TOPIC 2

Public Relations Theories

ADVANCED PUBLIC RELATIONS

KOM 5321
DR. NURUL AIN MOHD HASAN
Group formation for
Assignment 1
Group 1 – Jeneesh , Yoga , Luqman, Adiratno
Group 2 – Zana, Moy, Hanim
Group 3 – ??
Group 4 – Anum, Amira, Abby, Miza
Group 5 – Marina, Farah, Fafat
Group 6 – Yang Chenyu, Guo Tinghui, Ma
ruiqi, Austin
Group 7 – ??
Group 8 – Lydia, Dayalan, Saif, Makoto
Group 9 – Nabil, Zaim
Group 10 - ??
Week Topic Date
Week 1 Ice Breaking; formation of groups for Assignment 1. 30 September
Discussion on Assignment 2 - Break-

Week 2
Course synopsis
Introduction to PR
Public Relations Theories. -Break- 07 October
Group 1 Presents - Team Janesh
The course covers the fundamental
Week 3 PR as Management Function - Break - 14 October
concepts, theories, elements and principles
Group 2 Presents - Team Zana
Week 4 Publicity - Break - 21 October
of public relations.
Group 3 Presents - Team ?
1Itpresentation for Assignment 2
st

involves a survey of current practices and

Midterm Break 28 October – 03 November
problems
Week 5 Management of PR in the field
Campaigns – Break - of public relations;
04 November
Group 4 & 5 Present – Team Anum & Team Marina
 functions
Week 6 Research in PR of public relations; 11 November
Group 6 & 7 Present – Team Yang Chengyu & ?
application of ethics and professionalism of
Week 7 Lobby in PR 18 November
public
Group 8 & 9 relations;
Presents – Team Lydia & Team Nabil
Week 8 Corporate & Persuasive Writing 25 November
as 10
Group well as- Team
Presents management
? of public relations
activities and campaigns.
Week 9 PR Ethics & Topic 10- Sectors & PR. Discussion on final
exam questions. Tips etc –END OF LECTURE
02 December

Final group presentation of Assignment 2

NO MORE CLASSES. AWAY FROM 9 DECEMBER – 26
DECEMBER
Understanding the paradigms
and worldviews of public
relations
What do you understand about paradigm
(paradigma) & worldviews?
Research in the social sciences often focuses on the
worldviews and realities.
Research in Public Relations can be looked at in two
ways:
1. Organisational Aspects – professionalism and ethics
in PR practices, the corporate identity, image and
reputation of in practising PR. – modernist
perspective
2. Community Aspects – views from the other side of
the spectrum. Listening to the voices of the people. –
postmodernist perspective
Modernist vs. Postmodernist Perspectives
Modernist
Modernist perspectives – the
modernists in public relations
would believe that public
relations are functional and
systematically practised and
managed;
-mainly seeking for
effectiveness, strategic
structure, and excellence in
the practice of public relations.
-mainly static – “only as a source
of positive publicity” (Benn,
Todd & Pendleton, 2010, p.
403).
Postmodernist
Postmodernist perspectives – the
postmodernists in public relations
would believe that public relations are
beyond just seeking for excellence.
- Searching for realities of public
relations practices from different
stories and in multiple levels in
society;
-mainly a social processes that are
constantly changing according to
cultural, political and economic
changes;
-therefore, PR practices are not static,
the roles of practitioners move from
advocating the organisation to
listening to the voices of the
stakeholders/the community.
Critical perspectives
Focus on activist issues which uncover the other
side of the stories that are told by marginalised
voices (suara-suara yang dipinggirkan). –
debates and dialogues are interchangeable.

Sometimes, researchers of this era will focus

more on being a social advocate for a cause.

E.g. Analysing reports of the government policies

and criticising whether these reports benefit the
community.
Public relations theories: Uncovering
various paradigms and worldviews.
Specific public relations theories that are
presented in this lecture are:
1. Theories of Relationships – modernist
perspectives
Systems theory (modernist paradigm)
Grunig’s four models of public relations
(Grunig, 1979; Grunig & Hunt, 1984)
The Excellence theory (Grunig & White, 1992)
Roles theory in public relations (Broom, 1982;
Broom & Dozier, 1986)
Situational theory of publics (Grunig 2005)
2. Theories of cognition and behaviour
(modernist perspective)
Diffusion theory – persuasive theory
Symmetrical Process Model of Persuasion

3. Theories of Mass Communication applied

in PR practice (modernist perspective)
Uses and gratifications theory
Agenda setting theory
4. Approaches to conflict resolution
(postmodernist perspective)
Contingency theory of accommodation
(Cameron, 1997; Cameron et al., 1996;
Cancel et al., 1997; Cancel et al., 1999)

5. Critical approaches (postmodernist)

Critical theory
Rhetorical perspective in public relations
(Heath, 2001)
The four models of public
relations
 In Grunig’s paradigm/worldview – Public relations is defined
as
“the management of communication between the organisation
and the publics that it interacts with” (Grunig, 1992, p. 3).

