The Evolution of

Public Relations
Chapter 2
“PR” has been around a long time…
 While a 20th century development in terms of a
profession, techniques used to persuade people
to accept the authority of the government and
religion have been used throughout time.
 Techniques (still in use today) such as:
interpersonal communication, speeches, art,
literature, staged events, and publicity.
 Not called public relations at the time but the
purpose and effect were the same as today.
 Evolution of PR’s three principal
functions:
 Press agentry—1800s were the
“Golden Age” of the press agent
Think Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett,
Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley (p.42)
 Publicity—placing stories in the media
 Counseling—advising clients and management
 hyping: the promotion of movie and television stars,
books, magazines, etc. through shrewd use of the media
and other devices
 press agent: is at the center of hyping and is defined as “a
person whose work is to get publicity for an individual,
organization, etc.”
 PR’s Evolution (cont’d)
 Pseudoevent—a planned happening that occurs primarily for
the purpose of being reported. Some of the more flamboyant
and fun aspects of PR today trace their roots to the
development of press agentry
 Phineas T. Barnum—the great American showman of the 19th
century was the master of the pseudoevent. Best remembered
for his Barnum & Bailey three ring circuses.
 Publicity: consists mainly of the issuing of news releases to
the media about the activities of an organization or an
individual, is one of the earliest forms of PR. As far back as
the Roman period, Julius Caesar ordered the posting of a news
sheet outside the Forum to inform citizens of the actions of
Roman legislators
Key 20th century American figures who
(indirectly) advanced public relations:

 Henry Ford—recognized as the first major industrialist to

utilize two basic PR concepts: “positioning” – the idea
that credit and publicity always go to those who do
something first-- and ready accessibility to the press
 Theodore Roosevelt: proved a master in generating
publicity. He was the first president to make extensive
use of news conferences and interviewing in drumming
up support for his projects. And he knew the value of the
presidential tour for publicity purposes
 20 Century figures (cont’d)
th

o Ivy Lee: the first public relations counselor

o Lee was a former business reporter at the New York World.
o Emergence of modern PR began in 1906 when Lee was hired by the coal
industry, then embroiled in a strike. Miners leaders was talking to reporters,
providing facts and figures, but coal owners leader had refused to talk to the
press.
o Lee persuaded leaders to change their attitude. Lee issued a “Declaration of
Principles” which signaled the end of the “public-be damned” attitude of
business and the beginning of the “public-be-informed” era.
o Lee in 1914 was hired by industrialist John D. Rockefeller in the wake of the
“Ludlow Massacre” in Colorado, a strike at Rockefeller’s fuel and iron plant.
He got Rockefeller to talk to the press and the striking workers, staged events
and portrayed the tycoon as seriously concerned about his workers
o Lee’s innovative New York Subway poster series starting in 1916 (p.51)
 20 Century figures (cont’d)
th

o George Creel: brought in by President Woodrow Wilson to

organize a comprehensive PR effort to advice him and his
cabinet, to carry out programs, and to influence U.S. and
world opinion.
o Persuaded newspapers and magazines to provide free space
for promotion of war Liberty Bonds.
o The Creel Committee’s efforts had a profound effect on the
development of PR by demonstrating the success of these
full-blown techniques. It also awakened an awareness in
Americans of the power of mediated information in
changing public attitudes and behaviors.
 20 Century figures (cont’d)
th

 Carl Byoir was on that Creel Committee. Byoir in 1930

founded a company that for more than 50 years was one of
the largest PR firms in the U.S. He pioneered use of third-
party endorsements to give products or policies credibility,
legitimacy and newsworthiness. This involved having
experts endorse products or having newspapers endorse
candidates, for example.
 Elmer Davis: hired by FDR to head the Office of War
Information during WWII. The former journalist and
Rhoads Scholar orchestrated an even larger PR effort
during this war. OWI was the forerunner of the U.S.
Information Agency established by Eisenhower in 1953 to
“tell America’s story abroad.”
 Key PR figures (cont’d)
 Edward Bernays and his wife and business partner
Doris Fleischman: helped define PR’s counseling
role as advisers to corporate and institutional
managements beginning in the 1920s.
 Bernays—widely acknowledged as the founder of
modern public relations- wrote the influential
1923 book, “Crystallizing Public Opinion” that
was the first to set down the broad principles that
govern the new profession of ‘public relations
counsel.’”
 Bernays called PR “the engineering of consent.”
 PR’s Evolving Practice and
Philosophy

