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This is PR

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This is PR Eleventh

Edition PUBLIC RELATIONS

Doug Newsom Professor Emerita, Texas Christian University

Judy VanSlyke Turk Virginia Commonwealth University

Dean Kruckeberg University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations, Eleventh Edition Doug Newsom, Judy VanSlyke Turk and Dean Kruckeberg

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To our students, from whose questions, observations and insights we continue to learn, and to our colleagues, academics and practitioners, who explore with their research and share with their publications and conversations.

About the Authors

Doug Newsom, Ph.D, APR, Fellow PRSA, is a Texas Christian University pro- fessor emerita of journalism and the senior coauthor of This is PR and Public Relations Writing. She has also written two other books, has co-authored three more and has written four current book chapters. She is a former member of the Commission on Public Relations Education, former chair of PRSA’s College of Fellows and is a past chair of the Accrediting Committee for the Accrediting Council on Education for Journalism and Mass Communications. She has been president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communica- tion, Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication, Texas Public Relations Association and both the Dallas and Fort Worth chapters of PRSA. Dr. Newsom has been the national faculty advisor to PRSSA. She has been head of the PR Division of AEJMC and has served as chair of its former division heads. Awards include the Institute for Public Relations’ Pathfinder, PRSA Outstanding Educator, Public Relations Foundation of Texas’s Educator of the Year Award, Texas Public Relations Association’s Golden Spur, the Asso- ciation for Women in Communications’ Headliner and in 2010 she was named to the Hall of Excellence of TCU’s Schieffer School of Journalism. She has served Fulbright teaching appointments in India and Singapore, presented workshops in South Africa, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland and Vanuatu and taught in Latvia and England. She has been chair of the Fulbright discipline committee, served 18 years on a gas research institute’s advisory council and was one of the first women to be elected to the board of a publicly held company, where she served 24 years until reaching mandatory retirement age. Currently her volunteer public relations work is for Rotary International.

Judy VanSlyke Turk, APR, Fellow PRSA, professor in the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University, served as its director from March 2002 to 2010. Previously, she was founding dean of the College of Communications and Media Sciences at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates, dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina, director of the journalism and mass communication program at Kent State University and a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma, Louisiana State University and Syracuse University. She is president of the Arab-U.S. Association of Communication Educators and is a member of the Accrediting Committee of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC). VanSlyke Turk is past president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC) and of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). In 2006, AEJMC recognized her as its Outstanding Woman in Journalism Educa- tion. She has been chair of AEJMC’s teaching standards committee, Council of Divisions and the Public Relations Division. VanSlyke Turk is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society and past chair of the College of Fellows of the Public Relations Society of America’s College of Fellows. She was named Outstanding Public Relations Educator of PRSA in 1992 and in 2005 shared with This is PR co-author Doug Newsom the Pathfinder Award from the Institute for Public Rela- tions for her lifetime contributions of research. She is associate editor of Journalism Studies and is a member of the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations JournalPublic Relations Review and Journalism

About the AuthorsVIII

and Mass Communications Quarterly. In addition to This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations, she is co-editor of a collection of international case studies that was pub- lished by the Institute for Public Relations.

Dean Kruckeberg , Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA, is executive director of the Center for Global Public Relations and a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Previously he was a public relations professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Northern Iowa and coordinator of the Public Relations Degree Program and of the Mass Communication Division. He is a charter member of the Commission on Global Public Relations Research and a senior fellow of the Society for New Communications Research. Since 1997, Kruckeberg has been co- chair of the Commission on Public Relations Education. He served for two years on the national board of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), has been chair of the Educator’s Section (now Academy), was Midwest district chair of PRSA and was co-chair PRSA’s Educational Affairs Committee, of which he remains a member. He is the former national faculty advisor of the Public Rela- tions Student Society of America and a former advisor to Forum, the national newspaper of PRSSA. He is a past chair of the public relations division of the International Communication Association, former head of the public relations division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and former chair of the public relations division of the National Communication Association. Awards include PRSA’s outstanding educator in 1995, the Jackson Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Research Prize in 2006, the Pathfinder Award from the Institute for Public Relations in 1997, the 1997 State of Iowa Regents Faculty Excellence Award and the 1998 Wartburg College Alumni Citation. In fall 2011, he was presented with the Infinity Award, the top award for public relations professionals presented by the Charlotte Chapter of PRSA.

In addition to This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations, Kruckeberg is co-author of the book Public Relations and Community: A Reconstructed Theory.

Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins 1 PR Roles and Responsibilities 1 2 PR's Origins and Evolution 23

Research for PR

3 Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 57 4 Stakeholders and Interactions 87

Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

5 Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 109 6 PR Ethics and Responsibilities 141 7 PR and the Law 169

PR in Action

8 Strategic Management in PR Practice 205 9 Communication Channels and Media 223

10 Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work 253 11 Campaigns 297 12 Crisis and Credibility 313

Notes 335 Index 355

Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

1 PR Roles and Responsibilities 1 International Consistency of PR Practice 2 What Does Public Relations Practice Involve? 2 Role and Function for Organizations: 10 Basic Principles 4 m Why the Need to Know This About PR? 6 The Job of the PR Practitioner 6 m The Function of Public Relations in Business and Society 13

2 PR's Origins and Evolution 23 Seeking the PR “Source Spring” 24 m The Beginnings of PR in the USA, 1600-1799 27 Communicatmg/Initiating: The Era of Press Agentry and Publicity, 1800-1899 29 m Reacting/Responding: The Time of Reporters-in-Residence, 1900-1939 32 m Planning/Preventing: The Growth of PR as a Management Function, 1940-1979 37 m Professionalism: PR in the Era of Global Communication, 1980-Present 44

Part Two

Research for PR

3 Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 57 The Basics: Record Keeping and Retrieving 58 m Finding and Using Research Resources 59 m Using Research for Planning and Monitoring 61 m Using Research to Plan and to Evaluate Outcomes 65 m Informal Research 65 m Formal Research 70 m Audience Information 77 Research and Problem Solving 82

4 Stakeholders and Interactions 87 Identifying and Describing Publics 88 m Issues: Identification, Monitoring, Evaluation and Management 93 Issues and the Role of the PR Practitioner 95 m Perceptions and Public Opinion 99 Public Opinion Research and Public Relations 101

Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

5 Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 109 Origins in Sociology and Psychology 110 m Organizational Theory 111 u Communication Theories 112 Persuasion and Change 114 m A Way to Look at Media: Source, Message, Source + Message, Media, Receivers 122

6 PR Ethics and Responsibilities 141 Complexities in Ethical Decision Making 144 Responsibility in Advertising and Sponsorships 154 u Responsibility in Publicity 158 m Individual Responsibilities 163

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Detailed ContentsXII

7 PR and the Law 169 The Liabilities of Practicing PR 170 m Government Regulations 175 u Court Rulings and Legal Responsibilities 185 u Revisiting the Hypotheticals 200

PR in Action

8 Strategic Management in PR Practice 205 PR’s Role in the Organizational Structure as Part of the Management Team 205 u Issue Monitoring and Managing for Organizations 211 u Planning and Managing PR Work 212

9 Communication Channels and Media 223 Choosing the Medium 224 m Choosing the Message—Advertising and Publicity 225 m Traditional Hybrid: Direct Mail 244 m Developing Hybrids 245

10 Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work 253 Advertising 253 u Publicity and Publications 258 u Publicity Through the Mass Media 271 On the Job with Media People 284 u Goofs and Glitches 291 u Talking Back and Correcting 291

11 Campaigns 297 Types of Campaigns 297 u Characteristics of Successful Campaigns 298 u Planning a Campaign 300 u Implementing the Campaign 302 u Evaluating the Campaign 303 u Campaign Outline 305 Changing Behavior 305 m Government Campaigns 309

12 Crisis and Credibility 313 Anticipating a Crisis 314 m Dealing with a Crisis 321 u Recovery and Evaluation 331

Notes 335 u Index 355

^Jublic relations will always be in a state of flux due to swift changes in publics/stakeholders, communication technology and cultural choices in the ways that people choose to communicate. Thus, much of the content of this text has to change with each edition. Our goal, however, is always to present the foundational consistencies of public relations while examining the impact of change.

Now that PR functions in a global environment, laws of all countries and their interpretation, such as privacy, have made for considerable additions to the law chap- ter. Instructors and their students may want to take more than one week to consider all of this material in a classroom setting. Sensitivities to customs in a global context can create miscommunications and may even generate crises. Therefore, the following chapters have been expanded: Chapter 3: Research: Planning, Processes and Techni- ques; Chapter 4: Stakeholders and Interactions; Chapter 8: Strategic Management in PR Practice; and Chapter 12: Crisis and Credibility.

The globalization of public relations is also responsible for a new orientation for the text. The approach of the book follows the practice: everything is global, and the only predictable trend is “change.” Thus, we have removed the global inserts in each chap- ter as well as the chapters on a worldwide view of PR practice and on trends to incor- porate the global oudook on PR throughout the book.

New guidance for strategic communication and counsel in practice and in education comes from the 2010 Stockholm Accords. This historic document, which was pro- duced by the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, offers more assurance of greater global commonalities in a field striving for profes- sionalism across borders. The Instructor’s Resource Manual for this text includes video interviews with several officers and board members of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management—a supplement unique to this text.

Additional Resources

Resources for Instructors Instructor Companion Website. The instructor companion site contains rich online resources, including test banks, and an online version of the Instructor’s Resource Manual, both chapter-by-chapter and in its entirety. Chapter-specific PowerPoint slides that highlight chapter highlights are available for download from this text’s website www.cengagebrain.com.

Online Instructor's Resource Manual. The Instructor’s Resource Manual contains resources designed to streamline and maximize the effectiveness of instructors’ course preparation. This helpful manual includes suggestions for developing a course syllabus, chapter objectives and assessment tests. Each chapter includes a chapter outline, sug- gestions for class activities and discussions, supplemental readings and true/false and multiple-choice test items. The activities provide innovative ways to present relevant concepts in each chapter; they include group projects, out-of-class assignments, role plays, lecture ideas and audiovisual suggestions.

PowerLecture CD-ROM. This disc contains an electronic version of the Instructor’s Resource Manual, ExamView computerized testing and ready-to-use Microsoft PowerPoint® presentations that correspond with the text. This all-in-one lecture tool makes it easy for instructors to assemble, edit, publish and present custom lectures for their courses. More information about ExamView follows.

xiv Preface

ExamView® Computerized Testing. ExamView enables instructors to create, deliver and customize tests and study guides (both print and online) in minutes, using the test bank questions from the Instructor’s Resource Manual. ExamView offers both a Quick Test Wizard and an Online Test Wizard that guide instructors step-by-step through the process of creating tests, while it’s “what you see is what you get” interface allows instructors to see the test you are creating onscreen exacdy as it will print or display online. Instructors can build tests of up to 250 questions, using up to 12 question types. With the complete word processing capabilities of ExamView, instructors can enter an unlimited number of new questions or edit existing ones.

Acknowledgments We would like to thank the team at Cengage Learning that helped us develop and produce this edition: Michael Rosenberg, publisher; Rebecca Donahue, editorial assis- tant; and Erin Bosco, assistant editor.

And of course we owe much to our academic and professional colleagues, whose scholarship and practice inspire and inform our updates.

We gready appreciated the suggestions from the following reviewers as we worked on the book:

Daniel Jorgensen, Augsburg College Tom Branigan, Marquette University

Lisa Fall, University of Tennessee at Knoxville Tamara Gillis, Elizabethtown College

To understand the role and responsibilities of public relations-in public and private companies, nonprofit organizations, agencies and firms. To recognize the difference between strategic planning and execution that relies only on tactics and techniques. To appreciate the value of public relations in solving problems and making policy. To understand why individuals as well as institutional credibility are critical to public relations practice. To appreciate the international scope of public relations practice.

o you realize that public relations is an international occupation? It is, even if you never physically leave

your country. Technology now enables public relations practitioners to have an instant interconnectedness that is an asset with increased responsibility. What you do is electronically borderless, and differences in practice worldwide are diminishing.

Relationships among public relations practitioners around the world have been building through the years by joint projects, shared research and educational opportunities.

Associations for groups, such as the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management and a number of associations for individual practitioners as well as research and educational efforts by many institutions have strengthened international ties.

At least a decade ago, seventy countries formed the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management to examine how public relations is practiced in different parts of the world and how practitioners can share information and learn from each other. The out- come of this worldwide collaboration is “The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Manage- ment Accords Analysis.” (See www.stockholmaccords.org for updates, and visit www.globalalliancepr.org.)

The Accords, “a product of collaboration between public relations and communication management industry leaders

“All public relations should exist to pre- serve a consistent reputation and build relationships.”

—Robert I. Wakefield

2 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

on every continent,” was endorsed June 15, 2010, in Stockholm at the World Public Relations Forum of the Global Alliance.2 It is “a global call to action on the role of public relations in the evolving digital society,” according to John Paluszek, APR, Fellow PRSA, chair of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, senior counsel at Ketchum (New York and Washington, D.C.) and representative to the United Nations (UN) for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).3

The six major points of the Accords are agreement on the role of public relations in organizational sustainability, governance at the highest level of organizational responsibility for two-way strategic communication, practice of public relations as a management function, oversight of organizational internal communications policies and action, oversight of organizational external policies and action and coordination of internal and external communication. (See the Accords document for details and explication.) Looking at the dimensions of the each of these six points in the following discussion will give you an idea of what public relations practice is today.

The eventual direction for the Accords is to develop an international core curriculum for public relations education, says Paluszek, a member of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications as well as the Commission on Public Relations Education; the latter published guidelines specifically for the USA that have been adopted and used by other countries.

The idea of a global core curriculum is not new. In 2008, the Global Alliance started a collaborative study of PR education coordinated by the U.S.-based Commission on Public Relations Education and funded by the Public Relations Society of America Foundation. (Visit http://www.prsafoundation.org/ research.html.) The effort is a topic supported by Bruce Berger, a member of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA). In an article for the organization’s online journal, Berger details a 2009

survey conducted by the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) that looked at educational programs in mostly Western European countries and another in 2008 that examined Eastern European countries.4

Why all of this concern about what public relations students the world over are being taught? Hie situation is best explained by the international desire for consistency in practice and the question of professionalism.

International Consistency of PR Practice

Some consistency of the practice, despite differences in the social, economic and political climates in vari- ous parts of the world can be traced to the growing body of knowledge about and the general acceptance of what public relations is. The creator of public relations’ international code of ethics, Lucien Matrat, offers these thoughts:

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This means developing a communications policy that can establish and maintain a relationship of mutual confidence with an organization’s multiple publics.

What Does Public Relations Practice Involve?

The public relations (PR) practitioner serves as an intermediary between the organization that he or she represents and all of that organization’s stakeholders/ publics.

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Chapter 1 / PR Roles and Responsibilities 3

Consequently, the PR practitioner has responsi- bilities both to the institution and to its various pub- lics. He or she helps set organizational policies that will affect its stakeholders and distributes informa- tion that enables the institution’s publics to under- stand the policies, which may then be adjusted in response to feedback from those stakeholders.

Public relations involves research on all stake- holders: receiving information from them, advising management of their attitudes and responses, helping to set policies that demonstrate responsible attention to them and constantly evaluating the effectiveness of all PR programs. This inclusive role embraces all activities connected with ascertaining and influenc- ing the opinions of individuals and groups of people. But that is just the communications aspect. As a man- agement function, public relations involves responsibility and responsiveness in policy and information to the best interests of the organization and its publics.

The First World Assembly of Public Relations Associations, held in Mexico City in August 1978, defined the practice of public relations as “the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organizational lead- ers, and implementing planned programs of action which will serve both the organization and the public interest.”

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) defines public relations as a management function that involves anticipating, analyzing and interpreting public opinion, attitudes and issues; counseling management at all levels with regard to policy deci- sions, courses of action and communication and tak- ing into consideration public ramifications and the organization’s social or citizenship responsibilities; researching, conducting and evaluating on a continu- ing basis and being involved in strategic planning for the organization. Yet another definition of public relations as “reputation management” has gained currency as expressed by the British Institute of Public Relations (IPR):

and then solving it. In the long run, the best PR is evidence of an active social conscience. The various practitioner organizations have codes of ethics, even though there isn’t now a truly international code of ethics, as Matrat recommended.

The move toward a universal educational core would direct the practice of public relations more toward what is generally considered a profession.

Career, Job (Field) or Profession? Some commentators argue that the very fact that any- one would question whether PR is a profession proves that public relations is not a profession. Another clue that PR may not be a profession is the lack of practi- tioners’ commitment to continuing education.

One criterion of a profession is that its practitioners have command over a body of knowledge. Although the PRSA has developed a body of knowledge, it is for the USA only and has been criticized by the International Public Relations Association for its parochialism. The Institute for Public Relations’ Commission on Global Public Relations is attempting to catalog and codify public relations literature globally. An additional cri- terion of a profession is general acceptance of a stan- dard educational curriculum. Although this exists to some degree in the USA, what is being taught in the USA is not necessarily what is being taught elsewhere, where the availability of specialized education in pub- lic relations is growing at an explosive pace—thus, the emphasis in the Global Alliance to move in that direction.

Another criterion of a profession is control over entry and exit to the field, and public relations, at least in the USA, lacks any such control. One aspect of that control consists of PRSA’s requirement of continuing education of all practitioners to maintain standards of practice by ensuring that practitioners learn new developments and update skills. But that is not a requirement for practicing public relations. In fact, there are no educational requirements that would preclude anyone from saying he or she is a public relations practitioner.

Although practitioners refer to professional stan- dards and encourage educational experiences, per- haps it is a mark of honesty that PRSA’s bylaws, with a slogan that reads: “Advancing the Profession and the Professional,” identify the organization thusly: “The Society is organized and shall be oper- ated as a not-for-profit trade association ...” (See PRSA.org/AboutPRSA/Govemance/.)

Public relations is about reputation—the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. Public Relations Practice is the discipline which looks after reputation with the aim of earning understanding and support, and influencing opinion and behaviour.6

As a practical matter, good public relations involves confronting a problem openly and honestly

Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins4

3. Because the public relations practitioner must go to the public to seek support for programs and policies, public interest is the central crite- rion by which he or she should select these programs and policies. (PR practitioners must have the guts to say “no” to a client or to refuse a deceptive program.)

4. Because the public relations practitioner reaches many publics through mass media, which are the public channels of communication, the integrity of these channels must be preserved. (PR practitioners should never He to the news media, either outright or by implication.)

Role and Function for Organizations: 10 Basic Principles

As the definitions for public relations suggest, the result of public relations efforts must be the real behavior of the organization and perceptions of that behavior by its publics/stakeholders. Therefore, among the various titles now being used for the role of the public relations function are communications management (or sometimes strategic communications management or just strategic communications), repu- tation management and relationship management.

5. Because PR practitioners are in the middle between an organization and its publics, they must be effective communicators

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onveymg information back and forth until understanding and (ideally) consensus are reached. (The PR practitioner probably was the original ombuds- man or ombudswoman.)

We can describe the function and role of public relations practice by stating 10 basic principles:

1. Public relations deals with reality, not false fronts. Conscientiously planned programs that put the public interest in the forefront are the basis of sound public relations policy. (Transla- tion.; PR deals with facts, not fiction.)

2. Public relations is a service-oriented occupa- tion in which public interest, not personal reward, should be the primary consideration. (PR is a public, not personal, service.)

6. To expedite two-way communication and to be responsible communicators, public relations practitioners must use scientific public opinion research extensively. (PR cannot afford to be a guessing game.)

7. To understand what their publics are saying and to reach them effectively, public relations

In attempting to agree on what public relations is, many researchers have wrestled with a definition that seems suitable and internationally acceptable. When some in the UK began to call public relations “reputation management,” that caught on in the USA. The U.S. notion of “branding ” that came from integrated marketing communications likewise caught on in Europe. In working on the European body of knowledge, researchers struggled for a paradigm that would cover private relationships, not just those in the public sphere, and broader social issues that public relations should address. This is not new to the social responsibility concept of public relations: being responsible first to a broader public welfare and then to the organization it represents.

Although that is understood, European researchers urge a reflective approach that looks at society’s changing standards and values and then adjusts the organization’s standards accordingly.

In terms of how public relations practitioners themselves define the discipline globally, a model emerges that involves education, government, business and cultural norms and values—religion- based or not.

Read “On the Definition of Public Relations: A European View,” by Dejan Vercic, Betteke van Ruler, Gerhard Butschi and Bertil Flodin in Public Relations Review, 27 (2002), pp . 373-87. Look at the Practice Matrix for the Cultural-Economic Model of International Public Relations Practice (Table 10-1) in Patricia A. Curtin and T. Kenn Gaither’s International Public Relations (2007) and Bridging Gaps in Global Communication (2007) by Doug Newsom.I

Chapter 1 / PR Roles and Responsibilities 5

practitioners must employ the social sciences— psychology, sociology, social psychology—and the literature of public opinion, communica- tion and semantics. (Intuition is not enough.)

8. Because a lot of people do PR research, the PR person must adapt the work of other, related disciplines, including learning theory and other psychology theories, sociology, political science, economics and history. (The PR field requires multidisciplinary applications.)

9. Public relations practitioners are obligated to explain problems to the public before these problems become crises. (PR practitioners should alert and advise, so people won’t be taken by surprise.)

10. A public relations practitioner should be measured by only one standard: ethical perfor- mance.

Instead of “public relations,” particularly in some educational institutions in the USA, the term used is “strategic communications.” The reason for that becomes clearer when you consider the levels within the six areas under “The Value of Public Relations and Communication Management” in Sections Two and Three of the Stockholm Accords (abridged here). 1. Sustainability. The organization’s sustainability

depends on balancing today’s demands with the ability to meet future needs, so the role for PR and communication managers is to involve and engage stakeholders in sustainability policies and programs; to interpret societal expectations for sound economic, social and environmental com- mitments that yield a return to the organization and society; to ensure stakeholder participation to identify information that should be regularly, transparently and authentically reported; and to promote and support efforts to reach an ongoing integrated reporting of financial, social, economic and environmental information.

2. Governance: The stakeholder governance model empowers leaders—board members and elected officials—to be directly responsible for deciding and implementing stakeholder relationship pol- icies, so the role of the PR and communication managers is to participate in defining organiza- tional values, principles, strategies, policies and processes; to apply social networking, research skills and tools to interpret stakeholders’ and

society’s expectations as a basis for decisions; and to deliver timely analysis and recommenda- tions for an effective governance of stakeholder relationships by enhancing transparency, trust- worthy behavior and authentic and verifiable representation, thus sustaining the organiza- tion’s “license to operate.” Management: The quality and effectiveness of an organization’s decisions are increasingly deter- mined by their time of implementation. This requires a high priority for listening before stra- tegic and operational decisions, so the role of the PR and communication managers is to inform and shape the organization’s overall two-way communication abilities; to communi- cate the value of the organization’s products/ services and relationships with stakeholders thereby creating, consolidating and developing its financial, legal, relational and operational, capital; and to participate in the solution of organizational issues as well as lead those specif- ically focused on stakeholder relationships. Internal Communication: Organizational internal communication enhances recruitment, reten- tion, development of common interests and commitment to organizational goals by an increasingly diverse, extended and segmented set of “internal” publics that include everyone who works there at any time, retirees, consul- tants, suppliers, agents, distributors and volun- teers. The role of the public relations and communication managers is to seek constant feedback for a mutual understanding of how frontline people comprehend, accept and achieve the organization’s strategy; how and how well organizational leaders collaborate and communi- cate with stakeholders; how knowledge and policy are being shared; how processes and struc- tures are identified, developed and enhanced; and, most importantly, how the organization’s reputation depends largely on the actions taken by internal stakeholders. External Communication: As the network society expands and accelerates, organizations must review and adjust their policies, actions and communications behavior to improve relation- ships with increasingly influential stakeholders as well as with society at large, so public rela- tions and communication managers have to bring the organization’s “voice” and interests

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6 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

into stakeholder deliberations and decisions; to assist all organizational functions in crafting and delivering effective communication; and to con- tribute to the development and promotion of products, services or processes that strengthen arand loyalty and equity.

6. Coordination of Internal and External Communi- cations-. Organizational communication is often a multifaceted, multistakeholder, interrelational enterprise, engaging several value networks con- currently and often involving diverse legal frameworks. That means public relations and communication managers have to oversee the development and implementation of internal and external communications to assure consis- tency of content and accurate presentation of the organization’s identity; to research, develop, monitor and adjust the organization’s communi- cative behavior; to create and nurture a knowl- edge base that includes social and behavioral sciences; and to manage and apply research to implement evaluation and measurement pro- grams for continued improvement.

The Job of the PR Practitioner

The instant and interactive global communication climate have changed the demands on the practi- tioner and the way the practitioner carries out his or her duties, and technology will continue to change these responsibilities and skills. There is more call for depth and breadth in knowledge needed to func- tion at a global level. There is more accountability for public relations actions and greater damage if risk management and crisis communication are mis- handled. There’s less tolerance for “hype” and more pressure for transparency. The interconnectedness of the world and the diversity within many nations, including in the USA, now demands greater sensitiv- ity to multiculturalism.

But some things have not changed.

Text not available due to copyright restrictions

The retrieval emphasis implies reportorial skills, including knowledge of research techniques.

Other skills Wylie stresses include thinking (first and foremost), writing of all types, speaking, being persuasive, understanding and appreciating media, knowing graphics and photography, respecting dead- fines and developing an ability to deal with and solve multiple PR problems at one time.9

Why the Need to Know This About PR?

Three Basie Roles The way a PR person applies his or her special skills depends on the role he or she plays in an organiza- tion. The three main roles are those of organiza- tional staff member, agency employee and independent PR practitioner, who might from time to time func- tion as a PR counselor. We will consider each of these roles separately.

If you are reading this book to find out what public relations is and what its practitioners do, you need to understand the role and function of public relations in society because it affects you all day, every day. It is persuasive communication, and, at its best, is respon- sible communication—listening before responding and changing behavior that is harmful.

If you are reading this book because you plan to enter or are entering public relations as a career, you might be wondering where you would fit, where your talents would be appreciated and what you need to know. Unless you understand the signifi- cance to an organization of the public relations and communication management function, you can’t fit your talent successfully into the overall picture. You have to understand the strategic goal of the commu- nication effort for your organization before you can develop the tactics to accomplish the task designed to meet a goal and then create the techniques that will be most effective.

Staff Member Staff public relations practitioners are employees of commercial or nonprofit organizations or of divisions of government such as local, state and federal agencies. They perform highly specialized tasks in their organizations, but they get a paycheck just as other employees do, and they share the same corporate or institutional identity. Specific needs of the organiza- tion usually determine a staff member’s job description.

Staff positions within small organizations often include responsibility for all public relations functions.

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Chapter 1 / PR Roles and Responsibilities 7

In the case of a small nonprofit organization, the PR person typically works either with volunteers who provide professional expertise of various kinds or with outside suppliers whose services may be bought on a limited basis or donated.

Staff positions with larger organizations depend upon the level of management for an employee. Senior positions involve all of the responsibilities detailed previously in the Accords for communications func- tions, including participating at the highest level in the management team. Large organizations may buy services for some areas of expertise such as in-depth research—communication audits or media monitor-ing, or media distribution or for technical production of audiovisuals—everything from employee training videos to video news releases and commercials. Long reports such as an environmental report or an annual report may be contracted to outside suppliers. In a major crisis, an outside firm may be called in to advise and assist the internal crisis management team. Out- sourcing of special public relations services is increas- ing as companies cut back on their total number of in-house employees. However, budget cutbacks have also pushed internal public relations staff to learn more skills and carry a heavier workload. Commercial and Large Nonprofit Organizations Public relations people in institutions—whether commercial or nonprofit—may have skills jobs in a PR or communication department, may be middle managers of specialized PR activity such as commu- nity relations or employee relations or may function as general professional staff. Increased use of com- puter technology has decreased the number of prac- titioners working at the lower-level jobs, but has demanded a higher level of technical expertise. The number working at middle managerial levels has increased slightly. The small number of positions at the most senior level of policy making remains rather consistent, but held only by practitioners with a high-level skills set, including technology. Government Job descriptions for PR positions in government vary dramatically. Some people who are called “public information officers” are really publicists handling information but probably making no policy decisions. Others, often called “public affairs officers,” may have all the responsibilities of a corporate vice pres- ident for PR or communication management.

or CEO of the firm shares in handling accounts, as do the account executives (AEs), who are also expected to bring in new business. A firm may employ a bookkeeper who handles billings, a secre- tary/receptionist, publicity writer(s), a design (adver- tising or graphics) specialist, an artist and technology experts), also likely to be responsible for general interactive media. Postings, including blogs, and responses for clients are usually handled by the AE. In some instances, the writer may prepare both pub- licity and advertising copy, and the artist may be responsible for illustrations and layout. The online expert suggests software to buy, handles technical problems and may monitor online media also.

Large firms have copywriters and copy editors, media specialists, website designers, several artists and a production facility. Most firms, even the larg- est ones, arrange contracts for high-level production needs. Digital publishing makes the jobs of writers and artists more efficient and easier to coordinate. Computer software makes graphics and almost instantaneous page makeup possible in-house. These systems usually make the writer the produc- tion person as well, because the writer actually devel- ops the final format, often including generic artwork that is available digitally. However, an artist usually provides original designs and artwork.

Independent Practitioners/Counselor The independent public relations practitioner is usually hired to accom- plish a specific task—one that is ordinarily (but not always) predetermined. Payment may take the form of a flat fee, a fee plus expenses or a base fee plus hourly charges and expenses. The less experienced the inde- pendent practitioner is, the more often he or she will have to work for a flat fee.

Although some experienced independents prefer to bill for actual costs, they price a job based on the hours required to complete it multiplied by an hourly rate. They then increase these costs by a certain percentage to cover overhead and profit. Independent public relations practitioners sometimes function as PR counselors. Indeed, some inde- pendent practitioners work almost exclusively as counselors.

A PR counselor is called in at an advisory level and works for a consultant’s fee, which he or she sets, with hours and expenses added. The counselor studies and researches a situation, interviews the peo- ple involved, oudines recommendations and makes a formal presentation of these recommendations.

Firm/Agency Employees Each agency or firm has its own internal structure, but generally, the president

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Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins8

Although the U.S. government is the world’s largest employer of public relations practitioners, the government uses the term public affairs, not public relations. The reason for that is an Oct. 22, 1913, act of Congress that is often interpreted as precluding governmental use of public relations practitioners. The last paragraph of the Interstate Commerce Commission statute reads: “Appropriated funds may not be used to pay a publicity expert unless specifically appropriated for that purpose.” Because this was an amendment to a bill introduced by Representative Frederick H. Gillett (R .-Mass.), it is often called the Gillett Amendment in PR literature.

The intent was to be sure publicity was not used to propagandize U .S. citizens. PR people have tried a number of times to repeal this amendment, but not recently . Additionally, the 1948 Smith- Mundt Act’s ban on domestic exposure to public diplomacy related to geographic boundaries.

As a result, the term public affairs is widely used in government to mean public relations. To make matters more confusing, the same title is used in commercial and nonprofit organizations for the per- son working on the organization’s relationships with government at all levels.

Federal wire services carrying public relations news releases and announcements are not new. The services date to 1954 , but what is new is the cultural and international expansion of the services so that news is released to ethnic wire services and may be distributed in different languages too. The U.S. Department of State has a Bureau of International Information (IIP) that operates the America.gov websites, successor to the USINFO website , although some languages are available only from USINFO.

What is obvious from this is that the Internet has changed the whole role of government in the USA. As indicated above, information prepared for international audiences, which has been going on for decades, is accessible now to domestic audiences. The IIP, which goes to 140 countries, is "the principal international strategic communication community. IIP designs, develops, and imple- ments Internet and print publications, traveling and electronically transmitted speaker programs, and information are created strictly for key international audiences....”

Another change inside the USA and internationally is a demand for transparency in government. Attempting to restrict what the government is communicating to other countries seems to hamper such an effort. (For a thorough discussion of this aspect, see the Lawrence Erlbaum publication , Com- munication Law and Policy, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2006, Winter) for the article by Allen W. Palmer and Edward L. Carter, “The Smith-Mundt Act’s Ban on Domestic Propaganda: An Analysis of the Cold War Statute Limiting Access to Public Diplomacy,” pp. 1-34 . For some historical background on the U . S. government’s role in communication, see Elsevier’s Public Relations Review, Vol. 32 (2009) for Mordecai Lee’s “The Rise and Fall of the Institute for Government Public Relations Research,” pp. 118-124.)

The program is then implemented by other PR work- ers at the organization or at an agency. (See Chapter 8 for details of billings.) Counselors may work indepen- dently, or they may be associated with a firm as senior members. Some independent PR practitioners do various PR jobs, but some are stricdy counselors.

Some counselors are sensitive about their roles because people tend to view them as behind- the-scenes influence peddlers. Another misconception

is that counselors are simply unemployed would- be senior staffers. Public confusion is understand- able, however, because counselors are advisers who possess special areas of expertise, most of it gained in agency or corporate work. Their value resides in their experience, in the people they know and are able to call upon and in their skill as researchers, analysts, communicators and persuaders.

Chapter 1 / PR Roles and Responsibilities 9

Some counselors develop reputations for helping institutions prepare for and handle crisis communi- cation. Others are known for their ability to help institutions establish and maintain good govern- ment relations (at all levels, but primarily at the federal level). Still, others are called on for their ability to help with internal problems, typically ones involving employee relations. Counselors, as senior practitioners, often develop staffs that include younger people who have particular strengths or specializations.

in the areas of economic and social development, human rights, welfare and emergency relief,” and now “uses the term civil society organizations or CSOs to refer to the wide array of nongovernmental and not-for-profit organizations that have a presence in public life, expressing the interests and values of their members or others, based on ethical, cultural, scientific, religious or philanthropic considerations. Nevertheless, the term NGO in more casual usage still is applied to any nonprofit organization that is independent of government. These are typically values-based organizations that depend, at least in part, on charitable donations and voluntary service. Organizations that get some government funding are called GONGOs. Nonprofits all over the world include museums, hospitals, social service and health care groups, professional associations of all kinds as well as activists groups, often known as private voluntary organizations or PVOs, such as Greenpeace and Oxfam.

»10

Specific Areas of PR Specialization The breadth of PR services gives individuals a variety of career choices. Many practitioners are experienced in more than one area.

Nonprofit Organizations Nonprofit organizations of- fer a practitioner several advantages and opportu- nities, although the compensation is often less than in other areas. The structure of these organizations (a small production staff answerable to a volunteer board of directors) means that the nonprofit PR per- son generally has a great deal of freedom in design- ing a program. An attractive program that does not require a large bankroll probably will be accepted.

This kind of PR work usually entails a consider- able amount of promotional activity and some- times also fundraising and seeking grants from foundations.

A particular plus, however, is the reception given to publicity materials by news media representatives, who are more likely to use information from non- profit institutions than from for-profit organizations as long as the preparation is professional. Even non- profit advertising gets a break, with nonprofit special rates. The only drawback other than a smaller bud- get is frequent dependence on volunteer support in many areas. Responsibility for training volunteers usually falls on the PR people, and they must recog- nize that volunteers’ interest in and enthusiasm for the organization can be stimulated and sustained only by a viable program.

Outside the USA, nonprofit organizations may be called nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), although the World Bank notes that “there has been a deliberate shift away in the last few years from use of the term NGO, which refers more nar- rowly to professional, intermediary and non-profit organizations which advocate and/or provide services

Educational Institutions Educational institutions are usually nonprofit organizations as well, but they may be either public or private. The private institu- tions generally conform to the nonprofit organiza- tional pattern. Although they have significant dealings with government, their work is quite unlike that of public institutions, which, being a part of gov- ernment, are more open to the scrutiny of taxpayers and the whims of politicians. The type of PR prac- ticed in state educational institutions is often suited to a person who enjoys dealing with the government.

PR people in all educational institutions are likely to be involved in development, which includes fund- raising. The functions of PR and of development are separate, but the two groups must work closely together. In fact, the two functions are often lumped together under the umbrella term institutional advancement (a term used by CASE, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education).

The title “vice president for development” or “director of university relations” is commonly assigned to the individual who supervises both the PR and the fundraising functions. Sports information may be included under public relations or kept sepa- rate from it in an athletic department; in the latter case, the person responsible for it reports to the ath- letic director, who in turn reports to the president. However, this arrangement can cause problems because university sports can be involved in contro- versies that affect university relations.

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10 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

Fundraising or Donor Relations Although many public relations people will tell you that they “don’t do fundraising”— just as many others say that they “don’t do advertising”—those who do it well are in great demand.

Fundraising is sometimes called donor relations. First and foremost, the fundraiser must identify sources of potential support through research. Then he or she must inform those sources of the value of the organization so that they will consider making a gift to it. In the case of individual donors, this usually means cultivating a relationship between that person and the organization over a period of time. If the source is a foundation, the informational task means writing a grant proposal that explains the value of the organization seeking the funds and iden- tifies it closely with the mission of the foundation.

The third aspect of donor relations—the actual solicitation—takes many forms. It may involve an elaborate presentation book prepared just for that individual, or it may employ a PowerPoint presen- tation or a DVD that can be used repeatedly in combination with personally directed appeals. It gen- erally involves a series of letters requesting funds, and in broader appeals it may include brochures and occasionally, phone solicitations, such as the text- ing to mobile phones that raised funds for Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Face-to-face meetings also are used for the personal appeal, and these can be one- on-one or one to a group of potential donors. In the case of large gifts, a strong tie is usually built between the institution (some element or some person in it) and the donor.

Once a gift is announced, appropriate recognition of the donor is expected that reflects the size of the gift and the nature of the appeal. (Nothing is more upset- ting to a donor than getting an expensive “reward,” because this signals that a good portion of the money raised is being spent on thank-yous instead of on the primary mission of the organization.)

Finally, the donor’s relationship to the organiza- tion must be sustained in a way that is mutually sat- isfying. The fundraiser wants the donor to give again, especially if the organization has annual fund- raising events (as public television stations do, for example). Even if the gift was substantial and there is no reason to expect another, the fundraiser still wants the donor to have an ongoing relationship with the organization and to feel good about having given. Donors often attract other donors, but only when they feel good about their experience.

Research: Trend Analysis, Issues Management and Public Opinion Evaluation Some PR practitioners specialize in research that focuses on capturing information to help organizations plan better by anticipating rents of change. Some engage in analyzing trends to enable their organization to detect, adapt to and even take advantage of emerging changes. Issues management is centrally concerned with watching the horizons for change through many types of research. By determining in advance what develop- ments are likely to become important to one or more of its publics, an organization can plan to meet the challenge, rather than be taken by surprise. Much of the research underlying trend analysis and issue anticipation consists of monitoring public opinion and evaluating the consequences of attitude changes to the organization and its publics. Interactive media monitoring of blogs and social networks is increas- ingly being used for analysis.

Detection of emerging issues and surveillance of social and economic trends continue to be important PR functions. These skills cast PR people in the role of social scientist. Information and intelligent analy- sis of issues and trends can help restore public confi- dence. The challenge facing PR practitioners is to provide leadership in developing creative, pragmatic communication programs that provide their publics with complete, candid, factual and understandable information. Furthermore, PR workers must pioneer new skills to use in maintaining good relations with their publics.

cur-

International PR for Organizations and Firms The globalization of news media, global economic depen- dence among countries and the emergence of multi- national companies have helped expand this area of public relations. International PR is not limited to businesses, however, because many nonprofit organi- zations and associations are international in scope. PR firms often have offices abroad to represent both domestic and foreign clients. Corporate PR people abroad function just as their counterparts do at home, working with community leaders, govern- ment officials and media. They provide a crucial link between the branch organization and the home office.

International PR requires extra sensitivity to public opinion because practitioners deal with people whose languages, experiences and worldviews differ from their own. Areas of special concern are language (and knowledge of its nuances); customs

Chapter 1 / PR Roles and Responsibilities 11

General Business or Retail PR This area is somewhat broader than the term retail implies. It involves working with government regulatory bodies, employees, the community, competitors and, generally, the full com- plement of publics both inside and outside the company. Consumers represent an increasingly significant external public because they talk to politicians, blog, post opinions on interactive sites of all kinds and can arouse public opinion against a business. Product promotion—of a service or of goods—is another com-mon aspect of general business. For that reason, the busi- ness setting is a likely place to find the marketing/public relations, integrated marketing communications (IMC) or just integrated communication (IC) designation.

Government The four areas in this category all have the same focus, but their internal workings vary.

Federal, State or Local Government Employment Although the federal government is prohibited from labeling PR activities as such, it (like state and local gov- ernments) uses PR talent under a variety of titles: public information officer, public affairs officer or departmen- tal assistant or aide and, in some other countries, infor- mation minister for a government unit. Nongovernmental Organizations’ Government Relations The term public affairs is also used by institutions to designate the working area of staff members who deal with governments. Most institu- tions, whether commercial or nonprofit, have spe- cialists who handle their relations with relevant departments of government on federal, state and local levels. In this context, public affairs work con- sists of dealing with problems that come under the jurisdiction of elected or appointed public officials. Political Public Relations Political PR involves working with candidates for office—and often con- tinuing to work with them after their election to han- dle problems, strategies and activities such as speech writing or publicity. Many PR practitioners will not support a cause or person they cannot conscien- tiously endorse. Others see PR advice as being like legal counsel and offer their services to anyone who is willing to pay for them.

For government, public affairs and politics, a strong background in government and history is use- ful. Political PR, like other areas of public relations, can be high pressure, especially since the 1967 Freedom of Information Act has made govern- ment secrets more generally discoverable. In addition,

affecting attitudes toward media, products/services and symbols that stem from customs; and laws. The last area is particularly significant, because incompat- ibilities between one country’s laws and another’s may make harmonious relationships difficult.

Financial PR or Investor Relations This area includes such activities as preparing material for securities ana- lysts to study, developing an annual report that is acceptable to auditors and intelligible to stockholders and knowing when and to whom to issue a news release that could affect corporate stock values. What this means in the USA is complying with the regulations for corporate disclosure of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Filing of the appropriate forms is usually a function for the chief financial officer (CFO) and the in-house attorney, but writing the accompanying news release and distributing it is the role of investor relations (IR). IR is a rather hazardous occupation because a wrong move can have such grave repercussions. In turn, it is exciting, remunerative and challenging. A related function is writing, editing and sometimes also producing environmental reports, prepared by practi- tioners who must be given sensitive internal documents on compliance and ratings, as well as on customer experiences. These reports are very time-consuming and often need to be prepared in several languages, preferably all commanded by the writer because auto- matic translations are seldom sensitive to nuances.

Industry Public relations for industry also requires a good feel for political PR-public affairs because so much of industry is regulated by government. A per- son working for a company that handles government contracts must develop a high tolerance for bureau- cratic delay. One PR staffer for a defense contractor has said that the average time required to get an “original” release—one with all new material— cleared for dissemination to the news media is 23 days. Because much of the emphasis in industry relations is on internal PR, and in particular on labor relations, a strong background in the social sciences and business helps.

Despite the trend toward deregulation in the util- ities industry, PR practitioners still must work with both the government and consumers. They must also know financial PR and investor relations, because most utilities are publicly held. Finally, industry’s PR practitioners may be involved in product promo- tion, which requires an understanding and apprecia- tion of marketing and advertising activities.

12 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

restrictions on campaign financing mean that PR people must be even more judicious in collecting, reporting and spending money. State and federal laws must be obeyed to the letter. Furthermore, when information is stored electronically in any for- mat, it can be leaked and easily made available globally.

Lobbying Many lobbyists are not public relations specialists at all (many are former government offi- cials). But many public relations practitioners get involved in lobbying activities through their jobs with corporations or utilities. Some PR practitioners become professional lobbyists, at which point they generally represent a particular industry (such as oil and gas) or special interest (such as senior citizens or health care organizations). Lobbyists work closely

with the staffs of federal and/or state representatives and senators, who depend on them to explain the intricacies and implications of proposed legislation. Lobbyists draw on information furnished by their sponsors to try to persuade lawmakers to adopt a particular point of view. Health Care Health maintenance organizations (HMOs), hospitals, other health care agencies (such as nursing home corporations), pharmaceutical com- panies, medical clinics, health-science centers and nonprofit health agencies (for example, those com- bating heart disease, cancer and birth defects) all employ public relations personnel. The demand in this field is for PR practitioners who either know or have the educational background to learn about medical science to translate that information

Some people resist considering lobbying a part of public relations, but it is. Sometimes, it is difficult to decide what is lobbying and what is just public affairs practice. Public affairs is a public relations function that involves working with legislative and regulatory units of government or working for gov- ernment in conducting campaigns. When a public affairs person is working outside of government, that person is employed either for a company or nonprofit or for a firm that represents an organiza- tion as a client.

A good example of a public affairs campaign is the work that was done to get legislation that would permit airline pilots to carry guns in the cockpit , a post-9/11 issue. The PR firm that represents the Allied Pilots Association, Shirley and Banister Public Affairs, launched a campaign that involved talking to people in government who favored the idea to get them to introduce the legislation, a lobby- ing function. This is usually the way such campaigns begin, and the practice of pairing public affairs and lobbying is increasing. The reason is to find in government “ball carriers” who can move the idea forward, and then give them information that will support the proposed legislation. The idea has to be advanced to the public, too, through traditional and nontraditional media. Because the news media cover government, it is easier to get one of the supporters to lead off with the idea and get it covered by television and print news media.

The work only starts there. The staffs of government legislators and affected government regula- tory groups have to be educated too. The public affairs people work with the actual contact persons, lobbyists, to be sure the knowledge is there to support the idea and to counter arguments. In working for their clients, public affairs firms write op-ed pieces for newspapers, and these often stimulate let- ters to the editor, so the idea gets into public discourse .

Often, media outside of Washington, D.C., have to be approached with a local angle to get coverage; sometimes, the legislator’s home state is an opening , or the community where the client is based.

Efforts such as this involve research, especially polling. Such campaigns involve lining up specia- lists to add credibility to arguments. They may involve advertising. All messages from whatever source must support the goal. This is strategic public relations at the most fundamental level, and the mea- surable outcome is getting policy adopted and implemented.

Chapter 1 / PR Roles and Responsibilities 1 3

accurately for the organization’s publics. A heavy marketing component also exists in this area, which means that the PR person needs to have good adver- tising and public relations skills.

function of public relations is to achieve mutually beneficial relationships among all the publics that an institution has, by fostering harmonious interchanges among an institution’s various publics (including such groups as employees, consumers, suppliers and producers).Sports Before sports became big business, the term

public relations was sometimes used to describe a job that actually combined press agentry (planning activ- ities or staging events that attract attention) and publicity.

Today, however, business enterprises in profes- sional sports are of such size and scope that the PR title is legitimate. Professional teams have intricate relations with investors, their own players, competing teams and players, stadium owners, transportation and housing facilities (at home and on the road), commu- nity supporters, media (with regard both to publicity and to contractual obligations, as in live coverage) and other important publics. Most professional sports organizations employ full-time staff PR people, and they contract for special PR activities as well. Sports are also increasingly important to colleges and univer- sities. Sports information officers in these institutions handle relations with media and fans.

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The three traditional views of PR are each discernible in the history of public relations (see Chapter 2). Greyser’s manipulative model describes public relations during the era of communicating and initiating. His service model describes practices that predominated during the era of reacting and re- sponding. His transactional model describes public relations during the era of planning and presenting.

The current era of professionalism has seen prac- titioners beginning to control PR’s development, use and practice. This concept of the uniqueness of pub- lic relations is not new and was well expressed in the following words of the late Philip Lesly:

Leisure Time The leisure-time market includes all recreation-related industries. It covers real estate promotion for resort locations; public park develop- ment; resorts and hotels; travel agencies; airlines and other mass transportation systems; sports, hobbies and crafts; and some educational, entertainment and cultural activities. The focus of PR activity in this market is promotion, and the only real hazard is the somewhat erratic international economy. Crea- tive and inventive public relations generalists can function here quite comfortably.

Public relations people have the role of being always in the middle— pivoted between their clients/employers and their publics. ... This role “in the middle ” does not apply to any other group that deals with the cli- mate of attitudes. Experts in other fields—journalists, sociologists, psychologists, politicians, etc.—are oriented in the direction of their specialties } 2

Text not available due to copyright restrictionsThe Function of Public Relations in Business and Society

Another way of talking about the different approaches to PR is from the standpoint of practi- tioner self-description.

Traditionally, three functions have been ascribed to public relations. According to one point of view, public relations serves to control publics, by directing what people think or do to satisfy the needs or desires of an institution. According to a second point of view, PR’s function is to respond to publics— reacting to developments, problems or the initiatives of others. According to a third point of view, the

Text not available due to copyright restrictions Self-described roles,

largely the conceptual work of Glen M. Broom and George D. Smith,15 include expert prescriber, an authoritarian and prescriptive model; communica- tion technician, a supportive, skills-oriented model;

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Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins14

communication facilitator, a liaison model; problem- solving process facilitator, a confrontational model; and acceptant legitimizer, a yes-person model. Acharya examined these descriptions in terms of “perceived environmental uncertainty” for the prac- titioner and concluded that a public relations prac- titioner (as an individual) may play a number of these roles, depending on the environment in which he or she functions in any given case.

Actually, these self-described roles may be tele- scoped into only two: manager (who supervises tech- nical staff and participates in planning and policy making as counsel to management) and technician (who performs the skills jobs that PR demands).

change might be among the most significant contri- butions a practitioner could make. In any case, Ryan suggests that “public relations persons would do well to seek out participative environments and to avoid authoritative environments.

Although most public relations practitioners accept the idea of there being distinct technician and manager roles due to the variety of activities that public relations incorporates, in reality public relations practitioners juggle the two roles most of the time. The delineation might best be used to describe which role occupies most of the practi- tioner’s time.

»19

Typologies Aside These typologies are very useful; however, they often do not grasp the full range of factors affecting public relations practice. It makes a great deal of difference, for example, who is actually doing the PR. In many cases, public relations functions have been delegated to people from other fields: lawyers without any back- ground in public relations or even communications, former media personnel who have been on the receiv- ing end of public relations material but have no theo- retical background and/or management-trained executives whose business school education did not include any courses in public relations or marketing experts who have no knowledge of the overall com- munications components. If management doesn’t know what the public relations function should be— and many do not—the function becomes what the person doing the job knows how to do best In other words, the corporate communications environment, the education of the individuals doing the job, the type of organization and the culture in which they function all significandy affect what actually happens under the name of public relations.

Internationally, much of what is called public rela- tions really isn’t. Often, it is publicity, promotion or press agentry—all technical activities often included in public relations efforts. In some nations, you’ll find something called “developmental public rela- tions,” and this is usually government-generated information or campaigns designed to get citizen compliance with or without prior consultation about the goals or objectives. The Stockholm Accords, mentioned earlier, are an effort to neutral- ize this tendency to give real public relations and communication management more traction. A com- mon tool found in the USA as well as abroad is what

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If the roles really are more diverse, as the earlier descriptive work suggests, the particular roles chosen may depend on the degree of encouragement or discouragement for individual initiative present in the public relations practitioner’s own environment.

Acharya’s work describes practitioner behavior primarily in terms of the external environment of public opinion, but internal environments (such as open or closed communication systems) also can affect practitioner behavior. In fact, some research indicates that PR practitioners who work in partici- pative environments (where employees make job- related suggestions and generally take a more active role in determining their work environment) see themselves as less constrained than those who work in authoritarian environments (where employee input is strongly discouraged). It may be that the self-described “technician” doesn’t have the option of being a manager because of authoritarian top management and a closed communication environ- ment. Michael Ryan, who has investigated participa- tive versus authoritative environments, observes:

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Although Ryan recognizes that the task of trans- forming an organization from authoritative to partic- ipative might not be included in a PR person’s job description, he notes that accomplishing such a

Chapter 1 / PR Roles and Responsibilities 1 5

James E. Grunig has called “asymmetrical public relations practice,” which means that feedback is used only to find out the best ways to persuade peo- ple and get compliance. Business firms in highly competitive markets use this. Internationally, compa- nies may change products to meet consumer tastes and desires, evidence of the two-way symmetrical model of PR.

Grunig holds up a two-way symmetrical model as the ideal because it involves negotiation with an organization’s various publics to arrive at some mutually acceptable and beneficial policies and ways of doing business. One fortunate outcome of the instant international communication on the Internet is the shift in a balance of power to those outside the organization. All organizations have had to deal with information on the Internet that has created diffi- culty, even a crisis. In some countries, the reaction is not to improve communication, but to attempt to block various sites on the Internet.

Countries attempting to use the two-way symmet- ric model for best practices often find culture gets in the way of equalizing relationships. The two-way concept involves developing mutual understandings so that even when a public may not agree with man- agement, at least there is an understanding of why management is saying or doing what it is. This can occur only if the public affected appreciates manage- ment’s position, and if the culture is not too hierar- chical to permit such practice.

add new contacts and develop new skills. You will also be trying to find balance to protect your health and your personal relationships. Both men and women face these issues, but for women, expectations of their role in their families often causes additional stress. Some women have gone into business for them- selves in an effort to have more control over their time. Others have used an integrative approach to incorpo- rate the various components into their lifestyle.

The rewards, though, are that you will always be learning, are not likely to be bored, and will be con- stantly challenged to higher levels of professionalism and expertise. Another reward is the contribution of public relations to commerce, public policy and discourse.

The Value of Public Relations The lack of consistency in PR practice is due to its rapid growth and its need to develop within the cul- tural, religious, socioeconomic and political context in which it is being practiced. The reason for its growth globally, though, is because it does have value to governments, commercial entities and non- profit organizations.

Public relations can represent the needs, interests and desires of the organization’s various publics/ stakeholders to management and then back from management to them, explaining management’s perspectives. It opens a dialogue between an orga- nization and the publics it affects.

The dialogue can encourage mutual adjust- ments between an organization and the society it serves. Public relations focuses on society in the broadest sense and should work in the greater interest of society, rather than the narrow interests of the organizations it serves. In working toward the best interest of society, public relations has the opportunity to improve cooperation of an organization with its publics and perhaps avoid any arbitrary or coercive action on the part of government PR provides useful information to people about various aspects of their fives. Although PR people cannot be a conscience to an organization whose leadership has none, their role is to raise issues and concerns and remind man- agement of ethical responsibilities.

Realities of Working in PR You will be called on to master new technology immediately and craft creative uses for it.

You will be expected to have a comprehensive knowledge of stakeholders, their expectations and their values, and how best to reach them with effective communication. You will have to know who the “influentials” are in every area—social, political and economic. You will facing an ever-shifting level of “trust” among publics and exposure to more confron- tational and highly propagandized criticism. You will have to offer proof that your efforts achieved desig- nated goals, and be prepared to defend areas in which you have failed. This is not to advise against risk-taking. There is something to be said in favor of “No risk, no gain,” but be prepared to defend your decisions.

You will have to deal with attempting to find bal- ance in your workload itself to do some of the “downtime” required to gather more information,

16 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

U.S. ethics are anything but globally universal, so it is easy to run into trouble practicing public rela- tions abroad where ethical standards and practices are different. The opening of China to international public relations firms, U.S. professors teaching public relations in Chinese universities and increased flow of public relations material into China due to improvement in trade relations have exposed West- ern PR practitioners to something called guanxi.

Like many words from other languages, this word has no English equivalent, although networking is frequently used. It isn’t networking as the term is used in the USA. It isn’t even social networking, as most Westerners would understand it. Nor is it just a special interpersonal connection that Ameri- cans would equate with being “well connected” or having “strong connections” within an organization. The Chinese who attempt to explain it to Westerners say it means a personal relationship with some- one in power who can not only pave the way for what a PR person (or any other) wants to happen but who can actually get it accomplished by that person’s power, status and access. Reciprocity is involved. But this is different from a Western understanding of “doing a favor” and “expecting a favor,” often expressed by “Okay, you owe me one” when someone accomplishes something for another. It’s also more than pulling strings, a term used to mean that you got something to happen because of a person in power, but that is close. Although reciprocity is usually expected in any of these Western contexts, in guanxi, it means the return has to be greater than the deed.

Guanxi is common not just in China, but in many places where a majority or a significant financial component of the population is Chinese. The practice comes from Confucian principles, so it is culture-bound. The Chinese are likely to believe that their Confucian values are superior to Western values. In turn, many Westerners exposed to guanxi often worry about what seems to them to be eth- ical issues, because this is not what they would consider to be a “straightforward” transaction. To them, it appears almost like unethical influence peddling.

PR helps management formulate, advocate and teach objectives that are more sound. The principles of public relations reflect the basic cooperative natures of people, and thus, PR peo- ple earn their reputation as problem solvers. Being socially responsible means upholding these obligations.

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Not only does such behavior justify public pres- sure for government intervention as the only way to achieve needed changes— just what business does not want—but it also undermines a company’s credibil- ity. First, the behavior is reactive, as the late William A. Durbin, former chairman of Hill & Knowlton, pointed out. Second, it is defensive, suggesting that there is a fundamental conflict between public wel- fare and industry. Third, the posture business takes in explaining how it is a victim of circumstances evi- dences a preference for quantification (as in talking about “nonproductive dollars”) when the public is focused on something qualitative like “clean air.” Fourth, the pattern of response concentrates on the means and ignores the end—an end that business might actually support, like clean air.21

PR as Counsel for Social Responsibility Management must be responsible and responsive to its publics; otherwise, it will have to combat a hostile environment. Unfortunately, the pattern of action has often been just the opposite,

Text not available due to copyright restrictions

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Chapter 1 / PR Roles and Responsibilities 1 7

All large institutions, not only businesses, are challenged these days: governments, schools and col- leges, professional sports, religious institutions, health care organizations, fundraising groups and mediated news media. One major source of chal- lenges is information on the Internet A study by the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller of 158 corporate messages by 16 Financial Times Global Companies showed a 48 percent gap between what messages corporations present with what bloggers convey. Furthermore, news releases are being re- printed extensively and everywhere, so any effort to control the audience for them is lost.22

With the prevalence of such crises in public confi- dence, the role of the PR practitioner becomes critical. Probably the biggest obstacles to “ideal” public relations, as media scholars David Clark and William Blankenburg observe, are economics and human nature:

Many examples of the problems of accountability can be found. How can a profit-and-loss statement be made to reveal on the credit ledger the good a company does when its personnel advise minority businesspeople struggling to succeed in a ghetto? How can the installa- tion of pollution control devices at a factory be calcu- lated as a positive accomplishment, rather than as a drag on productivity? How can the expense of hiring high school dropouts and putting them through company- financed training programs be manifested as a credit rather than as a debit? Conversely, how can the “bad” a company does (by polluting, using discriminatory hir- ing practices and the like) be measured and reflected as a negative factor in the company’s performance? The “going green” movement to protect the global environ- ment that started in the 1990s became a popular mantra in the 2009-2010 era, until economic issues produced a sizeable share of critics about increased costs and loss of productivity.

Despite these problems, social responsibility is widely recognized today as an essential part of doing business in the USA and globally. Note the responsibility emphasis in the Accords. The interna- tional agreement also includes an emphasis that pub- lic relations has had to expand its role as (1) a problem finder and problem solver or preventer and (2) an inter- preter—a communication link. Let’s consider these two requirements individually.

The plain fact isthat managers are hired to make money for owners, and that a conscience can cost money. In the long run, it is money well spent, but many stockholders and managers fix their vision on the short run. Then, too, an abrupt change in corporate policy amounts to a public confession of past misbehavior—or so it seems to many executives. The natural temptation is to play up the good, and to let it go at that.

PR as Problem Finder, Solver and Preventer PR people have to be problem finders and solvers and preferably, problem preventers. Such work involves identifying issues and understanding what images are projected and how these are interpreted by global publics.

Now, in this 21st Century, words from as long ago as 1965 by the late PR practitioner Philip Lesfy remain valid.

Unfortunately, this continues, but the concept of social responsibility and transparency are building. A start in this direction began in the 1970s when a whole “new math” entered the corporate structure. Executives committed to being responsive and respon- sible attempted to explain social costs to chief financial officers, securities analysts and stockholders. The Wall Street Journal called it “the Arithmetic of Quality”:

Text not available due to copyright restrictions These most “intangible, immeasurable,

and unpredictable of all elements affecting business problems” that Lesly noted (that may also apply to large nonprofit institutions) were:

The social critics of business are making headway. Increasingly, corporations are being held to account not just for their profitability but also for what they do about an endless agenda of social problems. For business execu- tives, it'sa whole new ball game. Now they’re struggling to come up with a new way to keep score.24 1. The main problem in production is no longer

how to increase the efficiency of factories and plants, but how to deal with the attitudes of peo- ple whose jobs will be changed or eliminated by the introduction of more efficient methods.

2. The principal problem of growth through innovation is not how to organize and admin- ister development programs, but how to deal

The first round of downsizing and restructuring began in the 1980s, continued into the 21st Century and was stepped up by the major recession in 2008 that began in the USA and spread globally. The job of practicing social responsibility became increas- ingly more difficult.

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Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins18

with the reactions to the product of intended customers and dealers.

3. The personnel problem is not how to project a firm’s staff needs and standards, but how to per- suade the best people to work for the company— and then to stay and do their best work.

4. The financing problem is not how to plan for the company’s funding, but how to deal with the attitudes of investors.

5. The problem in advertising is not how to ana- lyze in minute detail the media, timing and costs, but how to reach the minds and hearts of the audience.

6. The problem of business acceptance is no longer how to demonstrate that an institution is operat- ing in the public interest, but how to get people to understand that its array of activities works better when it has a minimum of restraints.

communication fink between an organization and its publics. Lesly added,

Text not available due to copyright restrictions

In 1972, David Finn, cofounder of the PR firm of Ruder & Finn, wrote:

Twenty years ago public relations had its eye on the social sciences, with the full expectation that new dis- coveries would soon be made which would elevate the art of mass communications into a responsible profes- sion. Ten years ago some of us thought computer tech- nology was going to do the trick and the phrase “opinion management ” emerged as a possible successor to the long-abandoned “engineering of consent. ” As things turned out, it is not the technique of public rela- tions which has changed so much as the subject matter with which we are concerned.

Each problem Lesly isolated suggests a need for awareness of and sensitivity to what is going on in the minds of publics that now are global. No longer primarily a communicator, today’s PR practitioner tries to prevent crises and, once they occur, tries to keep them from getting out of hand. The measure of performance is not only how effectively the client’s message gets across but also whether a flare-up that might injure a client’s business can be avoided. Often, these flare-ups are electronic, instant and global. One major obligation is to help clients conduct their busi- nesses in a way that responds to the new demands made by concerned scientists, environmentalists, con- sumerists, minority leaders, employees and under- privileged segments of the community.

The most valuable type of public relations activity involves anticipating problems, planning to prevent problems or at least trying to solve them while they are still small.

Emphasizing PR’s role as a communication link, Finn focused on four developments that he held to be true of the job: (1) resolving conflicts may require modifying many opinions, including those held by the public relations consultant and the client; (2) pat- terns of communication in the future may revolve increasingly around smaller groups; (3) the random benefits of public relations activities not directly tied to corporate interests will increase; and (4) new methods of research now being developed will be especially relevant to situations where opinions change rapidly.28

His words were prophetic of the instant global communication system in which PR practitioners and communication managers now work.

PR as Interpreter and Communication Link Philip Lesly observed that institutions must function in a human cli- mate and thoughtful managers recognize that they don’t have the expertise to deal with this element unaided. As human patterns become more complicated, they demand greater expertise and experience. Conse- quently, Lesly said, “Communications sense and skills, which have been vital and have always been scarce, are becoming more vital and scarcer still.”

This is where the PR practitioner comes in, of course. He or she must act as an interpreter or

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In other words, PR cannot fabricate a corporate image; it must start with reality and seek to match the image to the truth. Many people wrongly assume that public relations is preoccupied with image-making in the sense of creating a false

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Chapter 1 / PR Roles and Responsibilities 1 9

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson 'toj ‘miiD WE

few 0C>, AND NJJNfi T CJO Tut BtSY ic JOB WSStBlE . I

f&L

Although humorous, the cartoon makes the point that many people think of PR as spin. Public relations professional Thomas J. Madden called his 1997 book Spin Man, and Larry Tye named his 1998 biography of Edward L. Bemays The Father of Spin. In today’s world of pervasive media, spinning is likely to bring counter information and undesired publicity. CALVIN AND HOBBES © Watterson. Reprinted with permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All rights reserved.

front or cover-up. Unfortunately, this misperception of public relations is reinforced by periodic reports of just such behavior on the part of individuals identi- fied as public relations specialists. For example, the term spin doctor, which suggests media manipulation through “doctored” (that is, deceptive) accounts or interpretations of events, was introduced in the late 1980s and gained currency in the 1990s.30

3. What tactics, techniques and roles are suggested by PR’s various specialties?

4. What field of public relations interests you most? Why?

Points to Remember The practice of PR is now global, but some basic principles apply to it regardless of the culture and the geopolitical area where it is practiced. At least a decade ago, 70 countries formed a Global Alliance for Public Relations and Commu- nication Management to examine how public rela- tions is practiced in different parts of the world and how practitioners can share information and learn from each other. The outcome is something called “The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management Stockholm Accords Analysis.” The six major points of the Stockholm Accords are agreement on the role of public relations in organi- zational sustainability, governance at the highest level of organizational responsibility for two-way strategic communication, practice of public rela- tions as a management function, oversight of orga- nizational internal communications policies and action, oversight of organizational external policies and action and coordination of internal and external communication.

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What public relations and communicator man- agers today know is that what is really going on within an organization is likely to go global in sec- onds. If an organization is doing its best to be responsible to all of its stakeholders, the message you need to be prepared for is one that not only goes global, but becomes viral, is a misunderstanding or misrepresentation, intentional or not, about an organization’s irresponsibility from a real or dis- guised source that may not be discovered quickly. Your best allies are electronic friends who will help you regain credibility.

Discussion Questions 1. Why is public relations a management function?

What makes it strategic? 2. How will the Stockholm Accords help

strengthen and standardize PR practice around the world?

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20 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

The outcome of implementing the Stockholm Accords—which has already been signed by profes- sional associations on each continent is to standard- ize the practice of public relations, to a large extent, and to lead to a standardization of educational curricula around the world. The result of implementing the Accords would improve the movement of public relations beyond professionalism to meeting the criteria for a profession. Because a PR person has only credibility to offer, he or she is only as good as his or her deserved reputation. The organization’s credibility is always at stake, too, hence the term reputation management. PR involves responsibility and responsiveness in policy and information to the best interests of the organization and its publics. Demonstrating an active social conscience is the best PR. Whatever the title for the public relations or com- munications management role, whether it be rep- utation management or relationship management, it is a strategic management function. The public relations function has an impact on the organization’s policy. The term public affairs is used by government gen- erally to represent the public relations function, but other organizations use this term for commu- nication managers who work with government at all levels. PR practitioner roles include being a staff mem- ber in a variety of institutional settings, being an agency or firm employee or being an independent PR practitioner. Public relations lacks the three major ingredients that qualify a field of activity as a profession: body of knowledge, standard educational curriculum and control over entry and exit. Specific areas of PR specialization include non- profit organizations, educational institutions, fundraising or donor relations, research, interna- tional, investor relations, industry, general busi- ness, government, health care, sports and leisure time.

The three traditional interpretations of the func- tion of public relations—controlling publics, responding to publics and achieving mutually beneficial relationships among all publics—corre- spond to the manipulative, service and transac- tional models of PR. The Internet has shifted the balance of power between organizations and their publics/stake- holders to almost assure symmetric two-way communication. Various typologies attempt to describe what pub- lic relations people do. However, who is doing the job, in what kind of communications environ- ment, in what type of organization and in what culture all determine what is being done in the name of public relations. PR offers at least eight measurable values to soci- ety and the institutions it serves, most of them centering on PR’s role in working out institu- tional and social relationships. Social responsibility is considered an essential “cost” of doing business, and all organizations are being pushed by the demand for transparency. PR people have to be interpreters, functioning as a communication link between an institution and all of its publics. Many people wrongly assume that public relations means image-making in the sense of creating a false front, cover-up or “spinning” facts.

Related Websites to Review Professional associations:

Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communica- tion Management

http://www.globalalhancepr.org Public Relations Society of America

http://www.prsa.org International Public Relations Association

http://www.ipra.org International Association of Business Communicators

http://www.iabc.com National Investor Relations Institute

http://www.niri.org

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapterfs). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Chapter 1 / PR Roles and Responsibilities 21

Sources for information about PR: Institute for Public Relations

http://www.instituteforpr.com PR Newswire

http://www.prnewswire.com PR Museum

http://www.prmuseum.com About Public Relations

http://advertising.about.com/od/ publicrelationsresources/

Digital Media sites: EC=MC (Every Company Is a Media Company )

http://everycompanyisamediacompany.com Mashable

http://mashable.com PaidContent

http://paidcontent.org ReadWriteWeb

http://readwriteweb.com Social Media Today

http://socialmediatoday.com

To appreciate that public relations in some form has been a part of societies throughout the history of humankind. To recognize how public relations practice has influenced how society has evolved throughout history. To understand the critical importance of public relations in a free and democratic society. To develop a sensitivity about why public relations evolved, not just in business, but also in government and in a wide range of nongovernmental organizations. To create a heightened awareness of how public relations has matured as a professional occupation. To understand how communication technology is changing the contemporary practice of public relations.

PR’s Origins and Evolution

ublic relations may have many names, such as integrated communication, corporate communication and strate-

gic communication. However, some argue that not all communicators who

use public relations tactics and techniques are relations practitioners.” They argue, and rightly so, that using “public relations” in a title should be reserved only for management positions that involve strategic planning and communicating. And because public relations is more a profession than just an occupation, only professionals should hold these management positions.

But because this profession continues to have difficulty defining itself, it should be no surprise that historians and practitioners disagree about where and when public relations started and how it got its name. Some historians credit Thomas Jefferson with first combining the words public and relations into public relations in 1807. Others say that the term was coined by lawyer Dorman Eaton in an address to the Yale graduating class of 1882. Regardless, public relations was not used in its modem sense until 1897, when it appeared in the Association of American Railroads’ Yearbook of Railway Literature.3 The widespread recognition of the term can be credited to Edward L. Bernays, whom Irwin Ross calls “the first and doubtless the leading ideologue of public relations.”4

P “It’s now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury.” “public —Jo Moore,1 former Labour Party media adviser to

Britain’s transport secretary, in an email to colleagues an hour after the first hijacked airplane crashed into the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001

24 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

Bernays was the first to call his service “public relations counsel,” which he did in 1921. Two years later, he wrote the first book on the subject, Crystallizing Public Opinion,5 and taught the first college course on PR at New York University. Thus, it was at about the turn of the 20th Century that PR came into being as a term, as an occupation and as an academic discipline.

Like his uncle Sigmund Freud, Bernays devoted his career to the study of the human mind. His specialty was mass psychology—how the opinions of large numbers of people can be influenced effectively and honorably. When he arrived on the scene, public opinion was considered the province of philosophy. Sociology was in its infancy, and Walter Lippmann had just begun to define what Bernays called “the American tribal consciousness.” Bemays’s approach to psychology is exemplified in the advice he gave the Procter & Gamble Company when it came to him with a problem: a boycott of its products by black people. Bernays advised Procter & Gamble to eliminate its racist advertising campaign, to hire blacks in white-collar jobs and to invite black people to open-house gatherings at the plant.

The Bernays style was often subde. For example, he helped the Beech-Nut Packing Company sell bacon not by promoting bacon itself, but by promoting what all America could respond to—a nutritious breakfast. In 1918, Bernays even changed the course of history by convincing Tomas Masaryk, the founder of Czechoslovakia, to delay the announcement of that country’s independence by a day in order to get better press coverage.

Bernays, who died in 1995 at the age of 103, adamandy believed that public relations is more than mere press agentry. He was not, however, above staging events. In 1924, he helped President Coolidge counteract his aloof image by staging a White House breakfast, to which A1 Jolson and several other movie stars were invited. In 1929, he publicized the 50th anniversary of the electric light

bulb by having Thomas Edison reenact its discovery in the presence of President Hoover.

On the other hand, Bernays turned down an appeal through an intermediary to provide PR assistance to Adolf Hider in 1933, just before Hider came to power. A correspondent for the Hearst newspapers told Bernays, however, that—during an interview with Joseph Goebbels, Hider’s minister of propaganda, some years later—he saw Bemays’s 1923 book, Crystallizing Public Opinion, on Goebbels’s desk.6

Seeking the PR "Source Spring"

For all his influence on the field of public relations, Bernays is not its “founder.” In fact, some authori- ties say Bernays learned public relations while serving on George Creel’s Committee on Public Information, which was dedicated to gaining popu- lar support for the U.S. war effort during World War I.

Public relations probably has no single founder, but many public relations practitioners in the USA see Ivy Lee as the first practitioner of a modern-style public relations practice. Most of Lee’s early efforts were stricdy publicity, but later, he and others work- ing in this early era were called for some “media relations” assistance when a crisis occurred. More strategic planning and counsel developed in the Bernays’s era.

Without a doubt, public relations developed faster in the USA than in other countries.7 Historian Alan R. Raucher attributes this to the nation’s social, political, cultural and economic climate, as well as to the power of its media to render all large public institutions vulnerable to public opinion.8 Public relations practice also has become an important ser- vice globally, as other nations have adopted or adapted U.S. practices and have developed their own versions of the practice.

Public relations as a concept has no central, iden- tifying founder, national origin or founding date because it focuses on efforts to influence not only opinions but behavior. This very element has created the greatest criticism of public relations. Historians who view public relations as a significant positive influence regard it as a broker for public support of

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 25

ideas, institutions and people. Others, however, con- tend that this role entails the sacrifice of individual freedom, which is usurped by majority decision, that is, “the tyranny of the majority.” Of course, the same trade-off is central to the nature of democracy itself; but this does not dispose of the problem that public relations and attempts to influence public opinion can be misused (see Chapter 6).

between the 4th Century B.C. and the establishment of the Byzantine Empire in the 6th Century A.D., the beginning of the Dark Ages.9

Lustig cites as an example Philip II of Macedonia. By 338 B.C., Philip had subjugated all the city-states of the Hellenic peninsula under his dominion. Gold and ivory statues of Philip adorned temples along with those of the gods. Philip was thus a good role model for his son, Alexander the Great. In the 13 years of Alexander’s reign and conquests (336-323 B.C.), he managed to erect idealized images of him- self across Africa, Asia Minor and India. According to Lustig, these image-making lessons were not lost on the first Roman emperor, Augustus.

All Roman emperors, from Augustus on, made use of the ultimate promotion campaign: They pro- claimed themselves gods and required the people to worship them.10 Augustus also had Virgil’s Aeneid published for propaganda purposes. This epic poem glorified the origin of the Roman people and, by implication, the house of Caesar.

PR Functions Throughout History Because the effort to persuade underlies all public relations activity, we can say that the general endeavor of public relations is as old as civilization itself. For society to exist, people must achieve some minimum level of agreement, and this agreement is usually reached through interpersonal and group communication. But reaching agreement often requires more than the simple act of sharing infor- mation; it demands a strong element of persuasion on the part of all parties involved in the decision- making process. Today, persuasion is still the driving force of public relations, and many of the tactics that modem PR people use to persuade have been used by those having power and those seeking power and influence in society for thousands of years.

Monuments and other art forms of the ancient world reflect early efforts at persuasion. Pyramids, statues, temples, tombs, paintings and early forms of writing announce the divinity of mlers, whose power derived from the religious convictions of the public. Ancient art and literature also celebrated the heroic deeds of leaders and rulers, who were consid- ered gods or godlike. Speeches by the powerful or those seeking power used what could be called insti- tutionalized rhetoric (artificial or inflated language) as a principal device for persuasion.

Looking at some of the early techniques and tools used in persuasion can help put today’s PR activities in perspective. Certainly, such an overview will reveal that, in the process of its development, PR has amalgamated various persuasive techniques that have proved their utility and effectiveness through the centuries.

As Theodore Lustig, a retired professor and for- mer Sun Chemical Corporation communications manager, points out:

PR Uses and Strategies Throughout History Throughout history, PR has been used to promote wars, to lobby for political causes, to support political parties, to promote religions, to sell products, to raise money and to publicize events and people. Indeed, most of the uses modern society has found for public relations are not new, and modem PR practitioners have learned a lot by studying the strategies employed by earlier experts.

In 1095, Pope Urban II promoted war against the Muslim caliphate to the east. He sent word through his information network—cardinals, archbishops, bishops and parish priests—that to fight in this holy war was to serve God and to earn forgiveness of sins.

It also gave Christians a once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit the holy shrines. The response was over- whelming, even though the Cmsades were not an unqualified success.

In 1215, Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canter- bury, used promotion tactics to lobby for a political cause. He mobilized an influential group of barons to stand up for their rights against King John, and these men ultimately forced the king to agree to the terms of the Magna Carta—a document that has been used as a political banner ever since by people combating political oppression and control. In the 15th Century, Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian statesman

The ancients had to make do with what they had. Two media, sculpture and coins, were particularly effective, and their use for political ends was refined

26 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

PR’s Early Best Sellers St. Paul wrote his Epistles to encourage membership growth and to boost the morale of the early Christian churches, which were spread about the Roman Empire. His PR campaign was a great suc- cess, and his slogans and words of encouragement are still quoted.

The Islamic prophet Mohammed would seclude himself briefly during certain periods of social con- flict or crisis and emerge with suras (verses) attributed to divine authorship that offered arguments pointing toward a particular resolution of the controversy at hand. These and various more meditative suras became the text of the collection known as the Koran.

Dante Alighieri wrote his Divine Comedy in Italian rather than in Latin to reach a wider local audience. In the book, Dante, a political activist, eloquently put forth his moral, political and intellectual views.

William Shakespeare’s historical plays contained poetry and ideas for the intellectuals and jokes and violence for the rest of the audience. But they also appealed to those in power by glorifying and reinterpreting the War of the Roses to justify the Tudor regime.

John Milton spent much of his career writing pamphlets for the Puritans. He also wrote for the Cromwell government. His greatest work, Paradise Lost, is a beautiful and influential statement of Puritan religious views.

and political philosopher, used his talents as a publicist to support a political party in power. His The Prince and Discourses are essentially treatises on how to govern people firmly and effectively. Machiavelli’s political psychology seems quite modem. His work for Cesare Borgia relied heavily on propaganda and attempts to influence public opinion—techniques that can be associated today with “issues management.”

PR-related activities have been used to promote religion throughout the ages. In 1622, Pope Gregory XV established the Congregatio de propaganda fide, the Congregation for Propagating the Faith, to handle missionary activity. From that institution we have retained the word propaganda. In 1351, John Wycliffe called for reform of the Catholic Church and, in par- ticular, for an English translation of the Bible to give the word of God more directly to more people. Wycliffe took his campaign to the people themselves, addressing them on the streets and in public places. Although it was forbidden, he and his followers also distributed books, tracts and broadsides.

Public relations scholars are aware, however, that a “ battle/kings” approach to the history of famous people and remarkable events cannot totally explain the evolution of public relations; insights into societal developments are required for such understanding.

PR Tactics Throughout History Various functions and uses of public relations have certainly existed throughout civilized history. The same cannot be said, however, for many of the tactics of 20th and 21st Century PR, because these often depend on relatively recent inventions. For example, much of modern PR relies on electronic or digital communication—the Internet, telephone, fax and satellites—and on electronic mass media—movies, radio and television. PR also has been radically affected by the rise of the computer, especially with the advent of the Internet and its new social media as well as internal intranets.

Of course, not all tactics of modem PR are of recent origin. PR still uses rhetoric, which is as old as human speech; symbols, which have been around as long as the human imagination; and slogans, which date back to people’s first consciousness of themselves as groups.

Before the Industrial Revolution, the most signif- icant period in the development of PR tactics was a 100-year period beginning about 1450. During that time the Renaissance reached its height, the Protes- tant Reformation began and the European rediscov- ery of the New World occurred. These events gave people a new view of themselves, of one another and of their environment.

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 27

To truly understand public relations practice, it is necessary to view the practice from a global per- spective. Many Americans think that professional public relations practice began in the USA, and it is true that the USA has contributed greatly to public relations theory and practice. However, other coun- tries and regions also have had a long tradition of public relations practice, although sometimes in different forms or with different tactics. Van Ruler and VerCiC report that European public relations has existed for more than a century, with the Krupp Company establishing a press relations depart- ment in 1870; the beginning of the practice in England was in the 1920s, and the first departments appeared in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 20th Century. The Dutch have the oldest public relations professional association in the world, established in 1946.1 Some Arab-Muslim public rela- tions scholars argue that Mohammed was the first public relations practitioner in their culture, although in the Arab world, public relations and advertising reportedly date back to the 1930s.2 Hung says that public relations in China started thousands of years ago.3 Anantachart says that in Thailand, the evolution of public relations began in 1283, when the king developed the first Thai alphabet and governed in a style in which public relations techniques were used.4 He established a two-way com- munication system with his people by setting up a big bell in front of his palace. Citizens could ring the bell, and the king would judge, help or otherwise solve people’s problems. Some of the tactics and techniques from around the world and throughout time might seem strange to today’s practitioners, but in many ways the goals and objectives of public relations have remained much the same.

1 Betteke van Ruler and Dejan Vercic, The Bled Manifesto (Ljubljana, Slovenia: Pristop Communications, 2002). 2Badran A . Badran, Judy VanSlyke Turk and Timothy N. Walters, “Transformations: Public Relations and the United Arab Emirates Come of Age, ” in The Global Public Relations Handbook: Theory, Research and Practice, ed. Krishnamerthy Sriramesh and Dejan Vercic (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates , Inc., 2003). 3Chun-ju Flora Hung , “Public Relations in China. ” Paper presented at the pre-conference workshop of the conference of the International Communication Association, Seoul, Korea, July 2002. 4Saravudh Anantachart, “Understanding Public Relations in Thailand: Its Development and Current Status.” Paper presented at the pre-conference workshop of the conference of the International Communication Association, Seoul, Korea, July 2002.

The period also marked the beginning of the age of mass media. In about 1450, Johann Gutenberg invented printing from movable type, and the press was bom. Few other inventions have had so pro- found an effect on human culture, at least until the birth of primitive forms of electronic communication at the end of the 19th Century, the birth of the Internet and the World Wide Web in the late 20th Century and the success of the new social media and such devices as “droid” smartphones in the 21st Century. Spinoffs of movable type in print- ing have been used by PR practitioners ever since in books, advertising posters, releases, party publications, newspapers, Web pages and blogs.

The Beginnings of PR in the USA, 1600-1799 As Figure 2.1 indicates, the USA has witnessed sev- eral periods or stages in the development of public relations.

During the early colonization of America, PR was used to sell real estate. The Virginia Company in 1620 issued a broadside in England offering 50 acres of free land to anyone who brought a new settler to America before 1625. In 1643, PR was used in the colonies to raise money. Harvard College solicited funds by issuing a public relations brochure titled “New England’s First Fruits.

handbills, publicity » n Another

28 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

Capsule History of PR in the United States 1600-1799In the USA the development of PR has gone through

five distinct stages: 1. Preliminary period—an era of development of

the channels of communication and exercise of PR tactics (publicity, promotion and press agentry)

2. Communicating/initiating—a time primarily of publicists, press agents, promoters and propagandists

3. Reacting/responding—a period of writers hired to be spokespeople for special interests

4. Planning/preventing—a maturing of PR as it began to be incorporated into the management function

5. Professionalism—an effort by PR practitioners to control PR’s development, use and practice on an international level

These stages of evolution are marked by particular periods in U.S. history, which fall into the following divisions:

Initial Colonization, American Revolution

1800-1899 Civil War, Western Expansion, Industrial Revolution

1900-1939 Progressive Era/Muckrakers, World War I, Roaring Twenties, Depression 1940-1979 World War II, Cold War of the 1950s, Consumer Movement

1980-Present Global Communication

college was the first to use a publicity release in the New World to publicize an event. King’s College (now Columbia University) sent an announcement of its 1758 commencement to various newspapers, where the item was printed as news.12 Even sports sponsorship is not new. The first recorded intercol- legiate competition was an 1852 rowing match between Harvard and Yale, sponsored by the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroads.

By the time of the American Revolution, substan- tial advances had been made in public relations uses and tactics. Although public relations as such did not exist in 1776, many of PR’s functions, uses and tac- tics were already well developed by that time. The patriots who promoted the American Revolution overlooked no opportunity to use PR tactics in their efforts to persuade—that is, to boost the war effort and to rally support for their new political plans. To this end they employed a wide variety of PR tools—newsletters, newspapers, heroes, slogans, symbols, rhetoric, organizations, press agentry and publicity—as well as rallies, parades, exhibitions, cel- ebrations, poetry, songs, cartoons, fireworks, effigies and even crude lantern slides.

American patriots made the most of heroes (George Washington, Ethan Allen), legends (Yankee Doodle, the Spirit of ’76), slogans (“Give me liberty or give me death!”), symbols (the Liberty Tree) and

rhetoric (the speeches of John Adams and the writ- ings of Thomas Jefferson, including the Declaration of Independence). They founded public-spirited organizations (the Sons of Liberty, the Committees of Correspondence). They grabbed every opportu- nity to interpret events in a light most favorable to their cause: A brawl on March 5, 1770, in which five unruly Bostonians were shot, was billed by the revo- lutionary press as the “Boston Massacre” and denounced as an atrocity to inflame passions against the British.

When there was no event to exploit, the patriots didn’t hesitate to create one. On December 16, 1773, a group of them put on war paint and feathers, boarded a British ship and tossed its cargo of tea leaves overboard. The Boston Tea Party, the main function of which was to attract attention, has been called an early example of American press agentry. Historian Richard Bissell states, “Of all the crazy hooligan stunts pulled off by the colonies against England, the Boston Tea Party was the wildest.

Following independence, another massive effort at persuasion was necessary to push for reform of the short-lived Articles of Confederation. The men who drafted the Constitution conducted an intense PR campaign to sell the document to their colleagues and to the American people. Their propaganda took the form of 85 letters written to newspapers.

»13

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 29

These letters, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madi- son and John Jay, became known as the Federalist Papers, and they did much to shape the political opi- nions of citizens of the young nation. The Bill of Rights, a propaganda piece supported by that spectac- ular campaigner Patrick Henry, guaranteed citizens numerous rights against the federal government, including freedom of the press. The resulting climate of free interchange encouraged the evolution of pub- lic relations into a fall-fledged practice. If the Bill of Rights, especially with the provisions of the First Amendment, had not been adopted, public relations would never have become what it is today.

showed a growing sophistication in its use. First, far greater use was made of the press—newspapers, pamphlets, fliers and the first official campaign press bureau—during that election year. The political cam- paign grew even more sophisticated during the 1896 race between Bryan and McKinley.16 Both parties established campaign headquarters and flooded the nation with propaganda. Campaign trains and public opinion polls were also used extensively.17

Politicians were not the only ones to sell their ideas through PR. Agitators of many persuasions dis- covered that publicity could help change the nation’s thinking. By relying mainly on appeals to public sen- timent, groups such as the antivivisectionists, the American Peace Party and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union met with varying degrees of suc- cess. Leaders of the women’s suffrage movement publicized their cause at the 1876 centennial celebra- tion in Philadelphia; on July 4, Elizabeth Cady Stan- ton, Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage staged a demonstration to dramatize that their rights as citizens had not yet been won.18

The most compelling protest movement of the 19th Century movement, which consisted of many allied organiza- tions. These organizations found that their cause was helped not only by news releases and press agentry stunts, but also by getting public figures and news- paper editors to endorse their efforts and ideas. Forming an editorial alliance with a mass medium extended the reach of their message and gave it pres- tige and credibility.

Harriet Beecher Stowe used the partisan press to publicize the antislavery cause. Her best known work, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, was first published in serial form in an abolitionist journal. When the novel appeared as a book in 1852, some 300,000 copies were sold above the Mason-Dixon fine, the cultural boundary between the northern and southern states.

The fund drive, a very successful PR practice first used to raise money for military purposes, came into existence during the Civil War. During that war, the Treasury Department put Jay Cooke, a banker, in charge of selling war bonds to the public. Not only did the bonds finance the army, but the mass sales effort also roused public opinion in support of the Union cause.19 Similar fundraising programs were later used to finance war efforts during World Wars I and II.

