Public Relations &

Communication
Week 3
 Contents
• What is Communication?

• Models of communication

• Communication in PR, a case study of

Jordanian hotels
Communication
 Modes
• Words
• Sound
• Movement
• Symbols
• Colors
 Key ingredients
• Intent – both sender and receiver know
• Meaning – shared understanding
• Noise – technical, semantic, psychological
• Feedback
• Medium of communication
– Unmediated = direct conversation
– Mediated = telephone, radio
 Different types of meaning
• Denotative – meaning in the dictionary sense
• Connotative – images created in the mind of
the receiver e.g. school as happy or boredom
• Ambiguous – word with two or more
meanings
• Polysemic – readers can derive different
meanings from same set of information based
on religious/ideological views
 Levels
• Intrapersonal - thought
• Interpersonal - conversation
• Small group - lecture
• Mass communication
 Most relevant media to PR
• Mass Media
– Newspapers
– Magazines
– Radio
– Television
– Social media

Pros: low cost, time saving

Cons: journalist acts as gate keeper e.g. Guardian announced
complete ban on covering Oil sector starting Feb 2020
Does the receiver always interprets our
message in the same meaning?
Anatomy of communication
 One step & two step flow models
• Nazi’s believed audiences are passive and
react in uniform manner to media message

• US social scientists believed people are more

likely to be influenced by their friends and
neighbors or other “opinion formers” than the
papers they read.
 Models of communication
• One-way: Publicity and dissemination of info.
• Two-way: strategic mgmt. of PR
 One way
Publicity
• “Let the public be fooled” P.T. Barnum
• Generate attention with Little regard for the truth

Educating the public

• Giving away info. to gain trust.
• Paid editorials, govt. reporting, quarterly earning
statements.
• Ivy lee maintained favorable public image for Andrew
Carnegie, Rockefeller family, Pennsylvania rail road company
etc.
 Two-way
Asymmetrical (behavioral psychology)
• imbalanced in favor of the communicator
• communicator undergoes no real change
• Used for persuasion

• E.g. a politician for reelection identifies tax

cuts as an important topic with publics, he
includes the importance of tax cuts in his next
campaign speech.
 Contd.
Symmetric
• intent to build mutual understanding
• open to changing their internal policies and
practices
• although not perfectly balanced, it is a moving
equilibrium

• E.g., after research identifying tax cuts as an issue, a

symmetrical politician would actually incorporate tax
cuts into her belief system and offer ideas
supporting those beliefs on the campaign trail.
Face to face vs Behavioral
 Conclusion
• Potential for good and harm in the message – e.g.
use of very thin models
• PR is complicated and involves not only the
personalities of the sender and the receiver, the
particular requirements of each medium, the
public nature of the messages, but also the
power to influence, directly or indirectly, society
as a whole.
• Public relations can be a powerful agent – handle
it with care