PUBLIC RELATIONS

BY GETAHUN AYENW (Mir)

DDU
01/11/2023 1
 Course Outline
 What is Public Relations
Definitions, Origin and Functions of PR
 Public Relations Practices
Objectives, Techniques and tools of PR
PR Roles, Models and Activities
 Functions of PR as management
PR Communication Strategy and PR Activities
 Theories of PR
Theories of Relationship, Mass Communication, Persuasion and Social
Influence
 Crisis Communication
Indicators and Stages of crisis
Crisis Communication and Management Strategies
 Ethics in PR
Ethical Values for PR professionals
PRSA Code of Ethics
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 Course Outline
2.Research in Public Relations
Definition of research
The importance of research
 Types of public relation research
Applied research 
 Theoretical research
Methods of public relation research
Barriers to Using Research
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 Course Outline
3 Planning
The MBO approach
 Importance of Planning
Strategic Thinking
Programming in Pubic Relations
 Reasons for Planning
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 Course Outline

4. Evaluation
Purpose of Evaluation
Objectives: A Prerequisite for Evalua
tion
Methods of Evaluation
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 Course Outline

5. International Public Relations
•  Conceptual Development of Internation
al PR
•  Major Areas of International PR

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 Course Outline

6. The Business of Public Relations
• The PR Agency

• Scope, development and Nature of PR A
gency

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 Course Outline

7. Fundamentals of Public Relations Writing
• News releases
•  Memos
•  Newsletters
• Brochures and handbooks
• Annual reports
• Speech Writing
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 Perspective Public Relations

• positivists
• Some definitions of public relations are positivists; that is
they are based on explaining what is involved in the
practice of public relations, or what it achieves within
organizations.
• normative
• Others are normative and state a vision of what PR should
be.
• Any differences between positivist and normative
definitions reveals disagreements about whether the reality
of PR lives up to the ideals or aspirations for its practice.
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 Con…
• The search for a single, broadly accepted definition
for the field of PR is an ongoing struggle and both
PR literature and practice have not yet agreed on
a definition.
• The search for a definition started in 1975, when the
American Foundation for PR Research and
Education searched for a universal definition
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 Con…
• Sixty-five PR leaders participated and 472
definitions were analysed (Seitel, 1995:6). In
1980 the PR Society of America did research on
the stature and role of PR (Lesly, 1981:32).
• It is therefore clear that the search for a single
definition has been an ongoing process.
• PR has suffered from an identity crisis, which is
largely the field’s own making, and therefore
numerous definitions for PR exist.
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 Con…

• They are seeking to persuade, not simply

explain or inform. A definition also needs to be
put into a social context, since meaning may
change overtime or be culturally dependent.
This can be seen when reviewing different
definitions or views of public relations
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01/11/2023 13
 1. What is Public Relations
 PR defined
“PR is the management of communication between
an organization and its publics.”(-Grunig and Hunt
(1984), p. 4.
•Among the many competing definitions of public
relations, J. Grunig and Hunt’s is the most widely
cited definition of public relations:
•The component parts of Grunig and Hunt’s famous
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 1. What is Public Relations
•Management. The body of knowledge on how best
to coordinate the activities of an enterprise to achieve
effectiveness.

•Communication. Not only sending a message to a

receiver but also understanding the messages of others
through listening and dialogue.
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 1. What is Public Relations
 Organization. Any group organized with a common
purpose; in most cases, it is a business, a
corporation, a governmental agency, or a nonprofit
group.
 Publics. Any group(s) of people held together by a
common interest.