Communicating/Initiating: The Era of Press Agentry and Publicity, 1800-1899 Although PR tactics were initially used in the USA for political purposes, as the nation developed and the 19th Century progressed, all aspects of fife fell under the influence of two PR tools: press agentry and publicity.

the abolitionist or antislaverywas

Government and Activists In the 1830s, political sophistication got a boost from the PR innovations of Amos Kendall, the first person to function (although without the title) as a presiden- tial press secretary—to Andrew Jackson. Kendall, an ex-newspaper reporter, held the official position of fourth auditor of the treasury,14 but in fact he wrote speeches and pamphlets, prepared strategy, con- ducted polls, counseled the president on his public image, coordinated the efforts of the executive branch with other branches of government and with the public and constantly publicized Jackson in a favorable light.

PR techniques were also important in the heyday of the political machine. By the late 1850s, the Tammany Hall organization of New York was using interviews to gather information about the public mood. This marked the beginning of polling by special interest groups for strategic planning and publicity.15

Although public relations had always been employed in political campaigns in an effort to per- suade, the 1888 Harrison-Cleveland presidential race

30 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

learned that Knickerbocker had left a manuscript, which the hotel’s owner offered to sell to cover the cost of the unpaid bill. Later, the publishing house of Inskeep & Bradford announced in the same newspa- per that they were publishing the manuscript, titled Knickerbocker’s History of New York. The whole story was a hoax, a publicity campaign conducted by the book’s real author, Washington Irving.21

In the field of education, the value of PR was rec- ognized even before the Revolution. In the 19th Century, the trend continued. In 1899, Yale Univer- sity established a PR and alumni office, showing that even the most established institutions were ready to enlist the budding profession to help them create favorable public opinion. In 1900, Harvard Univer- sity hired the Publicity Bureau—the nation’s first PR firm, formed in Boston in 1900—but refused to pay the bureau’s fees after about 1902. Nevertheless, the bureau continued to service the client for the result- ing prestige.

National Development PR also was an important factor in the westward development of the USA. The Western frontier was sold like real estate by the forerunners of mod- ern PR practitioners, who made the most of legends and heroes. As early as 1784, for example, John Filson promoted land deals by making a legendary figure out of Daniel Boone, an unschooled, wandering hunter and trapper. Almost a century later, George Armstrong Custer was likewise made into a hero— partly to justify U.S. policy toward the Native Amer- icans, partly to promote the setding of the West and pardy to sell newspapers and dime novels.

In the 1840s, various publicists actively encour- aged interest in the West. Perhaps, the most effective publicist of Westward expansion was New York Tri- bune publisher Horace Greeley, whose editorial “Go West, Young Man, and Grow Up with the Country” changed the fives of many people and the demo- graphics of the entire nation.

But if the West was sold by PR techniques, it also was exploited by some of those same techniques. Press agent Matthew St. Clair Clarke brought Davy Crockett, the frontier hero, to the public’s attention in the 1830s and used Crockett’s glory to win politi- cal support away from Andrew Jackson. Two genera- tions later, the adventures of Western personalities such as Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock were blown out of all proportion (to the benefit of their promoters in the Eastern press) to give people a glamorous picture of the American frontier. Even oudaws like Jesse James became adept at using the press for glory—and to mislead the authorities.

Business and Industry The development of industry during the 1800s brought about the most significant changes in the history of PR. The technological advances of the Industrial Revolution changed and modernized the tac- tics and techniques of PR. Steam power and inventions such as the Linotype, a “hot metal” type fine-casting machine, made newspapers a truly democratic, nation- wide mass medium.

Although the early industrialists used advertising to sell their wares and services to a growing market, they were not very interested in the public or public relations. The prevailing attitude of the “robber bar- ons” of the latter half of the 19th Century was summed up by William Henry Vanderbilt, head of the New York Central Railroad: “The public be damned.

Entertainment and Culture The role of PR in the growth of America’s entertain- ment industry was substantial. In fact, the PR tactic of press agentry grew up with the entertainment business in the 19th Century, a flamboyant era of road shows and circuses. P. T. Barnum was one of many circus show people who employed press agentry.

Publicity stunts were even used occasionally to attract attention to books and their authors. For example, in 1809, the New York Evening Post ran a story about the mysterious disappearance of one Diedrich Knickerbocker from his residence in the Columbian Hotel. In follow-up stories, readers

»23 J. P. Morgan, another railroad tycoon, echoed this sentiment when he said, “I don’t owe the public anything.” During the years between the Civil War and the turn of the century, industrial profit and power controlled and reshaped American fife. Industrial magnates seemed answerable to no one and immune to pressure from government, labor or public opinion.

An example of the corporate attitude at that time was the behavior of steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie during the Homestead Strike of 1892. When labor problems in his steel plant erupted into violence, Carnegie retired to his lodge in Scotland, 35 miles

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 31

Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) The most famous and successful of 19th Century press agents was P. T. Barnum, who created, promoted and exploited the careers of many celebrities, including the midget General Tom Thumb, singer Jenny Lind and Chang and Eng, the original Siamese twins. Early in his career, in 1835, Barnum exhibited a black slave named Joice Heth, claiming that she had nursed George Washington 100 years before. Newspapers fell for the story, intrigued by its historical angle. Then, when public interest in Joice Heth began to die down, Barnum kept the story alive by writing letters to the editor under assumed names, debating her authenticity. Barnum didn’t care what the papers said, as long as he got space. When Heth died, an autopsy revealed her age to be about 80. With the fraud exposed, Barnum claimed that he also had been duped.1 Was this true? Why not? After all, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

The great circus showman was himself often the center of public attention, for which he credited his own press agent, Richard F. “Tody” Hamilton.2 However, the term press agent ms first formally used by another circus. In 1868, the roster of John Robinson’s Circus carried the name W. W. Duran with the title “press agent.”3

Barnum’s circus museum in Bridgeport, Conn., celebrated its centennial in 1993.4

Edward L. Bernays, Public Relations (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1952), pp. 38-39. 2Dexter W. Fellows and Andrew A. Freeman, This Way to the Big Show (New York: Viking Press, 1936) , p. 193. 3Will Irwin, “The Press Agent: His Rise and Decline,” Colliers, 48 (Dec. 2, 1911), pp. 24-25. 4Craig Wilson , “These Days Life Is but a Scheme,” USA Today (August 31 , 1993).

from the nearest railroad or telegraph. Carnegie wanted to be known as a cultured philanthropist, and he let the London press know that he remained aloof from the labor struggle only to protect his company from his own generosity. But profes- sionally, he had not amassed a fortune of $400 mil- lion by worrying about the working or living conditions of his poorly paid employees, and he was content to have his right-hand man, Henry Clay Frick, crush their strike and their union with the help of the state militia.24

Nonetheless, even in the 1800s, a few large cor- porations recognized that in the long run they would have to woo the public’s favor. In 1858, the Borden Company, a producer of dairy products, set a PR precedent by issuing a financial report to its stock- holders.25 In 1883, an even more important prece- dent was set by Theodore N. Vail, general manager of the American Bell Telephone Company. Vail wrote to the managers of local exchanges, urging them to reexamine the services they were offering and the prices they were charging.26 His letter is sig- nificant because it shows concern for the consumer

and an interest in improving relations between the telephone company and the public.

In 1877, Jay Gould opened a “literary bureau” for the Union Pacific Railroad, for the purpose of attracting immigrants to the West.27 In about 1888, the Mutual Life Insurance Company hired an out- side consultant, Charles J. Smith, to write press

^ Qreleases and articles to boost the company’s image. In 1889, the Westinghouse Corporation established, under the directorship of ex-newspaperman E. H. Heinrichs, what was essentially the first in-house publicity department in the USA.29

This was also the period when department stores first appeared in the USA. The originator of the con- cept, John Wanamaker, was also the best in the busi- ness at public relations. When his Philadelphia store opened in 1876, Wanamaker used publicity to gen- erate interest in the new idea of a store that covered a fall 2 acres. He gave visitors copies of a self-printed 16-page “souvenir booklet” that explained the store’s departments, hiring policies and dedication to cus- tomer service. Salespeople were instructed in how to capture quotes from visitors that could later be

32 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

incorporated into news releases.30 Wanamaker also founded the Farm Journal, which he published for years, and he began publishing the Ladies Home Jour- nal to sell ladies’ fashions.31 Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Lord & Taylor and Marshall Field’s quickly caught

and began publishing their own magazines and souvenir books.32

the press and public of the United States prompt and accurate information concerning subjects which it is of value and interest to the public to know about.”33

Lee’s career spans the earlier era of communicat- ing/initiating and the subsequent era of reacting/ responding (1900-1939). At the dawn of the 20th Century, PR’s incubation period had drawn to a close. America was now a powerful, industrialized nation with sophisticated mass media and a well- informed public. The time was right for a model of practice that would synthesize and coordinate the various talents—publicity, promotion, propaganda and press agentry—that had developed in tandem with the nation’s growth.

Press Agents and Publicists It has often been said that 20th Century public rela- tions primarily grew out of 19th-Century press agentry. In some ways, this is true. Certainly, many early PR practitioners got their start as press agents. Although few of these PR pioneers were as flamboy- ant as the great showman P. T. Bamum, many were publicity writers whose main target had always been the press. The greatest of the publicity consultants was Ivy Ledbetter Lee.

Press Agentry Press agentry really began in about 1830, with the birth of the penny press. When news- paper prices dropped to a penny each, circulation and readership boomed, but so did the price of news- paper advertising. To reach the huge new audience without paying for the opportunity, promoters and publicity people developed a talent for “making news.” The object was simply to break into print, often at the expense of truth or dignity. Press agents exploited “freaks” to publicize circuses, invented legends to promote politicians, told outrageous lies to gain attention and generally provided plenty of popular entertainment if not much real news.

The cardinal virtue of press agentry was its promptness. Indeed, it was often so prompt that its practitioners spent practically no time verifying the accuracy or news value of its content. But ultimately the effectiveness of a press release depended on its creator’s imagination, and imagination remains a necessary talent for effective PR today.

Publicity Many early publicists were no more care- ful with the facts than their press agent contemporar- ies; neither were many journalists of that day. Most publicists continually tried to “plant” stories in news- papers, hiding their sources. In that respect, Ivy Lee represented a new kind of publicist. Perhaps, the essential difference can be found in Lee’s “Declara- tion of Principles” (1906), in which he defined the important ideals of public relations, his new profes- sion: “Our plan is, frankly and openly ... to supply

Reacting/Responding: The Time of Reporters-in-Residence, 1900-1939 Public relations developed significantly in the first four decades of the 20th Century, as publicists became spokespersons for organizations. As the age of unchecked industrial growth ended, industry faced new challenges to its established way of doing busi- ness. The new century began with a cry of protest from the “muckrakers”—investigative journalists who exposed scandals associated with power capital- ism and government corruption. The term muck- raker is a metaphor taken from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. It was first used in its modern sense by Theodore Roosevelt, who applied it pejora- tively to journalists who attacked the New York Police Department in 1897, while he was commis- sioner. Later, as president, with a consumer protec- tion platform and a trust-busting program, Roosevelt came to appreciate the muckrakers.3

The Turn of the Century Perhaps, the first of the muckrakers was Joseph Pulit- zer, whose editorials supported labor in the Home- stead strike of 1892. “The public be informed,” his slogan for an earlier campaign in support of labor, parodied the contemptuous attitude of William H. Vanderbilt.35 But the great age of muckraking jour- nalism began in the 20th Century.36

Lincoln Steffens, staff writer for McClure’s maga- zine, wrote articles and books exposing corruption in municipal politics. Frank Norris, who covered the

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 33

Ivy Ledbetter Lee (1877-1934): “The Father of Public Relations” After graduating from Princeton, Ivy Lee became a reporter in New York City, but soon gave that up to become a political publicist. Then, in 1904, he and George F. Parker formed the nation’s third publicity bureau. By 1906, he was the most inspiring success in the young field of PR and found himself repre- senting George F. Baer and his associates (who were allied with the J. P. Morgan financial empire) in a public controversy over an anthracite coal strike. Lee tried a radical approach: Frankly announcing himself as a publicity consultant, he invited the press to ask questions, handed out news releases and presented his client as cooperative and communicative.

Lee’s “Declaration of Principles,” issued in 1906 to city editors all over the country, won respect for public relations (and didn’t hurt the Baer bunch either). That same year, Lee represented the Penn- sylvania Railroad when an accident occurred on the main line. Instead of hushing up the incident, Lee invited the press to come, at company expense, to the scene of the accident, where he made every effort to supply reporters with facts and to help photographers. As a result, the Pennsylvania Railroad and the railroad industry got their first favorable press coverage in years.2

Lee’s remarkable, straightforward style came from his frank admiration of industry and capitalism, and he made it his goal to get big business to communicate its story to the public. By the time he was 30, Lee had sired a profession, chiefly by introducing and promoting its first code of ethics.

Lee’s career continued to be successful, if not so influenced by high ideals. He began working for the Rockefeller family in 1913, when he presented the “facts” about a coal strike in Colorado that resulted in an incident known as the Ludlow Massacre. Lee later admitted that the “facts” he handed out about the bloody affair were the facts as management saw them, and that he had not checked them for accuracy.3

Lee’s many later clients included the American Russian Chamber of Commerce and the German Dye Trust, from whom he earned $25,000 a year and a sticky PR problem of his own—how to defend his work for a Nazi organization. He was also heavily criticized for his support of Stalin-era Soviet Russia and his encouragement of U.S.-Soviet ties.

Lee once wrote, “The relationship of a company to the people ... involves far more than saying—\t involves doing.” 4 Nevertheless, it is perhaps an example of Ivy Lee’s public relations talent that he is now remembered not so much for what he did at the height of his career as for what he said when he was still in his twenties.5

Trank Luther Mott, American Journalism (New York: Macmillan, 1950), pp. 179-180. 2lrwin Ross, The Image Merchants (Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1959), p. 31. 3lbid. 4lbid., p. 32. Tor a defense of Lee’s often-criticized international activities, see the letter to the editor of PR Review, 13(3) (Fall 1987), pp. 12-13, by James W. Lee, his son.

mainly of interviews with former Rockefeller employees, exposed the company’s corruption and its unfair competition with smaller companies. In 1906, Upton Sinclair described the unsavory condi- tions that existed in the meat-packing industry in his

Spanish-American War for McClure’s, took on the railroads and the wheat traders in his novels The Octopus (1901) and The Pit (1903). Ida Tarbell’s The History of the Standard Oil Company (1904), which began as a series for McClure’s in 1902 and consisted

34 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

novel The Jungle. These articles and books resulted in social legislation that remains the law of the land today.

Big business also was under fire from the government. President Theodore Roosevelt con- sidered it the federal government’s job to uphold the public interest in the battles that flared among management, labor and consumers. Using the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, he challenged big business—including U.S. Steel, Standard Oil and the Pennsylvania Railroad—to respond to popular displeasure.

An era of social consciousness was dawning. Proof that the former “public be damned ” attitude was giv- ing way came in 1899 with the founding of the first national consumer group, the National Consumers League (NCL), which was formed from state con- sumer leagues by Florence Kelley and Dr. John Gra- ham Brooks.37 The fledgling NCL supported the work of Harvey W. Wiley, a Department of Agricul- ture chemist who for more than 20 years had gath- ered information to prove the need for a federal food and drug law. The first Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906.

Industry had to respond. It could no longer afford simply to ignore the public and the press. Threaten- ing to withhold advertising from uncomplimentary media did not have the desired effect. No longer could the railroads placate the press by giving free passes to reporters. No longer would the public buy statements like that of coal industrialist George F. Baer, who in 1902 told labor to put its trust in “ the Christian men whom God in His infinite wisdom has given control of the property interests of the country.”38 When the coal industry came under fire again in 1906, the coal owners had learned their les- son. Instead of relying on puffery and rhetoric, they enlisted the talents of the young ex-newspaper reporter, Ivy Lee.

It is no coincidence that most of the first generation of public relations specialists came from newspapers. Newspaper advertising had long been the only way that many companies communicated with their markets. Newspapers also were the medium in which many companies were being attacked. And newspaper coverage had been the main goal of 19th Century press agents, whose leg- acy inspired the first publicity agencies of the 20th Century

The first publicity firm, the Publicity Bureau formed in Boston in 1900.39 The idea of publicity

caught on quickly, and soon several such firms— composed largely of ex-newspaper people—had appeared, including the firm of William Wolf Smith in Washington, D.C., which specialized in publicity aimed at influencing legislators.40 From a historical standpoint, however, the most important publicity bureau during this period was the one operated by George F. Parker and Ivy Lee. Although that company lasted only four years, it launched the career of Ivy Lee.

Before long, publicity had become a standard and necessary tool for many businesses, individuals and organizations. Big businesses especially, such as com- munication companies, railroads and the automobile industry, found that publicity agencies and in-house publicity bureaus improved their relations with both the public and the government. In 1904, two major universities—the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Wisconsin—set up publicity bureaus.41

Publicity also proved valuable for public service organizations. The Young Men’s Christian Associa- tion (YMCA) employed a full-time publicist to call attention to its fund drive in 1905.4 The National Tuberculosis Association started a publicity program in 1908, and the American Red Cross followed suit the same year.43 The U.S. Marine Corps established a publicity bureau in 1907 in Chicago.44 In 1909, the Trinity Episcopal Church in New York City hired Pendleton Dudley as a public relations counsel to help combat criticism of its ownership of slum tene- ments 45 Three years later, the Seventh-Day Advent- ist Church established a formal publicity bureau to answer complaints about its opposition to Sunday closing laws.46

Publicity in support of a product was used by National Cash Register founders John and Frank Patterson, who employed newsletters, brochures and flyers in the world’s first direct-mail campaign.

Many useful tactics and techniques were developed during this early period. One PR pioneer who contrib- uted a number of new ideas was Samuel Insull, public- ity expert for the Chicago Edison Company 47 Insull had a demonstration electric cottage constructed in 1902 to show how convenient the new technology was. In 1903, he communicated with the company’s customers via bill stuffers and a house publication that was distributed to the community. In 1909, Insull became the first person to make PR-related movies. (This was appropriate, because Thomas Edison him- self was one of the first movie tycoons.)

Larger organizations, such as the Ford Motor Company, helped broaden business’ interest in the

, was

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 35

public relations function. In 1908 Ford established a house publication, Ford Times?9 In 1912, the com- pany began using public opinion surveys for market research.50 And in 1914, Ford established the first corporate film department.51

The first formally designated press bureau in the federal government was founded in 1905 by the U.S. Forest Service.52 The aggressiveness of its promo- tions is said to have been one of the elements leading to the 1913 federal ban on hiring public relations people.53 However, Walter Lippmann’s concern over the infiltration of German propaganda into American newspapers in the years immediately pre- ceding World War I was another contributing factor, as was the growing resentment by newspaper repor- ters and editors of publicists.54

greatest example of the government’s salesmanship, however, was the Liberty Loan Drive, which financed the war.

The genius behind America’s wartime public rela- tions effort was George Creel, a former newspaper reporter whom President Wilson appointed as chair- man of the newly formed Committee on Public Information. The success of the Liberty Loan Drive and the effectiveness of U.S. wartime propa- ganda at home and abroad were both attributable to the Creel Committee.

The committee also created a legacy for the PR profession. Many members of the committee who learned their craft in wartime went on to practice it in peacetime. Included among these were Edward L. Bernays57 and Carl Byoir.58 As assistant chairman of the Creel Committee, Byoir publicized the draft and was in charge of distributing the Red White and Blue Textbooks, which described the goals of the war. He went on to become one of America’s most successful public relations practitioners.

Making the World Safe for Democracy By the time the USA entered World War I in 1917, the war had been going on for several years (since 1914), and PR had proven itself an effective weapon of persuasion for Europeans. The British, in particu- lar, directed a “hands across the sea” propaganda campaign at the U.S. government and people, urging them to join the fight. They publicized the Allies’ view of the Lusitania incident, for example, charac- terizing the Germans (whose submarine had sunk the ocean liner) as vicious “Huns.” When President Wil- son finally gave up his policy of peacemaking and neutrality, the USA entered the war with money, military might and a massive public relations effort. This PR effort was seen as essential to gain popular support in a country with many German immigrants and first generation German-Americans.

In selling the war as one destined “to make the world safe for democracy,” the U.S. government soli- cited cooperation from many sources. The govern- ment convinced AT&T that the government needed control of the phone company for the war effort.55 The press was persuaded to exercise self-censorship and to contribute free advertising space for the war effort.56 Academics served too. College professors acted as a force of Four-Minute Men, meaning that they were prepared to speak for that length of time on propaganda topics relating to the war. The world, not just the classroom, was their forum.

The government also solicited cooperation directly from the public: Herbert Hoover’s Food Administration persuaded American citizens to conserve food during this time of emergency. The

The Roaring Twenties Public relations as well as advertising grew in scope and in stature during the 1920s. Books and courses were offered on the subject, and social scientists began to take notice. Among them was Walter Lipp- mann, a former adviser to President Wilson, who expressed concern over the implications of public opinion molding. In Public Opinion (1922), he wrote that the public no longer formed its own opinions, particularly about government policy; instead, peo- ple’s opinions, like their knowledge, were fed to them by the media in the form of slogans and stereo- types.59 He pointed out, however, that opinion molding is a two-way street. Society contains “innu- merable large and small corporations and institu- tions, voluntary and semi-voluntary associations, national, provincial, urban and neighborhood group- ings, which often as not make the decisions that the political body registers.

Social scientists’ interest in public opinion was shared by industry. Many companies, including AT&T, had learned from their experiences in World War I that social responsibility was good for public relations and hence good for business.61 Thus, the field of opinion research grew as companies developed tactics for finding out what their stock- holders, their markets and the general community wanted. AT&T’s cooperation with the government

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36 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

during the war had earned it the confidence of the government and of the pro-war public. When Arthur W. Page joined the company in 1927 as vice presi- dent and in-house public relations expert, he stressed several opinions that have affected modern PR ever since: that business begins with the public’s permis- sion and survives because of its approval; that busi- nesses should have public relations departments with real influence in top management; and that compa- nies should find out what the public wants and make public commitments that will work as “hostages to performance.” Page insisted that PR is built by per- formance, not by publicity.62

Another significant development during the 1930s was the institution of the Gallup Poll, which gave a boost to the sophistication and credibility of opinion research.65

The Increasing Influence of U.S. Presidents as Opinion Makers The management of news by U.S. presidents goes back to George Washington, who leaked his Farewell Address to a favored publisher who he knew would give it a good display. When Thomas Jefferson was in Washington’s cabinet, he put a newspaper reporter on the federal payroll to establish a party newspaper that would represent Jefferson’s point of view; later, when he became president, he relied heavily on his “party press” and limited other newspapers’ access to him.

Abraham Lincoln sought out newspaper editors who he believed might convey his ideas sympatheti- cally to the people and thus, help win their support for his policies. The significance he placed on public opinion is apparent in his famous statement, “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.”

Theodore Roosevelt developed the “trial balloon” device, calling favorite reporters to the White House to get their reaction to his ideas before trying them out on the public. He was sensitive to media coverage and once waited to sign a Thanksgiving Proclamation until the Associated Press photogra- pher arrived.66

However, Calvin Coolidge is credited with having arranged the first pure photo opportunity, some 20 years later, on the occasion of his 55th birthday. The taciturn president liked photo sessions because he didn’t have to talk during them.67

Woodrow Wilson developed the first regular for- mal press conferences, although he later regretted the idea, for he was a reserved man and never won popularity with the press. He also complained that the press was interested in the personal and the triv- ial rather than in principles and policies—to which the press responded that presidents just want jour- nalists to print what they tell them, not what the public wants to know.

Franklin Roosevelt’s candor and geniality de- lighted reporters, but even he sometimes regretted

The New Deal The mood of the 1930s differed drastically from that of the 1920s. Following the stock market crash of 1929, the U.S. economy plunged into a depression from which it did not fully recover for 10 years. Pub- lic relations during this time faced many challenges, as industry was forced to defend itself against public distrust, a discontented labor force and strict regula- tion by the Roosevelt administration. The greatest challenge to PR, however, was the job of selling good cheer to a confused and frightened populace. The challenge was felt by government, and succes- sive presidents responded by trying to convince the country that a return to prosperity was just around the corner and that the only thing to fear was fear itself. The challenge was also felt by industry, and in 1938 the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce conducted a com- prehensive campaign based on the slogan “What helps business helps you.”63

PR continued to develop as a field of practice dur- ing the 1930s. The National Association of Accre- dited Publicity Directors was founded in 1936. The American Association of Industrial Editors, founded two years later, was an indirect descendant of earlier groups, including the Association of House Organ Editors, which had been formed in 1915. The Amer- ican Council on Public Relations (ACPR) founded in 1939 by Rex Harlow,64 but it had no chapters. The National Association of Accredited Publicity Directors, which changed its name in 1944 to the National Association of Public Relations Counsel, had chapters and requirements for profes- sional experience. This group merged with Harlow’s ACPR in 1948 to form the Public Relations Society of America.

was

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 37

Planning/Preventing: The Growth of PR as a Management Function, 1940-1979

holding press conferences; once, in a pique, he said that he would like to award a Nazi Iron Cross to a news reporter whose stories he felt had earned it. Roosevelt staged a great many photo sessions so that photographers wouldn’t take candid pictures that called attention to his paralysis.68

Roosevelt, more than any of his predecessors, used public relations tactics to sway public opinion, and the development of mass media technology dur- ing the 1930s enhanced his efforts. In the decades following his death, he drew increased retrospective criticism for “managing news,” as have more recent presidents and their spokespeople. There may be some justification for this criticism, because the exec- utive branch can end most independent reportorial investigations into its affairs by claiming “executive privilege.” No one expects to find out too much from the judiciary branch, because of restrictions on what can be discussed, in keeping with the Amer- ican Bar Association’s code of judicial conduct; but, in the legislative branch, what one party won’t tell, the other will.

With the advent of the 1940s, the nation’s mood changed again. The country was soon at war, and, as in World War I, the most conspicuous public rela- tions efforts either served the war effort direcdy or were obvious byproducts of a wartime economy.

World War II When the USA entered World War II, PR firms quickly seized the opportunity to enlist in the cause. Hill & Knowlton, for example, firmly established itself by representing war industry groups such as the Avia- tion Corporation of America, the American Ship- building Council and the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce.69 Overall, the PR effort during World War II was much more sophisticated, coordinated and integrated than the one during World War I.

PR at AT&T—A Long History In 1938, Arthur Wilson Page, first vice president for public relations of the American Telephone and Telegraphy Company (AT&T), told an international management congress that “the task which busi- ness has, and which it has always had, is of fitting itself to the patterns of public desires.” A familiar saying of the PR pioneer was that in a democratic society no business could exist without public per- mission nor long succeed without public approval. Page also helped to popularize opinion survey techniques. In doing so , Page was following through on the philosophy of a predecessor who was very conscious of public opinion: Theodore Vail, AT&T president in the early 1900s, had sent a series of questions about service to Bell telephone exchange managers to inquire about how well Bell was serving its customers. He understood the power of public opinion, noting that it was based on infor- mation and belief. When public opinion was wrong, it was because of wrong information, and Vail said it was “not only the right, but the obligation of all individuals . . . who come before the public, to see the public have full and correct information.” The long history of PR at AT&T makes even more amazing the public support of the 1982 consent decree that separated individual Bell companies from each other and from AT&T. Page’s philosophy and views of public relations are kept alive today by members of the Arthur Page Society, a professional membership organization founded by Bell pub- lic relations practitioners.

Sources: E. M. Block, “Arthur Page and the Uses of Knowledge,” Inaugural Lecture, Arthur Page Lecture and Awards Program , College of Communication, University of Texas at Austin, April 22 , 1982. Reprinted with permission of E. M. Block.

38 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

Communications scholar Charles Steinberg believes that World War II caused public relations to develop into a “full-fledged profession. 1947, Boston University established the first full school of public relations,71 now part of the College of Communication. By 1949, more than 100 colleges and universities across the nation were offering courses in PR.

Two significant events in government affected the future of public relations. One was the appointment of former newscaster Elmer Davis as director of the Office of War Information (OWI)—the forerunner of the agency that would become the U.S. Informa- tion Agency that was disbanded in October 1999. Davis’ program was even larger than George Creel’s had been, but it was focused exclusively on the task of disseminating information worldwide. Unlike Creel, Davis was not an advisor to the president. At OWI, evidence of government-planted disinforma- tion began to appear.

The second event to affect PR practice was the creation of a War Advertising Council, which han- dled war-related public service announcements and created slogans like “Loose Bps sink ships.” The two organizations were tremendously successful in winning support for the USA at home and abroad, in helping to sell war bonds and in winning coopera- tion from the public, from industry and from labor.

The use of films for PR purposes expanded gready during this period. In 1943, for example, Frank Capra made a documentary film for the U.S. Signal Corps to inspire patriotism and build morale.72 The government was not alone in using film for PR, however; Hollywood also made count- less movies glorifying American fighting forces. The persuasive power of film was not lost on industry officials. In 1948, filmmaker Robert Flaherty made the documentary Louisiana Story73 for Standard Oil.

Individual companies adapted to the war in differ- ent ways, often with the help of PR. Because of war- time ink shortages, the American Tobacco Company had to change the color of the Lucky Strike package from green to white. Thanks to PR, the change caused the company only a moment’s regret. It launched a new campaign promoting a new slogan: “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War.” Lucky Strike smokers everywhere were proud of their new white package because it signified that their brand was doing its part for America.

For Standard Oil of New Jersey, the war created a public relations crisis. At hearings of Senator Harry Truman’s Committee on National Defense, Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold charged Standard Oil with “acting against American intent, charge involved a deal that Standard Oil had made with a German company many years earlier. In

”70 In

»74 The

PR Stands for President Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt used every possible public relations technique to sell the radical reforms of his New Deal to the American people. Advised by PR expert Louis McHenry Howe, FDR projected an image of self-confidence and happiness—just what the American public wanted to believe in. He talked to them on the radio. He smiled for the cameras. He was mentioned in popular songs. He even allowed himself to be one of the main characters in a Rodgers and Hart musical comedy (played by George M. Cohan, America’s favorite Yankee Doodle Dandy). Of course, FDR’s public image didn’t succeed with everybody. But in general, the American people liked FDR, and they showed it by putting him in the White House four times.

Louis McHenry Howe also encouraged First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to expand her public activities. Mrs. Roosevelt had joined the National Consumers League as an 18-year-old volunteer and was very interested in public issues. With Howe’s help , she developed news conferences for women reporters only—“news hens,” they came to be called. Nevertheless, they got exclusives from Mrs. Roosevelt, despite being excluded from most other news meetings because of their gender.

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 39

response, the oil company’s marketing director, Robert T. Haslan, mounted a public opinion cam- paign, sending letters to customers and stockholders and hiring Earl Newsom as outside PR counsel. Even- tually, Standard Oil beat the charges and came out of it with public support.73

In 1945, the same public relations fervor that helped sell the war effort contributed to the postwar industrial recovery. In that year, Henry Ford II, the new president of Ford Motor Company, hired Earl Newsom as a PR consultant. Newsom helped Ford compose a letter to the United Automotive Workers (UAW) during a strike at General Motors, urging the union to be reasonable and fair. He also helped Ford with his speech to the Society of Automotive Engineers in January 1946 and with an important antilabor address to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco the following month. With Newsom’s help, young Ford became a public figure—a re- spected and publicized spokesperson for responsible business management.76

most years represent about 85 countries. Many public relations organizations in other countries also trace their founding to the period from 1955 to 1960.

By the end of the 1950s, a number of women had entered the field, including several who ranked among the nation’s top PR people: Doris E. Fleischman Bemays, early PR pioneer; Denny Griswold, former editor and publisher of Public Relations News-, Jane Stewart, then president of Group Attitudes Corporation; and Leone Baxter, former president of Whitaker and Baxter International in San Francisco.78 In 1957, President Eisenhower appointed Anne Wil- liams Wheaton his associate press secretary, drawing nationwide attention to PR as a potential career for

7 9women. The affluence of the 1950s encouraged businesses

to find new uses for their money, and one job of public relations was to help them reinvest it in society—not only in tax-sheltering foundations, but also in health and community interest campaigns, public service drives and educational seminars. By encouraging corporate investment in society, PR gained greater respect and increased its own influ- ence within corporations.

Television, which had conquered America in the 1950s, had an enormous effect on the growth of pub- lic relations. This powerful medium’s capacity for persuasion was evident from the start. Social scien- tists criticized television’s pervasive control over pub- lic opinion, and it soon became clear that TV could create harmful as well as helpful PR. For example, Joseph McCarthy’s credibility was weakened when his hectoring manner and his beard’s five o’clock shadow were exposed to the scrutiny of viewers across the nation. The Revlon Company first enjoyed favorable support for Its PR from its spon- sorship of the nation’s most popular TV program, but when the “$64,000 Question” was exposed as a fraud, Revlon suffered acute embarrassment and a wave of public criticism for its failure to meet its social responsibility.

Honesty in public relations became a serious issue during the 1950s and led to PRSA’s first code of ethics, a very brief statement in 1954. In 1959, PRSA adopted a Declaration of Principles and a more developed code of ethical behavior.80 To avoid being accused of creating a paper tiger, PRSA established a grievance board in 1962 to conduct hearings whenever a PRSA member suspected another member of violating the code.81 This was disbanded in October 2000, when the new code

The Fabulous Fifties and the Military-Industrial Complex During the 1950s, America again experienced a booming economy, this time based largely on rising production of consumer goods. The population was growing faster than ever, and more and more people were getting good educations and entering the white-collar workforce. Technology progressed on all fronts: television, satellites, atomic energy and the mainframe computer. Industry, despite “labor pains,” continued to grow at home and abroad. Yet the mood of the nation reflected fear—of Commu- nists, Russians, the atomic bomb, McCarthyism, technology, juvenile delinquency and mass confor- mity, to name a few. In 1955, Sloan Wilson exam- ined society and described the American white-collar worker in his best-selling novel, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. The hero, Tom Rath, was an in-house PR person for a large broadcasting corporation.

Public relations grew with the economy. That Wilson’s typical businessperson was a PR practi- tioner shows how well established public relations had become. In 1953, the International Chamber of Commerce set up a commission on public relations, and in 1954 the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) developed its first code of ethics.77 A year later, the International Public Relations Association was founded. Its approximately 800 individual members

40 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

included no enforcement provisions. In 1964, PRSA approved a voluntary accreditation program open to all members of the society. This was simultaneously the first step in recognizing a level of professional accomplishment in public relations and the first step toward establishing and policing standards of behavior among practitioners. In 1998, PRSA joined with eight other professional associations to form the Universal Accreditation Board.

The nation seemed to divide on one point after another: civil rights, disarmament, the space pro- gram, the Vietnam War and the peace movement, conservation, farm labor, women’s liberation, nuclear energy, the Watergate affair and on and on. In the debate over each of these issues, public relations was important to all sides. For example, PR professionals conducted seminars to train people within the power structure in how to respond direcdy to activists and how to answer them indirecdy through news media and other public channels of communication. But the activists used PR just as effectively, capturing public attention with demonstrations, organizations and powerful rhetoric. Conservatives charged that the Chicago riots of 1968 smacked of press agentry. Radicals retorted that the same could be said of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which the North Viet- namese ostensibly attacked an American ship.

Transition in the Turbulent Sixties and Seventies The 1960s and early 1970s were years of great crisis and change in the USA. Public relations talent was called on to cope with the drama and the trauma. Modem PR practitioners needed a broad knowledge of the social sciences, as well as communication and management skills. In addition, nonmarketing problems received new emphasis, more attention was given to the worldwide consumer movement, corporate-government relationships were scruti- nized, PR people gained increasing responsibility within the corporate structure, a more demanding role emerged for PR in multinational companies, and cries for help came from all sectors in dealing with dissident youth and minorities. Communication satellites, the awesome power of nuclear weaponry and the emergence of electronic information storage for data processing had made the globe smaller, but had not diminished its problems.

One fundamental change in the USA actually began in the 1950s, signaled by the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark school desegregation decision of 1954, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, and involved a reassessment and legal reform of black- white race relations. During the 1950s in Montgom- ery, Ala., Martin Luther King, Jr. began expressing his vision of what U.S. society could achieve if racism were ended. He used many public relations tech- niques to gain support for his cause, and he was skill- ful in working with the news media. His “I Have a Dream” speech and other eloquent sermons and addresses, as well as his adoption of nonviolent pro- test patterned on the approach developed by Mahatma Gandhi, helped launch a civil rights move- ment that produced many social changes, especially in the 1960s. King’s assassination in April 1968 shocked the nation and made his name a rallying cry for supporters of the continuing movement to achieve racial equality in the USA.

The Rise of Consumerism In the USA, the consumer movement produced much criticism of institutions. Because of its increased visibility, many people assumed that the movement was new. It wasn’t. The first national con- sumer group, the National Consumers League, had been founded from 90 state affiliates in 1899. Early issues it supported were minimum wage laws, improved working hours, occupational safety, aboli- tion of sweatshops and child labor and improved working conditions for migrant farm workers. In supporting the 1906 Pine Food and Drug Act, the league formed food committees that set standards for food manufacture, inspected food manufacturing establishments and certified their safe working con- ditions by affixing a “White Label” to products.

Another organization that has been a longtime consumer advocate is the Consumers Union of the United States. It began as part of Consumers’ Research, Inc., the first product-testing organization supported by consumers, and was established as a separate entity in 1936. Consumers Union is an independent, nonprofit organization that tests and evaluates such products as appliances, automobiles and packaged food. Since its founding, it has pub- fished the results of its tests in a monthly magazine, Consumer Reports, along with articles designed to help consumers spend their money more wisely and to make them aware of current consumer problems. The organization has always pressed for increased consumer protection by calling attention to what it

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 41

believes are unsafe products. It has also concerned itself with weaknesses in consumer legislation and with the reluctance or failure of government regula- tory agencies to act on behalf of consumers.

Sarah Newman, executive director of the National Consumers League from 1962 to 1975, pointed out the major tactical differences between consumer- oriented organizations of earlier periods and those of the 1970s. For one thing, consumer advocates in the 1970s were more program-oriented. Consumer advocates during earlier periods did not resort to militancy. They also had to do much of the watchdog work themselves, because no regulatory agency was responsible for ensuring the safety of most consumer products. By the late 1970s, Newman’s own group was involved in supporting such reforms as equal credit, no-fault insurance and uniform beef grading. The NCL also pushed for creation of an agency for consumer advocacy.

Consumerism has been called “buyer’s rights, “a cause or movement that advances the rights and interests of the consumer”83 or a movement “seeking to increase the rights and powers of buyers in rela- tion to sellers.”84 Whatever its title and definition, the essence of consumerism was clearly expressed by the late Margot Sherman, a former senior vice president of McCann Erickson (a New York agency), who had been in charge of setting up the agency’s division of consumerism:

Nelson advised two presidents and Congress on con- sumer matters and was California’s first governor- appointed consumer advocate, from 1959 to 1966.87 In July 2010, President Obama created the Con- sumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect consu- mers who have mortgages, credit cards or other financial services.

The Sentiment Behind Consumerism The sentiment behind the consumer movement was best defined by Ralph Nader:

Indeed the quality of life is deteriorating in so many ways that the traditional measurements of the “stan- dard of living” according to personal income, housing, ownership of cars and appliances, etc., have come to sound increasingly phony.88

The sentiment was in fact a reaction to a “hostile environment.” And the movement’s character at any particular point in time, according to Edgar Chas- teen, depended on the behavior of the “enemy,” as defined by the movement.

The enemy was business. In bewilderment, busi- ness looked on as a generation of consumers whose basic needs had been satisfied reacted adversely to old methods of persuasion. Evidently, the techniques that sold products also created expectations that could not be satisfied. A gap materialized between reality and the anticipation of rewards. In addition, consumer dissatisfaction was both the cause and the effect of another wave of investigative (or muckrak- ing) journalism.90

To measure the intensity of consumer satisfac- tion/dissatisfaction, business used five common tech- niques: (1) statistics such as sales, profits and market share; (2) behavioral measures such as repeat purchases, acceptance of other products in the same fine and favorable word-of-mouth publicity; (3) direct observation; (4) dissatisfaction indices such as recorded complaint data; and (5) surveys and interviews to unearth reticent respondents. The hazards of using these techniques and the difficulties involved in measuring consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction are legion.91

A thorough look at the activist requires a look at the adversary as well. Ralph Nader has said that the prin- cipal concern of the consumer movement has always been the “involuntary subeconomy”—unwritten price- fixing for goods and services and inflationary agree- ments with labor and suppliers. These factors force

»>82

On this business of consumerism, I suppose as a concept it was probably bom in March 1962, when President Kennedy declared, “Every consumer has four basic rights—the right to be informed, the right to safety, the right to choose, and the right to be heard!"

Helping to craft those four rights was consumer advocate Helen Nelson, who produced a video doc- umentary in 1995 chronicling the history of the movement, Change Makers: The Struggle for Consumer Rights. Accompanying the video, which took her three years to write, was a teacher’s guide of edited conversations with 35 consumer leaders interviewed for the video.85 President Kennedy had identified consumers as the only important group in contem- porary society that was not effectively organized. He then appointed 10 private citizens to serve on a Con- sumer Advisory Council, including Nelson. Also, he placed a consumer adviser, Esther Peterson, on his staff. Every U.S. president since Kennedy has fol- lowed his lead in having a staff consumer advisor.86

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42 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

up the costs of consumer goods and services, and the higher costs must be accepted because no other sources of the goods or services exist. Because there are no controls and no choices, the system is “involuntary”; because it underlies the economic structure, it constitutes a “subeconomy.” Writing in 1973, Nader noted that the consumer movement had had limited success in improving regulatory action and encouraging private litigation. Its main achievement had been to create an awareness among consumers that they were being cheated and endangered. Nader conceded that the consumer movement had yet to devise an economic and policy-making framework to counterbalance or deplete the power of corporations to impose invol- untary expenditures:92

Speed) , the consumer movement did not become for- midable until the early 1970s.99 In 1972 and 1973, however, the Public Relations Society of America appointed a task force to examine the impact of con- sumerism on business.100 By this time, class action suits were being filed, pressure was being brought to bear on regulatory agencies to enact stricter crite- ria and to enforce them, stockholders’ meetings were losing their predictability because minor share- holders were appearing and demanding social accountability and employees were more likely to become litigants than loyalists.

By 1967, President Lyndon Johnson had decided that consumer complaints were so politically signifi- cant that he appointed Betty Furness as his consumer advisory counsel.102 By 1971, there were four national consumer organizations: the Consumer Federation of America, the Nader Organization and the two older associations, the National Consumers League and the Consumers Union.

101

To some extent, consumerism as we know it was bom of public frustration during a period of social turmoil, which saw unrest over civil rights issues and a divisive war in Southeast Asia. We entered a strobe-light exis- tence, and with every blink of the flashing light, soci- ety had changed a little more before our very eyes! In short, the storm of the 1960s blew away many of the road signs that had helped us find our way comfortably along in the more predictable decades that came before.93

103

Communication Problems and Public Opinion The consumer movement clearly demonstrated some lack of communication between business and consu- mers, a deficiency that the following statement makes clear:

The consumerism movement not only mirrors the inability of the business sector to discern what fac- tors of inherent consumer motivations promulgate (dissatisfaction, but also reflects a growing concern for the “quality of life, ” which seems to be a popular cause, as well as a goal to collectively attain.

The Impact of Consumerism Most consumer activists of the 1960s and 1970s were members of what has been called the “silent generation.” This generation was proportionally small because its members were Depression or post-Depression babies.94 For it, qual- ity of life was understood in terms of a standard of

But not until confronted with the hostile accusations of the “antimaterialistic” younger gener- ation of the 1960s did the silent generation recognize two salient questions: (1) At whose expense does a better living come? and (2) What is the real value of all this? Robert Glessing has perceptively com- mented that “the unpreparedness of the silent gener- ation was at least part of the cause of the student„07 protest movements.

But after taking a careful and critical look at its own lot, the silent generation began borrowing tac- tics from the youth revolt. Suddenly meat boycotts were being staged by matrons who were definitely over 40.98 Although Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published in 1962 and Ralph Nader’s consumer statistics tips to Congress began appearing in 1960 (even before his 1965 publication Unsafe at Any

104

In commenting on a 1977 Louis Harris survey, the late financial columnist Sylvia Porter asked how closely the views of senior business managers, consumer acti- vists and government regulators matched the views of the general public. The answer was “not closely,” with senior management “less in touch with public opinion than are any of the other groups.” As Porter said:

95, 96living.

Consumer activists would prefer to concentrate on elec- tric utilities, the advertising industry, nuclear power plants and banks.

Business executives want reforms in hospitals, the medical profession, garages, home building and the legal profession.

Only one common perception is shared by every group surveyed: mistrust of the honesty and accuracy of advertising.105

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Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 43

The Harris survey had found that more than one- third of all adults were bothered by poor quality or dangerous products that failed to live up to advertis- ing claims. They were distressed at the failure of companies to show legitimate concern for the con- sumer. They were bothered by poor after-sales ser- vice and repairs and by misleading packaging or labeling. More than half of the respondents thought they were receiving a worse bargain in the market- place than they had been getting ten years earlier. Moreover, consumers expected things to get worse in three areas: product durability, product repair and the reliability of manufacturers’ claims for prod- ucts. Although the public expressed a desire for more information about subjects relevant to consumers, the poll found little public confidence in the accuracy and reliability of media news.

the expectations of those hiring PR talent gave the role new dimensions. But the new demands also cre- ated a crisis of confidence inside and outside public relations. In 1968, the Public Relations Student Soci- ety of America was formed, and, as public rela- tions continued to gain status as an academic discipline, the field for the first time became domi- nated by people specially trained for the job.

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that fundamentally changed the role of the PR practitioner. In the Texas Gulf Sulphur case, the Supreme Court upheld a 1968 decision of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York requiring immediate disclosure of any information that may affect the market value of stock in publicly held cor- porations.108 This ruling meant that PR had to con- centrate more on dealing with public information and less on selecting what information to make pub- lic. The Supreme Court also ruled that PR practi- tioners involved in such cases were “insiders” and therefore were subject to the same trading restric- tions as other members of the corporation whose knowledge of special circumstances prohibited them from buying or selling stock.109 The insider trading scandals of the 1980s severely tested the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) ability to enforce insider trading rules.

The Scope of the Problem The word corporate, as used in the consumer movement, should be interpreted in its broadest sense. Under fire, in addition to busi- nesses, were all large institutions—hospitals, fund- raising public health associations, major-league sports teams, public and private educational institu- tions at all levels and religious groups. The biggest guns of all were leveled at government administra- tors. The news media suffered from adverse public opinion, too, as did newsmakers themselves, due to lawsuits, public attacks and threats of government intervention.

The harsh realities are clearly set forth by mass media scholars David Clark and William Blankenburg:

The Growth of Public Skepticism Between 1966 and 1977, public confidence in corporate leadership dropped by 31 percentage points. While many executives besieged by negative public opinion hun- kered down or toyed with the idea of resigning, one public relations officer decided to take the offensive. Mobil Oil’s Herb Schmertz, a lawyer, began running Mobil’s issue advertising in 1970. Following the oil shortages of the 1970s and the price acceleration they caused, Schmertz expanded Mobil’s aggressive ad program and sought favorable opinion by con- vincing the corporation to sponsor public television’s Masterpiece Theatre.

Pulling together as many communication devices as possible to influence public opinion was a response to deepening public disaffection and distrust, includ- ing the beginnings of widespread genuine mistrust of government. This development was not without foundation. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s valid grounds for public skepticism existed. Although, the term disinformation didn’t gain currency until the 1980s, the U.S. government was giving its citizens a good bit of it all along.

The sturdiest obstacles to “ideal” public relations are economics and human nature. The plain fact is that managers are hired to make money for owners, and that a conscience can cost money. In the long run, it is money well spent, but many stockholders and man- agers fix their vision on the short run. Then, too, an abrupt change in corporate policy amounts to a public confession of past misbehavior—or so it seems to many executives. The natural temptation is to play up the good, and to let it go at that.106

The Impact of the Sixties and Seventies on Public Relations The urgency of the problems that PR practitioners handled during the crises of the 1960s and 1970s and

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Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins44

The Seventies in Summary The Middle East garnered a great deal of attention in the USA in the 1970s. The effects of the oil shortage created by policies of the coa- lition of oil-producing nations (OPEC—the Organiza- tion of Petroleum Exporting Countries) began to be felt as world demand for oil outstripped the supply from non-OPEC sources. In Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini and his fundamentalist Islamic followers overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah. Soon thereafter, on November 4, 1979, the American Embassy in Tehran was seized and its staff held hostage by “revolutionary guards” whose exact relationship to the new Iranian govern- ment was never satisfactorily clarified. Some former hostages said in the summer of 2005 that they recog- nized Iran’s new president-elect as one of their captors, a claim that was denied. Other acts of terrorism in the region suggested that the U.S. government was unable to defend its interests in that part of the world.

Problems in the Middle East added to a loss of confidence in the U.S. government at home. Another contributing factor was double-digit infla- tion, which eroded the economy and caused a serious decline in the standard of living. The nation’s first military defeat, in Vietnam, drained people’s feelings of nationalism, although the 1976 bicentennial helped revive these to some extent.

During the 1970s, the cultural monopoly of the tra- ditional American family disappeared. More couples lived together outside marriage, and some were of the same sex. Married couples divorced at high rates, and after the 1950s “baby boom,” fewer children were bom each year, especially to white couples, ethnic mix in America changed as the black and His- panic populations, respectively, grew at twice and six times the rate of the white population. The Hispanic community was enlarged by numerous political and economic refugees from Latin America. Southeast Asian refugees, fleeing their homelands in the wake of communist victories there, added another ethnic piece to the American mosaic.

Although consumerism and environmentalism both made great strides during the decade, the main social movement of the 1970s was the women’s move- ment. Opponents succeeded in blocking modification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, but the movement helped bring about some funda- mental changes in society. Women began to view themselves as equals to men and demanded equal treatment in the workplace. Of the 3 million new people in the workforce, 2 million were women; almost half of all married women were employed,

one-fourth of them with children younger than the age of six. Women’s wages, though, were only 60 per- cent of men’s. Women in legal careers doubled. Women getting medical degrees accounted for 22 percent of all those who sought such degrees in traditional medicine and 23 percent in veterinary medicine. The percentage of financial officers who were women rose from 18 percent to 30 percent in the decade, and women economists increased from 11 percent to 23 percent. Women in operations sys- tem research and analysis more than doubled, and women entered the public relations field in unprece- dented numbers. The late Betsy Plank became the first woman president of the Public Relations Society of America in 1973, and she was the first person to receive PRSA’s two top professional honors: the Gold Anvil as the nation’s outstanding professional in 1977 and the Lund Award for exemplary civic and community service in 1989. At Ameritech (formerly Illinois Bell), she became the first female to head a company department, external affairs, directing a staff of 102. She died in May 2010 at age 86.

Professionalism: PR in the Era of Global Communication, 1980-Present

The 1960s were a time of tremendous social and eco- nomic upheaval. The 1970s was a decade of uncer- tainty. Most Americans worried about economic problems and shortages of natural resources, espe- cially energy. Many people also lacked confidence in American institutions. These concerns continued into the 1980s, giving impetus to planning based on predictions of internal company development and external social, political and economic conditions.

The confrontations, challenges and turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s led to polarization in the 1980s. This polarization crossed every imaginable social and political boundary. The resulting struggles increased global as well as national tensions between funda- mentalists and secularists. At the same time, the cen- trist position narrowed dramatically.

no The

The Reagan Eighties President Ronald Reagan’s deputy press secretary, Pete Roussel, said he faithfully adhered to what he

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 45

called the “Press Secretary’s Prayer”: “Oh, Lord, let me utter words sweet and gende, for tomorrow, I may have to eat them, eral public opinion-sensitive specialists on President Reagan’s staff. President Reagan came to be called “the Great Communicator.” Recognizing that some people who didn’t like what President Reagan said nonetheless continued to like him, Colorado Con- gresswoman Pat Schroeder nicknamed him the “Teflon” president: Nothing unpopular that his administration did seemed to stick to him personally. President Reagan’s administration also employed pollster Richard Beal, whose job was to look at public views on questions likely to arise as issues in the future.

then to direct public relations for a major brokerage firm—Speakes acknowledged he had “made up” quotes that he attributed to President Reagan!

The Reagan presidency was one of the most con- trolled in the history of the office. One indication of this was the number of orchestrated photo opportu-

In addition, during the Reagan administra- tion, the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) and its companion U.S. Information Service (USIS) in other countries grew in power and influence.

But USIA was disbanded in October 1999, with many of its functions being absorbed by the U.S. Department of State. Since 1994, the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) has provided administra- tive and engineering support for U.S. government- funded nonmilitary international broadcast services, including Worldnet Television and Film Service. Originally part of USIA, the IBB was formed by the 1994 International Broadcasting Act, and the IBB was established as an independent federal gov- ernment entity.

» i i i Roussel was one of sev-

114nines.

In doing this, President Reagan was following a trend that started with John F. Kennedy’s use of polling, according to Sidney Blumenthal, author of The Permanent Campaign } u Blumenthal called Pres- ident Reagan “Communicator in Chief’ and made this observation:

Reagan is governing America by a new doctrine—the permanent campaign. He is applying in the White House the most sophisticated team of pollsters, media masters and tacticians ever to work there. They have helped him to transcend entrenched institutions like the Congress and the Washington press corps to appeal directly to the people } n

Concern about Worldnet was expressed in 1987 by Florida Congressman Dan Mica, who observed that it had an “untapped and unlimited potential. ” The Congressman was concerned “that a particular administration could use Worldnet as its private propaganda vehicle. »115

In addition to filling the administration’s major public relations posts with experienced professionals, President Reagan appointed PR pros to many posi- tions not traditionally considered public relations jobs. Of the three top advisers to the president, two were lawyers and one, Michael Deaver, was a public relations professional. Deaver was indicted for influ- ence peddling after he left the White House, and Bernard Kalb of the State Department left in protest when the government got involved in a disinforma- tion campaign.

After press secretary Jim Brady was severely injured in the assassination attempt on President Reagan March 30, 1981, Larry Speakes became act- ing press secretary. Speakes sometimes felt that he wasn’t sufficiently informed by other administration officials, and some news people agreed. However, Speakes said, not knowing is the lesser of the two sins of a press secretary; lying was a “cardinal sin” and unforgivable. After he left the administration— first to work for a large public relations firm and

Integrated Communication Trend Begins Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, several large public relations firms were acquired by advertising agencies. In one transaction, J. Walter Thompson acquired Hill & Knowlton for $28 million. In another important merger, Dudley-Anderson-Yutzy, a PR firm, became a part of Ogilvy & Mather, an adver- tising firm, which was renamed the Ogilvy Group. Then, in 1989, the Ogilvy Group and J. Walter Thompson merged, through a hostile takeover, into the British-owned WPP Group. WPP grew even faster than its chief competitor at the time (also British), Saatchi & Saatchi PLC. In addition to owning what was then the world’s largest PR firm, Hill & Knowlton, WPP got the largest custom market research company, Research International, and the largest direct marketing company, Ogilvy & Mather Direct116

Mergers also created giant communications operations with advertising and public relations capa- bilities. For instance, Young and Rubicam bought

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46 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

credibility.117 To put this phenomenal global growth of public relations into perspective, we must look at the social and political environment in which it occurred.

Burson-Marsteller and Marsteller, Inc., for about $20 million, and Benton and Bowles acquired Man- ning, Selvage and Lee for $2 million. The first big merger (1978) was of Carl Byoir & Associates (one of the oldest PR firms) with Foote, Cone & Belding.

Many advertising agencies moved into related fields: public relations, specialized advertising to and for select groups (doctors, for example), merchandising (including package design), direct marketing and/or sales promotion. Some agencies bought successful companies to put under a corpo- rate umbrella. Others created their own divisions. Some integrated the various units into a super team. Others operated the units separately and inde- pendendy, but found an advantage in presenting themselves as a “full-service” agency. The late PR counselor Philip Lesly expressed a fear that the trend could limit PR to a narrow communications role, subservient to marketing and stripped of its counseling role. Although some agencies used PR mostly for product/service support, others allowed PR free rein to pursue its full range of functions.

The intertwining function that these mergers produced was recognized by some colleges and universities, which combined the academic programs of advertising and PR, sometimes calling them integrated communication or integrated marketing communication.

Historical Developments in the 1980s and 1990s The interconnectedness and shared experience of our global society were demonstrated in interna- tional reactions to everything from natural events such as the return of Halley’s comet (1985-1986) to calamities like the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in the Ukraine (April 25, 1986) to the world stock market disaster of Black Monday (October 19, 1987), which was precipitated by a drop of 508 points in the Dow Jones industrial aver- age. Individual investors fled the marketplace and complained bitterly about the havoc wreaked by the speculators. In 1989 the “Big Board” in the USA ini- tiated a major public information campaign aimed at the 47 million Americans who owned stocks or shares in mutual funds. By 1991, there was some evi- dence that individual investors had returned to the stock market.

Discoveries of a supernova and of a superconduct- ing substance, as well as breakthroughs in genetic coding research, revitalized American confidence in its ability to understand and shape the world. But the proliferation of the deadly virally induced condition AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) was humbling and defied explanation and control. Both in the USA and abroad, advertising and public rela- tions programs were undertaken to educate the pub- lic about AIDS and to impede its progress into a pandemic.

Faith in U.S. institutions was severely shaken in 1986 by a series of events. The first of these was the January 28 explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, which temporarily ended human space explorations by the USA. NASA returned in 1989 with the launches of the Magellan and Galileo space probes and the brilliant success of Voyager 2' s flyby of Neptune at the conclusion of its 12-year journey. Then, there followed the first-ever pictures of the surface of Venus. Despite these successes, however, NASA was forced by the national budget crunch to

sometimes to the detriment of its

Global Impact on Public Relations Practice and Education in the 1980s and 1990s The growth and evolution of public relations prac- tice and of education for public relations internation- ally continued at an even faster pace during the 1980s and 1990s. Technology connected the world as never before, and this emphasized the need for and use of communication. Cultural awareness became increasingly important—not only in interna- tional communication, but also within nations—as political and economic disruptions the world over created a tide of refugees. Natural disasters added to the displacement of people from their homelands.

The formal integration of advertising and public relations tactics that began in the 1970s increased. The results were greater emphasis on “strategic plan- ning” to coordinate the integrated communication elements and greater awareness of the need to inte- grate an organization’s different “voices” to ensure consistency of message statements and to enhance

economize, projects. Nothing typifies the agency’s mixture of tri- umph and fallibility better than the launch of the Hubble telescope in 1990. A simple mathematical

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Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 47

error produced a flawed lens shape, which for a time prevented the remarkable telescope from transmit- ting the exquisite views of the heavens it had been expected to provide. Subsequent delicate (and expen- sive) maneuvers in space brought the telescope to its full operational capacity.

Falling oil prices in 1986 caused such economic chaos in the Sunbelt states that more banks failed that year than ever before in the nation’s history. The drop in oil prices hurt not only the banks them- selves and U.S. oil-producing states, but also Latin American countries that had used their petroleum assets as collateral for loans from U.S. banks that they suddenly had no means of repaying.

Worldwide television audiences witnessed the exposure of an unelected subgovernment in the USA during the Iran-Contra hearings, which inves- tigated unauthorized sales of overpriced arms to Iran, supposedly in exchange for American hostages held in Lebanon, with some of the profits from the sales going to the Nicaraguan Contras. President Ronald Reagan claimed to have been unaware of these activ- ities, and U.S. Marine Corps. Lt. Col. Oliver North of the National Security Council enjoyed a brief career as a national hero before being indicted and sentenced in 1989. (His convictions were later over- turned when an appeals court decided that the evi- dence proving his guilt had not been sufficiendy insulated from testimony North gave to Congress under a grant of immunity from prosecution. North pronounced himself “totally exonerated” by this ruling and ran [unsuccessfully] for the Senate in 1994.) Before the dust from the Iran-Contra debacle had settled, a new (but lesser) scandal involving Pentagon defense contracts further eroded public confidence in government.

Television audiences also watched the downfall of TV evangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart and the collapse of the Bakkers’ organiza- tion, an event that indirectly led to Jerry Falwell’s resignation as head of Moral Majority, the leading fundamentalist religious organization in the USA.

In the face of falling U.S. prestige, Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev introduced a new cli- mate of glasnost (openness) in the USSR. He sent young, effective communicators to represent his nation in preliminary peace talks and agreed to many U.S. positioning statements, much to the dismay of U.S. diplomats. In 1987, he came to the USA and showed that he, too, knew how to handle a media event. But by 1991, Gorbachev was in serious trouble

at home, trying to keep the USSR glued together as one state after another voted for independence. By year’s end, the Soviet Union was defunct, and Gorbachev was head of a Russian “think tank.”

The USA hosted another important world leader in 1987, Pope John Paul II, who found his followers in a restive mood as he refused to modify his conser- vative views on the issues of marriage for priests and nuns, abortion, birth control and homosexuality. The world of public relations got directly involved in that issue because the United States Catholic Con- ference (USCC) asked Hill & Knowlton to represent it in a public antiabortion campaign. Robert L. Dilenschneider, then president and CEO of Hill & Knowlton, agreed to take the account, but he didn’t anticipate that USCC would announce that fact before he had a chance to tell employees about it. Many of his staffers were quite upset, and some even quit Dilenschneider later conceded that the internal handling of the affair was not ideal, but he defended his decision to accept the account as a first amendment issue—a rather problematic line of argu- ment because it implies that, much like lawyers, PR practitioners have a societal duty to provide their ser- vices to anyone who wants (and can pay for) profes- sional help in framing and disseminating ideas, regardless of how repugnant those ideas may be. Taken to an extreme, this reasoning would find an obligation to provide PR services to hate groups, on the theory that the First Amendment guarantees them not merely the right to free speech, but the right to effective speech. In the fall of 1991, Dilenschneider resigned, citing loss of control to the parent company, WPP Group PLC.

Hill & Knowlton also had the account of the Citi- zens for a Free Kuwait, which it obtained shortly after U.S. troops started their campaign to recapture that country on Jan. 16, 1991. The Desert Storm war, perhaps because of its brevity, success and mul- tinational force, restored a strong feeling of patriot- ism to U.S. citizens. However, the war’s aftermath, especially the Kurdish refugee situation, reminded the international community of the lingering horrors of war. The war also left a substantial number of Kuwaiti oil fields on fire (the last of these fires was put out some six months later) and an oil- drenched, ecologically damaged Persian Gulf. Cynicism replaced patriotism in some quarters after the war, as people became more aware that the “real- ity” of the coverage they had been exposed to more nearly resembled managed news. The backlash

48 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

among media personnel against PR control of war information was strong.

The 1987 stock market collapse on Black Monday represented a frightening but graphic example of imagery and public opinion. The lingering weakness of the market was attributable in part to global dis- comfort at the U.S. debt, which had reached trillions of dollars, and at the deadlock between the Reagan administration and Congress over how to deal with it. The friction in philosophies between the executive and legislative branches was apparent in the Iran- Contra hearings, the budget negotiations and most dramatically in the Senate’s refusal to confirm strict constructionist Robert Bork to the Supreme Court Opposition to his nomination revived the activism of civil rights and feminist constituencies. Four years later, the nomination of Clarence Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court opened a rift within the black community when law professor Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment by Thomas created a national furor over the nature and prevalence of this previously ignored type of crime. Both were African American. Although many people found Hill’s testimony at the resulting hearing both plausible and compelling, the U.S. Senate’s 98 men and two women narrowly voted to confirm Thomas’ appointment to the court.

The most dramatic historical development of the late 1980s was the downfall of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe. In the spring of 1989, with neigh- boring borders relaxed, East Germans began leaving the state in droves. Then, in November, the East German government resigned en masse, and on November 10 the Berlin wall began to come down. Pieces of the wall sold as souvenirs in U.S. depart- ment stores at prices from $15 to $25. By 1990, the USIA had opened the first “American University Bookstore” in East Berlin. The two Germanys were united in October 1990. Another notable develop- ment in November 1989 was Hungary’s withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact; and later in the same month, Hungarians voted in their first free election in 42 years. In Czechoslovakia, voters elected promi- nent dissident playwright Vaclav Havel president in 1989. But within four years, the national government gave in, reluctantly but peacefully, to the secession of Slovakia from the union with the subsequently renamed Czech Republic in 1993. The Solidarity trade-union leader Lech Walesa was chosen premier of Poland in August 1989. By 1990, the Voice of America had opened its first Polish office, in

Warsaw. Meanwhile, in Bulgaria, seeing the tide of change in 1989, Communist party leader Todor Zhivkov resigned.

The most dramatic climax may have been in Romania. In December 1989, after his Communist government had collapsed, Nicolae Ceausescu was captured, tried in secret and, along with his wife, executed by a firing squad on Christmas Day. Mass graves of suspected government opponents were exhumed, and U.S. families began to adopt orphaned and abandoned Romanian children. This turned out to be a problem by 1991, when it became clear that many private adoption homes in Romania were plac- ing children who had been relinquished (either aban- doned or sold) by poor families. The U.S. State Department responded by refusing for a time to grant adopting parents visas for the children.

In the Western hemisphere, Fidel Castro began issuing visas that permitted some people to leave Cuba legally for the first time under Castro’s regime.

With restraints loosening in much of the Com- munist world, the Western world was shocked to watch on television as Chinese students participating in a pro-democracy movement were attacked by armed troops and tanks near Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Especially apprehensive were the Chinese citizens of Hong Kong, because that island city would revert to China in 1997. Many of the students who weren’t captured in the subsequent crackdown escaped with the help of an underground movement operating out of Hong Kong.

Two unique elements in the tragic event point out the globalization of today’s world. First, the students in revolt were receiving fax messages from Chinese students and sympathizers abroad; second, the authorities later used television footage to identify the students and track them down. Some received lengthy prison sentences. This led some U.S. citizens to push for revoking China’s “most favored nation” trading status, but President George H. W. Bush opposed this measure and committed the administra- tion to a policy of keeping the market open. The subsequent Democratic administration of Bill Clin- ton did not reverse the Bush policy on China.

The mosdy nonviolent revolutions of Eastern Europe were followed in 1991 by the disintegration of the Soviet Union into its constituent republics (loosely allied as the Commonwealth of Indepen- dent States). A destructive secessionist movement occurred in Yugoslavia, where 45 years of cooperative

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution as

Public relations scholars Katerina Tsetsura of the University of Oklahoma and Dean Kruckeberg of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte note that in today’s global society, in which the compression of time and space has resulted in increased social-political-economic-cultural complexity worldwide , most of what we accept to be truth comes from the myriad forms of “mass media,” e.g., the news- papers that we read , the television programs that we watch, the radio stations to which we listen and the infinite Internet sources that we explore. We rely—most often by necessity—upon these second- ary sources to help us to determine our own truths that create our unique worldviews from which we form our individual beliefs, attitudes and opinions that directly influence the decisions that we make .

The practice of purposeful “media opacity,” which exists to greater or lesser extents worldwide , is a powerful hidden influencer of the ostensibly impartial media gatekeepers whose publicly perceived role is to present news and other information based on these gatekeepers’ perception of this informa- tion’s truthfulness. Previous empirical data that the authors have collected globally illustrate the perva- siveness in specific regions and countries.

It can be argued that, as communication professionals, public relations practitioners and journal- ists only have the right to control their own professional/occupational behavior, not that of other pro- fessional communities, nor does this professional community have the moral right to censure or criticize the ethics of the mass media for which journalists work. Rather, the argument against pur- poseful mass media opacity by those providing or accepting information subsidies must be made solely (and ultimately more compellingly) by public relations practitioners and mass media workers, e.g., journalists, in their mutual role as citizens—both of the countries in which purposeful mass media opacity occurs, but also as global citizens whose values must include truth and honesty in message construction and dissemination worldwide.

But despite the international attention and the fact that the global professional community con- demns this practice, to this day, some practitioners, specifically the ones who practice public relations in certain regions, readily admit that they do not always practice ethical public relations as presented in the code of ethics of their respective professional public relations associations.

Public relations professional organizations as well as practitioners around the world face the same problem: accepted codes of ethics are not enforceable and thus are not practiced . Although codes of ethics exist worldwide, specialists point out numerous problems with their reinforcement. One of the goals of public relations practitioners and educators is to find better ways for reinforcing such codes and positioning benefits of following these codes. This goal can be quite challenging, especially for modern public relations practitioners who work in different countries; however, it is very important to continue promoting ethical practices for educational and professional communities in the name of a better future of global public relations.

Source: Tsetsura, K. , & Kruckeberg, D. (March 2011). "Media Practice or Media Opacity? Conceptual and Theoretical Considera- tions and Implications.” Paper presented at the 14th IPR International Public Relations Research conference, Miami , FL.

existence between neighboring states gave way to older enmities and bitter warfare. In 1990, the former Yugoslavia had begun to disintegrate when two Yugoslavian republics, Slovenia and Croatia, decided to secede from the federation, resulting in warfare with Serbia and Montenegro for five years until 1995.

The world’s turbulence and turmoil opened mar- kets and new opportunities for public relations prac- titioners who could cope with the demands of global communications. The new Russian commonwealth presented a particularly challenging opportunity. In response to the new European Union market formed by the Maastricht Treaty, the USA, on President

Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins50

George H. W. Bush’s initiative, opened expanded trade with Canada and Mexico as a part of a “united continent” concept. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was ratified in 1994. A year later, the U.S. Congress approved a General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which further opened up international trade and had signif- icant domestic economic consequences as well. The GATT agreement vote in the U.S. Congress came after voter anger in the 1994 elections had ousted many politicians and put both houses of Congress into Republican hands for the first time in 40 years. The level of public hostility and distrust toward gov- ernment (including President Clinton) was at a 1960s level. However, the GATT agreement, like some other legislation of the period, showed some new political alignments being forged in an effort to find out what citizens wanted. In Latin America, the new Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur) began to attract other nations.

Advances in technology dominated the early 1990s, especially in computer technology. Even hotels and airplanes had to accommodate computer users, finally providing wireless access to the Inter- net. The key phrase information superhighway created all sorts of opportunities and problems. Facsimile messages went all over the world and became almost as commonplace as telephones in some countries. Voicemail message systems meant 24-hour answer- ing, even at home. Telephones went on board air- planes for in-air use, and countries without reliable permanent phone systems found handheld mobile phones in great demand. Many addresses on business cards and letterheads included both phone and fax numbers and, in addition to a physical location, an email address and a professional or personal home page URL, that is, its address on the information superhighway. International travelers used automatic teller machines for access to their accounts and moved money across national boundaries with ease.

Friendships also moved across national bound- aries as people began communicating across borders and continents via email. As computer network “cor- respondents” plugged in internationally, whole new publics and media, in a public relations sense, devel- oped. Teenagers could communicate with people their age all over the world, and the elderly found a whole new group of friends worldwide at the touch of their keyboards. In addition to these new publics, new media developed. Some “publications” became available only electronically, and traditional “library”

information became available in CD-ROM format as well as in electronic databases, with some libraries becoming virtually “electronic libraries.” “Desktop publishing” meant not only publishing at home by an individual who wanted to create a newsletter, but also having the capacity to send that information electronically around the world.

The problems technology brought involved, among other things, disputes over copyrights, some- thing ignored by certain countries and laws involving pornography, libel and slander. Computer networks had developed some protocols or procedures to which users generally adhered. These protocols worked fairly well when there were few users, but they fell into an abyss when many users came online.

PR Developments in the 1980s and 1990s During the 1980s, PR newswire services responded to the new technology by using satellite transmissions. “Clipping” services functioned electronically too. In addition to the greater dispersion and collection of information, computer technology brought the microcomputer to the public relations office and, with it, an array of microcomputer techniques. Desk- top publishing improved the look of in-house publica- tions and made possible sophisticated graphics for reports, speeches and ads.

The World Wide Web has created a whole new medium for public relations, presenting new oppor- tunities and problems. From home pages and chat rooms to email, listservs and blogs, all sorts of insti- tutions and individuals have a presence on the Web. Within organizations, the email intranet systems have also affected employee relations, because these internal email networks have become a powerful means of internal communication.

The Web has significantly changed media rela- tions as well. A good website provides basic informa- tion about the organization and access to additional information and includes text, pictures and graphics, as well as video and increasingly, opportunities for interactivity. News releases are often posted on orga- nizations’ Web pages, and media can seek sources from a number of different sites.

The media’s use of its own Web pages to release stories has created new difficulties for public rela- tions people, including blogs written by reporters and by consumers of the news. Individuals frequently use the Web to circulate rumors that often have

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 51

serious consequences. With their lack of editors, chat rooms and independent Web pages, as well as Web logs (blogs) and the new social media such as You- Tube, can pose problems even more troublesome than stories released by major media organizations. Anyone and everyone can easily and inexpensively create a blog through which he or she can express any opinion about any subject. And while the Web has become a preferred fact-finding tool because of its easy access, misinformation is rampant on the Internet, and the verifiability of Web information remains a problem.

Improvements in computers also added to the explosion of the PR research industry. Its depen- dence is such that a major concern of the 1990s was to bring computers into compliance with Year 2000 (Y2K) standards. Most of the older programs could not cope with any date after 1999. Changes in the economy throughout the world created a situation in which many companies began to cut their num- bers of employees and to depend on suppliers for services previously provided within the institution, often on other continents. This outsourcing also affected public relations. Many public relations prac- titioners began to work for themselves because they were let go by organizations that had employed them; as independent contractors, they established their own clientele, servicing many customers, often including their previous employers. The electronic technology that had allowed their employers to reduce the number of in-house employees also made it possible for public relations practitioners to work from home and service clients all over the world.

The global aspect of public relations was under- scored by the demand throughout the world for pub- lic relations expertise both in the practice and in the classroom, with much of that demand coming from transnational corporations that operate truly without borders, obtaining their raw resources from through- out the world, their labor from throughout the world and their markets likewise throughout a borderless world. Developing nations with a growing middle class began to expand public relations activities, and newly democratized nations found a need to talk to citizens who had new liberty to make political and economic decisions. As a result, there is much shar- ing of knowledge among public relations scholars/ educators and practitioners worldwide who realize that they have much to learn from one another. Textbooks such as this one are translated into

multiple languages. This textbook, either in its inter- national English edition or in foreign languages, is used in countries ranging from South Africa to Buryatia, Siberia, and is found on practitioners’ desks in places ranging from Moscow to China.

With the globalization of public relations, educa- tional standards for public relations and the body of knowledge on which these would be based are more diverse than ever before, although conversations worldwide, including by the U.S.-based Commission on Public Relations Education, are increasing. A code of ethics is a problem, too; the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Manage- ment, a coalition of public relations professional associations representing 70 countries, introduced the Stockholm Accords, which included a code of ethics designed to satisfy the need for a universal practice of ethics in public relations, during its World Public Relations Forum in Stockholm, Swe- den, in July 2010.

Public relations practitioners in the USA now compete with practitioners throughout the world, and will continue to do so. Lack of international experience is a problem for some public relations practitioners who might never have imagined they would need it. More and more companies and non- profit organizations are involved in international activities.

More women continue to stream into the field, as documented and examined in The Velvet Ghetto. Although male PR practitioners moved into CEO or top PR slots, women did not. Most women in public relations held lower-status positions and earned considerably less than men in similar posi- tions. Most women at the top reach it by heading their own agencies, although there have been excep- tions, such as the late Betsy Plank, who was executive vice president and treasurer of Edelman Public Rela- tions and department head of Ameritech as well as the first woman president of PRSA, and Jean Way Schoonover, former vice chair of Ogilvy Public Rela- tions Group. Alma Triner was vice president of cor- porate communication for Arthur D. Little, Inc., until she and several others went into business for themselves handling the promotion of entrepreneur- ial ventures.

Internationally, the female spokesperson who gained the highest visibility in the early 1990s was the articulate Hanan Ashrawi. As spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation to the U.S.-initiated Mid- dle East peace talks from the time they began in early

118

52 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

For many Americans, the 21st Century began on 9/11/01. Terrorist attacks in the USA required expert public relations practice as the U.S. government attempted to reassure Americans—to explain the USA’s position on increased security while addressing concerns about the potential erosion of civil lib- erties—and as airlines and tourist destination sites attempted to reassure Americans that they could travel safely due to increased security. Victoria Clarke became one of the most recognized public rela- tions practitioners in her role as U.S . assistant secretary of defense for public affairs—that is, as pub- lic relations practitioner for the Department of Defense .

But many other events following the dawn of the new millennium have required professional public relations practice: the financial crisis of 2008, with the demise of large organizations and government bailouts of others; the shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona, in January 2011 that killed six people and seriously injured 14 others, including a member of the U.S. House of Representatives; massive floods, cyclones, tornadoes and other weather-related devastation throughout the world; political turmoil during the 2009 disputed Iranian election and the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian “Arab Spring Twitter revolutions," in which mobile phones and the Internet played a key role; rising food and fuel prices; and a host of other events and issues that have required the use of public relations knowledge and skills by all parties involved.

Worldwide, new democracies have continued to emerge and develop, often resulting in much con- fusion and social and economic upheaval , and other countries have become far more oppressive toward their citizens; diversity problems have increased as different ethnic groups have either attempted or resisted living together; and high-profile lawsuits have illustrated public health issues ranging from smoking to obesity.

In this global environment, companies have increased their global marketing and branding efforts, requiring public relations support. Public relations strategies and tactics have also been used in nation-building and in promoting the goals of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), also known as Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). The continuing and increasing sophistication of public relations practice is occurring in regions and countries of the world.

Starck and Kruckeberg have pointed to three phenomena that have continuing effects on human- kind and have tremendous implications for professional public relations practice: (1) communication/ transportation technology, (2) multiculturalism and (3) globalism. They point to the immense societal changes that have occurred during recent years as a result of the escalating development of these linked variables. They note that teachers, governments and parents have difficulty knowing what knowledge and skills students will need to live in a future world that in many ways is impossible to predict and thus difficult to prepare for.

The need for professional public relations practice throughout the world is increasingly obvious, and those who are now studying public relations in colleges and universities will practice public rela- tions at a time in history when public relations will be needed throughout the world as never before; it will hopefully be appreciated and recognized for its importance as never before.

1991, she commanded world attention and praise for her ability to present the Palestinian case effectively in the court of public opinion.

Another highly visible international appointment occurred in the USA. In 1989, the Episcopal Church (Anglican Communion) elected as its first woman

bishop a former public relations practitioner, Barbara Harris. The African-American activist broke a 2,000-year-long barrier for women in Anglican communion.

Another trend of the 1990s was the growth of eth- nic public relations organizations. The consolidation

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 53

of people of like backgrounds in these organizations almost certainly highlights the failure of inclusiveness and diversity in the longer-established public relations organizations. However, it may help ethnic practi- tioners to eventually get a better foothold in other firms, because they will be more identifiable to those companies and institutions that want to diversify and are looking for talent.

It is difficult to study the careers of women and minorities in the field because public relations careers are not high profile. In fact, the role of the public relations practitioner often requires avoiding the spotlight. The result is that public relations his- tory has produced only a few identifiable personal- ities, even though the histories of all institutions, profit and nonprofit, have embedded in them the influence and work of men and women from a vari- ety of ethnic backgrounds and nationalities.

Media coverage of public relations in the 1980s and 1990s was extensive and often hostile—usually because of the perceived manipulation of public atti- tudes by sophisticated PR campaigns. An unpub- lished PRSA survey showed that most CEOs evaluate the quality of their public relations as being only fair. The principal weaknesses they cited were their internal and external public relations ad- visers’ inability to grasp management’s needs fully, to understand the institution’s goals and to chart a way to meet these goals.

In 1998, the Association of Public Relations Firms, which has its own code of ethics, was estab- lished with Jack D. Bergen as its first president. Longtime public relations practitioner Kathy Cripps was appointed president in 2002. Now renamed the Council of Public Relations Firms, this is the first trade association to represent the professional, ethi- cal and financial interests of U.S. PR firms.

Although the term public relations is widely used now, it is often misapplied and misused. Public rec- ognition of the term without full knowledge of what it means in its accepted professional sense allows many people on the fringes of or outside the field to inappropriately call themselves public relations practitioners.

A close examination of how media use the term public relations nevertheless shows that, overall, posi- tive references outweigh negative; most of the focus is on agencies, publicity and support to marketing. Probably because of that, the most attention to pub- lic relations by news media occurs in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The government’s use

of public relations is not always seen positively—as, for example, in the negative reactions to the govern- ment’s handling of information about the present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Katrina hurri- cane that devastated New Orleans and other U.S. cities on the Gulf of Mexico. Writers for the mass media still refer to “putting public relations spins” on news and using “PR gimmicks.”

Nevertheless, the use of public relations talent worldwide is increasing daily, and education for pub- lic relations continues to grow steadily in the USA and elsewhere. More universities throughout the world have begun adding public relations courses to their programs, and professional public relations organizations are providing continuing education for public relations. Much global attention has been paid to The Professional Bond: Public Relations Educa- tion for the 21st Century, the November 2006 Report of the Commission on Public Relations Education, which has a dedicated website (www.commpred. org) that has been accessed from throughout the world, and the Commission continues to study pub- lic relations education programs worldwide, most recently researching graduate programs and making recommendations for best curricula.

The outlook appears good for students who are preparing for careers in public relations. The Occu- pational Outlook Handbook of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics states that employment of public relations specialists is expected to increase by 24 percent from 2008 to 2018, which is much faster than the average for all occupations, although entry-level positions will nevertheless be competitive because the number of applicants is expected to exceed available career opportunities. The Handbook notes that an increasingly competitive business environment should spur demand for public relations specialists in organizations of all types and sizes and that employment in public relations firms should grow as firms retain agencies rather than sup- port full-time staff.119

PR Developments in the 21st Century Without question, at no time have public relations practice and the values that it brings to society been more important than in the 21st Century. A highly festive, but relatively uneventful, global welcoming of the year 2000 was soon superseded by the dra- matic calamity of 9/11, which in many ways defined the USA’s new challenges in balancing openness and

54 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

When former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan released his book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, in May 2008, many people used his allegations to criticize the practice of public relations. CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohen noted in a tele- vision broadcast on June 1, 2008:

... in every tragic drama comes a moment of comedic Zen. And in L Affair McClellan, that has come from the public relations community, where some now wonder whether the former flack vio- lated the “ethics” of his craft.

Apparently, an industry the very essence of which is to try to convince people that a turkey is really an eagle has a rule that condemns lying.

The Public Relations Society of America states: “We adhere to the highest standards of accu- racy and truth in advancing the interests of those we represent . ..” This clause strikes me as if the Burglars Association of America had as its creed “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”

Show me a PR person who is “accurate” and “truthful,” and I’ll show you a PR person who is unemployed.

The reason companies or governments hire oodles of PR people is because PR people are trained to be slickly untruthful or half-truthful. Misinformation and disinformation are the coin of the realm, and it has nothing to do with being a Democrat or a Republican.

So McClellan is a liar. Big deal. Thomas Jefferson was a liar, and so was Franklin Roosevelt. John Kennedy lied and so did Richard Nixon.

During the time it took me to write this essay I’ll bet dozens of PR people blatantly lied to their audiences, despite the presence of proclamations declaring that they should not.

You can’t try to convince someone that a milk cow is really a racehorse without lying. You can’t build a profession based a deceit and spin, then create “ethics” rules that call for honesty, and then criticize McClellan....

On June 2, 2008, the Public Relations Society of America reacted to both the book and to Cohen’s assessment of the overall integrity of public relations practitioners, calling for government reform and challenging the 2008 presidential candidates to adopt a communications policy engaging principles such as those in the PRSA Code of Ethics. The following day, and specifically in response to Cohen’s characterization of public relations, PRSA chair and CEO Jeffrey Julin issued a video response to the CBS legal analyst’s commentary. Julin refuted Cohen’s broad-stroked condemnation of the practice of public relations and reinforced the role of the PRSA Code of Ethics as a guide for public relations practi- tioners. The vast majority of public relations professionals do not deal with misinformation and disinfor- mation, Julin said. Rather, practitioners inform, educate and serve the best interests of the public. Julin argued that true professionals embrace strong ethics in how they think, what they say and how they advise their organizations’ management. Honest, respectful and transparent communication and trust- worthy behavior and relationship building are what public relations practice is about, Julin said.

McClellan is not a member of PRSA, and some could argue that his position as White House press secretary was more a political role than a public relations role. Nevertheless, the actions of prominent communicators such as McClellan reflect on public relations, and all practitioners suffer when wrong- doing in the public relations role and function occurs.

Sources: The Flak over Flacks, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/01/suriday/main4142947.shtml, retrieved June 18, 2008. McClellan Book Prompts National Public Relations Organization to Call for Government Reform and Candidate Code of Ethics, http://media.prsa.org/article_display.cfm?article_id=1177, retrieved June 18, 2008. PRSA CEO & Chair Jeffrey Julin Issues Video Response to CBS Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen http://media.prsa.org/article_display.cfm?article_id=1179, retrieved June 18, 2008.

Chapter 2 / PR's Origins and Evolution 55

positive relationships with domestic concerns about safety and security, as well as increased suspicions about people different from Americans. An increas- ingly diverse nation in which at least four states— Hawaii, New Mexico, California and Texas, as well as the District of Columbia—have a nonwhite major- ity; the aging and beginning retirement of post- World War II baby boomers; a global environment that includes wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as political tensions elsewhere throughout the world, i.e., the “Twitter revolution” in Tunisia and Egypt; the threat of continuing terrorism throughout much of the world; drastically rising prices of food and oil worldwide; concerns about global warming; and many other global happenings have created a 21st Century that is filled with high anxiety and much uncertainty among the world’s population. Public relations practi- tioners in the 21st Century are being asked to deal with relationship problems in an environment in which communication technology both permits and encourages a global society through the compression of time and space. Public relations practitioners and other professional communicators share inexpensive and easily accessible electronic channels of communi- cation with oftentimes anonymous and highly volatile “publics” that can form anywhere, acting swiftly and unpredictably to the detriment of practitioners’ orga- nizations and clients.

Public relations practitioners have been both facil- itated and challenged in their responsibilities by today’s communication technology and people’s cre- ative use of this technology. MP3 players, iPods, mobile phones (called “cell phones” in the United States, a contraction of “cellular phones”)—virtually everyone’s reliance on the Internet in their day- to-day activities. Pervasive marketing of and quick acceptance of a host of rapidly evolving communica- tion technologies that most people wouldn’t have dreamed of even a few years previously have drasti- cally changed both how people communicate and how they five as well as whom they trusted and what they expected from those institutions that they trusted. Edelman Public Relations’ 2011 “Trust Barometer” summarized three key expectations: business must align profit and purpose for social ben- efit; the current media landscape plus increased skep- ticism requires multiple voices and channels; demand for authority and accountability sets new expecta- tions for corporate leadership; and trust is a protec- tive agent and leads to tangible benefits, while lack of trust is a barrier to change.120 Mid-career public relations practitioners have long ceased relying on

traditional means of monitoring their organizations’ publics and on traditional mass media relations in communicating with these publics. Entry-level pub- lic relations practitioners and today’s students of public relations must continually keep up with not only global events and trends that affect all of soci- ety, but also communication technology that directly influences the relationships of people, organizations and governments in an increasingly complex and challenging world.

Discussion Questions 1. What factors have influenced how public relations

has been practiced at different times throughout the history of humankind ? In what ways have they affected how public relations is defined and what strategies and tactics have been used?

2. What changes do you predict in public relations practice in the near future in your country? In the world?

3. How can students prepare for public relations practice in the future when the future is difficult to predict?

Points to Remember Although public relations practice as we identify it today has existed only since the beginning of the 20th Century, it has grown from ancient practices. The particular political, economic and social cli- mate in the USA allowed public relations to estab- lish itself here first, so the practice is now firmly identified with the USA. Historians who view the practice of public relations positively see it as a broker for public support of ideas, institutions and people, but critics say this is done at the expense of individual autonomy. In the USA, the development of public relations has gone through several distinct stages, each related to the type of public relations predomi- nantly practiced during that period. The U.S. government’s effort to get support for World War I through the Creel Committee resulted in on-the-job training of many of the founders of the first public relations firms. The economic crash of the 1930s stirred indus- try’s concern for social responsibility as a way to regain public esteem and confidence.

