organizations.

5. Building a socially responsible business: Undertaking socially responsible initiatives is truly a win-
win situation. Not only will your company appeal to socially conscious consumers and employees, but
you'll also make a real difference in the world.

Cooney stated that in CSR, transparency and honesty about what you're doing are paramount to earning
the public's trust.

"If decisions [about social responsibility] are made behind closed doors, people will wonder if there are
strings attached, and if the donations are really going where they say," Cooney said. "Engage your
employees [and consumers] in giving back. Let them feel like they have a voice."

"Start integrating your ethos into your culture," Burk said. "Even if you don't have a huge cause to focus
on as an organization, you can always start with what is important to your employees."You should also
involve your consumers, allowing them to see firsthand the work you are doing for your community.

"If a brand has good news to share, like organic ingredients or recycled content, they should let
consumers know," said Boynton. "Consumers deserve to share in the good feelings associated with doing
the right thing and many surveys have found that consumers are inclined to purchase a sustainable
product over a conventional alternative. Announcing these benefits is a win-win from both a commercial
and sustainability perspective."

Maintenance is another major part of CSR. You must actively and consistently work on your process; it's
not a one-time deal. "To keep your CSR efforts thriving, you need momentum and passion, and that have
to come from the top," said Burk. "Your stakeholders need to be fully committed. Focus on responsibilities
that are meaningful and relevant to you, your clients, your employees, and your partners."
 21

THE COMPANIES ACT, 2013, INDIA

As per as Corporate Social Responsibility is concerned, the Companies Act, 2013 is a landmark
legislation that made India the first country to mandate and quantify CSR expenditure. The inclusion of
CSR is an attempt by the government to engage the businesses with the national development agenda.
The details on Corporate Social Responsibility are mentioned in the Section 135 of the Companies Act,
2013. The Act came into force from April 1, 2014, every company, private limited or public limited, which
either has a net worth of Rs 500 crore or a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or net profit of Rs 5 crore, needs to
spend at least 2% of its average net profit for the immediately preceding three financial years on
Corporate social responsibility activities. The CSR activities in India should not be undertaken in the
normal course of business and must be with respect to any of the activities mentioned in Schedule VII of
the act.

The corporations are required to setup a CSR committee which designs a CSR policy which is approved
by the board and encompasses the CSR activities the corporations is willing to undertake. The act also
has penal provisions for corporations and individuals for failure to abide by the norms. The details of the
same are highlighted in the act.

SECTION 135

(1) Every company having net worth of rupees five hundred crore or more, or turnover of rupees one
thousand crore or more or a net profit of rupees five crore or more during any financial year shall
constitute a Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the Board consisting of three or more directors,
out of which at least one director shall be an independent director.

(2) The Board’s report under sub-section (3) of section 134 shall disclose the composition of the
Corporate Social Responsibility Committee.

(3) The Corporate Social Responsibility Committee shall,—

(a) formulate and recommend to the Board, a Corporate Social Responsibility Policy which shall indicate
the activities to be undertaken by the company as specified in Schedule VII;

(b) recommend the amount of expenditure to be incurred on the activities referred to in clause (a);

(c) monitor the Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) Policy of the company from time to time.

(4) The Board of every company referred to in sub-section (1) shall,—

(a) after taking into account the recommendations made by the Corporate Social Responsibility
Committee, approve the Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) Policy for the company and disclose
contents of such Policy in its report and also place it on the company’s website, if any, in such manner as
may be prescribed; and

(b) ensure that the activities as are included in Corporate Social Responsibility Policy of the company are
undertaken by the company.

(5) The Board of every company referred to in sub-section (1), shall ensure that the company spends, in
every financial year, at least two percent of the average net profits of the company made during the three
immediately preceding financial years, in pursuance of its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy:
 22

Provided that the company shall give preference to the local area and areas around it where it operates,
for spending the amount earmarked for CSR activities

Provided further, if the company fails to spend such amount, the Board shall, in its report made under
clause (o) of sub-section (3) of section 134, specify the reasons for not spending the amount.