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 1. What is Public Relations
 PR defined
“PR is a management function which tabulates public
attitudes, defines the policies, procedures and interest of an
organization followed by executing a program of action to
earn public understanding and acceptance.”
-Edward L. Bernays

“PR is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to

establish and maintain mutual understanding between on
organization and its publics.”
-Institute of Public Relations, USA
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 Definition… Cont’d

à The earliest definitions emphasized press agentry and publicity, while

more modern definitions incorporate the concepts of “engagement”
and “relationship building.”
à The PRSA(Public Relations Society of America) National
Assembly adopted the following definition in 1982:
à “PR helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each
other.”
à In 2011‒12, PRSA led an international effort to modernize
the definition of PR. PRSA initiated a crowd sourcing
campaign and public vote that produced the
following definition:
à “PR is a strategic communication process that builds mutually
beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”
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 Definition… Cont’d

“PR is a planned effort to influence opinion through good character

and responsible performance based upon mutual satisfactory two-
way communication". -PRSA 2011-2012

“PR is the art and science of managing communication between an

organization and its key constituents to build, manage, and sustain
its positive reputation.” (Grunig, Grunig, & Dozier, 2002).

à So far, successful organizations have been found to emphasize the

value of PRs
à by integrating it into strategic management in the pursuit of
satisfying organizational goals (Grunig, Grunig, & Dozier,
2002).
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 Definition… Cont’d

à In the definition
à 'Organisation' can be a government body, a business, a
profession, a public service or a body concerned with
health, culture, education - indeed any corporate or
voluntary body large or small.
à 'Publics' are audiences that are important to the
organisation; employees and management; investors;
media; government; suppliers; opinion-formers.
à 'Understanding' is a two-way process. To be effective, an
organisation needs to listen to the opinions of those with
whom it deals and not solely provide information. Issuing a
barrage of propaganda is not enough in today's open
society.
01/11/2023 20
 Origins of PR
 Thomas Jefferson (1807) used the phrase "Public relations" in
the place of "State of thought" while writing his seventh
address to the US Congress.
* The First World War also helped stimulate the development of
PR as a profession. Many of the first PR professionals, including
Ivy Lee, Edward Bernays, John Hill, and Carl Byoir, got their
start with the Committee on Public Information, which organized
publicity on behalf of U.S. objectives during World War I.
* Some historians regard Ivy Lee as the first real practitioner of
public relations, but Edward Bernays is generally regarded today
as the profession's founder.

01/11/2023 21
 Origin… Cont’d

 Ivy Lee, who has been credited with developing the

modern news release also called a "press release",
espoused a philosophy consistent with what has
sometimes been called the "two-way street" approach to
public relations, in which PR consists of helping clients
listen as well as communicate messages to their publics.

 Bernays was the profession's first theorist. A nephew of

Sigmund Freud, Bernays drew many of his ideas from
Freud's theories about the irrational, unconscious
motives that shape human behaviour.

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 A Historical Background of PR in
Africa
à As a result the PRs Practice in Africa achieved momentum
only during the last two decades. As in other parts of the
world, many African practitioners enter the profession
through journalism, often being trained abroad since few
facilities exist locally.
à African PRP has a different role than their U.S. counterparts.
à In the West, it is assumed that PRP will be socially responsible.
à In the Third World, PRs practices are designed to be consistent
with political ideologies, levels of development, and sociopolitical
controls.
à African PRP are thus expected to be team players on the side of the
government.
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 History… Cont’d

à In politically unstable Africa, governmental PRs is

used to present an image of a unified country.
à The development of PRs on the African continent has
been influenced by the availability of mass media.
E.g.: Nigeria, in Egypt it is still misunderstood.
à PR departments have no power to answer the
questions of journalists and have to seek answers
from superiors.
à Maybe because of a lack of formal education, only
10 percent of individuals in the public relations
business are considered to be skilled professionals.
01/11/2023 24
 History… Cont’d

à The PRs associations of Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Uganda,

Cameroon, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe are registered with IPRA.
à FAPRA (Federation of African PRs Associations) was formed in Nairobi
in 1975 with the aim of uniting the Francophone and Anglophone parts of
Africa.
à In African governments in which one party or one leader
determines public policy, there can be no true role for PRs as we
define it.
à They may use communication techniques as a form of propaganda or
manipulation to keep the people in line; but there would be no room for
professional practitioners to practice on behalf of those who wanted to
challenge or criticize the statuesque or propose different ideas, policies
and procedures.
à Clearly these communication practices would be labeled subversive,
unlawful and undemocratic (Rice and Atkin 2001, p.153).
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 History… Cont’d

à Furthermore, Africa has a responsibility towards

the global PRs society;
à the empowerment of African PRP with the
necessary knowledge and skill;
à to serve their societies;
à to build PRs theory and
à to contribute to the understanding of PRs on the
African continent.