56 Part One / Public Relations: Role, Practice and Origins

The PR effort during World War II was much better focused than that during World War I, but it also injected an element of disinformation; unlike Creel, Davis was not a presidential adviser. The post-World War II period saw PR counsel- ing come into prominence and begin to develop toward professional status. The ffactionalization of the nation in the 1960s and 1970s underscored the need for public rela- tions people who were good social scientists and good social counselors. The consumer movement was the origin of cur- rent environmentalism, which has general public support, although hype by institutions has created some skepticism about its positive value to the public. Business lost consumer loyalty during the post- World War II period, and employee loyalty became almost nonexistent. The stage of the 1980s and 1990s saw technology transform the world into a global neighborhood; this stage created an international demand for public relations talent, especially in developing and newly democratized nations. This need for public relations practitioners is being met by continuing education for practi- tioners by professional associations and by public relations courses added to university curricula. The high visibility of public relations, due to its stature and the increasing pervasiveness of news media, has resulted in increasing criticism. Many users of public relations talent don’t think PR people understand their organization’s real needs and goals and how to help meet these.

Cutbacks in employees, partly as a result of tech- nology, have resulted in the outsourcing of many services, including public relations. Many public relations practitioners who have left institutions have gone into business for them- selves, keeping their former employers as clients and adding clients throughout the world, which they can service easily through technology. The continuing and increasing sophistication of public relations practice is occurring in all regions of the world. Three phenomena have continuing effects on humankind and tremendous implications for pro- fessional public relations practice: (1) communica- tion/ transportation technology, such as the Web and Internet-based social media, (2) multicultural- ism and (3) globalism.

Other Related Websites to Review Association for Education in Journalism and Mass

Communication (AEJMC) http://www.aejmc.org

Council of Public Relations Firms http://www.prfirms.org

Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communica- tion Management http://www.globalpr.org/

International Communication Association (ICA) http://www.icahdq.org

International Public Relations Association (IPRA) http://www.ipra.org

Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) http://www.prssa.org/about/history.asp

To understand the role of research in public relations practice. To appreciate the need for ongoing research and the cyclical pattern of PR research. To realize when it is best to go outside to an individual or firm for research needs. To evaluate secondary research and determine its use in a PR situation. To know how to do primary research for PR fact finding.

Research

Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating

esearch is fundamental to every PR operation.R You can’t plan where your organization can go until you

know where you are. This applies to existing organizations as well as new ones, profit or nonprofit

Knowing the current status means you can begin to plan. Putting plans in place means testing before acting. What seems to be a good idea may not hold up under testing. Monitoring the tests guides your eventual action. Once a plan is implemented, it has to be monitored for adjustments when it is not working well or up to expectations.

The expectations—results that are anticipated as a result of time, energy and expense—then have to be evaluated. The evaluation has to be in terms of measurable change in behavior of targeted stakeholders. No action is worth the investment unless something really happens as a result.

When you find out where you are after the effort, then you can begin to plan again. Thus, research is an ongoing process, a cycle.

For most organizations, there is more than one activity in progress at once. There are spheres of planning and action that have to be coordinated so that their outcomes all contribute to the organization’s goals and objectives.

Public relations practitioners need to

understand the research process—not that they will conduct research daily (some will), but they will have to make important and informed decisions

about hiring research firms, evaluating

their proposals and end products, as well as helping to determine how that research benefits the “bottom line.”

—Don W. Stacks, author and professor, University of Miami, Coral Gables'

58 Part Two / Research for PR

Formal research may be quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative (statistical) is the what and qualitative is the why. You need both. Quantitative and qualitative research can focus either on interpersonal commu- nication and mediated or mass communication.

Until interpersonal, unmediated networks—such as what some call “social networks”—developed at a global level, most public relations research focused on mediated public communication such as print and electronic media from institutions. The lines between these are blurred and interactive. Beyond that, advertising used to be clearly distinct from all sorts of editorial content, fact and opinion. This is not so now. The many communication facets are constandy changing.

Goals and Objectives Don’t get caught up in trying to decide for yourself which one is which. You have to organization’s decision. All you need to know is what the organization says is the long-range expectation and which is the short-term, and thus the measurable, action. Certainly, short-term actions should con- tribute to achieving the long-term result, and that needs to be evaluated too.

To be sure that all actions fit the organization, look at each in terms of the organization’s mission statement: what is the organization’s role? Many organizations also have values statements that express the organization’s idealized guidelines for its behavior. Consistency of actions meeting value standards and representing the organization’s role is what builds recognition of the organization—its identity. Types of Research —Secondary and Primary A great deal of information about any organization’s activities, ongoing or anticipated, is already available. Such sources are called secondary. Although it is useful to explore information that has already been compiled, “compiled” doesn’t mean it is correct. The material may be dated or just wrong. Nevertheless, you need to know what exists and what is verified. Search engines will help you do this sort of secondary research.

Another secondary source is your organization’s own records. You need to know the organization’s history. Even if it is a new creation, you should have records showing details of its founding. Furthermore, one of your jobs will be keeping records of current information about the organization.

When you need new information, you’ll be doing primary research—informal or formal. In either case, the key is determining exactly what you want to find out and how you plan to use it. The difference between types of research is that informal processes have guidelines, research designs and protocols, but they are not as rigorous as those for formal research where designs and protocols are subjected to testing.

with thego

The Basics: Record Keeping and Retrieving

Getting started with a new public relations job or a new client means doing a lot of preliminary research and setting up a system for accumulating and ac- cessing information. Some large organizations have information systems officers and librarians. Informa- tion systems officers manage the current flow of information generated by the organization. Librar- ians maintain past records and archives such as files and documents. You will find that both are invalu- able as you gather the information you need.

Basic fact-finding starts with being meticulous in keeping the organization’s own records accurately, promptly and securely. The format for keeping all records needs to be organized, indexed and quickly retrievable in electronic formats that make sorting and combining possible so you can find organizational patterns. To protect individuals’ privacy and maintain organizational confidentiality, records have to be pass- word and firewall protected. Furthermore, all new or modified records must be backed up at least every 24 hours and transferred to an off-site location where they will be accessible in case of disasters such as fires, floods or invasion by hackers. Files can be lost, illegally removed or destroyed. Most organizations have security officers in charge of this, but be sure the public relations files are included. You may keep

Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 59

some records for your own use, but be sure these are also secure. Remember laptops can be lost or stolen.

Although some organizations do have complex data gathering and ways of storing information, access to these may be limited. Management Information Sys- tems (MIS) usually manage and store the current flow of data generated by the organization. Most of this is electronic, including scanned documents. Some docu- ments may be kept in archives managed by a librarian. Access to any of this information may come from another yet another office, perhaps Information Secu- rity. This means that not everything you need is always immediately available.

When you go to a new job, you will have to do some basic research to find out what organizational records are kept and where they are located within the organization. Then, you can set up your own system for instant retrieval of materials you need about the organization and storage of everything your office generates.

major activities, as well as a general how-to file, facil- itates planning and reduces strain on the nerves— provided that you can find what you filed.

Recorded information must be kept in a logical, well-organized and easily retrievable form. It is not valuable unless you can quickly find it. For example, suppose that you have been touting the high nutri- tional value of your company’s canned peaches, and a competitor releases a “market study” showing that its frozen peaches have more nutritional value because much of the nutrition in yours is destroyed in can- ning. A newspaper food editor calls you for a com- ment. If it takes you too long to find the nutritional information you need, the competition may win the headlines that day, and you may have to settle for a less prominent display of your response.

Finding and Using Research Resources

Keeping Records The kinds of records you will need to accumulate fall into several categories: information about the organi- zation itself (when it was begun, its mission state- ment, what it makes or does, its history), information about personnel (biographies of current and past lea- ders) and information about ongoing organizational activities. You will need file copies of all of the organi- zation’s formal communication—magazines, news- letters, annual reports, publicity, including serially numbered news releases, print advertising, CDs and all video.

There are two broad categories of research sources: scholarly and commercial. Academic institutions and faculty do scholarly research, sometimes with funding from government, foundations or professional associa- tions. Government research in the USA and in many other nations is free and available in print or off the World Wide Web. A problem with electronic data from the U.S. government, and probably that from the governments in other countries too, is that infor- mation in the public databases is not updated regularly. You need to cross-check electronic information found in government sources with other data on the topic, both electronic and print. Commercial research is done by research firms, advertising and public relations firms/agencies and other public relations/marketing- related companies. Much of it is also available in pub- lications such as annual reports and on websites.

Research results that are funded by academic insti- tutions or by professional associations or societies are usually published in scholarly or professional journals and made public. The Institute for Public Relations has a Bibliography of Public Relations Measurement avail- able for free from its website, http://www.instimte forpr.com.2 This bibliography, developed by Dr. Tina (Carroll) McCorldndale and Dr. Don Stacks, includes research topics, measurement scales and scaling techni ques, reliability tests, cases and research reports, peer- reviewed journals and other published sources on pub lie relations measurement.

Retrieving Information Systematic record keeping—fact collecting—can be an interesting and fun part of your job. The problem may be assembling all of the information in your office’s system. You need to be sure to import information from your mobile systems and home computer. Dupli- cate information is okay, but missing information is a problem. You can easily eliminate duplicates, but tracking down missing information can be very time consuming and difficult Office records can supply critically needed information (such as a record telling you what you did last year when the same problem cropped up), help you plan (by telling you what you need to put on your calendar) and help you flesh out stories or identify a news peg. Maintaining a file on all

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60 Part Two / Research for PR

The results of much commercial research are pro- prietary and generally are not made available to others. Scholars, however, may be given limited access to the results. Normally, research findings are withheld unless the commercial organization sees some benefit in releasing them.

information is essential. Usually, the editors will accept a correction if your organization is miscategorized.3

Your organization is likely to be one that is searched for information, just as you, as a researcher, may go to the U.S. Department of State for travel warnings about certain parts of the world or to the Securities and Exchange Commission for access to corporate filings online. Forbes magazine offers daily updates of the Dow Jones and other stock market indices, as well as copies of its current and past pub- lications. Maybe, you want to check to see if an issue you’ve been following is making the news, so you’ll go to CNN online. Emerging trends may come from places like the United Nations.

Formal research organizations such as Opinion Research Corporation, founded in 1938, offer comprehensive reports compiled from various surveys—its own, Roper’s and others. It is a sub- scription publication. Other research groups are member-based, as is the Newspaper Advertising Bureau. Publications of the U.S. Government Printing Office cover a multitude of issues and topics and are available on the Internet and in uni- versity libraries that are government document repositories. Much of the printed reference material you might need is available on CD-ROM.

Web Sources Carefully used, the World Wide Web is an excellent research tool. There’s reliable information on most established sites, but personal websites, listservs and newsgroups often have less valid information. Organi- zational sites are more dependable. You’ll need to watch sites that depend on survey research, including election surveys and the census. These two frequently used sources have problems that are fairly typical for all survey research. Issues arise from how the question was worded, when it was asked, of whom, how repre- sentative the responses are and so on. The Web is full of information, not all from survey research.

If you are comfortable with Web searches, try the All-in-One Search Page (see the list at the end of this chapter), which is updated about every 48 hours and compiles information from the World Wide Web, gen- eral Internet, desk references, other publications/litera- ture and other interesting searches/services. Each entry gives you a brief description and search strategy. The largest search engine is Google. It began as a Stanford University research project and is adding library hold- ings from all over the world. Google began this project by getting permission to digitize the holdings of the Oxford University library in the UK. Although the project has encountered some copyright issues, Google continues to add new holdings and has attracted com- petitors offering digitalized books. Yahoo! is the second argest search engine of a wide field.

Search engines will get you to websites; you will find a few of them listed in each chapter’s website section for convenience. The problem with the search databases, though, is that they are sometimes organized by people who collect and categorize information on a volunteer basis (http://www.dmoz.org). This can make it difficult to find what you are looking for. This is also a problem for your company. Some Web editors include their own opinions and associate your website with “opposing” sites that are critical of your company. Companies regis- ter their sites with database editors and generally add the word official to their tide so that activist sites with a simi- lar name are not considered a corporate source. Moni- toring how search engines find your organization’s

Academic Journals, Professional and Trade Publications Academic journals contain a wealth of research useful to public relations. Most of it is theory-based, and that type of research is in short supply in the working world. One difficulty with academic research is that because funds are limited and research is expensive, university profes- sors often use an available subject pool: students. Not only do students vary, often distinctively, from univer- sity to university, but theyare also considered education- ally elite in comparison to people their age without formal education beyond high school. There’s some excellent applied research done by companies for clients, but it is proprietary. Some scholarly publications are free, and those that require subscriptions can be accessed in most university libraries and some public ones. Many are available online, and abstracts of scholarly research are generally online and free. Likewise, professional publications attempt to offer continuing education of sorts. Some, such as The Strategist and PR Tactics from PRSA, are membership-based, but others, such as PRWeek and The Ragan Report, are trade publications and go to subscribers.

Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 61

have to choose the publics, of course, and plan the questions, but often, tools such as SurveyMonkey (surveymonkey.com) can help you explore opinions from special audiences.

In looking at research data or planning for studies, you need to think about the group in which you are interested. Consider the population in terms of its demographics—hard, factual data such as age, gen- der, educational level; the psychographics—a like- ness in audiences that is unrelated to demographics, such as lifestyle, music preferences, hobbies; and geodemographics—where people live, such as zip code areas.

Using Research for Planning and Monitoring

Understanding how to use existing research is essen- tial. U.S. Census data are a mother lode of informa- tion about who lives where and with whom, gender, educational level, ethnicity and race, as well as what the earn and their mobility.

Some national surveys conducted by polling organi- zations are public and appear in the news media. News media are sometimes partners in a poll. Information from public surveys can be used in planning by your organizations; however, if you incorporate it in a report, be sure you credit the survey source and the medium in which it appeared. You may want to use the same ques- tionnaire and methodology with some of your publics/ stakeholders so you can compare the results with the more generalized study. Often, you can request and receive information to use the study, or portions of it, by giving credit Occasionally, there is a charge.

If you are considering using the results of a survey, you need to know who sponsored the survey; how the survey subjects were chosen; the dates of inquiry; how the survey data was gathered—online or by phone (land- line only or mobile and landline), by post or in person; who did the interviewing if in person; the wording of the questions; the population surveyed; the size of the sam- ple; the size of the subsample if only a part was used; and how many of those who were asked actually responded.

Telephone interviews using landline systems give inadequate results. With laws restricting unsolicited calls, telephone identification systems and voicemail, this is becoming a less reliable way to gather informa- tion. The question of using landline phones only is being raised because people with landlines often don’t answer their phones, but just use an answering device and determine whether to respond. When autodial pro- grams are used, there is a good chance that respondents will be elusive. Many members of the population may be using only mobile phones, and the reason these are not considered very often for phone surveys is cost— which is double or triple a landline. The calls have to be made individually, rather than using an autodial sys- tem, and the respondents have to be compensated for the minute charges if they are not on an unlimited calling plan. Furthermore, mobile users may be in an inconvenient place or distracted when responding, and thus, may be reluctant to be connected very long.

Electronic surveys are much easier to manage now that software is available to manage them. You still

Finding Out About Trends and Issues For both planning and monitoring, you need to know what people are thinking about and doing relative to your organization or your client’s business. In planning, you need to know where you are initially, a benchmark, before you implement a new strategy; otherwise you have no way of evaluating progress, or the lack thereof. Furthermore, you need to know the environment in which your strategy will be implemented. (See Chapter 8 on management.) Research for benchmarking the current status and research for initial scanning of the environment helps in developing a strategy and plan- ning message statements.

Once you have implemented a public relations program or campaign, you need to watch the envi- ronment to see if anything undergoes an unantici- pated change that calls for a different approach. For instance, consider this case involving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA:

From health studies of U.S. citizens, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a report about the amount of salt (sodium) in diets, stating that 90 percent of Americans consume too much sodium and should reduce that intake significantly.

Guidelines about diet are issued every five years by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Salt contri- butes to high blood pressure, leading to heart disease, stroke, heart failure and kidney disease, and some peo- ple are more susceptible to the effects of salt.The FDA recommends that people with hypertension, middle- aged and older adults and blacks should limit their sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams a day, rather than the recommendation of about 2,300 mg, for everyone else, less than half a teaspoon, 5,000 milligrams.

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62 Part Two / Research for PR

Noting that about 75 percent of the average intake of salt comes from processed foods, the processed foods industry responded by agreeing to reduce the amount of salt in products. However, food manufac- turers responded by saying that people like the taste of salt, so their reductions would be incremental and over time. Somewhat different research came from another U.S. government source.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) encour- aged all retailers of food as well as health profes- sionals and health care providers to take action immediately to reduce sodium in diets. The CDC noted that one in three U.S. adults already has high blood pressure and about 90 percent of U.S. adults will develop it in their lifetimes.4

The warnings caught public attention, and res- ponses from every sector amounted to a concerted effort to act. Labels on processed and packaged foods from manufacturers as well as locally prepared foods “to go” and information on menus began list- ing sodium content more prominently. The CDC study observed that people often get salt in foods that don’t taste salty, such as breads and desserts.

Changes like this in the public environment have chain reaction consequences with public relations impact.

significant number, still consider themselves “insiders,” showing up for major events and often contributing time, money or in-kind goods or services.

What an organization needs to know about all of its stakeholders, as diverse a group as each might be, is what they know, or think they know, about the issue or situation at hand and the organization as a whole. Public relations officers must understand the organization’s dynamics and how these may be affected by different situations or issues.

Organizations that have more open communica- tion systems with all of their stakeholders and are interactive with them generally get fewer surprises than organizations with closed communication sys- tems that prefer one-way communication, rather than dialogues. Consistent, long-term relationships with stakeholders seem to have a positive effect on reputation because it builds trust. (See Chapter 8.)

You know from personal experience that relation- ships change over time and as circumstances change. Such is the case also with stakeholders, which is why these groups have to be monitored in an ongoing way. Messages must be adjusted for different groups, perhaps even specifically designed for them. Think of your uni- versity. Like any organization, it has “employees.” Who are these? Everyone from groundskeepers to the administration—and including some students—are employees. Everyone who gets a regular paycheck from the organization is an employee, although faculty are not always happy with that designation. These employees are certainly not homogeneous, even within narrower groups, nor are they static. Changes occur and change internal dynamics.

To communicate effectively, you need to know your stakeholders’ demographics—hard, factual data such as age, gender, educational level; their psycho- graphics—lifestyle, music preferences, hobbies and their geodemographics—where people five. Surveys will help examine attitudes and beliefs held by them and among them. Messages designed for stakeholders need to be tested, and the best media to reach them have to be determined. Again, think of your university and how communication has changed within the delivery of important safety warnings, for example.

“Media” simply means channels of communica- tion. It always has meant that, but now many more media exist. Mass media used to mean mediated information that went to broad audiences through generally accessible channels—radio, television, printed magazines and newspapers. With the Inter- net and the use of personal electronic devices, a

What You Want to Know About Publics/Stakeholders For decades, the “publics” of public relations efforts have been described and categorized by scholars and practitioners. More recendy, the term stakeholders is used instead. The more inclusive term is appropriate in a highly interactive global society. (See Chapter 1.)

As a term, “publics” always has been awkward, since no public is entirely homogenous and conflicting interests have always complicated relationships within and among different groups. In a university, for exam- ple, students and regents or trustees may not react in the same way to something like tuition increases.

Furthermore, although an organization can prioritize its usual contact groups, anysituation or issue can create a reordering. Interaction among groups with any interest in or connection to the organization and its mission blurs any firm definition of which is an internal and which is an external group. Many problems have arisen, some even resulting in crises, when a group the organization consid- ered external considered itself internal. At the university level, think of alumni. Although they have graduated and may be scattered around the world, some, not all but a

Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 63

medium means any channel that carries a message. Ketchum calls the situation “a melding of media” (Robyn Massey, “Media in the 21st Century: The Great Melting Pot,” Ketchum).5

Although telephones are channels, landline phones carrying mostly unmediated messages generally were not considered mass media. Some messages, though, often were mediated, as you know from solicitations for your vote or a donation. Now such appeals may come to your mobile phone as a text message to which you can respond with a monetary contribution. Text appeals for help after a 2010 hurricane hit Haiti brought an instant flow of donations.

content distributed worldwide instantly have shifted the balance of power to more actual two-way, sym- metric communication. (See Chapter 1.) Ketchum’s annual survey “Media Myths and Practices” con- tained the observation that the growth of a “partici- oatory media landscape means that audiences are laving just as much influence, if not more, than the content providers themselves.”

In the third year of the survey, 2008, results showed more media channels being used, as many as 40, resulting in fragmentation of media use, especially by “influential consumers.” Ketchum’s report noted key differences between media consumption of key influencers and the general population: key influen- cers made more use of search engines, nonjouralist blogs, video-sharing on websites, new media such as videocasts, RSS news feeds, podcasts, mobile media and specialty information portals such as WebMD.

In 2008, Ketchum also conducted another survey for the first time, this one looking at young social influencers (Alicia Stetzer, “Teen Social Media Influ- encers Wield Power Online and Offline,” Ketchum). These 13- to 19-year-olds, unlike others their age, are more likely to participate in social media activities, but are also more active socializing and influencing their peers offline too. The 15- to 17-year-olds were the most engaged online, but Ketchum described all of this age group as “hyper-sharing, hyper-purchasing and hyper-consuming.” As a group, these teens listen to music, play video games as well as read books, newspapers and magazines online. Something these youngsters have in common with adults is that they trust their own friends, people their own age, more than anyone else. The two groups also share a search for truth. Teenagers want a straightforward approach to them from brands; however, adults want credibility, regardless of the communication channel.8

What this means for public relations practitioners is that you need to know what is being said across the media spectrum because messages are being com- pared. You have to know the media choices of your stakeholders and be prepared to engage in a conver- sation with them, and not a private one. Craft your message carefully, choose the channel wisely, moni- tor responses and evaluate results. (For applications advice, see Chapter 8 on management.)

Current Channels of Communication The shift in the power balance between organizations and their publics has also changed PR practitioners’ choices for sources of information. The Haiti situation was relayed to the world—voice, photos and messages— by “social media.” The term is one most people recog- nize, but the definition depends on the user’s familiarity with the technology. PoynterOnline—in its glossary of tech terms by Jennifer Lee—offers these definitions fortwo media categories:

social media—A broad term referring to the wide swath of content creation and consumption that is enabled by the many-to-many distributed infra- structure of the Internet. Unlike legacy media, where the audience is usually on the receiving end of content creation, social media generally allows three stages of interaction with content: 1) produc- ing, 2) consuming and 3) sharing. The term social media is incredibly broad and refers to blogging, wikis, video-sharing sites like YouTube, photo- sharing sites like Flickr and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. legacy media—An umbrella term to describe the centralized media institutions that were dominant during the second half of the 20th Century, includ- ing—but not limited to—television, radio, newspa- pers and magazines, all of which generally had a uni-directional distribution model. Sometimes “legacy media” is used interchangeably with “MSM” or “mainstream media.” Legacy media sit in contrast with social media, where the production and sharing is of equal weight to the consumption.6 What Media Analysis Can Tell You

National and international research firms can do sophis- ticated analyses for an organization, and it’s worth it unless your concern is very limited. Organizations may

For public relations practitioners, the real conse- quence is how interactive media with the injection of

64 Part Two / Research for PR

just need to know where their publics get their informa- tion. A church deciding to put much of its information on its website has to find out first who wouldn’t get the information if it only appeared electronically.

For global projects, or even more regionally limited ones, commercial research firms such as Cision provide media analyses as well as distribution, and primarily dis- tribution systems such as Medialink Worldwide can help you place data and check its use. Content analysis of media is useful in determining which audiences might be reached through which media, what the best message would be for the public reached by each medium and the tone of that message. Once material is in the media, the results are evaluated for potential image, given the size and placement of the material and the audience at that particular place, day, time and so on. It’s not just general mass media that can be analyzed, but also trade press and professional publications.

In this respect, media analysis examines all levels: input into the messages; actual output, meaning what was used, where and how many people were exposed; and the possible outcome. This, though, is only exposure. Other survey research is needed to find out the So what? You need to know how many people heard the message, found it credible, acted on it and changed as a result

from market to market This requires that the ratings be talked by national rating services. Ratings are avail- able from a number of such services, the most familiar being Nielsen, which measures Internet as well as television use. Nielsen Online research looks at online video use, now a standard source for both news and entertainment from network and user-generated sites that post clips.

Nielsen has competition from both TNS Media Research, TiVo and the worldwide coverage of Criti- calTV 4.0. Collecting data about TV use changed with the national move from analog to digital: now allTVsets have a box on top. Nielson’s agreement with Comcast allows it to measure video-on-demand use as well as tra- ditional programming. Additionally, in 2008, Nielson bought IAG Research, which uses online panels to get reactions to commercials, such as finding out how products/services that are advertised are received and remembered. Another change by Nielsen is the avail- ability of online advertising gross rating points (GRP) measuring reach and frequency blended with demo- graphics on the audience of the online participant, such as Facebook. Nielsen has been criticized for copying whole conversations in social media sites, a tactic called “scraping,” and selling the data, identity intact, to mar- keters. Some might argue that this is no different from the audience information Nielsen has been in the busi- ness of selling for decades, but it is seen as more invasive. Nielsen’s social media monitoring collects data from blogs, message boards and various networks, then alerts companies to both compliments and complaints.

Radio audiences are measured by Arbitron, which uses Portable People meters, pocket-sized devices, so it can capture a larger audience in real listening times and station changes.

One difficulty is determining how much audience attention is truly captured by this monitoring. For exam- ple, of the teenagers in the Ketchum study, 88 percent of the influencers and 74 percent of the others said they were texting while watching TV, and 79 percent of the influencers and 66 percent of others said they were online while watching television. Among adults in the other 2008 Ketchum study, 65 percent of all adults watched regular network news, down from 71 percent in 2006, and 62 percent watched local news, down from 74 percent in 2006. The question remains, “What else were they doing while the news was on?”

Although much has been made of “multitasking,” brain studies of attention span that began because of the problems that occurred while people were driving and talking on cell phones, texting or listening to the

Media Audience Information News media have to do research for their own mar- keting and content planning. What is available to media clients is advertising research. Newspapers and magazines are selling subscriber information and cir- culation figures. The latter are verifiable through the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). These publica- tion profiles are available from salespeople wanting to sign a contract for advertising. Although most of the information in the profiles is strictly demographic and geodemographic, some newspapers do readership sur- veys that are made available. Such surveys tell you who reads what part of the publication and how often and thus, somewhat indicate psychographics. Online pub- lications count on “hits,” or how often people visit a site and are thus exposed to information and advertis- ing content. You may have seen, when you entered a site, that you were the 1,578th visitor that day. Of course, this is an automatic tabulation and not entirely accurate. If you visit Amazon.com four times in one day, each time you are a “new” visitor for the day.

Broadcast media use rating services to gather information about who is viewing what and when. To be effective and useful, ratings must be comparable

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Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 65

radio or CD, clearly show that we can’t multitask, either as adults or youngsters. What we do, it seems, is pay attention to no more than two things at a time. The brain splits the attention demanded by assigning A to one part of the brain and B to the other, each part working independendy. Adding a third thing means something gets dropped because our brains apparendy have only two hemispheres in which to handle task management.9

Final evaluations must be comprehensive to be use- ful. The interpretation is just as important because the research may have some indicators for redirecting the organization. Research is critical to internal evalua- tions as well, especially in employee development. (See Chapter 8.)

The process that began with research thus ends with research information that guides us in setting new goals and objectives.

Informal ResearchUsing Research to Plan and to Evaluate Outcomes

Informal research generally is conducted without agreed-upon rules and procedures that would enable someone else to replicate the study. The results of such research can be used only for description, not for predic- tion. (See Table 3.1.) Among the categories of techniques frequently used in informal research are unobtrusive measures, communication audits and media research. There are risks and responsibilities involved. Experience and intuition play a role, and ethical considerations must be given full weight in all research endeavors.

Unobtrusive Measures Informal research makes extensive use of unobtrusive measures to gather information. Such measures per- mit researchers to study someone or something with- out interfering with or interrupting what’s going on. Field experiments are often designed to incorporate these techniques. Unobtrusive measures give a researcher a general notion of what has occurred, but no real proof. If, for example, you use several dif- ferent sources to issue color-coded tickets to an event, you can count how many people used each color of ticket, but you cannot tell from where they got them.

Communication Audits Informal research also makes wide use of opinion audits and communication audits. The typical procedure for either type of audit is identical. (See Figure 3.1.) Opinion audits may be social, economic or political. Some opinion audits use survey research, but many concentrate on observational data such as economic indicators, trends that note what is happen- ing but do not explain why and experiential reporting (people recounting individual experiences).

Communication audits attempt to evaluate various publics’ responses to an organization’s communica- tion efforts. (See Figure 3.2.) Opinion audits and

Documenting outcomes means showing the people for whom you work—profit or nonprofit—that you and your staff understand what the organization wants to accomplish and are helping make that hap- pen. The focus is on sustainability. Organizations have four interlocking results orientations: financial, reputation, stakeholder relations and policies that contribute to the public good.

Documenting outcomes begins with planning actions that involve those four areas. Planning with a purpose keeps the public relations activities focused and avoids mismanagement of resources. You need to craft a public relations plan that covers these areas, using overlap where you can. In the planning process, build in monitoring measures so you can redirect resources when something is not working or when feedback suggests a new avenue of opportunity.

You can anticipate the ways in which a plan can go wrong, but there is no substitute for pretesting pieces of the plan, such as messages and illustrations or themes for events. You can offend or alienate stakeholders unintentionally.

Pretest, act, monitor, adjust and finally, evaluate. Results of each one of these steps contribute to your final evaluation—what worked, how well it worked and what you learned.

You’ve probably been part of a pretest at some time. If you got a sample size of a new product in the mail and you were then queried about your opinion, you were in a test group. Or you might have gotten some coupons in your newspaper that not everyone got. Marketers use split runs of publications to test. You might even have been interviewed at the mall, where you were asked to look at something or read something and react to it The compensation for a person’s time in this situation is generally a coupon for a refreshment in the food court

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66 Part Two / Research for PR

Table 3.1 Informal Research: Pluses and Minuses of Various Techniques

Technique Pluses Minuses

1. No “intrusion” to affect publics 2. Physical evidence 3. Usually less costly, more convenient

Unobtrusive measures 1. Investigative error 2. Recorder error 3. Fixed data 4. Limited physical evidence inappropriate to

psychological or sociological study

1. Special sensitivity to “guinea pig” effect 2. Sensitivity to confidentiality 3. Those who are less educated are more likely to

give “socially acceptable” responses 4. Responses to visible cues from interviewer 1. Same as for unobtrusive measures 2. Often incomplete documentation 3. Difficult to put in context 4. Not a measure of audience impact

Communication audits 1. Possible to locate “problems in the making” 2. Detect breaks in the communication chain 3. Develop images shared by different publics

Media research 1. Evidence of efforts (outputs) 2. Suggests other opportunities

Text not available due to copyright restrictions

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Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 67

Text not available due to copyright restrictions

Part Two / Research for PR68

communication audits can both be done with publics inside or outside an organization. Moreover, either can be used prior to a change (such as at the begin- ning of a campaign) to establish a benchmark or baseline against which subsequent results can be measured.

When organizations began doing communication audits in the 1970s, mostly to find out how to improve internal communications, they were infor- mal, qualitative-only studies done by public relations firms.

Keeping track of interactive media is best done by using a “dashboard” that keeps a record of topics and responses and can provide metrics for use in moni- toring and evaluating. The organization, though, has to decide what metrics will be in the dashboard— precisely what it is it that the organization wants to know? Software is available for comprehensive media analysis from companies like Media Miser (www. mediamiser.com). However, many organizations prefer outsourcing monitoring and evaluating social media to specialists such as Katie Paine’s PR Measurement Dashboard (kdpaine.blogs.com) or Forrester Research Metro Monitor.

Louis C. Williams, chairman of the Lou Williams Companies, Inc., and David Dozier, professor at San Diego State University, say that all changed in 1974 when Congress passed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which required orga- nizations to show how employees received informa- tion about their benefits. Human resources (HR) consulting firms began to take away the auditing measurement business, causing public relations firms to come up with measurement methods to keep that part of the business.10

The first firm to develop a qualitative/quantitative process was Hill & Knowlton, with researcher Walt Lindenman. The protocol that Lindenman devel- oped set the model for audits: conversations with management, focus groups with employees and/or organizational members, then a quantitative survey to priority publics receiving the organization’s com- munications. The audit was done to untangle organi- zational communication problems. The purpose of audits now, though, say Williams and Dozier, is to determine whether organizational communications are contributing to success.11

Risks and Responsibilities The validity of sources used in informal research is always a serious issue. For example, in looking at audiences that media claim to reach, figures should always be suspect. When using secondary informa- tion, always cross-check information with at least three sources before accepting its validity. Your responsibility in using and disseminating information from informal research is especially critical because other researchers are less likely to check the results. There’s not the process of replication that formal research offers.

Formal research must be considered along with informal in any final evaluation.

In doing your own research, you must pretest even exploratory experiments. You will be dealing with respondents’ interpretations of your questions, so you need to discover any misconceptions that might skew results or cause discomfort or distress. Most institu- tions doing research have review boards to vet all research using human subjects to stay inside the legal boundaries of using human subjects. Be sure your experiments are reviewed before you launch them.

Upholding ethical standards in gathering infor- mation is important too. You must be sure respon- dents understand how the study is being conducted, what the purpose is and how the results will be used. You should protect respondents by guaranteeing them anonymity.

Anonymity is especially critical in the audit process, which is usually done with employees. It’s important, too, in processes that use employee suggestions, either put in boxes or sent by email. Another process for gathering ideas to identify problems or to solve them is the Crawford Slip- Writing Method (CSM). The CSM asks participants

Media Research Informal media research usually involves the collec- tion of exposures of the organization to stakeholders in all media. Generally, this is just a counting or list- ing process with an informal analysis of the quantity and quality of coverage and the value of the exposure to certain categories of stakeholders.

This is a superficial process because nothing is learned about the results of the exposure and rarely is there any comprehensive analysis of even the expo- sure itself. Nevertheless, it can be useful as a moni- toring device, particularly in a melded media age when blogs and comments within networks and to interactive organizational websites can suggest atti- tudes and opinions.

Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 69

Two ideas about theory and research need attention because they both relate to evaluation. One is the myth that edited news in mediated media is, in effect, third-party endorsement and

therefore credible. The origin dates to times when news media enjoyed unquestioned credibility and divisions between news and advertising were absolute and quite clear.

The assumption, often presented as fact, was that readers and viewers recognized that material identified as advertising came from a source that had a vested self-interest, thus its credibility was suspect, i.e., “buyer beware.” However, information presented as news had been vetted by editors who verified the material and identified the source.

Some ranked publicity as seven times greater in credibility than advertising. That never was true. Research indicates that the credibility of information depends on a number of things, but whether the material is editorial (news) content or advertising is not a factor.

The other evaluation question has to do with how to measure publicity in relationship to advertis- ing values, which are set by cost for time or space in a medium.

Managers are always asking for return on investment (ROI) statistics. Public relations practitioners generally resist using advertising value equivalency to measure ROI,

saying that the space or time value doesn’t actually measure audience response or even real exposure. Who really saw the publicity, and, if they did, what was the effect in terms of behavior? The July 2010 Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles Adopted by Public Relations Industry Leaders states that “Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) is not the value of public relations” (www.instituteforpr.org).

Other public relations practitioners think using advertising equivalency as a value to show ROI is legitimate, although not the only measure. Some argue that using the advertising metric is likely to get attention, and then can be more fully explained.

This is not a new debate and is likely to continue. (The PR trade publication’s view on the issue is this: “Though they can be helpful in explaining PR’s value to number-hungry executives, ad value equivalencies are an outdated, nebulous measure of PR success and should only be used in very lim- ited circumstances.”)2

Kirk Hallahan, “No Virginia. It’s Not True What They Say About Publicity’s Third-Party Endorsement Effect!” Public Relations Review, 25(4) (Fall 1999) , pp. 331-50.

Should Advertising Value Equivalency Be Used As A Way to Measure PR?” “Yes” by Mark Scott and "No” by Jennifer Becker. PRWeek, 13(7 ) (July 2010), p. 27. 2<

(customers, employees, volunteers or any other pub- lic) to write a response to a focused question in 5 to 10 minutes. The process can use as many as three questions, resulting in a 30-minute session. The involvement of the public in the process gives man- agement special insights and creates public partici- pation, but it also raises expectations. Beyond that, sorting the slips is a concentrated, analytical and evaluative process that can be time-consuming. However, research shows that 4-6 percent of the ideas generated are immediately usable. The impor- tant thing in this process lies in keeping respondents anonymous. More ideas are generated when ano- nymity is promised.

The Role of Intuition and Experience Much informal research is conducted to confirm or deny the validity of concepts that are ultimately based on intuition or experience: Someone simply feels that something is true or that something is hap- pening. Research typically cannot prove that the intui- tion or experience is valid or invalid, but often, it can indicate that it is. Intuition and experience are very important because they may lead to a larger and more formal study that does yield scientific evidence.

While some people assert that formal research proves only what everyone already knows, the results of formal studies sometimes reveal that “common

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70 Part Two / Research for PR

knowledge” is in error—indeed, that it is little more than shared myth.

practitioners design unwieldy research projects that attempt to examine too much at once.

A realistic researcher usually designs simple projects that keep the significance of the research in proper perspective. This involves, in each case, isolating a test- able portion of the problem and knowing specifically what information is needed. You must take care to spell out what you want to know. Don’t set a goal such as “Find out how to establish effective communi- cations with employees” when you really want to know whether they would like to have an employee publica- tion. If the latter is the question, find out what kind of publication they want, how often it should be pub- lished and what subjects it should cover.

By establishing definitions, you also set para- meters for your research. If you want to find out what people think about the Center for Battered Women, first decide what you mean by “people”— social workers? Battered women? Everyone in the city or county? Residents of the neighborhood in which the Center is located? The purpose of your study is the determining factor in establishing these definitions.

Conducting a literature search simply means see- ing if someone has already done some work for you. Has someone conducted research that you can apply or use as a model? To answer this question, you must consult relevant research journals in the social sciences, communication and business. Buried deep in one or more of these may be precisely the infor- mation you need to obtain a unique insight into your research project.

Formal Research

Although some qualitative research can be informal, there is formal qualitative research. Quantitative research is generally formal. Both can be conducted in a laboratory setting or in the field. (See Table 3.2.)

Qualitative research describes, while quantitative research measures (by counting). However, it is now possible to code qualitative research for computer analysis, because so much data previously dependent on individual interpretation and analysis now is open to more scientific replication. Both types of research follow the same general steps, and in both, the researcher is responsible for representing the study honesdy, maintaining confidentiality and interpreting data objectively. The responsibility is great because many people are suspicious of research.

Steps in Formal Research The formal research process usually consists of the following steps:

1. State the problem. 2. Select a manageable (and measurable) portion of

the problem. 3. Establish definitions to be used in the measurement. 4. Conduct a search in published literature for

studies similar in subject or research approach. 5. Develop a hypothesis. 6. Design experiments. This step includes defining

the universe or population you want to study and then choosing a sampling method and a sample.

7. Obtain the data. 8. Analyze the data. 9. Interpret the data to make inferences and

generalizations. 10. Communicate the results.

Qualitative Research Many people are more comfortable with qualitative research than with quantitative, because they are sus- picious of statistics and feel that numbers neglect the human side of the story. Undeniably, statistics can be used to obscure, distort or exaggerate. Consider, for example, the debates about how many homeless peo- ple there are in the USA and how many people may go hungry here (not necessarily the same people). The percentages might be comparatively small, but whatever they are, the human suffering involved is indeed intolerable.

Although much formal research could be classi- fied as qualitative, three distinct techniques are gen- erally employed in qualitative work: historiography (including case studies and diaries), in-depth inter- views and focus groups.

Stating the problem with precision certainly aids in the second step. Deciding which part of the prob- lem most requires study or which part lends itself to testing may cast light into other dark comers. Because they ignore this step, many inexperienced

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Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 71

Table 3.2 Formal Research: Pluses and Minuses of Various Techniques

QUALITATIVE

Technique Historiography, case studies, diaries

Pluses 1. Give insight into situations 2. Suggest further research to examine the

“whys” that the research indicates 3. Provide detail that can put other research

into perspective

1. Allow interviewers to follow up on new lines of questioning

2. Permit respondent to describe in detail so that more information is available

3. Permit questions to be broader, more comprehensive

Minuses 1. Difficult to generalize from 2. Often lack rigor of scientific method 3. Time-consuming and require boiling down a lot of

data that are sometimes selectively presented

In-depth interviews 1. Difficult to transcribe and code for content analysis

2. Interviewer sometimes leads the witness or oth- erwise influences responses

3. Responses often include basically meaningless information

Focus groups 1. Some are quick and less expensive than other research methods

2. Flexible in design and format 3. Elicit more in-depth information and often

point out “whys” of behavior, as well as showing the intensity of attitudes held

1. Often used as conclusive evidence when they are merely tools to be used with other research

2. Sometimes not handled well by moderator, so not all participants express opinions

3. Sometimes not representative of the population

Panels 1. Same as for focus groups 2. May be chosen to represent a population

1. Same as for focus groups 2. Same people used over time “learn” some of the

reasons for difficulties and cease to be representative

QUANTITATIVE

Technique Content analysis

Pluses 1. Shows what appeared, how often, where

and in what context 2. Allows comparison with other data,

especially about publics 3. Useful in tracking trends and in monitoring

change

Minuses 1. Expensive and time-consuming 2. Provides no information about the impact of

messages and audiences 3. Some information may not be in the media

Survey research 1. Flexible 2. Varied—administered by mail, telephone,

computer , personal or group interview 3. Capitalizes on enjoyment of expressing

opinion

1. Respondents may not tell the truth, because they don’t remember different from how they really act

2. Inflexibility of instrument doesn’t allow for in- depth expression and intensity of true feelings

3. Wrong questions may be asked of wrong people

Historiography, Case Studies, Diaries People who write biographies or historical narratives about actual happenings must first collect facts from informed sources—both secondary sources (books, articles,

journals and so on) and primary sources (people who were involved in some way). The researchers then organize these facts to provide the necessary back- ground for understanding the problem or issue they

72 Part Two / Research for PR

are examining. When PR people produce background papers or position papers, they rely on this methodol- ogy and reporting technique—called historiography— which reconstructs the past in a systematic and orderly manner. It involves recording, analyzing, coordinating and explaining past events.

Case studies use all available factual data to exam- ine issues, events and organizations systematically. Diaries are used in field studies and consist of detailed reports of personal experiences and actions.

All of these approaches are so much easier now that there are search engines to help. You can search a topic anywhere and everywhere on the Web with Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts). Other search approaches are identified at http://googleguide.com/ advanced_operators_reference.html. The Internet also helps in locating sources for additional information, such as that gathered by interviewing. Finding some results of interest on the Internet can guide you to the organization that did the research. Contacting the source helps you get more information, evaluate the methodology and determine its usefulness to your own research. In-Depth Interviews As is the case with informal audits, most in-depth interviews are conducted with a specifically chosen audience. But in these formal interviews, the questions are pretested and are usu- ally asked of all respondents. The questions are designed to produce open-ended responses that the researcher must interpret. The respondents selected are encouraged to talk freely and fully. This technique is used extensively in motivational research—the study of the emotional or subconscious reasons that He behind decision making. However, motiva- tional research requires highly trained interviewers and skilled analysis.

Open-ended questions are often used with in- depth interviewing because they give the interviewer an opportunity to follow up equivocal answers with more probing questions. For example, while trying to ferret out employer bias toward hiring members of minority groups, some in-depth interviewers asked general questions at first and then zoomed in with questions such as this: “If you had two applicants absolutely equal in terms of educational background and experience, and one was a woman or a member of a minority race, or both, which would you hire?” Fol- lowing up, the employer’s answer needs to be specific so it could then be interpreted. One example used in questions to determine prejudice on the part of

potential jurors can begin with self-disclosed identifi- cation, but followed up with a personalized question of a social nature. The follow-up question of personal association often conflicts with how a person responds in self identification to something like, “No, I’m not a racist” or “No I don’t have a problem with people of that faith” when you ask if you would want a member of your immediate family to marry someone of a par- ticular race or faith.

Some researchers feel that open-ended questions reduce error in reply, because the interviewee can respond in his or her own words rather than hav- ing to fit his or her answer into a category set up by the researcher. Errors are often made in evalu- ating such questions, however, because interviewers may interpret responses in fight of their own opinions.

Consequently, most researchers prefer that the answers be coded by someone other than in the field by the interviewer. This reduces the impact of interviewer bias.

Problems with field/onsite interviews have been reduced over time. Interview questions are created for electronic response and sent to interviewees who were contacted earlier by email and agreed to respond. Sometimes, the questions are simply included in an email message, especially if they are brief, but occasionally an electronic instrument is used for the questions, though in an essay, not sur- vey, format. Focus Groups In the focus group technique, the interviewees chosen generally represent one specific public, because homogeneous groups usually con- verse more freely. Alternatively, however, focus groups may include representatives from each of a number of different publics. In a university setting, such publics might include faculty, staff, administra- tors, students, alumni and perhaps parents, regents or trustees. Generally, a focus group consists of 12-15 interviewees.

The key to the session’s success is the moderator, who must be a skillful interviewer, adept at keeping the conversation moving and tactful when acting as referee or devil’s advocate. Research groups often videotape these sessions, too, and they often use a five monitor so that viewers—the researchers or the client—can slip notes to the moderator during breaks in the session and get additional questions on the agenda. Focus groups can be used to pretest and posttest message statements before and after

Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 73

communication campaigns. The focus interview is often used as a prelude to developing a questionnaire.

Misuse of this technique appears when focus group results are the basis of judgments made with- out benefit of more specific research. Focus groups should be used only as a preliminary or guidance tech- nique. Prior to technology making social networks so available, the problem of getting respondents to complete questionnaires pressed researchers to go with focus group data only. Now acting on focus group information alone is not necessary.

Focus groups are not the same as panels, although the two research techniques share some advantages and disadvantages. Panels (groups of people queried on several occasions) are sometimes used for discus- sions in issue development, but they generally are not considered appropriate for formal research. Focus groups are.

Five steps are followed in focus group research, some of which are identical to the steps involved in overall research methodology:12

5. Prepare all materials that the group will need, including a list of basic questions to serve as a guide for the moderator.

Recruiting focus groups is increasingly difficult because people have so little extra time and because the compensation is usually product gifts, not money. Personal contacts work best, or drawing from a com- pany’s clients. The corporate website can be used to offer visitors a chance to participate. Email is another way. It is difficult to get people to participate unless you schedule a convenient time. Always, there are “no shows,” so consider that when choosing participants.

Measuring Qualitative Research Although textual analysis has been used to measure qualitative research, many researchers are uncom- fortable with analysis of interviews, open-ended responses to questionnaires, results of panel discus- sions or transcribed focus groups discussion. The more formal process involves transcribing data, determining what it is to be measured against some theoretical background and detailing what is being examined such as themes running through the quali- tative materials or concepts the information seems to present or represent.

Then, the coding of the information begins. Not counting, but coding. Coding means creating units of data that capture the specifics as well as the com- plexities that qualitative material yields and that are significant to interpreting what is said. Coding involves keeping in mind what computer program to use. The complexity of coding has turned many qual- itative researchers to what is called the grounded theory model, which involves coding every portion

1. Define the problem to be examined. 2. Choose the part of the problem to be looked at

by the participants. 3. Decide how many focus groups are needed and

choose the participants. (Because group selection methods are likely to create nonrepresentative groups, more than one group is necessary in almost every situation.)

4. Work out all the details of the session, including notification of the participants, selection of the moderator, physical arrangement of the inter- view area and compensation of the participants.

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Part Two / Research for PR74

systematically. This model is generally used in devel- oping or enriching, rather than testing, a theory. Using open coding, as some do, often doesn’t capture consistency. A number of computer programs exist to help with this endeavor, and it is best to find one that will produce the type of analysis you need.

Quantitative Research An important difference between qualitative research (which is based primarily on description) and quanti- tative research (which is based primarily on measure- ment or counting) is that quantitative research offers a higher degree of predictability. In measuring inter- active media, your dashboard can provide metric data to give you information on the value of those con- tacts. It is easier to generalize from results of quanti- tative research than qualitative research in making predictions about the larger population from which the participants were drawn. Quantitative measures include content analysis and survey research based on descriptive and inferential statistics. (Descriptive statistics describe data by intelligible category; infer- ential statistics help the user draw conclusions, often about a population, from the sample studied.) Content Analysis Transcripts of panel discussions or interactions, in-depth interviews and focus group interviews are often subjected to content analysis, as are broadcast media transcripts and newspaper and magazine clippings. Content analysis allows for the systematic coding and classification of written material that relates to the public relations practi- tioner’s organization or client. Content analysis tells what has been published or broadcast and the context in which it was presented. This provides helpful clues to the kinds of information various publics are being exposed to (although not necessarily what they con- sume and believe).

As a data-gathering technique, content analysis can also be used to assess what is being said about the goals set by the organization and about its spe- cialized areas of interest, such as proposed legisla- tion. The main difficulty with the technique consists in setting up a model that will give an unbi- ased analysis.

The classic definition of content analysis was pro- vided by Bernard Berelson, who called it a research technique for the “objective, systematic, and quanti- tative description of the manifest content of communication.”13 The content analysis research procedure developed by H. D. Lasswell is one of

the earliest quantitative measures of communication and follows Berelson’s definition. It is objective because categories used in the analysis are both precise and nor- mative, with no evaluative terms (good-bad) used. It is systematic because selection proceeds by a formal, unbi- ased system that does not permit subjective collection of data. It is quantitative because the results are usually expressed in some numerical way—in percentages, ratios, frequency distributions, correlation coefficients or the like. It is manifest because it is a direct measure. No effort is made to figure out the intent of the person using the words; only the feet that the words were used is registered. Some content analysis research designs are more complicated, because they apply symbol or phrase coding to allow for mention of the “context” of the words used.

Content analysis uses variables related to the medium: typography, makeup and layout for print; and camera angles, editing, shot selection, pace and scene locations for broadcast. PR content analysis usually is concerned with the time or space given to an organization and its spokespersons and whether the media attention was positive or negative. In broadcasting, the concern is with whether the spokesperson does the talking, the announcer describes the situation or the two works in combina- tion as well as with whether the broadcast informa- tion was positive or negative.

Hypotheses can be tested with content analysis, and comparisons can be made with normal or real situations by designing a representation of the “normal” or “real” world. Sometimes, the comparison shows how a group is represented, in contrast to their real role in society. An example might start with a television drama that depicts a family with two work- ing parents and two children. This might then be compared to the current reality, which is often a fam- ily headed by a single parent who works.

Some research steps in content analysis are different from those in the basic research process. Once you format the research questions, construct a hypothesis, identify the population and select a sample, you must define a unit of analysis, construct the categories to be analyzed and write descriptions of the categories. After you establish a way to uniformly choose material for the various categories, you must train coders and make sure they categorize the items the same way. You can test that ability by applying a coder reliability formula that measures whether the definitions are consistently applied. After the collected data are categorized, you analyze them, draw conclusions and then try to

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Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 75

develop some statements indicating a situation or cir- cumstance that supports your hypothesis. Survey Research Survey research attempts to mea- sure the practices and preferences of a specified pub- lic by tabulating responses to a standardized series of questions. Such research has become an essential basis for assessing a public’s actions and opinions. Two types of statistics are used in survey research: descriptive and inferential. With descriptive statis- tics, data are discussed in greater specificity. Inferential statistics let you use what you found in the sample to draw conclusions about a population.

can be chosen randomly, and a random sample is usually free of bias or substantial error with regard to such things as the income of those chosen. The use of a mechanical method for random selection eliminates any bias that the researcher might have or any peculiar homogeneity that might exist within a group or segment of a group selected for study. ( Bias is the tendency of an estimate to deviate from the true value.) In a random sample, each member of a population has an equal chance of being selected. For example, students in a mass communication class were used as subjects for a survey on media use. To select a random sample from the class, the researcher gave every other student seated in the classroom a survey to complete. Because seating was a matter of the students’ choice, and not simply assigned, every student had an equal chance of being selected for the sample. This is random selection.

But although this group of students constitutes a random sample of the population of students in the room, it does not constitute a sample of people living in that area or of students attending that college or even of students taking classes in mass communica- tion at that college. The population from which the sample was drawn was one particular classroom of students, and that remains the population to which information discovered in the sample survey can legitimately be extrapolated.

In dealing with any large number of events that occur by chance, we can make predictions (or at least educated guesses) based on the relative fre- quency of occurrence of certain events among all events that are observed. This involves applying rules of probability. To return to the example of the student survey, because every other student in the classroom was chosen, half of the students (one out of every two) completed the questionnaire. Thus, each student had a 1:2 (or .5) chance of being selected, and this is the probability that any given student would be chosen.

Two types of errors can occur in research that uses probability sampling: sampling errors and non- sampling errors. Sampling errors are the chance dif- ference between an unrepresentative sample and the larger population from which it was drawn. They can occur if a sample is too small for the audience or population being sampled or if the selection is not random enough. Nonsampling errors are simply mis- takes made by the research team in gathering, recording or calculating data. Nonsampling errors are reduced when fewer data have to be recorded

Basics of Quantitative Research A PR practitioner must master at least the basics of quantitative research in order to interpret metrics from interactive media as well as from public and media polls and surveys. These basics include a prac- tical understanding of sampling, probability and how to pose research questions. Sampling Because a public normally contains a large number of people, it’s usually possible to question only a representative sample of this population to determine what the public as a whole thinks. The sample need not be large. Large samples cost too much, and they do not improve the investigation’s accuracy much, once a certain sample size is reached. At very small sample sizes, predictability increases rather dramatically with each additional member of the sample; however, once the sample reaches a cer- tain size, error becomes a factor. (Sample error is the degree of discrepancy between the representa- tiveness of the sample and the larger population.) Thus, a sample of 1,000 is not likely to be much better than a sample of 500, although a sample of 100 is considerably more reliable than one of 50. Researchers do this work within a margin of allow- able error. The size of the sample depends on how much error can be tolerated in the results—that is, how close a call you need to make.

Sampling is more than a matter of convenience. A universe is everyone you would want to be included in a study, and you’re not likely to reach everyone unless that universe is small. Probability Sampling is based on probability. The researcher is gambling on how probable it is that a sample accurately represents a population. But the gamble is not wild. The people selected for a sample

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76 Part Two / Research for PR

and calculated—another argument for using a small sample size.

Not all samples are chosen randomly. In fact, three major types of nonprobability or nonrandom sampling exist: accidental, purposive and quota. A reporter who stands outside the campus cafeteria and asks people leaving what they think of the food is get- ting an accidental sample; it is accidental because those who come out at that time may not be represen- tative of everyone who eats there. (Suppose you catch all the members of the football team, and they all liked the ground round?) A purposive sample, for example, could be conducted by a reporter who inter- views teachers and students in the food and nutrition department about the quality of food in the college cafeteria. (They have been chosen because of their particular expertise or background, and they can be expected to have different ideas about food from their counterparts in, say, engineering.) A quota sam- ple is used, for example, by a reporter who tries to match the school’s population in miniature, that is, the proper proportion of freshmen, transfer students, sophomores, juniors, seniors, staff and faculty. The sample in this case would be improved if the reporter already knew what percentage of these different groups ate regularly in the cafeteria. Each group could then be represented in the sample in the same proportion as its presence in the entire population of students who ate in the cafeteria.

Stratified sampling is similar to quota sampling in that both recreate the population in microcosm and both have population representation. However, the selection process is different. In stratified sample measurement, selection is random but the overall population first has been divided into categories or strata. Selection is, therefore, a matter of probability. In quota sampling, the interviewer selects partici- pants nonrandomly.

Posing Research Questions Most quantitative re- search attempts to answer “What if...” or “I wonder if...” questions or speculations. Research questions are often asked about matters that haven’t been looked into often or in depth. Such exploratory research looks for indications, not causes. It attempts to get preliminary data so that research questions can be refined for future study and so that hypotheses can be proposed. You might wonder, for example, what conditions (if any) could change the results of your exploratory research or how other elements of the research questions are related. In doing this, you

are attempting to make a prediction (hypothesis) that states your assumption of what is or could be. The reverse of that assumption—what is not or could not be—is called a null hypothesis. It expresses the assumption that there is no relationship.

Prediction comes after preliminary or exploratory research and before hypothesis testing. At the exploratory stage, you are saying, “I wonder...” At the prediction stage, you are saying, “I think...” When you start to test an idea or a hypothesis in quantitative research, your particular research proj- ect will dictate whether you should use parametric or nonparametric statistics. You will use parametric statistics for interval and ratio data—data about populations, means and variances. You will use non- parametric statistics for nominal and ordinal data. The numbers contained in interval data reflect the existence of meaningful, consistent-sized increments between numerical values of each variable. Ratio data are similar to interval data but in addition pos- sess a true zero reference point. Nominal data are organized into exhaustive and mutually exclusive cat- egories for each variable. Ordinal data are arranged by rank order of the underlying measurements.

Hypothesis testing is always done within some theoretical framework. Most public relations people use communication or persuasion theories. There are five commonly accepted bases for communica- tion theories and two general bases for persuasion theories. (See Chapter 5.)

The five-step procedure for testing a hypothesis is quite simple: 1. State your hypothesis—what you think is true of

the population or universe (generally a PR pub- lic) in general. Make sure that the variable you want to measure in your population can be quantified or counted.

2. State the opposite of your hypothesis—the null hypothesis. This is simply a statement of what would be the case if your hypothesis were not true.

3. Determine the probability that you would see the same differences in the population or mi- verse that you see in your sample, if the opposite of what you believe turned out to be true. This is the null hypothesis’s probability of being true, based on your sample’s results.

4. If that probability is slight—less than .05, say— then you can reject the null hypothesis, with (in this case) at least 95 percent confidence that what you thought was true is true.

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Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 7 7

5. If the sample probability that the null hypothesis is true is significantly larger much less than .5 (that is, 50/50)—you should not reject the null hypothesis, because you can’t be sufficiendy confident that your original hypothesis is true.

Hypothesis testing uses descriptive and inferential statistics.

may reduce the time and money spent on travel, although it also reduces the randomness somewhat. (In a cluster plan, areas are selected and small sample block clusters from each area are drawn.)

though it is:ven

Survey Panels Businesses and institutions often use survey panels, such as consumer panels, in their research. (One unusual consumer panel employed by a toy company consists of panelists five years old and younger.) Once a panel is selected, the members are interviewed several times over the duration of the panel. The toy manufacturers overcame verbal communication problems by watching their consumer panel. Some research firms videotape panel sessions so that the cli- ent can see the results without inhibiting the panelists by being there. (Using one-way glass in the viewing area doesn’t fool many panelists.) Videotaping aids in analyzing the sessions, too, because it permits body language as well as words to be evaluated.

Survey panelists are usually selected on a cross- sectional basis and generally by quota, which is effec- tive for controlled experiments. Seldom, if ever, are panelists chosen randomly. One disadvantage of panels is that, over time, they tend to become less representative. For example, newspaper editors have found that citizens chosen for small panels of readers from the community tend to become less critical as they learn more about the problems of getting out a daily paper.

Not all survey panels physically meet. Some may participate through teleconferencing. Some may respond only to mailed inquiries of various types, including diaries and questionnaires. Sometimes, a panel represents people with vested interests, pre- sumably participating with the inducements of improved goods or services. But members of some panels are rewarded with gifts.

Audience Information

The richness of interactive media offers new opportu- nities for survey research. For instance, a researcher was exploring exactly what kind of material from radio gets captured as a podcast. She wondered why some- one would want a podcast of a radio show. She thought podcasts might consist only of those “drive- way moments,” when people sit in the car to hear the rest of a PBS program. She found her survey group by choosing a particular program and looking for fans of Ira Glass’s This American Life. Sure enough, these fans had podcasts of almost all of the shows. 4

Most sampling relies on a small subgroup of the audience that the researcher uses to represent the larger group. The subgroup is chosen with the char- acteristics of the larger audience in mind. The most familiar processes for data gathering by samples are cross-section surveys and survey panels. The most frequently used instrument is the questionnaire, which has many formats. Cross-Section Surveys Three types of samples are widely used in cross-section surveys: probability sam- ples, quota samples and area samples.

In a probability sample, people are chosen at ran- dom—ordinarily by using a random number tableor a mechanical formula such as every wth name on a list together with a random start, a method called “systematic sampling” or “interval sampling.”

In a quota sample, a population is analyzed by its known characteristics, such as age, sex, residence, occupation and income level. A sample selection is made by choosing a quota of people with desired characteristics in the same proportion as these char- acteristics exist in the whole population.

In an area sample, geographical areas, such as cities or units of cities, are used. An area sample can be designed by using city directories as sources for housing units. Using a cluster plan in an area sample

Questionnaires The most familiar survey data-gathering device is the questionnaire. A questionnaire is often adminis- tered in face-to-face personal interviews, with the interviewer asking the questions and noting the interviewee’s responses on a form.

One important benefit of face-to-face contact is the ability to better understand the questions. Research has shown that even listeners whose hearing is not impaired

Part Two / Research for PR78

understand better if they have visual cues. Telephone surveys have declined in usefulness, even in polling, because more households use mobile phones exclusively and their owners worry about using up minutes with unsolicited and unwanted calls. Some people don’t even have landline phones. The computer is a good way to administer a questionnaire because results are so much easier to tabulate. But one difficulty is getting the correct email addresses for the sample. Another problem is with nonrespondents who may delete the request. If you do have addresses, though, you may use a Web-based survey company to handle the whole survey for a fee. Some companies help with the design and others may let you piggyback some questions on some of their larger survey instruments.

If you are doing the survey yourself, using infor- mation from social or professional network sites that allow you to pose questions directed to identifiable interests and use electronic survey instruments, such as SurveyMonkey or purchased software that make possible quick responses with easy-to-tally results.

Questionnaires sent by direct mail can increase the proportion of responses by enclosing a self- addressed, postage-paid envelope. Such question- naires can be longer than those used in telephone or personal interviews, but a long, formidable- looking questionnaire will draw few responses. The problem is that the questionnaire itself may be dis- carded with other unsolicited, unwanted mail.

One important factor in the rate of return for any survey is the respondent’s interest in the subject. When people don’t have a vested interest, offering them money to cooperate is the best way to elicit a response. For years, researchers have provided mon- etary incentives to encourage people to respond to questionnaires. For affluent respondents, a gift in their name to a charity may work.

Increases in postage rates have forced researchers to examine content and systems very carefully to stay within budgets. Some research agencies use listservs or other electronic mailing lists systems for both speed and cost. However, there is always the “delete” choice of the respondent to consider.

open-ended to elicit free response. (The latter type is much more difficult to tabulate and usually demands time-consuming content analysis to codify responses.) One difficulty in writing questions is how you ask the question. Word choice can make a significant difference in the response. Sometimes, that is due to the genera- tion (age categories) being asked, and their interpreta- tion of words used, or word interpretations can be a regional or cultural factor. The order of the questions creates a context for the respondent, and, that too can affect the respondent’s choice. The way the question is posed also impacts the response. Instructors writing test questions try to avoid posing too many negative state- ments, often because students may not read the ques- tions carefully enough. Even in a nontimed response, too many negative questions can affect the answer. In that situation a respondent’s state of mind may be emo- tionally conditioned by the order of the questions.

Some formats dictate the type of questions. In all cases, though, you must try to elicit all pertinent information easily, quickly and in analyzable form. It takes skill to break a general question down into its logical parts. Questions should be definite and sepa- rate, not overlapping, and they should invite answers. Be especially careful of your phrasing because per- sonal queries often meet with some resentment.

It is important to group questions in a logical sequence so that the arrangement encourages response and doesn’t condition it. For example, a class was working on a mental health awareness cam- paign for the campus. The class was using as a base- fine and for a final measure a national mental health organization’s survey because it had been vetted by mental health professionals, which reduced the clear- ance time for use in classrooms at the university. However, in evaluating the results from the baseline survey responses, a problem of question ordering appeared. Opinions about the causes of clinical mental illness, not behavioral problems, were solicited by a series of agree/disagree responses, one of which was: “Mental illness is caused by improper parenting/not enough attention as a child.” Many agreed either strongly or somewhat with this postu- late. The following question was: “Mental illness is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain.” This is the statement that is actually true, and it received mostly strongly agree or somewhat agree responses. You can’t agree with both statements. Although the original questionnaire was used again as a baseline measure, the students tested three classes not involved in the original baseline survey and found that

How to Prepare a Questionnaire The best way to encourage a good level of response to a survey is to write a good questionnaire (usually called the “instru- ment” by social scientists). The questionnaire should be clear, simple and interesting. You must decide whether the questions should require specific answers or be

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Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 79

A university class was working on a project for an outside “client” that was underwriting the research costs. The students chose the sampling method, wrote the questions, pretested them, drafted the sur- vey, had it approved by the client and then got copies of the survey printed. Some students bought clipboards and went to malls to “trap” passersby. Others went to the airport to survey people waiting for their friends and relatives outside the security area. Fine. That was appropriate for the methodol- ogy chosen.

There was one problem, though. Some grade consideration was given for the student who brought back the largest number of completed, usable surveys. One student who intended to get the best grade “hired” a few friends to help him complete a large number of surveys. He escaped detection and got the highest grade. It was only when the surveys were given to the client as part of the whole package with the report and recommendations that one member of the client’s research team looked carefully at the returned surveys. One of the “hired” respondents had marked multiple surveys with a dark blue, nearly navy-colored pencil. The surveys were the kind you often get in the mail where it doesn’t matter whether you use an x or a check mark in the box. It wasn’t like the scanner sheets you use for tests or to vote.

The instructor had accepted the survey sheets but didn’t look carefully at them before putting them with all of the others to be tabulated, so the professor didn’t notice that many surveys were obviously marked with the same instrument, the dark blue pencil. Several students were working on the tabula- tions, so none of them caught the problem. What a problem it was! The client was dismayed at such unethical behavior on the part of university students.

The professor was embarrassed. The student was disciplined. This was a blatantly unethical act. Professionals may be less obvious but just as unethical when

they skew results to please a client or don’t respect and protect the anonymity of respondents. Often, they don’t get caught. Let this serve as a warning to watch all research done for you, whether it is done in-house or comes from an outside contractor.

Because public relations equals problem prevention and problem solving, a lot of PR research means finding out if there are problems and what these might be. Researchers know that how the question is asked is important.

In counseling a friend who had done some research in a church congregation and found only neg- ative comments about a new minister at the end of the minister’s first year, James E. Lukaszewski gave her some good advice. Lukaszewski told her to go back to the same people and, instead of ask- ing for “constructive criticism,” as she had the first time, ask the church members to give a single positive suggestion to achieve the church’s goals. He warned her that 20 people’s responses might yield only one usable suggestion. She was successful in her second effort. She got positive sugges- tions, and the minister implemented the suggestions and kept his job.

Lukaszewski’s advice addressed a broader topic than research. Positive approaches yield positive responses; negative approaches yield negative responses.

Source: For more of what Lukaszewski said, see “Public Relations Is a Transformational Force: It’s Up to You, ” Vital Speeches, LXV(20) (August 1, 1999), pp . 623-625 .

80 Part Two / Research for PR

reordering the questions to put the chemical imbalance first changed responses to the parenting question and to other related questions about mental illness being a lack of self-control or character flaws. Although this was a different population, it wasn’t demographically differ- ent. Nevertheless, after responding to the question about chemical imbalance being a cause, the other causes received only scatterings of affirmative responses. It’s difficult to make assumptions, but this suggests that if the true statement is presented first, the other responses are more representative. Because response time was limited, there was no time to go back as one might do taking a test in an academic setting.

If a respondent is to fill out a questionnaire unaided, the instructions must clearly specify whether responses are to be checked, underlined or crossed out. Many survey results have been skewed because respondents put xs by choices they thought they were deleting. Every question must be accounted for, but there should also be an allowance for “Other,” “Do not know,” “Do not wish to answer” or “Omitted.”

Another source of skewed results is artificial polariza- tion of opinion in which response options are framed as narrowly and starkly as possible. Otherwise, the inter- viewees tend to adopt a noncommittal position, not because that reflected their true views but because they thought that by giving such an answer they could evade the responsibility of defending their real opinions.

Some questionnaires that require a specific response provide no gauge for measuring the intensity of the response. However, researchers can use semantic dif- ferential scales or summated ratings to get at intensity.

Always, pretest questionnaires. Words change meaning in different contexts, for one thing. For example, the -word family has many meanings. A bio- logical family means parents and their children, but the term family by itself can include formally adopted children. Other references to the family unit are nuclear family, natural family, immediate family, pri- mary family and restricted family.

Choosing the term that conveys the right meaning is problematic even when the language, such as English, is the same. Translations create even more hazards. However, even if all of that is done carefully, respondents still may be puzzled by the wording of the question. Surveys using clarifying phrases have proved more reliable. Sometimes, the choice of one word over another makes a difference in the response. The Roper Center publishes compilations of different surveys on the same issue and compares the different phrasing of questions and the different responses these elicit.

These problems are compounded when research- ers are gathering information in other countries. Sur- vey research may need to be handled differently for both cultural reasons and because of differences in infrastructure. There are also many governments that do not permit collection of opinion data of any kind. The most sensitive, of course, is political polling. Even some governments that permit opinion polls on social, economic and political issues restrict or limit their publication. If an election is in the near future, many governments, including Western democracies, put restrictions on the publication of opinion data.

Questionnaire Formats The way respondents are asked to answer survey questions also affects the type of answers. Some questionnaires mix different types of for- mats for responses. Evaluative formats you might con- sider are semantic differential, summated ratings, scale analysis and respondent-generated questionnaires. Semantic Differential Scales A semantic differential questionnaire accounts for intensity by measuring varia- tions in the connotative meanings of objects and words. Some researchers disagree, saying semantic differential scales measure degree of response, but not intensity. But others argue that degree itself reflects intensity.

In this procedure, the respondent rates the object (person or concept) being judged within a framework of two adjectival opposites with seven steps between them. In rating a person, for instance, adjectival opposites might be active-passive or strong-weak. A political pollster may use a semantic differential scale in asking respondents to select qualities, posi- tive or negative, they attribute to persons or issues.

Complex questionnaires and tests have been designed, using the semantic differential technique, to measure changes in attitudes, personality, knowl- edge and behavior against a background of such vari- ables as education, income, religion, social status, gender, occupation and race. One writer has listed the following measurement dimensions and examples of semantic differential adjectives for each:

General evaluative dimension: pleasant-unpleasant, valuable-worthless, important-unimportant, inter- esting-boring Ethical dimension: fair-unfair, truthful-untruthful, accurate-inaccurate, biased-unbiased, responsi- ble-irresponsible Stylistic dimension: exciting-dull, fresh-stale, easy- difficult, neat-messy, colorful-colorless

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Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 81

Potency dimension: bold-timid, powerful-weak, loud-soft Evaluative dimension: accurate-inaccurate, good-bad, responsible-irresponsible, wise-foolish, acceptable- unacceptable Excitement dimension: colorful-colorless, interest- ing-uninteresting, exciting-unexciting, hot-cold Activity dimension: active-passive, agitated-calm, bold-timid

disapprove. After testing, the weights are totaled and each individual is given a single numerical score. Those who score high and those who score low are selected for further study. Then, each question on the questionnaire is evaluated by determining whether the high scorers responded to the particular item with a higher score than did those who are low scorers. Inter- nal consistency in the questions ensures that no correla- tion of answers appears between these extreme groups. If correlation is found on some questions, these are deleted from the scoring so that only the items reflect- ing consistent divergence of opinion are used as a scale. Scale Analysis In its simplest form, scale analysis involves dichotomous questions—such questions as “Is your grade point average 4.0 (yes or no)? ” and “Is it 3.5 (yes or no)?” Questions of this type often appear on questionnaires about salary and position in relation to years of experience in professional fields.

Summated Ratings Summated ratings are similar to semantic differential scales. Here, however, the responses to a series of statements are selected from among the options strongly approve, approve, unde- cided, disapprove or strongly disapprove. A weight from 1 to 5 is assigned to each option so that the high score consistently represents one of the two extremes— for example, 5 for strongly approve and 1 for strongly

In July 2010, public relations leaders from a dozen countries met in Barcelona to accept new global standards for measuring and evaluating work in the field.

The second European Summit on Measurement included both practitioners and their clients. The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communications (AMEC) and the Insti- tute for Public Relations (IPR ) organized the event.

One of the seven principles issued from the meeting was “Social Media Can and Should Be Measured.” This principle included these statements: “Social media measurement is a discipline, not a tool; but there is no ‘single metric.’ Organizations need to clearly define goals and outcomes for social media. Media content analysis should be supplemented by Web and search analytics, sales and customer relationship management (CRM) data, survey data and other methods. Evaluating qual- ity and quantity is critical, just as it is with conventional media. Measurement must focus on ‘conver- sation’ and ‘communities’ not just ‘coverage.’ Understanding reach and influence is important, but existing sources are not accessible, transparent or consistent enough to be reliable; experimentation and testing are the key to success."

Here are the titles of the other six principles issued by the Barcelona Summit:

Importance of goal setting and measurement Measuring the effect on outcomes is preferred to measuring outputs. The effect on business results can and should be measured where possible. Media measurement requires quantity and quality Advertising value equivalency (AVE) is not the value of public Relations (for more on this, see Chapter 5 .) Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound measurement

Source: Institute for Public Relations, www. instituteforpr.org/release_single/barcelona_declaration_of_measurement_ principles_adopted_by_public_relations/.

82 Part Two / Research for PR

Other questions may be posed along lines of increas- ing or decreasing agreement or disagreement. These may be presented in a multiple-choice format.

Some Basics in Quantitative and Qualitative Research and the Mix Research conducted within an organization is often done informally. When formal, it usually mixes qualita- tive and quantitative techniques: conferences with employees involved in a particular problem, studies of the organization’s records, reviews of employee sugges- tions and surveys of employee opinions. Some internal research also may take into account external opinion: ideas of opinion leaders that affect the organization’s management; incoming mail; reports from field agents or sales personnel; press clippings and monitoring reports on electronic media; opinion polls, elections and legislative voting patterns or similar reflections of public opinion that may be shared by internal audiences; and the work of advisory committees or panels of people experienced in a particular field. The trouble with inter- nal research is that it is seldom representative and almost always lacks objectivity.

External research is almost always formal. It may involve public opinion—that is, the opinions of large groups of the public (such as a nation), which are usually described demographically—and it always involves monitoring specific target audiences outside the organization that are of particular significance to it. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used.

convenient and visible target. To avoid getting involved in battles that can’t be won, you must be a diligent fact-finder and an expert communicator. You also must be sensitive to the natural resistance to certain messages that exists within each public, and you must compensate for the resistance. Finally, you must anticipate that some resistance will be put up in response to any action that you or your orga- nization takes to solve problems.

An organization’s reaction to its problems is determined in part by its structure and its corporate culture, which also influence how it communicates about its problems. Organizations maintain either closed or open systems of communication.

Research for Problem Identification A good way to begin identifying problems is to ask an organization’s insiders about them. Employees know an institution better than anyone else. They may know only parts of it expertly, but they also interact with people in other sections of the organization, and they talk among themselves. Listening to the voices of dissent within an institution often provides good infor- mation. Unfortunately, this is a little-used technique, perhaps because it strikes management as being subver- sive. Public relations practitioners, of course, recognize that employees are the front line for public relations because they are the institutional image. They have a strong sense of what an institution really is, what its problems consist of and what its customers think about it. They also represent the institution to its pub- lics. In their neighborhoods and among their friends, they are the authority on the institution. Finding out what employees know or think they know about an institution is a critical monitoring operation.

Employees respond to an external environment, as the public relations practitioner well knows. Anticipating reactions of various publics under certain circumstances is part of the job of the PR person as a social scientist within management. Unfortunately, this role often calls for the PR person to become a devil’s advocate, posing hard questions about proposed actions. Anticipating problems and dealing with them while they are small are two major public relations contributions to management. Policy changes (indeed, changes in general) usually mean problems. The role of the public relations practitioner is to help smooth the way for changes by eliminating surprises and build- ing interest and anticipation. The PR person also

Research and Problem Solving

Three types of people don’t want to hear about an institution’s problems: those responsible for them, because the problems make them look bad; those whose egos are involved, because the problems are a threat to their expertise; and the helpless, who are usually employees or suppliers, because they can’t do anything about the problems and are likely to become victims of any institutional shakeup. When people don’t want to hear about a problem, they may either ignore the information that points to it or deny that the information is accurate.

In either case, the messenger who draws attention to the problem—for example, a public relations prac- titioner armed with information obtained through research—is always at considerable risk. People who feel threatened are likely to lash out at the most

Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 83

may have to assume the role of negotiator to help effect a change.

problem-solving steps: assessment of the needs, goals and capabilities of target publics; systematic campaign planning and production; continuous evaluation; com- plementary roles of mass media and interpersonal communication; and selection of appropriate media for target audiences. The success or failure of all of these steps depends on sound research.

Research for Problem Analysis Dissecting a problem sounds simple when you work step-by-step through the procedures. Yet, what is ini- tially identified as the problem rarely turns out to be the problem. It’s usually an effect or result of the under- lying problem. The only way to get to the root of the situation is to describe in clear declarative sentences what has happened or is happening. Then, you have to do some research—formal or informal (and probably both)—to see if you can get at the true cause or causes.

Once you have identified the problem, you should be able to express it in one simple sentence. The next step is to state what you want the outcome to be, again in one simple sentence. Even if the situation is as complex as an attempted takeover, you should express the desired outcome in a simple statement.

If the desired outcome cannot be stated, you should set down some possible outcomes as goals, together with the consequences, positive and negative, of each. This step involves selecting strategies and the tactics to implement them, as well as research techniques for measuring progress toward your goals. The research can be unobtrusive (such as monitoring phone calls or mail) or formal (such as a survey). Once your action strategies are set, you must identify the publics and the appeals likely to affect them. Finally, you must choose the media most likely to reach those publics.

Now the easy part begins. You have to orchestrate the organization’s efforts so that it carries out the strategies and tactics needed to meet the goals, on a timetable and within a reasonable budget.

Constraints on time or resources may force you to modify your goals, but creative thinking usually will enable you to overcome these constraints. On the other hand, even when resources are unlimited, you have to set some priorities. This entails deciding what you need to achieve first for a strategy to work

Once you have decided that, you can begin work on a more mechanical timetable that tells you what has to happen first. If not done properly, the whole deal could be torpedoed. Once you have made this determination, the mechanics become clear. Meeting with various publics helps to set messages before they appear in any medium.

In problem situations, your concern is to influence public opinion in a positive way. Case histories show that successful plans to influence opinion share five

Research for Program Development and Implementation When you develop a program to address a problem, you focus on three major components: the publics involved, prioritized and described in terms of demographics and psychographics; the message statements to each of these publics, slanted for special appeal to each public—but essentially the same, so that the institution speaks with one corporate voice—and phrased as simple statements; and the media to reach each public, primary and second- ary, evaluated for their usefulness in delivering the mes- sage in an appropriate, economical and timely manner. You should plan the program in parts and set achieve- ment goals for each part. Research techniques are built in, so you can measure how well the plan is working. Any plan has to be flexible enough to allow for changes as you work through it. The purpose of measuring (monitoring) your achievement as you go along is to fine-tune the plan by eliminating what is not working. This kind of mid-course correction research may also reveal at some point that you must go in an entirely different direction. If this happens, you must be pre- pared to make the necessary changes in course.

The danger in measuring results as you go along, however, is that you might draw erroneous conclu- sions, especially regarding cause and effect. For instance, you might conclude that because customers said in a survey that they liked your product, they can be expected to buy it. In the social sciences, you deal with people who respond differently under different circumstances. As a result, cause and effect are difficult to determine without extensive replication. In this kind of research, you also run the risk of throwing out infor- mation that seems irrelevant but may later turn out to be meaningful. On the other hand, you can become confused and led astray by information that you think is useful but is fundamentally unrelated to the problem.

Deciding which research data are relevant and which are irrelevant is critical to objective thinking. Ego involvement always presents a major problem in any effort to think objectively. The problem is lessened if plans are made by a group rather than by an individual.

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Part Two / Research for PR84

Information about progress can then be shared with all members of the group. At some point, however, some- one has to make critical decisions. It may be the public relations person, or it may be someone else in the man- agement group, acting after receiving an appropriate recommendation from the public relations person.

In any case, the best way to proceed is to make your recommendation as objectively as possible, based on your research findings, anticipating as you do so the positive and negative effects your recommendation may have on various publics. These potential effects should not be guessed at. They should be anticipated based on past responses in similar situations and on what research has shown is likely to happen.

Organizations have information system managers and security systems for data collection, storage and use. You need to know what is collected, where it’s kept and who has access. Obtain in advance the organizational information you are likely to need for your job and store it in your own files. Be sure you integrate new infor- mation from your home and mobile systems into the main file and keep copies available in alternate places. Security is always an issue. You must protect files as well as keep them instantly available. The ability to retrieve information in a timely way is essential, and having critical information stored in multiple locations is necessary in case of disaster. Two broad secondary categories of research sources are scholarly and commercial. Demographics provide “hard” factual data about a population: its gender, level of education, occupa- tion and so on. Psychographics reveal the personality traits of a public. Geodemographics identify geographic areas that are populated by consumers who share demographic and psychographic characteristics. Much of what you need can be found in electronic data banks, although these are not always up to date or reliable. You will have to cross-check them with several sources. Other information can be located through using search engines to find material on the Internet. Stored data often is available on request or through purchase of a CD-ROM or DVD. A new term for the blend of legacy and social media channels is “melded media.” A 2008 survey of Media, Myths and Realities by Ketchum shows influencers gather information from a number of media channels but look for credibility. Ketchum’s first survey of who and what influences teenagers shows that the young influencers among them get involved in online activities, but also socialize personally with their peers and are big consumers of music, videogames and information from both social and legacy media. They expect straightforward communication from brands. The impact of all interactive media for public relations is the need for constant cultivation and dialogue with all stakeholders.

Discussion Questions 1. What sort of day-to-day fact finding and retain-

ing needs to go on in a PR job? 2. What are some good sources for secondary

research? 3. Choose a topic and determine how you might

go about finding secondary information and pri- mary information.

4. What are the advantages of combining qualita- tive and quantitative research?

5. How do you decide which primary research methods to use?

6. How do you determine which formal research methods to incorporate in your evaluations?

Points to Remember The two basic categories of research methods are secondary and primary. Secondary research involves gathering already available information, such as from books, articles and journals. Primary research is gathering origi- nal information, usually from people who are involved in some way with what is being studied. The two fundamental types of formal research are qualitative and quantitative. One practical difference between qualitative research (based primarily on description) and quantitative research (based primarily on measurement) is that quantitative research offers higher predictability. Records that the public relations practitioner must accumulate include information about the organi- zation, its personnel and its ongoing activities.

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Chapter 3 / Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating 85

The key to successful interpretation of surveys, studies and polls is a realistic and objective point of view. Media collect information about their audiences that is useful to PR practitioners. Evaluation of results from public relations activi- ties helps in the analysis of what worked well and what didn’t, and what that signifies for the future. Because informal research doesn’t follow estab- lished rules and procedures, rely on it for descrip- tion, not prediction. With informal research, you need to cross-check secondary sources to verify the validity of the information. Informal research may use unobtrusive measures for some sense of a situation. Communication audits may use both formal and informal research methods with both internal and external publics. Media research can offer some insight into where publics get information. Informal research can confirm or deny intuition and experience. Documenting outcomes means showing the people for whom you work—profit or nonprofit—that you and your staff understand what the organiza- tion wants to accomplish and are helping make that happen. The focus is on sustainability. Organizations have four interlocking results orien- tations: financial, reputation, stakeholder relations and policies that contribute to the public good. What you are always looking for in your research is what stakeholders know or think they know about your organization and how events and poli- cies may affect your organization, including open- ing up opportunities. You can anticipate the ways in which a plan can go wrong, but there is no substitute for pretesting pieces of the plan, such as messages and illustra- tions or themes for events. You can offend or alienate stakeholders unintentionally. Pretest, act, monitor, adjust and, finally, evaluate. Results of each one of these steps contribute to your final evaluation—what worked, how well it worked and what you learned. Keeping track of interactive media is best done by using a dashboard to track the topics and responses you want measured to provide metrics for use in monitoring and finally evaluating.

A PR practitioner must master at least the basics of quantitative research in order to interpret both pub- lic and media polls and surveys. These basics include a practical understanding of sampling, probability and how to frame research questions. Of the two fundamental types of formal research, quantitative and qualitative, only quantitative is truly measurable. Content analysis of a medium can tell you the educational level, the interests and the economic and social background of the audience. Survey research attempts to measure the practices and preferences of a specified public by tabulating responses to a standardized series of questions. Sampling is based on probability. A random sam- ple is relatively free of bias or substantial error. Bias is the tendency of an estimate to deviate from the true value. Three major types of nonprobability or nonrandom sampling are accidental, purposive and quota. Selection of respondents is a matter of probability except in quota sampling where participants are chosen nonrandomly. Quantitative research always poses a research ques- tion that is a hypothesis and sometimes test results find for the opposite (the null hypothesis). Just as a reminder from your statistics studies, parametric statistics are used for interval and ratio data and nonparametric statistics are used for nominal and ordinal data. Follow the five-step process for testing your hypothesis. Audience research can come from the metrics that a good dashboard will offer. The key to successful interpretation of surveys and polls as well as metrics from interactive media is a realistic and objective viewpoint. Pretesting a questionnaire helps to avoid ambigu- ous questions and questions that may generate resentment. Pretest by asking some people to complete the questionnaire before distribution. The more diverse the pretesters are in terms of culture and ethnicity, the better. Pretest questionnaires that have been translated to another language to be sure the intended meaning is conveyed by the word choice. Two types of surveys often are used to sample audi- ences: a cross-section survey and a survey panel.

86 Part Two / Research for PR

Research done internally is often done informally, whereas external research is usually formal but undertaken with a mix of qualitative and quantita- tive techniques. Defining a problem means being able to express it in one simple declarative sentence. From that point, the desirable outcome(s) can be stated, goals devel- oped and a timetable established for achieving them. Recognition of constraints in meeting goals is an important factor in achieving success. Be realistic.

Dow Jones http://www.factiva.com

Forbes http://www.forbes.com

General Social Survey http://www.norc.org/GSS+website

LexisNexis http://www.lexisnexis.com (also http://www. nexis.com, http://www.lexis.com or http:// www.lexis-nexis.com/universe)

Westlaw http://www.west.thomson.com/westlaw and www.wesdawinternational.com

U.S. Census Bureau http://www.census.gov

United States Government Printing Office http://www.gpo.gov

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission http://www.sec.gov/ (the Securities and Exchange Commission site will also lead you to other government sites)

® Other Related Websites to Review

Institute for Public Relations: How to Set Objectives http://www.instituteforpr.org

KDPaine & Partners offers updates on measurement at its website, http:// www.kdpaine.blogs.com/ themeasurementstandard/

UK-based Chartered Institute of Public Relations online guide for information, research, case studies, tools and models for measuring public relations effectiveness on the its website. Subscription newsletter about interactive PR from Ragan Communications http://www.ragan.com

References: Leadership Directories

http://www.leadershipdirectories.com (Fourteen address books for governments, corporations, nonprofits and professionals)

Information Sources: CIA World Factbook

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/ the-world-factbook/

CNN News http://www.cnn.com

Search help: All-in-One Search Page

http://www.searchmonger.com

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To appreciate the similarities and distinctions as well as the applications of the public relations terms: stakeholder, public and audience. To recognize and be able to identify and prioritize organizational relationships. To understand how organizational relationships can be described nominatively, demographically and psychographically. To develop sensitivity toward minority segments of publics based on gender, age, nationality, ethnicity and value or faith-based beliefs. To be able to identify potential issues for an organization within and among different individuals, groups or other types of communities that may create problems. To understand the complexity of opinion formation and the fragility of public opinion.

Stakeholders and Interactions

Social media and the Internet are mak- ing it easier and quicker than ever for information to pass through borders. ...[G]overnments need to act more quickly now because social media are influencing public opinion.... Facebook causes have become an important tool

for expressing opinions on social issues.

takeholders can be employees, suppliers, customers, government, investors, a local community or even many

local communities where an organization operates, special interest groups affected by the organization and others interested in the organization and its activities including activist groups, local and global, with some perceived adversarial relationship. The stakeholder concept is a good one, especially in a global communication climate because stakeholders have expectations of an organization and the organization owes them some level of accountability. Stakeholders have more than the peripheral exposure to an organization that some publics might. Stakeholders may have a financial investment, but their investment also could be intangible, such as time, energy, loyalty, self-identification and dependency. Some may have an adversarial position toward the organization because of its products, services, policies or position on various issues. Thus, public opinion is the collective opinion of various groups, some even interlocking.