SCHEDULE VII

In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (l) of section 467 of the Companies Act, 20l3 (18 of
2013), the Central Government hereby makes the following amendments to Schedule Vll of the said Act,
namely:-

(l) In Schedule VIl, for items (i) to (x) and the entries relating thereto, the following items and entries shall
be substituted, namely :-

“(i) eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition, promoting preventive health care and sanitation
including contribution to the Swach Bharat Kosh set-up by the Central Government for the promotion of
sanitation and making available safe drinking water;

(ii) promoting education, including special education and employment enhancing vocation skills especially
among children, women, elderly, and the differently abled and livelihood enhancement projects;

(iii) promoting gender equality, empowering women, setting up homes and hostels for women and
orphans; setting up old age homes, day care centres and such other facilities for senior citizens and
measures for reducing inequalities faced by socially and economically backward groups;

(iv) ensuring environmental sustainability, ecological balance, protection of flora and fauna, animal
welfare, agroforestry, conservation of natural resources and maintaining quality of soil, air and water
including contribution to the Clean Ganga Fund set-up by the Central Government for the promotion of
sanitation;

(v) protection of national heritage, alt and culture including restoration of buildings and sites of historical
importance and works of art; setting up public libraries; promotion and development of traditional arts and
handicrafts;

(vi) measures for the benefit of armed forces veterans, war widows and their dependents;

(vii) training to promote rural sports, nationally recognised sports, paralympic sports and Olympic sports;

(viii) contribution to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund or any other fund set up by the Central
Government for socio-economic development and relief and welfare of the Scheduled Castes, the
Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women;

(ix) contributions or funds provided to technology incubators located within academic institutions which
are approved by the Central Government;

(x) rural development projects;

(xi) slum area development.

CURRENT TRENDS
 23

The Indian companies in the last two years have invested majorly in education & skill development,
healthcare & sanitation, rural development projects and environment after being mandated to allocate a
portion of their profits towards community development.

In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley on 1st March 2016 said a total of
460 listed firms have so far disclosed spending Rs 6,337.36 crore in 2014-15. This included 51 PSUs that
spent Rs 2,386.60 crore. Of the 460 companies, 266 firms spent less than 2 per cent of the average
profit.

PUBLIC OPINION

Public opinion consists of the desires, wants, and thinking of the majority of the people; it is the
collective opinion of the people of a society or state on an issue or problem. This concept came about
through the process of urbanization and other political and social forces. For the first time, it became
important what people thought, as forms of political contention changed.

Public opinion is not static. People's views about an issue can develop and change over time from
disconnected, poorly informed reactions to more thoughtful and considered conclusions, from changeable
public opinion to settled public judgment. This process evolves through seven distinct stages, according
to Daniel Yankelovich, author, public opinion analyst and co-founder of Public Agenda. And unless one
understands where people are in this process, survey results can frequently mislead.

People often approach an issue initially with strong, emotionally laden feelings and opinions, which tend
to be unstable and changeable. People may not understand an issue or problem particularly well. They
may not have thought through the consequences of their opinions, and resist confronting realistic costs
and trade-offs.

The quality of public opinion at this stage is raw and unformed. However, when people's views have
progressed through all seven stages of public opinion, their ideas become solid and stable, and they
accept the consequences of the views they hold. When public opinion is fully developed, opinion surveys
will reveal a reliable and stable picture of people's thinking, a picture which accurately reflects their
values, priorities, and beliefs.

Stage 1: Dawning Awareness

In this stage, people become aware of an issue, but do not yet feel a pressing need to take action. People
acknowledge the problem, but there is little real urgency. Distinguishing between awareness and urgency
is essential to interpreting public opinion correctly.

Stage 2: Greater Urgency

In Stage 2, people move beyond awareness to a sense of urgency. The dominant sentiment is often a
panicky appeal to "do something!"

Stage 3: Reaching for Solutions

In the third stage, the public begins to look at alternatives for dealing with issues, converting free-floating
concern into calls for action. Often, the public's attention focuses on choices that experts or policy-makers
have crafted without being helped to understand the implications. Since people do not fully understand
the choices presented to them, stage three is a period of stunningly false endorsements, that is, the public
expresses support for a proposal but backs down as soon as the costs and trade-offs are clarified.
 24

Stage 4: Wishful Thinking

This is where the public's resistance to facing trade-offs is most manifest as people initially assume they
can "have it all." On difficult issues — ones that require significant change or sacrifice — the public's
wishful thinking must be overcome before people come to grips with more realistic solutions.

Stage 5: Weighing the Choices

In this stage, the public does "choice work": weighing the pros and cons of the alternatives for dealing
with an issue. Stage 5 is hard work, as people come to understand that easy, cost-free solutions are
unlikely to work, and that seemingly simple solutions may have down-sides. When the public has given a
lot of thought to an issue and proposals for addressing it, they begin to hold firmly to their opinions even
when presented with unpleasant consequences.

Stage 6: Taking a Stand Intellectually

Stage 7: Making a Responsible Judgment Morally and Emotionally

The two stages of resolution are linked, but different. People are quicker to accept change in their minds
than in their hearts. In Stage 6 people accept an idea, but they usually do not act on it until they reach
Stage 7. It can take decades for some issues to arrive at the last stage of public opinion.