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 PR in Ethiopia

à In Ethiopia the practice of PR started to take

shape during the 1960’s
à The major purpose of the PR was merely serving
the interest of the ruling class/group.
à During this time it is so unprofessional and it was
unable to respond to the situations arising in those
times.
à The 1974 devastating famine was the failure of PR in
the government organizations.

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 Nature and Scope of public relations
• Public relations as a process serves a number of functions.
• While the definitions may vary, the nature of Public Relations
indicates that it is essentially a task promoting rapport and
goodwill between a person, firm or institution and the
community at large through dissemination of information.
• It seeks to earn support, mobilize or solicit favor for an idea,
a cause, a problem, for an institution or an individual.
• It uses a two-way communication in dealing with public
opinion.
•First, it assesses the attitudes of the public towards the
organization.
•Next, it executes communication programmes to gain public
understanding and acceptance of the management's point of
view.
•Public Relations aims to bring about harmonious and mutually
advantageous adjustment between an organization and the
community through dissemination of ideas and also by
providing feedback from the public to the management.
• It also evaluates public attitudes, identifies policies that
interests public and executes the programme of communication.
•Good public relations implies a sound moral base, i.e.,
communication must be sincere and based on facts.

•Harmless conduct is not enough. Action is required to

gain favorable recognition.

•This may be expressed as striving for three objectives:

⸙ to attract attention
⸙ to win belief
⸙ to impart understanding.
• These steps are taken to reach a goal: to convince
people that they should adopt a certain attitude or
pursue a certain course of action.

• To perform this fact public relations must begin at

the heart of the organization it serves- the
management.

• It must find the answer to these three questions:

 What is the message that the management wants to
impart?
 To whom?
 How'?
•And a fourth question is implied in these three: What is the
purpose?
•These questions, although innocent-looking require great
deal of thought.

• It is no good to engage in some Public Relations activity in

spurt because someone else is doing it.

•Public Relations activity has to be a planned and sustained

program with the goals worked out clearly.
•Without knowing what, whom, how and why, a public
relation programme can serve no purpose.
•A purposeful Public Relations program should:
1) understand the organization’s nature and purpose
thoroughly;

2) Communicate this understanding to others, i.e., the

publics;

3) Observe and evaluate the effect of the communication.

 Elements in Public Relations

•Briefly, Public Relations involves four major elements.

•They are inter-related and overlapping. In fact, one
tends to lead to another. These are:
 Two-way Communication
 Mutual Understanding
 Caring for Public Opinion
 Social Responsibility
 Two-way Communication
•Public Relations philosophy puts great emphasis on the need for
two-way communication.
•It is now fairly well accepted that feedback is important.
•Many misunderstandings spring from a total lack of or an
inadequate communication.
•The foremost objective in any public relations programme,
therefore is to improve existing channels of communication and to
establish two-way flow of information.
•However, this is not as easy as it sounds! Even if you have a strong
desire to communicate, there may be great difficulties in achieving
success because of the barriers in communication process.
•Many of the human problems in organization are ascribed
to lack of communication.

•Managements are constantly advised to give prompt and

regular information to employees and the public.

• Public Relations methods can do much to resolve such

conflicts to reconcile differences or even as a preventive
measure but let nobody underestimate the difficulties
involved.
 Mutual Understanding
• Mutual understanding requires by definition, a two-
way communication.

• A Public relation policy for any organization, for

example, should include both inward activity and
intelligence to assess the policies and behavior of
the management, to see whether action is necessary
to improve the organization’s image; and outward
activity to inform the public about its achievement.

