Friday, February 12, 2010

The introduction chapter to the textbook acquaints students well with historical origins, values and different perceptions of public relations.

Learning about PR pioneers like Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays opens up my mind to psychological elements of consciousness and social sciences used as persuasive techniques in PR. In early stages of PR history, mainly press agentry, propaganda and news were considered important in the workings of PR. It moved into:

- communicating and initiating
- reacting and responding
- planning and prevention
- status of professionalism development

compare it with Grunig and Hunt's 4 model:

- press agentry
- public information
- two-way asymmetrical
- two-way symmetrical

Grunig and Hunt's 4 model gives a better historical viewpoint taking into account historical events like WW2. (reference)

Chapter 1 also outlines the roles of modern Public Relations very clearly. These include internal and external communication management, crisis management, research, public affairs, financial relations and developing public relations position for the organisation. These 6 functions are meant to generalise the wide job scope of a PR person and not to limit their extend that they can reach out to. As the occupation is a highly volatile one, always changing and adapting to its environment and what is needed, PR persons must learn not to limit themselves but to effectively identify missing links in communication between any party and to fill those gaps in.

1 comment:

  1. Great post. It is interesting to study how history changes the course of PR roles and definition. It is true that new functions extent the job scope of PR practices. It also enables us to find our area of interest within PR practices and to develop these aspects as well.
    - Andy

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