The intellectual resolution of Stage 6 requires people to clarify fuzzy thinking, reconcile inconsistencies,
consider relevant facts and new realities, and grasp the full consequences of choices. The emotional
resolution of Stage 7 requires people to accommodate themselves to different situations, change their
own thinking and behavior, and confront their own ambivalent feelings. The final two stages can be
grouped together as the stages where the public comes to resolution about an issue.

The psychology behind public relations makes it more valuable than advertising in developing brand
identity and garnering brand loyalty. Consumers know that companies pay for placed ads and commercial
spots, but place more esteem on communications from these firms in the forms of earned media, featured
articles, events, and community sponsorships. According to the Public Relations Society of America,
public relations “…is a communications discipline that engages and informs key audiences, builds
important relationships and brings vital information back into an organization for analysis and action.”

Truly, the primary function of public relations practice is the development of relationships with target
audiences. This can only be achieved once the preferences, needs, and desires of these audiences have
been fully researched and understood. This research serves as the foundation for messaging that
resonates with audiences and public relations strategies that deliver positive business-to-consumer
relationships.

A quality public relations strategy is outlined in a plan that includes a market and target audience analysis,
key messaging, and tactics. These tactics should be defined by their benefits to the brand, visibility, or
profitability of the business or organization, and must be tailored to the unique needs of the business and
its target audience(s). Public relations tactics may include any combination of: whitepapers, case studies,
broadcast and radio interview opportunities, feature articles, press releases, media list development,
letters to the editor, op-eds, event planning and coverage, community sponsorships, RSS feeds,
webinars, speaking opportunities, and award nominations. Long-term plans should also include a crisis
communications component.
 25

Upon plan execution, it is prudent for spokespeople to engage in media training for message solidification
and preparation for print and media interviews. To ensure connectivity with target audiences and improve
plan outcomes, all plan tactics must be consistently measured and evaluated.

The execution of a customized public relations strategy is an essential investment toward the
achievement of long-term business goals. By providing opportunities for businesses and organizations to
engage with target audiences via the news media and community events, public relations practices
deliver results that achieve top-of-mind awareness among consumers. This leads to brand credibility and
reputation-building that consumers view as earned – securing brand loyalty that is unsurpassed by the
sole purchase of ad spots.

ADVERTISING

Advertising can be understood as ‘any paid form of non-personal communication about an organization,
product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor’, (Belch and Belch 2004 p. 16).

These two concepts are quite different ranging from the communication purpose to their costs.

Advertising aims at disseminating a message through persuasion. This is forcing one to buy a product
through both enticement and lurement. PR does not lure. It firstly gives out enough information about a
product before a customer come-up with decision to purchase. The costs of advertising are very
expensive than those of PR. For example, the advertising message will incur costs of accounts, creative
work, production and media air time. A PR message is usually covered as media news. For example, a
press conference about a new product will be covered by media house as news likewise the press
releases in this case placement is usually free.

Further than discussed above, Public Relations and Advertising are different in forms of: level of
supplementary; degree of operation costs; limitation of practice; level of effect; and level of creation of
organization image.

Public Relations is wide and work for the entire organization that is across the organization departments.
It affects the entire organization through internal public (employee) and external (customers, financial
lending institution, government departments) relations, corporate strategy formulation, implementation
and control consultancy.

Advertising for example is attached only and encircled to marketing department which takes functions like
recruitment and selling of products. Advertising incurs more costs than PR although it is limited to
marketing.

Public Relations functions are also much common in organizations than advertising functions which are
absent in many organizations. For example, Share World Open University has a public relations
department but it has no advertising department. This means organizations can survive with public
relations functions without advertising as it is true with lawyers, medical doctors, and fire brigade
enterprise services.

And finally, public relations work much to control litigations, public harm and this creates sustainable
relations with publics. Advertising cannot manage to defend or enhance understanding of a business
strategy to the publics. It can neither control litigation nor control public harm. And it is just expensive to
manage an advertising campaign than a public relations campaign. For example, you can place the press
release in the news column or bulletin for free but an advert cannot be accommodated.
 26

The difference between advertising and PR

Many businesses believe that advertising and public relations play the same role for their business and if
they do advertising they don’t need PR, and vice versa.

However, PR and advertising have completely different roles for your business, which are important to
understand to help you reach your target market and achieve your business objectives.

Advertising is creating paid announcements to be promoted through different types of media including
online, print, TV, out-of-home and radio.

PR, on the other hand, is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships
between organizations and the public.