• You may be curious about one point- where does

the question of 'mutual interest arise’?
•In any public relationship there are at least two parties
involved.
•First, there is the organization which has something to
promote, often in competition with others.
•Second, there are the "publics" to which the organization
directs its efforts.
•Thus, there are two interests to be met; The private interest
and the public interest.
•Generally, these interests are often in conflict.
•Each party interprets the public interest in terms of its own
self interests.
• Let us take an example of a manufacturing industry.

• It is exposed to pressures from different sides.

 The consumers who want to pay the lowest price for

the goods they need.
 The worker who wants the highest wage or salary
for producing goods.
 The stockholder who wants the maximum dividend
or profit for his/her investment in the machinery
used to make the goods.
 The governments which want you to pay the sales
and excise taxes on the goods you are selling.
•Each group has its own interests in mind.
•Resolving these conflicts of interests is the essential part
of Public Relations, because satisfying those interests is
essential to the enduring success of organization.
•This can only be done by achieving mutual understanding
between the organization and all these interests.
•For this two-way communication is necessary by
providing information to the people and seek public favor
through an informed public opinion.
 Caring for Public Opinion

•Public opinion has been described as the “source spring"

of public relation.
• Public opinion, is the consensus of individual opinions
of the majority among the masses, based on their attitudes
and widely held beliefs, molded by public interest.
•Abraham Lincoln once said public sentiment is
everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail;
without it nothing can succeed.
 Social Responsibility
• The social responsibility of any organization stems
from what has been discussed earlier-that all
organizations work in the name of the people with the
main aim of serving their interests.

• For the organization to profit or gain through its

efforts it has necessarily to first achieve the
acceptance and approval of the people for its role.

• Many organizations, through getting profit from

society, do not show their concern for the latter’s
welfare and thereby end up having problems.
•Public relations seeks to attune itself to the needs and

aspirations of the community it serves and identifies the

interests of the organization with that of the community`s. E.g.

 participating in festivals,

 sponsoring local sports events,

 instituting scholarships,

 bus shelters,

 promoting local causes, etc.

•This is the social responsibility role of public relations.

 Objectives of public relations

•The main objective of public relations is to maintain

a positive reputation of the brand and maintain a
strategic relationship with the public, prospective
customers, partners, investors, employees and other
stakeholders which leads to a positive image of the
brand and makes it seem honest, successful,
important, and relevant.
Components/Department of Public Relations
•Public relations has divergent parts. According to the
Public Relations Society of America, the components
of public relations include the following:
 Counselling
 Issues management
 Research
 Financial Relations
 Media Relations
 Industry Relations
 Publicity
 Development/Fund-
 Employee/ Raising
Member
Relations  Multicultural
Relations/
 Community Workplace Diversity
Relations
 Special Events
 Public Affairs
 Marketing
 Governmental Communications
•Counselling: Providing advice to management concerning
policies, relationships, and communication with its various
publics.
•Research: Determining attitudes and behaviors of publics
through research in order to plan public relations strategies.
Such research can be used to:
 generate mutual understanding or
 influence and persuade publics.
•Media Relations: Working with the mass media in seeking
publicity or responding to their interest in the organization.
•Publicity: Disseminating planned messages through selected
media to further the organization’s interest.
•Employee/Member Relations: Responding to concerns,
informing, and motivating and organization’s employees or
association or club members.

•Community Relations: Planned activity with a community to

maintain an environment that benefits both the organization
and the community.

•Public Affairs: Developing effective involvement in public

policy and helping an organization adapt to public
expectations.