 1800s—press agentry model—best represented by the

hype and exaggerations of P.T. Barnum and various
land developers
 Early 20th Century—PR began to reinvent itself
along journalistic lines, mainly because former
newspaper reporters such as Ivy Lee started to do PR
work and counseling—extension of the journalistic
function focusing on the “dissemination of
information or one-way communication models in
which the quality of information was important but
audience feedback had yet to be fully considered.”
 PR’s Evolving Practice and Philosophy (cont’d)

 1920s—thanks to the breakthroughs in social science

research, the focus of PR shifted to the psychological
and sociological effects of persuasive
communication on target audiences. Rex Harlow,
Edward Bernays and others believed any campaign
should be based on feedback and an analysis of an
audience’s disposition and value system so messages
could be structured for maximum effect (i.e. scientific
persuasion based on the research of the target
audience)
PR’s Evolving Practice and Philosophy (cont’d)

 1960s—Issues management was added to the

job description of PR managers because of the
Vietnam War, Civil Rights, the women’s
movement, environmental concern growth.
The idea that PR should be more than
persuading people that corporate policy was
correct. The idea emerged that perhaps it
would be beneficial to have a dialogue with
various publics and adapt corporate policy to
their particular concerns.
PR’s Evolving Practice and Philosophy (cont’d)

 1970s—era of reform in the stock market and

investor relations. Companies must immediately
disclose any information that may affect the value of
its stock . The field of investor relations boomed.
 1980s—the concept of PR as a management function
is in full bloom. “Strategic” became a PR buzzword
and MBO (management by objective) was heavily
endorsed by PR practitioners
PR’s Evolving Practice and Philosophy (cont’d)

 1990s—Reputation or perception management were

the buzz phrases—the idea of PR people working to
maintain credibility, to build solid internal and
external relationships, and to manage issues
 2000—the concept grows of PR as the practice of
“relationship management.” PR people, the idea
goes, are in the business of building and fostering
relationships with an organization’s various publics.
 Trends in PR
 Feminization of the Field—today women constitute
70 percent of PR practitioners. Reasons? (p.61-2)
 About 65 percent of all majors in journalism and
mass communications programs are now women, and
it’s estimated that 70 percent of public relations
majors are female
 But women still earn only about 75 cents for every
dollar earned by men (overall, not just in PR)
 The executive ranks in PR are still predominantly
male, but the number of females has increased
dramatically in the past several years
 Trends (cont’d)
 The advent of “Transparency”—companies committed
to being more open—the public is demanding more
accountability from all of society’s institutions
 The Internet/Websites allow companies to share more
“insider”-type information they may not have shared
in the past
 Rise of Social Media—a new category of “mass”
communications that PR must tap into with RSS
feeds, podcasts, blogs, vlogs, YouTube, MySpace,
Facebook, webcasts, etc. New opp. to communicate!
 Trends (cont’d)
 Increased Emphasis on Evaluation—PR pros
will continue to improve measurement
techniques for showing management how their
activities actually contribute to the bottom line.
 Managing the 24/7 News Cycle—the need for
PR people to constantly update information,
answer journalists’ inquiries at all hours of the
days, and be aware that any and all information
is readily available to a worldwide audience.
 Trends (cont’d)
 New Direction in Mass Media—Traditional media aren’t
what they used to be.
 Circulation of U.S. daily newspapers down 11 percent since
1990 and network evening news ratings are down 34 percent
since 1993. Local news share is down 16 percent since
1997. Even cable ratings have been flat since 2001.
 PR is now expanding communication tools to account for
the fact that no single mass media, or combination of them,
will be a good vehicle for reaching key publics. There is,
for example, more electronic preparation of media materials.
To many professionals, the printed news release and media
kit are becoming artifacts of the past.
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