PR is great for building a connection with your audience and promoting your key messages, consumers
are more likely to believe and take note of something written in an article, rather than an advertisement
that has been paid for.

Here are the top differences between advertising and PR.

1) Paid vs. free

Advertising: you pay for an advertisement to be placed in the media. PR: your PR agency
develops strategies for you to gain publicity in the media. PR professionals develop a range of
tactics to gain positive media attention for your brand, which is very effective at increasing your
target audience’s brand awareness.
2) Message control
Advertising: you have control over the content of your advertisement including where and when it
will be seen in the media.
PR: you have less control of your coverage in the media. Once you send a story idea to a
journalist they have control over it. They can choose to change your story idea or not even
publish it at all. However, your PR agency should offer you media training so you know how to
control an interview and make the most of any media opportunities they create for you.
3) Duration of coverage
Advertising: You can pay for an advertisement to be shown in the media as many times as your
budget allows.
PR: An advantage of PR is that you can send a story idea to a number of journalists who will then
publish the story in different ways. This allows your target audience to see the information
differently in many mediums, which may be more effective at reinforcing the message.
4) Credibility/believability
Advertising: Advertisements have less credibility than the coverage gained by PR. When your
target audience sees an advertisement they know it has been bought by a company trying to sell
them something.
PR: PR provides information and newsworthy stories to a journalist so they can write an article
about your product or business, if they chose to. An article written by a journalist will be presented
in an unbiased manner and contains the journalist’s third-party endorsement. This means your
target audience may view the article with more credibility than an advertisement because it is not
blatantly selling them something. PR can be a very powerful tool because it can help shape public
opinion.
5) Target audiences:
 27

Advertising and PR are similar in that they both want to convey a message to their client’s target
audience. However they convey that message differently and in different mediums.
Advertising: your company can pay for an advertisement to be placed directly in the media your
target audience is interested in, whether this is women’s magazines, TV or drive-time radio.
PR: PR professionals can communicate your message to a target audience in a variety of
channels. The key to reaching a target audience is to place your message in the channel that
your target audience is likely to use. For example; the channel could be an article in a company
newsletter, a letter to local residents, an email to specific people, a blog post, a tweet, an article
by a journalist and much more. This means that PR may be more effective than advertising
because it can help your business reach their target audience in a variety of mediums. As a
business you need to consider the differences between advertising and PR to determine which
approach is the best for your message. The approach you choose will also depend on the type of
message you want to communicate. The most powerful method of communication is when
advertising and PR are used together as part of a strategic integrated communication campaign.

PROPAGANDA

Propaganda is information that is not objective and is used primarily to influence an audience and further
an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or
using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is
presented. Propaganda is often associated with material prepared by governments, but activist groups,
companies, religious organizations and the media can also produce propaganda.

In the twentieth century, the term propaganda has often been associated with a manipulative approach,
but propaganda historically was a neutral descriptive term.

A wide range of materials and media are used for conveying propaganda messages, which changed as
new technologies were invented, including paintings, cartoons, posters, pamphlets, films, radio shows, TV
shows, and websites. More recently, the digital age has given rise to new ways of disseminating
propaganda, for example, through the use of bots and algorithms to create computational propaganda
and spread fake or biased news using social media.

Propaganda is usually implemented with malicious intentions and lacks truth. Public relations involves
using truthful information to put a positive spin on an issue, person, or organization.

Although the dictionary and textbook definitions of propaganda and public relations may be similar, the
difference lies in the intentions and motivation in their usage. Both terms essentially refer to the spreading
of information in order to influence others.

Propaganda, however, is typically used in a negative manner. It is often used with the intent to damage
an opposing cause, organization, or individual. The ideas or information being spread for this purpose do
not always have a foundation based in truth. Delivering false information or twisting facts in order to make
them seem more sinister than they are would fall under the umbrella of propaganda. Political campaign
ads designed to attack an opponent is an example of propaganda.

Public relations, on the other hand, is usually used to present truthful information in a positive light.
Commercials and advertising would be considered public relations. When celebrities give interviews and
appear on talk shows to promote a new movie, these activities would be considered public relations.
When an individual or organization is facing a scandal or controversy, a public relations campaign may be
put together in an effort to address the issue and restore the person's or company's reputation.
 28

PUBLICITY

Difference between Publicity and Public Relations

Public Relations (PR) means professionally handling a positive public image by the company. It is an
important element of promotion mix that helps in maintaining good relations with the public.

On the contrary, Publicity is infotainment, i.e. which tends to inform and entertain the general public at
the same time. It provides some interesting, juicy, controversial news to the general public, that has the
capability of changing their opinion or outlook, about the product or company.

