1. The origins of PR: A comparison between developments in PR practice in the UK and US.
CIPR define the profession as “The discipline which looks after reputation with the
aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour.
It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and
mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics” (CIPR.co.uk,
online)
In the US, it is impossible to read about the origins of Public relations without coming across
Edward Bernays who has been involved in PR work since the First World War. Most commonly
known for being the nephew of Sigmund Freud. He used Freud’s psychological knowledge in his
own PR ideas. (Morris & Goldsworthy, 2012).
In 1923, Bernays expressed that PR could identify emergent sets of interests within the masses,
as a better way to control them. (Burton St John III & Lamme, 2011). Bernays’ first campaign was
on behalf of tobacco – increasing their market by 50%, by making it acceptable for women to
smoke in public. ‘Torches of Freedom’, linked women smoking to the suffragettes. Organising an
event whereby photos would be taken of women smoking, Bernays’ sent them to significant
papers claiming that the young women were demanding the right to smoke in public. The
campaign showed to be a major success, and doubled the tobacco market. Competition for the
title of ‘Father of PR’ camefrom former journalist Ivy Lee who setup his own corporate PR bureau
in 1904, there are known to be similarities to Lee’s work in PR to the work of today’s leading PR
agencies. (Morris & Goldsworthy, 2012)
In the UK, it was the public sector and the government that was the driving force behind the
emergence of Public Relations in the UK. (Tench & Yeomans, 2006). Public relations in the UK
emerged following the Second World War. In 1948, the Institute of Public relations was formed
allowing practitioners to ‘improve their status and opportunities for promotion’. Although, there
was a major improvement of corporate PR in Britain in the 1940’s, specifically in response to
pressure for nationalization. By the 1980’s Public relations was well recognized, in both the
government and industry and was becoming more prominent in trade unions. However, it was
the 1980s which saw the most dramatic expansion of PR in the consultancy sector. (Miller &
Dinan, 2000).
PR practitioners are turning to social media; one advantage is that it automatically has the
opportunity to go viral. Social media is used worldwide and is a powerful platform to use (Solis
& Breakenridge, 2009). Thanks to the popularity of multiple platforms across a various range of
audiences, social media has emerged as one of the most prevalent topics in PR research, as
companies are now integrating the use of social media into their strategies with the hope of
engaging with a variety of stakeholders (McCorkindale & Distaso, 2014). One major advantage
of using social media for PR purposes is the fact it is free – free to advertise, free to broadcast
worldwide and free to communicate.
With the use of social media on the increase in business, many companies spend thousands
employing social media experts. Although many companies still use traditional PR methods. One
article posted on the guardian (2014, online) highlighted the use of traditional PR work. They
believe the quickest and most effective way of communication is through traditional media such

2. as newspapers, TV and radio not social media. Clients in PR firms have a range of different
situations therefore communicating with them via a tweet may not be necessary. This illustrates
that the use of social media in PR is not entirely relevant, and highlights that most companies
use it just because they can, showing that the use of traditional PR is still relevant in today’s
society and even the most successful PR firms, still use traditional methods in both the UK and
US.
PR week (2015, online) conducted a survey looking at how the UK and USA use social media in PR.
Surveying over 500 prominent US and UK companies the results concluded that the US scored 3 times
higher than the UK on the use of twitter and you tube. UK companieswere more likely to post investor
relationscontentontwitter,andpostCSRcontentonFacebookwhereasthe US tendtouse Facebookto
postmediacontent.MarcusFergusson, the researchdirectoratInvestis observed the differentapproach
betweenUKandUS.Declaringthatthe UKare failingtoengage theiraudiencewhichiswherethe US owe
theirsuccess,stating theyare failingto post contentregularlyand not postinga broad enoughrange of
content. Illustratingthatthe US relymore onsocial mediaas a way to developtheirstrategiesandreach
out to a wideraudience whereasthe UKrelyontraditional methodsof PR.