—Paul Berger, of the website Suite101.com in an interview, ATLANTIC COMMUNITY.ORG, Today’s Transatlantic Agenda is Global, http://www.atlanticcommunity.org/idex/articles/ view/SociaLMedia_Shapes_Public_Opinion

88 Part Two / Research for PR

First, you belong to a group of consumers that, no doubt, has been well defined by marketing people. You may, for instance, be in the 18 to 24-year-old “college” market. This market receives a great deal of attention because—although you may not believe it—it is responsible for a vast outlay of cash. Second, you may have an organizational identity. For instance, if you belong to a preprofessional, social or civic organiza- tion—the Public Relations Student Society of America, a sorority or fraternity, a service club, a political action group or an athletic team—you are a member of a pub- lic. You also belong to other publics because of your race, faith, ethnic group or national origin. You proba- bly would not want to be thought of as a member of “the general public,” and you’re not. No one is. Instead, you are a member of multiple, definable, describable groups. It is the job of public relations practitioners to identify members of each group and determine how they relate to the practitioners’ organizations.

are often identified nominativefy, but while we can name them, it’s important to remember that no public is homogeneous. All members of that public are not alike. Making that assumption can cre- ate problems. Perhaps, it helps to remember that another way to look at publics is by their demo- graphics and psychographics. Psychographic ties among people create a sense of shared identity. Although that’s usually positive, or at least benign, such as scuba divers or football fans, it can be nega- tive, as we know from teenage gangs.

In traditional public relations literature, publics are divided into two categories: external and internal. External publics usually are described as existing outside an institution. Although not directly or offi- cially a part of the organization, they do have a rela- tionship with it. Certain external publics, such as government regulatory agencies, have a substantial impact on the organization.

Internal publics usually are described as those that share the institutional identity with the organization. They include management, employees and many types of supporters (investors, for example). Occasion- ally, the term internal publics is used in public relations practice to refer exclusively to employees—that is, workers. This usage is unfortunate, however, because it results in employees being considered as unrelated to management instead of as part of the same team. Such thinking has a marginalizing effect that creates serious communication problems. In a strong union sit- uation, the separation is real and a team concept is not as likely. Still, the adversarial relationship can be healthy

Identifying and Describing Publics

In any public relations situation, whether it is at the public relations management or public rela- tions technician level, you can’t even start without first identifying all the stakeholders and your orga- nization’s relationships with them.

Every discipline seems to develop its own terminol- ogy; sometimes, the same term is used in different ways by people in different disciplines and professions. In this book, exceedingly important terms are public and stakeholder, which have very specific meanings in public relations. It is essential that a practitioner grasp the distinction between a “public,” alternatively called a “stakeholder,” and an “audience.”

Traditionally the term public has meant any group (or possibly individual) that has some involvement with an organization. Stakeholder is used more now in public relations because the term conveys a more intensive involvement, mostly the result of inter- active communication, now an expectation. Publics always have included the organization’s neighbors, customers, employees, competitors and government regulators. Organizations and their stakeholders have consequences for each other. What stakeholders do has some impact on the organization, and vice versa. In a one-way communication system, you might imagine that “public” and “audience” are synony- mous. But in important ways they are not.

From a public relations perspective, the term audience suggests a group of people who are recipi- ents of something—a message or a performance. An audience may react to a speech or performance, but is basically passive because it is not likely to change the presentation except by interrupting or stopping it. A passive response conflicts with the goal of most public relations programs, which is to stimulate strong audience participation. To help resolve the semantic conflict, the term public evolved in public relations to distinguish between passive audiences and active ones. The term stakeholder came about from more direct involvement with organizations through immediate and interactive communication.

In public relations, the terms stakeholder or public (“active audience”) encompasses any group of people who are tied together, however loosely, by some common bond of interest or concern and who have consequences for an organization. The best way to understand this con- cept is to think of various publics that you, as an individual, might be part of.

Publics

Chapter 4 / Stakeholders and Interactions 89

as long as communication between the two groups is maintained.

Realistically, the categories internal and external are too broad to be very useful in identifying publics. More definitive typologies are needed for planning purposes. Even a term such as media has become more complex with mass media convergence, com- munity journalism concepts and the participation of “citizen journalists” in the news process. Many media exist only electronically, so that category is broader than ever. Each organization needs to thoughtfully compile a comprehensive list of its publics.

Prioritizing groups in any relationship with the organization has merit for adjusting and designing messages. Priorities change often with the significance of the message to certain groups or of a situation.

Any particular public, regardless of its broad cate- gory, may become the focal point for a public rela- tions effort. Some groups, such as employees, always are a focal point, so they are considered a priority or “target.” The term target in the context of an impor- tant public is usually not an especially good word choice. The “dean” of communication researchers, Wilbur Schramm, was one authority who early on disparaged the use of the word “target.”

Certainly, most PR practitioners would agree that a target public tends not to be passive and may exhibit unpredictable behavior. Still, the idea behind the term is valid—as a silhouette or a statistical profile, and not as a life-size, full-color portrait. Although priority public/stakeholder might be more accurate, the term target public continues to be used today to signify some definable audience for whom advertis- ing and information are specifically prepared. Fur- ther evidence that the “mass audience” is indeed a myth is the abandonment of using the scattershot approach to reach publics, considered both foolish and uneconomical. Even “blast” electronic messages are confined to designated groups, such as listservs.

Identifying and Prioritizing Publics/ Stakeholders As a public relations practitioner, you must carefully study your comprehensive list of stakeholders/publics to identify and prioritize each that is especially pertinent to your particular project. You must also designate stakeholders not on your initial list that might be affected in the future. One way to isolate these peri- pheral groups, not normally a part of your contact fist, is to determine how you would get contact information such as names, addresses—email and physical—as well as phone numbers if you needed to communicate directly with each individual in the group.

A PVI (public vulnerability importance) index developed to help organizations identify these groups is especially useful when a situation shifts. The potential P of a public plus the vulnerability V of the organization to action from that public equals the importance I of that public to the organization and to its public relations program (see Figure 4.1).

The key to identifying and rank-ordering (that is, prioritizing) stakeholders accurately is research—finding out who these publics really are and what they actually

For nearly thirty years after World War I, the favor- ite concept of the mass media audience was what advertisers and propagandists often chose to call the “target audience.” . . . A propagandist could shoot the magic bullet of communication into a viewer or a lis- tener, who would stand still and wait to be hit!. . .

By the late 1950s the bullet theory was, so to speak, shot full of holes. Mass communication was not like a shooting gallery. There was nothing necessarily irre- sistible about mass communication or mass propa- ganda. Many influences entered into the effect of the mass media. The audience was not a passive target; rather, it was extraordinarily active.1

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Part Two / Research for PR90

think. The danger of not doing research and only assuming what a priority public thinks or knows is quite serious. Alert public relations practitioners con- sider not only the collective or majority opinion of each public, but also the opinions of dissenters.

To develop sensitivity to the attitudes of various priority publics/stakeholders a PR person must develop empathy for each one, much as an actor stud- ies a role and then becomes the character. The PR person must ask, “If I were this public, with this back- ground, these situations, this set of concepts, how would I react to the set of circumstances being intro- duced by the institution I represent?” Developing such empathy for a public—trying to imagine how that public will react—not only helps in planning for a specific situation, but also helps in determining the engagement approach to the message, its emphasis and tone as well as media selection for delivery.

Each institution has its own particular primary publics/stakeholders, all or many of whom are prior- ity publics—although the terms are not necessarily synonymous. A business, for example, has internal pri- mary publics (stockholders, employees, dealers and sales representatives) and external primary publics (cus- tomers, government regulatory agencies, suppliers, competitors, the financial community—security ana- lysts and investors in addition to their own stockholders—and the local community). At any time, depending on the issue or situation, one or more of these primary publics can be singled out as a priority.

corresponding to those of their clients may not yield as favorable an opinion as expected, despite the attitudes attributed to certain groups. One assumption, for exam- ple, has been that women are less likely to vote for a death sentence than men. This cannot be relied upon. According to research by the American Bar Association, demographics account for no more than 15 percent of the variation in jury verdict preferences. Then, why are demographics so commonly used? Because they’re easy. Marketers frequently make the same mistake. Assumptions about demographics are risky. Religious preference, or the lack thereof, often is assumed from demographic data to be an indicator. Perhaps, religion does suggest a value system and maybe some lifestyles, such as food choices or attire, but not always. Religion can’t be discounted, but yet, another demographic might need to be considered at the same time, such as age. Generations approach religion differently, and not just in the USA.

Sophisticated approaches to publics examine core personality traits such as values and look at attitudes as well as lifestyles. An example is the psychographic casting done by SRI International, which uses a sys- tem called VALS .3 Adults responding to the SRI questionnaire are placed in one of eight types: inno- vators, thinkers, achievers, experiences, believers, strives, makers and survivors. The VALS work has two dimensions: primary motivation and resources. SRI says what follows below about these two dimensions.

Primary Motivation: Consumers buy products and services and seek experiences that fulfill their characteristic preferences and give shape, substance and satisfaction to their lives. An individual’s primary motivation determines what in particular about the self or the world is the meaningful core that governs his or her activities. Consumers are inspired by one of three primary motivations: ideals, achievement and self-expression. Consumers who are primarily motivated by ideals are guided by knowledge and principles. Consumers who are primarily motivated by achievement look for products and services that demonstrate success to their peers. Consumers who are primarily motivated by self-expression desire social or physical activity, variety and risk.

Resources: A person’s tendency to consume goods and services extends beyond age, income and educa- tion. Energy, self-confidence, intellectualism, novelty seeking, innovativeness, impulsiveness, leadership and vanity play a critical role. These personality traits in conjunction with key demographics determine an

TM frame-

Describing Priority Publics/Stakeholders Priority publics can be described in any of three ways: nominatively, demographically or psychographically. The nominative form of description consists merely of giving the public a name, such as “employees.” The demographic approach involves looking at the public’s statistical characteristics such as age, gender, income, education and so on. The psychographic method examines the public’s defining emotional and behavioral characteristics. These psychographics often show how one primary public resembles another in interests, attitudes, beliefs or behavior.

Such descriptions are becoming more and more important as the diversity of publics increases. Telling evidence of that appeared in The Wall StreetJournal in a story about jury selection.2 In the USA one is supposed to be judged by “peers,” which has meant that lawyers selecting a jury have used demographics. However, some lawyers realize that demographic profiles

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapterfs). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Chapter 4 / Stakeholders and Interactions 91

individual’s resources. Different levels of resources enhance or constrain a person’s expression of his or her primary motivation.

In a global communication environment, it is increasingly difficult to predict what is going on in the minds of such a collection of humanity. Behav- ioral psychologists and many marketers and diplo- mats probably would agree that people do not think the same, or even see things the same way. The stan- dard is not set by people from western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratized societies. Yes, the acronym is WEIRD. Apparently, only a very few “universals” (characteristics that appear across all sectors) test out, facial expressions among them.4

Psychographic researchers realize the difficulty of predicting behaviors from attitudes, but attitudes remain easier to measure than behavior (without invad- ing privacy). To improve educated guessing before a final decision is made, demographic and psychographic information should be cross-referenced with other sta- tistics. Numerous firms correlate such data with the outreach potential of various forms of the media.

calls and unsolicited, unwelcomed mail—postal and electronic. Of course, part of this comes from the ability to electronically track all kinds of personal information about people from just their daily living: credit card use, telephone calls, plane and hotel reservations, banking services and the like. The result of all of these data is the growth of services that sell information about individuals, some of which is sold on the Web. Buyers of this personal data can be anyone, but usually it is someone trying to sell something. The effect on marketing and mar- ket research has been great enough that the Direct Marketing Association now requires its members to publicly disclose how they gather and use data.3

Many people have responded by effectively “tuning out” media, except those they choose. For instance, organizations are using personal and participatory approaches to attract and engage those they want to reach. Organizations are using intranets within orga- nizations, blogs and Internet listservs to reach desig- nated groups, plus participating in interactive sites such as Linkedln, Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

That sort of participation on the Internet, though, serves to underscore the fragmentation of publics, inasmuch as it works through the building of defin- able constituencies. The benefit of having these group networks on the Web has been significant for public relations people who can monitor and measure activity by building dashboards. Organiza- tions’ own websites and chat rooms aid their issues identification and monitoring procedures.

A downside of the Internet for public relations people is that constituencies can and do attack the organization directly by setting up rogue websites, for example, or launching viral attacks on YouTube, Twitter or other networks. Adversaries can be any- one, including important conventional publics, such as employees, especially women, or customers of a particular ethnic group who have had some relation- ship with the organization, as well as those who may become concerned about an issue and use the Inter- net as a platform to attract others to their concerns.

Media Research, Media Use As you learned in the previous chapter, audience research is used by media to help sell advertising time and space and by media buyers to determine how to maximize their budgets to most effectively deliver their messages. Some media specialty firms offer combined databases that they sell to media buyers. Research information firms often supply these data at a lower cost than subscribing to all of these databases, some of which might be used only occasionally; certainly, this is easier than trying to maintain a usable library of information in-house. Media relations people also use media specialty firms, some of which also offer placement of both advertising and publicity. An important service that specialty firms can provide is interpretation of infor- mation from the databases.

A confounding problem for media use researchers is how to interpret use of the Internet. Tracking is easier than interpreting. Knowing exactly who is accessing Web page information and responding is becoming increasingly significant in a global soci- ety composed of fragmented publics.

One aspect of this fragmentation is the growing number of people, especially in the USA, who feel inundated with information from all kinds of media. Specialized media invade their privacy with phone

Sensitivity to Employees, Women and Ethnie Groups Employees are always an important public because they are any organization’s public relations “front line.” Employees are seen as knowledgeable about the organization with the special insight of an insider’s experience and information, so they are

92 Part Two / Research for PR

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Knowing what is being said about your organization is certainly important, but knowing how to use interactive media to an organization’s information advantage is equally important.

“Bent Rail Boots” is a new product created by Justin Boots, who wanted to reach 18 to 24- year-olds who don’t usually wear boots. Chip Hanna, interactive account director at the Balcom Agency in Fort Worth, Texas, described the advertising campaign developed for the Fort Worth-based company this way: Justin partnered with three new country-western bands to get interviews, behind- the-scenes videos and photos that were released on social media. The result was the campaign exceeded its sales goal by 30 percent.1

Patsy Miller, “It’s Complicated,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram Competitive Edge, July 25, 2010, p. C1 and C2.

Chapter 4 / Stakeholders and Interactions 93

credible to other publics. In addition, employees often have direct contact with other publics, such as customers or suppliers. Women and minorities may be a part of an employee public, but additionally, from a broader perspective, they constitute signifi- cant publics who can damage an institution’s reputa- tion. Insensitivity in all types of relationships has cost profit and nonprofit groups both money and status.

groups should not be casually lumped together—not by politicians, advertisers or public relations practi- tioners. The Spanish language is common, but not at all uniformly spoken. The problem is finding the right Spanish for each Hispanic audience, but there also needs to be some confidence that the translated message fits the culture. Hispanic cultures and histo- ries vary greatly. Moreover, the gulf between recent immigrants and those whose families have been in the USA for many generations often can be even more significant than differences of national origin. The need to be sensitive to the differences created by the diversity of cultures exposed to messages and organi- zational policies is part of what makes the role of issues identification and monitoring so important.

Employees Employees face incredible job pressures. The global financial meltdown exacerbated that People lost their sense of trust in and thus loyalty to employers who had to cut jobs, some of which will never return in a restructured economy.

Women Even though women lost fewer jobs than men in the economic turmoil of the late 2000s, women in the workplace are more likely to feel stressed than men. Although some women say their stress is the combination of family and job pressures, for many it is a problem of lack of power. Although women make up a majority of the world’s popula- tion, many, if not most, are in economic, social and political environments in which they are a minority in terms of power. Because most women are working in male-dominated environments in which they have little authority, many experience sexual harassment. Only a fraction of those complain about it, but in the USA, some of those cases have resulted in class action lawsuits with high-profile trials. The damage is not just monetary. A company that gets a reputa- tion for abusing women as employees or customers may fail to get both. The same is true for bad treat- ment of workers in some ethnic or religious groups.

Issues: Identification, Monitoring, Evaluation and Management

Identifying issues that are likely to create problems for a company or nonprofit organization is the first step in the process of monitoring not only the issue, but also the socioeconomic and political climate for any event or development that could have an impact on any of the organization’s publics. Not everything that appears on the PR radar can be dealt with, but each must be evaluated for its potential to create some serious problem or to offer an opportunity. Monitoring helps management foresee when opinion is likely to build around incidents or trends.

Anticipating problems makes it easier to deal with them before a major difficulty arises and a crisis ensues. Not all problems result in crises. Some issues can be managed, at least from the perspective of the organiza- tion’s response. In many cases, the emergence of an issue creates an opportunity, and even a crisis may in the long run be turned into a beneficial experience. Increasingly, issues are arising from global situations. Typically, these have come from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), some of which may be lobbying groups. Many, though, are private voluntary organiza- tions (PVOs) that have a narrower focus, that of social goals. These include some well-known names such as Oxfam, Greenpeace and Amnesty International.6

Handling issues demands an integrated approach to communication. The issue, the public and the situation in which an issue develops all require strategies that use any communication tools available. When this occurs, each tool must be evaluated to determine its

Minorities Diversity in the USA is more common throughout the country than at any previous time in its history, but that has not necessarily created a high comfort zone for minorities. Ethnic or religious groups, physically present in a nation or not, are also part of a constituency abroad—now connected to its counterparts any place in the world by the Internet. This is an important consideration in issues identifi- cation and monitoring. Although an issue can cause diverse groups of any religion or ethnicity to coa- lesce, it’s important to remember that these groups often have no real homogeneity.

Hispanics, for example, now constitute the largest minority in the USA The greatest number is of Mexican origin, but there are large groups from other places, such as Cuba and Puerto Rico. These

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Part Two / Research for PR94

effectiveness. This is where the artificial barriers in an organization, especially among its communication units, can be extraordinarily detrimental. The organi- zation needs to speak with one voice, and that voice must be dear and unambiguous.

Issues The handling of issues once they have been identified is not a linear action that concludes when a favorable solution is achieved. Instead, it is a cyclical process with five steps: (1) sensing the problem (research), (2) defining the problem (through judgment and pri- ority setting), (3) deriving solutions (through policy and strategy selection), (4) implementing them, and (5) evaluating outcomes (see Figure 5.2). The process can recur as each portion of a solution is worked through. The feedback causes adjustments in the plans, which in turn causes the next step of the solu- tion to return to step one each time.7

Issues Evaluation and Management In many instances, the appropriate strategy to use depends on the life-cycle stage of the issue, according

to John F. Mahon of the Boston University School of Management.8 He suggests three strategies: (1) con- tainment, for an emerging issue; (2) shaping, for an issue that has media attention and therefore is on the public agenda and (3) coping, for issues that face legislative, regulatory or interest-group action. When an issue is emerging, Mahon recommends dealing directly with it, or with those who are promoting it, to defuse the situation. The most aggressive stance an organization can take is to shape or define the issue in its own terms. Shaping strategies include total resis- tance, bargaining, capitulation, termination and cessa- tion of activity. If the issue has reached the coping stage, Mahon says, the organization has no choice but to change its behavior substantially.

Accepting the cyclical nature of issues, many the- orists argue for the revised catalytic model (see the theory for this in Chapter 5). In this model, the issue is guided through its fife cycle toward a resolution that is in the organization’s favor. This takes into consideration an intense examination of the publics involved in the issue and their potential receptiveness to information about the issue, how that message can be presented and how the organization can frame the

Text not available due to copyright restrictions

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Chapter 4 / Stakeholders and Interactions 95

issue and set the agenda for public discussion to gain a favorable resolution.

One of the hardest parts of handling issues is con- vincing management that an issue needs to be addressed. The late Richard Long suggested a four- step process: (1) state the issue or problem in the most specific terms possible and describe the various effects it can have on the organization, (2) identify adversaries and friends, (3) develop a strategy that includes deciding whether to take the initiative and (4) determine whether to involve coalitions.9

reach them. The proper measure of performance is not just how effectively messages achieve a desired response, but whether a flare-up that can stop an organization’s business can be avoided. The public relations practitioner has an obligation to help employers or clients conduct their business in a way that responds to the new demands made by concerned scientists, environmentalists, consumerists, minority leaders, underprivileged segments of the community and employees.

Internal and External Publics Management’s perception of the organization’s stakeholders, even priority ones, is not always accu- rate. Knowing who your stakeholders are implies knowing what to say to them and how to say it. You should know how your messages are likely to affect the various publics you depend on for good- will. Awareness of publics and their responses requires heightened sensitivity, constant alertness and a lot of guessing, unless you follow their behav- ior online as well as through their actions.

You need to develop and update a statistical pro- file of your organization’s stakeholders and have ready access to information that helps give an accu- rate picture of where they stand on issues facing an organization. Institutions accumulate a wealth of information in their daily operations. Unless some thought is given to how that information might be used, it is useless. (Refer to the preceding chapter for gathering, retaining and retrieving research for sound public relations planning.)

Issues and the Role of the PR Practitioner

More than any other executive (except the chief executive), the PR practitioner must know what is going on inside and outside the organization and how the organization’s activities and functions inter- relate and relate to those of others. He or she also is expected to bring awareness and objectivity to the job and to inject unvarnished, usable facts into the decision-making process.

The PR person learns about what is happening outside the organization by being exposed to pres- sures generated by various groups seeking support. The role of the practitioner here is sensitive and complex. Sometimes, the PR practitioner must play devil’s advocate, raising all salient arguments against a proposed course of action and explaining which decisions will adversely affect certain groups. Some- times, actions must be taken that will offend a major stakeholder, and management should be warned in advance and offered some way of successfully explaining to that constituency why the action is necessary.

Years ago, no one foresaw the role public relations now plays in relation to current issues and all sorts of crises. No longer primarily a communicator, the PR practitioner must act as an intervener and relationship-builder who tries to prevent a potential problem from getting out of hand. Indeed, the most valuable public relations activity consists of formulat- ing plans and convincing management to take steps designed to prevent problems or at least to solve them while they are small.

Some of the tools the PR practitioner uses remain the same, such as cultivating and building relation- ships with all stakeholders and knowing how to

Employees' Perceptions of the Organization One important aspect of an organization’s internal publics is their perception of the organization: its image in their eyes. The collective perceptions of all publics for an organization—based on what it says and does—constitute its image. A word needs to be said about “image” in connection with public relations. Most PR practitioners would gladly ban use of the word image because it’s so often misused and misunderstood and because they don’t like being depicted as “image makers.” Nonetheless, image does describe the perception of an organization or indi- vidual, and this perception is based largely on what the organization or individual does and says. Of course, the organization seldom is perceived in exacdy the same way by all of its publics at any

96 Part Two / Research for PR

given time, but we will return to this aspect of the subject a bit later.

A major contributor to virtually every public’s perception of an organization is the organization’s employees. To complicate matters, employees are themselves an organizational public that has its own perceptions of the organization. The role of employ- ees is a significant concern in most PR efforts.

The lack of homogeneity in any public poses pro- blems for the public relations practitioner trying to evaluate it This is especially true of employees, because they exist on many different levels: salespeo- ple, clerks and receptionists, technicians, profes- sionals, administrators. Moreover, within each group, some people see themselves as embarked on a career while others see their work only as a job. Beyond that, subgroups exist in all of the main cate- gories; professionals, for instance, may include engi- neers, researchers and lawyers.

The way these people work together and the way the administration works with them create a corpo- rate or organizational culture, which strongly affects how employees behave in relationships with each other and with outsiders. This in turn affects how the organization is perceived. Furthermore, with increased diversity in the workforce and with increasing international ownership and operational linkages, such differences among employees can be profound.

Although the best way to find out what various publics think is by conducting scientific research, you can also ask a few questions: (1) If the institution has an image, does it five up to it? Or does it say one thing and do another? (2) If the organization has a favorable image, can employees five up to it? Or do conflicting demands, low pay or other factors render this impos- sible? (3) When an image change is necessary, have the employees been helped to make the change through participative management? (4) If the company has no recognizable image, does this result in confusion, lim- ited identification and disparate values?

Employees are likely to be particularly sensitive to how an institution is presented to others because, as a part of that institution, their ego is involved. All sorts of communication from the organization to other publics must reflect most employees’ experiences as closely as possible, especially the institutional presen- tations such as Web pages and advertising. Further- more, all internal publics are seen as authorities on the organization, which is the reason they need to have access to as much information as possible.

Realizing that every employee is potentially a sig- nificant public relations asset could make most public relations directors’ jobs easier. The best way to pro- mote the use of internal publics as PR’s front line is to make employees feel involved. PR researcher James E. Grunig says that a person involved in a sit- uation seeks information, and that a person moti- vated to communicate about a situation is also motivated to develop a solution for it.

Internal surveys to find out what employees think of their organizations are now as common as external ones. Evidence suggests that labor strife can be reduced by regular employee attitude surveys. Such surveys often influence organizational decisions on personnel policies, work practices, communication, productivity, compensation, organizational structure and physical plant improvements.

The organizational behavior of employees, who produce the corporate or organizational culture, con- tributes significantly to the organization’s image. Joseph F. Coates has described the concept of corpo- rate culture as recognizing that every stable human organization has consistent patterns of behavior reflecting implicit and explicit beliefs and values. Coates says that the cultural characteristics of an orga- nization are usually expressed in positive terms by employees, who often fail to see how outsiders may perceive the same company behavior or policy in neg- ative terms—for example, as “paternalistic,” “moralis- tic” or “intrusive into personal matters,” rather than as “offering counseling” or “genuinely concerned.”

Two widely held beliefs regarding the corporate culture are 1) that the culture comes from the top down or 2) it is set by the organization’s traditional communication environment and new leaders are chosen who fit that mold. The communication envi- ronment may be one that determines or strongly influences a corporation’s willingness to embrace change, promote innovation, tolerate dissent, encourage criticism, experiment and allow for other qualities that characterize a competitive firm. Although organizations with especially strong corpo- rate cultures may enjoy a more cohesive image, they can tend to be less flexible and don’t adapt well to change. A corporate culture is also shaped by its environment (location), its business (for example, TV or manufacturing) and the primary societal cul- ture of its employees (for example, their national ori- gin or ethnicity).

Typically, PR practitioners are not asked to per- suade employees that they should accept the corporate

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culture. People usually try to work in a place where they are comfortable. The more common problem public relations must deal with is changing a corporate culture when new leadership with a different style arrives. In mergers and acquisitions, the corporate cul- ture is likely to change, and, in the blending process, management often tries to adjust the impact on the two corporate cultures through discussions with employees and requests for their input. If the corpo- rate cultures are similar, it often works. Sometimes, though, getting people to change, especially if there is a value conflict, such as “profit over safety,” for example, won’t be successful.10 People are more likely to change their jobs than to change their values.

Perceptions of the Organization Another aspect of the organization’s reflections pro- jected by management and employees is their contri- bution to the reputation of the organization. Stakeholders are not the exclusive property of any institution. Look at your university. Many groups may become a target for university public relations activities. Prospective students, for example, might be those in community colleges and working people who might want to return to school or enroll for the first time. What about the community? Among them are fans of a university’s athletic programs, potential

donors, prospective employees of the university’s graduates and so on.

Looking at the different subsets of people who constitute an organization’s stakeholders helps PR Dractitioners avoid the fallacy of considering any pub- ic a “mass” of indefinable, undifferentiated “mass.”11

Some stakeholders may be a supportive constitu- ency—like the residents of cities that have a profes- sional sports team—or they may be adversarial—as antinuclear advocates are to electric utilities that use nuclear energy. Both types must be considered in pub- lic relations planning and communication strategies.

When most stakeholders share similar perceptions of what the institution is and what it should be, the institution’s image is likely to be sound because it is consistent.

The perception of an organization’s image may vary from public to public, and it may change over time, owing to significant economic, technological and demo- graphic changes in the business environment. Organi- zations should always monitor perceptions of their identity, but it is essential that they reexamine their identity under the following circumstances:

When public perceptions of a company do not reflect reality. Vestiges of past management mis- takes, poor earnings, environmental problems and the like may still be having a negative impact.

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Part Two / Research for PR98

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When external forces such as a new competitor, a breakthrough product, deregulation or an existing competitor’s new identity require identification countermeasures. When competitors are slow to form clearly defined and effectively projected corporate and/ or product presentation. In this sense, identity is opportunistic and can become a competitive advantage in itself.12

In looking at relationships with all stakeholders, keep in mind the differences between attitudes, opinions and beliefs. Although some people use the terms attitudes, opinions and beliefs interchangeably, social scientists generally define each of them differ- ently. Attitudes are tendencies or orientations toward something or someone—a state of mind, a manner, a disposition, a position. Opinions are expressions of estimates or judgments—generally, something not as strongly held as a conviction, but articulating a sentiment or point of view. Beliefs are convictions firmly fixed in the bedrock of one’s value system, embodying one’s sense of truth.

Priority Publics and Planning Tailoring public relations programs to fit various priority publics requires careful and specific identi- fication of the publics and their characteristics (through both formal and informal research methods), translation of this information into a sen- sitive understanding of each public’s needs and

knowledge of how to communicate with each. To develop a program that is both real and realistic— not merely a facade of imagery that produces disil- lusionment and alienation when its insincerity is detected—you must have respect for and empathy with all stakeholders, even when you understand their conflicting interests.

A stakeholder is a priority not only when it is cen- trally affected by a PR recommendation, but also when it is the group most influential in determining whether an idea, policy, event, decision or product recommendation will be accepted. Once identified as a priority, the group must be studied for its other relationships. Insensitivity to the composition of stakeholder groups, their interrelationships, their relationships with members of other groups (as well as to your organization), their ideals and their atti- tudes may lead an organization to waste much time, effort and money on public relations programs that bore or offend the intended recipients or that have a negative effect on unintended recipients. Be aware of trade, industry and association media, their websites and their concerns. It can be particularly damaging to be targeted by one of these to which your organi- zation or its stakeholders have close affiliations.

An important but seldom mentioned public is the competition. The competition is an important public to know, communicate and work with. Institutions that maintain fair and honest dealings with their com- petitors usually establish this relationship through trade or association organizations. It is harder to insult

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Chapter 4 / Stakeholders and Interactions 99

someone you know personally. In addition, mutual respect within an industry or profession helps prevent open hostilities that could damage everyone.

complex of preferences, Hennessy says, “means more than mere direction and intensity; it means all the imagined or measured individual opinions held by the relevant public on all the proposals about the issue over which that public has come into existence.” The fourth factor, the expression of opinion, may involve any form of expression—printed or spoken words, symbols (such as a clenched fist or stiff arm salute) or even the gasp of a crowd. The fifth factor is the number of persons involved. The number of peo- ple in a public can be large or small, as long as the impact of their opinion has a measurable effect. The effect may be as much determined by the intensity of opinion and the organization of effort as by the size of the public. Hennessy’s definition of public opinion does not deal with what could be called “latent public opinion." He reserves that term for “describing a situa- tion in which a considerable number of individuals hold attitudes or general predispositions that may eventually crystallize into opinions around a given issue.” In any case, public opinion has to be expressed to be measured.14

Public opinion is not necessarily based on facts but on perceptions or evaluations of events, persons, institutions or products. In the USA, many people assume that “public opinion is always right.” Perhaps, this view should be expected in a democracy, in which elected officials must be concerned with pub- lic opinion. Long before the pollsters were on the scene, 19th Century essayist Charles Dudley Warner said, “Public opinion is stronger than the legislature, and nearly as strong as the Ten Commandments.”

Obviously, public opinion can be misused or manipulated—as Adolf Hitler’s master propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, demonstrated. And it can be based on a lack of accurate information—as in the period before World War II when many Americans applauded Mussolini’s efforts at “straightening out the Italians” (tourist translation: getting the trains to run on time), while many Italians were beginning to five in fear of the black-shirted fascist militia.

Public opinion also is notably unstable. That is why the “bottom fine” for political strategists is elec- tion day itself, when the actual votes are talked, not public opinion poll results from earlier in the cam- paign. Public opinion’s reliability as a measurement resembles that of body temperature. For accuracy, doctors say, “The patient’s temperature was 101 degrees at 7 a.m.,” not “the patient’s temperature is 101 degrees” (unless the thermometer has just been read). PR people would be a lot safer in their

Perceptions and Public Opinion

Public relations can help develop the proper man- agement philosophy by listening and responding effectively. When listening and responding effec- tively go together, the conscience of management takes on a new perspective. In an institution whose policies are inconsistent and whose management lacks integrity, no public relations effort can be effective.

Keeping information available and monitoring all media consistendy are essential in high-profile cases that are tried in the court of public opinion. This is true not only for particular cases; issues can be tried in the court of public opinion too. Attacks on specific organizations often are perpetual and more immedi- ate. Specific organizations can be attacked by PVOs—global activist group, which often build coali- tions with other groups to target an organization whose practices or behaviors they see as detrimental.

Getting a Handle on Public Opinion Public relations practitioners function in a climate of public opinion that often conditions their own per- ceptions and responses. Climates of public opinion can be as broad as that of the international commu- nity with regard to a nation’s terrorist activities or presumed intent to use nuclear weapons or as narrow as that of securities analysts when a company’s bonds are re-rated downward.

Public opinion is what most people in a general group think; in other words, it is a collective opinion of, for instance, what voters or teenagers or senior citizens or members of a political party think about a specific issue. Bernard Hennessy said, “Public opinion is the complex of preferences expressed by a significant number of persons on an issue of gen- eral importance.”13 Hennessy, who does not distin- guish between opinion and attitude, says that public opinion has five basic elements. First, public opinion must be focused on an issue, which Hennessy defines as “a contemporary situation with a likelihood of disagreement.” Second, the public must consist of “a recognizable group of persons concerned with the issue.” A third element in the definition, the phrase

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

100 Part Two / Research for PR

judgments if they would take the same precautions. Exposure to new information or events can quickly change public opinion, rendering recent polling research obsolete.

To keep pace with constandy changing public opinion, you must accept a few basic precepts. Not everyone is going to be on your side at any one time. The best you can hope for is a majority consensus. To achieve this, you need to retain the partisans you have, win at least provisional support from the unde- cided or uncommitted bloc and neutralize or win over the opposition.

Winning over the opposition is the most difficult part Most of us read and listen for reinforcement of our own ideas. We do not like to hear ideas that con- flict with our own, and we make every effort to reject them. For example, we may simply tune out and fail to hear or remember what we have been exposed to. We may discredit the source, without objectively deter- mining the legitimacy of its evidence or argument. We may reduce the conflicting argument to a crude caricature whose fallacious elements we have no diffi- culty pointing out. We may distort meanings so that what we hear or read conforms to what we believe. No doubt you have seen letters to the editor of a magazine from two different people, each compli- menting the publication for an editorial they inter- preted in opposite ways; the readers simply read into the editorial what they wanted the publication to say.

The study of opinion formation and attitude change is basic to an understanding of the public opinion process even though it should not be equated with this process. The public opinion process is one phase of the influenc- ing of collective decisions, and its investigation involves knowledge of channels of communication, of the power structures of a society, of the character of mass media, of the relation between elites, factions, and masses, of the role of formal and informal leaders, of the institu- tionalized access to officials. But the raw material out of which public opinion develops is to be found in the attitudes of individuals, whether they be followers or leaders and whether these attitudes be at the general level of tendencies to conform to legitimate authority or majority opinion or at the specific level of favoring or opposing the particular aspects of the issue under con- sideration. The nature of the organization of attitudes within the personality and the processes which account for attitude change are thus critical areas for the understanding of the collective product known as public opinion.1 5

The capriciousness of public opinion is due to its fragile base in perceptions. Celebrities know (or soon learn) how fickle public opinion is. Influencing it requires constant effort directed toward viable—that is, credible and supportable—positioning of the or- ganization (or person) vis-a-vis the competition. Posi- tioning can sell a product, as Bemays proved when a promotional campaign he developed made smoking in public socially acceptable for young women—a feat he later felt less proud of. Positioning can also sell a per- son, as many elected officials can testify.

Ideas can be sold, too. During World War II, a massive PR effort by government and industry

Public Opinion as a Moving Target The importance of the private, individual “opinion” (attitudes and beliefs) that underlies public opinion was described as follows by Daniel Katz:

How Public pinion Forms

Understanding the process helps you as public relations practitioner know what to look for and what to anticipate.

1. Identification of an Issue/Incident 2. Formation of Attitudes Toward Issue/Incident 3. Expression of Opinions 4. Formation/Emergence of Coalitions 5. Expression of Common/Diverse Agreements 6. Behavior Action/Reaction

Assessment by Media/Leadership/Celebrities7.

Chapter 4 / Stakeholders and Interactions 101

convinced the American public that the international situation made it appropriate for large numbers of single and married women to enter the paid labor force.16 That effort put women in jobs never before imagined as “women’s work,” but it also returned them to hearth and home when those jobs were needed by returning veterans. In moving from one major model of American womanhood to another— each based on American myth—the tide of public opinion was manipulated each time to suit the gov- ernment’s perceived needs.

The problem with public understanding of any poll, but particularly political polls, was stated suc- cincdy by authors and researchers Charles Roll and Albert Hadley Cantril:

There is nothing immutable about the results of a poll. The way polls are treated by the press and politicians, one might be led to think otherwise. However, what a poll provides is a picture of the public's view at only one point in time and on only the questions that were asked. Yet, inferences of sweeping proportion are frequently drawn from a poll, leading to fundamental misunder- standings of what the state of public opinion really is.1'Measuring Public Opinion

Because public opinion changes so often and can be influenced so easily, measuring it is big business. Most public relations people make use of published public opinion surveys, and many buy public opinion research. Published surveys, for instance, are avail- able by subscription from both Gallup and Roper. For Gallup, go to its polling website. Since 2005, Gallup has conducted polls in 140 countries in addi- tion to in the USA. For Roper, go to the Roper Cen- ter for Public Opinion Research. Issues of its The Public Perspective are also available online in Nexis (file PUBPER). It often includes polls, such as those taken by Harris Interactive, Gallup or news organizations that sample the nation’s moods and pass on the information through public outlets. Other public opinion research is offered by a variety of groups for a fee. Gallup, for example, has a con- sulting arm and sold one of its analysis units to SRI in 1988. Other fee-based organizations specialize in new media, such as KDPaine & Partners. Some studies—many done by academics or research institutions—are available without charge, or at minimal cost.

Public relations practitioners often perform simi- lar research themselves, although this is usually pro- prietary—owned by the organization paying for it, and unavailable to other firms or clients. Even when no original research is done, however, familiar- ity with research methodology is essential to be able to successfully apply the many published surveys to a particular company, market or client.

Although attitude research must be used prompdy because opinion is so unstable, old data should not be discarded. Information from old polls can be used later in developing simulated tests that will yield some probable responses or in tracking longitudinal shifts in attitude or opinion.

Something else may be going on as well. The very act of communicating an opinion has consequences on public opinion. That often occurs with pre- election polling. Two factors may have come into play. First, early polls usually ask how the respondent intends to vote and what he or she thinks others will do. Misperception of others’ opinions is a common phenomenon. People often see themselves as holding opinions that are different than those of their friends and neighbors.18

The second element that can skew early projections involves social relationships theory.19 Voters get ideas from discussions personally and electronically from interactive networks. People often won’t talk about how they feel or are going to vote if they think their friends, family, neighbors and others close to them will disagree. Another possible contributing factor is embod- ied in the Noelle-Neumann “spiral of silence” theory.20 This theory, which assumes a “powerful effects model” for media, states that media can suppress public expres- sion of opinions opposed to those presented in the media, creating a “spiral of silence” that grows until the media’s picture of reality becomes reality itself. Thus, talk show hosts, blogs, shared messages by email or views on YouTube can affect a “false reality.”

Public Opinion Research and Public Relations

The study of public opinion ties public relations research to both behavioral psychology and econom- ics. Opinion research reflects seasonal and other types of trends in attitudes that raise questions about behavior patterns, and these in turn often require researchers to look at the economic picture

102 Part Two / Research for PR

to determine whether the roots of the problem might be there.

The study of public opinion is particularly impor- tant to public relations people for another reason. Information and opinion are fundamentally different. Appreciating that difference means recognizing how understanding and knowledge differ. Opinion sur- veys should watch for occasions when “knowledge” is used for “understanding” and should inquire into the reasons for its being linked to purpose and brought to bear on decision making.

Observations about public opinion made by Hadley Cantril have stood the test of time.21 The first three of Cantril’s “laws” deal with the impact of events on public opinion and provide guidance not only for researchers

who need to know that an “event” is going to condition responses, but also to spokespeople responding to issues and crises. Their responses also are “events” that can sway the opinions of publics, especially those stake- holders most involved and impacted. That is reinforced by Cantril’s fourth and sixth laws about the potential for what they say to have greater force while public opinion is yet unstructured and that self-interest is a major com- ponent in responses of publics. But the eighth law, which says when self-interest is involved opinion is less likely to change, suggests that the response of a spokesperson is likely to “set” opinion on an issue for those publics. The 14th law fits somewhat with self- interest because it says that when opinion is based mostly on desire, it tends to move sharply with events.

A broad collection of theories support the idea of changing opinions to change behavior, but how to do that in a global society is a complex undertaking. Culture bequeaths a collection of assumptions about reality from a person or groups of people that are passed along from generation to generation, even though environments and situations may change.

What this means in terms of public opinion is that understanding reactions to events, products or policies has to be anticipated by using empathy to imagine someone experiencing them through a dif- ferent “lens,” or mind-set. In counseling corporations on preparing for a crisis when management seems reluctant to consider it, one question usually gets management’s attention: “If you wanted to wreck this company, what would you do?”

That is the kind of training the U.S. military in Afghanistan receive in counterinsurgency classes. In the fall of 2007, groups of 60 military personnel at a time began attending intensive five-day sessions training them to “think like the Taliban.” In April 2007, the U.S . Army gave the teaching job to a 26- year-old Rhodes Scholar, Capt. Dan Helmer. Capt. Helmer tells his students of all ranks, enlisted and officer, that the important battles are 80 percent political and just 20 percent military.

The Wall Street Journal reporter Michael M. Phillips summed up the job in the following manner, which he called the academy’s principal message: The war that began to oust a regime has evolved into a popularity contest where insurgents and counterinsurgents vie for public support and the right to rule. The implicit critique: “Many U.S. and allied soldiers still arrive in the country (Afghanistan) well trained to kill, but not to persuade.”

Writer Claire Villareal, a student of Asia and particularly Buddhism , has noted that it is important to use a “culture map” to understand people “living in their unique cultural space." While Villareal is writ- ing to improve understanding and empathy, and to encourage respect for other traditions, she rein- forces the concept of the necessity of looking at the world and what is going on in it through the lens of others.

You can’t persuade people you don’t understand. Persuasion always has been the instrument of public diplomacy.

Sources: Claire Villareal, “Cultural Relativity: My World , Your World, Our World,” Journal of General Semantics, July 2007, pp . 230-234; Michael M. Phillips, “Course Correction: In Counterinsurgency Class, Soldiers Think Like Taliban,” The Wall Street Journal, November 30, 2007, pp. 1, A13.

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The seventh law, which says only self-interest or con- tinuing events are likely to sustain public opinion, can be good news except that self-interest groups may sustain an issue by continuing events, especially if they want change. However, the ninth law about public opinion usually being ahead of official policy offers an opportu- nity to have a greater impact by changing policy in response to the situation, and if it is government policy that needs changing, having some influence on that change. The tenth law suggests that an organization needs to move quickly when an issue arises or a crisis occurs because when an opinion held by a slight major- ity is unstructured, an accomplished fact moves opinion toward acceptance.

The idea presented in Cantril’s fifth law, that peo- ple react to emergencies rather than anticipate them, has a connection to the l lth law, that at critical times people are more sensitive to the adequacy of their leadership at these times. The I2th law, that people are more inclined to go along with policy changes if they have a role in decision making, is also a factor here as well as in times when there’s not a crisis.

Finally, the I 3th law states that people have an easier time forming opinions that relate to goals than to the means to reach them. And the 15th law points out that the important psychological dimen- sions of opinion are direction, intensity, breadth and depth—an important point to remember in consid- ering polls and other opinion measurements.

There is still no continuing system of measurement for the “climate of public opinion.” Specific tests mea- sure public opinion on a particular issue at a given time, but no continuing study of a public’s state of mind exists to reveal, for example, how much they are willing to sacrifice in craftsmanship in return for less expensive, mass-produced products. Who knows what the real religious temper of the nation is, what spiritual values are held and by whom and why and when these values change? Such attitudes can have political consequences, as the Italians demonstrated in 1974, when they finally voted to provide a legal process for divorce in that Roman Catholic country.

How much freedom are people in the USA will- ing to relinquish in return for security? Questions have arisen about privacy invasions by the federal government’s monitoring of phone calls and email, At the local level, complaints have arisen about secu- rity cameras on public streets. The posting of 76,000 classified documents on WikiLeaks in August 2010 dismayed many both inside and outside the U.S. gov- ernment and created criticism and an effort to

identify the person who released the documents to the Web-based group. The group’s motive in post- ing the documents was said to give more transpar- ency to military action in Afghanistan. Public opinion in the USA and abroad was not unified, or even consistent, about this leak and posting.

Dealing with Public Opinion Many publics share knowledge or work together on various issues. Hence, organizations sometimes find, to their dismay, coalitions of unlikely political partners involved in a boycott or other hostile action against them. Electronic networks, video teleconferencing and special interest organizations create loosely affili- ated publics with strong emotional ties to particular issues. Because of crossover of communication among these loosely connected publics, information is shared, commented on and opinions expressed. Many subsets of very tighdy woven communities are tied together by common experiences (for example, children of alcoholics, or CoAs) or situations (for example, disabilities or illnesses) or interests (for example, animal rights). These webs of relationships are interlocking even for a single individual.

Even though different publics often share some common interests and values, it is increasingly dan- gerous to assume that people share common sets of values. Thus, an organization trying to determine a socially responsible course of action must simulta- neously try to respond to special interest groups interested in changing broader public opinion. The PR manager often feels caught in a force field of special interest groups. But allegiance to an organiza- tion’s mission statement can keep PR efforts from being scattershot and can work, instead, to strengthen the organization’s image and the public’s perception of its organizational values.

In dealing with public opinion, the organization counts on maintaining credibility, accomplished through trust. People trust people, not organizations, according to information on trust from the Edelman studies mentioned in Chapter 3. That trust comes from experience, not just direct contact between an organization and those who may use its products or services, but with its employees. Trusted employees are those who feel that they can speak with authority for a company and do so knowledgeably and confi- dently. Publics are also forgiving when an organiza- tion with a reputation for trust has a crisis, as long as it acts honesdy and communicates often.

104 Part Two / Research for PR

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a more intensive involvement, mostly the result of interactive communication, now an expectation. The term stakeholder or public (“active audience”) encompasses any group of people tied together, how- ever loosely, by some common bond of interest or concern and who have consequences on an organiza- tion. No “general public” exists. External publics often are defined as existing outside an institution whereas internal publics share the institutional identity. With interactive communications between and among internal and external publics, the distinc- tions are less well defined. Publics/stakeholders can be described in three ways: nominatively, demographically and psycho- graphically. Priority publics/stakeholders are those most important to an organization in terms of their potential impact on the organization. Developing such empathy for a public—trying to imagine how that public will react—not only helps in planning for a specific situation, but also helps in determining an engagement approach to the message as well as its emphasis and tone and selection of media for delivery. Certain publics/stakeholders are always a priority, such as employees (who are always important), but others may change as issues or situations develop.

Discussion Questions 1. What do you think of when you hear the word

public? What about stakeholder? Which term do you think best fits the public relations function? Why?

2. How do you define public opinion? Can you think of ways your opinion has been formed around certain issues? What about the opinions of your friends?

3. Think of three or four publics/stakeholders at your school. What are the best ways to commu- nicate with each, that is, what medium is best? What else influences their opinions?

4. How do you think culture could affect an opin- ion of a public? Gender? Race? Ethnicity? Reli- gion/Faith?

5. How much influence do you think public rela- tions practitioners have on public opinion? Defend your answer with examples.

Points to Remember Traditionally, the term public has meant any group (or possibly individual) that has some involvement with an organization. Stakeholder is used more now in public relations because the term conveys

Chapter 4 / Stakeholders and Interactions 105

Psychographics are increasingly important for describing diverse publics. One system for analysis of U.S. consumers is VALS

climate for events and developments that could affect any of the organization’s publics. Handling issues demands an integrated approach to communication. The issue, the public and the situation in which an issue develops all require that an evaluation consider strategies that use any and all available communication tools. Issues are cyclical in nature. Understanding that cycle helps to determine at what stage it is impor- tant to act. The immediacy of communication means that the stages in the cycle may occur in minutes, not days. The catalytic model aims to seize the opportunity to frame the issue and to guide it through its life cycle toward resolution in the organization’s favor. One of the most difficult parts of handling issues is convincing management to address an issue in a timely way. More than any other executive, other than the president or chief executive officer (CEO), the staff public relations practitioner needs to know what is going on both inside and outside the orga- nization and how the organization’s actions and plans will relate to all of its stakeholders. Thorough knowledge of stakeholders helps develop empathy toward them so messages can be crafted to aid a desired response from them. The job of the PR person is to bring awareness and objectivity to the job and to inject unvarnished, usable facts into the decision-making process. This is not always a popular position, but it is essential for the PR person’s role in strategic planning. Keeping a statistical profile of an organization’s stakeholders, updated to reflect what they say and do, is essential to monitoring attitude shifts. Image describes the collective perceptions of an organization or individual by all of its publics, based on what it says and does, all of which con- tribute to public perceptions by different segments. The way employees and management work together creates a corporate or institutional culture that strongly affects how employees behave in rela- tionships to each other and to outsiders. This, in turn, affects how the organization is perceived. The corporate culture has an impact on public perceptions of an organization. Mergers and acquisitions can, consequently, create some confu- sion about the new entity.

TM (values, attitudes and lifestyles), which puts consumers into eight categories. Many assumed universal behaviors are not global. Only the most basic behaviors, such as facial expressions, are global. Research on behavior is often done on one group and generalized too broadly to be valid. Because people are more interconnected globally, reactions to issues and events are communicated in real time, resulting in global reactions and responses. Interactive media have contributed to multiple message sources and thus a fragmenta- tion of publics. Organizations are trying to reach some fragmen- ted communities by using intranets and listservs to benefit from interactive participation. As a global source of information, the Internet draws users because it is participatory, offers anonymity and affords the development of “communities.” Many of the communities develop into constitu- encies that can be online critics of organizations, even to the extent of setting up rogue websites and otherwise using the Web to legitimize their criticism. Employees are always an important public because they often have direct contact with a number of other publics. With their insiders’ experience and information, they are perceived as knowledgeable and credible. Keeping employ- ees informed and loyal is crucial for maintaining this PR “front line.” Women in the workplace and women customers can create serious problems with an institution’s reputation if they are victims of harassment or dis- crimination and make that case publicly. Ethnic or religious minorities should not be assumed to represent any sort of homogeneous public. Sensitivity to a minority culture is as important as being aware of and using the language of that minority effectively. Identifying issues that are likely to create problems for a company or nonprofit organization is the first step in the process of monitoring not only issues but also the socioeconomic and political

106 Part Two / Research for PR

A public may be a supportive or adversarial con- stituency. The perception of the organization var- ies from public to public and may change over time due to significant changes in relationships or in the environment. Attitudes are tendencies or orientations toward something or someone—a state of mind, a manner, a disposition or a position. Opinions are expressions of estimates or judgments—generally, something not as strongly held as a conviction but articulating a sentiment or point of view. Beliefs are convictions firmly fixed in the bedrock of one’s value system, embodying one’s sense of truth. Public opinion is a collective opinion—that is, what most people in a particular public think. Public opinion expresses beliefs based not neces- sarily on facts but on perceptions or evaluations of events, persons, institutions or products. Tailoring public relations programs to fit various priority stakeholders requires careful and specific identification of the publics, an understanding of their needs and knowledge of how best to com- municate with them. A public is a priority not just because the organi- zation says so, but because the public is influential in the success or failure of an idea, policy, event, decision or product. Attempting to influence publics means being sen- sitive about their reaction to imagery, going to them instead of expecting them to come to you, not assuming attitude change is necessary for behavior change, using moral arguments only as adjuncts and not as main points, embracing the attitudinal public mainstream and not offending the people you want to change. Insensitivity or unawareness of the interconnec- tedness of publics is a formula for failure. Knowledge is power. That is why fact finding is so important, and why understanding how organiza- tions and institutions work is critical. Often overlooked in research are competitors, a public with the potential to do considerable harm. Not everyone is going to be on your side at any one time. The best you can hope for is a majority consensus. There is still no continuing system of measure- ment for the “climate of public opinion.” Specific tests measure public opinion on a particular issue

at a given time, but no continuing study of a pub- lic’s state of mind exists. Internal communications can become public communications, so these should always be pre- pared with a consideration for the sensitivities of all publics, not just those for whom they are written. Perception is the reality for publics, so when image and experience conflict, opinion of the institution takes a nosedive. Public relations people who think they can be only image makers or spokespersons for what- ever management wants to say are borrowing trouble and abdicating their role as institutional strategists. Public opinion is what most people think— a collective opinion. Groups of those publics can be seen as having an opinion about an organiza- tion or institution. In order to be measured, how- ever, public opinion has to be expressed. Public opinion is unstable and is only as good as the information involved in its formation. Sometimes, organizations may be caught up in a climate of bad public opinion about an institu- tional group, such as banks, or they may become the target of a specific attack by an activist group. Activist groups can be local or global; the latter often are called private voluntary organizations (PVOs). Pollster Hadley Cantril developed some concepts about public opinion that have stood the tests of time and theoretical assessment. Public relations practitioners measure outcomes, changes in opinion, attitudes and behaviors to determine the effectiveness of persuasive efforts. One of the ways to measure opinion is by using polls. But to interpret results correcdy, public relations people must understand the mechanics of polling as well as communication theories that affect gathering information. Some information about public opinion is avail- able in public sources and other information can be bought; but research done by firms for clients or done by companies for their own use is propri- etary and generally is not available. Public opinion researchers know, measure, ana- lyze and weigh public opinion, but the PR practi- tioners’ job is to help their organizations and

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Chapter 4 / Stakeholders and Interactions 107

clients deal with the real or anticipated impact of public opinion. Information and opinion are different. Appreciat- ing that difference means recognizing how under- standing and knowledge differ, and being careful about which are used in decision making. Different publics may share some common inter- ests and values, but it can’t be assumed that there is enough homogeneity in a public to make assumptions about how fully values are shared. Organizations depend on the opinions of their publics, so they need to be sure that these publics get accurate information and can communicate with the organization, especially about decisions that may have an impact on them.

PollingReport.com http://www.poUingreport.com/

Public Agenda Online http://www.publicagenda.org

Public Opinion Strategies (POS) http://www.pos.org/

The Roper Center for Public Opinion http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/

Maskable http://mashable.com

Social Media Today http://socialmediatoday.com

EC=MC www.everycompanyisamediacompany.com

Other Related Websites to Review The Gallup Organization

http//www.gallup.com/ International Journal of Public Opinion Research

ijpor.oxfordjoumals.org/

Image not available due to copyright restrictions

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To understand that theories are scientific analyses of a set of facts and not just principles. To learn what theories might apply to particular PR situations. To test theories in PR practice to refine theoretical models. To realize that PR functions in organizational structures and particular communication environments and depends on volunteer readers, viewers and participants.

Theoretical Underpinnings

ublic relations theory borrows from a number of disciplines. Because PR is a management function

and works in an organizational environment, it draws on organizational theory and management theory. Because public affair is also a major element of public relations practice, it also uses political theory.

Because much of public relations is also one-on-one as well as within groups, interpersonal communication is an important source for PR application of theory. This is especially true now with the global networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. All communication theory certainly is relevant to PR, as is theory about persuasion. Developing theory is emerging about the blend of advertising and editorial messaging, user-generated content (UGC), citizen journalism and blogs as well as the convergence of legacy broadcast and print. You’ll find, though, that most communication theories are fairly “young,” as theories go. Their roots are primarily in sociology and psychology, although math, biology and physics have contributed too. But, you’ll be looking at them here in another context. We’ll focus in this chapter on two basic underlying disciplines—sociology and psychology— plus some communication models and persuasion theories. Then, we’ll examine the communication process: sources of information, messages, what a combination of sources and messages creates, media used and finally message receivers with their reactions and feedback. In reading this chapter,

P Thank God, communication isn’t a disease, because we know so little about it.

—Bill Marsteller, Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Marsteller, Inc.

110 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

remember that these are theories, most tested and revised and rethought You can do that too as you read and think about this chapter.

As you learned in Chapter 4, public opinion is the collective opinion of groups of people. You can count on two things about public opinion: first, it will change; second, those who hold an opinion were somehow persuaded to think as they do. Although people do sometimes respond collectively, as when they applaud or join in a boycott of a product or store, they always initiate their responses individually. These individual responses indicate attitudes that reflect feelings or convictions. Each person decides individually to clap or not to clap, to buy or not to buy and to patronize or not to patronize. Consequently, we must look at individual reactions first. Then, we try to figure out how these reactions of individuals affect the reactions of other individuals to produce a collective response. It is important to keep in mind that responses are always individual before they are collective. Many faulty mass communication theories have been based on the mistaken idea that there is only a mass response. Looking at publics collectively can create a number of difficulties for public relations practitioners, as can looking at what publics say without explaining what they do. m

2. Evolutionary perspective (Darwin, Spencer): This theory holds that social change follows a set of natural laws and that mass communication systems have grown and developed with technology and with decision makers’ needs for communication.

3. Social conflict (Hegel, Marx, Engels): This theory holds that social struggles occur between groups with competing needs and goals. The mass media are competitive and active in a number of areas of conflict, such as being a watchdog over government.

4. Symbolic interactionism (Charles Horton Cooley [environment over genes] and George Herbert Mead [language symbols in collective and indi- vidual life]): This theory holds that the media present constructs of reality that offer informa- tion from limited sources, resulting in individual and collective creations of reality.

These general theories are social paradigms (sets of assumptions or systems of beliefs). Some compet- ing psychological theories are usually discussed as a single framework, chiefly because in the study of mass communication the first four theories provide a good launching pad for discussions of collective action or effects. Nevertheless, we have to turn to a psychological paradigm for the effect of communica- tion on the individual.

Several approaches can be isolated within the psy- chological framework. One is the neurobiological approach, which concerns itself with the effects of communication on the nerves and the brain. Another is the comparative approach, which focuses on the effect of communication on humans versus its effect on other living creatures. A third focus is the behav- ioral approach, which derives from stimulus-response psychology and is closely related to the neurobiologi- cal and the comparative. A fourth is the psychoanalytic approach, which studies unconscious reactions. A related fifth orientation is the cognitive approach, which examines what people do to and with sensory input. This is the most commonly used approach in studies of the effects of mass communication.

The two general persuasion models are as follows: 1. Sociocultural paradigm: This model attempts to

account for sociocultural variables that enable a particular individual to interpret or present real- ity as in the mass media.

2. Psychodynamic model: This model, based on the cognitive paradigm, studies how an effective

Origins in Sociology and Psychology

Four general theories drawn from sociology help us understand how people respond to communication from mass and specialized communication. Two others come from psychology. 1. Structural functionalism (Plato’s Republic,

Durkheim, Merton, Parsons): This theory holds that the organization or structure of society provides its stability. As a result, the forms of media and mass communication depend on their society and contribute to social equilibrium.

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Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 111

message makes a person do something (deliver an overt response) that the communicator desired as an effect. One of the most valuable theories drawn from this model is Ball-Rokeach’s theory of value change. People who are given a value test and who are then compared with others like them or whom they want to be like will change specific values to accommodate the others’ values.1

developed by Norbert Wiener in 1948 for physical sys- tems, but later found applicable to organizational sys- tems. This is one of the sources for the idea of goal setting within an organization and the notion of using feedback to adjust actions directed toward achieving that goal. Here’s the way it works. A system’s control center directs behavior toward a goal and system mechanisms are used to change system behavior when feedback suggests that the goal is not being met.4

Systems approaches are not the only ones used and not the only sources for communication theory. Two others are especially important: cultural and critical/postmodern.

PR literature often refers to the impact on PR prac- tice of organizational culture. The primary basis for the organizational culture is its values. That’s why you read so much about good public relations practice being aligned with an organization’s mission statement—its reason for being—and its values either stated or implied by the practices and behaviors of its employees. Orga- nizational cultures change because they depend on the interaction of participants in them, but the most direct influence is the organizational leadership. Sometimes, a change of leadership changes the culture.

All members of the organization may not share the organizational culture, or at least not to the same degree. All organizations have subcultures that exist within the broader culture, and some may be connected to the par- ticular skills or knowledge of a subgroup. In a university setting, for example, even though there is an overall mission statement, colleges and departments also have mission statements, and often, the “culture” of one department is totally different from that of another.

The study of cultures usually involves qualitative research that you’ll remember being discussed in Chapter 3. One such measure not mentioned in the research chapter that deals with social science research is ethnography. Ethnography treats the study of cul- ture as a text to be read and draws observations from direct involvement in the organization to gain per- sonal experience. The theory about the organization then is “grounded” in direct experience.5 Often, a part of looking at culture involves some exploration of theories of design, color, sounds and symbols includ- ing human nonverbal ones.6

Critical and postmodern approaches also have had an effect on theory in the field. For example, systems theory attempts an objective approach to under- standing organizational dynamics, whereas cultural theory tries to experience an organization as an insider so as to interpret it to outsiders. Critical

Organizational Theory

The basis for organizational theory lies in general sys- tems theory. The theoretical concept can be found in works by Georg Hegel. His idea of a power struggle provided by tensions of opposing ideas was picked up by Karl Marx, who applied it to labor versus capitalism. To some extent, Darwin’s work on evolution was not exacdy a survival of the fittest, a sort of power struggle, but he saw species adapting to pressures from their environment. Biologist Ludwig von Bertalanfry used systems theory for his expansion and adaptation of the idea to general systems theory. His belief that all fife forms, social as well as biological, are organized for dynamic interaction to sustain life was picked up by therapists who used the life systems theory in their interactional theory of communication. Max Weber’s work looked at how organizing occurred, and Rensis Likert’s theory indicated the importance of communi- cation. In mass communication, information theory draws from systems theory in that it considers the inter- facing of corresponding systems. Wilbur Schramm noted that the mathematical model from Claude Shannon was structural, whereas human communication systems are functional. Communication researchers apply systems theory in a broad context.2

Systems theory embraces an organization and all of its publics. The idea is that all parts of a system are interrelated and function as an organized whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. These systems are open to change from the outside environment, but the amount of change is relative to the degree of openness of the system. You’ll hear organizations referred to as having open or closed communication systems, for example. All systems try for but never gain real equilibrium, or stability.

Many theories have evolved from this basic concept, including open systems theory,3 but one that is of par- ticular interest to us is cybernetic systems theory

112 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

theory, with its origins in Karl Marx, looks at orga- nizations as power structures of dominance.

Critical theory examines sources of power in an organization and questions control of organizational discourse such as whose view of reality is it5 Also, where is the control in gender issues? The philoso- pher-sociologistJurgen Habermas examines the inter- play of work, interaction and power. Habermas often is cited in discussions of ethics because power can distort communication, but marginalized groups can empower themselves by understanding the dominant ideologies. Habermas has said, “Reality is constituted in a frame- work that is the form of life of communicating in groups and is organized through ordinary language. What is real is that which can be experienced according to the interpretations of a prevailing symbolic system.”7

Postmodernists believe that an historical break occurred sometime in the mid-1960s to move us into a postmodern world. Postmodern characteristics include a global economy, the dominance of popular culture and the power and control of organizations over people. Postmodern theorists see scientific methods and rational critical inquiry as inadequate for examining today’s society.8

Another critical theorist whose name you will encounter in public relations literature is Michael Foucault.9 Foucault talks about discursive structures that are embedded in our identity, the way we think about things and the way our society works. He sees Western societies as concerned about independence and individualism, whereas other societies, such as Flispanics, Asians, Africans and African Americans are collective societies that frame their members’ identity and relationships. You’ll also see Foucault’s name in women’s studies because he sees discourse as ruled by power structures that say who can talk and who can’t. Women who feel silenced in their culture, including Western ones, tend to agree.

The major criticism of postmodern theory is that it is nihilistic, rejecting all moral principles—with no basis for social orders, values, or moral conduct. As theories are viewed, though, postmodernism is con- sidered “new,” and a theoretical frontier.

replacement of a simple message model with a behavioral model. The earlier simple model was: sender encoding message sending it through a medium to an audience who decoded it and responded, with the response being direct feedback. The behavioral model became the theoretical under- pinning of public relations when it was presented by Patrick Jackson in pr reporter in 1990.

The behavioral model basically shifts the objective— and with it the focus of thinking, strategizing and planning—away from the traditional model’s emphasis on creating or retaining awareness and in that process introducing the persuasion model discussed under “Per- suasion and Change.” Step 1, awareness, may involve creating awareness, changing levels of awareness or maintaining awareness, but in every case relevance to the individual is the key to getting attention. In this step, the diffusion process of communication—the two-step flow—contributes either positively or nega- tively to the next step. In other words, information goes from mass media to opinion leaders and is then passed along to individuals who have some contact with the opinion leader. Step 2, latent readiness, pre- cedes action and involves referencing existing experi- ences, information, attitudes, values and beliefs and every other resource. The mental computer of each member of the priority public is checking and matching, confirming or rejecting. In Step 3, the triggering event, some circumstance arises, accidentally or intentionally, that causes action. Step 4, behavior, is that action. The initial action may only be preliminary to the final action—the ultimate, desired behavior.

Jackson later modified his model to embed the theory of symmetry in relationships with publics/ stakeholders. So what he suggested was this:

The symmetrical behavioral model involves first, gaug- ing existing levels of awareness and discovering condi- tions under which publics are likely to respond positively to an effort to create, enhance or increase awareness of some desired behavioral goal; second, investigating responses to attempt to create, raise or sustain aware- ness, to determine any problems with the desired behav- ior goal that may already be apparent and should cause goal modification (or even abandonment) with respect to one or more publics; third, measuring latent readiness to act, so that the action's direction can be anticipated, depending on certain conditions; fourth, monitoring responses to the triggering event, to anticipate the level of resulting behavior, and interceding with action or communication or both if the behavior seems likely to

Communication Theories

The attitudes and opinions of publics gready interest the PR practitioner, but even more important is what these publics are doing. This point is reflected in the

Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 113

be undesirable; fifth, evaluating behavior to determine why that particular action was taken, whether it is likely to be sustained and (if it is desired) what is needed to sustain it. Each of these five stages builds in the opportunity for publics to communicate their desires, needs and concerns so that goals can be adjusted or at least a mutual understanding can be negotiated.10

speeches and special events that attract attention in addition to information, events and activities originat- ing outside the organization anywhere in the world.11

Best practices in public relations suggest that a symmetrical system for communication is desirable in an organization. The two-way symmetrical model allows for more input from publics that can provide innovative solutions and corrective dis- course, both essential for sound strategic PR man- agement. Prior to the Internet’s becoming the principal communication medium, an impediment to the symmetrical model was an imbalance in power among the publics and in their relationship to management. An adjustment to the balance of power has occurred, significantly changing all types of relationships. When a researcher tests a new appli- cation for a theory, the older model is used to show suggested modifications. New media are forging the development and testing of new communication models.

This is close, but not exactly where we are now, and if Pat Jackson were still living, he probably would have a new model. For the first time interactive media have created real symmetry for public relations practitioners. (See Chapters 1 and 4.)

Edward L. Bemays held the position that behavior was what mattered all along, which is why he insisted that public relations must be considered a social sci- ence. To be useful and appropriate for public relations practitioners, a communication model must encom- pass practitioner-generated publicity, all types of organizational publications, promotions, advertising,

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114 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

mentally receptive. You can present something and have the presentation ignored, however, so the second step in the persuasion process is attending, which means that the receiver must pay attention to the per- suasive message. Beyond attending to the message, the receiver has to understand it. Therefore, the third step is comprehending.To satisfy this step, the message must be presented in symbols the receiver can understand. The fourth step is yielding, in which the receiver accepts the message and agrees with the point of view it expresses. The next (fifth) step is retaining the transmitted information, which explains why repeti- tion is so fundamental to the persuasion process. Peo- ple have to be reminded of the message, even after they have accepted it. The sixth and final step is acting.The persuader must be able to observe the results of per- suasion in the receiver’s behavior.

Some strategies that will get receivers to one point in the process will not carry them all the way through to the final step.14 So persuasion strategy has to be planned and monitored to ascertain whether it is having the desired effect at each stage, and if it is not, why not. Parallels between the per- suasion model and the behavior model are easy to see. The behavior model’s awareness stage incorpo- rates the persuasion model’s presenting and attend- ing. The latent awareness stage corresponds to comprehending, yielding and retaining. The trigger- ing event essentially offers a demonstration of the receiver’s retention, resulting in some sort of behav- ior. If this behavior matches the desired action, the persuasion process has succeeded.

Despite the protestations of some practitioners to the contrary, public relations frequently employs the techniques of persuasion to articulate a point of view that differs from that of members of a public. Exam- ples include public relations/advertising campaigns, which are generally highly visible because of the attendant publicity. In persuasion, the critical factor in opinion change usually is information or the lack thereof and how this information is presented or withheld. Information is power, as the late social sci- entist Herbert I. Schiller pointed out, and informa- tion resides in controllable sources—among the upper echelons of government, business and educa- tion. It tends to be made available to the public, Schiller says, through public relations people who have the power to control its flow. Their access to information and their selective use of it combine the tools of power and persuasion. Schiller railed persuasively against such “mind managers,” but his

Persuasion and Change

When someone holds a strong opposing opinion, you are probably wasting your time trying to win that person over to your view. Usually, all you can hope to do is to limit whatever effects the person may have on others who are undecided or uncom- mitted. In particular, you should not waste time on recent converts to the opposition, because new con- verts to anything react with more emotion than rea- son and are almost impossible to reach with factual materials, much less with a persuasive argument. You should concentrate your efforts, then, on preserving what favorable opinion exists and on winning over undecided individuals to your point of view.

There are three basic ways to get people to do what you want: power, patronage and persuasion. Power involves the use of authority and the implied or overt threat of compulsion. One obvious source of power is the legal system, which has laws that demand compli- ance. Other sources of power may be more subtle, but they are equally binding. For example, employees may not be legally bound to follow a supervisor’s sugges- tions, but if they don’t they may soon be looking for other jobs. Because groups can exert substantial pres- sure internally, peer groups are also a strong source of power. (If you don’t believe that, consider how often you hear, “But I must have one. Everyone else does.”) Public relations practitioners use power, for example, in helping promote blood donation drives, where they rely on the tactic of asking employers to get commit- ments from their employees. The request is for a good purpose—an honest cause, certainly—but it still involves the use of power.

Forms of patronage used as a means of changing people’s behavior may be as crude as bribery, or they may be quite delicate, particularly if a favorable opin- ion is sought or if there is an implied threat of denial. Patronage may involve paying a celebrity money to make advertising endorsements or public appear- ances on behalf of a campaign, or it may involve making a substantial contribution to a civic improve- ment project in a key neighborhood or area.1

Persuasion involves using communication to win people over. Whatever the goal of the persuasion, there are essentially six steps in the persuasion process—not that each act of persuasion necessarily follows these sequentially.13 The first step is presenting. A person must be in a position to receive a persuasive message—that is, both physically accessible and

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Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 115

arguments failed to take into account the social responsibility exercised by these institutions or their representatives, plus the social responsibility assumed by news and advertising personnel in the media.15

found through the Internet in blogs or websites, usu- ally on information destinations you bookmark for frequent reference. New informal persuaders are those in the social and informational networks to which you belong, such as Facebook. Research on these groups is growing, at least in an observational stage. Theories are developing, but isolating variables is challenging. In legacy media, especially traditional print mass media, persuasive messages usually appear in the form of editorials, op-eds, columns and adver- tisements. However, news stories can also “frame” the information so that it takes an advocacy position.

This also occurs in broadcasting. In broadcast news, for example, research by Mark D. Harmon and Robert Muenchen examined semantic framing by the U.S. government during the buildup to the Iraq war and showed how the framing was reflected in the presentation of news, especially on the Fox network.16 Other “framed” broadcast messages occur on talk shows, in commentaries and in “com- mercial content”—paid programming, public service announcements and commercials. They also are found in the content of various types of entertain- ment and among persons who perform. They are found as well in educational and governmental insti- tutions and in the commercial institutions that we depend on for goods and services. In some countries where media may be operated or controlled by gov- ernment, framing is a form of control.

The concept of “framing” is sometimes attributed to the world of art. Artists choose what they wanted to represent on their canvas. When photography became a part of journalism, as well as an art form, a scene could be framed in-camera, the photogra- pher’s choice of what to show. In print media, photos were “cropped” to show what would help tell the story as the medium’s editors wanted it told. The same editing system was used in film and video for television. Now electronic selection and enhance- ment have generated some considerable ethical issues about “truth.” Journalists often see framing as derived from agenda setting theory.

Definitions of framing abound in research on political communication. Agreement seems to focus on these three elements: selection, emphasis and connection of information to lead readers/viewers to a particular conclusion.

Public relations practitioners also frame issues. Often, public relations practitioners write op-ed pieces, blogs and articles under the byline of someone in the organization the public relations practitioner

Persuaders and Their Appeals We have all practiced persuading others to do our bidding since we discovered as babies that crying brought us a bottle. As adults, we persuade people to come with us to see a film they don’t want to see, or to take us to pick up our car at the shop or to come for us when the car breaks down. Although these may be considered deeds of friendship, they actually are negotiations. We used something in the bargaining process, stated or unstated. If you doubt that, think of the times you have heard, “I’d have to call in some chits (favors granted and not yet returned) to get that done,” or “I don’t have any leverage with her. You’re in a better position to ask ” You might even say in response, “I’ll ask. She owes me one.”

Personal Persuaders Organizations and authorities, family members and what sociologists call “signifi- cant others”—people you care about—exercise lever- age over you. Organizations that you belong to ask for money regularly, and you usually give. They ask you to obey certain codes of conduct and to be pres- ent for certain events, and you comply. As a member, you probably get most of your messages in a listserv, and/or directly from the organization’s website. You may belong to the organization for social, religious or political reasons or for economic reasons (as with the organization that employs you). At your job, most communications come to you in your email or from the organization’s intranet. In the workplace, certain people are in positions of authority—those who have special responsibilities. When you work for someone or when you are a conscientious mem- ber of an organization, you generally comply with the requests of those in authority. You also generally do what close friends and members of your family ask you to do. Recognition of authority in families is long-lived when it grows into respect or when some- one has the leverage of purchase (that is, inheri- tance). Often, personal persuaders can get you to do things contrary to your own desires, best interests or values. Their persuasive control is potent.

Impersonal Persuaders Somewhat less potent and influential are the impersonal persuaders. These are

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represents, works for directly or has as a client. These always should be done with the understanding and final approval of the person whose name is on the piece because the name is what gives the piece its “authenticity” or “credibility.” Of course speeches are often written also by a writer or a team of writers, not the person who delivers the speech. However, the speaker always has the opportunity to edit the mate- rial. That also should occur anytime someone’s name is on the piece.

Consequendy, impersonal institutions may per- suade you through your fear of the punishments that they have available for noncompliance or because of the personal persuasiveness of their repre- sentatives. An individual teacher in a school or an individual sales clerk in a favorite store moves the relationship beyond the impersonal and into the personal.

Some of these impersonal persuaders qualify as opinion makers because they influence significant numbers of people. Some are opinion makers because of their public status (as in the case of celebrities and other newsmakers), and others because they manage the news. Some of the most visible opinion makers are both public figures and news managers.

Opinion Makers and News Managers A news manager may be someone who creates an event that becomes news when it is made to happen, usually on a care- fully detailed and prearranged schedule. The event may be the public appearance of an organizational mascot or other human representation of a cartoon character. The event could also be less benign, such as terrorist attacks on a major city, building or system somewhere. The event may be one that continues over an extended period of time, as did the 1979— 1981 hostage crisis at the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran; the O. J. Simpson trial involving his wife’s death; the impeachment hearings of former presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton; the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) debate related to the Iraq invasion—all still “recalled” occasionally in current news stories. In 2010, the explosion and sinking of an off-shore drilling platform and the sub- sequent release of oil from British Petroleum’s well into the Gulf of Mexico that affected five states will be recalled for years, and this event is sometimes linked to the Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound in 1989. A news manager may also be someone who focuses media attention on an event that might otherwise be overlooked. In addition, a news manager

may attempt to control information, as former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did in Congres- sional hearings about the treatment of accused terror- ists held by the USA. A later flap occurred over official explanations about the sudden dismissal of an USDA employee over a viral piece of misinformation launched on the Internet. This is not new, however. As media critic William L. Rivers noted, “Nothing is quite so absurd as thinking of news control by govern- ment as a modem phenomenon.... Information policy has been at the very center of governing the United

1 7 States from the beginning.”

Public Relations and Opinion Making What is true of news management by government is true of any group in business, science, education or elsewhere that possesses specialized information. Those in command of information control its dis- semination. The public’s only defense lies in being aware that someone is always trying to influence its opinion. A sophisticated person will ask, “What am I being asked to think? What am I being asked to do? By whom? Why?”

In a democracy, these questions often are raised by members of some opposition, resulting in a struggle for favorable public opinion. That struggle confounds some other nations whose form of gov- ernment makes it possible to ignore public opinion. But the freedom to compete for public opinion is inherent in our concept of democracy. PR practi- tioners become involved in such struggles because each side in a controversy employs them as profes- sional advisers or spokespersons. Practitioners usu- ally represent the side corresponding to their own beliefs, although some ethical practitioners will, tike lawyers, serve any client with loyalty whether or not they personally subscribe to the client’s position. What differentiates the professional practitioner from the unprofessional news manager—who unfor- tunately, is often mistaken for the PR person—is strict adherence to a code of ethics that upholds a strong sense of overall social responsibility. Profes- sional public relations practitioners never He to the news media, although in the interests of a client they may sometimes have to say to the press, “I know, but I cannot tell you.” The success of those who control certain areas of information in affecting public opin- ion is only as strong as their credibility. Credibility is thus among the most important assets a public rela- tions practitioner possesses.

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Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 117

Propaganda and Persuasion Appeals People who want to sway opinions use a variety of persuasion appeals— not all of them honest. The following list identifies some propaganda devices commonly used to mislead publics: 1. Name calling: The characterization can be posi-

tive or negative. Someone can be called “wise and conscientious” or “a liar and a cheat” (or the matter can even be left open to interpreta- tion, as with “He’s a character!”).

2. Glittering generalities: Many nebulous words can be used here—for example, “enthusiastic crowds” or “throngs of greeters.”

3. Transfer: This occurs when a movie star or other celebrity campaigns for a politician or product with the result that some of the famous person’s aura is transferred to the less well-known person or product

4. Testimonial: This is an actual endorsement, as opposed to a transfer device. A common advertis- ing technique, it involves having professional ath- letes and other celebrities encourage consumers to buy a product by saying that they use it.

5. Plain folks: A favorite of politicians, this device involves using homey language or appeals to down-to-earth concerns to convince a public that, despite their high office or aspirations thereto, the politicians are still “one of us.”

6. Bandwagon: This compelling device is used to sway undecided people to go with the majority, however, slight the majority might be. The bandwagon device is considered so powerful that networks avoid telecasting projected results of election returns in the East until polls close in the West. Some research evidence indicates, however, that such coverage has no impact on people who have not yet voted.

7. Card stacking: Telling “one side of the story” involves selecting facts that represent one point of view, while obscuring other facts. The result is distortion and misrepresentation.

8. Emotional stereotypes: These evoke all kinds of images, and are so designed: “good American,” “housewife,” “foreigner” and so on.

9. Illicit silence: This device is a subtle form of propaganda, like innuendo, suggestion and insinuation. It involves withholding information that would correct a false impression.

10. Subversive rhetoric: An offshoot of card stacking is the device of discrediting a person’s motiva- tion in order to discredit the idea, which may be good and useful. For example, someone may discredit the mayor’s plan to build a bridge on grounds that the mayor owns property on the other side of the river. In the meantime, viewed objectively, the bridge-building plan may still be a good one for opening up commerce, traffic or tourism.

Obvious forms of these propaganda devices are easily recognizable, but history offers numerous examples of skillful users wielding them with great subtlety and effectiveness. Anyone who communi- cates may employ propaganda devices—spoken, written, pictorial or whatever. Such devices also may take the form of synthetic events. Demonstra- tions are all propaganda devices.

Although it encompasses some techniques that are used to mislead, the word propaganda should not be thought of as not always negative. Indeed, when one of the authors was working professionally for a large organization, a European colleague always introduced him as a member of the organization’s ministry of propaganda, meaning no insult Certainly, there is nothing inherent in the nature of propaganda that prevents it from being used to change attitudes and behavior in a constructive way. Propagandists differ from educators in that educators try to teach people how to think, but propagandists try to teach people what to think.18 Propaganda also has been used to appeal to basic human emotions in order to effect opinion changes in the public interest.

Emotions and Persuasion Social legislation, income tax, Social Security, universal healthcare, Medicare, civil rights laws and other public policy initiatives all reflect changes in public opinion that were sensed and acted upon by politicians. Generally, such public opinion is an emotional response to information or events. Social psychologist Hadley Cantril developed some “laws” purportedly governing this emotional response. Although critics say that no law can account for something with as many variables as pub- lic opinion, Cantril’s laws do suggest five basic ideas that seem common to all studies of opinion expres- sion: (1) events are most likely to affect opinion; (2) demands for action are a usual response; (3) self-interest must figure heavily if people are to become involved; (4) leadership is sought, and not

118 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

always objectively and critically; and (5) reliability is difficult to assess. (See Chapter 4 for more specifics on these laws.)

Another five elements have been isolated by psychology professor Robert Cialdini, who identifies these as being elements of self-persuasion, the strongest and most effective type of persuasion. All are tied to the social persuasion strategy discussed earlier. Cialdini explains the elements as follows:19

Festinger thought of at least five ways you might choose to reduce the stress. One, you change your behavior or your attitude. You decide that a clean desk probably is a good idea. You put a lot of effort into it. That makes you rationalize the value of having done it. Two, you get more information that adds to the tension one way or the other. For instance, you read that a clean desk reflects an orderly mind or per- haps you lose some important papers. Three, with the loss of the papers and time finding them, you decide that a clean desk is for people who don’t have much to do. Four, you might seek some benefits. Perhaps, someone helps you reorganize your office, and you actually find it easier to locate things than you imagined. The social support increases your acceptance. Fifth, you distort the information to suit your- self. Your reorganization involves stacking mate- rial and putting a label on the top of each pile.

A couple of variables matter in this theory. The first is how important the decision is. If you are going to get fired if you don’t clean up your desk, that’s a pretty strong persuader. Another is the attractiveness of an alternative, such as getting an award or bonus for keeping a clean desk. Third, the more you like the unchosen alternative, the greater dissonance you’ll have: if you really don’t want to clean up your desk but do it anyway, you’ll suffer disso- nance. If you had to do it, it’s worse. Dissonance is really strong if you are forced to violate your value system, unlikely in the clean desk illustra- tion, but possible if you were told to fire some- one on the telephone when you think a personal interview and discussion would be kinder.

Values are central to Rokeach’s beliefs, atti- tudes and values theory, a concept you find in the exploration of publics with the VALS approach: values, attitudes and lifestyles. Rokeach said people have some beliefs that are central to the core of their being and some that are peripheral. Core beliefs are resistant to change. Attitudes are beliefs with a focus, he says. The focus might be toward an object or a situation. Your behavior is a combination of these two. You might not like modern art, but you go to an exhibit with a friend and pretend to enjoy it because you don’t want to offend your friend and host.

1. Consistency: After committing themselves to a position, even in some trivial way, people are more likely to perform behaviors consistent with that position. When people decide to com- ply with a request, they check to see if they have already done something that is consistent with the request. For example, in one American Can- cer Society charity drive, it was found that homeowners who had previously gone on record as supporting the Cancer Society (by accepting and wearing a small lapel pin for a day) were nearly twice as likely as others to give a mone- tary donation a week later when the charity drive began. However, not all small, initial commit- ments are equally good at producing consistent future behavior. They are most effective in this regard when the commitments are active, public and not coerced.

Consistency draws from two basic theories: the theory of cognitive dissonance developed by Leon Festinger20 and the theory of beliefs, attitudes and values from Milton Rokeach.21

Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory says that information is judged in one of three ways: irrelevant, consistent or inconsistent, which he calls dissonant. Whatever information or persua- sive effort proves dissonant to someone, the result is a pressure to change, which causes stress. Someone telling you to clean off your desk so that the office looks orderly produces stress. You know where things are and your order is someone else’s chaos. Dissonance causes avoidance behavior. You shut your office door so that no one can see your organized chaos. If the edict to clean up your desk is repeated, perhaps with a formal note from a supervisor, you try to reduce the stress. Most additional theory and research in this area focuses on such forced com- pliance, initiation of an effort, social support for change and an effort to make the change.

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Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 119

Values come from those core beliefs, and the most important have to do with your self- concept. Rokeach thinks the only real behavior change occurs with inconsistencies in self- concept that cause such self-dissatisfaction that self-regard is achieved through change. Dieters who retain their weight loss often cite self- regard as the primary ingredient for the change in their eating and exercise habits. Self-regard is often cited over health.

2. Reciprocity: One question people ask themselves before agreeing to another’s request is, “Do I owe this person something?” If the answer is “yes,” they are more apt to comply, often when they would otherwise have declined and even when what they agree to do is more significant than what they received earlier. For this reason, charities mail unsolicited token gifts.22

3. Social validation: People are more influenced to perform an action or hold a belief when they see that others are doing so. An important piece of evidence people inspect in deciding what is appropriate conduct for themselves in a situation is how others are acting. For this rea- son, advertisers love to include the words “fastest growing” or “largest selling” in their product descriptions. They don’t have to say direcdy that the product is good; they only need to say that others think so, which seems to be proof enough.23

4. Authority: People are more willing to follow the suggestions of someone they consider a legiti- mate authority in terms of knowledge and trust- worthiness. Demonstrating knowledge can usually be accomplished by showing evidence of superior experience, training, skill or informa- tion. Establishing trustworthiness is trickier. One device, in pitching a story to an editor, is to back off from this week’s story but promise real newsworthiness with the following week’s item—for example, “I know this item isn’t exacdy what you want, but wait until you see what we have for you next week!”24

5. Scarcity: People try to seize items and opportu- nities that are scarce or dwindling in availability. This accounts for the success of the “deadline,” “limited number” and “can’t-come-back-later” sales tactics. Research indicates that people want a scarce item more than ever when they

are in competition with others for it, or when they believe they have an exclusive.23

Personal Identification, Involvement, Credibility, and Trust Earl Newsom’s four principles of persuasion build on the concept of personal identification with an idea or problem, and suggest actions that people will take in response to a personal appeal: 1. Identification: People will relate to an idea, opin-

ion or point of view only if they can see it as having some direct effect on their own hopes, fears, desires or aspirations.

2. Suggestion of action: People will endorse ideas only if the ideas are accompanied by a proposed action from the sponsor of the idea or if the recipients themselves propose it—especially a convenient action.

3. Familiarity and trust: People are unwilling to accept ideas from sources they don’t trust, whether the sources are people or institutions. Thus, a goal of PR is to ensure that an institu- tion deserves and obtains such confidence, that it increases the trust of many people and that it keeps the trust of those it counts as friends.

4. Clarity: The meaning of an idea in an event, sit- uation or message has to be clear in order to be persuasive.26

Successful advertising copywriters certainly know the importance of the last two principles—namely, that the people doing the buying have to trust those doing the selling, and that those doing the selling must communicate clearly to have any effect at all.

The element of trust needs to be emphasized in any study of opinion change. All of us are more likely to assume attitudes and accept ideas uncritically from persons we love and trust. Observers predicted all kinds of voting patterns for 18-year-olds in the USA before they were given the right to vote. What actually happened? Most youths voted like their parents—probably because they loved andtrusted them. However, even if they did not love and trust their parents, they did receive information from them over a long period of time. One commu- nication theory—called the “sleeper effect”— suggests that the source of a persuasive message, even if it is a distrusted source, is apt to be forgotten after a long period of time, leaving a residue of infor- mation accepted as fact.