While the main aim of publicity is to gain maximum possible media coverage, public relations is about
getting the attention of the target audience.

Definition of Publicity

Publicity is defined as the way of disseminating information to the public at large, through media. It can be
in the form of news, stories, event information or write-ups that creates awareness and credibility in the
people regarding a brand, product or the company offering them.

Publicity aims at spreading the information or news, to the maximum number of people, in minimum time.
It is a non-paid form of communication, which is not under the control of the company. It can be a positive
review regarding a product, i.e. mobile, television, refrigerator, etc. given by a satisfied customer, or
information published in the newspaper regarding the quality-rich services provided by a company, or it
can be a simple word of mouth, etc.

In a nutshell, publicity has nothing to do with the company’s sales; it is all about creating awareness in
general public through editorial or unbiased comments concerning a product.

COMPARISON CHART

BASIS FOR
PUBLICITY PUBLIC RELATIONS
COMPARISON

Meaning Publicity refers to a public relation function Public Relations is a marketing tool,
that uses any communication channel to that is used to maintain goodwill and
convey news or information about someone reputation of the company and its
or something, through media. product among people.

Control It is not under the control of company. It is controlled by the company

Nature Positive or Negative Positive

Form of Non-paid Communication Paid Communication

communication
 29

BASIS FOR
PUBLICITY PUBLIC RELATIONS
COMPARISON

Intends Public awareness Public attention

Key Differences between Publicity and Public Relations

The difference between publicity and public relations can be drawn clearly on the following grounds:

1. Publicity can be described as public visibility, wherein news or information is communicated to the
general public so as to build credibility or awareness in them, with the help of a channel, i.e. mass media.
On the other extreme, the term public relations, as the name suggest, is a strategic management tool that
aims to create a company’s positive image in the eyes of the public.

2. While publicity is not under the control of the company, public relations is fully under the company’s
control.

3. Publicity can be positive or negative, in the sense that it can be positive or negative feedback regarding
the product or service concerning a product given by the customer or controversial news about the
company. Conversely, public relations is always positive, because it is strategised and managed by the
public relations department of the company.

4. Publicity is free of cost; as it is made by the third party. As against, in case of public relations, the
company incurs money to organize events, sponsor programs, third-party endorsement, etc.

5. Publicity involves, gaining the attention of the media, that communicates any information or news,
regarding a product, service, person, organization, etc. so as to create awareness in people. In contrast,
public relations seek to attract the target audience, for the purpose of boosting the company’s sales.

Conclusion

By and large, publicity and public relations are different from one another, as in publicity is when someone
or something is being noticed by the media, and people are informed about it. Unlike, public relations, is
all about taking such steps, to maintain a good relationship with the interested public, which includes
customers, government, shareholders, creditors, suppliers, government, etc.

PR AS A MARKETING TOOL

Marketing is ‘a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and
want through creating and exchanging products and value with others’, (Kotler et al 2009 p. 6). Marketing
is about identifying meeting human and social needs. One of the shortest good definitions of marketing is
“meeting needs profitably” and the major responsibilities of marketing are to identify, to anticipate and to
satisfy customer requirements profitably.

PR and Marketing are different in that PR is for entire organization while marketing is a departmental
function. Activities that emerge from PR Department directly affect the entire organization. For example,
success of Financial PR will mean increase in productivity (increased product output and number of
employees) and growth of marketing function (like export trading). Policies of the organization like in
production will change for improvement and maintenance of quality. In short marketing functions depend
on PR successful communication programs.
 30

The plane motive of the two differs as well. Marketing aims at selling the product or services with value or
that satisfy customers to identified markets while public relations aim at creating understanding with
sustainable relationship with its publics. With marketing what is greatly important is the selling of products
and services to maximise the profits for the organization. Public Relations recognise that the most
important aspect in business is the creation of good, mutual relations and understanding that ensure that
both organization objectives are achieved and the public benefits sustainably.

Marketing self-interest motive is to experience the instant benefit from its customers through maximization
of revenue realization. For example, soon the product is introduced to the market the provider starts
monitoring the product life cycle progress in which the growth stage is the most desired stage by
businesses as it generates more revenue and profits. With public relations it can educate, inform or create
awareness about the organization mission without actually waiting for instant benefit. For example, a
business can employ PR function of educating the market without expecting direct or instant benefit like
how MR PRICE textile enterprise did two years before it came to Malawi in 2009.