PR emerged during the end of the 20th century, making it a relatively new phenomenon. One of
the main disadvantages of PR is a way of defining the profession, there is no agreed definition.
‘PR’ can also be a term to denote other sectors including marketing and advertising (Tench &
Yeomans, 2006). With PR at a loss of identity, expert bodies will continue to pursue their goals
of PR gaining true professional recognition (tench & yeomans, 2006).
People see PR as a dishonest profession, ultimately giving PR a bad reputation. (Parsons, 2004).
Making ethics a vital portion of PR practice. In the US, early public relations introduced many
ethical concerns that often emphasised a lack of truth. Bernays’ named this period ‘the public be
damned era’ (Bowen, no date). Press agents were concerned about producing publicity at any
time within this era, and this method formed the unethical reputation of modern practice in
1906. However, Ivy Lee’s ‘declaration of principles’ moved the practice into ‘the public be
informed’ era with Lee’s emphasis on telling the truth and providing accurate information
(Bowen, no date).
PR currently depends on ‘codes of conduct’ held by professional associations. One example of a
code of conduct comes from Parsons (2004; 17) “Members of the Institute of Public Relations
agree to… Deal honestly and fairly in business with employers, employees, clients, fellow
professions, other professions and the publics”. Conversely, membership is voluntary signifying
that a membership is not entirely needed to practice PR which is deemed to be another downfall
of the profession. Many codes of ethics are written in terms that forbid certain activities, others
state that a set of agreed terms must be followed (Bowen, no date).
PR today is no longer holds the traditional methods it used to when it first started, with the
landscapeof PR built upon those traditional approaches today, PR encompasses the useof digital
media, and social media changing the way PR is viewed. Multimedia utilisation is considered vital
in both the UK and US. Media such as you tube, Facebook and Twitter are considerably more
relevant when defining success of PR with the emerging use of ‘a trending topic’. This must be
met with a strategic marketing and sales approach to be considered effective (Thepressgarage,
2015; online).

3. References
Bowen, A S (No date) Ethics and Public Relations. [21.3.15] [online]
http://journalism.uoregon.edu/~tbivins/stratcomweb/readings/EthicsPR.pdf
Burton, St John III & Lamme O, M. (2011) The Evolution of an idea: Charting the early public
relations ideology of Edward L. Bernays. Journal of Communication Management, Vol 15 Is: 3. Pp
223 – 225.
CIPR.co.uk (2015) What is PR? [16.3.15] [online] http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/careers-
cpd/careers-advice-and-case-studies/what-pr
McCorkindale T, & Distaso W, M. (2014) The state of social media research: where we are now,
where we were and what it means for public relations. ResearchJournal of the Institute for public
relations. Vol. 1, No.1.
Miller, D & Dinan W., (2000) The Rise of PR industry in Britain, 1979-98. European Journal of
Communication
Morris, T & Goldsworthy, S. (2012) PR today: Theauthoritative guide to publicrelations. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Parsons, J P. (2004) Ethics in Public Relations: A guide to best practice. Chartered Institute of
Public Relations.
PR week.com (2015) UK firms lag behind US peers for corporate comms social media use, says
Investis survey. [20.3.15] [online] http://www.prweek.com/article/1331835/uk-firms-lag-
behind-us-peers-corporate-comms-social-media-use-says-investis-survey
Solis B., & Breakenridge, D (2009) Putting the public back into public relations: How social media
is reinventing the aging business of PR. Pearson Education LTD.
Tench, R & Yeomans, L (2006) Exploring Public Relations. Pearson Education Limited.
The Guardian.co.uk (2014) Not every PR plan needs social media: anonymous. [20.3.15] [online]
http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2014/nov/21/social-media-pr-plan-
communication
The Press Garage.com (2015) What is the future of Public Relations? [20.3.15] [online]
http://www.thepressgarage.com.au/whats-the-future-of-public-relations/