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120 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

Identification and suggestion of action are also important As for identification, most of us feel an association with others—by education, religion, occu- pation, social or economic status or other category. What our identification groups say and do suggest courses of action for us. These associations have potential power because, when events so demand, opinion can be mobilized along lines of self-interest. Leadership for Opinion Change According to Philip Lesly, such mobilization can be activated by highly visible leaders.

Lesly said that at least three separate groups are discernible in the “leader” category: 1. Vocal activists, who devote themselves to high

profile advocacy of causes. 2. Opinion leaders, both mass media and individual

thought leaders throughout society. 3. Power leaders—legislators, government officials,

judges and regulators who have the power to take actions that affect organizations and society.

Increasingly, the focal group in persuasion is the power leaders. They have the ability to make things happen. Vocal activists, influential individuals and groups, the media and the general public provide input to the power leaders, but they have little power themselves. The input that reaches the power leaders is much greater from vocal activists and from opinion leaders than from the public and from most private organizations.27

Opinion mobilization by a leader creates a pres- sure group. Even if we are not directly involved in a particular controversy, we are still likely, because of our personal loyalties, to side with the pressure group that claims to represent us. Gang behavior clearly reflects this, as does the leadership of most political activist groups. Persuasion Strategies Persuaders use one or more of five specific strategies to enlist compliance: stimulus- response, cognitive, motivational, social appeal and personality appeal.

The stimulus-response (S-R) strategy, borrowed from behavioral research, presupposes that audiences can be conditioned to respond automatically to cer- tain stimuli, such as answering the phone when it rings. But sometimes S-R doesn’t work as planned. For example, capricious association may occur, in which the stimulus elicits a different response from

the one desired because the mind makes a different (and unexpected) connection. Another problem arises from the need for repetition before learning can occur. If not enough repetition takes place, the response can differ markedly from the one antici- pated. A third problem is that the exposure necessary for repetition is usually expensive and is not always cost-effective, because the association may be forgot- ten. Nonetheless, long-term payoffs from embedded recall do result when S-R works.

Anticipating an S-R response of some kind can affect the type of message sent, according to Glimpse , a now discontinued newsletter of the International Society for General Semantics. The newsletter noted that this anticipation can lead to another pro- paganda technique:

Once told that an event or action signals a particular response, we may assume uncritically that earlier learn- ing has established such a connection, as the word signal suggests. Unaware how we do so, we may come to believe that a particular event or action serves as a sig- nal because someone labels it a “signal. ”

Thus our reasoning and conclusions may be shaped 7 8by this propaganda ploy.

The cognitive strategy reasons that learning factual information in the context of a message can persuade if the information is retained. However, this strategy works only with individuals who have no stake in the outcome or who have no negative preconceptions about what they are being persuaded to do. Addition- ally, because it is cognitive, suitable alternatives have to be proposed, and the persuasion has to be pre- sented in a context, as part of a bigger picture. For example, the purpose of exercise is not just to lose weight; it may also make you feel and think better.

The motivational strategy involves creating a need or stimulating a desire or want. It relies on a learned behavior, and not everyone that you want to reach can be motivated. To succeed, this strategy must offer a real or at least a perceived reward.

The social appeal strategy concentrates on calling attention to social conditions. Many appeals to alle- viate conditions for the poor and needy use this strat- egy, as do appeals designed to correct behavior (such as those sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Driv- ing). Often, the appeals are tied to job-related norms.

The personality appeal strategy is designed for people who are outer-directed rather than inner- directed. It is based on tolerance (as opposed to

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Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 121

intolerance) levels. Some nonsmoking and smoking appeals are personality-based, as is the appeal that promotes self-employment: “Own your own busi- ness; be your own boss.”

Overcampaigning probably also occurred in the effort to control smoking. Smokers clearly under- stood that their addiction caused cancer, but after a certain point the campaign against smoking began to falter. Then, coalitions of antismokers began to obtain results that the original campaign could not produce. These groups brought about restrictions on smoking in public places by pressuring airline management, government officials and private busi- ness owners. Today, it is difficult to find an indoor public place where people are permitted to smoke.

The perceptual aspect of communication is the way an individual responds to an event or the com- munication of or about an event and that is depen- dent on assumptions, point of view, background and such. In the world of instant global transmission of information, cultural factors based on education and experience are major factors in responses to events such as immigration legislation, treatment of refu- gees, homeless people or buying pirated products. This transactional way of looking at perception is much more common in communication research today than it was in the 1950s when George Gerbner developed his communication model that included both personal and mediated communication.

Effectiveness of Persuasion In making persuasive appeals to various human motives, you must consider two possibilities: that cognitive dissonance could occur, and that truth may be personal.

According to Stanford University psychology pro- fessor Philip Zimbardo, subtlety is sometimes the best persuader. He believes that more attitude change can sometimes be produced by less social per- suasion. If people think themselves free to make decisions that run counter to their values, they some- times need only a gentle push to take the plunge. Some smokers, for example, abandon their habit when subdy persuaded that smoking impairs the health of others, such as expectant mothers and small children. No one had to pressure them to abandon the habit; they simply became aware of the health hazard through media reports. They view themselves as having made a free choice and remain unaware that they were coaxed into changing by gentle social persuasion.29

To see that truth is personal and value-oriented, we need only look at the religions of the world. All disciples claim that their religion represents the truth, yet there are obviously many conflicts in doctrine among different sects and denominations. Certain objective truths are generally accepted—for example, that football is a contact sport—but many less defin- itive “personal truths” exist as well, and these are often circumstantial—for instance, what is heard in trial courts being presented by defenders and their accusers.

Is manipulation of public opinion only a matter of communication skills and knowledge? Not always. PR practitioner Earl Newsom pointed out an exam- ple of a major failure in a six-month “skilled persua- sion” effort in an Ohio city. The campaign distributed 59,000 pieces of literature aimed at get- ting people to view the United Nations in positive terms. But it failed miserably because, during the campaign, the United Nations itself was particularly ineffective. It is not true, Newsom said, “That if you have enough money to pay for printing, advertising, and ‘propaganda,’ you can change people’s minds.” 0 It is also possible to overcampaign, arousing suspi- cion and backlash when people notice that a lot of money is being spent on the media.

Critical Thinking and Responsibility Recipients of information have obligations and responsibilities, not only to themselves but also to others. All persua- sion efforts should be subjected to critical thinking: Is that true? Where’s the evidence? Does this fit with my experience? How might I assimilate this into my life? What are the consequences of doing what I’ve been asked to do?

The idea of evaluating information in a variety of ways was introduced by social psychologists Richard Petty and John Cacioppo, who called it the elabora- tion likelihood theory. This theory about persuasion that says you may apply critical thinking to a propo- sition or argument or you may not based on your motivation to examine something carefully and your ability to do so, or perhaps through your casual, or peripheral, processing where you make a judg- ment based on cues, usually whether or not you agree with the message.

A need for precision in framing messages is one of the reasons public relations practitioners use the term publics, rather than the passive term audience. PR practitioners assume that people actively choose to expose themselves to all kinds of information, per- suasive appeals included. A PR practitioner accused

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122 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

Text not available due to copyright restrictions

of being a “manipulator” by a verbal antagonist calmly replied, “I wish.” The PR person elaborated by saying public relations and advertising persuasive efforts don’t always cause results; if so, all of those in the business would not only be rich, they’d be ning the world.

Another view comes from what Charles Larson calls an assumption by many that all public commu- nication is untrustworthy.31 It isn’t, but the truthful- ness or the ethics of the communication are often in the mind of the beholder. What responsible public relations people count on is the kind of feedback that you see in the symmetrical model.

useful the classic question posed by political scientist Harold D. Lasswell:

Who Says What In Which Channel To Whom With What Effect?

run-

The Lasswell formula, one of the earliest commu- nication models, ignores feedback, but understand- ably, because communication research was in its infancy at that time. In addition, feedback was not considered in the model developed by mathematician Claude Shannon and modified with co-worker Warren Weaver. The Shannon-Weaver model that appears in many books today was developed in 1949, a year after Lasswell’s. DeFleur added feedback to the Shannon-Weaver model, but you seldom see his more complex, but also more viable, model that was developed in 1966.

What we know today is that research is needed at every level and that every level is affected by feedback.

A Way to Look at Media: Source, Message, Source + Message, Media, Receivers

Persuasion occurs face to face and through mass media. But while interpersonal persuasion can result in cognitive changes, mass media tend to focus their efforts on channeling attitudes and existing behavior changes in a particular direction.32

Mass and specialized media provide a constant flow of information, but how much of it gets to the intended publics and with what effect still makes

Source What research tells us about the source for commu- nication is important to public relations because we

Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 123

get to choose the source for messages. Is it better to have the CEO announce a new product or the research and development director or the engineer- ing team or, well, you get the idea.

Research gives us some insight into the two areas in which we are most interested: credibility and effect. Credibility is important, and we want some- thing to happen because in public relations we are involved in purposeful communication. We know that attractive sources are more effective than unat- tractive ones, but source credibility has more impact. The CEO may be better looking, but the product developer knows the product. That helps with our choice.

Experts tend to be believed. Expertise adds more to persuasive impact than trustworthiness, and we are more likely to be influenced by experts than our peers. Obviously biased sources, though, are less likely to be believed even if they are experts. But powerful, attractive, biased sources can be more effective than unbiased sources in reinforcing opinions. Remember that when activists challenge your organization.

Credibility of a source does not affect message recall, and information from low-credibility sources does not increase over time. Unattractive sources are more effective when they advocate unexpected posi- tions, such as when someone who might be pre- sumed to be negative about something advocates it, and we also know that retention of a message is higher if it comes from an unexpected source. High-credibility sources, when recalled as the source, produce more opinion change.

Change is an effect, and sometimes to be sure of an effect, a threat is considered. Health communica- tors must always consider the merits of a threat Sources that offer more rewards than threats are more effective, but a source that threatens one of several punishments for noncompliance may be as persuasive as one that promises rewards. Mild threats may be internalized and may lead to compliance, whereas strong threats stimulate defi- ance. Something else is at work here too. Internalization—self-persuasion—seems to be the most permanent source of persuasion, followed by identification and compliance.

Finally, source credibility may not matter if the messages themselves present reasonable argu- ments.35 That means we have to consider the mes- sage carefully, which we will after we look at some theories that relate to the source.

Source Orientation People tend to believe sources that are like them, like they want to be or like they perceive themselves to be. People also seek authority in sources, at least most of the time. But they can be emotionally swayed into accepting someone else’s advice. For example, nutri- tionists, medical experts and fitness centers as well as government officials have been trying to get people to lose weight and to prevent obesity in their children. It’s not working all that well. Warnings include the con- sequences of the early onset of a series of health problems, such as Type 2 diabetes and even premature death. The problem remains. People find excuses and, perhaps more to the point, tend to associate with others who are overweight.

Part of the acceptance of authority is credibility, much of which is based on trust. People almost always trust someone close to them more than they do any authority figure. Some analysts contend that the influence of traditional authority is generally in decline—both because of cultural changes among generations and because electronic communication and globalization have tended to erode institutional hierarchies.36

Some research has suggested that source creden- tials may not matter as much as a message’s plausi- bility and message quality, at least when the reader is not highly involved in the topic. In this view, ques- tions of source expertise and bias tend to have less influence on people’s beliefs than the quality of the message itself.37

Something else may be going on too—empathy.At this point exacdy how empathy affects persuasion isn’t clear, but research seems to indicate that it does. Researcher Lijiang Shen says that empathy (seeing something from another’s point of view) “has a unique effect on persuasion above and beyond the individuals’ own affective and cognitive responses and that it can impact persuasion both direcdy and indirecdy by inhibiting the arousal of psychological reactance.” Shen also concludes that empathy tends to decrease the depth of message processing. 8

Messages Anyone who has clicked New Document in a word processing program and then spent some time look- ing at a blank screen, can testify that finding the best beginning to a message is a test of creativity, imagi- nation and patience. Knowing the medium is essen- tial, of course. Media have particular formats that all

124 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

PR practitioners have to know, from billboards and business letters to zealous sales proposals, for your own PR firm or a client’s business. You start with the format for the medium, and that gives you struc- ture, but not content. It’s the content that has consequences.

The way the information is presented has an impact on the effect. When good news is presented first, it increases the acceptance of the message, which may also include bad news. Telling both sides of a message (telling the other side and refuting it) is advisable if the recipient is educated, is likely to hear the other side anyway, is familiar with the issue or is opposed to the side being advocated.

In persuasive messages such as a blog, a broadcast commentary, a piece for the OpEd page or commer- cial content copy such as a public service announce- ment or an ad/commercial itself, repetition is a consideration. With the increasing convergence of all mass media content, the repetition of messages is increasingly likely. That suggests some rethinking of all media effects theories—whether mass media effects on audiences are “weak” or “strong.”

Learning does increase with message repetition. A risk is that counter argumentation may increase and favorable thoughts decrease. Also, repeated exposure to a message, while it may increase agreement, can be so excessive that it leads to boredom and reduce agreement. A period of nonexposure can overcome effects of overexposure, and that’s why in planning a campaign, you may want to decrease appeals periodically.

As always, the effects are the whole point of the communication. Increased comprehension of a mes- sage increases agreement, so you want to be sure your messages are clear and easy to understand. Remember that exposure is voluntary. No one is going to work too hard to find out what it is you want him or her to know.

In comparative materials—your client’s product or services or your own company’s versus another’s—it won’t matter whether you take that approach or a non- comparative one unless the material is going to be on television. Showing differences is especially effective in making the argument on television. Comparative approaches are better, too, if the service or product is new, the market share small and the public you are appealing to has no preferences.

Generally, there’s no difference in the persuasive impact of emotional versus rational appeals, but that may depend both on the medium and the content of

the message. The threats mentioned earlier regard- ing the source are important in both message struc- ture and effect High-fear appeals can be more effective than low-fear ones if receivers are not very anxious or don’t see themselves as vulnerable, and when recommendations are specific, clear and easy to follow.

The increased appearance of information on the Internet, with its pervasiveness in all communication, indicates that reinforcement of fear messages may originate with and receive emphasis from message recipients who respond and participate in the public dialogue.

In creating warning messages, always tell people what you want them to think or do. Messages with explicit conclusions are more effective than messages that allow the recipient to draw his or her own conclusions.

In your writing style, always keep in mind the person who you want to receive the message. Indi- viduals are complex. William McGuire says people approach material with their heads (cognitive) and their hearts (affective). Their response is related to their need for the information or to some provoca- tion for seeking it, and the response may be active or

• 39 reactive.

Message Orientation To be persuasive, a message has to present something of value to the target pub- lic. It must also be compatible with that public’s motives. If your public has to make some adjustments to accept a new or different idea, you must provide a clear statement of that adjustment and the rationale for making it. In a free society where communication is open, the person being persuaded chooses which messages to attend to. If your message challenges your public’s sense of security or self-image, you must provide an ego defense; otherwise, members of the public will repel the argument, instinctively defending their egos. If you are suggesting accep- tance of something that has been rejected before as socially taboo, you must offer a value that can be adopted to replace it or rationalize it For instance, although it may be difficult to get white Americans to adopt American-born children of other races, they may adopt foreign children of other races because of an emotional appeal to guilt or conscience. Some of this can be explained by the theory of cognitive dissonance.

News media often are credited with the ability to bring about change in a free society. Agenda-setting

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The Purpose of a Message The purpose of a message depends on the objective of the communication. What do you wish to accomplish? The goal should be something measurable, such as increasing the enrollment of a university, and not something nebu- lous, such as improving the image of the institution. PR pioneer Edward L. Bemays was adamant about refusing to use the word image in a public relations context. Bemays said the word suggests that PR deals with shadows and illusions when in reality it deals with changing attitudes and actions to meet social objectives.

Some problems of institutional credibility cited by the late PR practitioner Philip Lesly can be attributed directly to peddling images instead of dealing with realities.45 Some data indicate that deceptive persua- ders are more likely to use rationale or explanation than are truthful persuaders, who tend to employ pos- itive and negative attributes of a situation.

Once the purpose of the message has been clearly defined, the motivation and inspiration decisions are easier. Psychologist Abraham H. Maslow devised a hierarchy of human motives that, although no longer held as reliable as it once was, suggests ways for a message to appeal to the appropriate needs at each level within this hierarchy:

Physical needs—for food, drink, sex, rest and such— are the most fundamental motivations. Safety is the need for protection against violence, economic hazards and unpredictable reality. Love is more than a need for affection. It encom- passes the need to belong to a group and the long- ing for a friendly social environment. The strength of this motivational need pulls young people, particularly teenagers, together into a seemingly impenetrable peer group. Self-esteem includes the needs for achievement and for recognition of that achievement by others. It also involves the face-saving compromises we often engage in to rescue our self-regard, such as settling for a fancier title instead of a salary increase. Self-actualization is the need to develop individual- ity and to make constructive use of one’s abilities. This extends to creativity and aesthetic apprecia- tion. One subtle aspect of this motive is the need to know and to understand.46

Some principles go along with these needs. One is homeostasis. People constandy make an effort to

theory studies say media give importance or signifi- cance to a message or to an issue by giving it news

40coverage. Research suggests that media coverage can be cru-

cial throughout the fife of an issue, although perhaps less so when publics are split on their support. Thus, public agenda-setters might want to keep up bursts of coverage to maintain the popularity of a position on an issue. Also, agenda setters can influence issue priorities by increasing media coverage of those issues that are international or otherwise unobtru- sive, that is, those issues that people cannot experi- ence directly 41 Agenda-setting research indicates that not only do news media give significance to the message, but also suggest to people what to think about the message.

With convergence of legacy (traditional) news media, news reporters are turning more often to get- ting story ideas from public relations sites. These spe- cial news outlet sites have been around for a while, such as ProfNet—a service of PRNewswire since 1992. What is more recent in “media catching” is the HARO group. In 2007 Peter Shankman created it on Facebook. HARO, now including other social net- works, is a request site for journalists that lets public relations practitioners as well as anyone else become a source. HARO is an email fist that helps journalists trying to meet deadlines find sources.42

Another media theory is tied especially to televi- sion. Cultivation theory, developed by George Gerb- ner, suggests that television offers people a shared world vision and thus is more of a cultural than media effects theory. The homogenizing abilities of television seem to be diminished with the fragmen- tation of media, except for global news coverage. The exposure certainly is there, but the “shared” vision often is not because global audiences are watching through the prism of their values, based on their education, and their experience.

Viewers of any message, verbal or nonverbal, react from a mix of complex variables. Speech-act theory is derived from situations where anticipated responses or reactions come from a set of rules understood by source and receiver. You probably have experienced this just in observing how ordinary greetings are not the same in different cultures. The same language contains words that do not have a common meaning among people speaking it.

It is very evident today in a global communication environment that everyone does not react the same

43way.

126 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

maintain their own status quo. Another is the princi- ple of deprivation. Related to physiological needs, it never wanes in intensity. If people are deprived of a physiological goal (for instance, food), they will con- tinue to seek it (One compulsive chocolate eater explained that a childhood allergy had deprived her of the pleasure of eating chocolates when very young!) When deprivation involves social goals, however, it often retains its effectiveness as a motiva- tion only up to a point.

Beyond that point, it loses intensity and people may abandon a goal; for instance, they may resign themselves to a certain social class or status. The

interactive control. But pictures and sound on com- puters are still not as good as TV. In print, the size, shape and feel of an object—as people trained in graphics know—may determine whether a brochure is picked up (much less read), whether a package is taken off a supermarket shelf and whether an ad catches people’s attention.

Motivational studies involving texture need to be interpreted by public relations practitioners as well as by marketing people in approaching particular pro- blems. Regarding color, for instance, most business- people will not respond to a questionnaire printed on hot pink, will make little response to one on blue, but will give many answers to a questionnaire printed on green, beige or white.

Most of us psychologically favor certain colors. This is likely to manifest itself in our choice of colors for clothes, cars and furniture. The public relations person needs to know which colors will appeal to a particular audience and how well those colors repro- duce in the medium chosen for communicating with that audience. One despairing art director, after hav- ing to change colors for a campaign owing to pro- blems in reproducing them in different media, said with some resignation, “I’m ready to go back to the basics: red, white and blue,” a safe choice after 9/11.

Nonverbal symbols are also part of a message’s texture. Be particularly careful to avoid those that suggest bias, such as a woman standing beside a man seated at a desk or an ethnic or racial minority in a subservient posture in relation to a majority figure. Nonverbal cues say things that words do not, and today’s diverse and culturally sensitive audi- ences will be quick to notice them. Be sure that the symbolism your message projects matches your intentions. Well-chosen nonverbal cues can greatly enhance the message communicated by the ac- companying words. Carelessly chosen cues can completely destroy an intended message and alienate an audience.

principle of satiation weakens physiological drives and can weaken social motives, but it seems to have no effect on emotions—good news for lovers, per- haps. The principle of goal evaluation is based on ten- sion, as in straining to achieve something—to earn a black belt in karate or to be a master at bridge. Goals that are not socially acceptable, however, either must be abandoned or must find support from another principle. This occurs also when certain goals prove impossible to achieve. For example, if you can’t be an “A” student, perhaps you can be a “solid B” student One other principle works in these basic motives: the barrier principle. A barrier placed between people and the fulfillment of their goals will enhance the appeal of the goal unless the barrier proves too great, in which case they will probably change their goals.

Our goals are tied closely to what we want to be. An advertising creative director, for example, may steadfastly maintain that everyone is a snob of one kind or another—for example, if well educated, probably an intellectual snob. The promoter of a national magazine keyed to intellectuals ( Harper’s) adopted that very thesis in a mailing piece sent in a “plain brown envelope” that carried this question in the lower left comer: “Should you be punished for being born with a high IQ? ” The envelope probably was opened by most recipients. What we value is often a key to our personality. The Language of a Message Problems in communica-

tion are often caused by semantics. The words you use must mean the same thing to the receiver that they do to you. It doesn’t matter whether the words you use to say something are the ones that you think sound the best or most authoritative; rather, you must focus on what words have the most forceful and desirable impact on the viewer or listener. Only people can bestow meanings on words, says communications specialist Don Fabun, adding,

The Texture of a Message Once you know which needs and values you want to appeal to, you under- stand the purpose of your message and which persua- sive appeal is likely to work; then, you can choose the texture of the message for its persuasive effect. The medium dictates to some extent the range of textures. Television has a wide range—color, design, move- ment and sound. A computer has all of these, plus

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Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 127

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“When we act as if we believed that a word symbol is the event that was originally experienced, we ignore all the steps that have made it something else.

Jargon and obfuscation abound in government, education and elsewhere, as the Lutz Doublespeak example (above) illustrates. Important factors in lan- guage choice include clarity, emotional impact and context. A message’s consistency with other messages from the same source and its level of repetition are also significant.

Clarity has almost been lost Obscurity in lan- guage has reached ridiculous proportions in Ameri- can usage, as today’s technical society embraces an entire vocabulary of words that would not have been understood even a decade ago. And because PR practitioners are not around to explain what their messages mean, the language they use had bet- ter be self-explanatory. You must choose your words with a feeling for the associations that the receivers

will make, based on their individual frames of refer- ence; the images the words will conjure up for them, based usually on stereotypes they hold; and the sim- ple fitness of the word itself. As an instance of clarity, John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address (“Ask not what your country can do for you. . .”) was written almost entirely in single-syllable words and was comprehen- sible, as well as elegant and eloquent, to almost all who heard it. Readability can be tested. Computer software can be used to check the clarity and reading level of your writing.48

The emotional impact of language has nothing to do with clarity; it depends on emotional association. Emotional impact is, of course, a significant weapon in all propaganda battles. In World War II, Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose, two sultry radio personalities and propagandists, tried to entice American defec- tions; however, two incomparable commanders of the English language, Winston Churchill and

»47

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Franklin D. Roosevelt, urged their countrymen on with eloquent propaganda, raising the morale and resolve of those on the front lines as well as those at home.

The emotional impact of icons—emotionally arousing images, events or verbal metaphors—is an important mechanism for affecting public opinion. Although this is not a revelation, as anyone who has seen Leni RiefenstahPs film for Hider, Triumph of the Will, can attest, there are some new studies of emotional campaigning. Robert Blood, strategic communications analyst in the United Kingdom, says, “Icons infect people’s beliefs and they replicate by communication—they are the viruses of persuasion.” His studies indicate that three factors influence the rate at which an icon spreads through the public consciousness: emotiveness, resonance and benignity. Emotiveness is the icon’s measure of emo- tional arousal; resonance, its degree of agreement with existing beliefs and anxieties; benignity, its lack of a direct effect on the individual exposed to it. The actual cost of a new environmental policy, for exam- ple, may be quite benign for an individual, because often the government and/or businesses are most

directly affected. This factor can be separated from whether the policy has any emotive or resonant qual- ities. Blood’s analysis helps explain how public opin- ion is affected by pressure groups and the news media.49

The context of messages—their verbal settings— is also important. As one writer advises:

There is no easy way of choosing words. They must not be so general in meaning as to include thoughts not intended, nor so narrorw as to eliminate thoughts that are intended. Let the meaning select the word.

A word is ambiguous when the reader is unable to choose decisively between alternative meanings, either of which would seem to fit the context.

A great deal of unclear writing results from the use of too many broad, general words, those having so many possible meanings that the precise thought is not clear. The more general the words are, the fainter is the picture; the more special they are, the brighter.50

Because people both seek and avoid messages, it is important to consider the significance of repetition and consistency in public relations messages. Repetition

ARMED FORCES DOUBLESPEAK:

Reprinted with permission of Copley News Service and Mike Thompson/Creators Syndicate.

Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 129

increases the opportunity for exposure. Consistency helps increase credibility. Communication scholars who have conducted experiments on cognitive discre- pancies and communication call the act of seeking “information search” and the act of avoiding a mes- sage “information preference.”

Making sure that a message gets through to an intended receiver is the first goal, and repetition increases your chances of accomplishing this. Mak- ing sure that the message is believed is the next goal, and consistency helps here. But both of these techniques are based on a time element, and commu- nications scholars have made some disquieting dis- coveries in this area. First, they found that, when pressed for time, people often make decisions based on less information than they would normally require (an especially significant fact in political PR). Second, writers must decide whether their tar- get public needs information piece by piece (which is all right if members of the public already have made their decisions) or whether they need an evaluative structure or frame of reference to permit making comparisons between alternatives.51

Humor separates those who “get it” from those who don’t, and can offend different cultures and social groups.52 Another difficulty occurs with values, discussed previously, that divide as well as connect. Freedom of expression is not a universal value, for example.53

In personality promotions, creating personal iden- tity is a sensitive task. For instance, the personal identification campaigns for women politicians was given structure using Foucault’s theories of self.54

Two theories regarding messages for organiza- tions that include a model of positive deviancy and reflective practice have useful application. The posi- tive deviancy model singles out organizations that are doing extraordinarily well and flourishing with the same resources that others in the same environment have but are less resourceful in using. The positive model can help others see where they are failing without that criticism having to come from outside where it might be rejected.55 Another inter- nal organizational effort is suggested by reflective PR practice, where assumptions are challenged as well as the values on which these are based, with the idea of improving the organization.56

Other Considerations in Message Strategy With the diversity of our society in the USA, plus the fact that most messages are globally accessible, culture is an important consideration. Messages don’t always travel well across cultures, not to mention national borders. One of the first casualties is humor.

Source + Message The mix of source and message is key to acceptance and credibility. Communicators are evaluated more favorably to the extent that their messages have the

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130 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

following qualities: listenability or readability, human interest, vocabulary diversity and realism. If you have a message for which there is little supporting evi- dence, source credibility is more important.37 Often, the organization provides that credibility.

When organizations are under flux as they are in the high tech environment, it’s important to remem- ber that publics are subjected to the same sorts of disorder. A new symmetrical and ethical approach to increase credibility, crafted from postmodern and complexity theory as well as chaos theory, offers a communication structure that gives publics as stake- holders more input. Chaos theory, borrowed from physics, suggests that organizational boundaries are constantly changing such that they become blurred and that external factors, including stakeholders and perhaps especially government, define the para- meters. Such change gives flexibility to an organiza- tion to change with its environment and thus. r o survive.

An organization’s credibility is also at risk in mul- tinational organizations maintaining offices all over the world. One chemical company’s public affairs officer, when asked whether a corporate policy widely stated in the USA was accepted abroad, said quite candidly, “We have different message state- ments on that depending on the country.” Not a good idea, because all is available on the Internet. A research paper exploring the integration of parent companies and their subsidiaries or sister companies showed they can achieve a balance between integra- tion and localization of communication strategies, certainly a help for maintaining credibility.39

interview, report, write, video edit, Twitter and blog.... (I)t can be overwhelming, especially if you’re being asked to provide a video story with your print or online story.”60

Not only are journalists overwhelmed with their own obligations, but they also sometimes have to work without some verification of what they find on the Web. Media observations suggest new theo- ries. Here is what we do know from past research. First is that if you have a complex message, you’re better off with print media. But when the message is simple, video presentations are much more effec- tive. Video or live presentations are most effective if attitudes on an issue are changing. Next in order of effectiveness are audio messages. Television, Marshall McLuhan’s “cool medium,” involves its audiences more than radio and far more than print.

The media orientation of publics is critical infor- mation, because media deliver the messages. Public relations involves deciding what to tell, whom to tell it to, how to tell it and through what media to com- municate. The choice of medium is critical. It must be believable, able to reach the priority public and technologically capable of carrying the message. Television, for example, has high credibility and mass penetration. Safety officials who want to alert residents about an impending serious weather change invariably take to the airwaves—all of them, including mobile media. But something complicated like changes in health care benefits cannot be com- municated as well through this medium. All tele- vision can do is alert people to changes and tell them where to find the information. Any print or printable medium, including a website, is better at explaining details.

People also turn to different media for different types of gratification and rewards. Many different measures have been used in examining media use and gratification motives, but three seem especially well-suited: environmental surveillance, environ- mental diversion and environmental interaction.61 According to these measures, people use media to see what’s going on that might interest them or for sheer entertainment or to prepare for anticipated conversations or interactions with others.

How people use media for gratification may change as they change, as their circumstances change and as their relationships with others change. A young woman normally not concerned with athlet- ics might become an avid searcher of sports informa- tion while she is in a relationship with a sports

Media Media, especially traditional mass media, have been studied for decades, and the Internet now is under academic scrutiny. The ubiquity of the Internet with its mix of words, pictures and sound offers many research opportunities, especially because many of the pictures are electronically engineered. This mix of messages is occurring in legacy (news) media as well and will increasingly be a source of consideration with the convergence of mass media content—where a single message (report) is adapted for print, broadcast and other electronic presenta- tions through the Internet. Reporters are now mobile journalists (mojos), backpack journalists or digital correspondents. As journalist Rebecca Aguilar said, “We’ll do it all: shoot video, take photographs,

Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 131

enthusiast. A young man might begin to subscribe to computer magazines if he becomes interested in a young woman who is a computer scientist. In either case, the individual’s interest in the specialized medium may not outlast his or her enthusiasm for the human relationship being pursued at the moment.

that perception is subjective and personal. Even when information is not adequate, receivers tend to use what is there or what they perceive is there to serve an immediate need or purpose. Even a message that con- tradicts an existing opinion won’t be rejected out of hand if it seems to reward the receiver in some way. However, there is no solid evidence of selective reten- tion of information based on the receiver’s attitudes and behaviors. Publics tend to disregard supportive messages that are easy to refute and nonsupportive messages that are difficult to refute.

Adjusting messages to minimize differences between the source and extreme receivers facilitates greater acceptance. Most mental and personality traits of receivers have diametrically opposed effects on message reception and yielding. Intelligence, for instance, facilitates reception but inhibits yielding. Accurate and favorable perceptions of a message can be facilitated by establishing early bonding with the intended public. Familiar symbols, objects, cate- gories and message cues that are easy to recognize help message receivers.

Reception Test for Media Although media research departments can show tables of statistics that theo- retically profile their audiences, you should still ask some probing questions. For example, are the selected “receivers” chosen from a physical or from an intellectual base? A university (for instance) may define all those to whom it mails its alumni magazine as “readers,” yet a substantial number are probably “nonreceivers” (they throw the publication away without ever lifting the cover), and another segment may be “lookers” (they thumb through the magazine but never read anything except photo captions). The real readers are those who read at least one article per publication in the time period sampled.

This gets to be even more problematic as univer- sities contact their alumni electronically. Just because the alum is on a list doesn’t mean the university’s message is opened and read. Even “hits” being counted might not tell you much, but a well- programmed dashboard could. For example, The Wall Street Journal often tells its print and electronic readers which stories were most frequently accessed, thus presumably read.

Receiving and Accepting Messages Evidence suggests that people who have grown up with lots of televi- sion exposure learn to tune out messages they do not wish to receive. Everyone does this to some degree, but the high degree of unconscious selectivity poses particular challenges to the PR person trying to reach them.

Great stock was once put in the two-step flow theory, which holds that ideas flow from opinion makers down to the public at large.62 The way infor- mation is diffused in this theory suggests that opin- ion leaders attending to mass or specialized media are early adopters of new ideas. Their adoption influ- ences others, starting with people who are like them- selves—those in the same occupations or social/ economic class. In the past several decades, however, politicians have successfully conducted public opin- ion studies to see what people are interested in and concerned with and then have enunciated those feel- ings as ideas or policies. There are many opinion leaders in all sorts of specialized fields and within those fields, such as entertainment

How publics perceive the source of a message is a significant factor in whether they accept the message. Perception can be looked at two different ways. One focus is on attending to the environment. Another focus is on interpretation—stressing language and mental activity. The human transaction model

Credibility Test for Media Ethnic and religious media tend have a higher credibility with their audiences than other media do with theirs. Industry, trade, association and professional print media also rank high with their selected audiences. Suburban and small-town weekly publications (generally newspa- pers) rate next highest in credibility. Specialized magazines also rate high—again, perhaps, because their readers have a concentrated interest in the sub- ject matter.

Studies indicate that affinity for any medium is an emotional reaction, rather than an intellectual one. The strength of that affinity seems to be a measure of the credibility of the medium. Consider which news sources people choose.

Receivers A public relations mantra is that perception is reality. That means a personal reality because research shows

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132 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

includes an attended-to present, a remembered past and an anticipated future. Each—present, past and future—has four aspects: physical, extending poten- tial, cognitive and affective. Most people are able to separate past and future, but nevertheless bring them to bear on their present. Our perception processes affect what we discover, give name to, classify men- tally, attach significance to and communicate.63 Our perception affects how we react to an important source for messages: people.

We are in almost constant conversation with peo- ple, and the information we get this way has a higher credibility than any other—depending on the atti- tude we hold toward the speaker. Is it someone we like? Respect? Consider smart? Is it someone who resembles us or who accepts and tikes us? Credibility ratings of people by their occupations is common, and nationally this changes with events. Rankings of trust for occupations usually rate teachers highly, small-business owners next, then police officers. Journalists and CEOs of large corporations share the lower ranks with car dealers and now govern- ment officials.

We tend to seek out as sources, not only people, but media that reflect our opinions and attitudes. For this reason, many PR veterans recommend not trying to persuade vehement opponents to change their minds, but instead trying to neutralize them so that they will do minimal harm.

Everyone seems to recognize that a sender must encode messages—that is, translate information into something personally meaningful to an intended receiver. However, we tend to forget the static and interference created by competing messages, credi- bility disturbances and the interference of selectivity on the part of the receiver. If the receiver does accept the message, it must be decoded, after which a response to the message may be encoded.

Considering the environment of distortion that exists in our family, social, educational, religious and ethnic life, it is a wonder that any communica- tion gets through to us at all. And of course, many messages do not get through. In other instances, our intended messages are contraindicated by our body language or other symbols.64

Nonverbal communication expresses our subcon- scious, and thus gives off cues when we are not tell- ing the truth, which means loss of credibility. Clues come from eyes, head, voice and hands, so recipients can tell when a source is not being truthful and thus credibility is lost.65

Indeed, symbols are important—whether in advertising or in art, or whether as trademarks or as company logos—in conveying the meaning we intend. In utilizing symbols, we often resort to stereotyping, a mental shorthand that can be useful in processing information. The word chair makes you think of a certain type of chair because you have all chairs filed under that mental image. Often, this is adequate for communication and for understanding a situation. However, the context may make you seek a particular symbol. Thus, your mental image may go from your basic chair to a desk chair in a class- room setting.

But stereotypes—the pictures in our heads—are personal and may misrepresent reality. As a result, communication, imprecise at best, takes on an even greater risk when using stereotypes.66 If you were dealing with a clearly defined public and you had a well-grounded knowledge of which stereotypes you could use effectively and appropriately with this audience, you might proceed with some confidence. But there are some monumental examples of the hazards of stereotyping.

For example, look at various situations where ways of representing women resulted in boycotts, demon- strations and even loss of elections. The stereotyping of females in advertising, television programming and news columns and by public speakers (especially politicians) has lessened in the face of activity by women’s groups, but it is still evident. The main crit- icism of using stereotypes to represent roles people perform or to view groups of people is that, for many, the image becomes the reality. During the civil rights movement in the USA, for example, objections by blacks to racial stereotyping were based on concerns that people who had limited con- tact with blacks accepted the representation as the reality. In the ongoing international religious ten- sions with the Muslim faith, adherents are making the same argument.

Responses to a Message Responses to the presenta- tion of a message vary within and among publics/ stakeholders due to the lack of homogeneity. Differ- ent message stimuli are used to increase involvement. That’s the reason pop-ups appear on your computer screen when you are doing a search or looking at an especially active website. Images move to get your attention. Sound is another stimulus on websites, and especially with electronic greetings. Print greet- ing cards sometimes have “voice” too—words or

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Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 133

music. And, occasionally scent is added. Advertisers use scent as well. Catalogs, even bills, may arrive with a fragrance.

Anticipation, expectations and assumptions all are ingredients of how we respond to messages. What about the impact of news media at all? The argument is not new. You’ll find it in effects theories of mass communication. Some argue that mass media have very strong effects on recipients, and others say the effects are not so strong. Researchers have examined this for decades, from the magic bullet concept that a message sent through a medium hit its target to later worries over whether it hit at all and with what impact.67 Neither end of the spectrum seems to have an edge at this point in terms of research evidence.

Information processing is critical in evaluating the impact (or potential impact) of communication. Carl Hovland established the idea of changing attitudes in order to change opinions, and this became known as the Yale approach to persuasion. He pointed out that effective communication involved attention, comprehension, acceptance and retention. Using Lasswell’s model of who said what to whom with what effect, Hovland identified source, message, audience and audience reaction as the elements of the processing cycle. The source had to evidence power, competence, trustworthiness, goodwill, ideal- ism, similarity (to audience) and dynamism. The credibility (trust, goodwill, idealism, similarity) and authority (power, competence, dynamism) of the source are the major conceptual factors in the Yale model.

William McGuire saw a flaw in the Yale information-processing theories. Hovland and his associates, McGuire felt, had ignored the relation- ship between comprehension and acceptance. Instead of emphasizing the source, McGuire focused on the receiver. His modifications clarified the relationship between comprehension and acceptance, indicating their separate effects on a persuasive message’s impact. Personality traits of message recipients, he said, affected comprehension, acceptance of messages and persuasion in general. McGuire reduced the steps of the Yale model to two—receiving message content and yielding to what is comprehended— arguing that, to make a change of attitude or opinion possible, a person has to receive a message effectively and then yield to its point.

McGuire, like Hovland and associates, assumed that new cognitive information was learned from

the content of the messages. That supposition was challenged by Anthony Greenwald, who said that people did not learn message content, but rather cre- ated their own covert messages idiosyncratically in response to the original message. However, Green- wald’s cognitive response approach tells more about “the covariation between self-generated messages and their effects than it does about -why covert con- ditions generate cognitive realignments and behavior changes.

Other theories of social and cognitive behavior also help explain message effects. We know that mes- sages are incorporated into an individual’s agenda if they help that person meet a particular goal. Plan- ning theory is considered when public relations prac- titioners analyze audiences to find the information seekers. Planning theory, developed by Charles Berger, was designed to explain how individuals plan their communication not only just seeking informa- tion but also in communicating. For example, students often arrange a meeting with their instructors not to get information, but to express their concern about their performance and convey their goal to be success- ful in the class. Asking how to accomplish that is a communication behavior designed to convince the instructor of their efforts more than to gain cues for improving their performance. Planning is used to accomplish all sorts of goals, social as well as personal. Think of how often you have said that if plan A doesn’t work, you’ll go to plan B.

Social psychologist Kurt Lewin observed that people process information and “compute” attitudes to make logical combinations.69 Group dynamics are important in this process because individuals try to adjust their opinions and perceptions in response to group norms and pressures toward uniformity. Moti- vation, said Lewin, is socially based, which means that the group has the power to reward for compli- ance or to punish for deviation. Leon Festinger’s the- ory of cognitive dissonance, discussed previously, states that people strive to reduce discrepancies that exist within their own cognitive system.

Explaining people’s efforts to make sense of others’ behavior is called attribution theory. According to Fritz Heider, two types of causes are used to explain behavior: situational (external) causes and dispositional (internal) causes. The type we choose depends on some suppositions. If people often do unusual things in different situations for reasons we can’t discern, we may attribute their behavior to an internal or dispositional cause. The problem with

»68

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134 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

such assumptions is that analysts tend to oversimplify and overestimate people’s consistency in behavior and tend to see an internal reason when the external situation might have had more bearing. Clearly peo- ple do take behavior cues from their environment, and they also have some reason to explain their behavior. The question is which comes first: the rea- son or the behavior?

Social learning theory holds that continuous recip- rocal interaction and continuous feedback occur between a person’s internal cognition and the situa- tion. What we learn through experience, observa- tion, listening or reading and establishing symbolic relationships teaches us to expect different conse- quences in different situations for the same behavior. In addition, according to the theory, reinforcements are different for various people, depending on such factors as value systems. Another element of social learning theory states that, in order for learning to occur, a person must remember and expect some- thing to occur again. Extinction is one way to change behavior. Extinction may occur when the anticipated result of an action is withheld (for example, when a parent does not respond with attention to a child’s tantrum as the child expects). Rules, instructions or communications can also be used to change behaviors.

The public relations practitioner thus has a choice of several theories to apply in planning message strategy to reach a goal. The option selected may be to encourage people to belong (Lewin). It may be to avoid a message that conflicts with values or—if people are already in a state of cognitive dis- sonance—to help them reconcile the value conflict through rationalization (Festinger). Self-persuasion, remember, is the most successful form of persuasion. The strategy might also be to provide environmental cues (Heider) that are likely to appeal to a target group, such as using an impressive setting—for example, a formal event—to mark the opening of a new building. Or it may be an ongoing educational program to develop expectations, such as the print- ing of calorie counts on food menus and packaged foods to reduce obesity.

Some researchers feel that a model devised by Martin Fishbein is useful in predicting group atti- tudes. The Fishbein model can be used to identify and categorize consumers according to criteria that are significant to the consumers themselves, and for this reason it may have practical implications for marketing specialists in particular.70

Fishbein himself has contended that his model can measure both a person’s emotional evaluation of a concept or object and his or her beliefs about that object. He has asserted further than it can be used to demonstrate that a person’s belief may change independently of attitude, with the result that two people may differ in belief but have similar attitudes.71

Some researchers say that opinions and facts both represent answers to questions, making it impossible to draw a sharp line between them. A fuzzy line may separate opinions and attitudes as well, although opinions can be verbalized, whereas attitudes often cannot (they may be subconscious).

The opinions, attitudes and actions of people are all affected by family, friends, informal work groups and formal groups such as clubs and organizations. Group influence and pressure become particularly apparent during controversy, according to research evidence. When issues are clear, group pressure influences at most only one third of the people, with two thirds standing firm. If even a small coun- tervailing voice comes in, the third shrinks away. Only when ambiguity and confusion reign can you count on a bandwagon effect, which means that fac- tors other than the da device itself deter-propagan mine media effectiveness.7

Getting people to believe something is easier than preventing them from accepting something you don’t want them to believe. One popular idea is that early exposure to some opposing arguments will inoculate hearers against future belief in the opponents. Other evidence suggests, though, that any preliminary message may weaken the impact of a persuasive opposing attack that might follow. Some evidence also suggests that trying to elicit a critical viewpoint in a public can either inhibit or enhance the effect of a message that is to come. If you try to turn people against a message or against the messen- ger, your efforts could have the opposite effect of inoculating them against further negative criticisms. The effect could be to make them more vulnerable to future persuasive appeals by opponents. But, reception and acceptance of a later persuasive appeal are determined by both the target of criticism and the nature of the critical act. Therefore, the situation could be manipulated to have some bearing on the outcome.

The purpose of a persuasive communication is often concealed, becoming apparent only after

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Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 135

careful examination. Comparing the obvious content with its intent may be done in examining such or- ganized propaganda campaigns as those launched internally by a government or directed by one gov- ernment against another, as in psychological warfare. Psychological warfare is as old as war itself. Although it has become more sophisticated, its goals remain basically the same: first, to convert subjects from one allegiance to another; second, to divide the opposition into defeatable groups; third, to consoli- date existing support; and fourth, to counteract or refute another propaganda theme.73

Certain kinds of persuasive language can diminish people’s critical thinking skills, although such lan- guage doesn’t completely eliminate the ability to think critically. Rather, persuasive language triggers mental processes that are related to memories, imag- ery and emotion more so than to analytical thought.

Regarding retention of information, researcher Carl Hovland finds that, during an initial period, people forget verbal material rapidly; this forgetful- ness gradually decreases until little further loss is noticeable. (Sometimes, in fact, the amount remem- bered over a period of time actually increases.) He also has found that people retain meaningful material better than obscure material, but that overusing even good material in order to emphasize it can have a boomerang effect. Moreover, the more completely people learn material initially, the longer they will remember it. Hovland also found that repeating a message up to three or four times usually increases the degree of people’s attention, but that too frequent repetition without reward is likely to lead to inattention, boredom and disregard of the communication.74

Communications researcher Steuart Henderson Britt developed a whole set of learning principles that apply to consumer behavior: 1. Unpleasant appeals can be learned as readily as

pleasant ones. 2. Appeals made over a period of time are more

effective. 3. Unique messages are better remembered. 4. It is easier to recognize an appeal than to

recall it. 5. Knowledge of results increases learning of a

message. 6. Repetition is more effective when related to

belongingness and satisfaction.

7. Messages are easier to learn when they do not interfere with earlier habits.

8. Learning a new pattern of behavior can interfere with remembering something else.75

One thing is certain about communication: You can never tell whether you have achieved under- standing of your message unless you provide the recipient with a way to respond. Measuring under- standing—rather than just message reception—was the task undertaken by two researchers, M. Beth

* ^7Heffner and Kenneth Jackson. They used pictures and verbal descriptions of the pictures to see whether the verbal descriptions resulted in the same mental impressions on readers as the pictures. Results showed that understanding seems to occur indepen- dently of the messages received verbally (which can occur without their being understood). Conversely, understanding can occur when messages are altered. The researchers also found that having a cognitive frame of reference helped students determine mean- ing. If students had the same basis for organizing information, it increased their comprehension of the messages’ meaning. Some verbal descriptions were more reliable than the picture themselves. Another thing noticed was that symbols can be mis- understood. This has happened occasionally when American advertising has been “exported” without due research into the culture or mores of another country.

The complexities of operations in an international community are heightened by the sophisticated tech- nology of instantaneous satellite communications and the Internet. Although the satellite picture or email message might be technically clear, the message can be easily misunderstood. This increases the commu- nicators’ responsibility to ensure the fidelity of mes- sage reception through conscientious research, attention to research findings and cultural sensitivity.

Because information processing is such a critical factor in communication, models that predict behav- ior successfully are important in planning a commu- nication campaign. James E. Grunig has considered publics along a spectrum from active to inactive and characterized their behavior toward information in each category to predict what type of person would be seeking information or just processing it. The sig- nificance of this to public relations people is that some publics are just not going to respond to infor- mation. Those that need to get information are latent publics—groups that share a common concern

136 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

or interest, but are not aware that others do because doing it all our lives. You learned as an infant what kind of behavior gained attention. As you got older, you learned the right words and the best timing to use in asking for money from a parent.

Behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner made the following observation about the positive aspects of affecting what people do:

they are not likely to seek the information but will be responsive to it. It’s a useful model.

Research supports two aspects of Grunig’s model. The research shows that individuals are more likely to seek and process information if they anticipate that it will help them solve a problem and if they are personally involved in trying to solve the prob- lem. The research also supports the prediction that people who are constrained (and therefore would not be free to implement a solution if they had one) are less likely to seek or process information, although this relationship was largely explained by other inde- pendent variables. Another factor, beyond the individual’s inclination, is the organization. An inte- grated model of the two concepts can be instructive in employee communications.77 Because most com- panies now have an intranet for their employee communication, there have been attempts to make that intranet part of corporate strategic communica-

I am concerned with the possible relevance of a behav- ioral analysis to the problems of the world today. We are threatened by the unrestrained growth of the pop- ulation, the exhaustion of resources, the pollution of the environment, and the specter of a nuclear holocaust. We have the physical and biological technology needed to solve most of those problems, but we do not seem to be able to put it to use. That is a problem in human behavior, and it is one to which an experimental anal- ysis may offer a solution. Structuralism in the behav- ioral sciences has always been weak on the side of motivation. It does not explain why knowledge is acquired or put to use; hence, it has little to tell us about the conditions under which the human species will make the changes needed for its survival. If there is a solution to that problem, I believe that it will be found in the kind of understanding to which an experimental analysis of human behavior points?2

tion, but so far only in high-tech companies. Much of a public’s response to persuasive infor-

mation in a situation that requires a behavioral change has to do with where it lies in the diffusion process. The diffusion process has six phases:

Phase I: Awareness (also called presenting, as in pre- senting information)—The public learns about an idea or practice but lacks detail. Phase II: Attending (also called interest, as in getting someone’s interest)—The public gets facts, devel- ops interest, sees possibilities. Phase III: Evaluation (also called comprehending, an understanding of the appeal)—The public tries it mentally, weighs alternatives. Phase IV: Trial (also called yielding)—The informa- tion achieves social acceptability, experimentation. Phase V: Adoption (also treated as one aspect of retaining)—The public adopts the information for full-scale use. Phase VI: Reinforcement (also treated as the other aspect of retaining )—The public displays contin- ued, unswerving commitment.80

Other studies show that when there’s a conceptual match between attitudes and behavior, there is a stronger relationship between the two.81

Discussions about how people’s behavior can be affected through persuasion make many of us uncomfortable, even though most of us have been

Not only did Skinner point to a critical flaw in the effort to use today’s theoretical knowledge to predict what people will actually do, he also alluded to another difficulty. Today’s problems are global, but today’s theories are culture-bound. Most research has been done in Western societies; and even within them, litde attention has been paid to nonwhite minorities—who, of course, are the majority in much of the world. One way to compensate for this gap is to read refereed scholarly journals on a regular basis. Many articles offer updates and new insights into the application of theories through testing them, and increasingly scholarship from other coun- tries that tests application of theory in another culture is adding significandy to the potential to use theory as it should be, the underpinnings of practice.

Discussion Questions 1. What questions does organizational theory sug-

gest you need to ask about an organization’s communications climate before you go to work there, or work with the organization as a client?

Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 137

2. Who is the best person to talk you into doing something you’d really rather not do? What the- ories suggest why that person is likely to be successful?

3. What media are your major sources for news? Why? What theory or theories explain this best?

4. Do communication theory models created and tested in the USA apply in other cultures?

5. If you are doing some research to find out what people think and you suspect you are not finding what they really think, what theories might explain this?

6. Have you observed or experienced something that you think might provide a new theory? What do you think is going on, that is, what is your hypothesis? Why do you think so? Are there some theories you’ve read about here that might apply? What are they and how are they applicable?

and symbols, including human nonverbal ones used in communication. Communication models are used most frequently to explain what happens in PR practice: a standard communication model (media-related), a behavior model (persuasion-related) and a symmetrical model (strategic management-related). With the melding/convergence of media, new models are emerging. What we know today is that research is needed at every level of message transmission and that every level is affected by feedback. When someone holds a strong opposing opinion, you are probably wasting your time trying to win that person over to your view. Usually, all you can hope to do is to limit whatever effects the person may have on persons who are undecided or uncommitted. There are three basic ways to get people to do what you want: power, patronage and persuasion. Public relations involves persuasion as well as accommodation. At the least, public relations involves articulating a point of view that may dif- fer from that of members of a public and this may include priority stakeholders. One persuasive device is the framing of a message, in words or visually, so that the presentation itself is biased. To be persuasive, a message has to present some- thing of value to members of a public. Propaganda techniques appear in most forms of persuasive messages. Many aspects of bias appear in rumors. Those who believe them, when confronted with clear evidence of misinformation, have their beliefs reinforced, rather than being convinced to change. Social persuasion strategy stresses consistency, reciprocity, social validation, authority and scarcity—all underpinned by theories. Four principles of persuasion involve identifica- tion with the idea or problem or point of view, suggestion of action to take, familiarity with and trust in the persuasive source and clarity of the persuasive appeals. Leadership for opinion change can come from vocal activists, opinion leaders and power

Points to Remember Current theories about media are undergoing reconsideration and new theories are emerging as a result of global interactive networks, the prev- alence of blogs, a blending of editorial and adver- tising content in messaging and user generated- content in legacy media as well as convergence within those legacy news media. Theories applied to public relations practice come from a number of different disciplines and have been adapted for PR. Of six most-used theories, four come from sociology and two from psychology. From general systems theory, cybernetic systems theory is often applied to PR. Two other especially important theories are: cul- tural and critical/postmodern. Because most theo- ries take some time to be developed, tested and modified, their origins are postmodern theory, although dating from the mid-1960s, is considered too “new” to have many tested applications. A study of cultures often involves ethnography that treats the study of culture as a text to be read through direct observation. Another part of looking at culture involves some exploration of theories of design, color, sounds

“old,” and in fact,

138 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

leaders—those who have the power to take actions affecting organizations and society, Persuasive strategies to muster compliance include stimulus-response, cognitive, motiva- tional, social appeal and personality appeal. Critical thinking by message recipients is neces- sary to evaluate all messages. Consideration for all content is source, message, the mix of source and message, media and receivers. What research tells us about the source for com- munication is important to public relations because we get to choose the source for messages for authority and credibility. Expertise in a source is important. Highly credible sources, when remembered as the source, bring about more opinion change. Threats in a message can be effective in changing behavior unless the threats are too serious or alarming. Reasonable arguments may be accepted, even if the source isn’t highly credible or is unknown, if the receiver is not highly involved in the issue. People tend to believe people they perceive to be most like them. Repetition does increase learning, but only until it gets boring and attention is lost. Be sure messages are clear and easily understood to get the behavior expected. Responses to messages may be active or reactive. Anticipate the potential degree of both. Message content and source have consequences, and the way the information is presented has an impact on the effect. The media orientation of publics is critical infor- mation because media deliver the messages. Increasing evidence indicates that empathy is related to positive outcomes, but the exact reasons are less clear. A message has to create value for a recipient before it can persuade. Media can impact public beliefs and behavior as indicated by agenda-setting theory. Media connections with public relations practi- tioners who offer sources show more interaction in the agenda setting process, especially since now all media are involved.

Cultivation theory that had suggested television offered broader audiences a “world view” due to its global scope is in question now because of the melding of media and the fact that audiences everywhere respond to all messages, including nonverbal ones such as gestures or other action, sound, silence and settings through their own cul- tural prisms. Doublespeak or gobbledygook is language used to misrepresent and deliberately mislead so what is said will be misinterpreted by all but the most careful recipient. People both seek and avoid messages, so consis- tency and repetition are important. Messages don’t travel well across cultures, espe- cially humorous ones. Remember that freedom of expression is not universal. Challenge assumptions of viewpoints and values in other cultures. Give stakeholders input, and in doing so, remem- ber complexity and chaos theories. The orientation of publics/stakeholders to a medium is critical to getting messages delivered. People turn to media for gratification and rewards, but these are subject to changes in circumstances. Perception is reality. Diffusion of information is the flow of sourced messages through different levels of perceived authority. Symbols, including gestures and facial expres- sions, affect credibility of a message. Stereotyping is a form of “shorthand,” but often results in inaccurate characterization of groups of people. Sensory stimuli are used to increase audience involvement in a message. Message response is conditioned by anticipation, expectation and assumption. Information processing is critical in evaluating the impact or potential impact of a message. Attribution theory is how we try to make sense of messages. Social learning theory is the continuous feedback that occurs between a person’s cognition and the situation.

Chapter 5 / Theoretical Underpinnings for PR 139

Getting people to believe something is easier than preventing them from accepting something you don’t want them to believe; thus, inoculation the- ory is often used to accomplish this. Measuring understanding is more important than measuring reception. The diffusion process of information has six steps: awareness, attending, comprehending, yielding, adopting, retaining. Before applying a theory, check for the possible impact of culture on both its development and testing. For example, not all theories originating

in the Western world apply in non-Western areas of the world.

Other Related Websites to Review International Communication Association,

http://icahdq.org Institute for Public Relations,

http://www.instituteforpr.com International Public Relations Association,

www.ipra.org

To appreciate the complexity of public relations ethical decision making in a 21st Century global, multicultural and technological society. To recognize the wide range of stakeholders to whom public relations practitioners and their organizations have ethical responsibilities. To understand that public relations practitioners have personal, as well as professional, responsibilities in ethical decision making. To develop a sensitivity about how unethical conduct can create public relations crises. To create a heightened awareness of potential ethical problems that can occur within an organization.

PR Ethics and Responsibilities

public relations professor approached a colleague in philosophy to ask about offering a communications

ethics course that would be cross-listed with philosophy, offering the philosophy professor some codes of ethics from journalism as well as from public relations. The philosophy professor shook his head incredulously, saying, “I didn’t know you folks had any ethics.”

Outside the university, others question the attempt to teach ethics in college courses in general, wondering if learning about ethics actually makes people more ethical. One argument is that it’s too late by the time people reach college age. Another is that ethical behavior is culture-bound, i.e., that different cultural practices legitimize resulting different ethical values. Certainly, culture influences what is considered ethical behavior.

Ethics are founded on moral principles that are themselves grounded in effects. This holds true whether you subscribe to the idea that a moral judgment must fulfill only formal condi- tions that may be universal and prescriptive or whether you think it must also meet a material condition for the welfare of society as a whole. In either case, “ethical behavior recognizes and rests within a shared interest,” according to Ivan Hill, writing for the Ethics Resource Center.3

Judgments about an organization’s standing are made in three areas: ethics, social responsibility and financial respon- sibility. An organization’s sense of commitment toward its publics (which often have conflicting interests among one another) has to be articulated and demonstrated.

A [T]he crisis in communication facing the United States and, to varying degrees, the entire world, is one aspect of the broader cri- sis emanating from the tension of combining a highly concentrated corporate-driven econ- omy that generates significant social inequal- ity and insecurity with an ostensibly free and democratic society.

—Robert W. McChesney, Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times'

Two Wolves (Unknown Author) One evening an old Cherokee told his

grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all.

“The one wolf’s name is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arro- gance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.

“The other wolf’s name is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kind- ness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a min- ute and then asked his grandfather:

“Which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The

one you feed. » 2

142 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

When Arthur W. Page was hired by AT&T in 1927 as the first corporate vice president of public relations in the USA, he advocated this philosophy: “Be sure our deeds match our words”—and vice versa.4

Ethics and social and financial responsibilities concern public relations practitioners on two levels. We have to consider both the behavior of the individual practitioner and that of the institution she or he represents. Public relations has been called the “conscience” of organiza- tions and their managements, which underscores PR’s role in reminding an organization of its social responsi- bility to all of its publics.

Actually, most research supports the idea that top management sets the ethical tone for an organization. Management, after all, chooses both internal public relations staff as well as the external firm or agency that may be hired to supplement or provide all public

relations services. If those public relations practi- tioners see themselves as simply functionary “order takers” for management, and that management is unethical, then there’s little hope for financial and social responsibility or ethical organizational behavior in general. Highly visible ethical lapses by organiza- tions with PR staff or contracted firms have received a great deal of public attention in books, magazine arti- cles and television shows, certainly in recent years,

economic meltdown of financial and manufacturing organiza- tions, the real estate market and housing industry. The bad public relations that has resulted has not done much to improve the reputation of public rela- tions practitioners’ own good reputations because they are supposed to be advising their organizations’ management about ethical behavior.

e.g., beginning in 2008 with the global

Ethics at theoretical and strategic levels can be exceedingly complex; intuitive “do the right thing” answers may not always be the correct ones. One fundamental question is whether corporations can be held ethi- cally responsible for their actions in the way that individual people are held accountable. Some people argue yes, because corporations can control their actions and make rational decisions from a range of options that are available to them. However, being ethical is more complex for an organization than for an individual—partly because corporations have a tremendous effect upon society. Amitai Etzioni, for exam- ple, says that corporations in the USA cannot impose conditions of employment that are unconstitutional. However , can corporations ban individuals’ conduct outside the workplace or what employees say about the organization on their Facebook pages or Twitter accounts, or behavior that may affect the health care costs that these corporations must pay?1 What about values? Paul Kennedy maintains that dominant cor- porate value systems must adhere to Western rationalism, scientific inquiry , legal theory and capitalism. He questions whether companies that share cultures of some developing societies can compete in the global economic arena.2 However, it would be naive to assume that the corporate model based on Western cul- ture will always prevail globally, which the success of Asian corporations seem to contradict, or that such a perspective is necessarily the most moral. The Economist observes that companies are now paying elab- orate attention to corporate social responsibility, appointing corporate social responsibility (CSR) officers, consultants, departments and initiatives. However, it argues that there is much to be said for leaving social and economic policy to governments, which are accountable to voters. The British news magazine argues that if companies want to make the world a better place , they should concentrate on discharging their obli- gations to shareholders, the people who are paying their wages.3

Amitai Etzioni, The Spirit of Community: The Reinvention of American Society (New York: Touchstone, 1994). 2Paul Kennedy , Preparing for the 21st Century (New York: Vintage Books, 1993).

The Good Company,” The Economist, 374(8410) (January 22 , 2005), pp. 3-4. Source: Dean Kruckeberg, “The Public Relations Practitioner’s Role in Practicing Strategic Ethics, ” Public Relations Quar- terly, 45, Fall 2000, pp . 35-39.

3«

Chapter 6 / PR Ethics and Responsibilities 143

The challenge for internal and external public rela- tions practitioners is to guide their employers to re- sponsible actions that are founded on integrity. To maintain standards of practice for public relations that don’t allow the representation of organizations that are unethical means having the courage to stand up for practitioners’ own ethical codes as well as having strong personal ethical values, refusing to do what practitioners believe to be professionally and personally unethical.

It is not difficult to find examples in the news media from throughout the world of organizations’ and indi- viduals’ ethical abuses or the perception of abuses and wrongdoing. The Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was harshly criticized in the report issued in January 20ll by President Barack Obama’s national commission.5 In January 2003, former U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom Delay is sentenced to three years in prison after being con- victed for concealing illegal corporate contributions to Texas political campaigns in 2002.6 Embarrassing

correspondence made available by WikiLeaks creates questions about corporate control of the infrastructure of the Internet. The American Economic Association says it will consider new ethical guidelines amidst criti- cism that ethical lapses by academic economists were partly to blame for the U.S. financial crisis.8 Americans question whether political rhetoric contributed to a gun- man’s attack of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, killing six peo- ple including a federal judge and a nine-year-old child.9

Although extremely complex, the study of ethics falls into two broad categories: comparative ethics, which is the purview of social scientists; and norma- tive ethics, generally the domain of philosophers and theologians. Comparative ethics, sometimes called descriptive ethics, is a study of how different cultures observe ethical standards. Both diversity and similarity are of interest to social scientists. However, the social scientist looks for evidence that can be verified, and in a study of ethics such ques- tions as whether ethical behaviors are a part of

The late professor Rich Long , who taught at Brigham Young University, noted historical examples of how to ruin a corporate reputation: break the law, lie to the news media and to others, ignore warn- ings, don’t consider the opinions of critics and sacrifice employees and retirees for the benefit of bonuses and stock benefits to top management.1 Professor Long pointed to Enron , a once $100 bil- lion ( Fortune 10) company whose stock plummeted from $83.00 to $0.25 per share . In addition to the harm done to Enron and its stakeholders through its corporate misbehavior, there also was a tremen- dous “spinoff ” effect on other corporations, including Arthur Andersen, Enron’s former accounting firm. That highly respected firm was accused of shredding evidence related to Enron. Although the firm fired its auditor in charge of Enron’s business, the discharged employee claimed he was only fol- lowing orders.2 One member of Arthur Andersen’s outside public relations team reported he had been so busy because of the Enron crisis that he hadn’t been home in 18 days , leaving his apartment with a two-day supply of clean clothes, but having to make trips to Florida and Washington. A reporter for The Wall Street Journal called all the work that was created “the Enron effect.” Fallout from the demise of this huge company has lasted for years , of course.3 The late public relations educator Bill Adams, a longtime senior corporate practitioner , said most senior-level public relations practitioners are ethical. However, when in a company having an arrogant, closed culture, Adams said there are only two things a practitioner can do: (1) try to help change the culture , pointing out the benefits of doing so , both internally and externally, or (2) quit. But he added rhetorically, “Can you do the job of a professional public relations person within an organization that disdains two-way communication and mutual understanding?”4

’Rich Long, “Countering Corporate Arrogance,” Public Relations Strategist, 8 (Spring 2002), pp . 6, 7, 9 and 10. 2Rich Long, "New Challenges Arising From Enron,” Public Relations Strategist, 8 (Spring 2002) , p . 8. 3“Enron: Crisis—and Opportunity,” The Wall Street Journal, January 23, 2002, p . B1 . 4Long, “Countering Corporate Arrogance."

144 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

human nature spill over into other areas, such as the- ology and philosophy.

PR educator Hugh Culbertson observes philoso- pher Sissela Bok’s near-absolute position that deci- sions are either morally right or wrong.10 But there is another basis for decision making—what is referred to as situational ethics, which sees ethical standards not as constant but as varying or flexible in their application to specific occasions or situations. Culbertson’s observations of students suggest that they lean more toward situational ethics. Bok, too, recognizes that lies can sometimes serve a good pur- pose, says Culbertson. (One example is protecting Jewish houseguests from discovery by Nazi soldiers by lying about their presence. A more common and less dramatic example might be telling a friend who asks your opinion that you think her new and expen- sive outfit is more becoming than you think it really is.) But, Bok asserts, in choosing between lying and truth telling, the presumption is always against lying, for the following reasons:

organization or employees of a firm hired to represent an organization. Public relations practitioners have a role to play as educators and informers, explaining what an organization is and does, but also as persua- ders, convincing publics to support that organization, which, of course, must deserve this support

One reason the two-way symmetrical model for public relations, discussed in Chapter 1, is seen as desirable is that it allows for input from all affected publics and for negotiations about policy decisions. The reality, however, is that negotiation with all of an organization’s publics is simply not practical. Noth- ing would get done! In practice an organization should try to act in such a way that even when its actions negatively affect one or more of its publics (such as through the closing of an unprofitable facility with the resulting loss of jobs and economic impact), those who are affected will understand and accept the deci- sion, even if they don’t like it. Furthermore, publics can change the organization as much as the organiza- tion’s public relations efforts can change the beliefs, attitudes, opinions and even the behaviors of publics.

1. Dishonesty leads to lack of trust and cynicism— such as when a reporter later discovers that a PR person has told half-truths, resulting in an inac- curate story.

2. Lying is an exercise in coercion, forcing some- one to act differently from the way he or she would have behaved if given the truth.

3. Lying is resented by those deceived, even if the deceived are bars themselves.

4. Dishonesty is likely to be discovered, and no climate for credibility can be reestablished.

5. Decisions about when to He are often made without calculating either alternatives or conse- quences.

6. A He often demands another lie to cover it up, and then others to maintain the prevarications. 1 Dishonesty is seldom ambiguous, but some pub- lic relations actions are.

Ethics and Values Certainly, someone who is ethical would tell the truth, right? One problem is inherent in the use of the word truth to mean factually accurate, in which case one can be factually accurate and still deceive.The other problem is that for something to be a fact, it has to be something about which most people agree. There still is a Flat Earth Society (http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/ cms), even after photos from space testify to the earth’s roundness. Most people accept the photos and other evi- dence that the earth is a sphere. This is a verifiable truth. Some “truths” are actually people’s perceptions of events, data and pictures. Our own bias or view of the world affects how we see things and react to information. Then, too, our beliefs and personal values influence how we define “truth.” (If you don’t want to accept that, just think about why we have so many different religions in the world. Which one has the monopoly on the “truth”?)

Many individuals and organizations have strong positions on such issues as drinking and abortion, for example. Sometimes, organizations compromise, however. After admitting defeat in convincing stu- dents that drinking can be dangerous, many higher education institutions are emphasizing moderation over abstinence, and alcoholic beverage manufacturers are pleased to help spread this message, investing money and other resources into these programs.

Complexities in Ethical Decision Making

Part of the problem for public relations practitioners trying to behave in an ethical way is that they are hired to be advocates, whether they are employees of an

Chapter 6 / PR Ethics and Responsibilities 145

“Social-norms marketing,” oftentimes referred to as “social marketing,” involves placing advertisements in campus newspapers and displaying messages on pos- ters, T-shirts, coffee mugs and screen savers to stress that students should drink sensibly. Colleges and uni- versities thereby must decide whether their partners in these campaigns against alcohol abuse should be the very companies that make and market the beer and liquor that young people drink. Drinking on campus, of course, has frequently been linked to fatalities, rapes, drunk driving incidents and vandalism.12 Sometimes, opposing groups do not compromise. When the early abortion pill known as RU-486 became available in the USA, after years of controversy, proponents of abor- tion rights were funding projects to boost access to the drug regimen, whereas opponents were barraging doctors with mail noting potential hazards.13

As a practical matter, Arthur W. Page offered six management principles that lead to ethical behavior:

the public interest and in such a way that the public will give it sufficient freedom to serve effectively.”14

An organization’s reputation and the respect publics give to it depends on its actions, and an organization’s good reputation depends on its ethical conduct. An organization also is judged on how ethical its publics perceive it to be. For example, if your organization’s board of directors adopts an antitakeover device— a poison pill—and your news release says that the pill is not to prevent takeovers, whom are you kidding? If your organization is a bank that is reported to be failing, and you deny that you are looking for help to avoid failing, how do you think you look to the people who are considering helping you? Depositors fearful of los- ing their money will withdraw funds immediately because you obviously can’t be trusted.

Once again, beliefs are important to the public perception of an organization. When you measure a public’s view of your ethics, you are asking if it thinks you deserve to exist. Don’t be surprised if your orga- nization is seen as undeserving.

Ethics are often defined as just “doing what’s right.” But, in different cultures, “right” may be “wrong.” The fact that ethics are oftentimes culture-bound creates some difficulties for global public relations practice. The view of an organization’s ethics is likely to be based not so much on a universal definition of morality as on an understanding of the consequences of what the organization says and does, which may be seen as either moral or immoral by its publics. Beliefs about social responsibility strongly influence whether and to what extent publics see the organization as being a good citi- zen, either locally or globally.

1. Tell the truth. Let the public know what’s hap- pening and provide an accurate picture of the company’s character, ideals and practices.

2. Prove it with action. Public perception of an organization is determined 90 percent by doing and 10 percent by talking.

3. Listen to the customer. To serve the public well, you need to understand what it needs and wants. Keep top decision makers and other employees informed of public reaction to company products, policies and practices.

4. Manage for tomorrow. Anticipate public reac- tion and eliminate practices that create difficul- ties. Create goodwill.

5. Conduct public relations as if the whole company depends on it. It does. Corporate relations is a man- agement function. No corporate strategy should be implemented without considering its external and internal public relations impact. The PR practi- tioner is a policymaker, not just a publicist.

6. Remain calm, patient and good-humored. Lay the groundwork for public relations miracles with consistent, calm and reasoned attention to information and contacts. When a crisis comes, you will be prepared and know exactly what to do to defuse it.

Public Consent PR pioneers Arthur W. Page and Edward Bemays both emphasized that organizations in democratic societies exist with the consent of their publics. In that fight, it is appropriate to look at the issue of responsibility in detail.

Social responsibility,another term for good citizenship, means producing high-quality products or reliable ser- vices that don’t harm the environment and contributing positively to the social, political and economic health of society. It also means compensating employees fairly and treating them justly, regardless of the cultural envi- ronment in which an organization operates. It means protecting the pension plans of employees as much as possible. Clearly translated, this means no poorly paid “slave” labor and no discriminatory or “sweatshop”

These principles underscored the Page philoso- phy: “Real success, both for big business and the public, lies in large enterprise conducting itself in

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapterfs). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

146 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

practices both in an organization’s home country and elsewhere around the world. It means never offering overpriced or potentially dangerous junk in the guise of a high-quality product. It means refusing to misuse this small planet and its creatures, both human and non- human. It means restoring and protecting the earth and its natural resources as well as anything else your orga- nization might damage or threaten during its business operations.

Financial responsibility generally refers to an organization’s fiscal soundness, as indicated by such measures as market or audience share; but it also includes how the organization interacts with inves- tors and investment advisers. Public relations has its own financial responsibility: to measure and evaluate its own contribution to the bottom line (an organiza- tion’s profit margin).

These traditional measures of responsibility are important, of course, but just as significant are the perceptions people have about how a for-profit or nonprofit organization gets and spends its money. These facets of financial responsibility are too often overlooked in attempts to measure public images. Yet, beliefs about an organization in these areas are strongly tied to confidence, trust and loyalty. For example, should we try to measure loyalty? If our organization becomes embroiled in a takeover fight, investors’ loyalty may be absolutely critical. How many of our large individual stockholders will retain their holdings in the face of escalating offers?

As public relations people, we hope that our orga- nization’s image will influence our stockholders to retain their confidence in the organization’s leader- ship. And the same goes for “stakeholders.” Suppose that you represent a nonprofit organization— a museum, say—and you are trying to recruit volun- teers to serve in it at a time when it is receiving heavy public criticism. You must rely on the long-standing goodwill of the public toward the museum and on the ability of current volunteers to reinforce this in the community. The goodwill must be a strong resource, however, because you’ll need it to bolster current volunteers’ morale. The key point here is that traditional measures of financial responsibility most often are not adequate.

In all three areas—ethics, social responsibility and financial responsibility—publics are likely to believe that public relations people are trying to influence them. The fact that PR does work to change people’s views causes the individual practitioner’s ethics to be closely entwined with the organization’s social

responsibility. The frequent tension inherent in the role is clearly articulated by journalism scholar Mar- vin Olasky. He says that ffee-market competition forced PR practitioners (as voices for corporate America) to seek government regulation as a means of eliminating competition while they spoke publicly of supporting free enterprise. But the very pursuit of “social responsibility,” Olasky says, has fostered the popular notion that there are no “private” areas of business—that is, no areas that are off limits to public scrutiny. In attempting to say something while at the same time protecting an organization’s business, the PR person often deceives, according to Olasky. Olasky also asserts that, the closer business moves toward government, the more likely it is to try to affect the political process.15

Corporate philanthropy will not necessarily guaran- tee goodwill, and not all efforts to be socially respon- sible are necessarily perceived in a favorable light On June 11, 2008, Wal-Mart announced a $500,000 com- mitment to help with relief efforts in the wake of flash floods in the Midwestern USA. The retailer’s commit- ment, a combination of both cash and merchandise donations, helped flood victims throughout Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin. The Ameri- can Red Cross and the Salvation Army each received a portion of the funds, and Wal-Mart worked with both organizations to provide food, water and other life- sustaining products to those who had been affected by the floods.16 Despite a history of generous support for many worthy causes, Wal-Mart is frequently criti- cized for its effect on local economies and is accused of providing low-paying jobs with poor benefits and of undercutting prices by importing merchandise from foreign countries. The Wall Street Journal in May 2008 reported the results of experiments indicating that consumers would pay a slight premium for ethi- cally made goods, but they would buy unethically made products only at a steep discount. The research- ers concluded that companies should segment their market and make a particular effort to reach out to buyers with high ethical standards, because those are the customers who could deliver the biggest potential profits on ethically produced goods.17

Responsibility to Whom? There will always be some people in the business world who are convinced that all they need is a law- yer to keep them out of jail and a PR practitioner to keep bad news out of the paper.

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Chapter 6 / PR Ethics and Responsibilities 147

Public relations scholars Katerina Tsetsura of the University of Oklahoma and Dean Kruckeberg of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte note that in today’s global society in which the compression of time and space has resulted in increased social—political—economic—cultural complexity worldwide , most of what we accept to be truth comes from the myriad forms of “mass media,” e.g., the news- papers that we read , the television programs that we watch, the radio stations to which we listen and the infinite Internet sources that we explore. We rely—most often by necessity—upon these second- ary sources to help us to determine our own truths that create our unique worldviews from which we form our individual beliefs, attitudes and opinions that directly influence the decisions that we make .

Source: Tsetsura, K., & Kruckeberg , D. (2011, March). “Media Practice or Media Opacity? Conceptual and Theoretical Considerations and Implications. ” Paper presented at the 14th IPR International Public Relations Research Conference Miami, FL.

Actually, public relations must create constant awareness by management of the institution’s responsibility to all its publics. Most professional PR practitioners recognize that they and their orga- nizations have ethical responsibilities to at least 10 different publics:

1. Clients: Being responsible to a client means not only being judicious with his or her money, but also (sometimes) saying no, because the customer is not always right. When a client is wrong, it is important to say so—to tell truths supported by facts discovered through honest research.

Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice148

2. News media: These deserve honest and appropri- ate use of their channels; that is, you should not involve them in compromising situations, such as by lying, feeding them misleading or incomplete information or attempting to bribe them. PR practitioners are accused by news media more often for sins of omission than of commission. A responsible PR person may not be expected to call news media’s attention to bad news but should be expected, when asked, to respond with a straightforward and complete presentation of the facts when the news media are pursuing an unfavorable story. Exceptions might occur in legal cases where specific or complete disclosure is required by law (for example, Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] regulations) or is prudent (where events are matters of public record or otherwise legally accessible).

3. Government agencies: The PR practitioner should be a source and resource for authoritative and accurate information that is needed and required by the government

4. Educational institutions: There should be a good two-way system for sharing research, ideas and resources and for offering learning opportunities for students. Both sides can enhance their riches through close, professional cooperation.

5. Consumers of your client's products and services: An increasingly skeptical and demanding customer public can be exasperating, especially to those watching the profit-and-loss sheet, but sincerity and quality go a long way. Consumers have a right to expect goodwill and integrity in prod- ucts and services.

6. Stockholders and analysts: Many PR practitioners owe their jobs to investors in their organiza- tions’ businesses and to those who provide counsel to investors, because investors provide the economic framework and the overall cli- mate of confidence in an organization. Both investors and investment counselors need ade- quate and accurate information to make good decisions, and this calls for lucid interpretations of an organization’s financial status, accurate annual reports and full explanations of company developments.

7. Community: Because the geographic community often provides critical elements such as utilities, tax breaks, cooperative zoning plans and cham- ber of commerce promotion, a community has a

right to expect environmental protection, a fair tax return, employment of local people and cor- porate contributions of funds and employees’ time to community projects.

8. Competitors: Other businesses have a right to expect from PR-advised firms a fair competitive environment that stays within the limits of the law and does not violate individual rights and privacy.

The obligations of PR practitioners are set forth in the codes of ethics or standards for behavior of professional PR organizations. (The Public Relations Society of America’s Member Code of Ethics, with Interpretations, the Inter- national Association of Business Communicators [IABC] code and the IPRA code are included in the Instructor's Manual for this text.)

9. Critics: Public relations practice is likely to gen- erate criticism from all of these publics, but its very existence as an organizational role and func- tion is criticized from at least two philosophical points of view. Some critics complain that public relations practitioners impede rather than facili- tate corporate social responsibility by rationaliz- ing corporate actions and manipulating public opinion. For these reasons, they say, corpora- tions do not bear the full measure of criticism they deserve from their various publics for ignoring quality-of-life factors that economic indicators of success may not reflect. Such critics may not be fundamentally opposed to capitalism, only to what they consider to be the abuses of a capitalist economic system. They think the insti- tutions of our society should voluntarily provide improvements in their publics’ quality of fife as well as economic well-being, that is, be socially responsible. They see public relations people as a cushion between management and the public’s demand for social responsibility.

Other critics might be categorized as human rights defenders, who are oftentimes members of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), more recently called civil society organizations (CSOs). This group tends to speak out against public relations practitioners who represent unpopular clients—for example, leaders of coun- tries that are reputed to be repressive.

10. Public relations practitioners: Other practitioners in the field itself expect practitioners to uphold standards of behavior that will win respect for

Chapter 6 / PR Ethics and Responsibilities 143

the practice of public relations. This impulse provides the basis of the PRSA, IPRA and IABC codes of ethics and lies at the root of the discussions about licensing public relations practitioners.

Critics have called public relations codes of ethical behavior or standards of practice self-serving, but such codes do provide ethical guidelines and, in some cases, an argument against unethical practices in the workplace.

Hadley Cantril succinctly identified the basis for appraising ethical public relations conduct:

is of internal publics; (2) preventing harm to the sub- jects, either psychologically (through participation itself or as a result of facing issues they would prefer to avoid) or through analysis and reporting (when self-identification could cause damage to self- image); (3) protecting participants through anonym- ity and/or confidentiality, the latter occurring when the researcher identifies the participant but does not reveal the information; (4) avoiding deceiving par- ticipants, something not always possible in some research design but usually desirable; and (5) report- ing and analyzing results fairly and accurately so that others are not misled by the findings. Incidentally, when you buy research, you should know that mem- bers of the American Association for Public Opinion Research are pledged to uphold a code of profes- sional ethics and practices.1

The second ethical problem in research involves the actual accumulation and storage of information. Probably no PR practitioner can match any level of government in its accumulation of data on an indi- vidual. Most people are in at least 10 to 30 local and state databases as individuals. In addition, the U.S. government classifies individual citizens according to more than 8,000 separate record systems. Many government records are supposed to be off-limits to commercial researchers, although there have been cases where confidentiality has been breached. Also, Internet activity increasingly can be monitored. The Wall Street Journal in 2010 conducted a comprehen- sive study about surveillance technology tracking Internet users. The study found that the nation’s 50 top websites on average installed 64 pieces of track- ing technology onto the computers of visitors, usually with no warning. The Journal found new tools that scan in real time what people are doing on a Web page, then instandy assess location, income, shopping interests and even medical conditions.20

Concern over possible misuse of this kind of data was partly why legislators passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1966 and the U.S. Credit Bill of Rights that allows people to see just what information government and business have compiled on them. Nevertheless, both public and private insti- tutions continue to gather substantial data, owing to the many different types of public registration (auto and boat licenses, building permits and so on) and mailing fists that are maintained.

A third problem has to do with how research information is used. Advertisers once primarily bought ads on specific Web pages, but now

The “morality ” or “ethical” nature—the correctness or rightness—of any action ... is to be judged in terms of the degree to which it includes and integrates the pur- poses, and provides for the potential development of those purposes for all other people concerned in the action or possibly affected by it . 18

Responsibility in Practice Some areas of public relations practice that are con- sidered legitimate by most practitioners nonetheless cause public concern and arouse criticism. Among the most obvious of these are how to conduct research (and how to use the resulting information), how to handle internal battles you lose with management and what to do about international activities when these involve working with foreign governments and corporations that operate in ways that might conflict with your own professional and personal ethics.

Research and Persuasion Research is critical in all areas of public relations. (Chapter 3 of this book is devoted to the subject) Finding out all that you can about the demographics and psychographics of your publics enables you to reach and communicate with them effectively. However, the uses of PR research and the purposes of persuasion must be examined by the practitioner to minimize opportunities for abuse.

The first ethical question is how to collect the data. Whether you do the research yourself — in-house—or buy research services, you have to maintain certain standards toward the subjects used in the research. Earl Babbie, a highly respected social science researcher, identifies the following practices that must be safeguarded in a research study: (1) ensuring that participation is voluntary among all subjects, for example employees when the research

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice150

Public Relations Learned the Hard Way By Suzanne Vranica Amid harsher government scrutiny and lingering public mistrust of business, 2010 saw more than its fair share of corporate crises.... Here’s a look at how companies handled some of the year’s corporate crises:

BP PLC Case: BP’s image suffered after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which saw torrents of oil spew

into the Gulf of Mexico. Experts say: As part of its crisis plan, BP aired an ad that featured a personal pitch and apology

from its then- CEO, Mr. Hayward. In the commercial, Mr. Hayward promised taxpayers they wouldn’t be footing the clean-up bill.

But Mr. Hayward’s other gaffes—most notably saying he wanted his “life back”—undermined his credibility with the public, PR experts say.

Although many PR professionals believe that in some cases a chief executive should be a com- pany’s primary spokesperson during a major crisis, in other cases the CEO may not be the right fit. “The CEO needs to be visible at the outset but can designate the person in the U.S. to be the face of the crisis.” says Harlan Loeb, director of U.S. crisis and issue management at Edelman.

Davis Weinstock, Chairman of Clark & Weinstock, a reputation-management firm, says Mr. Hayward "was not the right face” for the crisis.

A study by Interbrand, a branding firm owned by Omnicom Group Inc. that tracks and publishes the top 100 global brands every year, found that the BP brand fell off its top-100 global brand list this year. The oil company had been on the list for nine years, and ranked as the 83rd most valuable brand last year.

Coda: Experts say subsequent ads featuring BP employees from the Gulf region seemed to reso- nate better. However, the brand is still in need of repair, say public relations experts, and the company must develop a new corporate campaign to replace its “Beyond Petroleum” pitch, PR experts add. “BP presented itself as beyond petroleum, which implied we are a better oil company than others and the spill said maybe they are not,” said Mr. Gidez at Hill & Knowiton.

''Our philosophy right from the moment the tragedy happened was to ‘do the right thing’ for those affected; we knew that the chief exec should be in charge and be seen to be in charge. As the crisis developed so did the tools we used for messaging,11 said a statement from a BP spokesman.

Apple Inc. Case: In “Antennagate,” Apple Inc. was besieged by criticism that the antenna design on the

iPhone 4 caused reception problems. The brouhaha reached a crescendo when Consumer Reports said it couldn’t recommend buying the phone and that its tests showed a hardware defect caused the phone to lose reception when held a certain way.

The magazine’s analysis ran counter to Apple’s claims that the problem was rooted in software that could be easily fixed.

Experts say: “Always listen to your customer—and if they are telling you something, say ‘thank you’ and offer to remediate the problem immediately,” says James S. O’Rourke, a professor of man- agement at the University of Notre Dame. “Apple tried to minimize the problem, which is always a mistake.”

Coda: Eventually, Apple offered a free “bumper” case to iPhone 4 customers. Despite the dent to Apple’s reputation, iPhone 4 sales have been brisk. Earlier this year, the company said it has not seen any decline in demand for the phone because of the antenna problems.

Chapter 6 / PR Ethics and Responsibilities 151

Ethical Perspective (continued)

A spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment. Toyota Motor Corp. Case: Toyota was forced to recall over eight million vehicles because of several problems, includ-

ing sticky gas pedals that caused automobiles to suddenly accelerate, challenging Toyota’s reputation for quality. The car maker had to pay a $16.4 million fine in the U.S. for its failure to quickly disclose potential safety defects and more recently, the Obama administration slapped the company with $32.4 million in civil penalties for failing to properly disclose what it knew about safety defects.

Experts say: PR consultants say Toyota was slow to respond and didn’t clearly explain the cause of the problem. “They didn’t engage quick enough,” says Michael Sitrick, chairman and chief executive of Sitrick & Co., a crisis PR firm that recently represented Mark Hurd during his ouster from Hewlett-Packard Co.

Interbrand found that Toyota’s brand value fell 16% this year because of the recall. The car maker had been the eighth largest brand in the world in 2009 but slipped to No. 11 this year. Interbrand’s metric takes into account the company’s financial condition, third party consumer polling data and its specialists’ opinions.

Coda: Although its market share has fallen, experts say Toyota is repairing its image with the help of ads that talk about its Star Safety System and showing that they are changing some processes, such as assigning many engineers to investigate quality problems and extending time devoted to test- ing new models.

“While it looked to the outside world that we weren’t moving fast enough, our engineers were working hard to find the root cause, an effective remedy to perform on millions of vehicles and reviewing it with government regulators,” says Mike Michels, a spokesman for Toyota. “The engineer- ing solution for a recall very often lags behind the point of which the announcement is made that there will be a recall. That is particularly challenging from a PR standpoint.”

