1 Definition of 'public relations'

BMS 405 PUBLIC RELATIONS III

HANDOUT 1:

DEFINITIONS

Public Relations – definitions

Public relations (PR) is about organizations (or politicians, or celebrities etc.) creating and keeping a good relationship with people that the organization depends on for its success.

Public relations is the opposite of advertising. In advertising, you pay to have your message placed in a newspaper, TV or radio spot. In public relations, the article that features your company is not paid for. The reporter, whether broadcast or print, writes about or films your company as a result of information he or she received and researched.

Publicity is more effective than advertising, for several reasons. First, publicity is far more cost-effective than advertising. Even if it is not free, your only expenses are generally phone calls and mailings to the media. Second, publicity has lasts longer than advertising. An article about your business will be remembered far longer than an advert.

Publicity has greater credibility with the public than does advertising. Readers feel that if an objective third party - a magazine, newspaper or radio reporter - is featuring your company, you must be doing something worthwhile.

Unlike advertising or marketing, public relations is more ‘soft sell’ than ‘hard sell.’ PR is about information and persuasion rather than paying for advertising. It is sometimes accused of being ‘propaganda’ or ‘spin’ i.e. ‘the intentional manipulation of public opinion without regard for what is accurate or true’.

A large number of stories in newspapers and on broadcast news come from PR firms.

Today, many people believe that PR workers are unethical – they tell lies, but PR is not dishonest. In fact, the reason the best PR firms are so effective is precisely that they aren't dishonest. They give reporters genuinely valuable information. A good PR firm won’t contact reporters just because the client tells them to; they've worked hard to build their credibility with reporters, and they don't want to destroy it by feeding them propaganda.

Good PR firms give reporters stories that are true, but whose truth favors their clients.

Different publications vary greatly in their reliance on PR firms. At the bottom are the trade press, who make most of their money from advertising and sometimes give the magazines away for free. The average trade publication is a bunch of ads, glued together by just enough articles to make it look like a magazine. They're so desperate for ‘content’ that some will print press releases almost word for word, if the PR person takes the trouble to write them to read like articles.

At the top end are publications like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Their reporters do go out and find their own stories. They'll listen to PR firms, but briefly and sceptically.