 These four models were used to describe the historical

development of PR in the USA
 As a set of ideal types of PR activities
 These four models of public relations are:
i. Press agentry model assumes that practitioners seek
attention for their organisations in almost any way possible.
ii. Public information model assumes that practitioners’ job is to
disseminate information to the public in favour of promoting
the organisation.
iii. Two-way assymmetrical model assumes that practitioners
conduct research to learn more on how to persuade publics
to be on the organisation’s side.
iv. Two-way symmetrical model assumes that practitioners
conduct research and dialogue (receiving comments and
feedback) to make changes that will be beneficial to both the
publics and the organisation.
 Grunig’s four models of public relations at a glance
Model Name Type of Model Characteristics
Communication
Press agentry/ publicity One-way communication Uses persuasian and
manipulation to influence
audiences to behave as
the organisation desires
Public information One-way communication Uses press releases and
other one-way
communication
techniques to distribute
organisational
information. The public
relations practitioner is
often referred to as the
in-house journalist.
Two-way asymmetrical Two-way communication Uses persuasion and
(imbalanced) manipulation to influence
audiences to behave as
the organisation desires.
Does not use research to
find out how stakeholders
feel about the
organisation.
Two-way symmetrical Two-way communication Uses communication to
The Excellence theory
 The Excellence theory (Grunig & White, 1992) is an
extension of systems theory which consists of four models to
explain public relations in an organisation.

 The idea behind the Excellence project was to improve the

professionalism of public relations.

 Initial aim was to describe and find characteristics for

effective public relations that American organisations often
practised.

 However, the four models of PR and the Excellence theory

have contributed to developing PR practices and research in
developing nations as well.

 The theory has been used to explain why PR is practised in

different settings i.e., various cultural settings, and different
types of organisations.
Principles of the Excellence theory
for global public relations (Verčič et
al., 1996)
i. Involvement of public relations in strategic
management
ii. Direct relationships with top management
iii. Integrated public relations functions
iv. Public relations as a management function
separate from other functions
v. The roles of public relations practitioners
(strategic managers vs. communication
technicians)
vi. Two-way symmetrical model of public relations
(dialogue)
vii. A symmetrical system of internal communication
viii. Knowledge potential for a managerial role and
symmetrical public relations
ix. Diversity in gender, culture, ethnicity, racial
backgrounds
Roles theory in public
relations
 Earlier studies, based on a collection of literature on
roles (Broom, 1982; Steele, 1982; Thomas & Biddle,
1966), demonstrated four mainstream roles in public
relations in the PR’s Role theory.
 The role theory assumes that PR practitioners to hold
four roles:
i. Expert prescriber role- allowing PR practitioners to
decide actions to solve an issue for an organisation
ii. Communication technician role- journalistic role
iii.A communication facilitator role – a mediator role to
facilitate communication between an organisation and
its publics
iv.Problem-solving process facilitator role – allowing
practitioners to be a part of the decision-making
process in top management (see Broom, 1982; Broom
& Dozier, 1986).
Issues on roles in public
relations
 Broom and Dozier (1986) found that practitioners
would usually hold all four roles, but most
practitioners would largely hold communication
technician role.

 Decision making role (Problem-solving process

facilitator role) in public relation was lacking.

 Decision making role is a fundamental aspect of the

development of the PR profession.