Toyota says it’s seen “encouraging signs” that its customer loyalty has remained intact based on data that show that customers affected by the recall are more satisfied than regular Toyota customers and that it is seeing the number of competitor trade-ins “return to historic levels.”

Hewlett-Packard Co. Case: In August, H-P announced that CEO Mark Hurd was stepping down. The board cited

business-conduct violations related to a relationship with a former contractor. Experts say: “There was paucity of information from H-P,” says Irv Schenkler, clinical associate

professor of management communication at New York University’s Stern School of Business. The company, he says, gave a legalistic statement of what they were doing and found, but left too

many “gaps,” which opened them up to criticism about their decision, including some blasts from Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison, who later hired Mr. Hurd as co-president.

Coda: H-P’s board won both criticism and praise, with some management experts saying directors were right to oust Mr. Hurd if they felt he had demonstrated ethical lapses. In December, The Wall Street Journal reported that federal regulators were investigating Mr. Hurd’s departure, including a claim that the former chief shared inside information, according to people familiar with the matter.

“H-P is focused on the future,” said an H-P spokeswoman. Facebook Inc. The case: Facebook came under fire on Capitol Hill earlier this year after it rolled out new features

that might make users’ data more public and a series of changes to its privacy settings that could lead users to expose more information about themselves. The outcry prompted the company to switch to simplified privacy controls in June.

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advertisers are paying to follow people around the Internet, wherever they go, with highly specific mar- keting messages.21

were their own. Others may carry out decisions imposed from above, but not as effectively as they would have worked on their own—a subde form of sabotage that raises an ethical question in itself. The alternative is to move on to another place where the ethical climate is more compatible.

One practitioner asserts that leaving is difficult to do. “Your ethics may be as good as your credit rat- ing. No one with a big mortgage and lots of bills takes too many risks for a ‘cause.’” But this is not always a valid rule. Doing something you feel is wrong is often worse for you personally and profes- sionally than having to go job hunting. While the PRSA Code of Ethics no longer attempts to sanction those who violate unethical behavior, most practi- tioners don’t want to work for an organization where unethical practice is encouraged or allowed. Fortunately, crises of confidence rarely occur because most people gravitate toward managements with ethical standards compatible with their own.26

Internal Battles and Defeat Public relations people generally try to persuade management to act in socially responsible ways toward all publics. Occa- sionally, though, the interests of two or more publics conflict, or the profit interests of the company con- flict with the interests of one or more of its publics. Management decisions are not always in line with what the PR person recommends. What happens then? The PR person can first try to reach a com- promise (if one is possible). If that doesn’t work, he or she must review the situation to decide just how serious the conflict is.

Public relations practitioners are constrained in their efforts to influence management by at least four factors: (1) lack of access to management; (2) restraints on information collection; (3) road- blocks to dissemination of timely, accurate informa- tion; and (4) a narrow definition of the role of public relations. Of these factors, the first two pose the most serious problems. Researcher Michael Ryan concludes that practitioners need to find environ- ments suitable to them. The most innovative practi- tioners should seek the most constraint-free environment; those who prefer routine tasks may be able to function well in an environment where

Foreign Governments and Locations Working within, with or for foreign governments poses some complex ethical questions because of different cultural norms. That doesn’t necessarily mean that other countries are less ethical than the USA. For example, in January 2008, Norway’s Government Pension Fund, which is sovereign-wealth funds, was considering broadening its ethical-investment program after having already divested holdings in arms makers, mining companies and U.S. retailer Wal-Mart. The Norwegian central bank that oversees the $369 billion Norwegian Gov- ernment Pension Fund began a year-long review of ethical guidelines, and investments in tobacco com- panies, pomographers and the gambling industry were likely to be considered for exclusion, as well as corporations from countries with human rights abuses.27

In response to the stirfacing of “questionable pay- ments” by corporations doing business abroad, legis- lation was passed in the USA making bribery illegal. But where do you draw the line between bribes or kickbacks and such traditionally acceptable practices as tips, gratuities and gifts? When do these become conditions for doing business? Even in foreign coun- tries where bribes and kickbacks are illegal, such practices may exist in custom, which is difficult to work around. At the European Public Relations Congress in Kiev in October 2007, Pravda Award recipients were first “washed” by people in surgical

of the world’s biggestone

management imposes considerable constraints on employees’ behavior.22

The September 2007 Walker Information Loyalty Report Executive Summary noted that 63 percent of employees agree their company is highly ethical and 57 percent believe their senior leaders are ethi- cal; the study also showed a clear link between employees’ perceptions of company ethics and employee loyalty. David C. Korten, a critic of cor- porations, argues, “There are plenty of socially con- scious managers. The problem is a predator system that makes it difficult for them to survive.»24 A May 6, 2010, story in The Wall Street Journal reported that business schools are facing pressure to overhaul their curriculum to better serve the business world, but they’re being asked to do it “with a healthy dose of ethics, behavioral training and a focus that’s not just on winning at all costs, something management- education critics say is lacking at most schools.”25

Employees must assume responsibility too. Some practitioners label themselves “team players” and carry out each management’s decision as though it

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garb to indicate that the public relations practitioners there did not use bribery to have their news releases published, and a journalist was given an award for being honest and not taking bribery, evidence that many public relations practitioners worldwide do not want to participate in bribery or other unethical professional practice.

However, the January 20, 2011, The Wall Street Journal noted that China, for example, holds massive investment potential, but rampant corruption ranges from paying to expedite the movement of goods to paying to cover up regulatory lapses at factories. Dis- covering such transgressions is a problem because the amount of public information is “minuscule.28 Fur- thermore, according to a Buder University business law professor quoted in the November 10, 2010, The Wall Street Journal, enforcement of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits U.S. and U.S.-listed companies from paying bribes to foreign officials to obtain or keep business, is “a facade.

All companies—multinationals, in particular—are trying codes of conduct, outside directors and any- thing else they can think of to assure corporate morality. Of course, multinationals have a social responsibility to all of their publics, not just to those in the nation in which they were originally chartered.

Furthermore, public relations firms in the USA are being purchased or merged with agencies based in other countries, which creates the potential for differing cultural beliefs.30 Ethical conflicts in these areas can arise over the status of women and chil- dren, hiring practices (especially where sex, class or caste are factors), job descriptions (especially ones that might violate some religious observances), con- ditions for promotion, the treatment of animals and contracts or agreements with suppliers or the gov- ernment, just to name a few.

Working directly for foreign governments poses even more ethical questions. Some questions have been raised about U.S. political strategists, pollsters and political PR campaign managers who handle candidates in other countries—even when the elec- tions are free and open. Although attorneys repre- sent clients with public and professional impunity (in fact, their services are supposed to be available to all), public relations firms share the image of their clients. Not only the firm, but also the individ- ual handling the PR account, may find it difficult to defend working for a country that has a reputation for being repressive.

Many countries with records of human rights vio- lations have turned to U.S. public relations firms for help. And the desire to look good in world public opinion is not the only reason for doing so. Aid pay- ments from the USA are bigger to nations with bet- ter reputations in this area. Tourism may increase as well. Some companies accept only foreign clients with reputations as responsible world citizens; but as one executive said, such a judgment gets more and more difficult to make.

Foreign governments often rely on U.S. and British public relations firms for both government contracts and media relations. Some media people say that the PR firms aren’t effective and that the embassies of the countries could do the same job. Others consider the embassies less skilled at media relations. Apparently, the only effective PR people are those whom media people accept as credible sources. When their own media contacts haven’t

5529 worked, foreign countries have often turned to advo- cacy advertising.

The ethical practices of the world’s media are yet another issue because they factor in the media rela- tions aspect of public relations and have an impact on opinions. From data collected in fall 2007, public relations scholar Katerina Tsetsura found that a large majority of journalists and public relations practi- tioners throughout the world said it was not profes- sional for media to accept payments from news sources in return for coverage. Nevertheless, more than one in three public relations practitioners and one in five journalists said it was generally considered okay in their countries for national media to accept such payments. Only 60 percent said that paid-for material was always or often identified as advertising in national daily newspapers.31 The role of media ethics is significant, not only because of editorial con- tent, but also because of the advertising.

Responsibility in Advertising and Sponsorships

The People’s Republic of China made every effort to ensure that coordinated groups of spectators would not wear uniforms or branded clothing during the Olympic Games in August 2008, ensuring “clean,” that is, noncommercialized, sports stadiums. Author- ities also controlled billboards in prominent locations

Chapter 6 / PR Ethics and Responsibilities 155

to give priority to official sponsors, and athletes and coaches were not allowed to lend their images to marketing without prior approval from Olympics officials.32 However, GlaxoSmithKline and market- ers of other erectile-dysfunction drugs, including Pfizer’s Viagra and EH Lilly & Co.’s Cialis, have been criticized over the past decade for airing TV commercials with sexually suggestive themes and explicit discussions of potential side effects during times when children may be watching. The outcry has occasionally prompted politicians to propose bans on such ads.33

Such advertisements may at least be direct, but what about subliminal advertising? Subliminal adver- tising comes up for discussion from time to time, often in a classroom setting. Books have been written on the subject. However, most social scientists dis- count the effectiveness of such advertising, and mass media gatekeepers (advertising directors in par- ticular) deny that such ads, if submitted, would be published. Nevertheless, subliminal suggestion is possible. You can buy tapes that supposedly help you learn while you sleep, relax or are otherwise occupied. The eye can physically detect and relay to the subconscious symbols (words and art) that the conscious mind doesn’t react to at the time. But it is unlikely that subliminal advertising is created on any significant scale, much less that it abounds.

Responsibility in advertising also extends to the agencies involved in developing the campaigns and in buying time and space.

The harshest critics of advertising say stimulating people to buy what they do not need or to buy some- thing instead of spending or saving prudendy is also unethical. These kinds of choices, though, seem to be a permanent feature of the free marketplace.

legally that the public might fail to distinguish between your design and the thinly disguised copied one. For instance, the symbol of the famous Texas Boys Choir, a silhouetted choirboy in bowtie holding an open music book, was appropriated by a civic girls’ chorus. In the altered design, the choirboy’s ears were covered with shoulder-length hair and the pants legs were filled in to resemble a skirt. A copyright authority stated that the changes were suf- ficient to prevent a suit. The alternative was simply for the Boys Choir to stop using the symbol it had created, which it did for several years until the other group’s use of it declined.

If you are watchful, you can find numerous exam- ples of close copies, especially with logos or creative advertising concepts and designs. Packaging similari- ties are found in crayons (green and yellow box with old-fashioned lettering), in bleaches (white plastic container with predominantly blue label) and corn chips (red and yellow packaging)—all prompted by imitation of very successful brand-name products.

Trade names are also legally entitled to protec- tion, but this often becomes virtually impossible to enforce when they fall into generic use, such as Klee- nex, Band-Aid and Xerox.

Protecting the Consumer Efforts to protect the consumer cover a wide range of areas, but we will focus on three: products, politics and promotions.

Products A PR person should warn a client when his or her product is being erroneously confused with another (thus violating consumer confidence) or when the product itself is creating a consumer problem.

Criticized for using the cartoon character Joe Camel to sell cigarettes, RJR Nabisco launched an educational campaign advising children not to try the product until they were old enough to make a “mature” decision about smoking. The company refused to stop using its popular character (which has high recognition and appeal among youngsters) in advertisements until legally compelled to do so.

Constrained at home, U.S. tobacco companies are moving abroad to increase sales where restrictions are considerably fewer. The question this effort raises is how responsible is this? In addition to the health risks, other countries complain about the well- financed campaigns that compete with their own

Protecting the Client Just as a client’s name should be respected, so should its rights to a trademark, logo and trade name. Pro- tecting these forms of property can be difficult. For one thing, only the name of the specific design may be protected; there is no law against stealing general ideas. This may explain the similarities often found in symbols, names and even in advertising ideas.

The only recompense for a copied idea is the real- ization that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If your trademark or logo is copied, you may be able to sue for damages, but only if the precise design is used. In general, it does not make any difference

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

156 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

national products and actually are more pervasive in their exposure than their companies can afford to be.

The impact of media content, editorial and adver- tising, cannot be underestimated. For example, cor- porate advertising when a company is in litigation can cause legal problems, as discussed in Chapter 8 under litigation journalism, but it also can raise ethi- cal issues. For example, when Dow Chemical was going on trial in New Orleans over silicon breast implants, Dow began running ads on TV and radio playing up its corporate citizenship. One spot was placed by a nonprofit organization. A little girl was shown with a life-saving silicone shunt in her brain, and her mother says, “Silicone is not the problem. The personal-injury lawyers and their greed is the problem.” A New Orleans attorney for the breast implant plaintiffs accused Dow of trying to influence the jury, but the state judge refused to take any action against the company. 4 Product placement is all around us, for example, the clearly identifiable automobiles in the movies Iron Man and Sex and the City. However, such product placement can be inap- propriate in some circumstances, for example, food makers are facing growing criticism over their role in childhood obesity and are exploring voluntary restrictions to reduce product placement in television shows that target children, the use of licensed char- acters in advertising and packaging and “advergam- ing,” the practice of promoting candy, soft drinks and cereals on online games.33

Mars stopped airing its controversial 2007 Super Bowl ad after complaints by the Gay and Lesbian Alli- ance Against Defamation condemned it as antigay. Produced by Omnicom Group Inc.’s TBWA/Chiat/ Day, the ad showed two mechanics eating from oppo- site ends of a Snickers candy bar until their lips touched. They then ripped out their chest hair to “do something manly.” Mars canceled an elaborate follow-up for the spot. A General Motors Super Bowl ad showing a robot envisioning leaping from a bridge was also harshly criticized for its trite depiction of suicide.36 “Guerrilla marketing” suffered a setback at about the same time when a stunt caused a bomb scare in Boston, where subway, river and highway traf- fic was halted and thousands of people were frightened by 40 blinking boxes promoting the “Aqua Teen Hun- ger Force” television show. These boxes had been placed near bridges, depots and other locations.

Most publications adhere to standards of ethical behavior, and these standards may also cover their ability to reject advertising that they see as offensive

or objectionable. Standards of ethical behavior in advertising are set forth in the advertising profes- sion’s own code and in an elaborate two-tiered mechanism to deal with truth and accuracy in national advertising—although, of course, there is nothing to prevent those who do not subscribe to it from plying their trade. But even if advertisers ignore their own code, the media may provide the restraint— at least in matters of taste.

Polities The Internet has yet to yield to any mean- ingful or far-reaching legal restraints, although tracking in recent years has been getting increasing scrutiny as users become concerned about basic pri- vacy issues. However, legal and ethical issues are more stringent on intranets, those internal computer systems within organizations.

The California Supreme Court was asked in 2002 to hear the case concerning Intel Corporation and Ken Hamidi, who was fired in 1995. The issue was whether Hamidi was trespassing electronically or simply using his right of free speech. In addition to dressing like a cowboy and going on horseback to distribute printed versions of his messages to employees entering the company’s Folsom, Calif., facility, he also spent two years criticizing the com- pany in emails that he sent to thousands of his for- mer co-workers.38

What are the ethical issues here? What about harassment, hate speech and such? The Internet cul- ture is fiercely protective of freedom of expression, but intranets are another issue.

The digital age has created another monster of sorts in new televised political ads as well as political content in the new social media, the latter by blog- gers and other content providers exploiting the by-and-large unregulated Internet. Some standard techniques accepted in commercial ads such as speeded up or slowed down motion or sound can be devastating in political advertising, of course. But particularly damaging can be the misuse of the new social media. Presidential candidate Barack Obama used a dedicated website, Fightthesmears.com, not only to disprove rumors, but to actually track down those spreading them.39

Broadcast stations historically had less flexibility in rejecting political advertising because of the equal-time provision. This provision appeared in the 1934 Broadcast Act through the incorporation of language from the 1927 Radio Act stating that if a licensee permits any person who is a legally

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Chapter 6 / PR Ethics and Responsibilities 157

qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station, the licensee has to give equal opportunity to all other such candidates. Further- more, the licensee (broadcast station) has no power of censorship over the material broadcast. This stip- ulation was regarded somewhat ruefully by Adanta, Ga., broadcasters, who in 1974 had taken the adver- tising of one political candidate and then, under FCC regulations, had to accept the spots of his opponent, Democratic candidate J. B. Stoner. Stoner’s taped messages said: “I am the only candidate for the U.S. Senate for white people. The main reason why niggers want integration is that niggers want our white women. I am for law and order. You can’t have law and order and niggers.” The messages, broadcast over radio station WPLO and WSB-TV, evoked a deluge of protesting phone calls, but the spots ran for a week anyway.

The equal-time provision was amended in 1959 by the fairness doctrine, which stated that legally qual- ified candidates can appear on bona fide newscasts, news interviews, news documentaries or on-the-spot coverage of news events without the licensee having to provide equal time to opposing candidates. But another clause proved more difficult to interpret: Because stations are supposed to operate in the pub- lic interest, they must afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views on issues of public importance. The fairness doctrine had been interpreted to include advertising as well as program content and was the basis on which two networks, ABC and CBS, refused Mobil’s explanatory advertis- ing on the 1970s energy crisis.

The FCC discontinued the fairness doctrine in 1987. Print media supported the broadcasters in their effort to get rid of the requirement Congress then tried to enact the fairness doctrine as law, but the bill was vetoed by President Reagan.

The problem for public relations people involved in politics is that people tend to see all campaigns as “public relations” efforts, regardless of who actually runs them. The campaign for a risky candidate usu- ally involves strict control of exposure, limited access to media and voters, no discussion of issues or phi- losophy of governance and as much television com- mercial time as available money allows. The unfortunate consequence of the last feature is that only candidates who have money or the ability to raise it can even compete. This narrows the field.

During an election campaign period—which now lasts at least a year, and sometimes extends to 18

months or longer—the “public relations” tactics employed by various candidates arouse a great deal of resentment toward public relations practice in general. In fact, however, many political election campaigns are not handled by mainstream PR prac- titioners, who adhere to the highest standards of pro- fessional practice. There may be several reasons for this.

First, if the PR practitioner is a member of PRSA, he or she should comply with specific standards gov- erning the practice of public relations. Unfortu- nately, everything that goes on in a political race is called “public relations.” Public relations counselors now find themselves wondering how to deal with the problem of negative campaigning itself, the popular perception that public relations people are responsi- ble for it and the notion that these are “legitimate” public relations practices. Another worthwhile item to put on the agenda might be an effort to make individuals who hold the nation’s top public relations jobs (such as press secretaries) accountable to a code of professional practice, a need evidenced by the issues raised by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan in his 2008 book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception.

Promotions Most promotions are part of a larger campaign, and in some cases are highly creative and engaging. In late 2007, CBS Corp. promoted a real- life version of the puzzle “Chain Factor,” which had been featured during an episode of the television show Numbers, in which participants spent hours on the Web and on the streets searching for clues that would help them solve a complex puzzle. Work- ing collaboratively, players shared clues on an online forum. The goal with such scavenger-hunt games is to build buzz among an audience. Other games have been affiliated with ABC’s Lost and CBS’s Jericho- 40 Are any misuses of such promotions possible or likely, for example, such as the panic that Boston experienced in the guerrilla marketing example cited earlier in this chapter? Drug makers’ “direct- to-consumer” advertising remains both popular and controversial. Evidence suggests such advertising of prescription drugs increases sales and helps to avert underuse of medicines but leads to potential overuse. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been criticized for weak enforcement of laws regulating this advertising. Spending on direct-to-consumer advertising has continued to increase in recent years

Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice158

despite such criticisms.41 “Direct-to-consumer ads often portray drugs through rose-colored glasses by including more information about a drug’s benefits than risks,” said American Medical Association (AMA) President-Elect Dr. Nancy Nielsen.42

Some promotions are deceptive because they are personalized. An advertising tear sheet arrives with what appears to be a handwritten sticky note attached that says something like the one that came to one of the authors of this textbook: “Douglas, Try this, it works! Y.” The signature could have been a “T.” In any case, it was attached to an ad about mak- ing speeches. As it turns out, the “signature” must have been a “J” because James Durham, who was director of business development for the law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris & Glovsky, sent his sec- ond email in two years to members of the firm explaining that he is not the “J” on the sticky note that had people calling him from all over the coun- try, asking him if they really should buy the book that was being recommended on the sticky note. Pre- sumably it was a book about law or some legal issue. In any case, the Better Business Bureau of Washington, D.C., has issued a cease and desist order to the Georgetown Publishing House respon- sible for this promotion.43

Another deceptive promotion practice is to blur advertising and editorial photographic formats, some- thing increasingly common in magazines, where prod- uct advertising seems to enjoy making a mystery of what is being offered for sale. These single documentary-like photos, or photo essays in some cases, simply show the photos and the advertiser’s logo, often in a very subtle presentation. Preliminary research shows these to be more memorable, a key fac- tor in advertising. But is this ethical?44

The challenge for public relations practitioners involved in promotions is to test their own value sys- tems for what they are advocating. A critical issue lies beyond that: Is it responsible?

referred to a legend several pages later that indicated the story was placed by a beer brewers’ association, an effort in transparency that nevertheless was greater than perhaps many editorial placements in media throughout the world. Critics question the ethics of having news appear in the mass media pre- cisely in the form submitted by a PR person. They feel that PR-originated news should carry some identifying label to alert the reader or viewer. Many PR and media people regard this as impractical and (for different reasons) undesirable. They argue that it is the job of newspeople to know the source of the information they use and to employ discrimination and good editorial judgment about what to dissemi- nate and whether to include attribution.

PR as a Source The relationship between PR people and newspeople is rarely the kind of contest in which the PR practi- tioner plots to sneak misleading or nonnewsworthy material into print, and the reporter tries to “get” the PR practitioner’s client. Publicity is supposed to facil- itate the news-gathering process. PR people expect newspeople to regard news releases critically and to use or not use the news releases at their own discre- tion. The release can be rewritten, incorporated with other materials, or not used at the time and used at a later date, sometimes in an unflattering way that is not so helpful. That is part of the risk in being a source.

The same is true of video news releases, although some people have accused public relations people of deceiving the public. Video news releases go to news directors who can decide, the same as any other newsperson, what, if any, should be used. The television station can, and often does, identify the footage they use as supplied by a company or orga- nization. But the practice is seen as deceptive because many people may not realize that public relations people are the source for some of the information.45 In summer 2005, PRSA responded to the FCC’s call for a review of existing rules and regulations regard- ing prepackaged news materials involving financial or promotional considerations for broadcasters who aired them and those involving “controversial” or “political” subjects. The FCC inquiry was in response to instances in 2004 in which some broad- casters aired government-sponsored VNRs on con- troversial presidential initiatives without identifying the source of the materials. Then, PRSA president

Responsibility in Publicity

The ethical question of when and how to acknowl- edge the PR source of news is extremely important. In 2007, one Russian newspaper published an article claiming that drinking beer was good for consumers, news that probably was met with joy by many read- ers. However, a tiny icon at the end of the story

Chapter 6 / PR Ethics and Responsibilities 159

Judith Phair argued that most VNRs and other pre- packaged materials were, in fact, being clearly labeled when they were delivered to broadcast organizations and that the FCC inquiry as well as legislative initia- tives in Congress were in response to a “procedural breakdown” in which identifying labeling had been removed when materials were distributed by a net- work to local affiliates.46

Complaints sometimes are legitimate. For exam- ple, a content analysis of tobacco industry informa- tion in two children’s publications, Weekly Reader and Scholastic News, showed that the industry’s view- point predominated in Weekly Reader, as did coverage about the issue whether smokers’ rights and that the new tax and smoking laws were unfair.47 It is reason- able to question why the industry tried to place stor- ies in either children’s publication. And what was the responsibility of the editors in presenting what some parents said was unbalanced coverage of news that involves a product that is a health risk for children?

One deceptive publicity practice that has invaded the magazine field (coming perhaps from small news- papers) involves specialized magazines and is relatively transparent. A company that buys an elaborate ad— always four-color, usually doubletruck (two pages side by side), and sometimes with a foldout—is almost always featured in an article with several pictures in the same issue. Sometimes, the article carries no byline. When it does, the professional identity of the writers is seldom disclosed. In all likelihood, the wri- ters are publicists for the advertisers. In one case, an aviation magazine that carried a prominent four-color advertisement for an airplane manufacturer’s new model also published an illustrated four-page article on the plane and gave it the cover.

Some magazines that compete with commercial publications for readership and advertising are actu- ally public relations tools themselves. Among these are American Express’s publications Travel and Lei- sure and Departures. Ford Times was published from 1908 until January 1993.

Although professional communicators express concern over the lack of a clear division between news and advertising copy, the public seldom seems to give it a thought. Study after study has indicated attention to content, with little understanding of the difference between commercial content and editorial content. Or perhaps, this just shows an advanced level of calloused disbelief.

World Wide Web pages further blur the lines between advertising and publicity. Many organizations

use their Web page to post news releases, illustrate information with pages such as financial charts, show pictures, engage Web surfers with games, offer oppor- tunities for questions to be asked and give information about new products, services or promotions. Of course, there’s no deception in that, because anyone logging onto the organization’s page will know the source of the information. Problems begin when others use the information there too, such as news- people. Whether or not they credit the source is their responsibility.

A phenomenon to which public relations practi- tioners must pay increasing attention, to the point where it has become a major resource for monitoring issues that cannot be ignored by practitioners, is that of Web logs, known as blogs. Easy for anyone to orig- inate, develop and maintain, blogs are used not only by traditional mass media, such as newspapers whose reporters engage in dialogue with readers, but also by private individuals who record their thoughts and seek feedback about any interest or obsession. Many thou- sands of these blogs already exist, and new ones are being introduced on the World Wide Web each day. Although some blogs might go virtually unread, many have developed large readership and participation. Incorrect information and unfavorable opinions toward public relations practitioners’ organizations, together with search engines that are greatly improved in identifying these blogs, mean that practi- tioners must realize that blogs can be far more influ- ential than just one person’s unread opinion.

Art/Photos The digital world offers opportunities in terms of photos and art, but these opportunities can pose eth- ical issues. It’s not that pictures haven’t been manip- ulated before. Certainly, they have, but now it’s easier to do and more difficult to detect. Some orga- nizations have published standards for altering imag- ery, but others will do anything that’s effective. People in fashion may improve a model’s physical characteristics; political ads have used morphing (showing a candidate turn into someone else); and news media have altered images to emphasize a point or get a laugh 48

News organizations have different standards, just like other organizations, for what they will and won’t change, and if National Geographic will move the pyr- amids closer together for a good cover, then what can you expect? Photo fiction is likely to continue,

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and that expectation has led the photography profes- sion to suggest some way to keep its credibility by telling people when an image has been manipu- lated. 9 The trouble is, not everyone will. The amount of photo manipulation that had been con- nected to the O. J. Simpson 1995 trial for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman is a good indication that it won’t—everything from the bruises on Nicole Brown Simpson’s face to the unflattering Time magazine cover of O. J. Simpson. Using photo illustrations or digitally enhanced images of any kind calls for the viewer to interpret the symbolic intent instead of accepting it as real- ity.50 That may not always occur. When it doesn’t, the viewer is deceived.

filming, for travel editors to the opening of a new resort hotel or amusement park, for fashion editors to the site where a new line (cosmetics, shoes, sports- wear, anything) is being introduced or for real estate editors to the opening of a new luxury development in a remote area. Critics charge that such junkets amount to the purchasing of editorial talent. Many PR practi- tioners see nothing wrong with them, however, par- ticularly because there is no control over what the wined-and-dined reporters write. And most practi- tioners use a careful screening process to separate the professionals from the freeloaders. Sometimes, a strict publication will allow its reporter to go, but will insist on paying for the transportation and accommo- dations. Others permit these items to be paid for if the reporter acknowledges the fact in his or her copy. Still others permit reporters to accept trip packages because they believe the gratuities will not affect how the reporters handle the story. Increasingly, bloggers are being invited on these junkets.

Many newspapers don’t accept stories from subsi- dized trips. A lot of newspapers have a don’t ask, don’t tell policy about subsidies. Magazines may be less stringent in their policies, although Conde Nast Traveler and Travel & Leisure are among those with strict no-subsidies policies. They pay for their re- porters’ travel.32

Broadcasters appear to have more flexibility, espe- cially in situations where it’s clear to the viewer that the resort area featured in the travelogue obviously cooperated in the production. Features of this type are usually broadcast on special channels or in quasi- commercial programming. But how do these TV magazine format features differ from newspaper travel sections?

The Society of Business Writers was the first to respond to this problem. It adopted a code of ethics that specifically oudaws junkets and “freebies.” A member may not accept any special treatment or any gift of more than token value; all out-of-town travel must be paid for by the writer’s employer. Other professional journalism organizations followed suit, as did individual newspaper corporations. Most publications had already prohibited outright gifts to their editorial staff members, either direcdy or through people in their own advertising depart- ments. Some specialized publications, though, such as Car and Driver, ended staff freebies only in 1991.

There is another side to this, though. Public offi- cials are also on PR gift lists. Many companies have certain public officials they want remembered and

Money Matters What happens when you, as a publicity writer, have a story accepted by a publication? Are you entitled to compensation for the story or pictures? No! Public- ity is free; magazine editors know it and won’t offer payment. Many will give you a byline, and some will identify you as a guest writer in that issue. But make sure your identification as the writer indicates your relationship to the organization or other client about which you are writing.

The PRSA Member Code of Ethics 2000 guide- lines say a member shall “preserve the integrity of the process of communication” and “preserve the free flow of unprejudiced information when giving or receiving gifts by ensuring that gifts are nominal, legal, and infrequent.”51

What if a magazine staff writer writes a story sug- gested by a PR firm and allows her or his expenses to be paid by the firm? What if the writer accepts a fee as well as expenses from the firm? The ethical prob- lem here is not only that the magazine staffer is “on the take,” but also that the PR people are inducing the misconduct. It is permissible for a public rela- tions practitioner to suggest a story to a publication, and if the idea is accepted and a writer assigned, the practitioner may make arrangements for accommo- dations and may see that all expenses involved in get- ting information for the story are covered. Almost all publications permit such arrangements on expenses, but many want to pay for transportation and accom- modations themselves. Some are flexible about the accommodations.

Criticism remains about junkets—all-expenses-paid excursions for movie reviewers to the location of a

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tell their PR person to “ buy something.” Many city, county and state governments have strict regula- tions about what public officials may accept, but just as many don’t. Common prudence suggests that all gifts should be “token ” rather than substan- tial. One executive who shops the catalogs every year for gifts to suggest to his clients offers this rule of thumb: “When I choose something, I always think, how would I feel if I suddenly saw this on the 6 p.m. news? That curbs my buying sprees considerably.”

Another kind of remuneration—one that inflates the ego as well as the pocketbook—is the awarding of prizes, and this affects both press and public offi- cials. Does a reporter embark on a series about arthritis to enlighten the newspaper’s readers or to increase the writer’s chances for tangible recognition from the Arthritis Foundation? Does a local televi- sion station do a documentary on possible fire hazards during the summer to warn its viewers or to receive recognition from the Firefighters Associa- tion? Does a network choose its documentary for overriding public interest or a chance to win an Emmy or Peabody? Does an ambitious lawyer offer to head the local symphony drive for the arts out of love of music or because her eye is on a civic club’s annual outstanding citizen award? Commercial as well as nonprofit institutions engage in these incen- tive programs, but these seem to meet with greater editorial acceptance than junkets, even though many awards are cash prizes.

A more blatant type of remuneration is the moon- lighting that some reporters and photographers do at part-time publicity jobs. Although most media executives do not condone the practice, few actively try to stop it. As one newspaper’s photo chief said, “Are you kidding? All my good people would quit. They can’t live on what this paper pays them.” Nev- ertheless, there are all sorts of ethical ramifications. For instance, does a feature photo taken by a pho- tographer working part-time for a public relations department get published in the community newspa- per because of her favored status as a full-time news photographer for that publication?

Favor can also be shown by PR people in the gifts their organizations make to nonprofits. Public rela- tions people often control more than their own departmental budgets. Generally, the corporation’s investments in the community—gifts to civic, social, even national organizations—are within the control of the PR department. This is especially true of

national organizations to whom the company gives its support. These relationships are scrutinized by special interest groups that monitor such gifts to ensure that minorities and other disadvantaged groups are not excluded. Their reviews can also put an institution in a bad position if its funds go to groups that do exclude minorities, that practice dis- crimination or that have labor policies that could be criticized as unfair.

Public relations practitioners are accustomed to providing for the media, but usually on a temporary basis. The situation is different for public affairs offi- cers in government. In 1978, attention became focused on the facilities provided for news media in public places (government centers), such as court- houses and state capitols. In many of these places, free parking spaces, a paging system and a complete writing facility with desks, typewriters, telephones and even attendants were provided. The taxpayer was picking up the tab, of course. Much of the furor over such perquisites (“perks”) originated in the Washington, D.C., news media’s criticism and exposure of congressional perks. Suddenly, govern- ment perks for reporters came under scrutiny every- where, much to the consternation of some government people hired to handle the news media. When the reporters moved out, the working rela- tionships of these staffs with the news media became a lot more complicated. However, news agencies could preserve their integrity by paying rent for the facilities and furnishings.

Some state governments, whose constitutions required them to provide the media with free space and prevented reimbursement, found themselves in a bind. However, few people working in the public relations role for government saw the facilities issue as a threat to the free press system, and several pointed to an observation made by some newspeople themselves—that lack of facilities really inhibited news coverage. The bigger organizations could afford to foot the bill, but some of the smaller media, whose reporters tend to look carefully at what their constituents’ representatives are doing, were forced to abandon coverage and use the more general wire-service copy.

PACs: Political Action Committees Political Action Committees (PACs) PACs are clearly identifiable legal organizations registered and incor- porated in states to raise money for politicians whom

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they favor. The corporate political war chests they command are sizable, but are regulated at both the state and federal levels. PACs are also developed by unions and by activist groups ranging from antiabor- tionists to homosexuals. Most states require that PACs maintain public records of their names, affilia- tions and assets and the names of those who make donations to them above a given amount. However, in some cases the information is not easy to get. Pub- lic relations ethical questions arise over how the money is raised (through pressure put on employees, for example), how the money is spent (on political candidates who may not behave in the best interests of society), how much information is made public about the institution’s PAC and whom it supports. Although big business and big labor dominate PAC activity, many professional and trade associations are also involved. These institutions defend their right to bankroll the candidates they feel will support them most staunchly when in office. Critics of PACs insist that they invite abuse of the electoral process.

other than newsworthiness influence placement of public relations practitioner-generated news releases.

However, media extortion of public relations practitioners does occur regularly worldwide. Public relations practitioners must pay “bribes” if they want their news releases to be disseminated in many con- sumer news media, despite the obvious or apparent newsworthiness of these subsidies. Such solicitation oftentimes comes from journalists who are suppos- edly unbiased and neutral in their role as “gate- keepers”; that is, these journalists promote the illusion among consumers of the news they package that relative newsworthiness is the sole criterion for placement of editorial content into their consumer news media.

The Public's Right to Know The media’s right to know is related to the public’s right to information. The 1966 Freedom of Informa- tion Act, together with its several amendments, including the “Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996,” has given individuals access to certain types of information, and the media derive their right to that information from the public’s right. The act, however, protects certain kinds of information from public exposure. Information that the government believes is important to national security remains confidential, as does information that pertains to ongoing criminal investigations, although much sensitive information has been released in the recent past by WikiLeaks. Of course, the FOIA has nothing to do with financial and com- mercial information generated by private sources. Other state and local regulations, such as the open- meeting and public record laws, also protect certain kinds of information. Governmental bodies still have the right to discuss such things as collective bargain- ing and certain personnel matters in executive session.

Although some information remains hidden from the media, some critics believe that the media are now privy to too much information. Other critics maintain that the media do not treat privileged infor- mation with sufficient discretion or respect.

Many problems that the news media encounter are attributable to the fact that we as a public do not agree on what we want or need to know. We do not agree because our basis for deciding what we want to know is part of individual value systems; because we have different value systems, complete

News Media and Political PR Politicians and the news media are natural adversar- ies. The cause for conflict, as journalism educator William Blankenburg identifies it, is that “undefin- able thing called news that mixes two combustibles, timely disclosure and objective truth, one of which is chaotic and the other coercive, lem with unauthorized information is that its release would make certain individuals in positions of authority look bad. The PR person is always suspect and therefore occupies a high-tension spot. The ten- sion is heightened by the way public officials use the news media and vice versa.

In international PR practice, media play by differ- ent rules. Demand for payment to disseminate news releases has been coined zakazukha, a Russian slang word that can be translated as “pay-for-publicity.” However, Russian journalists and their newspapers who participate in this practice have many counter- parts elsewhere throughout the world. Public relations practitioners and their clients do not wish to pay bribes that are solicited or demanded by news media to ensure the dissemination of news releases that pub- lic relations practitioners feel have value to the con- sumers of news media. Professional public relations practitioners believe that news releases placed in con- sumer news media should have “newsworthiness.” In many countries throughout the world, no factors

»53 Often, the prob-

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agreement appears to be impossible. Nevertheless, the law says we have a right to know everything that does not invade an individual’s privacy—and the privacy of public figures in some instances— and that information should be available as long as it does not violate laws, such as libel and protected trade secrets and privacy for public figures such as Tiger Woods, David Letterman, ex-presidential can- didate John Edwards and former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford will readily attest.

The limits on these two crucial freedoms—to be informed and to be left alone—have been set, but they continue to evolve in court cases, because these rights come with obligations. The news media are not the only ones who fail to uphold their obli- gations to tell the public what they need to know in order to make rational decisions. In the past, the commercial sector has often withheld health and safety information from consumers and employees. Additional examples continue to come to light.

children through breast-feeding. Another large company said it also would donate. But UNICEF refused to approve the gifts because it didn’t want to endorse an industry it had long accused of abu- sive practices in developing countries. Haunting the good intentions of the formula makers was the dis- trust that had developed between them and UNI- CEF since the 1970s when Nestle and other formula makers routinely used advertising in devel- oping countries that featured fat formula-fed babies and gave out free samples in maternity wards to attract new mothers to the product. By the time the free formula was consumed, women’s own breast milk had usually dried up. Few could afford to purchase the formula, and those who could diluted it to make it last longer—sometimes, starv- ing their babies in the process. In protest, activists organized a worldwide boycott of Nestle products, and UNICEF refused to accept cash donations from the big formula makers.55

Promotions and Public Opinion McDonald’s suffered not only global embarrass- ment, but also litigation, because its U.S. French fries still contained flavoring from beef fat, a tre- mendous offense to some of McDonald’s 43 million daily customers in the USA. A Seattle, Wash., Hindu brought a multimillion dollar legal action against the fast-food chain, accusing McDonald’s of misleading customers in the USA. He started eating the French fries only after McDonald’s announced in 1990 that it had started cooking its fries in vegetable oil rather than beef fat. A co- plaintiff from Los Angeles said, “I have made a vow to God not to eat meat, fish or eggs.” Even though beef fat is not used in India to make French fries, in Delhi, the McDonald’s restaurants had win- dows smashed and statues of Ronald McDonald smeared with dung. Some politicians called for the company to be expelled from the country.54

In what is considered a classic public relations case study, the issue of whether and how infant formula should be made available to poor African mothers pitted the United Nations and its member agency United Nations Children’s Fund (UNI- CEF), which is charged with protecting the inter- ests of children, against the $3 billion infant formula industry. One major formula maker said it was ready to donate tons of free formula to HIV- infected women, who can give AIDS to their

Individual Responsibilities

Ethical performance amounts to doing what’s right to preserve your integrity, in accordance with your value system. But values are culture-bound, which is why difficulties often arise across cultures. In the USA, honesty is valued, but it isn’t rewarded very well. As any “whistleblower” can tell you, there’s not much reward for ethical behavior. (Whistleblowers are individuals who call public attention to problems within their own industry, business or organization. As a result of their revelations, they often lose their jobs and have trouble finding other employment. Women and minorities who file antidiscrimination lawsuits often encounter the same difficulties, even when they “win.”)

Individual Decisions Two writers for the Harvard Business Review, seeking to test the hypothesis that “honesty pays,” found the opposite to be true. Their study led them to conclude that “power can be an effective substitute for trust.” According to these researchers, “Trustworthy behav- ior does provide protection against the loss of power and against invisible sniping. But these protections are intangible, and their dollars-and-cents value does not make a compelling case for trustworthiness.”

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Then, why be trustworthy? The authors say, “Only our individual wills, our determination to do what is right, whether or not it is profitable, save us from choosing between chaos and stagnation.”56

There may be faint comfort in that. These wri- ters’ research suggests that conscientious public rela- tions practitioners must attempt to function ethically and responsibly in settings where a different culture may support different values, in a larger society in the USA that lauds ethical behavior but seldom rewards it, and in situations where others are using entirely different standards reflecting divergent underlying values. In fact, the student views dis- cussed earlier in this chapter may signal that values in American society are changing.

There may be a difference between ethical deci- sions and what Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr., calls a “defin- ing moment.” Ethical decisions, he says, are between right and wrong, while defining moments present choices between two ideals in which we deeply believe, and have no truly “correct” answer. However, the way these decisions are made over a period of time defines one’s character. The question “Who am I?” can be a corporate one, “Who are we? ” The answer is in the values of the organization, which is why most organi- zations faced with a difficult decision go to their mis- sion statements for guidance.57

What many public relations professionals do is turn to their codes of ethics or standards of behavior. The problem is that these are often seen as self- serving. The problem for public relations profes- sionals is that they must uphold not only their own code, but the codes of news media. These codes are a form of self-policing, so they are not infallible. But what efforts to be responsible in all relationships do is establish a level of trust.

submitted to be exclusives. A magazine editor who finds the same or a similar story in another magazine will never trust you again.

A story issued in printed form “for general release” notifies an editor that other news media have the story. However, a story marked, for exam- ple, “Special to the Charlotte Observer” should be just that. No other news medium in that circulation area should receive the story. (If you do send it to other newspapers, you should let the editor know.) The quickest way to destroy your welcome in the news- room is to plant the same story all over the place. Even if the same story is given to the morning and evening editions of the same newspaper, you are in trouble. Each deserves different stories with different approaches. The best way to do this is to take sepa- rate stories to one person at each newspaper. Decide where each story would most appropriately appear or who on the paper would most likely be interested. If it is a column item and more than one newspaper is involved, you should determine which columnist would be most likely to use the piece and plant it there—only there.

News media should also be able to trust you to have cleared publicity pictures submitted to them by securing a release from those who posed. They should also be able to trust you to protect them from copyright complications and libel and lottery laws that can be violated in publicity copy.

When you supply news to the media, you are bound, ethically and morally, just as they are, by the codes to which their members subscribe. By the same token, the news media owe public relations practi- tioners a responsibility to honor agreed-upon release dates and times (so-called “embargoed” releases). Most do. If a story appears in the media earlier than was requested, try to discover why. Often, it is an accident. However, if a publication frequently has “accidents,” don’t give future stories to that publica- tion until there is no jeopardy to your client. Do this quietly, without any warning and certainly without threats. It won’t take the publication long to figure out what is happening and why.

Crisis situations are the most trying for relation- ships because both sides are under pressure and both sides are generally frustrated. Journalists accuse PR people of misrepresentation and covering up infor- mation. PR people accuse reporters of bias and inac- curacies. Part of the problem resides in how the “truth” appears to each side. PR commentator and practitioner David Finn has observed:

Reciprocal Trust An area of major importance in PR involves keeping confidences with the media and with other publics. For example, a reporter on the trail of a story deserves the exclusive he or she is ingenious enough to identify and develop. A PR practitioner should not pull the rug out by offering a general release before the reporter has had an opportunity to use the mate- rial. Also, a news medium has the right to expect a practitioner to be entirely aboveboard in offering information. Feature ideas, suggestions and pictures should be offered on an “exclusive use” basis. Cer- tainly, magazine editors expect stories and pictures

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One of the most disturbing discoveries public relations people can make about themselves is that learning “the facts” doesn’t always tell them what they should believe. As citizens and readers of newspapers and tele- vision viewers, they have opinions on as many things as anybody else.

But sometimes their convictions run counter to positions held by a client. Then they study “the facts” and listen to what their client’s experts have to say, and those passionate convictions become surprisingly less convincing. They see another point of view and find it more persuasive than they imagined.

The first time this happens, public relations people don’t mind admitting they might have been wrong. But when it happens again and again they begin to wonder whether any point of view can be supported by a given set of facts and a particular group of experts. And they fear that a lifetime of listening to all the experts who support their clients’ positions weakens their capacity to make independent judgments.5S

become more ethical or less ethical or remain about the same in their ethics from the time they begin their careers to the time they are senior-level practitioners? Why?

3. How can students prepare for ethical public relations practice? What types of education (for example, coursework) would be helpful? What types of other resources would be valuable to help you learn what is ethical public relations practice?

4. Who is ultimately ethically accountable for the ethical behavior of a corporation—the organiza- tion or its individual employees? Provide rea- sons to explain why you answered the way you did.

Points to Remember Ethics are founded on moral principles that are themselves grounded in effects. Judgments about an organization’s standing are made in three areas: ethics, social responsibility and financial responsibility. Ethics and responsibilities are public relations concerns on two levels. We have to consider the behavior of the individual practitioner and that of the institution she or he represents. Public rela- tions is often called the “conscience” of manage- ment, but can’t be if top management has none. Top management sets the ethical tone in an orga- nization, and the challenge for internal and exter- nal PR people is to guide those who hire them to responsible actions that are founded in integrity. Although extremely complex, the study of ethics falls into two broad categories: comparative ethics (sometimes called descriptive ethics), the pin-view of social scientists, and normative ethics, generally the domain of philosophers and theologians. Some hold decisions about what is right or wrong to be absolute; others say the situation is a factor. Part of the complexity in ethical decision making for public relations practitioners is that they are hired to be advocates; they play a role as educa- tors, but also as persuaders. Some “truths” are verifiable and commonly accepted, but others are actually perceptions. Fur- thermore, beliefs and personal values influence how “truth” is defined. Thus, ethics are insepara- ble from values.

The question of corruption of judgment is a seri- ous one for public relations people. Often, the heart of a dispute is not over facts but over the interpreta- tion of facts and over conflicting value systems. In these situations, the best guide for the PR person is to return to the formula for socially responsible pub- lic relations decision making. Who are the publics? What are the interests of each in the decision or sit- uation? How will an institution’s policy, position or action affect each of these publics? What social values are involved? What values are in conflict? What will the effects be? Can the effects be defended? The PR person who loses the perspective of his or her organization’s publics has foregone pub- lic responsibility and becomes the persuaded instead of the persuader.

Discussion Questions 1. From where do you think you have learned your

personal values that will help you to practice ethical public relations? From where have you learned your preprofessional values?

2. Can ethics be taught? Can practitioners know ethical behavior, that is, what is right and wrong in professional practice, but yet not prac- tice such behavior they know to be right? Explain your answer. Do you think practitioners

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Page’s management principles stress conducting public relations as if the whole company depended on it. It might, because the beliefs that publics hold in organizations validate their organizations’ existence. Responsibility has two facets: social and financial. People’s perception of how well an organization is fulfilling these gives the organization legitimacy. Social responsibility means producing sound products or reliable services that don’t threaten the environment, and it means contributing posi- tively to the social, political and economic health of society. It also means compensating employees fairly and treating them justly. Financial responsibility includes how the organi- zation interacts with investors and investment advisers. The fact that PR works to change people’s views causes the individual practitioner’s ethics to be closely intertwined with the organization’s social responsibility. Political PR people often find themselves caught in the middle of conflicts resulting from use of news media by public officials and vice versa. Conflicts often arise over interpretation of social and financial responsibility in a global setting. Most professional PR practitioners recognize that they and their organizations have ethical respon- sibilities to at least 10 publics: clients, news media, government agencies, educational institutions, consumers, stockholders and analysts, community, competitors, critics and other public relations practitioners. Ethical problems that must be resolved in public relations research include how to collect the data, how to accumulate and store information and how to use research. As a consenting agent of attitude change, you need to consider what you are trying to change, and you must ask whether the attitude change is one that will benefit the involved publics. Public relations practitioners are constrained in their efforts to influence management by at least four factors: (1) lack of access to management; (2) restraints on information collection; (3) road- blocks to dissemination of timely, accurate infor- mation; and (4) a narrow definition of the role of public relations. Of these, the first two pose the most serious problems.

Senior executives are sometimes accused of talk- ing about ethics but failing to follow through. Practitioners who see themselves as “team players” may be swept up in a bad ethical environ- ment and jeopardize their own credibility. To be a professional and maintain the standards embodied in a code of professional ethics often take courage, as well as a strong set of personal values. Ethical conflicts among multinational corpora- tions include issues of the status of women and children, hiring practices, job descriptions, condi- tions for promotion, treatment of animals and contracts or agreements with suppliers or the gov- ernment. Working directly for foreign govern- ments poses even more ethical questions. Responsibility in advertising and sponsorships includes assuming personal responsibility in pro- tecting the client and the customer regarding products and in political issues. The PRSA Member Code of Ethics 2000 focuses on conducting business in the public interest, dealing fairly with the public, adhering to stan- dards of accuracy and truth and not knowingly disseminating false and misleading information or corrupting the integrity of the channels of communication. Responsibility in publicity means being honest and faithful as a source of information, as a sup- plier of illustrations and as the finder of informa- tion and space or other considerations. The problem for public relations people involved in politics is that people tend to see all campaigns as “public relations” efforts, regardless of who actually runs them. Increasing criticism has been voiced about junkets—all-expenses-paid excursions for movie reviewers, travel editors, fashion editors and real estate editors. Political action committees (PACs) are clearly identifiable, legal organizations registered and incorporated in states to raise money for politi- cians whom they favor. The media’s right to know is related to the pub- lic’s right to information. The Freedom of Infor- mation Act (FOIA) has given individuals access to certain types of information, and the media derive their right to that information from the public’s right.

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Promotions can have a significant impact on pub- lic opinion about the organization. Be sure the impact is a positive one. Ultimately, the ethical, responsible practice of public relations is a personal choice.

International Association of Business Communicators QABC) http://www.iabc.com

International Public Relations Association (IPRA) http://www.ipra.org/

National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) http://www.nspra.org/

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) http://www.prsa.org/

Radio-Television News Directors Association and Foundation (RTNDA) Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct http://www.rtnda.org/

Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) http://www.spj.org/

Other Related Websites to Review Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS)

http://www.cprs.ca Council of Public Relations Firms (CPRF)

http://www.prfirms.org/ Institute for Public Relations (IPR)

http://www.instituteforpr.org/

To understand the legal environments of PR practice. To be familiar enough with the law to stay within safe boundaries. To develop an appreciation for working with legal counsel. To be sensitive to the impact of litigation on public opinion.

ou are public relations director for a toy company that has its own line of electronic educational toys

with a very distinctive character called “cybercadet” used in the promotions. One of your staff members tells you that the local library in the city where your corporate headquarters is located is using the cybercadet figure on its Web page. Is this illegal? Should you talk with the corporate attorney about fifing a lawsuit?

As your PR firm’s account executive for a pharmaceutical company client, you are working on a competitive strategy to respond to another company’s new product. You learn that this product is expected to be approved soon by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). When that occurs, it will seriously challenge your client’s product. Your boss tells you to run your strategy by the client’s in-house attorney because that way it will be “privileged” information and thus not ever publicly disclosed. Is that the case?

You are the staff public relations practitioner for a school district that has just bought a new fleet of buses and vans in which to transport students. The manufacturer sends you some information about the safety of the buses and the adaptability of the vans for use with handicapped students. Your employer encourages you to put this in the school district’s newsletter. Is this a good idea? Would the school district be responsible if some safety problems later appeared?

Y The law is the last result of human wis- dom acting upon human experience for

the benefit of the public.

—Samuel Johnson , Miscellanies

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You’ve been asked to write a publicity release that downplays your organization’s financial crisis. Can you do that?

One of your clients spent a lot of money for a distinctive logo that you promoted with stories in the trade press describing its development. Now you find an advertisement in The Wall Street Journal for an organization with a logo very similar to that of your client’s. What can you do?

You’ve been asked to write the script for an infomercial (a program-length commercial) that mimics a talk show program to the extent of simulat- ing “commercial breaks.” You don’t know anything about the product or the doctor being “interviewed” on this infomercial—other than information your boss has given you. Should you write the script?

Your lawyer client calls to tell you that she’s just completed a week of special seminars and received a certificate. She wants to know if she can add the cer- tification to the letterhead of the stationery you helped design for her. What do you tell her?

You’re trying to create a full-page ad for a special newspaper section that will call attention to the annual outdoor sports event you handle.Thus, you need a photo of people attending an event that has yet to occur. Last year’s news coverage included a good picture of a couple inflating a raft. Can you use last year’s picture?

Your organization’s human resources person calls to ask if you have model releases for the pictures of employees used in the last magazine. One of those pictured doesn’t work for your organization anymore, and you don’t have a release. Is this a problem?

As the public relations director for a publicly held children’s book publisher, you oversee all of the pro- motional materials for the books as well as the corpo- rate publicity, advertising and promotions. The company has an investor relations manager who han- dles all of the financial news and the annual report, although you have helped him with that. He is going on a cruise and tells you that the news release about the second quarter earnings needs to be written while he is gone. He says the chief financial officer (CFO) has agreed to go over the earnings report with you when it is ready and will clear the news release once you’ve written it and send it for you. You agree to do that; it sounds simple. A week later, the CFO brings you the report and reviews it with you. You then write the release, which he approves and sends. That evening you have dinner with your brother, who is a financial analyst, and you tell him about your new experience. In doing so, you tell him

that the earnings were down, but the company had expected that because a new series of children’s travel books that was expected to do well has not. This is simply innocent dinner conversation, right?

These are all legal questions that PR practitioners in the USA encounter. While the laws governing what is and is not legal in PR vary from country to country, all countries have laws with which PR practitioners need to be familiar. Furthermore, because so much of PR practice is global today, although this chapter deals mostly with U.S. law, PR practitioners must know laws governing what they say and do in all coun- tries in which they are working. Because legal ques- tions sometimes catch you unaware, it’s wise to have a close working relationship with your organization’s attorney. Most public relations practitioners in inde- pendent practice have their own attorneys because the practice of public relations is a legal minefield. Some practitioners also carry malpractice insurance.

Globally, Internet-based issues have increased legal vulnerability by giving voice and thus power to individuals and groups. A 2010 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on the First Amendment allows all businesses, not just private ones, to support can- didates for public office. In effect, this gives corpo- rate lobbyists greater financial power over elected representatives and candidates for an elected office.

The Liabilities of Practicing PR

PR practitioners are more conscious than ever of their legal exposure, especially in three areas: (1) normal legal exposure, like that encountered by any other per- son, encompassing civil and criminal matters, includ- ing conspiracy; (2) work-oriented legal exposure, such as that found in the course of normal PR activities, including promotions, special events publicity and the handling of crises; (3) extraneous legal exposure, meaning everything from testifying as an expert wit- ness to getting sports event tickets for a client to lob- bying without registering as a lobbyist or reporting income and expenses from such activities. This third category also includes using the public relations office as a conduit for any sort of illegal activities, such as the locus for bribes or other illicit activities.1

Liabilities have increased with outsourcing and contracts with suppliers, especially when these are abroad. Organizations always have been responsible for anything done by their contract workers.

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The “work for hire” is considered the same as “in- house” work. If a photographer hired by the company failed to get permission to take someone’s picture, that always became the company’s responsibility once the photo was published. But now the photographer may be giving the picture to a PR boutique that is produc- ing the brochure, magazine or newsletter for the com- pany. The company is still responsible for the results, but monitoring the process is a lot more difficult.

PR consultant and educator Marian Huttenstine says public relations itself has its functional roots in com- mercial speech, advertising, traditional speech and the press, and, as a result, statutory and case law for public relations is constantly evolving in all of these areas.2

PR developed in the USA largely because of the country’s specific social, economic and political cli- mate, and the last of these depends heavily on con- stitutionally protected freedom of speech and of the press. Huttenstine notes that some of the laws gov- erning public relations practice would not be in place if First Amendment guarantees had not been found to apply to commercial speech.3

particularly for conspiracy. It is imperative, therefore, to understand the PR person’s legal standing as the agent of the client. As Morton Simon explains:

Whatever the PR practitioner does, he usually does by reason of his retainer by his client and in concert with the client. Joint or multiparty action is therefore almost indigenous to the PR function. This is the root of the conspiracy charge.4

Simon lists five situations in which a PR practi- tioner may be subjected to a conspiracy charge. These occur when the practitioner (1) participates in the illegal action; (2) counsels, guides and directs the policy behind it; (3) takes a large personal part in it; (4) sets up a propaganda agency to fight enemies of it; or (5) cooperates to further it.

A civil suit and a criminal prosecution can and often do grow out of the same legal situation. Protection from double jeopardy, being tried twice for essentially the same infraction, no longer covers defendants facing both civil and criminal action. In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that defendants who contend that they have already been sufficiently punished by a civil suit now must offer very clear proof that their civil penalty is the equivalent of a criminal penalty (see Hudson v. U.S.). When a company is fined in civil court it isn’t always likely that its executives will also face criminal action. However, parallel civil and criminal proceed- ings are becoming common because Congress has pro- vided for a number of different types of civil penalties in cases involving securities regulations, banking, envi- ronmental codes, government fraud and drug laws. The government may prosecute and try to impose reg- ulatory fines, order forfeiture of property or keep a company from doing business with certain entities.5

Legal Problems: Civil and Criminal Civil suits involving PR practitioners may occur in rela- tion to communication activities—for example, copy- right infringements—or physical activities, such as accidents during plant tours. In addition, the practi- tioner may incur statutory and administrative liability in connection with dealings with government adminis- trative agencies (SEC, FTC, FDA, ICC and others). A publicity release, for example, may violate SEC regulations, cause the company’s stock to be closed for trading and result in court action. A carelessly worded ad can result in fines and perhaps court action. The statu- tory responsibilities are substantial. Sometimes, a civil case results from failure to do something required as a matter of compliance (such as obligatory disclosure of certain information), rather than from doing something wrong—failing to disclose information, for example. Or it might be an entirely internal matter, such as a letter to employees advocating management’s position on a unionization effort. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) takes a dim view of persuasive commu- nications that sound coercive.

More so than ordinary citizens, PR practitioners are also exposed to many opportunities for criminal actions such as bribery, price fixing, mail fraud, securities manipulation and even perjury. To yield to these opportunities, however, is to risk criminal charges,

Legal Cases Simon suggests that PR practitioners are usually involved in four specific kinds of cases: the big case, the human interest case, the routine case and testi- mony. The big case, as he describes it:

[M]ay be antitrust action directed at [a company’s] entire marketing program, a labor relations hearing involving thousands of employees, suits involving product liability— especially those which deal with basic safety or acceptability of a product—minority stockholders’ actions charging mismanagement or fraud, and other litigation basic to the continued success of the company.6

172 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

Litigation Journalism/Public Relations Initially, the situation was one in which lawyers simultaneously acted as both lawyer and publicist/ spokesperson for their clients. Law firms now have their own public relations practitioners, and some have marketing staffs to promote the firm. Members of the law firm that engage in litigation PR often get very well known, but their law firms don’t. Some- times, the law firm with a really unpleasant case doesn’t want publicity, and that creates problems for their PR people who have to deal with the media in any event, regardless of what the law firm wants. Companies with their own attorneys may be involved in a case with an activist public in a situation where a lawsuit means guilty, whatever the outcome, especially in a crisis. There are also constraints on what the corporate lawyer can do without getting into trouble with the judge.

The New York School of Law advises, “No major corporate litigation should take place without con- sidering its public relations ramifications. The same goes for high profile criminal cases and celebrity cases.”8 The rationale is that strategic communica- tion is important before litigation begins and all of the way through the process because it can even influence prospective jurors as well as judges and lawmakers. This is particularly important for inter- national cases due to the ubiquity of global audiences on the Internet.

Prosecutors also have used litigation journalism. Thus, a case may be tried in the court of public opin- ion at the same time it is being tried in the courts. The consequence is a conflict between the First and Sixth Amendments, the latter of which protects a defendant’s right to a fair trial. Using public relations practitioners for high-profile cases is not new, but the joint practice by lawyers of public relations and law is.

With regard to civil suits, legal concerns have grown for PR practitioners in connection with what Marian Huttenstine calls the duty or legal obligation for clear and accurate communications, detrimental reliance (ill effects of depending upon someone to keep confidences), vicarious liability and respondeat superior (being responsible for the action of others) and fair use.9

Duty is the civil legal obligation to act in a way consistent with what might be expected of a “reason- able person,” as assessed by a judge or jury. Problems in this area generally have had to do with risks and

The human interest case may not involve much money, but by its nature it has a particular appeal to the news media. Simon lists the following examples:

[A] minor civil rights charge, a local zoning conflict, a right of privacy suit by a “glamour name,” air or water pollution charges, suits against a company by a retired employee seeking a large pension, and myriad other kinds of litigation which may concern either an individual or some community interest.

The routine types of litigation are commonplace results of being in business. They include actions for breach of contract, workmen’s compensation claims, tax refund issues, lawsuits filed against the company from any source, challenges by regulators and others. Even routine cases may involve public relations per- sonnel, such as developing strategies and message statements for stakeholders regarding the company’s position, drafting letters for different constituencies, preparing news releases for the website and distribu- tion, preparing and posting background on the issue for employees and/or scheduling and handling media conferences for executives. In these circumstances, the internal PR person has access to the corporate attor- ney. However, a PR person who owns a firm or works as a consultant is subject as such to a client’s commu- nication as well as to all the routine and normal potential litigation of being in a self-owned business.

Cases calling for a PR person’s testimony typically involve his or her participation in the company pro- gram at issue in the legal action or his or her status as an “expert” witness. These may vary from the very high profile, perhaps growing out of preparation of the company president’s statement before a congres- sional committee to the more mundane, perhaps aris- ing from suppfier claims for damages. Cases may also involve a client or a company executive accused of some illegal act

The potential now for any case to attract attention is due to the development of what once was called litigation journalism and later became litigation PR. Carole Gomey, the public relations educator who defined the term in an article in The New York Times in 1992, says litigation journalism is the use and/or manipulation of the news and information media to advance the positions of plaintiffs in civil lawsuits and/or to promote the practices of trial law- yers by attracting new clients for class action liti- gation.7 This promotion also has occurred in high- profile criminal cases.

Chapter 7 / PR and the Law 173

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warnings or misleading communications. The deter- mination hinges on the interpretation of whether the reader or listener acted on the message “reasonably.” The consequences of reliance have to be something detrimental (and quantifiable in terms of monetary damages) for the case to be actionable.10

Detrimental reliance may occur when relied-upon information is faulty or when a promise is broken. One example consists of relying on information from others such as research and development peo- ple supplying product information for publicity and advertising that proves to be less than entirely accu- rate. Another involves using or distributing informa- tion from a supplier that later turns out to be flawed. Detrimental reliance also may occur if a PR person is a source for information to news media or others on the basis of a promise of confidentiality that later is broken and the results are damaging to the source.11

Being responsible for the acts of others under con- tract to your organization has always been a legal obli- gation. But now there is more of a responsibility on the part of the organization to be sure that those working for the organization either directly as employees or indirectly as contractors don’t do any- thing illegal. Most communication today is electronic, and that means all material ever on a computer can be recovered, even if deleted. Organizations today have greater difficulty meeting this obligation because

whole tasks are contracted out and because those under contract often subcontract for special services. An example would be a contractor engaged to do the weekly newsletter, who then subcontracts for art or distribution. For anything the subcontractors do, the organization for which they are ultimately doing the job—not just its contractor—is responsible.12 The fair use aspect of copyright law has become increasingly complicated because of the use of electronic transmis- sions.13 We examine this question in some detail later in this chapter.

Working with Legal Counsel Most large institutions, businesses and news media have legal counsel. If your client retains legal coun- sel, use it. The client’s own counselor is as eager to stay out of trouble as you are. One word of caution, though. Some attorneys are not knowledgeable in communications law, and their instinct is to have a client or the organization say nothing. This is usually not the best public relations response. You need to know where to go for specialized legal counsel.

Many practitioners have also built up libraries of cases and regulations relating to both public relations and their clients. In addition, many PR firms have prepared manuals for their employees to alert them to legal trouble spots. Clients, too, may have manuals,

174 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

and the PR practitioner should examine these care- fully for areas where misunderstandings might create problems.

The public relations person within a corporation needs to establish a relationship with the corporate attorney since both hold a seat within inner manage- ment councils. Top management levels are where pol- icy is made that will affect the organization’s various publics. In this policymaking process, the role of the PR person is a special concern for how that policy will be understood and accepted by all stakeholders, not just those direcdy affected. The corporate PR person is in a good position to assist corporate counsel in planning strategies and suggesting how the various publics are likely to receive legal actions.14 The PR person also needs legal counsel’s help, especially in reviewing financial materials, even if he or she is trained in inves- tor relations and also in crises. Determining the appro- priate action in a crisis is clearer if attorneys can talk about actions that can be taken and alternatives, per- haps citing similar cases and their conclusions, noting particular similarities and differences. Their experience with the courts also allows them to set some timetables and help develop the company’s message.

Transparency is important because legal discovery procedures bring out all sorts of hidden information that will get introduced in the public forum of the courtroom.15 Any of these documents may later be disclosed. Even documents prepared by in-house lawyers may not be secure if they contain advice to management that is strategic but is essentially nonle- gal in nature. The material must be primarily legal advice for it to deserve attomey/client privilege from disclosure.16

For these reasons, the relationship between the PR person and the company attorney needs to be complementary, not adversarial.

4. Decide how far you are willing to go to run a risk of jail, fine, a cease-and-desist order or a corrective order.

5. “Know your enemy,” especially which government agency is likely to go after you. It helps to get on this agency’s mailing fist and read all speeches its administrators give. Often, these provide the first hint of troubles for your company or industry.

Simon notes three general types of legal involve- ments. The first consists of meeting federal, state and local government agencies’ regulations on everything from antitrust matters to building permits.

The second consists of government-related activities—activities that hinge on laws or regulations, such as those governing libel and slander; right of pri- vacy; contempt of court; ownership of ideas including copyright, trademarks and patents; publicity; political views, registering political activity as lobbying and representing foreign governments; contract disputes; stockholder actions; fair trade problems; use of photos of individuals and groups; preparation of publicity releases, advertising copy, games and giveaway promo- tions; and financial collections.

The third type consists of contracts with clients and suppliers of goods and services. These deal with such matters as who owns the music for a com- mercial if the client moves his or her account from the agency that created the commercial.

In any of these three types of cases, a PR person outside the situation is likely to be called by either side as an expert witness. When this occurs, you must devote considerable time to research—gathering facts and physical evidence in the case, not just relying on what you are told. (Most PR testimony consists of fact-finding, in the discovery part of litigation.) Addi- tionally, most PR people alert their own attorneys, who can advise them of any legal traps or personal jeopardy. Litigants generally pay fees for expert witnesses. How- ever, excessive fees tend to invalidate the testimony. (The opposition generally tries to get the precise sum made public, usually as a part of the deposition.)

The legal zones of greatest danger to a PR person are print or electronic business memos, emails and letters, proxy fights, use of photos, product claims, accusations that might be ruled libel or slander, pro- motions involving games, publicity that might result in charges of misrepresentation and political cam- paigns. You should keep handy a checklist of laws covering areas such as contracts, releases, statements of responsibility and rights of privacy.

Ways to Stay Out of Trouble Maintaining a good relationship with the organiza- tion’s attorney is one of the best ways to stay out of trouble, but attorney Morton Simon identifies five others:

1. Recognize your individual responsibility for your actions—none of this “I only did what the boss said.” The law won’t look at it that way.

2. Know your business. 3. Ignore the vague lines between advertising and

PR, because the law often does.

Chapter 7 / PR and the Law 175

Most important, don’t guess. Get legal assistance. Talk with the organization’s legal counsel. Work closely with media and organization attorneys. The New York Stock Exchange encourages calls and other inquiries. Query any government body involved, and get a statement of legal precedent or request an informal ruling.

Getting government advice and assistance won’t work, though, with one of the biggest sources of diffi- culty for an organization—lawsuits initiated by an employee, a “whisdeblower” who has called attention of authorities, usually government regulators, to some legal problem. Laws at the federal, state and local levels constrain communications in whisdeblower cases, so normal strategies may not work. For ex- ample, federal laws place a 60-day secrecy on the existence of a whisdeblower. In some cases, an organi- zation can be under investigation for a year or more before the situation is made public, and then it is usu- ally the government entity involved that makes the announcement. All PR communication, then, can be only reactive. The same is true if information about the case is “leaked.” Leaks may originate outside the organization from someone knowledgeable about the situation, but there is always a court seal on such cases affecting both the organization and the whisdeblower.

At the national level, whistleblowers get their power from the U.S. Federal False Claims Act that allows citizens to “blow the whistle” on an organiza- tion’s misdeeds, to start sealed lawsuits on the govern- ment’s behalf and to get 25 percent for themselves of what the government collects. At the state and local levels, the government’s primary role is to protect the whisdeblower from some kind of retaliation, usu- ally getting fired. Whatever branch of government joins the whistleblower’s suit, the organization is in a default position. The government has both authority and power behind it, and public opinion often sup- ports the whisdeblower who is seen as the responsible citizen calling attention to organizational wrongdo- ing.18 (Even if the whistleblower does not file a law- suit, whistleblower information and publicity can complicate legal problems in a crisis situation.)

their influence on how PR is practiced: the U.S. Postal Service, the Securities and Exchange Com- mission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Postal Service Postal Service regulations prohibit dissemination by mail of obscene materials, information about a lot- tery (two important elements: consideration and chance) and material that would incite riot, murder, arson or assassination. A 1975 law exempts news- papers and broadcast stations from prosecution in publicizing state-operated lotteries. However, news- papers may not carry information on another state’s lotteries in editions that are mailed.

Certain state laws prohibit the circulation of magazines carrying particular types of advertising, so space buyers have to beware. Furthermore, although substantial specifications exist for inserts in magazines mailed second-class, the total reference to the subject in the Postal Service Manual with respect to controlled circulation publications is one sentence: “Enclosures are not permitted.”

All mailing pieces face multiple regulations regarding size, weight, thickness and where an address may appear. It is best to have the design of a piece checked by the post office or to use standard shapes and weights already approved.

A sender’s freedom to reach publics by direct mail has been limited by a 1970 decision in a U.S. District Court, which has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.19 Senders may be compelled to delete an address from their mailing list and may be prohibited by law from sending or having an agent send future mailings to an addressee at the addressee’s request.

The case began when a mail-order business chal- lenged a California regulation stating that the recipi- ent has a right not to have to receive “a pandering advertisement which offers for sale matter which addressee in his sole discretion believes to be eroti- cally arousing or sexually provocative.” If a violation occurs, the addressee may report it, and the U.S. Postmaster General will inform the sender, who then has an opportunity to respond. An administra- tive hearing is held to see whether a violation has occurred. The U.S. Postmaster General may request the U.S. Attorney General to enforce compliance through a court order.

Government Regulations

As a practitioner, you may find yourself working with any of hundreds of government agencies. Of this multitude, five are particularly important due to

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176 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

Three points here are significant: 1. The law allows a person absolute discretion to

decide whether he or she wishes to receive any further material from a particular sender. (The material need not be erotic.)

2. A vendor does not have a constitutional right to send unwanted material to someone’s home. A mailer’s right to communicate must stop before the mailbox of an unreceptive addressee.

3. The law satisfies the due process rights of the ven- dor who sends the material. It provides for an administrative hearing if the sender does violate the prohibitory order from the U.S. Postal Ser- vice, and a judicial hearing is held prior to issu- ance of any compliance order by a district court.

As a result, the Postal Service now provides two rel- evant forms. Form 2150 is directed to a particular sender and is usually requested when a person has received obscene or sex-related materials in the mail. Form 2201 is a request that a person’s name be removed from all mailing lists. In an effort to counter- act legislation that might be directed toward control- ling unsolicited mail, the Direct Marketing Association has asked that all persons who wish to be removed from the fists of their members send their name and mailing address to the DMA (1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10036-6700, or 1119 19th Street NW, Washington, D.C., 20036-3603; http://www. the-dma.org). The DMA then contacts individual mail- ers and asks that they delete the name. (In 1998, the DMA merged with the Association of Interactive Media [AIM], a leading cyberspace trade group that is now operating as a subsidiary of DMA.)

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Public corporations (those whose stock is publicly traded and owned) have to be concerned with SEC regulations, and all corporations must be aware of and sensitive to personnel and financial information that might be released. The larger the company, the more likely it is to let something escape that should not have. This is particularly true when the corpora- tion must coordinate its information dissemination with one of its clients (especially in the case of com- panies with government contracts) or when an out- side firm prepares releases.

It is wise to have a procedure for clearing news releases, print and electronic, so that no one is con- fused about what to do and (it is hoped) so that no

one jumps the gun and releases a story before it has been cleared (see Figure 7.1). Some institutions release only the information required, but a case can be made for using releases as early warning sig- nals (such as for possible bankruptcy filing) and as timely announcements of good news. Taking the offensive in takeover battles became a PR tactic. However, financial abuses have pushed the SEC to take a more active role in policing disclosures.

The SEC is concerned with:

Initial public offerings (IPOs) when a company decides to become a publicly held company The information a publicly held company gives for investment evaluation, formerly given only to analysts, now required to be publicly available Regular reporting of financial condition on a quarterly basis Special filings when material issues arise Annual report and 10K Public relations practitioners are involved in all

five of these, and if you are not handling investor relations, you may be working for a firm or agency that has a publicly held company as an account, or you may be the PR person in a company that has an investor relations practitioner with whom you need to have a solid working relationship, which means understanding his or her role and functions.

In an effort to clean up bad business practices and return public trust to publicly held companies, the government enacted in 2002 the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) corporate reform law.20 The law’s aim was to bring transparency and responsibility to business prac- tices. It has been costly to companies because it requires extensive examination of internal audit sys- tems that began to have to be researched, documented and reported in 2004. The act also requires CEOs and CFOs to personally sign off on the validity of all financial reports. Corporate board committee charters and corporate codes of ethics must be posted for pub- lic access, and companies are required to have a direct whistleblower line to the board of directors. The law has affected all of the publicly held public relations and advertising conglomerates, of course.21 Although intended for publicly held companies, SOX has also affected nonprofits because many of the larger ones, including schools such as Juilliard and institutions such as the International Swimming Hall of Fame, have adopted Sarbanes-Oxley practices to reassure donors and supporters and to enhance credibility.22

Chapter 7 / PR and the Law 1 7 7

Procedures for Clearing News Releases

Handling of Product News Releases 1. First draft of copy to primary sources for prelimi-

nary approval. 2. Draft of release to corporate secretary for approval. 3. Revised copy to legal department for approval. 4. Draft to division general manager for approval in

certain instances. (Group public relations manager should make judgment in this instance.)

5. Copy of approved news release is then mailed to the company handling news releases, along with media selection sheets for distribution.

6. Media covered will depend on the nature of the product, its importance to the various markets and industries and the marketing philosophy behind the development. (Distribution should be as broad as possible without covering media that would obvi- ously not be interested in the development.)

7. Internal distribution of the news release to be determined by the group public relations manager, but usually is just posted first on the organization’s intranet so employees are not surprised.

case histories, blogs with corporate management’s name on them, new product releases and any other product-oriented information released in any media, including the organization’s own website.)

Handling of Personnel News Releases 1. First draft of copy to individual named in release to

check accuracy of facts. 2. Draft of release to source requesting release. 3. Draft of release to division general manager or indi-

vidual’s immediate superior at corporate level. 4. Draft to corporate secretary and legal department

for legal clearances. 5. Draft to group vice president in cases of key pro-

motions at divisional level. In instances of key cor- porate promotions, the chairman, president, executive vice president, general counsel and appro- priate group vice president must clear release.

6. Media coverage should include plant cities, corpo- rate headquarters’ city, the individual’s hometown, association publications and appropriate alumni publications, trade magazines covering industries served by the division or group with which the indi- vidual is associated and any electronic media.

7. Internal distribution determined by group PR man- ager and, in cases of key corporate promotions, by public relations director.

8. Copies of news release should be sent to everyone included in the chain of approval.

Note: These procedures depend on the organizational structure and policy. Each organization will develop its own clearance procedures.

Approval Chain for Agency-Prepared Releases 1. Clear with primary source at division. 2. Send cleared draft to group public relations man-

ager for corporate clearance. 3. Following approvals at corporate level, distribution

may be made through agency channels. 4. Copies of completed release to all involved in clear-

ances. (News releases that must be approved at the corporate level include announcements, features,

IPOs have been troublesome for the SEC since the initial offering of dot-com stocks, and continue to be so. Because companies are offering their shares for the first time, they have to disclose all of their business and prospects for this offering. PR practitioners were in demand when the dot-coms first began offer- ing their shares because a business without bricks and mortar and a tangible product was expected to be a hard sell. The dot-coms sold well due in part to public fascination with the technology and in part to strong publicity. What happened, though, was information in the high-tech world got passed along informally in

chat rooms and bulletin board postings. Most of that was uncontrolled, as is characteristic of the Internet. Enthusiasts were doing their own promotion and using poster names that didn’t really identify them. It wasn’t long before the realization came to some of them that what they posted could affect the shares of stock, any stock. Other unauthorized posters use news releases to engage in stock fraud. Why do you need to know this? Companies have to watch for fake, maybe even libelous, information that appears in chat rooms and on bulletin boards daily. Any of these can precip- itate a crisis for the company.

Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice178

is the to keep the stock price climbing was a contributing factor, but that’s no excuse for fraudulent behavior. In fact, that is exacdy what quarterly reports are sup- posed to prevent These earnings reports are prepared by the CFO and reviewed by corporate audit commit- tees, the majority of which are supposed to be outside, independent directors knowledgeable about financial matters. Each quarterly report is accompanied by a news release interpreting the data and is usually written and released by the IR officer. CEOs have to sign the reports as testimony (an oath) that they have read and approved these reports, with penalties for fraud (civil penalties or jail time) if the reports are later proven to be inaccurate or misleading. Special Filings (such as an 8K) are to alert the SEC, investors and potential investors to any changes in the financial climate that are likely to affect earnings and/or the price of the stock. In other words, anything material. The company has 15 days from the event, such as an unfavorable court ruling in a lawsuit, sale or acquisition of significant assets, to disclose.A delay may be requested if trade secrets or competitive data are at risk. However, most companies in light of RegFD release the material information as prompdy as possible. What is important for PR people to remember is that the news releases accompanying these are considered by the SEC to be as important as the forms filed. A misstep, even uninten- tional, can cause serious consequences. (To his credit, David Duncan, Enron’s chief auditor at Arthur Ander- sen, warned Enron against putting out a news release with “misleading” information in its third-quarter earn- ings report, but was ignored by Enron management.)

If a leak occurs or the event is likely to cause a flurry of activity for the stock, the exchange will stop trading, but only briefly. A judgment to with- hold can’t be made to defraud, and there must be no downplay in reporting good or bad news.

The other occasion for the exchanges to control trading is when large investors, usually major retire- ment or mutual funds, use computerized sells that automatically put shares on the market, usually in response to special events that push prices down. This policy, called program trading, is supposed to control volatility in the market, but it didn’t stop a market meltdown in May 2010, and a single trade may actually have caused it. The event was over in just a few minutes, but created chaos.24

Annual reports and 1OKs are the year’s summary of the company’s activities, the 10K being the required form that must be filed with the SEC. For annual report

Simultaneous disclosure (Regulation FD) rule for all material information. Financial briefings used to be given periodically to financial analysts, especially those following the company closely. The briefings were usually given by the CEO and CFO with the investor relations person sitting in. An August 10, 2000, ruling by the SEC requires that material information be disclosed publicly at the same time as it is given to large institutional investors and any securities professionals, analysts and money managers. The rule applies only to information given by senior executives, not other managers and super- visors in contact with suppliers and customers. All of these briefings are now followed by a news release.

To accommodate the rule’s requirement for full and simultaneous disclosure, companies have broad- ened access to conference calls so that individual investors are given a call-in number that allows them to listen but, usually, not to ask questions as all of the securities community (large and small investors) is allowed to do. Access is also provided through the Internet with the time and date of the call posted on the company’s website. There, anyone can listen in and then send emails for explanations or additional information. The news release covering the hour or longer conference call follows as closely as possible and is also posted on the website as well as sent to the financial and general news wires.

Compliance has increased corporate use of web- sites. Investors may vote their proxies online and get the annual report and 10K and any other filings by email or fax. Site visitors can sign up to receive all kinds of company announcements by email, if they wish, and Regulation FD (for fair disclosure) put a large part of investor relations work online.2 For example, if material information is accidentally released, the company has only 24 hours to make it publicly available. The rule initially was not favorably received by the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) to which most IR practitioners belong. How- ever, RegFD has managed to save companies money and has made it easier for CEOs and CFOs to control the timing and positioning of information, a conse- quence probably not intended by the SEC. It has also increased the responsibilities of the IR person.

Quarterly financial reports (10Q) are required by the SEC, although critics say this encourages compa- nies to look short-term, rather than long-term, to keep stock prices going up rather than down. In the Enron and WorldCom debacles (of 2001 and 2002), the need

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Chapter 7 / PR and the Law 179

and 1OK requirements, go the SEC’s website. Also look for the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) rules on accounting for post-retirement bene- fits other than pensions. FASB refers to these benefits as OPEB (Other Post Employment Benefits) and requires that they be declared a liability. Those provisions took effect in 1992. Because of the corporate failures of 2002, a few companies—Coca-Cola was the first—now are declaring as liabilities stock options that are available, but not yet taken by management and/or directors.

The annual report and the 10K are usually pre- pared by IR officers, PR staffs or firms. Annual reports have become promotional tools used by investment brokers and the company itself in pre- senting the company to all members of the financial public, from banks to analysts. When annual reports are distributed, a news release summarizing the main points and announcing the report’s publication is also distributed (see Figure 7.2). The annual report may include the 10K as the best way to integrate management messages with financial reports.

In annual reports and the news releases that accompany them, the SEC also allows speculative claims. These are called “forward-looking statements” and must be identified as such in the report and the release. In addition to the SEC, which administers six major federal statutes in this area, other federal agen- cies important to financial institutions include the

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insures bank deposits, and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), which is responsible for savings and loan associations.

Major cotut cases have shown that corporate offi- cials and employees must understand the legal obliga- tions of proper corporate disclosure.25 particularly true of the corporation’s relationship with financial analysts and the investment community. In the Texas Gulf Sulphur case,26 a federal district court ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court let stand, an insider was defined as anyone who has access to information that, if disseminated, might influence the price of a stock. A PR person who writes a news release, then, could be considered an insider. A PR firm must therefore disclose in its news releases that it is acting on behalf of an issuer and is receiving con- sideration from the issuer for its service. Richard S. Seltzer, former SEC special counsel, writes:

This is

The SEC apparently believes that fraudulent schemes initiated by corporate insiders may be facilitated by the action—or deliberate inaction—of outside profes- sionals: the accountant who “stretches” generally accepted accounting principles; the lawyer who is will- ing to “overlook ” material disclosures; and even the public relations practitioner who seeks to portray a con- vincing., but inaccurate, picture of corporate events.2 7

SEC Requirements for Annual Reports and Interpretive News Releases

The SEC offers guidance for management’s discussion of a publicly held company’s financial condition and the results of its operations. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act increased inter- nal diligence as support for such statements (MD&A, man- agement’s discussion and analysis of the 10K and 10Q filings). In the news release that accompanies these docu- ments, the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) suggests that a summary of the MD&A (Management Dis- cussion and Analysis) and other critical information for investors be incorporated into that release. Information that investors need includes material changes to the finan- cial statement and other required disclosures, resources and liquidity status (assets and debts), high-risk items and poten- tial threats to the company’s overall financial health. Included with this news release, as with all earnings data in news releases that accompany quarterly reports, should be the company’s income statement, with some historical information for investors to make comparisons of profits

and losses, and a balance sheet that shows assets and liabilities. NIRI also argues for plain English to be used in news releases. That is an important recommendation because some SEC report language is somewhat arcane except to the most experienced investors.

Financial releases usually include a prospective or forward-looking discussion of operations and finances that includes market data and trends of the industry, corporate-specific demands and commitments as well as any other uncertainties that could have material effects on the financial condition and results of operations. Forward-looking statements fall under the SEC’s “safe harbor” rule that protects companies from liability if such required statements are made on a “reasonable basis,” in “good faith,” and if underlying assumptions are disclosed. A news release that is judged to be false or misleading may be found to be fraudulent, in which case it falls under SEC action.

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Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice180

Another federal court decision has affected finan- cial public relations significandy. Pig ‘N’ Whisde, a Chicago-based restaurant and motel chain, was headed by Paul Pickle, who had previously been sen- tenced to three years in prison for misapplication of federally insured funds. Pig ‘N’ Whistle was brought before the SEC in February and March of 1972 to answer charges of having distributed two untrue and misleading press releases concerning stock transac- tions and acquisition of property in 1969. The firm was also charged with illegal stock registration.28 The two releases, one made on Sept. 8 and the other on Dec. 30, contained untrue or misleading statements about the purchases of the Mary Ann Baking Co. and the Holiday Lodge near Lake Tahoe. Pig ‘N’ Whistle stock shot up to $18 per share after the two releases—which came from Financial Relations Board, Inc., a public relations company—were printed. Pig ‘N’ Whistle had been a client of Financial Relations for eight weeks in 1969.29 The statements released by Financial Rela- tions were handled by only one member of the firm. The president of Financial Relations stated that Pig ‘N’ Whistle had not provided the firm with proper SEC registration papers for the stock. The PR firm was told by Pig ‘N’ Whistle lawyers that immediate disclosure of the purchase made by Pig ‘N’ Whistle was necessary to comply with SEC disclosure requirements.30 Thus, the releases couldn’t wait for registration papers to be filed.

The SEC investigated the actions of both Pig ‘N’ Whistle and Financial Relations and ruled that Financial Relations had not exercised due caution in establishing the truth about the information furnished by Pig ‘N’ Whistle. The SEC said that Financial Relations should have done independent research before allowing any release to leave its offices. As a result, Financial Relations established within 30 days new procedures for reviewing the cre- dentials of any new clients and for verifying the facts given to it for publication. This verification of facts covers any information that might affect investment decisions by stock purchasers. The SEC also ordered Financial Relations to cease any contact with Pig ‘N’ Whistle.

In the 1970s, following the Pig ‘AP Whistle case, the SEC began reviewing possible new disclosure regulations designed to protect the stock purchaser. The most important outcome of this, from the point of view of public relations, was that the kind of infor- mation released has to be more detailed and exact.

Statements must be registered and must include a budget and cash flow projection for the company.31 It is an SEC violation to issue a false and/or mislead- ing release, whether or not a profit is realized as a result.

Public relations practitioners have to provide more information and be more certain now than in the past that the information is true. Further, the people who do the research and write the releases now assume the same liabilities as does the company about which the releases are published. The informa- tion the public relations department or firm releases— the financial operations, history, future outlook, management and marketing structure of the company for which it is working—must therefore be carefully considered. The SEC has placed a heavy burden on public relations practitioners by holding them accountable. Financial releases must also be consid- ered in the context of other public information put out about the company. This underscores the need to speak with one voice, to ensure that no information is misleading. Especially important is pro forma accounting in earnings reports. Earnings reports now must be explained in the news releases from pub- licly held companies. The investor relations officers are on the front line here.

The Financial Crisis of 2007-2010, Reform and Adjustments All of the rules and regulations already in place did not prevent the worst financial crisis in the USA since the 1929 Depression.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Con- sumer Protection Act was enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress on July 31, 2010. The full title is: “An Act to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end ‘too big to fail,’ to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes.”

The legislation was a response to the recession of 2007-2010 and effected the broadest changes in the financial regulatory system since the depression of 1929-1930s. Since the act impacts all of the U.S. financial regulatory agencies, actual policy state- ments remain in development stages. Once com- plete, adaptations to the new policies will be reflected in new policies set by individual financial service segments.32

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The act’s establishment of a Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection has within it a new consumer advisory board to inform it of emerging market trends. This suggests that IR needs to do its own research to follow trends and interpret them in terms of its own company. One provision of the act is that the U.S. Freedom of Information Act no longer applies to the SEC, so the SEC can refuse to supply documents that it considers a part of its regu- latory and oversight activities.

