Kirk Love
Professor Jackson
Into to Mass Media
October 2, 2005
Final Draft of History Paper
History Of Public Relations
Public relations is the influence of public opinion on an organization and its products or services. Public relations professionals can be political, corporate or any type of organization with public need.
Public relations can be dated as far back as the 1800 BC. Public relations were not very big issues back then as it is today. That early in time it was not even called Public Relations. The evidence showing that there was PR back then is that there was organized communications for education and persuasion. (Botan, Hazleton, 1989)
The development of schools especially institutions helped to create the public relations field. The improvements of technology, including the Internet, better writing and even television. As technology improved so did communication, and as communication grew so did the field of public relations. (Botan, Hazleton, 1989)
There have been many professionals of public relations to mark the past. Many of these professionals started off their careers not even knowing what they were doing. Like John Elliot many were reporters, some were writers, and others were consultants for corporations. From the beginning professionals faced many problems and have overcome many obstacles. (Botan, Hazleton, 1989)
Although public relations are argued to even be a profession, professionals are dedicated with ethical standards. The field started around the 17th century and has been in practice ever since. Since the 1960s the field has been growing rapidly. In 1998 there was an approximately 122,000 PR specialists in the United States. Along with that there were 458,000 more PR workers in the fields of marketing, advertisings and all other industries. (History Of Public Relations)
Ivy Lee was one of the public relations officers to leave a mark on the industry. His work and practices have held strong and are in use today. With the help of World War 1, publicity started to come around more and more. This time period is said to be Lee’s starting point. Lee was the one who had started the press release, which has been used, all the way threw the 20th century. Lee used methods like the two-way street and one-way street. The two-way approach was meant for the client to listen as well as communicate their messages with the public. The on-way method used was to express an idea or thought to the public. This type of method was used by political and governments. (History Of Public Relations)
Bernays was also another professional who came out of the time period of the First World War, and was public relations first theorist. Bernays drew many of his ideas from the theories of Sigmund Freud, which was one of the first psychologists. Freud had a passion for theory in unconscious thoughts and memories, pin-pointed on sexually ways. Freud was connected to Bernays because Freud was his uncle. Bernays way of communicating with the public was an applied social science. He uses insights from sociology, psychology, and other scientifically thinking methods. Bernays was a very inelegant man and also very discipline, writing several books. Some of Bernays writings were Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), Propaganda (1928), and The Engineering of Consent (1947). (Nessmann, 1995)
These few famous specialists had their ways of getting the task done. There are many other ways that most public relations officers use to get the job done. Three general methods or tactics used and audience targeting, press conferences and press releases. One of the basic or fundamental rules is knowing the audience of what client needs. An Audience can be nationwide, worldwide, male or female. An audience can be broken down into the smallest details as well as being very broad. (Nessmann, 1995)
A press conference is used to speak to the public. In politics it can be a debate and in a company view it is someone speaking to the media. When a press conference takes place they are to be held with a time and specific date. When there is a press release there is not much of a exact time or date to be held. But when the news does come out it is a written statement distributed threw magazines or any type of written media. Although most press releases are written with bold headlines and eye-catching pictures, a press release does not have to be like that. A press release can be a small article written for people who often don’t read full articles. They just want to read it quick and easy and that’s how some PR officials set a press release up. (Wikipedia, 2004)
In early history public relations was more of a self learning job. Getting in to newspapers, magazines, radio, and even television. Now there are many different ways of getting a degree and learning the public relation ways. Some people get into communication courses, taking courses that open them up to the media. Getting to know how the media works will help them succeed in the end.
(E. W. Brody, 1987)
Salaries all depend on how much you work and how good of a worker you are. In PR the average salary for a public relation specialists was $31,300 to $56,180. The lowest a public relations officer was making was around $24,000 and the average high for a specialist was $75,000 dollars. This survey was done in 2002, and could be off due to the few years gone by and the demand for the jobs.
(Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Public Relations can be run with a small group of people to large firms. The large firms come with tens of thousands of employees. With this large amount of workers comes a large amount of revenue. In one situation a large firm brought in $100 million dollars in one year. The total amount of revenue for both the Public Relations Society of America and the International Association of Business Communications could soon break $1 billion dollars.
(Bureau of Labor Statistics)
When you are a public relations specialist you do not just go to work and get paid. You go to work thirty-five to forty hours per week. Being a Public relations worker is really hard work, you are practically on call 24/7. You need to be very flexible changing due dates to get important speeches, and papers done on time. (Wikipedia)
Today public relation jobs are all over, with a high amount of specialist. There have been many theories but here are the most used and the most recognized. Public relations grew so much from 1800 BC, as time goes on and communication improves their will always be a influence of public relations.
Bibliography
1) Nessmann, Karl.(1995). Public relations in Europe: A
comparison with the U.S. Public Relations review.
2) Botan, Carl H. and Hazleton Jr., Vincent. (1989).
Public Relations Theory. Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates
3) (2004). Public Relations. Wikipedia
4) (1995-2004). History Of Public Relations. Pearson
Allyn & Becon
5) (2005). About Public Relations. The Public Relations
Society Of America.
6) E. W. Brody. (1987) The Business Of Public Relations.
Praeger Publishers.
7) Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2004). Occupational
Outlook Handbook. Public Relations Specialists