 Clark (2000) argued that in reality, top

management in an organisation was often reluctant
to acknowledge the value of educating public
relations practitioners with management skills.
Situational theory of publics
 Grunig developed a situational theory of publics to explain
and predict why some publics are active and others are
passive.
 Within the stakeholder categories he notes that situational
theory can identify which publics will “communicate actively,
passively, or not at all about organizational decisions that
affect them.” Grunig (2005), p. 779.
 Those publics who do not face a problem are nonpublics;
 Those who face the problem but do not recognize it as a
problem are latent publics;
 Those who recognize the problem are aware publics, and;
 Those who do something about the problem are active
publics. He identified three variables that explain why
certain people become active in certain situations: level of
involvement, problem recognition, and constraint recognition
The outcome of the theory
for communication strategy.
Difussion theory (persuasive
theory/modernist)
 This theory looks at ways on how public relations can strategically
reach out to the publics.
 It assumes that people adopt idea only after going through these
steps below:
i. Awareness – the individual has been exposed to the idea
ii. Interest – the idea has to arouse the individual
iii. Evaluation – the individual must consider the idea as potentially
useful
iv. Trial- the individual tries out the idea on others
v. Adoption – this represents final acceptance of the idea after having
successfully passed through the four earlier stages
 Awareness only occurs when you have reached out to targeted
publics-
e.g. Flyers/brochures are distributed according to your target
stakeholders, specific targeted location that will reach out to publics
that are most likely interested in your
campaign/events/activities/info.
 After awareness and interest have been adopted, the rest of the
process begins.
Symmetrical Process Model
of Persuasion
 A 5 step process:
1. Discovering conditions under which
publics are likely to respond – to gauge
(measure/mengukur) existing level of
awareness;
2. Investigating responses to the attempt to
create, raise or sustain awareness, to
determine any problems with the desired
behaviour goal that may already be
apparent;
3. Measuring latent readiness (potentially
ready) to act, so that the action’s
direction can be anticipated, depending
on certain conditions;
4. Monitoring responses to the triggering
event, to anticipate the level of resulting
behaviour;
5. Evaluating behaviour to determine why
that particular action was taken, whether
it is likely to be sustained and what is
needed to sustain it.
Symmetrical Process Model of
persuasion.
Uses and gratification theory
 This theory assumes that people are active users of
media and select how they will use it.
 Researchers have found that people use media:
For entertainment
To scan the environment for items important to them
personally
As a substitute for personal relationships
As a check on personal identity and values

 For public relations, this means that not every media will
reach the target audience because the publics use
mediated messages for their uses and gratifications (for
their own personal interests and reasons).

 Therefore, sometimes publics’ minds cannot be changed

through the media.
Agenda setting theory
McCombs & Shaw saw a positive strong
relationship between what media was reported
and what people are thinking or discussing about.
The theory assumes that the media plays a role
in influencing public opinion
PR practitioners practice agenda setting theory
by trying to draw attention from the publics
based on current news/issues that are shown in
the media (newspapers/news on
TV/radio/magazines).
This is a way to try to gain publics’ interest
towards your organisation’s campaigns/cause/
‘CSR’ work.
Critical approaches
 Critical theory – positioned of Marxist ideology and critique
-to maintain an interest in uncovering all forms of oppression, committed to
freedom, and rationale ordering of society (Bronner & Kellner, 1989).
-questioned the danger of capitalism towards the oppressed society
(kumpulan2 yg ditindas)
-PR in this paradigm is used to create awareness, to advocate social change
and to be the voice for the marginalised (terpinggir) group in a society.
 Rhetorical perspectives in public relations – assumes that in terms of
people’s rights to speak up, all parties/groups in a community are
communicating symmetrically (two-way)
-The use of PR here is through dialogues/debates
-E.g. – Issue with tobacco companies- Anti-smoking campaigns. The dialogue
was – Tobacco companies vs. the community/govt.

On 1 side of the story -tobacco companies argued that people who smoked are
adults, they are not forced to smoke, and they are all aware of the dangers
of smoking

On the other side of the story -Anti-smoking advocates argued and showed
evidence of smoking-related health consequences and the economic aspect
of high medical costs for sufferers.

But both are advocators of their own cause! It’s how you debate about it.
Keeping up with globalisation: The
digital era in public relations
practices
 The practice of PR has reached an era whereby old practices
of PR are not effective anymore
 The progress of technology – twitter, social network,
instagram
 A new way to listen to stakeholders (both internally and
externally) – big data.. Is it a challenge?

 New ways to gain information – i.e. social monitoring of

bloggers become the main practice.

 New ways to communicate ideas – i.e.

pictures/images/videos/ vchats are the new way to engage
with the publics.

 New ways to receive feedback – i.e. instant feedback through

apps/ social media etc.
TERIMA KASIH!!!