•The term is also used by government agencies to describe

their public relations activities and by many corporations as an
umbrella term to describe multiple public relations activities.
•Governmental Affairs: Relating directly with legislature and
regulatory agencies on behalf of the organization. Lobbying can
be part of the government affairs programme.
•Issues management: Identifying and addressing issues of
public concern that affect the organization.
•Financial Relations: Also known as Investor Relations or
Shareholder Relations.
– It involves creating and maintaining investor confidence and
building good relationships with the financial community.
•Industry Relations: Relating with other firms in the industry
of an organization and with trade associations.
•Development/Fund-Raising: Demonstrating the need for and
encouraging the public to support an organization, primarily through
financial contributions.
•Multicultural Relations/ Workplace Diversity: Relating with
individuals and groups in various cultural settings.
•Special Events: Stimulating an interest in a person, product, or
organization by means of a focused "happening".
– They are activities designed to interact with publics and listen to
them.
•Marketing Communications: Combination of activities designed to
sell a product, service, or idea.
– These activities may include advertising, collateral materials,
publicity, promotion, direct mail, trade shows, and special events.
 Public Relations Activities
The work of public relations may be divided into Fundamentally, public relations practitioners
many areas or functions. perform the following functions:

Writing and editing Corporate counselling

Mass Production
Organizing special events
Media relations
Speaking
Research
Coaching
Strategic planning

Management and
Crisis Communication

administration
 Public Relations and Its Audiences

•Public relations professionals interact with seven

categories of publics, and a public is any group of
people with a stake in an organization, issue, or idea:
Employees
Stockholders
Communities
Media
Government
Investment community
Customers
 Public Relations Publics
• According to Wragg (1993), public relations audiences can be
divided into four categories which include:
• 1.Functional Publics: They are those publics which enable the
organization to perform its chosen tasks.
• These include its customers, consumers, business firms with which it
relates, employees, trade unions which represent it in its given line of
trade or business, suppliers of raw materials and components.

2. Enabling Publics: These are publics which permit the organization

to function within the framework of the society to which it belongs.
• Such publics include regulatory bodies, community leaders,
politicians and shareholders.
3. Diffused Publics: Within this group are media
organizations, pressure groups and local residents.

4. Normative Publics: This term refers to trade

associations and professional bodies, but it could also
include political parties.
• Guth and Marsh (2000) categorized public
relations publics as follows:

1. Traditional and Non-traditional publics

2. Latent, Aware and Active publics
3. Intervening publics
4. Primary and Secondary publics
5. Internal and External publics
6. Domestic and International publics
 PR Vs Journalism
* Scope
* PR has various components, ranging from counseling to issues
management and special events, journalistic writing and media
relations.
* In addition, effective PR practice requires strategic thinking, problem-
solving capability, and other management skills.
* Objectives
* Journalists gather and select information for the primary purpose of
providing the public with news and information.
* PR personnel also gather facts and information for the purpose of
informing the public, but the objective is not only to inform but also
to change people’s attitudes and behaviors in order to further an
organization’s goals and objectives.
01/11/2023 55
 PR Vs Journalism… Cont’d

* Audiences
* Journalists write primarily for a mass audience-readers, listeners, or
viewers of the medium for which they work.
* A PR professional, in contrast, carefully segments audiences into various
demographic and psychological characteristics. Such research allows
messages to be tailored to audience needs, concerns, and interests for
maximum effect.
* Channels
* Most journalists reach audiences through one. On the other hand, PR
professionals use a variety of channels.
* The channels employed may be a combination of mass media outlets-
newspapers, magazines, radio, and television.
* Or they may include direct mail, brochures, posters, newsletters, trade
journals, special events, podcasts, blogs, websites, and even video
postings on YouTube.
01/11/2023 56
Differences between Journalism and PR

Journalists PR Professionals
• Use only two ● Use many
components components
(writing and media
relations) ● Are advocates
• Are objective ● Focus on defined
observers publics
• Focus on a mass
audience ● Use a variety of
• Use only one channel channels
Differences between Advertising and PR
Advertising
• Works through mass media
outlets
• Addresses external
audiences
• Is a communications
function
• Is a communication tool in
PR
• Sells goods and services
Public Relations
● Relies on a variety of
communication tools
● Targets specialized
audiences
● Is broader in scope
● Fills a support role
● Creates a favorable
environment for an
organization’s survival
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