Follow-Up and Executive Compensation Disclosures Most Transparency Disclosures Resulted from Sarbanes- Oxley. Existing follow-up or additional disclosure is necessary under four circumstances: 1. New information must be updated when new

events make previous statements misleading. 2. Responses to outside reports must be made if

these are misleading and come from people in a position to have had the information approved by the company, such as an underwriter, director or large shareholder.

3. Trading of shares held by executives and all insiders, including the company itself and company-managed pension plans, must be reported unless all material information about the stock’s value already has been made avail- able to the public. (The company is Fable if it has given material nonpublic information to outsiders.)

4. Acquisition and merger information must be dis- closed when negotiations reach agreement in principle.

The Dodd-Frank Act, Tide IX, Investor Protec- tions and Improvements to the Regulation of Securi- ties, changed financial responsibilities involving: “the power and structure of the SEC, credit rating orga- nizations and the relationships between customers and broker-dealers or investment advisers.” Under this title, studies and reports will be required from the SEC and the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Changes affecting investor relations specifically include an incentive for whistleblowers and a provi- sion that the SEC may issue rules making it easier for shareholders to nominate individuals to the board of directors. The act does require that investors be told why the same person is to serve as chair of the board of directors and CEO or why different individuals serve as board chair and CEO. Sarbanes-Oxley encouraged a separation of the two responsibilities, but didn’t prohibit it, so Dodd-Frank seems to keep that in place. Another change requires that at least once every three years a public corporation submit to a shareholder vote for approval of executive com- pensation. Executive pay, especially bonuses, out- raged a public struggling to handle an economy they saw as damaged by financial institutions.

Rumors, Leaks and Insider Information with Disclosure When you are faced with rumors or leaks, you have three options: you can admit and disclose; you can make no comment or deny; or you can dodge and mislead. Courts have disagreed over where to draw the line clearly between exploratory preliminary talks and serious negotiations.33 The former may be reported in a relatively leisurely manner, but the lat- ter should be reported quickly because information about them almost always leaks.

It is just as important to understand the SEC’s view of information to which there is “equal access.” People who have knowledge that others do not have access to are called insiders. Thus, an insider, viewed broadly, is anyone who has informa- tion “everyone” else doesn’t have (for example, infor- mation not generally available) that would give that person an advantage in buying or selling a company’s stock. The court’s rather narrow definition in the Texas Gulf Sulphur case stipulated that an insider is an “officer, director or beneficial owner of 10 per- cent of any class of equity or security.” This defini- tion has never been accepted by PR people, who looked with horror at headlines such as “Press Release Goes to Court.” Insider trading means using inside information to buy or sell securities, puts, calls and/or other options on securities. This is considered insider trading whether the action is taken in the name of the person initiating the transaction or in the name of someone else. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld lower-court insider trading convictions of former The Wall Street Journal reporter R. Foster Winans and two co- conspirators on Nov 16, 1987. The SEC viewed the ruling as an affirmation of its efforts to halt insider trading, efforts that had become very aggres- sive in the 1980s. The Court’s opinion upheld the convictions of the former reporter for securities, mail and wire fraud. The Court refused to reject

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182 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

the misappropriation theory, which holds that infor- mation may be misused no matter how it is obtained. (In this case, the reporter had obtained it in the course of writing his “Heard on the Street” column.) The misappropriation theory strengthens the SEC’s broad interpretation of insider trading.

Collaboration of any kind that looked like insider trading to an already suspicious public caused many cases to surface in 2009-2010, and the issue became part of a broad regulatory reform sweep resulting in the Dodd-Frank Act. New SEC policy is likely to firm up some interpretation of insider.

As soon as a company becomes aware of any insider trading, the SEC and the stock exchanges must be notified, and if the situation is somewhat vague, consultation is available. When a decision is made and a news release prepared, the SEC and the exchange must receive the information before it is made publicly available through any medium. Then the release must go to all of the news and business wire services and other media as would any other disclosure.

SEC rules on insider trading that were put in place in 2000 clarified the law and also gave better information to people who want to know when cor- porate directors, executives and other insiders are buying or selling their company’s stock. The rules were part of RegFB and are the first to deal specifi- cally with insider trading. Rule 10b5-l says that insiders only have to be “aware” of confidential material information, in contrast to some previous decisions in which insiders used the information to buy or sell stock. Knowing means not selling or buy- ing until the information is publicly available. Rule 10b5-2 extends the rule to family members and any other individuals in nonbusiness relationships who got the confidential information and agreed not to disclose it. This helps honest corporate insiders. If they had a regular program for exercising stock options or buying shares, timed for tax advantages, for example, they can still use that plan, even though in the intervening time they have become aware of sensitive information. What the SEC will look for is irregular trading.34

If new stock is to be issued, there is a registration period during which two types of publicity are for- bidden: any estimates (dollars or percentages), even in broad or general terms, of earnings or sales for the industry or any product lines; and any predictions of increases in sales or earnings from any source. In 2006, an effort began to have the SEC exert more

control over disclosure by lawmakers and staff of their trades and explicitly prohibit them from using information for insider trading.

Accounting Reform Bill Congress passed a corporate reform bill July 26, 2002, largely in reaction to the Arthur Andersen/Enron situations. The bill’s com- ponents set the following in place: Corporate fraud that involves altering or destroying documents is a federal crime punishable by a $5 million fine and up to 20 years in prison; a five-member nongovern- ment board with subpoena power was created to oversee accounting companies; new rules were imposed on financial analysts to prevent conflict of interest; an accounting firm’s consulting services are restricted when the firm is the company’s outside auditor; personal loans from companies to top offi- cials or board members is prohibited; the time for defrauded investors to sue the company was extended; and a federal account for defrauded inves- tors, with the funds to come from payment of civil fines and company assets, was created. This puts additional responsibility on the IR person to keep a watchful eye on corporate processes as well as actions.

Federal Trade Commission Although the SEC looks out for the rights of inves- tors, another equally alert agency, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), looks out for the rights of both investors and consumers. On the investor side, it monitors compliance with antitrust legislation and has been aggressive in monitoring proposed mergers that impinge on antitrust laws. On the consumer side, the FTC’s scrupulous surveillance has resulted in charges of false claims relating to publicity releases as well as to advertising.35 Pharmaceutical companies and health care providers have paid the most in set- tlements for false claims. Both the company/client making the assertions and the PR department or firm disseminating them are legally liable. This can fall under the previously discussed area of duty and detrimental reliance. The only protection is to take prudent precautions.

Consequently, the PR writer should seek some verification for product or service claims before pub- licizing them. One suspicious (or cautious) publicist insists on trying a product before he writes the release. “If it works, and works well, I write a better story. If it doesn’t work, I don’t write it!” This is fine if the thing to be publicized is tangible, but often it is

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Chapter 7 / PR and the Law 183

not. Services must be carefully explored, too. Some professionals, such as lawyers, have been sued for deceptive ads. Since the writer is legally responsible, some PR writers, especially those in independent firms (as opposed to corporate staff ), require nota- rized statements from research and development staff of product attributes.

The conscientious PR person may be less con- cerned with the action of government agencies than with consumers’ wrath or loss of confidence. Never- theless, the PR writer should still be aware that fraud or misrepresentation, as it applies to advertising, pro- motion and publicity, is watched over by the FTC, the local Better Business Bureau and state and local law enforcement authorities. And the PR person should certainly be aware that payola and similar ille- gal promotional activities are grouped by the law in the category of “bribes.”

Among the promotional activities monitored by the FTC are infomercials—program-length com- mercials that are scripted to simulate standard enter- tainment or educational features. The FTC now has guidelines for infomercials. Instead of attempting to prosecute the producers of the products (miraculous aging cures) or services (making $l million in real estate), the FTC has decided to go after the produ- cers of the infomercials. The FTC guidelines require that the infomercial producers have “reliable, scien- tific evidence” before making any claims for a product’s efficacy or safety. The FTC also requires disclosures that the infomercial is a paid commercial if it runs longer than 15 minutes. These disclosures have to appear at the beginning and end of the pro- gram, as well as before any ordering information.36

The FTC rulings make infomercial production companies cautious. Now that many TV stations have lost advertising and face increasing program- ming costs, infomercials have filled the broadcast time slots. Production companies know this is a lucrative business, but not if a costly lawsuit results. Responsibility to consumers creates a broad-brush approach.

An FTC policy holds celebrities accountable for the statements they make in advertising. Although many celebrities, especially athletes, endorse some- thing in their sport, some celebrities sign endorse- ments without knowing anything about the product or service. Their only contact might be in having the product shipped free to their home or office.

Anyone who assumes the FTC is not watching should look at the FTC’s 2010 complaint to Reverb

Communications. The FTC said that between November 2008 and May 2009, employees of the firm used iTunes account names to post positive reviews of client video games, leaving the impression that the comments were by disinterested reviewers. The illegal practice, called “astroturfing,” occurs when campaigns are disguised as grassroots support for a product. The FTC’s news release said Reverb employees were hired to promote the games and often got a percentage of the sales. Under the FTC Act, anyone with material interest in a product and who promotes it without disclosing a vested interest is being deceptive. The firm agreed to remove the deceptive endorsements, not do it again and settled without being fined. However, if the FTC does find the firm in violation again, it will be fined.

Food and Drug Administration Like the FTC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administra- tion (FDA) is active in protecting consumers. For instance, the FDA developed guidelines for con- sumer advertising initiated by drug companies. The first prescription drug advertising in fall 1983 appeared on cable TV shows aimed at physicians, but there is no way to exclude the lay public from exposure to the same advertising.

Advertising drugs directly to consumers has cre- ated all manner of problems, and stirred ethical issues as well. After Merck got into legal problems with its Vioxx over the drug’s connection with heart failure, Pfizer decided to limit its advertising of new drugs to consumers until the products have been on the market for six weeks. The same year as Pfizer’s decision, 23 drug companies agreed to an advertising code of conduct in August 2005.

Physicians have expressed some concern that ads, even those that include prescription information, still emphasize the advantages of the product. Neverthe- less, the marketing, promotion and advertising of prescription drugs already has the drug companies’ PR people heavily involved.

In 1991, the FDA told doctors who serve as paid agents of the drug industry that they too would be targets of FDA surveillance. At the same time, a warning went out to the pharmaceutical industry to stop touting (in promotional brochures and articles) FDA unapproved uses for products. Complicating the whole matter is evidence that some substances in the body, even at low levels, can cause brain dis- orders, even cancer, in some people, especially

Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice184

children. The FDA considers the images, and, in broadcasting, the audio, including the use of music.

The FDA is getting pressure from food and drug industries to loosen their restrictions in the name of corporate free speech, but there’s opposition to that. Of special concern to consumer advocates and the health industries is the publicizing of “off label” or unapproved uses of products. Although the FDA approves products for specific uses, sometimes research indicates additional benefits for something that may or may not be direcdy related. The FDA has moved away from a previous stance of keeping sales representatives from even giving such research reports to physicians, but it still does not permit wide dissemination of such materials.

Medical devices and procedures also fall under FDA approval. The lesson here is that promotions and news releases, as well as labeling and advertising, can get you in trouble with the FDA. For safety, the FDA needs to be in the preapproval loop so the com- pany won’t get into trouble for “misleading” the public.

A series of food and pharmaceutical crises in 2006 and 2007 regarding Chinese involvement in produc- tion of both food and drugs for U.S. markets has put consumer pressure on the FDA to get involved in more, rather than less, surveillance. In 2008, 2009 and 2010, serious problems with human and animal food grown and produced in the USA led the agency and consumers to demand more inspection and funds to support that. Salmonella cases have been caused by cereal, peanut butter and eggs, for example. A 2010 egg recall brought to public light a problem with what the FDA was authorized to look at and what fell under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture. Prompt action in August 2010 gave the FDA more authority.

has made broadcasters more hesitant to accept issue advertising in any form, whether purchased time or public service announcements, because avoidable con- troversies can hurt advertising revenues.

The fairness doctrine required a station to provide reply time to any person or group who thought the presentation of a controversial issue had either attacked them or not presented their point of view. In October 2000, the FCC repealed the only “fairness” rules left—the personal attack and political editorial rules—because these were based on the long-gone fairness doctrine.

Still in force is the equal time rule, section 315 of the Communications Act, which requires stations to give equal access to political candidates during elec- tions. The FCC also requires stations to give politi- cal candidates the lowest rates, to charge the same rates to candidates for the same office and to offer them an equal amount of time. Political ads are not subject to censorship for any reasons. Stations are protected because they may not be sued for any libel or slander in the commercials.

In its role of monitoring public decency, the FCC oversees free radio and television networks from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. The FCC has no control over cable, satellite radio or sites such as YouTube. In its oversight, the FCC has relaxed some rules as the social climate has changed, but has not relaxed its regulation over words, which are “bleeped,” or images that are pixilated in accordance with broad- cast network “standards and practices.” These were put in place by the networks to keep out of trouble with the FCC, audiences and advertisers. However, in July 2010, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the FCC’s indecency regulations as uncon- stitutionally vague and “chilling.” The ruling is frus- trating over-the-air stations as well as the FCC.

Many people forget that the FCC also regulates telecommunications, including telephone and com- puter networks and satellite communications. How- ever, in 2010, the FCC lost its batde for authority over broadband providers to be sure they give equal treatment to all Internet traffic on their networks. The FCC argued for “Internet neutrality,” saying it needed the authority to prevent providers from dis- criminating against some websites or online services, such as phone programs or browser software. The FCC argument was based on traditional nondiscrim- ination rules for common carrier networks that ser- vice the public, such as phone fines and electrical grids.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) In 1981, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) deregulated broadcasting—an action that pri- marily affected its public affairs programming requirements and the fairness doctrine for television and radio. In 1987, the FCC did away with the fair- ness doctrine altogether, as discussed in the ethics chapter.

Deregulation has made it more difficult to get pub- lic service time because broadcasters are not required by the FCC to broadcast public service announce- ments (PSAs). Also, the demise of the fairness doctrine

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Contesting that position was Comcast Corp, the largest cable company in the USA. In 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with Comcast and ruled that the FCC lacked the authority to require equal treatment for all Internet traffic over a network. The ruling could also affect the FCC’s plan to expand broadband by using federal funds that subsidize telephone services to rural and poor communities.

universities that name endowed chairs or buildings for donors.

Another area to watch is the increasing number of discrimination and bias suits being filed by both employees and customers. Several airlines have found their companies in the news for refusing to board passengers who are considered to be dressed inappropriately or too large for one seat, requiring them to buy two seats to accommodate their size. Issues of race and gender continue to be a problem with some women working in very uncomfortable environments where sexual harassment is accepted behavior. Organizations involved often find it diffi- cult to attract qualified employees. Some actions may even inspire boycotts, which keep the issue alive in the court of public opinion.

Investor relations is another area of growing importance, especially in terms of public confidence in a company. The global financial meltdown in 2008-2010 shattered investor confidence in all finan- cial institutions. One of the world’s oldest and most secretive banks, UBS AG of Switzerland, was sued by the USA for depositor information on its citizens. UBS has offices in 50 countries, including the USA. The U.S. Treasury wants to know about the U.S. customers’ accounts because it is against U.S. law to take from the USA or to bring into the USA unreported funds of more than $10,000.

Environmental cases are also in the forefront of litigation, particularly since the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that focused on British Petroleum, but involved other companies in addition to BP PLC (British Petroleum). Litigation attorneys pre- dict that it may be 2028 before suits and appeals con- nected to the spill are resolved. BP’s public relations issues in handling the problem may take even longer to be resolved. (See the chapters on management and crisis.)

Court Rulings and Legal Responsibilities

Many aspects of PR are affected by court rulings and a variety of civil and criminal laws. Here we will touch on those that seem particularly important One aspect of almost all of the legal responsibilities resulting from these is the presence of truth as a required element. Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol

^ Qwas the subject of a civil suit settled in May 1987. Actually, what was being contested was Johnson & Johnson’s slogan for the product: “You can’t buy a more potent pain reliever without a prescription.” The slogan was not true, said Judge William C. Con- ner, and he accused Johnson & Johnson of false and misleading claims in its advertising for Tylenol that exaggerated its superiority over other pain relievers. The judge reviewed all of Tylenol’s ads and said the case pointed out five good lessons for consumers and advertisers: 1. Don’t be fooled by headlines and pictures. 2. Beware of every word, even the smallest ones. 3. Numbers don’t mean much, even the big ones. 4. Know the ingredients behind the product. 5. Repeating a slogan doesn’t make it true.

Special events have also captured the attention of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). A 1991 IRS rul- ing would tax, at the rate of 34 percent, donations that nonprofit organizations receive from corporate sponsors. Athletic events got the first warnings, but also liable are cultural events that enjoy corporate sponsorship. The ruling was directed at Mobil Oil Company for the Mobil Cotton Bowl and John Han- cock Insurance for the John Hancock Bowl. The potential reach of the ruling rallied all nonprofit groups to seek exemptions. The repercussions of the IRS ruling are indeed broad, extending even to

Free Speech and Organizational Voice Whether or not you, as a PR practitioner, are involved in preparing your organization’s advertis- ing, you share responsibility for maintaining the organization’s credibility. This is especially true in relation to handling the publicity resulting from any lawsuit, because it is bound to have some impact on both consumers and investors. Such situations are exacdy what public relations practitioners have in mind when they argue for speaking with one

186 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

organizational voice and coordinating all communi- cation efforts.

The freedom of that organizational voice may be jeopardized by legal actions, primarily against some forms of marketing and advertising. And although all courts have long recognized that organizations, like individuals, have a “voice,” some Supreme Court decisions have restricted commercial freedom of speech in ways that have threatened to muffle orga- nizational or institutional voices. The latest one, though, mentioned earlier in this chapter, may indi- cate a shift in the Supreme Court. In the Court’s 2010 ruling giving corporations the right to spend money in elections, the majority defined a corpora- tion as an association of citizens that deserves the same rights as an individual.39

In recent decades, court rulings on commercial speech have gone up and down; some have been favor- able, some restrictive. On the favorable side, in 2001, the Supreme Court struck down a Massachusetts law that restricted tobacco advertising on the basis that the state failed to prove that its regulations were not more extensive than needed to prevent underage use of tobacco. Massachusetts prevented cigarette ads within 1,000 feet of schools and children’s facilities.

Confusing the issue is a 2002 claim by Nike that commercial speech does not include news releases or letters to editors and others. Nike, in trying to recover from the accusation that it runs sweatshops in poor countries, contracted with APCO World- wide for a social responsibility PR campaign.

That was before the California Supreme Court decided to allow a case against Nike to go forward. That decision, that PR has the same obligation to truth as advertising and is commercial speech, was upheld at the next level, so Nike decided to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Nike had sent letters to editors and to universities saying that all of its employees in China, Indonesia and Vietnam were paid twice the minimum wage, had just as healthy and safe work environment and got free food and medical care. The company also had issued news releases explaining the situation with their factories.

The case against Nike was brought by Mark Kasky, a San Francisco activist, who said that news release statements should be regarded the same as advertising. Kasky’s claim was that Nike violated laws prohibiting false or misleading statements in commercial free speech. Those who practice integrated communication always have accepted the idea that news releases and advertising are both commercial free speech and have

supported free speech for all corporate communica- tions. After an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied, Nike settled the case with Kasky in 2003 by agreeing to pay $1.5 million during the next three years to the Fair Labor Association based in Washing- ton, D.C., that includes consumer groups, human rights organizations, companies and universities. The funds were for worker education and training to create a global reporting standard for factory conditions and to monitor factory processes.40

Restrictions The first major restriction on institu- tional voices involved the banning of tobacco adver- tising on television. (There are efforts now to ban the advertising of all tobacco products in all media.) The free speech counterargument is that, as long as the product is legal, producers should be permitted to advertise it. (In fact, farmers are subsidized to grow tobacco. There seems to be some inconsistency in government policy, at least.)

In 1995, lawyers were restrained from “ambulance chasing” by mail for 30 days. In that ruling, standards from the 1980s Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp v. Public Service Commission were applied. Basically, these are: the speech must be accurate and not mis- leading; the government must establish a substantial interest in regulating the speech; the regulation must advance the government’s interest; and the regula- tion must be narrowly written so as not to trample unnecessarily on other rights.41

The early 1990s saw a flurry of legal action against artists and arts organizations—much of it centered on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which had funded some exhibits and artists that pro- voked controversy over obscenity. The NEA was not the only focus for challenges to First Amendment rights. The rap group 2 Live Crew was arrested while performing, and some record and audiotape store owners were arrested for selling the group’s recordings, in both cases because the lyrics were alleged to be obscene.

Other controversies come from unscripted words uttered in five broadcasts and from violent behavior shown in promos and advertising of upcoming events. The eventual legal decisions in all of these most recent cases came out in favor of free speech, but the controversy is not over.42

Observers see a threat to individual freedom in another case, involving a suit by the Attorney Regis- tration and Disciplinary Commission of Illinois against a lawyer who listed his certification by a

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trial lawyers’ group on his stationery. The American Advertising Federation filed a brief in court support- ing the lawyer, saying that the certification mention doesn’t constitute advertising, and even if it did, the restriction is far too broad. In any case, the Federa- tion urged, restrictions can’t validly be placed on speech unless the speech is misleading.43

One reason for what appears to be court vacillation on the issue of corporate speech doctrine may rest with the mixed will of the people in the country. Periodically, polls indicate that there is some waning of public support for unlimited “free speech” by individuals or corporations. The 2010 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court giving more primarily political free speech rights to corporations elicited negative reactions. Public evi- dence of a desire for limits on corporate speech includes such things as the federal no-call list, which is enforced by the FTC and the FCC. Although some organizations argue that this is an abridgement of corporate speech because political and nonprofit charities are exempt, as well as some businesses (related to credit issues), most people are relieved to have at least their landline phones and faxes quieter. On the judicial side, a problem may be in trying to decide what is in the best interest of the individual or the community. (See Chapter 6 on com- munitarian vs. utilitarian ethics.)

can be admitted and to put a time limit on the restriction. So, the tension is between the company trying to fulfill disclosure rules on material informa- tion and gag orders in courts where it is trying cases. With the 2010 BP oil spill lawsuits and appeals likely to go on for years, the company is going to be under many constraints to tell its side of the story. Although the Texas Gulf oil spill is a high-profile corporate case, contempt of court could become a problem for any company involved in jury trials.

Just how much advertising can influence juries is the issue, and research findings are on the side of those who say it does. But even if influence can be shown, does this necessarily impair the plaintiff’s right to a fair and impartial hearing? Judges have not always agreed. Many companies, nevertheless, see the need to launch defensive action in the face of the litigation journalism/ public relations mounted by plaintiffs. With the lines between advertising and publicity blurred and in an age of “melded media,” it may be difficult to prove unfair influence over a jury either way

Publicizing Political Views The U.S. Supreme Court already ruled that state laws could not prevent firms from publicizing or advertising their position on polit- ical issues that materially affect their property, busi- ness or assets. Now, federal law has given support to organizational free speech. Thus, corporations, like individuals, have the right to support candidates and convey information of public interest, whether or not the issue directly affects the company.

When corporate campaign contributions were illegal in most states, corporations developed politi- cal action committees (PACs), which can gather funds and direct their use. PACs, although they report to the Federal Election Commission, are also required to advise the IRS of their purpose, and report annual contributions of $200 or more and expenditures of $500 or more.

With the 2010 Supreme Court rulings, some com- panies may no longer see a need for PACs. However, the experience of retailer Target suggests that the use of a PAC may the safest way to direct its support. In 2010, the retailer donated $150,000 to MN Forward, a political action group backing a Minnesota Republi- can gubernatorial candidate who did not support gay rights. The donation stirred up a backlash from Tar- get consumers, institutional investors and advocacy groups in all media, including virtual rallies. Target did not withdraw the contribution or make a donation to a gay rights advocacy group.

Contempt of Court Contempt may occur when you comment on a case that is pending before a court in such a way that it can be construed as an attempt to influence a jury or prospective jurors. When a case is in its pretrial stages, you should avoid putting your argument in advertising or publicity. A company with its case in court can’t take it to the public by issuing releases or buying ads explaining its position. It can’t send out a mailing if the judge has ordered that no public comment be made on the trial. If the news media’s coverage of a trial erodes public confidence and hurts the company, it still can’t respond. Failure to comply may result in a contempt citation. Even issue advertisements can cause problems. Aetna Insurance’s 1988 ads about damage suits running up the cost of insurance created problems subsequently in choosing a jury that had not been “exposed.”

The tobacco industry that is still involved in injury lawsuits due to appeals needs to tell investors what to expect, but can’t because of gag orders placed by judges hearing many of its cases. Trial courts are restricted from making blanket gag orders unless a fair trial might be compromised. However, the court is expected to decide whether new evidence

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One cause for consumer outrage may have been the conflict with Target’s asserted values and its record on corporate employee diversity. In any case, any corpo- rate donations to specific candidates automatically cre- ates potential for a public relations crisis.

A PAC could be a safer choice. Many PACs choose to support issues and candidates that are in sync with the corporate mission and values; some- times that may mean support for candidates from different parties.44

501(c)(3) organizations. The handbook says churches can get involved in nonpartisan voter education activities or public forums. Religious institutions also can separately incorporate organizations, under 501(c)(4) rules. Such organizations have more free- dom to engage in partisan activities.

Washington, D.C., has 17 religious lobbying offices. Of these, 12 are separate religious denomina- tions; three represent several denominations in the same family of churches; and two are large ecumeni- cal groups—the National Council of Churches (32 denominations) and the National Association of Evangelicals (47 denominations).46

Lobbying Laws Basically, in the USA, the First Amendment gives individuals, groups and corporations the right to petition their government at any level. However, in some cases registration is required. (See Individual Practitioners’ Responsibilities below.)

Federal lobbying laws are different from state laws, so you need to check both. State laws cover lobbying at the municipal level to give both account- ability and transparency to efforts to affect policy.

At the federal level, broad changes in 2009 affect- ing lobbying appear in the Act to Improve the Laws Relating to Campaign Finance, Ethics and Lobby- ing. The act defined legislative and executive lobby- ing and clarified rules for nonprofits, especially advocacy organizations. If your organization is spe- cifically a lobbying entity, it has to register and report. Volunteers for any nonprofit don’t need to register. However, if they are paid by the organiza- tion, they’ll need to register.

For nonprofit groups, lobbying activities are mostly tied to their tax status. Tax-exempt nonprofit organizations (IRC501(c) (3) are permitted to lobby to an “insubstantial amount,” but prohibited from engaging in political activity. There are strict finan- cial limits on lobbying expenses.

An exception is made for nonprofits that qualify under IRC501(h). These include educational institu- tions; hospitals and medical research organizations; organizations supporting government schools; orga- nizations publicly supported by charitable contribu- tions; organizations publicly supported by admissions and sales; and other organizations supporting certain types of public charities. These do not include churches, auxiliaries or associations of a church or members of church affiliated groups 45

For churches, the line between legal and illegal is a bit fuzzy, but the IRS handbook “Tax-Exempt Sta- tus for Your Organization” offers guidance affecting

Individual Practitioners' Responsibilities Public relations practitioners must register with the U.S. government when they represent a foreign government or act as a lobbyist, and they are personally legally liable for the accuracy of statements they write for advertising and publicity—regardless of who directed them to write the material. They are also responsible for material and information they provide as a news source. Additionally, they are personally and individually responsible to their employer, organization or client and can go to federal prison for their misdeeds such as fraud.

Registering Political Activity Public relations practi- tioners representing foreign governments must be registered with the U.S. government as foreign agents. Complexity created by globalization adds to this problem and contributes confusion to the ban on internal audiences receiving messages crafted for propagandizing international audiences. (See infor- mation about the Gillett Amendment in Chapter 1.) In what is being called “public diplomacy,” many public relations practitioners are involved in creating messages as a part of relationships with other parts of the world that inevitably cross national boundaries because of the Internet. All sorts of issues arise, such as transparency and figuring out what commu- nication activity falls under the need to register.

Many public affairs jobs include lobbying. If you spend more than 50 hours lobbying legislators or have been paid more than $6,000 from a single client to lobby in the last six months, you’ll need to regis- ter. You can do this through the Secretary of the U.S. Senate, and sometimes you can register at that office’s website. It’s a good idea to remind clients to register and to report their lobbying expenses because it helps them avoid a fine. You must register

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again each calendar year. You’ll need to register with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives if you lobby members of the House. You’ll need to register with other political groups if you lobby in different areas. If you don’t register for the Senate and/or House, you can pay a civil fine of up to $50,000. You also cannot make gifts worth more than $50 to legislators and not more than a total of $100 worth to a single individual in a year.

If you have been working for the U.S. govern- ment, you cannot lobby the group or departments for which you worked for a year after you’ve left the job. Annual registration forms require that you report government positions you’ve held for the last two years after you’ve left office.

If you are lobbying for your state, each state has its own rules for registering, and the rules on the amount being paid for doing so varies by state. Reg- istering as a lobbyist also involves a fee; again, that varies by state. You can look up that information for your state, and you can find rules of registration for lobbying for different countries too.

meet the regulatory requirements of various govern- ment agencies, commissions and bureaus. The public relations corporate staff officers should know what information is filed with these various government offices to anticipate any that might cause problems if released under an FOIA request.48

Corporate lawyers will advise you about what confidential material is protected under the law, but generally the only types of information exempted from disclosure under the FOIA are trade secrets (narrowly defined) and confidential, commercial or financial data that are obtained from outside the gov- ernment Competitive disadvantage is a legitimate argument for protecting confidentiality, but it must be proved; the mere possibility of harm to a compet- itive position is not adequate. Some portions of oth- erwise protected material still may have to be released if, after critical portions are eliminated, the basic confidentiality is protected. Another way to jus- tify confidentiality is to show that release of the information will make it difficult for the government to get the same type of information in the future.

It may be that you are searching for information by using the FOIA. Different U.S. government agen- cies have their own agency’s interpretation of the FOIA that you can locate with a Web search. Coun- tries that have some freedom of information guide- fines can be accessed with a Web search by country and by agency.

Product Liability and Publicity and Advertising Calling consumers’ attention to a product that later harms them raises liability concerns among public relations writers and advertising copywriters who handle pub- licity. Many writers now ask for certification of prod- uct reliability before writing news releases and ad copy, as assurance that the product will perform as claimed and will not cause harm. Agency managers and in-house managers who were previously reluc- tant to ask for such protection for their ad and pub- licity copywriters might reconsider now that many media are doing so. Media have been characterized as “conduits” for harmful product or service infor- mation in judicial proceedings, and they don’t like the idea of facing expensive lawsuits.47

Right to Know Many states in the USA have enacted “right to know” laws patterned on the FOIA. These laws make information publicly available regarding the presence of hazardous substances in the environ- ment or other social threats. Some of the informa- tion becoming available under such laws is being released as a result of court rulings in favor of com- pany management against regulatory agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administra- tion (OSHA).Complying with Consumer Rights

People have sought legal means to obtain informa- tion that will help them make rational decisions about their fives. As a practitioner, you need to know what responsibilities you have to respond to requests for information.

Open-Meeting Laws PR people need to be aware of which of their organization’s meetings must be announced and open to the public. “Sunshine laws” require that almost all government meetings, except those dealing with personnel matters, be open. Highly unfavorable publicity can result from violations.

In many states, it is impermissible to say only “personnel matters” or “closed” on the notice of a meeting. The matters to be discussed must be specif- ically fisted on the agenda, even though that part of

Freedom of Information Act The FOIA brings much government-held information within the reach of the news media and the public in general, including reams of data provided by corporate executives to

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the meeting may be closed. Federal law requires that governmental bodies keep a tape recording of any executive session that is closed to the public. How- ever, anyone who makes that tape recording or a portion of it public is subject to civil and criminal penalties. (Guides to different states’ access laws are often published in Quill, the magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists.)

In their role as a news source, PR people often respond to calls from media representatives or initi- ate calls to share information that may or may not be about their client(s) or organization. If their state- ments are false or misleading, they may find them- selves involved in litigation—even if confidentiality has been promised by the media.

When work is purchased from an outside person (as supplier), there can be confusion later unless an agreement is drawn up. Most PR people either buy file rights or one-time rights (which are nonexclu- sive). But even then you should make sure there is a written agreement when the work is ordered.

A Supreme Court decision issued in 1989 said that written agreements between a freelancer and the commissioner of the work are valid only if the work fits under one or more of nine definitions found in the law: work created within the scope of employ- ment; collective work (ads); part of an audiovisual work; a translation; a supplementary work; a compi- lation; instructional text; a test or answers to a test; or an atlas.

The transfer of ownership of the copyright is defined as an assignment—a transfer of exclusive license to reproduce the work; to prepare a derivative from it; to distribute copies by sale, rent, lease, loan or transfer of ownership; and to perform or display the work in public. A written assignment has to be filed with the Library of Congress, just like copy- rights the originator would file.

Publishers going online got a surprise in 1999 when the courts ruled that freelancers’ work they had paid for nevertheless needed permissions. Pub- fishers cannot put freelancers’ work on CD-ROMs or into online materials without going back to them for permissions, which means the publishers have to pay them again. This includes all freelancers: writers, photographers, musicians and fine artists unless the freelancer specifically gave up that right in the con- tract. What companies have done is craft “all rights” contracts for print and electronic reproduction. Google had to backpedal on a promise to provide an electronic library and decided, in August 2005, to delay scanning copyrighted materials into digital formats. Some libraries involved in the project had only provided works in the public domain.

Copyright Laws Copyright laws protect a creative work, both in form and in style, from publication in any manner. Basically, “publication” means use and includes all media. This protection of intellectual property extends across bor- ders. The purpose, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization, is “to encourage a dynamic cre- ative culture, while returning value to creators so that they can lead a dignified economic existence, and to provide widespread, affordable access to content for the public.”49 Before quoting from or using in any other way copyrighted works, you must ask for permission from the creator or the owner of the rights.

There are some exceptions to this general rule, however. If artistic efforts (writings, art, graphics, photos or other creative work) are done on company time by an employee using company resources, the material belongs to the organization (the person’s salary constitutes his or her compensation). In some cases, an organization will make an arrangement for one-time use and permit the artist to earn extra money by subsequently selling the work elsewhere. However, the artist can only sell work done on com- pany time when a prior agreement exists between employer and employee. In work for hire, then, per- mission requests go to the organization involved in presenting it, not to the individual who created it

If the organization wants to use other work by the employee that is not a part of his or her regular duties or that doesn’t qualify as “work made for hire,” permission must be obtained. An example would be a piece of art produced by an employee privately and on his or her own time that is to be used on a company holiday greeting card.

Extent of Protection Copyrights cover written and recorded (audiovisual and photographic) work and are an intangible property right that begins when an original work is created. Copyright protects the specific expression of the idea. A person who wishes to copyright an original work must use the copyright symbol (©) on a substantial number of copies that are publicly distributed. In addition, two copies must be sent within three months of publication or recording to the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress, with a request for an application for

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registration for copyright. Fees vary with the size of the work being copyrighted (http://www.copyright. gov/circs/circ04.html). The copyright owner has exclusive rights of reproduction, adaptation, distribu- tion, performance and display. Copyrights that were secured prior to Jan. 1, 1978, are protected for 28 years and may be renewed during the 28th year for an additional 47 years.50 Public Law 105-298 increased protection by 20 more years, so now copy- rights can extend for 95 years. Individual works not done “for hire” are automatically protected from the time of creation until 70 years after the author’s death. Company publication copyrights are good for 75 years from the year of first publication or for 100 years from the year of a publication’s creation if it is never published. When copyrights expire, the works they covered enter the “public domain” and become available to all for any of the previously restricted purposes. A push for changes in copyright law encouraged the 111th U.S. Congress to pass the Copyright Cleanup, Clarification and Corrections Act of 2010.

Arguments for use without permission often state that much of the material is being modified, and thus its use is not an infringement because it has been transformed. Even arrangements where boundaries once seemed clear no longer are. For example, in 2007 the red cross symbol became a point of conten- tion between the nonprofit Red Cross agency and the commercial company Johnson & Johnson. One has the rights to use the symbol for nonprofit and the other for commercial use, but the borderline got blurred in 2005 when the nonprofit began licensing its logo to commercial makers of safety products.

Copying, or “copycatting,” is a common problem in advertising; however, because ideas cannot be copyrighted, there is seldom a legal case in this area. The form that ideas take, not the ideas them- selves, is entitled to copyright. However, a 1989 Supreme Court decision enables advertisers to copy- right individual ads separately from the copyright that covers the publication in which they appear. If an advertiser brings a previously composed ad to a newspaper for publication, the advertiser owns the copyright unless there is an explicit agreement to the contrary.

However, if the staff of the newspaper or maga- zine prepares the ad, the periodical owns the ad and can copyright it. Such an ad can’t be published else- where without permission from (and compensation to) the publication that created it. Of course, for

the copyright to be enforceable, the published ad must carry a copyright notice.

Fair Use Violation of any copyright is an infringe- ment, but one defense against infringement is fair use.51 This includes use of one or more parts of the work in criticism, comment, news reporting, teach- ing, scholarship or research. Section 107 of the Copyright Law considers reproduction of a work to be of fair use in criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. However, there are four factors to consider in determining fair use: 1. The purpose and character of the use, including

whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purpose;

2. The nature of the copyrighted work; 3. The amount and substantiality of the portion

used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;

4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work.

Many publishers filed suit against Kinko’s Copies because of copyright violations in preparing “text- books to order” for professors. Most Kinko’s outlets are now extremely cautious about checking copy- rights and asking professors to get permission, in writing, from the copyright holders before they will copy such materials.

Public relations people might be tempted to send published information to people they think need to see it as attached documents in email. This could be a violation. Texaco, for example, found itself in court because it had been copying articles from scientific and technical journals to use in the collection of research data. The legal case centered on one researcher who had made single photocopies of eight complete articles from a research journal in the Texaco library and put these copies in his per- sonal files. Texaco had paid for three subscriptions to this journal at the institutional subscription rate. Texaco claimed this was fair use. The Court dis- agreed, ruling that the researcher made the copies for commercial reasons, to improve profitability, and cited the number of articles copied, each in its entirety. The Court also found that the plaintiff, the Copyright Clearance Center, had lost revenue under its photocopy licensing system, so it accepted the publishers’ argument that they had suffered substan- tial harm.52 It’s best to ask permission first rather

192 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

than fighting a court case after the fact. Scholars often think they may be exempt, but if a scholarly publication accepts their work, they’ll find that they have to get permission before the manuscript is accepted for publication. It’s a problem if at that point permission is denied.

commissioned for use as a part of a collective work, if the parties agree that it is work “for hire.”

Copyright infringement applies also to music, pub- lished or not, which explains why more and more songs for everything from sales meetings to commercials are being written “for hire.” Unless music is in the public domain, it may not be used. Even if the music itself is not copyrighted, the words may be. With regard to music, copyright infringement means using music, words or both—or similar-sounding versions—without express permission. And although permission may have been given to use the composition and the words, an additional copyright may exist on the specific arrange- ment or version of the composition.

If you want to use a recording, you may have to pay for performance rights. You can’t just choose music you like and use it Furthermore, if you are determined to use a particular piece, be prepared for long negotiations for clearance and sometimes very costly permission fees, especially if you are going to broadcast it The term broadcast has its own defini- tion, which does not necessarily include using mass media. For example, sponsors of any form of public dancing in an entertainment establishment that uses records instead of five music have to pay the copyright holders a fee, and musicians who perform have to pay to use the compositions they perform in public or for recordings. Nonprofit organizations can usually obtain permission to use music in a public relations campaign either free of charge or by paying a small fee. However, they still have to get permission.55

Fair use means occasions when copyrighted mate- rial can be used without permission. The nature of the copyrighted work and the proportion of the work used always have been important; thus, quoting a single verse of a long poem or a few lines from a song con- stitutes acceptable fair use, but reproducing most of the poem or song does not Use for nonprofit pur- poses generally has been permitted. However, the accessibility of copy machines and the ability to “pub- lish” electronically by putting something (words or art) into electronic computer networks (usually through bulletin boards) have generated more restrictive inter- pretations. One major key in recent interpretations of the law is the effect of use of the copyrighted material on the market value of the original. Another is use for commercial purposes, now defined not just as making money but also as profiting through “appropriating” someone else’s creative effort.

Just because something is in cyberspace doesn’t mean it is free to download, link or metatag. You

Plagiarism Abuse of copyright should not be confused with pla- giarism. Plagiarism is the use and passing along as one’s own original work someone else’s created material, which may or may not be copyrighted. A student taking term papers off the Internet and sub- mitting them as personally created work is plagiariz- ing, but may or may not be violating an established copyright. A nonprofit group trying to publish a cookbook of recipes from performers who had appeared at its theater found an abundance of situa- tions of plagiarism, some of which were also copy- right violations. The same discovery was made by writer Anne Fadiman, who noted that, “The more I’ve read about plagiarism, the more I’ve come to think that literature is one big recycling bin.” Of course, the frequency of plagiarism, even in estab- lished literary works, does not make it legitimate.53

Sometimes, it is difficult to determine who owns the rights. One issue that has arisen is the right of professors/teachers to own rights to material pre- pared for classroom use, including online “shells” and websites. There can be issues about research too, especially if the research is done with grant money. How much of an issue these have become is reflected in a specific copyright in research and amendment, Title 10, to the revised copyright law that allows faculty members at Department of Defense service academies and schools of military education to copyright certain materials. Most uni- versities have policy statements on rights, but federal law prevails. However, in nonmilitary universities, the only protection faculty have may be university copyright policies that give them recognition but stay within the work-for-hire guidelines of the national copyright act. Until this is clear for all uni- versities, faculty will have to reach specific and writ- ten agreements with their institutions.34

Since so much public relations work is farmed out to freelancers, public relations freelancers should realize that they don’t own works they were paid to produce. This includes work produced by employ- ees within the scope of employment and work

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can violate the law and be fined for it. However, these laws are developing almost daily, so search for information before clicking. Some of the more recent information is available from the nation’s law schools.

defamation). In a global media age, this means defam- ing anyone, USA or elsewhere. (See Figure 7.3.)

Civil Libel Civil libel is defined as tortious (that is, noncriminal) defamation of character by malicious publication tending to tarnish the reputation of a liv- ing person so as to expose him or her to public hatred, contempt or ridicule. It also means injuring the per- son in his or her trade or profession. Use of “alleged” or other subtle qualifications offers no protection. Civil libel law encompasses all forms of defamatory communication about a person’s character, including headlines, tag lines and all artwork (photographs, car- toons and caricatures). It also applies to errors that may result in libel, such as incorrect initials or the wrong name with the wrong photo. If the defamation occurs in an accurately quoted statement that contains a libelous statement, the person or medium publishing the statement may still be held responsible.

In libel cases involving public officials and public figures, “actual malice” must be proved. But don’t count on plaintiffs’ being held to that standard of proof. Definitions of all three designations—libel, malice and public figures—remain subject to individ- ual interpretation in the courts.

Publication in libel suits is defined as dissemina- tion of more than one copy. Consequendy, office memos, letters, telegrams and broadcasting scripts are all subject to libel laws, just as newspapers, news- letters and brochures are. Anyone who takes part in the procurement, composition and publication of libelous material shares responsibility for the libel. Even though the original publisher has no control over subsequent publications by others, they are still responsible for the act of libel. Even persons who bring the matter to the attention of anyone con- nected with possible publication are subject to being sued for libel. Copying and distributing a libelous piece can result in additional action against the per- son or persons responsible in the organization.

Slander is spoken defamation. It does not always apply to broadcast defamations, however, because multiple copies of a script may have been produced; thus, even though the copy is eventually spoken, the offending scripts constitute publication and are therefore libelous, not slanderous.

Confusions: Patents and Trademarks Patents are often confused with copyrights. Patents are government grants that offer protection for inventions and novel- ties; trademarks are distinctive, recognizable symbols (word, design or a combination of the two) protected from infringement, previous claim or use without per- mission. In this sense, trademarks are like a company’s brand name or identification symbol (logo). To use a patent or trademark, you must check with the govern- ment registry and ask the owners for permission to use. The Patent Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce administers laws dealing with patents and trademarks. Although trademarks usually are associ- ated with products, an ongoing conflict exists between Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the breast cancer char- ity that trademarked “Race for the Cure,” and any other charities that use “... the cure.” The breast cancer charity says it wants to protect its good name but tries to work out agreements to be sure donors understand where their funds are going.36

Is a trademark infringement really an infringe- ment if you can’t see it? Maybe, if it’s on the Web. Web managers have been implanting trademarks on their sites with invisible coding so that visitors to the site don’t see the trademark, but it is identified by search engines that then guide the unknowing Web user to the site. The first court ruling on this issue occurred in 1997, when a San Francisco federal judge ordered invisible coding of Playboy magazine to be removed from two adult-oriented Web pages. The suit was filed by Playboy Enterprises when it was discovered that the two sites were located by search engines whenever they looked for “Playboy” or “Playmate.” Other cases suggest it may involve unfair trade practices in that it is considered unfair to pass off someone else’s business as your own.37

Defamation: Libel and Slander There are two kinds of libel: civil and criminal. Libel (written or otherwise “published” defamation) was originally confined to statements made in the print media, but it now applies to statements made in the electronic media as well. The courts have interpreted libel as a more serious offense than slander (spoken

Criminal Libel Criminal libel—breach of peace or treason—involves inciting to riot or some other form of violence against the government or publish- ing an obscenity or blasphemy. Although charges of

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Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice194

Text not available due to copyright restrictions

criminal libel are rarely pressed in the USA, libelous material can and does go everywhere instantly. The reason for fewer libel cases in the USA lies in the First Amendment. Other countries and other gov- ernments are other situations.

3. Fair comment: statements made in an honest (albeit erroneous) belief that they are true; also, statements with some element of exaggeration or irony in them that nonetheless do not overstep the bounds of reasonable civility; however, it is up to the jury to decide the issue of “fairness.” Guide- lines are (1) sufficient public interest in the subject addressed by the author; (2) intent to serve a just cause; and (3) a reasonable and supportable con- clusion drawn from the reported facts.

A constitutional protection, if not a defense, is provided by the Supreme Court’s 1964 decision in

Defense Against Libel Charges in the USA Three tradi- tional defenses against charges of libel in the USA are: 1. Truth: substantial proof that is admissible in

court. 2. Privilege: a fair and true report of a public, offi-

cial or judicial proceeding.

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Chapter 7 / PR and the Law 195

New York Times v. Sullivan, 5 8 which involved publi- cation by the New York Times of a political advertise- ment that made various (false) allegations about a sheriff. The newspaper evidendy did not attempt to verify the substance of these allegations prior to pub- lishing the ad. The Supreme Court’s opinion in the case held that a public official must prove malice in a libel suit, rather than some form of negligence. The trial court decides the question of “malice,” but basi- cally it involves an intent to harm. The primary sig- nificance of the New York Times v. Sullivan case lies in its implication that the Supreme Court may look at libel judgments to make sure that constitutionally guaranteed freedoms have not been denied. In addi- tion, because the defamatory statements in the case were contained in an advertisement, the court’s deci- sion signaled that the standard of proof it was impos- ing applied to commercial speech as well as to noncommercial speech. Finally, the Supreme Court said it was limiting the power of all states to award libel damages for statements about public officials. In the court’s opinion, actual malice was defined as either knowledge that the libelous statement was false or a reckless disregard for whether it was true or false. Thus, what the writer thinks about the truth or falsity of the statement becomes a central question in assessing its actionability.

A subsequent case extended this requirement to “public figures” other than government officials— that is, to anyone who has put him- or herself in the public arena, such as a United Fund chairperson. However, in a 1974 decision,39 the Supreme Court held that information conveyed by the press that falsely maligns a person—such as by leveling improv- able accusations—is still subject to a jury determina- tion of negligence, regardless of the public figure’s status or voluntary involvement. What this means to PR people is that careless overstatements in a news release can be costly.

That is even more prevalent now because news releases are posted on websites, and news releases that appear in news media can show up anywhere in the world. Cases may be tried wherever a country or its citizens are involved. Even in the USA, states have different approaches to defense of libel charges.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public figures must prove statements false, defamatory and published with knowledge that they were false or with reckless disregard for their truth or falseness. Private figures in most states must prove negligence to recover actual damages, and all plaintiffs, whether

private or public figures, must prove reckless disre- gard for the truth or calculated falsehood to recover punitive damages. Because releases typically go into more than one state, you have to assume that a pri- vate plaintiff will only need to prove negligence to recover actual damages. However, the writer of the release might be in one of a few states that imposes a higher standard of proof.

The standard itself is interpreted differently in some states. Some use the “prudent person” stan- dard, while others use the “prudent publisher” (which applies the standard of care set by the media).60 One defense to an action filed by a private individual is that if the person has read and approved an article about himself or herself before its publica- tion, he or she cannot later claim to have been libeled.

Another limit to libel charges is the statute of lim- itations, which provides that a person cannot be sued after a certain period of time has elapsed, but this varies state by state. Some state courts may accept libel suits (and slander suits) on behalf of the dead, reasoning that their names and reputations could be defamed. Expressions of opinion also can be consid- ered libelous and not seen as “fair comment” if they contain false facts. This opens up the possibility that all opinion pieces with factual errors could be found to be actionable.

Because of the freedom of the Internet, gossip columnist Matt Drudge had been getting by with much more than traditional media could hope to until he libeled Sidney and Jacqueline Jordan Blu- menthal. The couple filed a $30 million defamation lawsuit when Drudge reported an untruth: that White House recruit Sidney Blumenthal had a spou- sal abuse past that had been covered up. The Blu- menthals were public figures. Drudge made no pretense to check the truthfulness of his material, and he was a known detractor of President Bill Clin- ton. Within 24 hours, Drudge apologized and took the item off his website. But what about America Online (AOL), which carried the column on its ser- vice? Is AOL a common carrier like a phone com- pany? If so, it has no responsibility. Is it a publisher? The Blumenthals think it is. It might even be argued that AOL is an employer, because it pays Drudge and promotes his site.61

Legal cases often involve governments, businesses and citizens of other countries. Although there are no universal laws for defamation defenses, in his preface to International Libel and Privacy , editor

196 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

The power of the Internet is reflected dramatically in two separate, but quite different, cases. One is the impact of a website set up by supporters of three Duke University lacrosse team mem-

bers who had been accused by a North Carolina Central University student of rape at a party where she was an entertainer.

The 13-month-long case was covered by the major media, including the New York Times, News- week, The New Yorker and in a segment of CBS’s 60 Minutes. The story also appeared all over the Internet in blogs and social media. The three men were prosecuted by the Durham District Attorney , who stated publicly that a rape had taken place and that as many as 46 of the players were still under suspicion.

The players had the support of a group of faculty members, who placed an ad in The Chronicle of Higher Education, and of many fans, who attended the lacrosse games, both in their league and in the national championship. The website drew many supporters from family and community members. During the legal action, a blog was set up to give ongoing information about the lawsuit. The univer- sity’s effort to take it down was denied.

After an internal investigation following the school’s procedures, the university put two of the stu- dents who had not yet graduated on “administrative leave," but allowed them to return as the case against them began to crumble.

The state bar association filed ethics charges against the then Attorney General for withholding evi- dence in the men’s favor and for making inflammatory statements about the case. Roy Cooper, the new North Carolina Attorney General, ended the much-publicized case by declaring the three men “innocent of the charges.”

In another , quite different case in late 2010, the U.S. government attempted to respond to Wiki- Leaks’s release of official information about the war in Afghanistan. WikiLeaks accepts and publishes anonymous submissions of documents not made available to the public. The U .S . government was helpless to stop publication of its own military and diplomatic documents, and these became available globally.

Sources: Duke University: http://news.duke.edu/lacrosseincident; “Visual Litigation: Litigation Public Relations” www.nyls. edu; Afghan War Diary:wikileaks.org; www.guardian.co.uk/media/wikileaks. All accessed 8/20/10.

Charles J. Glasser, Jr., suggests that four standards should be basic: 1) setting high standards for accu- racy—over style and speed; 2) fairness above all else; 3) serving the public interest as a criterion; and 4) cultural sensitivity. Glasser says, “Don’t confuse the right to publish with what’s right to publish.

information; and (4) appropriation (using a person’s name or likeness for commercial purposes without the person’s consent).

In 1996, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service set the first national standards for the protection of health information. The privacy rule was established to implement the Health Insur- ance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The rule applies to health plans, health care clearing- houses and to any health care provider, and this means that you can’t get information about an indi- vidual except from that person or from a family member who is allowed to speak for that person. The “protected health information” includes demo- graphic data that relate to the individual’s past, pres- ent or future physical or mental health or condition;

»62

Right of Privacy Among the legal changes occurring as a result of the Internet, a major one is privacy. The right of privacy applies only to people, not to organizations. Viola- tions of the law take four forms: (1) intrusion into solitude; (2) portraying someone in a false light (making the person appear to be someone or some- thing he or she isn’t); (3) public disclosure of private

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Chapter 7 / PR and the Law 197

the provision of health care to the individual; the past, present or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual; and identification of the individual or information for which there is a reason- able basis to believe it can be used to identify the individual.63

What this means for public relations practice is that if an employee has a health issue, you cannot get the information directly from any provider. Employers may get some information from a family member, but should not disclose in Even when the health of a CEO of a publicly held company is an issue, details are not disclosed without that person’s expressed permis- sion, which he or she may not be able to give. Only if the information is considered “material” is anything likely to be revealed beyond that the person is on med- ical leave. Investors may be concerned, but cannot be told. In a crisis, the PR practitioner is able to report only those dead or injured, and, if the latter, probably not their specific condition other than “serious” or something else very general. This became an issue in campus shootings and the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, when the mental health of the individuals) was known internally, but was protected.

Additionally, colleges have to obey the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to the extent that they cannot tell employers, potential employers or even parents anything about students, such as grades, test scores and financial aid records and other behavior information without the student’s permission. The law applies to any school, public or private, that receives federal funds.

Unlike the other three privacy issues, appropriation does not have to breach any legal confidentiality in all cases, like HIPPA; violate decency, or cause mental anguish or ridicule. Yet, appropriation is the privacy violation that causes most PR problems. Model and photo releases are usually obtained in order to avoid these problems. Only adults may sign these. When children are involved, parental permission is required.

A picture, letter or name of a living person cannot be used in advertising or publicity without his or her consent. For instance, a cereal company once used an artist’s representation of a woman that showed her pregnant. Because the real woman was neither preg- nant nor married, she sued.

Photos taken at an event for publicity purposes may later be used innocendy or ignorandy in a bro- chure about the event. The photo might even be used in an ad, perhaps because it just happens to be available. Using such photos in an ad can lead to

legal problems. Furthermore, even in a publicity sit- uation, people may not be aware that their picture is being taken and for any number of reasons may not wish to have their photograph used.

Most attorneys for public relations people advise that releases should always be obtained. In most states, consent is the best defense; typically, news- worthiness is a more difficult rationale to defend. For example, employee pictures and names can be used internally; but if distribution is external, news- worthiness is lost as a legal defense. Even photos for internal use must be germane to the job—for exam- ple, giving information about promotions—or an employee who has not given consent may sue for invasion of privacy. Furthermore, use of an employ- ee’s name or image must end when the person leaves the organization’s employment.

Employees must be treated both as employees and as private individuals who should not be forced to pose for annual report pictures if they don’t want to. The company doesn’t have the right to use their photos without permission. Furthermore, if they leave the organization and have not signed a permis- sion form for the use of their picture, using it anyway can create a serious legal problem. If their leaving was not by their choice, they may object to their photo being used even if there is a permission form on record. That is one reason to date permission forms and remove them when prudent.

The courts have upheld the use of celebrity look- alikes under the First Amendment privilege, as long as it is clear that the real celebrity is not involved. A “false fight” invasion of privacy suit in 1986 was ruled to state a claim similar to a suit for libel. The particular case ( Eastwood v. Cascade Broadcasting et al. in the Washington State Supreme Court) was subject to the two-year statute of limitations for fifing on libel.

The availability of information online has created serious concerns about privacy. America Online per- mits users to have aliases when using their service, but when faced with a subpoena, the company will comply by supplying names and information about subscribers. Critics maintain that while a criminal subpoena leaves no recourse but to respond, civil subpoenas should be resisted. AOL says it notifies subscribers when court requests are pending so they may fight it if they wish. And while subscribers’ names may not be protected, AOL says their email is protected.64 Social networking sites, such as Face- book, have been the source of many privacy

Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice198

problems, and most of the social networks attempt to protect users from abuse of information about them on the site as well as disclosure of more personal data than the user intended.

Databases of all kinds are at risk of hacking, acci- dental disclosure of information through lost mem- ory sticks, stolen laptops, etc. Sometimes, it is a problem of data sharing, as Lexis-Nexis had with its P-TRAK, a database that is used by the legal com- munity to find litigants, heirs and others involved in a case. In 2009, Puerto Rico enacted a birth certifi- cate law intended to protect the identity and credit of all people born in Puerto Rico by issuing new certi- ficates. Apparently, fraudulent certificates, however, were being used to get U.S. passports, Social Secu- rity benefits and other federal services. The Puerto Rican government extended the old passports for three months, through Sept. 30, 2010. The certifi- cates could be ordered online, by phone anywhere in the world or by mail for Puerto Ricans living in the USA. What occurred is that some Puerto Ricans didn’t get the message about needing the new birth certificates by the July 1, 2010, deadline. In Chicago alone, 50,000 Illinois residents don’t have proof of their Puerto Rican citizenship.63

A continuing issue that brought privacy to the forefront early on came with the public discovery of “cookies,” tags deposited on the hard drive that identify visitors to websites and register what they “click on,” so that pitches from the company can be personalized when you click back on and are recog- nized. This became disconcerting to some, although others liked it. It is possible to avoid this; perhaps that is what is saving companies from being accused of privacy violations.

What is of increasing concern, though, are efforts by law enforcement to get records of what people read. This effort is not new, but before a law enforcement officer had to confront a librarian, almost always hostile to the idea, or a book dealer, usually not too agreeable either. Many states have laws that protect librarians, although not booksellers, the latter who can be subpoenaed.

contracts and request for permission to use copy- righted material requests that often come with a “contract” regarding use and compensation.

Major elements of a consent release are identified by Frank Walsh as written consent of all parties (employer, employee and parent of employee if a minor); consideration (something of value exchanged, such as $1); scope of the use defined (a photo used in a brochure only); duration (a set time period, not forever); words binding (heirs also have to be considered after the death of the person giving consent); and no other consideration involved (such as some sort of inducement or promise).66

Contracts with celebrities should spell out exactly what the celebrity is to do and what aspect of the public personality will be used. The following con- siderations are significant: 1. Is endorsement for the client by the public per-

sonality a factor? 2. Does the public personality expect to be paid for

the use of his or her name? 3. Are the public relations activities on behalf of

the client proprietary? 4. Are there any relevant contractual provisions?67

Ordinarily, with celebrities, you probably will be working with that person’s agent, who will supply the contract. You just need to be sure that the activi- ties you need the celebrity to perform are included in the contract.

Model Release Serious legal problems can arise from failure to get a person’s permission before using his or her photograph or other likeness in publicity or advertising. The photographer should always have the model sign a photo release form. Pads of model releases are available in most photo or stationery stores. If pictures of minors are used, the permission of parents or guardians must also be obtained. Notice that the permission for use extends to public- ity for the organization only. This guarantees that the pictures will not be used to endorse a product or to further any other unspecified purpose.

A word of warning here: Many photographs are taken by digital devices, perhaps even by the PR per- son at an event or a meeting. If you are that PR person, you may need to carry permission forms with you. Reporters working for a media outlet don’t need to do this, but anyone else does if that photo is going to be used for commercial purposes.

Contracts and Consents PR practitioners need not get involved in a lot of permission forms and contracts, but they should know about at least six such forms: the model release, the employee contract, the photo agreement, the work-for-hire (art or writing) agreement, production

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Employee Contract A client has a right to expect loy- alty and confidentiality from a practitioner. Some large PR firms have their employees sign a restric- ture covenant—and that means everyone, from the account executive to the file clerk. What are the pen- alties for breaking a covenant? Any sort of punish- ment that management decrees—even firing, if the breach injures a big client or causes the company to lose clients unnecessarily. A covenant is a moral commitment as well as a psychological one (for, of course, you are less likely to do something if you publicly say you won’t). Employers need to be espe- cially careful with insider information, because “tip- pers” as well as “traders” are penalized for using any material nonpublic information.

Contracts are another matter. These are legal documents. They often have clauses about confi- dentiality, and employers often include noncompete clauses in their hiring contracts. Then, when an employee leaves, there need be no discussion about the issue of competition. Contracts, of course, can be broken, or the noncompete clause can be negotiated.

control over their right to use the same information elsewhere in a different format. The work-for-hire letter of agreement sets the precise terms of the employment arrangement.68

Production Contracts In making any production agreement (print or electronic), remember that no two situations are exactly alike, so the forms you find online may not work for every situation. Often, the contractor will have an agreement for you to sign. Just be sure that you understand specific deadlines, quality and quantity and penalties for not meeting these requirements, as well as the possibili- ties for needing to rework something and incur addi- tional change fees.

PR Services and Taxes States control sales taxes for both goods and services. PR services may be included. Watch for state laws in this respect and, of course, the laws of other countries if you do busi- ness abroad.

Working Across Borders Communication technolo- gies often make working across borders appear to be seamless, but it’s far from that, especially where the law is concerned. For example, while bribes are tax deductible in some countries, the USA has for years been virtually alone among major economies in making the paying of bribes illegal. The USA has been working to level the playing field, and finally members of the top industrialized nations, through the Organization for Economic Coopera- tion and Development (OECD), have agreed to criminalize bribery by companies of foreign officials. They resolved to adopt this agreement as national law in each country, but that takes time. In addition, some customs die a very slow death, even in the face of new laws.

Economic rules also differ from country to coun- try, and, although we talk of global markets, these really belong to countries, even though the World Trade Organization (WTO) does have some control over member countries.69

Knowing a country’s investment and banking rules is critical in doing business abroad.

Working abroad also means understanding how that nation’s law enforcement agencies deal with ter- rorists. In the USA, the FBI strongly urges no coop- eration with terrorists; in Russia, a U.S. systems analyst said that if you don’t pay off these criminals, you get blown up. In some countries, kidnapping is

Photo Agreement This is a contract between a PR practitioner or firm and a freelance photographer, artist or designer hired to work on an assignment Make sure that your agreement with the photogra- pher spells out the limits of use for photographs. (Charges are usually higher when the photos will be used in ads than when they will be used in publicity.) You may want to use the photo more than one time or in different ways. Some photogra- phers are willing to specify future use in one agree- ment. Many require one agreement per use. Remember that copyright protection begins for the photographer when the shutter is snapped. This will affect the agreement you draw up. Artists have simi- lar agreements that cover the specific use and times of use for their work.

Work for Hire Occasionally, a public relations prac- titioner in an organization (profit or nonprofit) or in a firm will hire a writer or artist for a specific job. It’s common for a writer to be hired to handle an annual report, for example. Freelance writers may be hired for features or promotional materials, too. These cases are usually simple work-for-hire contacts where the employer owns the output but needs to specify any online use. Technical writers often are used for public relations jobs too and may require different contracts because they want to maintain

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200 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

so routine that it’s almost like a criminal collection 70agency.

Laws affecting advertising are different too. Many companies ignore copyrights in countries where these are not usually enforced. International and multinational companies are finding their operations challenged by courts in other countries, which gen- erally have ruled against them. An example that got attention in 2007 was Microsoft’s loss of a European Union ruling that in 2004 it had taken advantage of its position in bundling a media player with its Win- dows operating system, then withheld from compe- titors information that would make their computers compatible. That likely would not have resulted in antitrust violations in the USA.

You probably will be concerned mostly with laws in the country where your public relations operation is based. The laws in this chapter have dealt almost exclusively with the legal structure in the USA. When you are working in other countries, you must know the government and media systems well and know how the legal system relates to them. In many nations, the government owns and operates the media.

You’ll need resident legal counsel if you are work- ing in other countries. If you are doing only some of your work abroad, you can get reliable information at U.S. missions to those countries, especially the consulates. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce can be helpful, too, as can the State Department and the Department of Commerce. You can use many other resources to help stay out of legal trouble, such as affiliating with a resident PR firm or working with resident professional public relations associa- tions. There also are books and current business journals to help keep you informed.

The important thing to remember is not to assume that a government that seems similar to the one you are familiar with has laws that are the same or even close. Assumptions can get you into serious legal difficulties.

Because it’s the library, a nonprofit, that is using “cybercadet,” you might want to first write a letter calling the infringement to the library’s attention and asking for a change. Otherwise, you look like the corporate heavy threatening the poor little library.

The issue of drawing up a strategy to respond to another company’s product is something you need to write with the idea that it may be made public at any time. Running it by the in-house attorney is not likely to make it qualify as privileged unless there’s a substantial amount of legal advice that comes back to you based on what you suggested. Just having the attorney take a look does not make it safe under cli- ent-attorney privilege.

Regarding the school buses, it’s probably not a good idea to repeat in the school’s newsletter infor- mation from the manufacturer touting the safety of the buses and the adaptability of the vans without obtaining verification of that information from one or more independent testing agencies. This is because you will be held legally responsible for checking out such claims before passing them on. Ignorance is no excuse for transmitting misleading information on which others may rely.

No, you can’t write a publicity release that down- plays the organization’s financial crisis—unless, that is, you don’t mind going to jail. You, individually, are responsible, regardless of who told you to do it Moreover, it is not unthinkable that the person who approached you might, when faced with a law- suit, deny having done so. Where does that leave you?

How you handle the question of the “copycat” logo depends on whether you registered your logo as a trademark. If you did, you can protect it better than you could have had you only copyrighted it. If you did nothing, you can count on a good logo being copied. If you didn’t do anything and you see some- thing similar in The Wall Street Journal that might confuse people, you might have a case anyway. But if a significant difference exists—say, the organiza- tion is in another field of business altogether—you don’t have much of a chance.

With regard to the infomercial that you’ve been asked to script, you can’t make it appear so much like a program that the audience is likely to be misled. The inclusion of quasi “commercial breaks” within a larger commercial presentation is not approved by the FTC. Again, you’d better check to make sure that the product/service being promoted in the info- mercial can do all the things you are being asked to

Revisiting the Hypotheticals

To close this chapter, let’s try to answer the ques- tions posed at the beginning of the chapter. Although the Internet is still relatively free from the imposition of laws, one that does seem to be working in that environment is the copyright law.

Chapter 7 / PR and the Law 201

say it can do in the script. Remember, the writer and the producer are the ones risking jail time, not the people who are offering the product/service for sale. Get a notarized statement from the marketer speci- fying what the product/service claims, and check with an attorney experienced in dealing with the FTC to see what your potential liability might be.

In the next hypothetical situation, if your lawyer client wants to include her certification on her letter- head, it could be interpreted as “advertising.” Announcing a specialty is widely approved in medi- cine, but not in law, even though it is approved in some states. In fact, in some states you will find attorneys listed by state board certification of special- ization in public business directories.

The photo you are thinking about including in the special section for the outdoor sports event may not be usable, because most news photographers don’t get model releases when they take pictures. But they do get names and addresses—or they are supposed to.

If you know the models’ names and addresses, you can use the photo if you obtain their permission in the form of a signed release. Another reason to be careful about using such photos, even if you already have a release, is that one of the persons pictured might have died in the intervening period. You don’t want to cause distress to the family by using the photo. When you have your own photographer shooting pictures during a special event, give the photographer a package of release forms to have the models fill out as the pictures are taken. This solves a lot of questions about use, and it helps with identifications, too.

The question from human resources about pic- tures of employees in the last magazine should always be answerable with “Yes, there is a model release on file.” You could be in trouble if there isn’t one. You should always get model releases when you take employee pictures, because you don’t know how you might use the picture later, and you don’t know how long each employee photo- graphed will be with you. If you have a publication in production, and a person whose picture you’ve taken leaves the company, it could cost a great deal to change the picture. In this case, because the maga- zine picture amounts to publicity, not advertising, you probably don’t have a serious problem. But in situations like this one, a quick call to the organiza- tion’s attorney is in order—to let the attorney know of a possible problem and to check the risk.

In the final hypothetical, your brother tipped off two colleagues at his company, and they made about $10,000 by purchasing put options on your com- pany’s stock. The SEC nabbed all four of you. The two colleagues returned their profits and paid fines. Your brother got off with a $50,000 civil penalty. You had to pay a fine three times that amount and the illegal trading profits of the two guys, although you didn’t earn a cent from the slip of the lip. The good news is that the publisher decided it was an ethical breach that didn’t affect your job perfor- mance so you got to keep your job. But you could have lost that too.

Discussion Questions 1. What is the impact of a legal battle on an orga-

nization’s reputation? Think of some situations where the legal outcome was positive for the company and evaluate public confidence in the company. What about a negative outcome and public confidence?

2. How could a public relations practitioner get into trouble over violations of privacy?

3. What copyright issues could result in difficulties for the PR practitioner?

4. Where might problems arise because of plagiarism?

5. How can a global PR practice protect itself and its employer from litigation abroad?

Points to Remember Although this chapter covers a great deal of mate- rial, areas that public relations people must know are libel, right of privacy, copyright and other per- missions needed as well as contracts. Beyond that, each practitioner should know laws and regulations that govern the organization they represent. The litigious climate in which public relations practitioners work means that any case, civil or criminal, can draw media attention. Normal involvement with law for PR people falls into three general areas: normal legal exposure that any business might have, work-oriented exposure (or something peculiar to the client or organization’s business) and extraneous legal exposure (such as testifying as an expert witness).

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapterfs). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

202 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

Legal involvement for public relations has increased due to outsourcing, which generates much more contract work for which the organization is held responsible. Public relations has its functional roots in commer- cial speech, advertising, traditional speech and the press, and most of its freedom would not be avail- able if some First Amendment guarantees had not been found to apply to commercial speech. A 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision expanded commer- cial free speech by allowing companies to donate direcdy to influence candidate elections. PR practitioners are more likely than the average cit- izen to get involved in criminal conspiracy charges against individuals who work for the organizations they represent, such as for bribery, price fixing, mail fraud, securities manipulation and perjury. Four kinds of cases are likely to typify a PR per- son’s legal involvement: the big case that can threaten the organization’s existence, the human interest case that will capture media attention, the routine case that grows out of contract dis- putes and can arouse the interest of various stake- holders who take to the Internet and the case in which the PR person testifies as an expert witness. Litigation journalism initially meant a situation in which trial lawyers and prosecutors are trying their cases in the court of public opinion as well as in the court of law, with or without public rela- tions counsel. Litigation public relations is a major legal tool now employed by both sides. PR conversations with legal counsel may not fall under the attomey/client privilege that keeps them from being made public. However, simply having an attorney review documents without spe- cifically getting legal advice provides no protec- tion from having the document(s) made public. Watch danger zones and take individual responsi- bility because you personally are legally liable. Public relations people need to have a personal attorney, even though they usually are covered under the corporate legal umbrella. Organizational PR practitioners will be working within inner top management circles with corpo- rate attorneys and need to establish a working relationship with them. The key government regulatory bodies that PR practitioners are usually involved with, in addition

to those specifically regulating the client’s or organization’s business, are the U.S. Postal Ser- vice (USPS), the Securities and Exchange Com- mission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Communications Com- mission (FCC) The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Con- sumer Protection Act was enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress on July 31, 2010. The full title is: “An Act to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end ‘too big to fail,’ to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abu- sive financial services practices, and for other purposes.” Agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) must develop new policies as they interpret requirements of the Act. Publicly held companies must comply with requirements about disclosure of their business operations as designated by the SEC. If public relations people have knowledge of the publicly held company’s business, they are consid- ered “insiders” and may not trade on information that has not been made publicly available. The Federal Trade Commission watches very closely claims for products that are made in adver- tising and publicity, and these must be supported by verification. The PR person who prepared the copy is legally liable, as is the company. Claims touted by products, devices and services that are false can create recalls and lawsuits that damage public trust. The Food and Drug Administration’s job is to protect consumers. It monitors advertising, news releases, brochures and labels for material that could be deceptive. The FDA watches for any claims or even indica- tions that a product is FDA-approved when it isn’t; or if it is approved for one use, they’ll watch for claims about other uses. The FDA has been beset by crises from food and drugs that proved unsafe, many causing the agency and the public to demand more surveil- lance and supervision by the agency. Some issues, such as inspection, resulted from the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture’s oversight in some areas.

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The FCC regulates broadcasting and telecommu- nications, including telephone and computer net- works and satellite communications. The FCC’s indecency rules that had affected content on free radio and television networks, but not satellite radio or cable, have been called “unconstitutionally vague and chilling” by a federal court. In an effort to create Internet neutrality, the FCC lost a 2010 case against Comcast Corp. that could limit its authority over broadband in the USA. The major defense for legal difficulties is provable truth. Court rulings on commercial speech changed with the Supreme Court ruling giving free speech to groups of citizens, including corporations. Political Action Committees remain useful, even with corporate freedom to support political candidates. Influencing juries—although it may bring con- tempt charges or cause other difficulties at trial— is exactly what some companies think needs to hap- pen, because litigation journalism/public relations on the part of the plaintiffs has portrayed them in such an unfair tight. As individuals, PR people are responsible for reg- istering their own activities as lobbyists and for vouching for the truthfulness of all materials they present. Federal lobbying laws changed with the 2009 Act to Improve Laws Relating to Campaign Finance, Ethics and Lobbying. Lobbying laws for other countries are different, and within the USA lob- bying laws differ by state. Public relations practitioners are responsible for being sure that product claims are supportable by research evidence because they and their employers are liable for false claims. Consumers of information about products or ser- vices from either profit or nonprofit organizations have a right to demand what they need to know and often do so through Freedom of Information requests. Usually, it is the public relations practi- tioners who have to respond to these requests. Knowing what must be divulged and accommo- dating requests is required by law. States also have a right to enforce open-meeting laws with which organizations must comply.

Areas of special legal vulnerability for PR people are defamation, invasion of privacy and misuse of copyrighted materials. A thorough understanding of copyright laws is essential, especially of changes that occurred in 2010. The Internet has created some confusion about the absolute protection of copyrights and trade- marks, but most companies are pursuing these infringements aggressively. An issue that public relations practitioners have to watch for in making contracts is when work is specifically “work for hire” and when the work belongs to the creator. Permission to use the work of others is required by law, and often there is a fee that must be paid to the owner of the copyright. What is “Fair Use “ (permission not required) is critical to know, and plagiarism can get an orga- nization or an individual in legal trouble. Copyright infringement and plagiarism are not the same thing.The uncopyrighted work of another can be passed off as one’s own, and that is plagiarism. Some confusion exists between patents and trade- marks. PR practitioners need to know the differ- ence and must be careful to mark materials with the proper symbols to indicate the legal protec- tion of the materials. Libel and slander laws exist to protect individuals, in some cases dead or alive, from defamation. Libel lawsuits may be civil or criminal. The Internet has been a place of free-flowing information, but individuals are increasingly pur- suing libel claims for material on the Internet. In a global communication and business world without international defamation laws, material available on the Internet can cause a lawsuit in one country but not another. In the USA, there are federal laws that apply to libel and slander, but individual states have their own laws too, and the suit is judged in the place the suit is filed. Saying or writing anything that could injure the reputation of another is especially risky, even if that person is a “public figure,” and individual rights of privacy must be considered in all public- ity and advertising

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

204 Part Three / Theory, Ethics and Laws Affecting PR Practice

Alhough there are some specific questions to ask to discover international differences in libel cases, the best advice is prevention by absolute accuracy, fairness, serving the public interest and cultural sensitivity. Violation of an individual’s privacy is another area of danger for public relations people. The condi- tion of someone’s health, for instance, has many disclosure issues. The use of someone’s name or image requires permission of that person, or, in the case of a child, of the parent or custodian. Working across borders means understanding all the laws that govern the business you are involved in outside of your homeland. Disobeying another nation’s laws can have serious consequences. The most important protection for the PR practi- tioner consists of recognizing the danger signals and working with competent legal counsel to get through dangerous or potentially dangerous situations.

National Investors Relations Institute (NIRI) http://www.niri.org.

Investorpackages.com. A news and information link to many publicly

held companies. http://www.investorpackages.com.

Raging Bull http://www.ragingbull.com.

The Motley Fool http://www.fool.com.

American Center for Law and Justice http://www.aclj.org.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State http://www.au.org.

Electronic Frontier Foundation This site monitors technology and civil liberties

issues. http://www.efF.org.

FindLaw This site offers free access to court decisions.

http://www.findlaw.com. LexisNexis a service of Reed Elsevier.

www.lexisnexis.com. BloombergLaw a service of Bloomberg

www.bloomberg.com/news/law. Westlaw a service of Thomson Reuters Corp.

www.westlaw.com. law.com Some information is free on this site is free, but

not all. http://www.law.com.

Interesting, but not free: eWatch Subscription service owned by PR Newswire will find

the screen name behind the poster of bulletins that may be unflattering to the company. http://www.ewatch.com.

Other Related Websites to Review Federal Trade Commission This site has a fist of consumer categories, and

you can order FTC publications from this site. The searches may be in English or Spanish. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm.

Securities and Exchange Commission. This site offers a tutorial, types of filings and

forms, regulations and staff interpretations, investor information, news, litigation and the SEC’s divisions—all you need to know in one place. Sarbanes Oxley information is also included on this site. http://www.sec.gov.

Internal Revenue Service The IRS site has all sorts of guidelines, with lobby

efforts on the part of charities included. http://www.irs.gov.

Tax-Exempt Status for Your Organization, IRS Handbook http://www.irs.gov.

To understand the environment of PR work. To appreciate the need to see or create the big picture and attend to details. To interpret PR's role in terms of the organization's purpose. To develop or strengthen and support strategic communication. To provide counsel and creative services as a member of the management team.

PR's Role in the Organizational Structure as Part of the Management Team

Public relations’ value to an organization has grown with technology because of the increased value of communica- tion skills and an ability to predict and handle crises. A field that used to be considered discretionary in organizational management is now essential. Some evidence is the explo- sion of jobs in the field internationally and the addition of public relations to business school syllabi and curriculum. In the business world, “goodwill” is considered an asset, financial media look for the “investor relations” person for comment, global media ask for a “spokesperson” in a crisis and boards of directors listening to reports of liti- gation ask management how the situation is going to play in the “court of public opinion.”

In a 24/7 global communication environment, you’ll have to be able to respond with strategic messages in multiplat- form formats quickly. In a crisis, you may have 20 minutes, more likely about two.

Here are some observations about management differ- ences in the profit and nonprofit sectors of public relations. There are more parallels than real differences. In both situa- tions, there is a board of directors that sets policy, and the chief executive officer has to report to and get both advice and consent from the board. Public relations people need to know who these “super managers” are and what they think is important. Second, in both cases, your assets go out the door every day: employees. Public relations people have the job of helping employees understand the mission and expectations of the organization’s management and giving them access to

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bring to the table and implement their own initiatives that can help achieve those goals. Employees cost real money in salary and benefits, but replacing them also costs a great deal in training and getting them to func- tion efficiently. But there are differences. For-profit organizations often have the means to implement changes immediately because they usually have the means to hire the help they need. Nonprofits have to find financial support for many initiatives in terms of patrons, sponsors or underwriters, donors and, usually, memberships or subscribers as well. Nonprofits rarely can hire as much help as is needed, especially for spe- cial events and campaigns, so volunteers must be per- suaded to work, for no pay, just for recognition. Volunteers can’t be hired, given orders or compen- sated, so they can do or not do whatever is asked of them. This affects the way projects are planned and implemented, but much of public relations manage- ment is just that—gaining and maintaining credibility through reliable, trustworthy relationships.

Public relations is valued for its strategic contribu- tions, one of which is developing problem-solving strategies for the entire organization and helping to implement them through the PR department’s own efforts to integrate and coordinate its work with other organizational units. Essential also is being attentive to issues as they emerge, monitoring them before they crystallize into public opinion, advising management how to handle the issues for a positive outcome to the organization and preserving organi- zational credibility in a crisis. (See Chapters 4 and 12.) In public relations positions, internally or exter- nally from a firm or agency, two elements remain constant. First is attracting, advising, developing and retaining a talented, diverse staff that can work cooperatively and effectively across organizational divisions and disciplines. Second is managing resources—money, time and talent—to gain maxi- mum effectiveness that you can document.

There are some unifying characteristics, though. Government at any level is always involved with the public agenda because it serves a constituency. In democracies especially, it serves at the will of the people, which means power and politics are a part of all decisions. For profit-making companies, the key word is profit. The “bottom fine” is always important because making money is the reason the company exists, and investors depend on getting some return. If the company is publicly held, there is a big difference, though, because of laws affecting the public obligations of these companies. (Refer to Chapter 7 on law.) If a company is a nonprofit, it is subjected to much more scrutiny than either of the other two types because people have contributed out of trust alone, without any expectation of services or products in return. Violation of public trust always damages an organization, but especially nonprofits. (See Chapter 12 on crises.)

The communication climate within each of these types of organizations is significant too. The commu- nication climate is tied to top management style, rather than to the type of organization. Some top managers operate on a “need to know” basis and are reluctant to have open communication within the organization. They know information is power and want a tight hold on it. Top management at other organizations want information shared throughout the organization so that informed decisions can be made individually and collectively. Communication at the first extreme is very top-down, with litde com- munication coming upward from employees. Policies are likely to be strictly enforced. In the open commu- nication environment, information comes from inter- nal dialogue facilitated in many ways by management. Employees are empowered to make individual deci- sions, and although they are expected to report these decisions, management supports employees in taking the initiative. (For the effects these different styles have in a crisis, see Chapter 12.)

The communication climate is affected by the organization’s core values, usually set forward in its mission statement. The corporate culture comes from this, again traceable to top management. The corporate culture affects everyone in the organiza- tion. Even the lowest-level employee is likely to be told, “This is the way we do things.” What that may mean in a rigid communication system is “Don’t dare deviate.” In a looser one, it might mean, “Go for it.”

Internal public relations people, as employees, are most affected by the “tone” of management, but

Role and Character of the Organization To simplify the discussion, consider organizations falling into one of three categories: government, profit and nonprofit. Of course, there are many variations in each of these. Dramatic differences are found in the levels and branches of government, the profit-making organization that deals direcdy with consumers versus one that does not, and the nonprofit organization that is strictly charitable, such as a foundation versus one that provides services.

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outside public relations practitioners working under contract are too. Even when a public relations firm has been hired at great cost, it may find it nearly impossible to get the information it needs in a closed communication system. If the PR firm is going to do the job, it has to depend almost entirely on outside information. In a more open communication climate, the firm can bring outside information inside for ver- ification and find employees in all areas accessible and willing to say what they think. Needless to say, both planning and troubleshooting are much easier in that situation. The advantage the outside firm has, though, comes from having more independence. Although no firm wants to lose a valued client, an outside firm can “walk away” from a bad situation more easily than an employee can.

One role of the public relations department is to assist with the evaluation of an organization’s mission. This may include revising and rewriting or perhaps conceptualizing and writing a mission state- ment. In any case it must be done as part of PR’s policymaking role as counsel to management.

Most organizations develop their mission state- ments early in their existence; but at least once every three to five years, the statement deserves a careful and systematic review by internal and special external publics. While calling for a mission state- ment review is the prerogative of top management, the PR department usually is responsible for organiz- ing and planning the review. One outcome of a mis- sion statement review is likely to be a rewritten or modified statement. Even if the mission statement is kept intact, internal publics and critical external publics must agree on this outcome of the review. The mission statement review is generally followed by a review of the long-range objectives by which the organization intends to implement the mission.

Mission statements set the tone for the organiza- tion, establish its character and define the parameters of its activities. They may be long, philosophical commentaries on the nature of the enterprise—as most university mission statements are—or they may consist of one or two simple paragraphs.

In addition to the mission statement, organizations write vision statements—descriptions about them- selves indicating their self-image. These vision state- ments are the way organizations want their various publics to see them. Additionally, some organizations

The Organization's Reason for Being and Place in Society A mission statement articulates what an organization sees as its reason for being and its role and place in society. Any organization’s public relations efforts exist to support the overall mission of the organiza- tion. For that reason, any public relations depart- ment’s development of an annual plan, either for the organization or for the PR department, has to start with the organization’s mission statement or organizational purpose. The way the plan develops from there often depends on the nature of the orga- nization, but the elements of the public relations plan remain the same.

The concept of a spectrum of communication from open to closed suggests that every organization’s pattern falls somewhere between those two extremes. Closed systems mean not sharing information, often by management censorship or simply by a process thinly disguised as “team playing.” In this process, management tolerates little or no dissent. You are either on the team, or you get booted off. The result is that management is surrounded by people who only know how to say “yes” and cheer management on, even if the direction is wrong.

Another indicator of a closed system is a highly competitive corporate culture. There’s not much sharing because everyone knows information is power, so why share? Right? Wrong! An open, co- operative communication system means that someone is likely to offer a key to keeping the organiza- tion out of trouble, or to make a product highly successful or, well, you see the point.

Look at the economic and political failures, not just of the past few years, but of decades past. You’ll find a great deal of evidence of closed or nearly closed communication systems. What you’ll not be able to find are the missed opportunities from the lack of shared information.

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have core value statements that suggest their ethics. Another statement you’ll find is an identifying state- ment that is objective in substance and just tells what the organization is and does. If you are watching public television, you are likely to hear this identifying state- ment: “This is a public broadcast station, funded in part by viewers like you.” You’ll find publicly held compa- nies’ identifying statements in their annual and quar- terly reports and in reports from analysts and brokers when you inquire about the company’s stock. Many organizations use these identifying statements as the last paragraph in news releases, knowing the copy editor will often delete the last sentence but that sometimes it will appear. The idea is for repetition of this identifica- tion to help reinforce knowledge of the organization’s role. Look for this in the last paragraph of stories about nonprofit organizations in your local newspaper.

All these public statements guide what the organi- zation presents as what it wants to accomplish. The terms goals and objectives are defined as synonyms in the dictionary but are not used interchangeably by organizations. Organizations give the terms specific and different meanings, that is, one long term and the other short term. The origins of using goals as long term and objectives as short term and measur- able came from advertising, the widely used Colley DAGMAR process. You’ll find this in advertising management texts.

Organizational management books are a litde less clear on whether it’s goals or objectives that should be measured. The aspirations of individuals and dif- ferent units of the organization are the collective from which organizational goals are agreed upon, set and achieved. The success of individuals and units is compared to how much each contributes to the organization’s achievement of the tasks it has set for itself.

The “objectives” element came from revising a 1950s concept of “management by objectives” that mixed up the two terms. The 1980s revision includes the notion of setting goals that are worked toward as part of the process of arriving at some final assess- ment of accomplishment. While admitting that the terms are often used differendy by different organi- zations, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) has concluded that goals should come first, with objectives following, as a simplification for use of the terms in its accreditation examination. In either case, the subset is what must be measurable.2 Generally, long-term efforts are the strategic ones, while short term represents the tactics.

With the integration of advertising and public relations efforts on the rise, to keep out of the con- flict, just think about what you want to have happen in the long term and about the short-term efforts that will get you there. The long-term measurement is obvious. You either get there or you don’t, but how much you fall short has some qualities of mea- surement to it. Computer models often help organi- zations determine what the major contributing factors might be. Models are also useful in helping to determine what factors need to be considered in taking the steps to get there because they can weight different variables in different ways. The failure to get some short-term results, instantly measurable, is likely to have long-term consequences unless some compensating successes shore up the long-term results. Specifics in planning for a campaign or in a crisis are discussed in Chapters 11 and 12.

Publics and Organizational Relationships Although the public relations department is not responsible for all of an organization’s projects, pro- grams and activities, PR is a source and resource for these and has a concern because each involves rela- tionships with different publics, an area that is PR’s responsibility. The relationships with different pub- lics are what give an organization its reputation. The consistency of good long-term relationships with publics is crucial.