This is why marketing depends on PR for it to achieve its objectives. For example, (Belch and Belch
2004, p. 566) argue that public relations activities when merge with marketing are designed to support
marketing objectives as marketing public relations (MPR) functions. The marketing objectives that may be
aided by PR activities include raising awareness, informing and educating, gaining understanding,
building trust, giving consumers a reason to buy, and motivating consumer acceptance. MPR ads value to
the integrated marketing program in a number of ways: building market excitement before media
advertising breaks; creating advertising news where there is no product news; introducing a product with
little or no advertising; providing a value-added customer service; building a brand-to-customer bonds;
influencing influential’s; and defending products at risk and giving consumers a reason to buy.

And since PR continuously communicates with its public, it gets an opportunity of understanding their
needs and wants. No wonder for MPR to succeed, PR may not hesitate to use a social sciences
technique in knowing publics social position. Usually, this is by executing a business research is the
planning, collecting, analyzing of data relevant to business decision making and the communication of the
results of this analysis to the management Guler & Gani (2004).

The essence of carrying out PR activities lies in the art of building trust. This trust might be between a
brand and its prospective consumers, for a person or the services provided. In today’s competitive world,
it’s not only important to provide the best products and services but also to present yourself in a positive
light
Public Relations and Communication have been academic disciplines and corporate functions for
decades. Although major companies and organizations have a constant strategic focus on positioning
their brand in the press to get their message out, small companies and entrepreneurs are more reluctant
to use PR as a marketing tool, mainly because they fear contact with the gentlemen and women of the
press.
But small companies should not fear the media, as PR is a great marketing tool when used in the proper
manner.

PR Credibility

Today it is a big problem for a company if it is obscure or receives no recognition. You will often find a
connection between image and exposure, and it is always best for a company to be visible and maintain
open dialogue with society. This has a great effect on the company’s ability to attract and keep
employees.
 31

Public Relations can be one of the most cost effective ways to communicate your value to your target
audience and market. We are all affected by the 24/7 news cycles. Facebook and Twitter break news and
searching on Google is a simple way for potential clients to identify new service providers.

PR has a credibility that advertising does not. PR provides a positive perception that advertising
campaigns can exploit. Generally PR has higher credibility than advertising/ marketing because
independent media presents your news story as ordinary editorial material. The journalist delivers the
message, not you and your company.

People tend to believe to a much higher degree what they read in newspapers and magazines, and what
they see on TV and listen to on the radio over what they read and see in an advertisement. Basically an
article or a news flash has much greater impact than an ad.

This is summed up by the old saying:

ADVERTISING IS WHAT YOU PAY FOR, PUBLICITY IS WHAT YOU PRAY FOR

Public Relations involves a variety of programs designed to maintain or enhance a company's image and
the products and services it offers. Successful implementation of an effective public relations strategy can
be a critical component to a marketing plan.

A public relations (PR) strategy may play a key role in an organization's promotional strategy. A planned
approach to leveraging public relations opportunities can be just as important as advertising and sales
promotions. Public Relations is one of the most effective methods to communicate and relate to the
market. It is powerful and, once things are in motion, it is the most cost effective of all promotional
activities. In some cases, it is free.

The success of well executed PR plans can be seen through several organizations that have made it a
central focus of their promotional strategy. Paul Newman's Salad Dressing, The Body Shop, and Ben &
Jerry's Ice Cream have positioned their organizations through effective PR strategies. Intel, Sprint and
Microsoft have leveraged public relations to introduce and promote new products and services.

Similar to the foundational goals of marketing, effective public relations seeks to communicate information
to:

 Launch new products and services.

 Reposition a product or service.
 Create or increase interest in a product, service, or brand.
 Influence specific target groups.
 Defend products or services that have suffered from negative press or perception.
 Enhance the firm's overall image.

The result of an effective public relations strategy is to generate additional revenue through greater
awareness and information for the products and services an organization offers.

Goals and Objectives

Good strategy begins with identifying your goals and stating your objectives. What are the goals and
objectives behind your public relations strategy and can they be measured and quantified?

Each of these areas may reflect the goals your public relations campaign may seek to accomplish.
 32

 Press relations - Communicating news and information of interest about organizations in the
most positive light.
 Product and service promotion - Sponsoring various efforts to publicize specific products or
services.
 Firm communications - Promoting a better and more attractive understanding of the
organization with internal and external communications.
 Lobbying - Communicating with key individuals to positively influence legislation and regulation.
 Internal feedback - Advising decision makers within the organization regarding the public's
perception and advising actions to be taken to change negative opinions.

ETHICS IN PR- IPRA, PRSA AND PRSI CODE

Every profession demands sincerity and devotion following certain written and unwritten rules of conduct,
a sense of belongingness to the cause that instills a sense of morality. In the professional world – whether
it is medical, engineering or law, the respective graduates take the oath to abide by the professional
ethics before embarking on their duties and responsibilities.

