Topic 1: Introduction to Public Relations
Public relations (PR) are the practice of managing the spread of information
between an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency,
or a nonprofit organization) and the public.
Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to
their audiences using topics of public interest and news items.
PR is a distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain
mutual lines of communication, understanding acceptance and cooperation
between an organization and its publics.
It is a planned process to influence public opinion. Public Relations help an
organization and its public adopt to each other.
To sum up, PR :
Management function, Planned Process
Its objective is to:
Spread information , communicate (news)
With :
Public
To influence:
Public opinion
PR is able to divide to many types, for example the product public relations,
financial public relations, corporate public relations, employee public relations and
government public relations.
Product PR is managing the release of new products into the market.
Financial PR is to build up a relation to shareholders and customers.
Corporate PR helps communicate the core conception of the companies for
customers.
Employee PR focus on the employments and HR.
Government PR is to help set up a correct attitude towards the political
perspectives.
Public relations as a management interpreter.
Public relations affect almost everyone who has contact with other human beings.
PR professionals are really the organization’s interpreter they must interpret the
philosophies, policies, programs and practices of their management to the public.
Once policy is established by the managerial board in organization public relations
professionals is responsible to communicate these ideas accurately and candidly to
the public.
The role of an interpreter is critical to public relations for both public and private
organizations.
An interpreter is a professional fluent in more than one language and trained to
listen to a message in one language, translate it and communicate the message
effectively to an audience in another language. In more multicultural communities,
interpreters contribute significantly to public welfare and business success.
Public relations are also a public interpreter. Interpreting the public to management
means finding out what the public really thinks about the firm and letting
management informed.
Public relations or relations with the public, Practitioners must communicate with
many Publics. Each public has its special needs and requires different type of
communication.
Publics can be classified into several overlapping categories:
Internal and External:
Internal publics are inside the organization as supervisors, managers, stockholders,
and clerks.
External publics are outside the organization (stakeholders)
Primary and secondary:
Primary refers to publics who are very important for the organization.
Secondary are less important.
Traditional and Future:
In university as an example, Employees and current customers are traditional
publics (current) while students refer to future publics (potential)
Proponents and opponents:
Proponent is the supporters while opponents are opposers.
The proponents (supporters) and opponents (opposers) require different ways of
communication as Proponents require reinforcing beliefs while opponents require
stronger communication to change their opinion.
Another Public categorization:
Actuallizers are those publics with most wealth
Fulfilleds they are the publics with high resources
Beleivers are fulfilleds without resources
Achievers have resources and are status oriented
Experiences have high resources and are disposed towards taking risks
Makers are action oriented but have low resources
Public Relations Vs. Advertising (assignment)
