Public relations has evolved over time from simply providing publicity to building understanding between organizations and their publics through two-way communication and dialogue. PR aims to help organizations align with their changing social environments in order to gain legitimacy and acceptance for their policies. It does this through communication, social responsibility initiatives, and managing corporate image. The field has become more reflective, managerial, operational, and educative according to the Bled Manifesto on PR from 2002.

1.  здравей
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0M

2. Boring, but I have to ask this ….
 What’s your name ?
 Did you ever hear of Public Relations
or Corporate communication
before ?
 Did you already have courses on PR/
CC ?

3. First task :
 Try to work out following questions
with your neighbour :
– Write down your definition of Public
Relations
– Is this definition based on your
experience of Public Relations and
former lessons ?
– Is it based on what you read/saw/heard
about PR in the media ?

4. Second Task
 Compare your definitions with those
of 2 other groups.
– How different are they ?
– What do they have in common ?
– What are the differences and why do
you think they exist ?

5. Defining Public Relations
 Is a very difficult task because :
– It became a ‘weaselword’
– It developed in an other way in different
countries
– The American view versus the European
view although one of the ‘founders’
James Grunig was a German in the USA
– It is part of the department of
Communication or Sociology, Political
Science, …

7.  Public Relations was as growing
mushrooms : you put them in the dark en
gave them a lot of shit (S. Wolstenholme)

8. But Public Relations is far more
than that ..
 The right angle is : LEGITIMACY
What does this means ?

9. To explain we need a bit of
history !
 Remember the mushrooms and then
you’ll understand !

10. 1st phase :1850-1900 : The
public be damned or ignored !
 Between 1850-1900 : America : technological
expansion.
This created a gap between the ‘rich’ and the
‘poor’.
 It’s the era of the ‘Baron robbers’ (Rockefeller,
Carnegie, Vanderbilt,…)
: “We work for the shareholders NOT the public !”
(PUBLICITYMODEL)

11. 2nd phase : 1900-1920 : the
public be informed or served
• Muckrackers
• Journalists as ‘affection recruiters’
• First attempts on professionalising Public
Relations
– 1906 : declaration of principles of Ivy Lee
• Ethical code for PR-practitioner s : Basic
idea : “ the public be informed, be
served’. You can’t ignore the public
opnion !

12. 3rd phase1920-1945 : The public
be educated and respected
 Public Relations became more and more a
professional discipline
 Other disciplines influence Public Relations (political
science, sociology,….)
 Market Research became more important cf. 1926 :
General Foods
 University of Yale, Harvard and Columbia start
developing PR-courses
 New businessmoral : ‘Principles of Business Conduct’

13.  Crisis 1929-1930 : The economic crisis
shocked the public opinion
– Looking for new methods to restore the
confidence
• New Deal plan of president Roosevelt
• Social responsibility became important
• Companies created PR-functions and
departments.
(PUBLIC INFORMATION MODEL°

14. 4th Phase : 1945-until now
 1945-1968 : the public be known
– 1942 : ‘PR Society of America’ was
founded
– 1945-’48 : Expansion of the PR-
departments in University colleges
– Goal in life = goals in business : gaining
profit and money
– PR = part of marketing and
productpromotion
– (TWO-WAY ASYMMETRIC MODEL)

15. 1968 – ’80 : The public be involved
- flower power
- emphasis on ‘well-being’
- Goals in life # business
goals
- Emancipation
- Neo-marxism
- Strive for ‘public

16. The public Relations Officer becomes
an analist, negotiator, policy maker.
 ’80 – now : Corporate Dialogue
• Innovation within the organisation
• Socialization
• Evolution from Social Obligation over Social
Corporate Responsibility to Social
Responsiveness
( TWO WAY SYMMETRIC MODEL°

17. The 4 models of Grunig
 Publicitymodel (Press Agentry Model)
– Purpose : as much publicity as possible
– PR = propaganda
– Complete truth = not essential
– One way communication
– No research
– Senderdirected
– Practiced today : Sports, Theatre,
productpromotion

18.  Public Information Model
– Dissemintation of information
– One-way communication
– The truth is important
– PR-officer is comparable with a journalist
– Strong media oriented
– Practiced today : Government, nonprofit
associations, business

19.  Two Way asymmetric Model
– Based on social sciences
– Two way communication but sender
oriented
– Scientific persuasion
– Market research : formative and evaluative
research of attitudes
– Practiced today : Competitive business,
agencies

20.  Two Way Symmetric Model
– Based on mutual understanding
– Two way communication but balanced
effects
– Dialogue
– Formative, evaluative research of
understanding
– Practiced today : Regulated business,
agencies

21. Conclusion
 The models were created by Grunig and Hunt
in 1984 and occur nowadays in a mixed form
 Fact is :
– From manipulation to building relationships
– From one way to two way communication
– From monologue to dialogue
– From earning understanding to building mutual
understanding
– From influencing behavior to mutual acceptance of behavior
and policy
– Form serving the interest of the company or client to serving
common interest

22. PR Objectives
 Alignment and influencing the social
environment
– Every company is in a situation of
permanent exchange with the environment
– The environment changes quickly
– So does an organisation/company

23. Permanent exchange with the
environment
 Fast development of science and technology
 Population Explosion + strong urbanization
 Extensive division of labor and automation
 Increasing Educational level followed by more
knowledge and higher involvement
 Social evolution and even revolution : Democracy
became a goal
 Changes in businesslife : more managers leading
companies (instead of owners) : Higher degree of
efficiency, commercial pressure and also openess.
 Communicatieboom : new media, : more access to
information
 Increasing prosperity – longer lifetime – more spare
time

24. Consequences
“One of the biggest problems in our modern
society is that communication only happens
through different abstract mediators !”(Claude
Levi-Strauss)

25. Influence of these changes on PR
 Increasing influence from technology on information :
New researchpossibilities, immediate feedback,
better possibilities in measuring PR, faster
informationstreaming : danger of overload..
 The balance between financial-economic policy and
Social policy : under pressure : High wage costs,
aging and retirement issues, flexilble working hours
and time,…
 Internal changes : management development, the
need for human contact on a smaller scale, home
working

26.  External influence : tension between
shortterm (profit) and longterm thinking
(common good), new environmental
legacy, EU-input and regulations
This all leaded to : more communication,
transparency, dialogue

27. LEGITIMACY
= earning : ‘License to operate’
= an invitation to a ‘Corporate
Dialogue’

28. PR Objectives
 Alignment and influencing the social
environment
 Acceptance of policy
Internal and external acceptance of the
companies policy.
Need for transparency

29.  Social Responsibility
– Sponsoring
– Political Responsibility
– Social Responsibility
 Communication
 Building and supporting the Corporate
Image

30. The Bled Manifesto on Public
Relations (2002)
 4 characteristics of Public Relations
- Reflective
- Managerial
- Operational
- Educative