PR is an area, which has earned an image of a lobbyist, publicist or propagandist – terms which bear
negative connotations. Worst even, PR is considered by many as a “wine and dine” affair. There cannot
be smoke without fire and PR professionals’ conduct is primarily responsible for this state of affairs.

Meaning of Ethics: That branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, respect to
rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of motives and ends of
such actions.”

By dictionary definitions ethics and morality are inter-changeable. Both are concerned with conduct that is
right or wrong, according to the accepted standards or principles.

Ethics in any profession is governed by two factors:

1. A code of professional ethics developed by a professional body

2. Conscience and grooming of human being.

Code of Ethics and code of conduct for Public Relations

In the United States Public Relations first developed as a profession, a code of Professional Standards
was adopted as early as 1954 and subsequently revised in 1959, 1963, 1977 to meet requirements of
situation.

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)

Headquarter - New York

Founded in 1948

Have 114 chapters and about 20,000 members

Activities- knowledge projects, an institute for PR research and education (1956), fellowship programmes
etc.
 33

Publications: Public Relations Tactics; PR journal monthly; PR strategist, a quarterly; PR review

Code of Professional Standards for the practice of Public Relations adopted and effective April 29, 1977.

We Pledge:

To conduct ourselves professionally, with truth, accuracy, fairness and responsibility to the public.

To improve our individual competence and advance the knowledge and proficiency of the profession
through continuing research and education.

 And to adhere to the articles of the code of professional Standards for the practice of Public Relations
as adopted by the Governing Assembly of the Society.

Articles of the Code:

 A member shall deal fairly with clients or employers, past and present with fellow practitioners and the
general public.

 A member shall conduct his or her professional life in accordance with the public interest.

 A member shall adhere to truth, accuracy and generally accepted standards of good taste.

 A member shall not represent conflicting or competing interests without the express consent of those
concerned.

 A member shall safeguard the confidence of both present and former clients or employers.

 A member shall not engage in any practice which tends to corrupt the integrity of channels of
communication or the process of government.

 A member shall not intentionally disseminate false or misleading information and is obligated to use
care to avoid communication of false or misleading information.

 A member shall not propose to a prospective client or employer that his fee or other compensation be
contingent on the achievement of certain results; nor shall he enter into any agreement to the same
effect.

 In performing services for a client or employer, a member shall not accept fees, commissions or any
other valuable consideration in connection with those services from anyone other than his client or
employer without the express consent of his client or employer, given after a full disclosure of the facts.

 A member shall not intentionally injure the professional reputation or practice of another member.

Public Relations Society of India (PRSI)

Founded in 1958

Has more than 40 chapters across the country

The respective chapters organise seminars, conventions etc. and bring out publications.

International code of ethics for public relations as adopted by the Public Relations Society of India at the
1st All India Public Relations Conference, New Delhi, April 21, 1968.
 34

Considering that all member countries of the United Nations Organisations have agreed to abide by its
charter which reaffirms “its faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of human person
and that having regard to the very nature of their profession, public relations practitioners in these
countries should undertake to ascertain and observe the principles set out in this chapter.

Considering that, apart from right, human beings have not only physical or material needs but also
intellectual moral and social needs and that their rights are of real benefits to them only in so far as needs
are essentially met.

Considering that, in the course of their professional duties and depending on how these duties are
performed, public relations practitioners can substantially help to meet these intellectual, moral and social
needs.

And lastly, considering that the use of techniques enabling them to come simultaneously into contact with
millions of people give public relations practitioners a power that has to be restrained by the observance
of strict moral code.

All these grounds Public Relations Society of India hereby declares that it accepts, as its moral charter
the principle of the following code of ethics and that if, in the light of evidence submitted to the society, a
member of this society should be found to have infringed this code in the course of his professional
duties, he will be deemed to be guilty of serious misconduct calling for an appropriate penalty.

Accordingly, each member of the society

Shall endeavour:

1. To contribute the achievement of the moral and cultural conditions enabling human beings to reach
their full stature and enjoy the indefeasible rights to which they are entitled under the universal declaration
of human rights.

2. To establish communication patterns and channels which , by fostering the free flow of essential
information , will make each member of the group feel that he is being kept informed and also give him an
awareness of his own personal environment and responsibility and of his solidarity with other members .

3. To conduct himself always and in all circumstances in such a manner as to deserve and secure the
confidence of those with whom he comes into contact.

4. To bear in mind that because of the relationship between his profession and the public, his conduct
even in private will have an impact on the way in which the profession as a whole is appraised.

Shall Undertake:

5. To observed, in the course of his professional duties, the moral principles and rules of the universal
declaration of human right.

6. To pay due regard to, an uphold, human dignity, and to recognize the right of each individual to judge
for himself;

7. To establish the moral, psychological and intellectual conditions for dialogue in its true sense, and to
recognize the right of the parties involved to stay at their case and express their views.
 35

8. To act, in all circumstances in such a manner as to take account of the respective interests of the
parties involved; both the interest of the organization which he serves and the interest of the publics
concerned.

9. To carry out his undertakings and commitments which shall always be so worded as to avoid any
misunderstanding, and to show loyalty and integrity in all circumstances so as to keep the confidence of
his clients or employees, past or present and of all the publics that are affected by his actions.

Shall Refrain From

10. Subordinating the truth to other requirements.

11. Circulating information which is not based on established and ascertainable facts.

12. Taking part in any venture or undertaking which is unethical or dishonest or capable of impairing
human dignity and integrity.

13. Using any manipulative methods of techniques designed to create subconscious motivations which
the individual cannot control of his own free will and so cannot be held accountable for the action taken on
them.

International Public Relations Association (IPRA)

Headquarter -Geneva, Switzerland.

Founded in 1955

Formally recognized by the United Nations

Publication – International Public Relations Review (quarterly)

Members -across more than 75 countries

Adopted in 2011 the IPRA Code of Conduct is an affirmation of professional and ethical conduct by
members of the International Public Relations Association and recommended to public relations
practitioners worldwide.

The Code consolidates the 1961 Code of Venice, the 1965 Code of Athens and the 2007 Code of
Brussels.

(a) RECALLING the Charter of the United Nations which determines “to reaffirm faith in fundamental
human rights, and in the dignity and worth of the human person”;

(b) RECALLING the 1948 “Universal Declaration of Human Rights" and especially recalling Article 19;

(c) RECALLING that public relations, by fostering the free flow of information, contributes to the interests
of all stakeholders;

(d) RECALLING that the conduct of public relations and public affairs provides essential democratic
representation to public authorities;
 36

(e) RECALLING that public relations practitioners through their wide-reaching communication skills
possess a means of influence that should be restrained by the observance of a code of professional and
ethical conduct;

(f) RECALLING that channels of communication such as the Internet and other digital media, are
channels where erroneous or misleading information may be widely disseminated and remain
unchallenged, and therefore demand special attention from public relations practitioners to maintain trust
and credibility;

(g) RECALLING that the Internet and other digital media demand special care with respect to the
personal privacy of individuals, clients, employers and colleagues; In the conduct of public relations
practitioners shall:

1. Observance

Observe the principles of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

2. Integrity

Act with honesty and integrity at all times so as to secure and retain the confidence of those with whom
the practitioner comes into contact;

3. Dialogue

Seek to establish the moral, cultural and intellectual conditions for dialogue, and recognise the rights of all
parties involved to state their case and express their views;

4. Transparency

Be open and transparent in declaring their name, organisation and the interest they represent;

5. Conflict

Avoid any professional conflicts of interest and to disclose such conflicts to affected parties when they
occur;

6. Confidentiality

Honour confidential information provided to them;

7. Accuracy

Take all reasonable steps to ensure the truth and accuracy of all information provided;

8. Falsehood

Make every effort to not intentionally disseminate false or misleading information, exercise proper care to
avoid doing so unintentionally and correct any such act promptly;

9. Deception

Not obtain information by deceptive or dishonest means;

10. Disclosure
 37

Not create or use any organisation to serve an announced cause but which actually serves an
undisclosed interest;

11. Profit

Not sell for profit to third parties copies of documents obtained from public authorities;

12. Remuneration

Whilst providing professional services, not accept any form of payment in connection with those services
from anyone other than the principal;

13. Inducement

Neither directly nor indirectly offer nor give any financial or other inducement to public representatives or
the media, or other stakeholders;

14. Influence

Neither propose nor undertake any action which would constitute an improper influence on public
representatives, the media, or other stakeholders;

15. Competitors

Not intentionally injure the professional reputation of another practitioner;

16. Poaching

Not seek to secure another practitioner’s client by deceptive means;

17. Employment

When employing personnel from public authorities or competitors take care to follow the rules and
confidentiality requirements of those organisations;

18. Colleagues

Observe this Code with respect to fellow IPRA members and public relations practitioners worldwide.

IPRA members shall, in upholding this Code, agree to abide by and help enforce the disciplinary
procedures of the International Public Relations Association in regard to any breach of this Code.