Six components of a relationship are the major fac- tors determining satisfaction, according to the work of PR researchers Linda C. Hon and James E. Grunig. These are: (1) control mutuality, or the degree to which parties have the right to exert some influence over the other; (2) trust, meaning the level of confidence and willingness to be open; (3) satisfaction, being the extent of favorable feelings due to positive expectations being reinforced; (4) commitment, which means both an emotional or affective commitment and a continu- ance commitment or a line of action; (5) exchange rela- tionship, indicating the benefits one gives the other based on experiences or expectations; and (6) communal relationship, meaning both provide benefits because of a concern for the welfare of die other.3

While all are important, three deserve more explanation. Trust is founded in beliefs about the organization: in its integrity—that it will behave in a fair and just manner; in its dependability—that it will do what it says; and in its competence—that it has the ability to do what it says it will do. The idea

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of control mutuality is part of the concept of public relations as two-way, interactive communication and Grunig’s theory of symmetry in relationships, not always possible due to an imbalance of power. How- ever, in any relationship, regardless of the power bal- ance, both parties should feel that they have some opportunity to have an effect on the negotiation pro- cess. The notion of a communal relationship is more important in public relations than the idea of an exchange relationship because both should have a sense of empathy for the other.4

The communal aspects of relationships are measurable using agree/disagree statements, thereby making it possible for management to get a more quantitative analysis of relationships with its various publics. Fractured relationships are usually due to one of two elements: people or policies. Employees can anger someone individually with all sorts of insti- tutional consequences, or some thoughtless commu- nication can create a whole category of angry people,

as did a letter to parents about their children’s obe- sity.5 Policies that are seen as discriminatory or just thoughtless also can cause problems. Both people and policies can be the genesis of lawsuits that cause further damage to the organization because of loss of trust (see Chapter 6 on ethics).

Social media have become important factors in alerting people to what is said and/or claimed by the organization in public statements by employers. Criticism and counterclaims can originate anywhere and have an impact. Employees participate in online social networks and can make postings of their own and certainly are affected by other postings, as are suppliers and regulators.

Monitoring, Measuring and Reporting Even when many activities and countless forms of communication occur within an organization, the public relations department usually occupies the

A definition of strategic communication was standardized by the Department of Defense as “the syn- chronization of actions, images and words to achieve a desired effect,” says Robert Hastings, then the acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs in 2008-2009.

For leadership-driven communications, leaders of the communication process need to be credible, understanding, pervasive and responsive; have a deep comprehension of others, a perception of truth- fulness and respect; engage in dialogue, a multifaceted exchange of ideas; encourage a unity of effort, integrated and coordinated responses; realize every action sends a message; deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time and place; and be results-based, continuous in analysis, plan- ning, execution and assessment.

What Hastings calls his blueprint for an effective strategic communication process includes: (1) Leadership driven: Communication is a leadership function. The best and most effective communi- cations come from leaders who provide clear intent, direction and are personally engaged; (2) Busi- ness focused: Communication must be derived from the businesses’ goals and objectives and short- and long-range plans; (3) Strategic: Communication must focus on understanding and shaping the environment through sound research, analysis, planning and assessment; (4) Credible: Communica- tion must be honest, timely and as transparent as possible; (5) Thoughtful: Communication must engage the right audience with the right message at the right time; (6) Results oriented: Communica- tion must be undertaken to achieve specific, measurable outcomes; (7) Dynamic: Communication must be persistent, continuous, adaptable and agile; (8) Employee-centric: Well-informed and engaged employees are a competitive advantage; and (9) Coordinated: Communication must be synchronized and coordinated across the business, but horizontally and vertically.

Source: Robert T. Hastings, “Time to Get Serious About Strategic Communication,” International Public Relations Association’s FrontLine online (September 9, 2010), pp. 1-3.

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best position for monitoring what is or isn’t hap- pening and for evaluating how different publics are responding to various actions, messages and representatives of the organization. Technology is helpful in this process. Email messages can indicate responses, as can a look at alternative websites critical of the company. Blogs are another resource.

Many executives have launched their own blogs to make their feelings, opinions and reasonings known. Some of these, such as opinion page pieces and let- ters to the editor, come from the public relations department as a part of managing the institution’s message. Checking for responses to these is another aspect of issues or environmental monitoring. Simi- lar to other units in the organization, the public rela- tions department is responsible for evaluating the results of its own efforts. At budget time, someone will always ask, “What did you do? How much did it cost? What did we get for the investment? How cost- effective was it? How did it contribute to the bottom line? ” In its own evaluations, however, the public relations department is more interested in answering questions along the lines of: “What do our publics think of us? How does this match with what we think of ourselves? How are events, situations, atti- tudes and so on going to affect us in the future?” Both types of monitoring and evaluation need to go on, and both help the organization’s leadership pro- vide day-to-day management to the organization.

One of the more comprehensive studies of what constitutes good management in public relations was developed through work directed by James E. Grunig and supported by the IABC Research Foun- dation.6 Many countries have measured their public relations practices using this “excellence study” as a guide. Most of the differences in studies from countries other than those included in the original study—USA, UK and Canada—come from six vari- ables identified by the study: political system, level of activism, economic system, level of development, culture and media systems. In the original study, 10 principles were found to be indicative of good man- agement: (1) the PR management is strategic; (2) PR reports directly to senior management or is empow- ered by management; (3) the PR function is an inte- grated one with all PR functions either in a single department or a mechanism exists to coordinate them; (4) the PR function is a separate management function; (5) the PR unit is headed by a manager, not a technician; (6) the two-way symmetrical model for PR is used; (7) a symmetrical system of internal

communication is used; (8) the staff comprises PR professionals who are educated in a body of knowl- edge, keep up with the literature and belong to pro- fessional associations; (9) there is diversity of gender, race ganizational context for excellence exists that means participatory, rather than authoritarian, management cultures. Since the study, the Internet has addressed the symmetry issue, and in the process has strength- ened activist organizations and even employees’ roles in pushing for policy and practice changes that better fulfill what they see as corporate responsibilities. A result of such instant and global discourse is to underscore the role of public relations as a top man- agement function, placing it at the management table with other counsel, such as legal, financial, risk man- agement and human resource experts. Remember that all are staff counsel to management and not the final decision makers. Cooperation and collegial- ity among the management team is expected by top management. Your job is to work with others to understand what is possible and what are the impli- cations of taking the recommended action. Diversity of thought is important and isn’t necessarily always a factor of gender, race and ethnicity. For the most part, although the USA is now more diverse than ever before in its history, discrimination remains and, if that is true in your organization, expect this discrimination to emerge, probably in online social networks. Be sure your organization’s policies and actions support your positions on issues. Otherwise, you jeopardize credibility.

In a global environment, there is another element that perhaps could be included as part of diversity but seems to stand alone because it involves under- standing and respecting other cultures. This element is preparing practitioners for international assign- ments and sending them abroad for long-term stays. It isn’t always easy to send public relations peo- ple on long-term international assignments, but these are valuable to the organization in two ways. The person builds relationships with individuals in the other country and personalizes the organization, thereby extending its reach and influence as well as giving it some resources on which to draw. The other benefit is the person comes back to the organi- zation with some real insight into another culture to share internally in the decision-making process. This often prevents some cosdy errors in judgment. The critical factor in this process is proper prepara- tion for the assignment and giving the person the

and ethnicity in the PR staff; and (10) an or-

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long-distance support needed to make the experience a good one for the one assigned and for “trailing” spouses.7

Emphasis on the management of public relations also has increased in the instant communication environment. When an organization gets mentioned in the media, one of the first considerations is what to say immediately to employees who want to hear from their leaders; a second consideration is that it be a genuine message and a plan. Employees need to know right away, not only for their own reassurance, but also because they are PR’s front line in support- ing the organization’s reputation. Remember they are on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The public expectation today is not just authenticity and trans- parency of messages, but also willingness and open- ness to engage in a dialogue. Critical to this is a comprehensive understanding of everywhere those messages are being received and the potential reac- tion to them. The watch goes on in the USA too by regulators and competitors. Taking the initiative in management counsel sessions is critical, because no one else at the table is likely to have a better under- standing of all of the stakeholders than the public relations/senior communication officer?8

it’s just a news story about an incident or a proposed policy that catches a sharp practitioner’s eye. It could be a blog, a rumor in an email, some comments in chat rooms or other instant, interactive media. This kind of environmental scanning is both an over- whelming and necessary task. What a practitioner is looking for is something that could affect its pro- ducts, one or more of its stakeholders or its way of doing business. Proposed regulations or suggested policies, sometimes just political “trial balloons,” can capture public attention. The PR person needs to notice first before the nugget of information becomes an issue or potential issue around which public opinion has formed. These often first snag the attention of digital media. Because monitoring digital media is a harrowing time-devouring process, most organizations use software and organization technical assistance. Nevertheless, the service has to be monitored for timely responses. Listening to what is being said carefully before responding is key to effective strategic communication. Responding too quickly is a sad lesson the USA government, particu- larly the Department of Agriculture, learned in responding to a YouTube video of an employee giving a speech. The employee was fired before the department checked the original source of the video—it turned out that what was posted on You- Tube was an edited excerpt.9

There’s nothing new to what used to be called, from at least the 1950s, environmental monitoring. What is new is that the “environment” has changed dramatically and is now the world. A public relations practitioner can’t depend on catching each warning, regardless of how sensitive that person’s antenna. So

Issue Monitoring and Managing for Organizations

Watching the global horizons for issues that seem to be developing is one of the most important functions of strategic public relations management. Sometimes,

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212 Part Four / PR in Action

PR people work with others in the organization to see the organization from their perspectives. Obvi- ously, the risk management division is helpful because experts there evaluate situations in terms of financial risks and insurance hazards. Attorneys are alert to rulings in new court cases that could affect the organization’s regulatory environment. Because the law covers many specialties, it’s important to touch base with all of the specialties that the com- pany calls on periodically for representation. Market- ing is always sensitive to competitive threats and new product challenges. Transportation keeps up-to-date on delivery systems, and this is much more complex now, because many “deliveries” cross borders. Human resources is another area because those man- agers worry about compensation, health costs, poli- cies that affect families, recruiting practices and a host of other things that affect individuals such as fairness and equity issues. Depending on the organi- zation, research may be yet another place where issues can be identified.

Finding the issues is just the beginning. After iden- tification comes monitoring. Sometimes, the issue is just surfacing and not in a way that commands instant response. Each issue, though, has to be watched as its potential threat to the organization increases or decreases. An event or other change in the global envi- ronment can push an issue up on the agenda. Once the issue truly develops, stakeholders line up on different sides, and even new publics form around the issue. This is a sensitive management area because what benefits one public/stakeholder may be a disadvantage to another. The best management can hope for is some honest brokering. Leaders, official and informal, often emerge on the different sides. Negotiations and discus- sions may help to the point that even though all sides are not willing to concede their position, at least they understand management’s position. Recognition of their positions and responses that validate them may make some sides sympathetic enough not to actively oppose management’s decision or action.

Monitoring that may prevent surprises is a model often used in both corporate and campaign manage- ment, the SWOT analysis, an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. An internal analysis includes a look at the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, and the external analysis involves an assessment of the opportunities and threats existing in the political, social and competitive environment.

The best PR managers keep top management aware of issues. The balance is to keep management

from being blindsided without worrying them with constant warnings that fail to materialize. If PR man- agers are not judicious in their notices to top man- agement, when they see a really serious issue that could precipitate a crisis, management may consider their warning just another alert with no substance.

Planning and Managing PR Work

Public relations’ role in developing an organization’s formal planning is significant. PR advisers help develop a mission statement for the organization—counseling on publics/stakeholders and on strategies to reach objectives, as well as on environmental monitoring— as part of determining the organization’s one-year, five-year and longer goals and objectives. In addition, the public relations department must develop its own communication goals and objectives.

Two additional roles are commonly the PR depart- ment’s own responsibilities. One is hiring good public relations talent—full-time, part-time, interns and out- side firms. Mentoring and nurturing is another role for internal people so that they can be promoted. Promo- tion means keeping in mind succession planning so that gaps in leadership roles don’t occur. Diversity of points of view is important in hiring. If you hire only people who think like you do and have the same background as you, while it’s likely to be a more peaceful environment, it is also a more dangerous one. You always need as diverse an array of perspectives as you do skills. For outside PR assistance, the key is facilitating so that your company is seen as a good one to work with. The other major PR department role is budgeting.

In between these is the real job of developing and implementing PR work, planning strategies, solving problems and maintaining the department’s reputa- tion in the organization as a strong communication source and resource.

PR from Inside the Organization or Out The PR practitioner’s role is different on the inside as opposed to coming in as an outside resource. Out- side resources might be an advertising agency that works with public relations and marketing, maybe merchandising and sales too, if these are part of the organizational structure.

The ad agency needs basic information from each of these units and should find it easy to work with all

Chapter 8 / Strategic Management in PR Practice 213

to coordinate message statements so that the organi- zation as a whole “speaks with one voice.” An ad campaign that is not seen as credible by employees, regardless of how effective it might be to outside consumers, is likely to cause problems. Nonetheless, the ad agency can’t be just an order-taker, or the organization loses the opportunity to get some out- side input.

The PR unit also calls on designers, artists and photographers, and production people such as print- ers and audio and video companies. Although many of these capabilities exist in-house, often there is a need to go outside. This is particularly true of audio and video messages, whether these are for employees or external audiences.

Research firms also can be an important resource. The reason is that research is time-consuming, and most internal public relations staffs don’t have and can’t dedicate the time to do research well. Research specialists are especially important in monitoring, reporting and analyzing the interactive, interpersonal media as well as blogs. This is a 24/7 operation. You need to be sure that the firm alerts you immediately to significant activity in any area. PR departments should allocate at least 10 percent of their budgets to research, and much more if the organization is international. PR departments should have a special budget in reserve for anytime the organization is involved in a crisis. Sometimes, a research firm offers additional services, such as media planning, message distribution and other technological assistance. If so, that is usually a part of the contract because of the synergies involved.

The outside contractor may be a public relations firm that is expected, as is an ad agency, to offer research, planning, execution and evaluation. Usu- ally, the firm has a specialty for which it is hired: crisis management, health communication, public affairs, investor relations or such. The firm reports to the public relations manager, but also has access to top management. The ability of the outside firm to work comfortably with the internal PR department is the key to success. The PR firm is usually willing to be flexible because this is a client relationship. How- ever, the internal PR department has to be flexible enough to listen for challenging ideas and creative solutions to problems.

Advice you pay for and don’t take is not a good investment. That means the PR department has to know exacdy what it wants from an outside contractor and must be able to conceptualize that clearly.

Internal public relations practitioners also need to understand how the outside firms they contract for help handle their budgets so that they can anticipate billings. You don’t want a surprise that is going to affect your budget, so before signing a contract, you need a statement of billing charges from the supplier.

PR Work—The Big Picture and the Devilish Details An internal public relations department needs to have a clear view of its own mission and what it wants to accomplish. Furthermore, it needs its own separate and internal priority listing of stakeholders, with top management heading the fist. Others include important sources of information and impor- tant service units inside the organization. Service units include the Web supervisor, email respondents to messages on the website and technical staff who handle communication and the mailroom. Additional units are media personnel and special trade or gov- ernment publics.

The internal staff has to set a timetable for activi- ties, including deadlines and responsibilities, so that its own activities can be monitored and kept on schedule. This is especially critical in an organization that has a complex approval process because delays can be destructive.

Results of all activities are evaluated in an ongoing process so that end-of-the-year evaluation and reporting will be easier. A clear record needs to be kept of time spent helping other units of the organi- zation to be sure credit is given to the PR depart- ment for these activities, such as producing a PowerPoint presentation for another division’s man- ager. Budget considerations are a factor here, not just “credit.”

PR is difficult to plan and manage because of high expectations, uneven levels of demand and the crea- tive element. It calls for flexibility and entrepreneur- ship, often in environments that don’t reward either. Many public relations problems arise from the failure of public relations practitioners to manage an inter- nal situation, and this often turns on lacking approval to do whatever is necessary to accomplish the job.

Yet another management responsibility is under- standing legal issues, especially regarding manage- ment of employees and the nuances of contractual obligations. Internal human resources and legal departments can and should be consulted for advice.

214 Part Four / PR in Action

culture affects the approach to problem solving, and how those who are not intended publics for messages—the nimbus groups—may interpret or respond to them.

Whatever the pattern used, the difficulty in han- dling public relations problems has to do with differ- ing perceptions of the problem and existing situations (Figure 8.2). The perceptions involved may be yours or those of others. The way you look at the problem has an effect, as does information you don’t have. You may have some limitations yourself or some imposed on you by management or problems associated with upsetting the equilibrium of the organization.14

The way stakeholders view a problem can cause an organization to modify or change its reaction. Stakeholders view a situation from their own per- spectives, not management’s. From their view, the proposed solution might not even be reasonable.

The view of various individuals in the organiza- tion can have an impact too, especially if they are powerful or have strong persuasive powers. Some- times, if a proposed solution affects a department in a negative way, it will react to defend itself.

Power structures outside the organization can have a major impact. Stockholders of publicly held companies are a good example. Many of the corpo- rate accounting problems of 2002 were attributed to companies thinking short-term instead of long-term to show increased earnings in each quarterly report to satisfy investors and analysts. Other power groups are activist organizations of all types, especially inter- national ones because they can direct global attention to the proposed solution.

The corporate culture and the way decision groups function together also affect the approach to problem-solving. These two factors take problem- solving out of the normal decision-making model because of information control and power. The

with the most power in the collective decision-making process usually gets to interpret the problem in its own context, consider the choices and evaluate the effects of the proposed solutions.

Public relations practitioners are involved in problem-solving situations almost constantly, and a good many of the eventual solutions to these problems are arrived at by groups. Occasionally, these groups include some people from outside and some from inside the organization; but most are arrived at internally, with much of the effort being exerted by the public relations department or outside PR counsel to the organization.

Strategies for Planning and Problem Solving One of the oldest formulas for problem solving is John Marston’s R-A-C-E formula—an acronym for research, action, communication and evaluation.10 But the concept is found earlier (without the acro- nym) in Scott Cutlip and Allen Center’s 1952 edition of Effective Public Relations. Find the facts, establish a policy and/or plan a program, communicate the story and get feedback from internal and external publics to help determine modifications or future plan- ning.11 A modification (using another acronym) appears in Jerry Hendrix’s Public Relations Cases: R-O-P-E.12 Like Marston, Hendrix begins with research (R) but then he moves to objectives (O), of which he sees two: output objectives and impact objectives. Output objectives are communications the public relations effort seeks to generate over the target period. Impact objectives are of three types: informational objectives (message exposure, comprehension and retention); attitudinal objectives (creation, reinforcement and change); and behavioral objectives (creation, reinforcement and change). The P in Hendrix’s formula stands for planning and executing a program (P) to accomplish the objectives. The final step, once again, is evaluation (E). The first part is monitoring and adjustment, and the second is an assessment of objectives achieved. The problem- solving procedure offered by Glen M. Broom and David M. Dozier is more complex.13 The 10 steps begin with defining or identifying the problem (1), followed by performing a situational analysis that involves assessing background information and data and examining internal and external factors and forces (2). Problem identification and situational analysis are followed by setting program goals (3). The next steps are to identify publics—who is affected and how (4)—and then to set program objectives (5) and plan action programs (6) for each public. Then, each public’s communication program—message and media strategies—is determined (7). These steps are followed by program implementation—in responsibilities, schedules and budget are assigned (8), evaluation (9) and, finally, feedback (10). A later model is R-O-S-I-E for research, objectives, strategies, imple- mentation and evaluation.

The approach taken by one of the authors of this text is presented in Figure 8.1. Any problem-solving plan should take into consideration intervening situa- tions: how others will react (especially within the existing power structure), how the organizational

group

which

Chapter 8 / Strategic Management in PR Practice 215

What Do You Do When There’s a Problem Or Potential Prolem?

This assumes that the problem is one you are antici- pating, not one that requires immediate reaction.

What is the procedure for handling a problem? Where do you start? 1. Assemble readily available facts and background

material. Have everything at hand relative to the problem; analyze and discuss these with executives. Background materials include four areas: organi- zational/client, opportunity/problem, audience, research.

2. Determine which publics are involved or affected. 3. Decide if additional research is needed to properly

define the problem and evaluate its scope.

Where do you go from here? 4. Once the problem is defined and the publics deter-

mined, formulate a hypothesis, assemble facts to test the hypothesis and revise it if the hypothesis is disproved.

5. Elements to consider in this initial planning: a. What is the objective of the PR effort—what

specifically do you want to accomplish? Be able to state this in concrete terms.

b. What image of the organization do you want to present? (This should be a projection of the mission statement, but specifically adapted for this situation.)

c. Which publics are targets? Why? 6. Who are other audiences whose opinions matter?

Now that you know whom you want to talk to and what image you want your actions to reflect, what do you say to accomplish that?

7. What message do you have for each public? These messages should have a particular slant for each audience, but they should convey the same basic theme and information.

8. What media can you use to carry these messages? Which media for each group are received and are credible? Will these media carry your message? If not, what other media can you use? Can you use conventional channels of communication (maga- zines, newsletters, closed-circuit TV, etc.) for inter- nal audiences?

9. What response do you want from each audience?

10. What budget can you use for this—regular allocated budget or a special fund?

11. What is the best timing for actions? Develop a schedule and tie-in with other events to make news when appropriate or to avoid it if news cov- erage might prove detrimental.

12. Review problems or obstacles that might arise and make contingency plans for them.

13. Build in monitoring devices so you’ll always know how you’re doing.

Once it’s all over, how do you know what happened? 14. Plan for evaluation. 15. Evaluate all aspects of the situation—the impact on

and response from all audiences. Evaluation includes (a) impact—informational, attitudinal and behav- ioral—and (b) output (media efforts and results).

16. Communicate results.

In brief: 1. Find the central core of difficulty. 2. Check your total fist of publics and note all of those

who are involved in the problem, both centrally and peripherally.

3. Determine the problem’s status in terms of poten- tial harm to the organization.

4. List the related difficulties to be considered. 5. Explore the alternatives. 6. List the desirable objectives. 7. See how the solution fits into the long-range plans

that are shaped toward what you see as the mission. 8. What are the immediate plans, and how do these fit

with the long-range plans? Short-term solutions that don’t fit long-range objectives and are not con- sonant with the mission statement are wrong. Don’t do them. Start over.

Procedure for handling the problem internally: 1. Detail the plan and submit it to the policy executive

for approval. 2. Get approval in writing. 3. Keep all people who are direcdy involved informed

on a continuing basis throughout the move toward solving the public relations problem.

216 Part Four / PR in Action

New Media Management Environment

In a mashed media world with traditional media online and interacting with social or interpersonal digital media, a more complex media strategy is imperative. To start with, your organization’s website is not there for people to find anymore. You have to position it so it goes where your stakeholders are. That means you have to develop a plan for search engine optimization (SEO) by using keywords in headlines and content to get picked up by search engines.

You need to develop credentials for being an instant source for credible, accurate and reliable information on what your organization produces (organically grown pro- ducts), or does produce/distribute (natural gas) or repre- sents (health issues like cancer or heart disease). Create content in different formats for instant use—copy, video and audio. You want your organization to be the “go to” place for anyone searching for information in your area of expertise. That includes not just updating regularly, but also anticipating when issues first begin to surface. Reach out and make it easy to reach in.

Anticipating also impacts your agility in responding. There is often not time for all of the clearances needed to get on top of reports that start circulating about some facet of your organization’s work. You have to respond within tight deadlines. Clear possible position statements, questions about policies or operations so responses can be instant.

In planning for different formats, think about where these might be going: to traditional news media online as well as in print or on radio or television; to customers or nonprofit organizational members; to trade or business publications or online sites; or as responses to activists bat- tering your reputation by attacks on your corporate cul- ture, disclosure policies or social responsibility. Different content, different tone, different style for each is needed. Be prepared and it’s easier to do this in the production stages, rather than later.

Expect respondents to publics in any area of the or- ganization to report to you any difficulties with any stakeholders so you can provide a script or even han- dle the problem within your department. It helps to have occasional training sessions with other units and to prepare videos for new hires in the different units that handle problems with outside publics.

Avoiding problems is one reason the public rela- tions department sets policies for all communica- tions, including use of the logo or corporate name, to keep consistency in and control over the corporate image and to be sure the organization “speaks with one voice.” Internally, it prepares backgrounders, position papers, crisis planning and reports. It also is responsible for the organization’s online presence in interactive media and should have policies for those. If any members of management issue blogs, those too should be vetted by the public relations department to be sure policies are followed.

Externally, PR provides information and news releases for all media, print and electronic. Clips for online voice, motion and photo sites are usually done in-house. VNRs (video news releases) may be done in-house too, although these are usually outsourced. Be sure you have Internet-ready B-roll and clips if you need some for instant use. Basic communication func- tions include initiating information for individuals, groups, organizations and media and also responding to each. Additionally, public relations units are involved in developing, implementing and evaluating three dif- ferent types of campaigns (internally, externally or both) for participation, opinion effects or behavior

PR Departments as Source and Resource Resources available in the public relations department are often needed by other divisions of the organiza- tion. PR can supply information on the organization’s publics, on the socioeconomic and political climates in which the organization functions and on media.

Working at the management level means that public relations practitioners do a lot of listening to management as well as counseling. They are relied on for sound advice on the effects of events and policies on publics and how to solve problems with various stakeholders. Having the courage of one’s convictions is needed from all of the management team, as is honesty and candor. Providing factual feedback is important from all managers, but the PR person also is expected to add the component of “feeling” expressed in public opinion (Figure 8.3).

Top management is not the only level that counts on public relations for counsel. Many other units call on PR for some evaluation of an event or issue, just as they count on them for technical support.

PR is often the source for publications and presen- tations. It provides information for the organization’s website and its intranet. The department also is responsible for immediate responses to interactive media. Be sure this is coordinated with issues or com- plaints that might be directed to other units, such as customer service, human resources, legal and such. Public relations problems can arise from some responses from another unit that could be seen by a stakeholder as insensitive, not helpful or even rude.

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Chapter 8 / Strategic Management in PR Practice 217

changes. Additionally, for some types of organizations such as museums, new building openings, new manufacturing processes, convention sites and such, you may be preparing Internet media tours (IMTs).

Because an internal PR department has to handle its own budget and be accountable for how the money is spent, it has to cost out each of these PR activities, including some allocation of employee time. When the PR department is hiring outside people, it can expect to be charged in one of three ways. A fixed fee sets a specific charge for all work and expenses on a particu- lar project A fee for services plus out-of-pocket expenses is a common billing practice. The contract needs to make clear what out-of-pocket expenses are included. A retainer arrangement covers counseling, supervision and overhead—the cost of doing business meaning secretarial and clerical costs, supplies and things such as utilities, rent, amortization of equipment and so on. Additional charges are made for services at hourly rates that reflect payroll costs plus out- of-pocket expenses supported by receipts.

Some contractual arrangements may be long-term, such as with work for hire, often project work, or with suppliers of goods and/or services for work on demand. With the reduction of staff, departments

are increasingly involved in outsurcing these sorts of arrangements. Be sure your contracts are approved by your organization’s legal staff before being offered for signing. Afterward, also be sure the legal staff has a copy of the signed contracts and the financial depart- ment has the invoices and evidence of payment

Managing and Working with PR People Internally, a PR department head is responsible for sound management To manage PR people effec- tively, you must first recognize that they are creative people who work under continuous pressure and face criticism from all fronts for whatever they do. Positive reinforcement from a supervisor provides encouragement and reinforcement. Next you must realize that they are individuals with professional attitudes that tend to make them more committed to their field than to the particular place where they may be working. Finally, although most PR people are highly trained communicators, they often don’t communicate as effectively with their colleagues as they do when they are working either with other departments or with outsiders at a com- munications task. Generational differences often

Engage and Encourage Advocates

Exposure to information in media is proliferating, not disintegrating.

Richard Edelman, President and CEO of Edelman says, “The average person is consuming six to eight sources of information daily and needs to hear or read something three to five times in different places from var- ious sources before believing it.” Quoting from a Nielsen Online study, Dan Gillmor, says “the average American visits 111 domains and 2,500 websites per month. More television channels. More Twitter feeds and Facebook friends. Each of these releases vast amounts of informa- tion that compete for mindshare and focus.” Gillmor is Director, Knight Center for Digital Media Entre- preneurship (DME) and Kauffman Professor of DME at Arizona State Univerity.

So, the problem is getting attention and focus. The answer is engagement. Engagement allows for creating advocates who will pass your message along through various media channels.

Newsom and Haynes say, “True symmetry in public relations practice is no longer a theory. It’s a reality. Stakeholders have to be attracted and held by inter- action and a sense of interconnection with the organi- zation, Writing in public relations is a dialogue that involves stakeholders, draws them into the organization, offers a rewarding relationship and a commitment to it” Stage one, according to Newsom and Haynes, is to

attract, hold, interconnect. Stage two is involve, draw in; offer benefits; promise, commit.

From the annual Edelman summit come “The Seven Tenets of Public Engagement: The guiding prin- ciples of shared interests and multi-way conversations.” These are: “1) Listen with New Intelligence—start with research and distinguish between idea starters, amplifiers and viewers. 2) Participate in the Conversation—go where people are in real-time/all the time. 3) Create and Co-create Content—involve people in developing, repurposing, and improving content. 4) Socialize Media Relations—view the media in its full dimension of mainstream, new, social and owned. 5) Champion Open Advocacy—be fully transparent about your inter- ests and agenda. 6) Build Active Partnerships for Com- mon Good—understand the role of business in society and partner with governments, NGOs, and media com- panies who are independent and credible. 7) Embrace and Navigate the Complexity—recognize the complex, multi-stakeholder environments”. Sources: Doug Newsom and Jim Haynes: “Engage the Energy of Your Stakeholders: Elevate Your Writing Skills,” PowerPoint presentation at PRSA Annual Communications Summit, Dallas- Fort Worth, TX, October 22, 2010, and “The Third Way: Public Engagement,” Edleman White Paper from Edelman’s 4th Annual New Media Academic Summit, New York, NY June 23-24, 2010.

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218 Part Four / PR in Action

impede understanding and complicate relationships. Global operations make this task more challenging because employees abroad are working in different time zones and may need information earlier that anticipated for resident staff.

Cultivating personal growth and keeping PR employees from getting bored with routine chores are challenges for PR managers. Offering continuing education in-house on company time helps everyone. PR managers must see to it that their employees learn the organization’s business thoroughly and keep up with developments in that business as well as in their own field.

In managing PR personnel in global offices, value conflicts may occur. Value conflicts can occur over such concepts as time, status of women, regard for animals and ecology. All of these can put the organi- zation at odds with its environment and can be sources of misunderstanding and resentment.

An organization may not be willing to compro- mise on some values, such as cleanliness, education, personal freedom and egalitarianism. Moreover, some ways of doing business in other parts of the world may conflict with laws governing the parent company—anything from standard bribes or kick- backs to the subordinate status of women to the employment of children. In these situations, some understanding must be reached with the host nation, and this can be accomplished only when the organi- zation’s employees act with flexibility and sensitivity. While the organization faces unique challenges abroad, it also gains opportunities to learn and to incorporate new ideas from the host culture. Particular care must be exerted to ensure that internal publica- tions and audiovisual presentations—some of which may be prepared at home but distributed to offices abroad—don’t offend or violate cultural norms.

Of course, you don’t have to go abroad to get into trouble by offending a cultural group. The stereo- typing of people in any medium is likely to cause trouble, even when it’s intended to be amusing; and language can offend, even at home.

Internal PR management also is responsible for hiring outside PR firms. Bids from PR firms are based on their accounting structures. The cost of staff time spent on a project is measured in staff sala- ries, usually prorated to the nearest hour of time spent. The cost of executive time and supervision depends on the size of the agency: large agencies have executive oversight; small ones include the

executive in the staff portion of the time. A PR busi- ness incurs chargeable and nonchargeable expenses. The following time and expenses can be charged to a client: (l) meetings with clients to prepare account material; (2) interviews, surveys and placement of materials; (3) supervision of distribution of releases and other materials—print and electronic, photo- graph assignments and other visual material prepared for the client; (4) travel time, including going to and from client’s office, as well as time spent in off-hours (evenings and weekends) with client personnel on client matters. Nonchargeable expenses include the following: (1) keeping up contacts with media repre- sentatives; (2) meetings with office and staff and other group conferences related to PR business; (3) new business solicitation and preparation of mate- rials for potential clients; (4) professional activities such as seminars, meetings and time spent on profes- sional/firm activities; and (5) leisure time spent away from home in hotels, as well as purely social activities with clients, whether or not these occur in the evening or on weekends. Higher fees are generally charged for emergencies, special projects and delinquent accounts. Most PR firms give their retainer clients quarterly reports, with charges for extra services or credit car- ried over to the next quarter.

Externally, the PR firm itself is another manage- ment issue, both for the PR department hiring it and the PR firm taking on the task of working for and with an internal PR department. For the internal PR people, hiring a firm means finding one the right size to do the job and with the right talent and experience to handle the project or problem.

A client looking for a PR firm must consider a small firm, a medium-size one and large one—and among the large firms, whether the firm is inter- national. Some small firms are really the offices of counselors who do strategic planning but little or no implementation. Other small firms may offer spe- cial services or are just generalists. The small firm often does a lot of networking to accomplish a task because it doesn’t have a large staff. It is essentially a planner and contractor, hiring out work to freelancers and other contract workers. If a client represents too large a share of the small firm’s business, there is the real economic danger of losing the client. This some- times affects judgment. There is more of a tendency to just please the client instead of doing what the head of the PR firm knows needs to be done. The result is bad for both the firm and the client. Small firms have

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Chapter 8 / Strategic Management in PR Practice 219

Being part of the management team makes it difficult for internal PR people to break bad news to employees. Part of the reluctance is top management’s perception of that as a negative strategy. Often, management wants to soften the bad news. The result is—if not outright lying to employees— misleading them.

Employees need to know directly, from management, what is going on, instead of making them rely on rumors and innuendoes that often originate with email messages from outside or even inside the company. The worst thing that can happen is that employees learn bad news from news media. There is no excuse for that to occur now with so much technology available for instant messaging.

One argument against sharing bad news is that it’s bad for employee morale. That is not necessar- ily true. If there is an impending crisis, an organization’s credibility is about all the organization has going for it. If employees don’t trust management as the ultimate “insiders,” why should anyone else, such as investors?

Misleading employees also destroys their confidence in management. The smart ones leave, often taking with them the experience and expertise the organization needs to weather the storm. On the other hand, if management explains the situation clearly and completely and asks employees for sup- port, they are likely to get it. The critical ingredient there is that employees have to see management as taking the hits along with them.

If there will be layoffs, employees have to understand why and how these will be handled. One supervisor who was told to fire 300 people by the end of the week by sending them a blast phone message told management no. He called in each of the 300 people individually and told them what was going to happen at the end of the week and why. That’s the good news. The bad news is that top management didn’t understand or appreciate the need to do that.

Both inside and out of an organization is the call for transparency. What may not always be possi- ble is complete transparency. Sometimes, that is because the facts are not yet known, decisions are incomplete, or legal issues such as privacy problems or other such issues are involved. Reasons to not tell everything call for what Robert L. Wakefield and Susan B. Walton call translucency. Their posi- tion is that first of all transparency gives facts that may not be the same thing as truth. People may connect dots between statements of fact that do not yield the truth. Furthermore, the information can be taken out of context. A cultural bias involving what needs to be shared and what doesn’t can create misunderstandings. Additionally, transparency may cause some emotional damage unnecessarily, such as revealing details of an employee’s performance review. What is supported for translucency, rather than absolute transparency, is being authentic. Sometimes, a flood of data can hide, rather than reveal, valid information.

The role of public relations is managing relationships with all of the organization’s publics, espe- cially employees. Handling internal communications is strategic management. Besides that, it’s the right thing to do. Handling external communication is more central to what sustains or damages the organization’s reputation.

Source: For more on translucency, see Robert L. Wakefield and Susan B . Walton, “Translucency Corollary: Why Full Trans- parency Is Not Always The Most Ethical Approach,” a paper available on the Institute for Public Relations.

to be sure they aren’t taking on a task too big for them and that they don’t become too dependent on a single client. Small firms have another problem. Occasion- ally, they get a client who is exceptionally demanding,

yet doesn’t represent a large share of revenue. Smaller firms are sometimes reluctant to let clients go. Time is money, though, and there are fewer people to provide that time.

220 Part Four / PR in Action

A medium-size firm usually charges more than the smaller firm because it sets aside part of the profits to solicit new business. Sometimes, a new business person is hired just to generate new accounts. In that case, the person often works for a commission and doesn’t do much else for the firm except make pitches and write proposals. The person then hands off the account to an AE (account executive). Where the small firm may just present a written proposal

a PowerPoint presentation, a medium-size firm invests in some production to be competitive. These firms usually assign a person to work directly with the client, but that person may have a number of other clients to serve. Many of these firms are made up of generalists who rely on a few contract specialists to handle certain accounts.

Large firms are generally organized into groups composed of people who have the special expertise needed to handle a particular client’s requirements. Larger firms normally have departments, such as media relations, that serve all groups. Groups usu- ally make their own presentations, so the firm’s principals are less in demand by the client than they are in the smaller and medium-size firms. Large firms hire generalists and specialists and are more likely to hire outstanding people and then find work for them. New people are usually tested at skills-level jobs (such as writing releases or man- aging a news conference) to see what they can deliver before they are given the chance to try man- agement jobs.

International firms are among the largest of the large firms. They have to maintain offices and employees located around the world to serve their clients who need onsite representation. A large num- ber of these international employees are public affairs specialists because much of their work is done with governments. The others, for the most part, because they have to handle campaigns for products or services that combine PR, advertising and market- ing communication. The local branches of the firm have their own clients and solicit business, but they also work with the parent firm and other interna- tional offices to coordinate global efforts.15

In all cases, what is important is a good fit between the firm and the client and especially between the person servicing the account and the client contact. More is being done by fewer public

relations practitioners regardless of the size of the organization, and much more versatility is required both in knowledge and skills sets. Swift technology changes mean steeper learning curves and speedy development of technical skills.

Discussion Questions 1. What are the differences in handling public rela-

tions as an outside agency/firm or freelancer as opposed to working in an organization’s PR department?

2. What effect does the type of the organization, its corporate culture and its communication environment have on PR practice internally? What effect do these factors have externally?

3. What is the impact of 24/7 digital media on issue monitoring, managing and reporting on PR planning?

4. How significant are mission, vision and values statements to organizations and their publics?

with

Points to Remember The PR department helps management develop and interpret the organization’s objectives and goals, then develops plans for programs that help the organization achieve those objectives and goals. The degree of involvement of PR in these activi- ties depends on how management sees the public relations function, but PR must prove its value and leadership by developing or strength- ening organizational support through strategic communication. PR departments are involved in identifying and solving strategic problems for the organization, a multiphase activity that begins with the percep- tion of the problem by management, by the PR department and by other management counsel, such as legal, financial, risk management and human resources. PR’s role has been strengthened by the immedi- acy and reach of global communications. Solving the problem means recognizing the resources of the organization, the power structure,

integrated communication specialistsare

Chapter 8 / Strategic Management in PR Practice 221

existing decision-making processes in the organi- zation and the corporate culture. The most crucial role for public relations is acting as counsel to management; but to do so, public relations practitioners must understand the pro- blems and needs of management and must win management’s trust and confidence. To help identify and monitor issues, PR people work with others in the organization to see the organization from their perspectives. The best PR managers keep top management aware of issues. The balance is to keep manage- ment from being blindsided with something with- out worrying them with constant warnings that fail to materialize. Since PR is working with so many different units inside the organization and many suppliers outside the organization, it is crucial for practitioners to develop, disseminate and consistently remind employees of public relations policies and practices. People are PR’s greatest cost and its greatest asset; however, because they are usually creative types, they are not always easy to manage. Adding to the challenges of managing PR people are the problems of maintaining offices abroad. PR managers must consider how their own cul- tural values can lead to conflicts in the resident culture. Culture conflict can also occur at home. Avoiding culture clashes in the workplace and in PR practice requires both strategic planning and sensitivity.

Other Related Websites to Review Associations:

Institute for Public Relations http://www.ipr.org

Public Relations Society of America http://prsa.org

International Public Relations Society http://ipra.org

For information about public relations firms, see this trade association:

The Council of Public Relations Firms http://www.prfirms.org

Also, look here for more information on public relations firms:

Internet PR Guide http://www.internetprguide.com

Subscription-based websites with PR industry news:

PRWeek http://www.prweek.com

PRNews http://www.prnewsonline.com

PR University http://www.bulldogreporter.com

PR Reporter and Ragan’s PR Daily News Feed http://www.Ragan.com

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or cChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

To appreciate the range of communication channels and media in the 21st Century, and to consider the implications for public relations and to examine how innovations in communication technology offer potential public relations opportunities, for example, in relationship-building. To recognize distinctions between advertising and public relations messages and the channels and media that are appropriate for each type of communication. To understand the need for and use of strategies in preparing messages. To develop a sensitivity about the unique strengths and weaknesses that each type of message and medium has for public relations message dissemination.

Communication Channels and Media

hannels of communication are public or private paths for messages to and from various publics.

Media are conveyances for messages in those channels. Public channels are dominated by mass or specialized media available to anyone who chooses to subscribe, tune in and/or sign on. Private channels are more commonly used by media directed to a particular chosen individual or group. It’s important to remember that although a medium may be a person, media generally are either print or electronic.

The frequently used classification of print and electronic media into internal and external types is somewhat artificial because it focuses on the medium’s intended audience or public, not on the medium itself. As we noted in Chapter 4, however, publics don’t necessarily accept those categories. Some members of external audiences, such as stockholders or university alumni, may see themselves as internal. And parts of the Internet, such as email, are more private than public, although unintended widespread dissemination of an email can be worldwide instantaneously.

Another distinction frequently made in public relations regarding media is between controlled and uncontrolled types. When a medium is said to be controlled, there is some guarantee that the message crafted for that medium will be delivered to the audience as created, without

c Global communication influences organi- zations and their publics, and communi- cation innovations make understanding

global publics more urgent. Professionals and organizations that want to succeed in the global environment must recognize

the strengths of the new social media that allow for building local awareness

and local communities, linking them to

the wider global context.

—Marina Vujnovic and Dean Kruckeberg, “Managing Global Public Relations in the New Media Environment, ’’ in Managing Media Work *

224 Part Four / PR in Action

modification, barring some kind of technical failure or human error. But with global access to messages through electronic technology, many messages now reach audiences for which they were never intended. For example, the commercials that accompany television programs are beamed by satellite to audiences all over the world; but often, they were designed for audiences in the country of origin of the products and services they advertise. Information available on electronic data banks is another example: Most of it is prepared with a specific audience in mind, but unintended audiences are receiving and using these messages in ways the preparers had never imagined. New and ever-changing social media have further confounded such classifications. Valentini and Kruckeberg note that use of new media does not necessarily presume interaction with, or engagement of, publics, while social media by definition exist because individuals decide to create social relations by building and interacting in virtual communities, e.g., Best Buy’s use of Twitter to enhance customer relations and its use of Twelpforce to provide customer service and the interactive campaign for the 2010 animated film Despicable Me. The authors conclude that social media, more so than other new media, should be at the heart of public relations activities.2

The challenge today is to think of media as recognizing no borders and of messages as having the potential to reach unintended audiences who may misinterpret them or use them in ways that the sender had never intended. Given that general guideline, the public relations practitioner must still try to design public-specific messages and media. Kruckeberg and Vujnovic have argued that the only strategic public that can be identified with certainty today is a broad general public during a time in which infinite numbers of volatile publics worldwide can form immediately and unpredictably and can act seemingly chaotically and with unforeseen power.3

Choosing the Medium

All public relations efforts should have a specific objective. That objective, together with the audience, the message itself, the element of timeliness and your budget, should determine your choice of media. Generally, a mix of media is used, and one important consideration in this regard is the choice between controlled and uncontrolled media.

A billboard is an example of a controlled medium. You have complete control over its content and its appearance and even where it is located, because you buy a specific space. Television, on the other hand, is an uncontrolled medium, because—even when you control the content of a message (because it is an ad or public service announcement [PSA])—you probably do not control its context (what spot is shown immedi- ately before or after it and what content the surround- ing program will have). Still, an advertisement or public service announcement could be considered controlled communication because the creator generally has con- trol over the message. Other forms of communication are uncontrolled. For example, a news conference or a groundbreaking ceremony that receives TV coverage is uncontrolled communication, because the PR person has no assurance that the cameras will record the event or focus the coverage in the desired way.

Of course, an element of uncontrollability lurks in every aspect of communication. There is no guaran- tee that the audience to whom a message is directed will pay attention to it or respond to it. You must carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each medium before investing time, creativity and money in it. However, avoid the temptation to con- sider production costs instead of cost-effectiveness.

You should consider three questions in selecting the proper medium for your message: 1. What audience are you trying to reach, and what

is its receptiveness to each medium? 2. When do you need to reach this audience, and

by what date does it need to receive a message in order to respond to it?

3. How much do you need to spend, and how much can you afford to spend?

After you have considered and answered these questions, you need to ask four additional questions: 1. Which medium reaches the broadest segment of

your target/priority audience at the lowest cost?

Chapter 9 / Communication Channels and Media 225

2. Which medium has the highest credibility with that audience, and what is its cost?

3. Which medium can you count on to deliver the message within the necessary time constraints for the message to be effective?

4. Should a single medium be used ? If a media mix is desirable, which media should be used to best complement one another in reaching your audience?

To make effective use of the media selected, you must know enough about the mechanics and tech- nology of each medium to prepare the copy properly. Most students are surprised at the amount and dif- ferent styles of writing demanded of PR practi- tioners. PR professors are not surprised, however, because in recommending students for jobs after graduation, they find the most frequently asked question is “Can they write? ” The question implies for all media. In preparing messages for all media, you must consider the differences and the advantages and disadvantages of various media (see Table 9.1).

The major distinction is economic. Advertising has its own space and time in media. That space and time is for sale. So advertising is time or space that is paid for.

There are two exceptions to this. One occurs when a medium uses its own time or space to pro- mote one of its own products. For instance, a news- paper might run an ad for its own Web page or for blogs written by its reporters. It looks just like an ad, but it is for the same organization and no money has changed hands. In electronic media, you recognize these commercial messages as promos, or promo- tional announcements for something special in the programming, usually for that day or sometime later in the week. Another exception is when the media give time or space in their commercial slots to nonprofit organizations for messages that are prepared just like commercial messages. These messages are called public service announcements (PSAs).

Publicity, on the other hand, is news about a client, product or service that appears in the time or space that media reserve for “editorial copy ”—news, features or other editorial content—or “programmingr” in broadcasting.

Most programming is not wholly paid for because advertising is sold around the programs. However, some television stations do carry what is identified in viewing guides as “paid programming” or “infomercials.” In that case, the entire program is really an ad. Print versions of such content are special sec- tions that may look like the rest of the paper, but are really advertising; usually a disclaimer is printed on the section that says “Paid Advertising” or on TV “Paid Programming” or “Sponsored Programming.”

Choosing the Message—Advertising and Publicity

Confusion about what is advertising and what is pub- licity is understandable because the fine between the two is blurred. The Wall Street Journal observes that many advertisers are embedding their messages into TV shows, video games, movies and other program- ming, and some are attempting to mix advertising messages and editorial content in magazines as well, for instance by running ads next to stories about the same product, getting products mentioned in stories, creating contests that are finked to magazines and running advertisements that look like magazine lay- outs—all of which can blur the fine between editorial and advertising.4 For example, product placement is common in the USA, where television programs such as American Idol display a soft drink brand on the judges’ drinking glasses.5 Furthermore, although consumers of information may intellectually know the difference, they seldom remember whether the source of information was advertising or publicity unless the presentation was particularly memorable. For the discussion in this chapter, though, it is important to separate the two.

Types of Advertising Used in PR Practice Three types of advertising are most common to pub- lic relations practice: house ads; public service announcements; and institutional advertising used for issues, advocacy and identity. Three other types are used less often, but do occur: specialty, coopera- tive and professional advertising.

House Ads A house ad is what an organization pre- pares for use in its own medium or in another medium controlled by the same owner. For instance, a newspaper that is part of a chain of print and elec- tronic media might promote a special subscription offer or announce a new “Lifestyles” section by running an ad or promo on the chain’s television stations. No money is exchanged, although space allotments or “budgets” are established.

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Chapter 9 / Communication Channels and Media 227

Public Service Announcements PSAs are promotional pieces—not news stories—in the form of announce- ments. Generally, broadcast stations give unsold air time for PSAs, which are prepared just like commer- cials, from organizations such as the United Way, the American Heart Association or the local phony. No money is exchanged, but the station may send the nonprofit organization an invoice for the amount of air time given, listing the number of hours and the commercial rate and bearing the nota- tion “paid in full.”

One word of warning if you work for a nonprofit organization that advertises: Just because your free public service time leaves some money in your adver- tising budget, don’t splurge on sizable ads in print media. People working in electronic media can read. If you are buying ad space in a print medium while a broadcast medium is giving you PSA time, the station will notice and bill you for the “free” time at a commercial rate.

The release of radio PSAs on compact discs (CDs) was an effective format in the 1990s, according to News Broadcast Network’s president Michael J. Hill. His firm had found wide accep- tance for CDs, because most radio station libraries had converted to CDs, and the lower CD produc- tion cost also had made the format more afford- able, Hill says.6 However, many stations today may prefer electronic files over CDs, says Renee Rallos of WFAE 90.7 fm, a National Public Radio (NPR) station in North Carolina. One rea- son is the “green factor” of not needing to dispose of CDs that are no longer being used. Print PSAs are generally, but not always, found toward the back of magazines and occasionally in newspapers. Leftover space is made available for free display ads (see Figure 9.1).

Commercial partnerships with nonprofits are not new, but they have increased dramatically as advertising costs have accelerated, whereas the ability to reach audiences has dropped. These part- nerships are sometimes confused with public ser- vice announcements.

The intent is to serve the public, but the com- mercial partnership takes the message statement out of the realm of public service announcements and into the area of cooperative advertising and promotion.

message. Issue ads are used by an organization as a forum for its views on a topic or problem. These ads are often called advertorials in print media and sometimes “infomercials” in electronic media, although infomercials on an issue are usually longer than a 60-second spot. Another type of longer info- mercial, the “intermercial,” appears on the Internet; it includes dialogue and video and may last up to four minutes. The name comes from “interstituals,” which are the ads that pop up while a browser is downloading a page from a website, such as those displayed between Web pages.

Companies seeking public support for corporate policies and programs have begun to invest more in advocacy advertising. Advocacy ads are a form of lob- bying to influence public opinion. They go beyond offering a general comment on issues to urging sup- port for a position that benefits the organization specifically.

Corporate advocacy advertising often looks like editorial copy, although it may be clearly identified as an ad. Some corporate advocacy is done in part- nership with a nonprofit organization and becomes a form of cooperative advertising.

Another type of institutional ad, which functions less as a persuasive message than as a reminder, is the type some companies call sustaining or image ads. Image ads are often used by companies seeking to modify or reinforce their public image. They may present a redesigned logo or a change in policy; they may also reiterate the company’s values. The image ad is also used by monopolies that wish to represent themselves as public servants. Companies frequently use this type of advertising to win favor- able public opinion.

Nonprofit organizations, especially trade and pro- fessional organizations, may use image advertising, too. Because of an image ad’s tone and content, it may be mistaken for publicity.

Some image advertising looks like product adver- tising and vice versa. A company may relate image to product if it is important to the company’s reputa- tion that its name be associated, in the public’s mind, with a certain product. When image ads are not used, the company may begin to experience a decline in public approval and market share; after two years, the decline is quick and dramatic. If image ads are stopped when money is tight, the results can be disastrous.

A device similar to image ads is the identity ad , often used by nonconsumer product companies, or

sym-

Institutional Advertising The objective of some institutional advertising is to convey a particular

228 Part Four / PR in Action

Image not available due to copyright restrictions

by consumer-oriented companies when takeovers or spinoffs have blurred public recognition.

Creating and Solving Problems with Advertising Advertising can sometimes do more harm than good. For example, Groupon ran advertisements during the 2011 Super Bowl that many viewers thought ridiculed and trivialized humanitarian envi- ronmental organizations such as Greenpeace and the Rainforest Action Network as well as humanitarian concerns about Tibet, resulting in a flurry of Twitter tweets criticizing the company.8

Adapting sales pitches to global markets without offending home audiences is essential. Although

Commercial Advertising by Nonprofits Not all adver- tising that nonprofit organizations do is public ser- vice advertising. Much is paid-for time or space. A two-and-a-half year television advertising cam- paign by the Roman Catholic Church, “Catholics Come Home,” had been credited with having 200,000 individuals join local parishes by December 2010.7

Chapter 9 / Communication Channels and Media 229

many companies depend on local agencies to appeal to that market, some guidelines need to exist. One of the first considerations for global advertising is usu- ally language, but it’s also important to be sensitive to cultural preferences. Culture may be a more important consideration than language. In fact, often when Enghsh will work as a language, the cul- ture where it is being used may be so different from U.S. culture that the graphics and even the “tone” of the writing won’t be effective or may seem strange to that culture’s readers. Advertising that creates a pub- lic relations problem is not money well-spent. This is where research about publics is more than worth the investment. Even in domestic settings, more thor- ough research won’t hurt. In fact, it’s the lack of research that dooms many corporate image ads.

Ads are often used successfully to build confidence in a time of crisis. Getting a message out about a problem is usually best in a controlled format that advertising offers. Ads showing website addresses and free-to-the-caller 800 numbers that people can access are often used to provide notices of some sort of difficulty or problem when access to the company is critical to bolster an audi- ence’s confidence in the organization or, in some cases, to offer information. British Petroleum maintains a sec- tion on its website that provides updates about its “Gulf of Mexico Restoration,” together with contact informa- tion for those wishing to make claims.9

as pens with the opera logo, are the types of materials that profit-making organizations use in specialty advertising.

Without looking, can you recall the company whose name is on the pen you use or on your desk calendar? Advertising specialties are useful, inexpen- sive items, such as inexpensive digital clocks, laser pointers, key chains or baseball caps, imprinted

an organization’s name, logo or message. These items are given away to customers or perhaps as souvenirs to those who attend a special event.

Many opportunities exist to advertise on the Internet in addition to pop-up ads on the Web. While advertising on unpredictable blogs can be haz- ardous, advertisers have recognized the pervasive appeal of podcasts. Audio podcast listening increased significandy from 2007 to 2008, with 18 percent of Americans saying they have downloaded and listened to an audio podcast, while 16 percent of Americans consumed video podcasts.10 This audience for “downloadable media” is more likely to be educated and affluent and to spend time and money online.11 A continually increasing range of “apps” on smart- phones and tablet computers likewise provide oppor- tunities for advertising, e.g., mutual fund companies and brokerages are providing smartphone applica- tions, joining other services in the financial world.12

Cooperative (Co-op) Advertising offers almost as many advantages as advertising placed by a single organization. When one advertiser shares a message with another—such as when a cheese dip manufac- turer combines with a potato chip manufacturer to buy advertising space and time—it also shares the pro- duction and space/time costs. This enables each to participate in both the production and the exposure.

Cooperative advertising also can involve commer- cial-nonprofit partnerships. One example is the actual endorsement of a product by a nonprofit orga- nization in exchange for part of the proceeds of the sale. The first to do this was Johnson & Johnson’s aspirin, which teamed up with the Arthritis Founda- tion, and the partnership was touted in the ads and on the product’s bottles.

with

Advertising in Other Formats Sometimes, the artwork for a print ad can be used in other formats. The most common of these is the poster, which in smaller form is called a flyer, and in larger form a billboard. Mail inserts are another type of format. Other versions are transit or in-store advertising. Some versions, usually of flyer size, are even sent as fax advertising. Fax advertising, which is usually from suppliers or service industries, has encountered some problems because the receiver pays for the paper on which the unsolic- ited message is printed. Such artwork is also com- monly placed on organizations’ websites.

There should be continuity between poster or billboard art, the packaging for a product and the store displays. An opera association, for example, may have a table flanked by posters set up in the lobby at performances to sell cups, tote bags, umbrellas and other items bearing the opera’s logo. The purpose in this case is to raise money for the nonprofit organization. Some of these items, such

Advertising by Professionals Both advertising agen- cies and PR firms have learned to deal with advertis- ing and promotion by lawyers, dentists, doctors and other professionals, who used to be prohibited by their professional codes of conduct from engaging

230 Part Four / PR in Action

in such commercial activities. As these professionals began putting their names in print and their faces on television, a new market for public relations practi- tioners opened.

In 1975, after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began attacking advertising restrictions on lawyers, doctors and dentists, self-promotional advertisements began to appear—particularly in local newspapers and on local television. Several Supreme Court decisions supported this trend among the professional groups. Although some PR practitioners are understandably pleased by the development, others consider handling some professional clients to be ethically questionable.

other than English. There are language-specific media—print and electronic—and neighborhoods where the language of preference is not English. In the latter case, mail to these zip code addresses and billboards and posters placed in these areas are not in English, but in the preferred language. For instance, Bank of America markets to and does business with cus- tomers whose preferred and sometimes only language may be Spanish (see Figure 9.2).

Advertising as Controlled and Uncontrolled Communication Controlled Advertising One significant advantage of using controlled (paid) advertising is that the advertiser nearly always has total control—over the

Languages and Advertising In the USA, advertisers are targeting their ads more frequently by using languages

Text not available due to copyright restrictions

Chapter 9 / Communication Channels and Media 231

message itself, over the context in which it will appear (size, shape, color) and over the medium in which it will run. And, of course, the advertiser knows approximately when an audience will receive the message. In addition, the advertiser has access to media research about the medium’s audience, indicating who will receive the message and h<rw often the audience will be exposed to it. Internet tracking continues to increase in its sophistication, and the controversy continues about “do not track” requests from consumers concerned about their pri- vacy. Finally, media research may tell the advertiser with considerable degrees of accuracy the typical impact an ad schedule will have on the target audi- ence’s behavior.

stations already are required by the Federal Commu- nications Commission (FCC) to devote a certain per- centage of each broadcast day to PSAs. But a station is not compelled to do so by law. Furthermore, an FCC action in 1984 erased a guideline for TV that recommended devoting 10 percent of airtime to nonentertainment programming. The corresponding guideline for radio was abolished in 1981.

Station policies on PSA time are so diverse that they defy any general description. The effective practitioner simply learns and then meets the demands of each individual station.

Preparing Advertising Messages A person writing advertising copy needs more than a list of details from marketing and sales describing what is supposed to be pushed. The copywriter must also know the purpose of the ad or commercial, the media it will appear in and its audience.

Copywriters must clearly define the purpose of an ad. Is the purpose to inform? Is it to introduce a new product, attract a new market, suggest a new use for a familiar product, give a corporate identity to a con- glomerate or familiarize an audience with a new trademark? Is the purpose of the ad to persuade? Should the ad or commercial try to get its audience to think or do something? The following ad from a laundry company appeared in a British newspaper; its purpose is quite clear: “Strong, fat women who wish to lose weight wanted for hard but well-paid work.”

Sometimes, an ad’s purpose is “positioning.” Advertisers developed this technique as a way of finding a foothold in the marketplace, and public relations strategists are now borrowing it. Position- ing attempts to isolate a segment of the market in a highly competitive field by creating a unique image for a product that is fundamentally the same as its competitors. Thus, this technique artificially seg- ments the audience. After determining an ad’s pur- pose, the next consideration is which media to use. Most ads go into a media mix, so the way the mate- rial can be interpreted for all sorts of media is impor- tant in crafting the message and planning the visuals.

Even if you hire others to write and produce the ads, you need to know a great deal about the media in which these ads will appear so that they will fit each medium’s audience. In every case, you need to know about costs and estimated impact to make a useful presentation. You have to plan how to allocate resources so that you make the most of your budget.

Uncontrolled Advertising Uncontrolled advertising consists of PSAs prepared for use on radio and tele- vision stations. The message is controlled, but the delivery time is not.

Only nonprofit organizations qualify for free public service time. But because such time is scarce, the United Fund and local symphony season ticket drives, for example, must compete for it just as fiercely as any business competes for dollars. National nonprofit orga- nizations send stations highly professional videos, either tape or DVDs, usually with a celebrity’s voice- over. These are mailed far enough in advance to give station personnel time to find good slots in the daily programming for the announcements. In contrast, local organizations are more likely to put in a frantic call the day before a local blood drive asking the station to run some announcements starting immediately— with no DVD or tape and probably not even any copy. Or someone drops by with a dozen slides and two pages of copy and does not understand why this material can’t be aired. Remember, however, that any PSA is used only if the station has time available to give, and even this slot may be sold and the PSA bumped at the last minute.

The amount of time and space for PSAs decreases as commercials and the media’s own advertising— house ads and promos—fill up the vacancies. How- ever, do not overlook the opportunities for PSAs on the Internet. Bill Goodwill and Ken Fischer of the PSA Research Center say that the combination of engagement opportunity, community building and viral referral can gready amplify an original PSA with minimal cost and possible overall savings. They recommend posting your PSAs as an important part of your website.13 Many people imagine that the

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Because advertising is so expensive, most organiza- tions turn over actual ad development to a group of professional writers and artists. However, these people don’t know the organization and its publics as well as someone who works with these publics all of the time. You need to help them convey the right tone in the ad, and you also have to get absolutely correct infor- mation to people who will be developing the ad, com- mercial or PSA. If a mistake winds up in an expensive production, and it’s your mistake, the people who developed the ad don’t have to make good on it. They will do it again, of course, but it has to be paid for again. Also, advertising deadlines are often tight, and there may not be time to redo the ad if the mis- take is a major one. What happens then—when the media space or time is bought and there’s no ad for it? Someone may be out of a job.

A special consideration in evaluating ads before they are approved for distribution is to reexamine the ad that has been produced in light of the purpose that was defined earlier. Sometimes, ads are designed to win awards, and they often do. But the recognition for the award benefits the producer of the ad more than the organization paying for it. Award-winning ads are not always message-effective. The interests of the client compel you to keep the purpose in focus. Your responsibility is to evaluate carefully the best way to deliver your message within the constraints of time and budget.

Uncontrollable Problems One of the biggest problems you will face in using advertising is that, if you get a good idea, it’s likely to be imitated, for example, Christian Brothers once created a very successful ad campaign for its bev- erages using puns, only to see J&B, a competitor, launch a similar campaign.

Another seemingly uncontrollable problem that advertising campaigns frequently encounter involves the undesirable placement of ads in a newspaper or magazine relative to the adjacent copy. The same thing can happen in broadcasting, although it’s fairly standard to have standing “kill” orders for, say, an air- line commercial when the evening news carries the story of an airline crash. Most media try to avoid place- ment errors because it makes advertisers unhappy and can result in demands for compensation.

Yet another difficulty has to do with campaigns that attack the competition. These may take the form of a product-to-product confrontation, like soft

drink taste tests, or one politician lambasting another. Some companies don’t consider it much of a problem if the competition mentions their names in ads. They reason that consumers will forget which product was supposed to be better. They seem to respond like composer George M. Cohan, who said to a newspa- perman in 1912, “I don’t care what you say about me, as long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name right.” But anyone who has watched some of the batdes among the fast-food chains might question the validity of this viewpoint.

Election campaigning in the USA and elsewhere (perhaps due to either direct or indirect U.S. influ- ence) continues to be negative. One perceived effect of this is lower voter turnout due to disgust with the whole affair—a rather dangerous trend in democra- cies, and even the highly contested and historic 2008 presidential elections had about the same portion of eligible voters cast ballots as in 2004. Some evidence suggests that negative advertising works for the attacker if a decision is forced within a time frame, as happens in the case of elections. But the decision to use negative advertising, either in an attack or in a counterattack, demands careful consideration because of its longer-term public relations costs, some of which may be intangible. Of course, new social media such as YouTube.com allow a prolifera- tion of unendorsed advertisements and other politi- cal communication to confound what candidates are really saying, and in the 2008 presidential election, there was some confusion about what Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin had said and what comedian impersonator Tina Fey was saying on the television show, Saturday Night Live. Myths are the source of two other problems advertising must face. The first is the notion that one ad campaign can be effective across national boundaries and cul- tures. Evidence from an experienced agency, Gray Advertising, Inc., indicates that global campaigns only work when three conditions exist: 1. The market developed the same way from coun-

try to country. 2. Consumer targets are similar. 3. Consumers have the same wants and needs.

If even one of the conditions does not exist, a global campaign will not work. For example, Gray says that Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts failed in Great Britain because toasters aren’t widely used there. The Gen- eral Foods Corporation positioned the fruit-flavored

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breakfast drink Tang in France as a substitute for breakfast orange juice, but it subsequently found that orange juice was not popular among the French and that they drank almost none at breakfast.

The second myth is that a single advertising design or concept will work within a culture. Psychographics indicate the need for different appeals that might not be apparent from demographics. Whether the format is movie ads or paperback covers, it’s important to adjust the advertising appeal to the audience. In many cases, different appeals must be designed to sell exacdy the same product to different audiences.

Types of Publicity Used in PR Practice A second major category of messages placed in vari- ous media by PR practitioners is publicity, of which there are ample opportunities in what Valentini and Kruckeberg categorize as informational social media, such as TripAdvisor; professional social media, such as Linkedln; educational social media, such as universities’ interactive websites; academic social media, such as Academic.edu; and entertainment social media, which are centered around a hobby or interest.14 What is publicity? Is it a column item in a

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234 Part Four / PR in Action

local newspaper? A cover story in a national maga- zine? Thirty seconds on the 6 p.m. television news? A bit of chatter by a radio disc jockey or talk show host? The mention of the company’s name once or twice in a long story about the industry? A single photo in a newspaper or magazine? A two-inch item in an association publication? An annual report? A house publication? A film? Postings on a Web page? It is all of these and more.

Publicity is information about an organization that is carried as editorial (not advertising) content in a publication or news medium. Often, it’s news, but it can also be a sales or promotional message.

Journalists rely on public relations people who know what the news media want, need and will use. The PR people must know their own organization thoroughly, have access to the top echelons (where they can get the information they need) and prepare it in a form that the news media can use (see Chapter 10). The news media also depend on PR people because they never have enough reporters on a staff to cover everything going on in a metropolitan area. Much of the informa- tion the news media use comes to them from public relations sources. These are facts they did not have to gather, stories they did not have to write and pictures they did not have to take: information subsidies. But public relations representatives who expect to remain effective must justify the trust of the news media by being accurate, truthful and reliable.

Although much of the information that PR people provide to the news media is “packaged” as news tip sheets or news releases, many other publicity tools are used to reach nonmedia publics. These include publications, CDs, DVDs and videotape produc- tions, speeches, various employee media, Web pages, emails and listservs, instant messenger, online chatting, electronic bulletin boards, blogs and a full range of new and social media, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Chapter 10 discusses tactical details of “how to do it.”

publication for supervisors. Some organizations’ publications are intended for external audiences such as Saudi Aramco World. Others, such as univer- sity alumni magazines, are for stakeholder audiences, and still others are primarily internal. Many are dis- tributed both in hard copy and electronically, e.g., in PDF format, and some are only in PDF format sent to listservs as well as available on the organization’s website, e.g., The Blue Book of the Center for Global Public Relations at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (http://cgpr.uncc.edu).

A company or even a nonprofit organization may be a member of an industry organization. Such groups often produce periodicals, that is, industry publica- tions aimed at bettering the entire industry. Industry organizations’ magazines often gain wide distribution. They are received not only by industry executives but also by business editors, financial analysts, economics specialists, government officials and anyone else who has a particular interest in the industry.

Also distributed horizontally are trade or associ- ation publications—magazines, newsletters, news- papers or annual reports published at the national headquarters of a group whose members share com- mon goals or interests. Among them are labor union publications, religious magazines and newspapers and fraternal and professional publications.

Both profit-making and nonprofit organizations publish sponsored magazines. They are a cosdy venture, however, and some profit-making organiza- tions have quiedy folded their efforts, whereas others accept outside advertising for support. One magazine going to court personnel and attorneys in a large Southwestern city focuses on issues that often under- lie court cases (domestic violence, delinquency and the like) and is being published for a nonprofit, human-services organization.

Sponsored magazines published by profit-making companies may accept outside advertising, but charge less than newsstand magazines. Some companies seek co-sponsors because the venture is so expensive. These magazines differ from a company’s own service maga- zines, although the latter are cosdy too. Examples of service magazines include various airlines’ in-flight publications and American Express’ Departures, which goes to its Platinum and Centurion Card holders. Sponsored magazines are “custom-published” by major media companies that want to expand their busi- ness. However, companies may find it impossible to sustain them during an economic downturn, because they are so expensive to produce.

Publications Three broad categories of publications carry publicity direcdy to audiences: organizational, industry and trade or association.

Organizational magazines, sometimes called house publications, are distributed to other stakeholders of a company. The distribution is usually vertical: Cop- ies go to everyone in the organization, from top to bottom. Occasionally, in a very large organization a publication may go to just one type of employee and thus get horizontal distribution—for example, a

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Both labor unions and governments use tactics that public relations practitioners may not recom- mend, but nevertheless are illustrative of campaigns that are designed to sway public opinion and to influence legislation amidst considerable conflict. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill in early 2011 restricting the power of public-employee unions and increasing their cost for health and pension benefits. Fourteen Democratic senators then left the state to avoid giving Republicans the quorum they needed to pass the governor’s bill. Unions bused in thousands of members and supporters to protest the bill, and individuals opposed to the bill made death threats against several legislators. Republicans finally passed the bill after amending it so that it would require a smaller quorum. The Democratic senators returned, but promptly backed a blizzard of lawsuits to block the bill from taking effect.

The case needed to be decided by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and unions and other groups poured millions of dollars into television advertisements to try to oust a Justice who was a member of the court’s 4-to-3 conservative majority. A columnist for The Wall Street Journal asked: “Why are the unions and their liberal allies so desperate to block Mr. Walker’s reforms? It’s all about the money. Unions can’t abide the loss of political clout that will result from ending the state’s practice of automatically deducting union dues from employee paychecks.”1

Tactics also included threats of boycotts to local businesses. The Wall Street Journal described a letter sent to businesses in southeastern Wisconsin threatening small businesses with boycotts if they didn’t publicly declare their support for government unions, warning: “With that we’d ask that you reconsider taking a sign and stance to support public employees in this community. Failure to do so will leave us no choice but do [sic] a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.”2

John Fund, “As Wisconsin’s Battle Heads to Court, Unions Try to Oust a Judge,” April 1, 2011, accessed April 2, 2011, from http://online.wsj.com.

Wisconsin Unions Get Ugly, ” The Wall Street Journal, April 1 , 2011, accessed April 2, 2011 , from http://online.wsj.com.2«

Newsletters can be internal, external or both. Some external newsletters are income generators, because their audiences pay for them through subscriptions.

Internal newsletters offer an effective means of communicating with employees. A newsletter should not be a collection of trivia, but it should contain substantive information as well as items of interest. Many newsletter items later become subjects of fuller treatment in an organization’s magazine. One com- pany newsletter editor describes her publication as a “circulating billboard.” In other companies it is much more, containing short articles, bits of humor, important announcements and notices. Some are also promotional. External newsletters are also a publicity vehicle. Some are used for addressing issues. Others are created for and subscribed to by members of the public. Subscription to a newsletter can come through membership in an organization or

through direct subscription, like a regular commer- cial magazine. The paid newsletter business is a big one. The Specialized Information Publishers Association, which is an association of newsletter publishers, notes that newsletters and other paid- subscription based products (either in paper form or online) remain the mainstays of most members’ operations, but members offer their content in books, audio conferences and webinars, on subscrip- tion websites and online databases as well as on online social media, supervising content through such oudets as blogging, Twitter and others, noting that advertising-supported content has become much more prevalent among specialized-information publishing companies in recent years.15 Most cover highly specialized subjects and are obviously in- tended for a particular target public. Generally, they enjoy a high readership, both in hard copy and online.

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Desktop publishing and the World Wide Web have made newsletters of all kinds more attractive as a means of communication and have enabled them to resemble publications more than “letters.”

Some newsletters are also (or only) delivered elec- tronically; for example, the Web Marketing Associa- tion named Kiplinger’s Personal Finance the best magazine website for 2010.16

One major employee publication that PR depart- ments produce is the employee handbook, which functions as both a reference work and an effective orientation tool. It should provide a definitive state- ment of what is expected from employees and what the organization offers them. The handbook should thoroughly explain policies, rules and regulations, and it should indicate how management helps to fur- ther the education and career development of the employee. The handbook should also detail how and under what circumstances the corporate name and logo can be used. Inclusion of a management organizational chart with the names of individuals whom employees need to know about or contact in various departments is essential. Workers at all levels should be made aware of the way to get questions answered and problems solved. Most corporations find it necessary to produce handbooks annually to keep the information current.

Some organizations also publish handbooks for external use. Organizations with experts, such as uni- versities, often publish a guide identifying those who are knowledgeable and willing to speak to media and others about their areas of expertise. Their names are also generally forwarded to ProfNet, a subsidiary of PR Newswire. ProfNet’s Experts Database gives reporters profiles of professors seen as leading experts by their institutions so a reporter can get an immediate comment when needed for a breaking news story.

Video recordings remain excellent informational and publicity vehicles, despite the increasing number of Web-based options, and of course videos them- selves can be placed onto websites, DVDs and social media.

One type of video to consider is the long feature, or sponsored video, which may be on a DVD. Such a production with or without movie stars or other celeb- rities is released by an organization or corporation and distributed free of charge. Such professionally produced digital videos and DVDs may be produced for as little as $15,000 or as much as $500,000 or more. Most fall in the $50,000-$75,000 range. Large companies may have

their own production units, but most hire independent producers. The customary audiences for sponsored videos and DVDs are schools, community organiza- tions, television stations and (in some cases) movie theaters.

Another type of production to consider is the one- to five-minute production. Such short productions generally serve as fillers for feature programs, talk shows or local sporting events. To win acceptance, feature fillers must be newsworthy and timely, must show activity and must have only one mention or plug for the sponsor. They are generally presented in a news magazine format.

Various companies are making corporate videos for external publics. These may be reproduced on DVDs and placed on these companies’ websites as well as in social media. In years past, corporate videos sometimes were distributed for classroom use. Some educators and environmental groups have challenged these messages, which usually look like documentaries.

Internal videos are used to communicate the cor- poration’s culture, to inform employees about corpo- rate resources available for dealing with such problems as substance abuse, to instruct and train employees in new techniques or new jobs and to give employees the organization’s side of controver- sial public issues in which it may become involved.

The primary reason for using videos to reach internal audiences is that most employees now are immersed in the Internet and social media.

Employee information (training) remains the pri- mary use for corporate videos, but they are also being used in employee relations (benefits) and crisis communication (informing employees of the organi- zation’s side of a controversial issue so that they can pass that view along to external audiences).

Some corporate videos are directed toward a com- bination internal/external audience such as investors who “own” the company, but don’t work there. Some crisis communication videos are specifically designed to reassure such audiences. Other videos deal with investor relations and address “recommen- ders” of corporate investment such as brokers and analysts. Videos focusing on community or environ- mental issues may be produced originally for internal audiences, but then may be adapted for special exter- nal audiences and placed on company websites. The flexibility of the medium, which allows minor adap- tations to be made on basically the same digital video, renders it especially useful for targeting mes- sages to special audiences.

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effective management tool,17 and they often generate publicity in internal publications.

Intranets Just as the Internet is the major channel for global communication, computer systems within organizations make use of closed electronic systems called intranets. These intranets are used for all sorts of internal communication such as email, meeting notices and newsletters.

Other Promotional Messages Another category of public relations messages used to promote organiza- tions and individuals appears neither as editorial con- tent nor as news in media. Examples of these promotional messages include exhibits and charac- ters identified with the organization (Mickey Mouse appearing for Disney; the Cookie Monster from Ses- ame Street appearing for PBS). Other forms are books, multimedia presentations and closed-circuit television appearances as well as CD-ROMs and information available 24 hours a day on special tele- vision networks.

Many presentations, like the ones this book’s pub- lisher sponsors, occur at trade shows or conventions. Some organizations invest in digital videos or Power- Point slide shows, often on CDs, that can be used at display areas or meetings with little support from organization representatives. Your college’s admis- sions office probably uses such a traveling exhibit to recruit students.

In addition to using high-tech communications such as satellite broadcasts and computer networks, compa- nies can rely on the old standby: print. Examples of self-promotion books abound—of historical note are Lee Iacocca’s lacocca: An Autobiography; Stanley Marcus’s Minding the Store; John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage; and Richard M. Nixon’s Six Crises. A book gives prestige to the subject and can be worth the time invested in producing it. Organizations usually use promotional books for an anniversary or other special occasion. Some books miss being connected to an organization because they are written by a well-known author commissioned to prepare the manuscript When

Speeches and Meetings Speeches are also publicity. When the president of an organization speaks to the local Monday club, the result is publicity, whether or not the local media cover the speech. This is because a person can also be a medium, as is the case with a speaker. The PR person usually gets the job of researching and writing speeches. To be well received, the remarks must be tailored for that particular group. The speech writer must also remember the personal characteristics of the speaker delivering the speech: The speech has to sound like the speaker, not like the writer.

Speeches may be published as brochures and sent to special audiences, or today a video of the presen- tation is just as likely be placed on YouTube as well as on an organization’s Web site with links to Face- book and Twitter. This extends their usefulness as publicity tools. Sometimes, a copy of a speech is sent with just a special card (not a business card) attached. In other cases, the speech is reprinted with additional information.

Meetings often generate publicity, too, whether they are for internal or external audiences. Increas- ingly, meetings are used for external audiences as a proactive device to share concerns about an issue or environmental situation, and these are often covered by media. Internally, meetings are used to enable management to interact with employees and to gain feedback. Small-group meetings are seen as an

Image not available due to copyright restrictions

238 Part Four / PR in Action

a political figure, celebrity or executive’s name is on the book as the author, the chances are that a ghostwriter was employed. Much of the writer’s time is devoted to tracking down elusive information, validating infor- mation given as fact and searching for illustrations. Nevertheless, a sincere effort, well done, often proves to be an asset.

Organizations also take advantage of their histories by opening museums. Museums are gradually re- placing plant tours, which sometimes raise legal problems. Coca-Cola opened a museum in Atlanta in 1990, but it’s a latecomer to the museum business. BMW and Mercedes Benz both have automobile museums in Germany. In the first four weeks of its operation, the John Deere Pavilion in Moline, Illinois, recorded 55,000 visitors. The John Deere Commons was developed as the centerpiece of the Quad Cities Riverfront Project, a $50 million civic renewal pro- gram that broke ground in 1993. The John Deere Pavilion has attracted more than 1.5 million guests from more than 50 countries and all 50 states since it opened in 1997. Hormel Foods’ SPAM Museum opened in September 2001 in Austin, Minnesota.

Books and museums have their limits. Much more pervasive are postal stamps. What could be better than getting people to stick a symbol of the organi- zation on their mail, and pay to do that? The postal service in the USA has created a plethora of com- memorative stamps in recent years. There’s every- thing from opera stars to cartoon characters, but an organization can’t just ask and have it happen. Pro- posals go to a panel that approves each suggestion. Some organizations go to considerable lengths to impress the selection panel because the identification would represent invaluable publicity.

Very effective publicity resulted when a PR prac- titioner had pictures made of children using milk cartons with the tops cut off as modeling clay forms. The publishers of a national children’s educa- tional book accepted the photo as showing an exam- ple of the creative application of everyday household items. The photo of the cartons subsequently appeared in the book, with the name of the milk company clearly visible. Such pictures, with the product in the background or foreground, are often used. If you ever wondered why hotels always have speakers’ rostrums clearly labeled with the hotel’s name and insignia, now you know.

An entire industry has developed around “product placement,” making sure that identifiable brand- name products are used in television shows and in

movies. The movie Sex and the City included promo- tion of a car, a fragrance and a vodka, among other products either in dialogue or on screen. And Sex and the City tie-ins were used in various product advertis- ing and promotions. Thus, these product placements are not accidental choices of the prop department.18

Publicity as Controlled/Uncontrolled Communication Determining where to place publicity demands an objective look at what is likely to happen to it, from creation to delivery. This means considering how much control you can exert over the delivery of the message by the medium.

Controlled Media Many specialized media, such as company, industry, trade and association publica- tions, are under their editors’ control. If you are the editor, it is a controlled publication; but if you are the PR director for a company submitting publicity to an industry or trade publication, your submissions are subject to editorial judgment and revision. Thus, if you are not the editor, specialized media fall into the uncontrolled category. Another person decides whether and how to use your material. On the other hand, magazines, brochures, newsletters and videos you produce and distribute are controlled, because you decide when, where and how to deliver the message. And this is certainly true of that mixed advertising/publicity medium, your website.

Uncontrolled Media News releases may be excep- tionally well written; but once they are in the hands of an editor, anything can happen and you can’t do much about it. An editor may run a release as you wrote it, give the release to a reporter to rewrite, give it to a reporter to use as a take-off point for an inde- pendently researched story or junk it entirely. The news media treat a professionally prepared release from a trustworthy source with respect, although it still may not be used if there is no space or time for it that day. It used to be difficult to determine a public relations source for a news story, but then a website, Churnalism.com, appeared. By taking a basic news release from, say the World Health Organization or some company’s product recall, the site presents an analysis to show how much of that release made its way into various news media.

Editors get news releases from public relations wire distribution sources, from faxes, from email

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Direct Publicity for Audiences Public relations offices frequently prepare material for audiences directly in print, electronic and digital video formats and make them available on their websites. It is quite common for newsletters and magazines to be developed by PR people, while most video production is done by pro- duction houses hired by the organization.

PR practitioners encounter two principal problems in putting out institutional publications, beyond the problem of justifying their existence to some dollars- and-cents-minded person in accounting. The first involves finding out what is going on in the organiza- tion. The second problem involves the tendency of management to view the publication as a propaganda organ for telling readers what it would like them to believe rather than what they would like to know.

Gathering information inside an organization is similar to what news reporters do—finding and culti- vating sources. People who can be relied upon to pro- vide timely and accurate information are priceless. It often helps to distribute forms that give people guid- ance in the type of information that would be useful. Within organizations, most PR publications people depend on meeting regularly with department heads, watching internal bulletins for newsworthy events in the making and talking to a lot of people.

Finding good information is not an easy job, and the second problem can make it more difficult. Manage- ment is justified in wanting to use publications to com- municate, but the audience is often less interested in what management wants to say than in getting answers to problems they are encountering. What they want to know will usually make better copy than what manage- ment wants them to know. Surveys and readership studies give some guidance in determining what makes a publication worth its place in the budget.

Annual reports are still done in-house by some companies. Although these documents represent only a small part of the communications that go to the investors and analysts of a publicly held com- pany, they are very important as public relations tools. Of all the publications produced by a company, the annual report is seen as the signature piece. For that reason, many privately held companies and some nonprofits also produce annual reports for institu- tional identity. Due to changes in SEC rules, most annual reports are in digital format that can also appear on a corporate website from which they can be printed. For some organizations, this is seen as an opportunity for outreach by incorporating content, copy and photos about the organization.

and through the mail. They may also pick them up from an organization’s website, but this usually occurs when a news tip has gone out (unless re- porters happen to be following the organization for a particular reason). However, the norm in recent years has been for public relations practitioners to send news releases by email, although many practi- tioners say it is most effective to follow up these news releases with a phone call, just to ensure that the public relations practitioner has contacted the appro- priate writer or editor who can confirm receipt of the release. The University of Northern Iowa’s market- ing and public relations office does not send news releases as attachments; rather, staff paste 100 per- cent of their releases into the bodies of emails to avoid spam filters. James E. O’Connor, assistant vice president for marketing and public relations, said the office doubles-up and faxes because some media ask for this delivery or because of a perceived need for a backup. But O’Connor warns, “Just because you send it doesn’t mean the right person gets it.” News media editors can also download accompanying JPG images and news releases from an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site on the Internet; otherwise, these media’s spam filters might block transmission of a release that has an attached photo. Also commonplace is public relations practitioners’ use of RSS (Really Simple Syndication). An RSS channel can fist headlines and descriptions of news releases as well as finks to corresponding Web pages, or a full-text article can be accessed on the RSS channel’s website through the RSS link. RSS feeds also can be used to keep employees informed. News tip sheets alert editors to possible news or fea- ture stories. In addition, “calls for coverage” or queries may be used to elicit media coverage of PR events—a presidential press conference, the arrival of Santa to open a store’s Christmas buying season, rib- bon cuttings and groundbrealdngs. Whether these get any attention is up to the editors, who decide whether or not to assign reporters. Of course, even when reporters are assigned, they may not cover the event as the PR person would have wished. But if the event is well planned, the coverage will reflect it.

Preparing Publicity Messages Some publicity messages go directly to audiences as controlled communications; others go to members of the news media, who constitute an intermediary audience.

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Some companies have almost no paper publications. In such companies, almost all communication is elec- tronic and usually over an intranet Departments may have their own publications, and task forces may be working together electronically without ever meeting. Chat rooms exist for discussion of issues. There’s heavy dependence on listservs for getting the correct distribu- tion of notices to people and reliance on people reading and responding to their email. Sophisticated electronic information users have systems managers who maintain these communication channels and create useful links of databases. For many companies, all of this internal electronic communication has become an integral, daily part of getting a job done.

Problems with these changes occur in organizations that have many unskilled workers, who are likely to be excluded from the employee communications because they are not comfortable with computers or don’t even have access to a computer at work. However, this prob- lem will decrease as new generations enter the work- force, because children are “digital natives,” becoming computer users at a much younger age, and are highly familiar with new and social media and almost certainly have text-message capabilities on their smartphones, and also because organizations realize the importance of having computers available to all of their employees, not just those who use a computer for their jobs.

Digital videos are increasingly used for instruc- tional and motivational communication within orga- nizations, and some companies have their own closed-circuit television systems. The medium is suc- cessful partly because of its familiarity, and in part because it is the closest thing to face-to-face commu- nication. Satellites have increased the range of the digital video format, and some U.S. businesses have developed their own corporate networks. Even some annual reports have gone out as digital videos. And

although most companies still publish an annual report, investor relations now depend heavily on electronic communication in general.

Publicity Through Mass Media In contrast to both advertising and publicity prepared directly for audi- ences, publicity prepared for the mass media gener- ally is totally uncontrolled. Information about an institution, product or person that appears as news in newspapers or magazines or on radio or television is used at the discretion of news editors. Thus, it may be used in any context or not at all.

Information reaches the print news media through many routes, but three are basic: news releases, coverage of an event and interviews. To be acceptable, a news release must be written in the style used by the particular medium, and it must be pre- sented in a form suitable to the technology of the medium. Awareness of the technological demands of each medium is also important if you expect cover- age of an event. A speech may be an event, and cer- tainly a news conference is, but an interview is not. The public relations person may formally arrange for a reporter to interview someone in a position of authority. Or the reporter may interview the PR per- son as representative or spokesperson for the institu- tion. This informal situation—it may be a phone call or a visit by news media representatives—can be an organization’s most significant source of publicity. Generally, it is the source preferred and used most often by the media, which often ignore events and throw away publicity releases. Recognize, in an age of media convergence, a news medium may want news releases acceptable to print and to a range of electronic uses, particularly for websites.

More and more often, media interviews are handled by the chief executive officer (CEO) with the aid of the

Image not available due to copyright restrictions

Chapter 9 / Communication Channels and Media 241

PR person. The PR person’s job, therefore, extends to preparing the CEO to be an effective, efficient spokes- person. Some PR agencies, notably Burson-Marsteller, have become specialists in providing such training for their clients. Much of the bad publicity an organization gets can be attributed to errors by management: poor planning, ineffective communication or bad policies. Not getting any publicity at all, however, is probably the fault of the publicist. Newspeople say they throw away 80 to 90 percent of the news releases they get, because they are not usable. “Not usable” may mean the stories are incomplete (full of holes), inaccurate, not timely or just don’t fit the news need.

Getting information to news media in a timely way usually means delivering the news electronically. It also means that the material in the release had better agree with other information on the same topic available to the editors online. To avoid bad publicity and non- publicity, you should always observe the following six rules:

1. Make sure that the information you offer is appropriate to the medium in content and style, and is timely.

2. Check all facts carefully for accuracy, and double-check for missing information.

3. To deal with any questions that may arise, give the name and phone number of the person whom newspeople should contact.

4. An image, digital or printed, must be accompa- nied by the name, address and phone number of the supplier; most important, however, is the cap- tion. However, because sending photos digitally has become the norm, the information/caption must be sent in a way that can be easily associated with the correct digital image (see Figure 9.3).

5. Never call to find out why a story or photo did not appear; and certainly don’t ask, as you sub- mit an item, when it will appear.

6. Do not send out a note with mailed releases ask- ing for clippings. Newspapers do not run clip- ping bureaus.

Another mistake that publicity release writers com- mit involves failing to pay attention to the medium’s audience. Trade publications often receive general “mass media” releases that can’t be used because these releases are not tailored to the publication.

Some general media publications, although not technically trade publications, are by specialization

much like trade or industry publications. Some orga- nizations would do well to pay attention to another type of specialized media—the so-called alternative media—especially if they need to reach activists and special interest groups. An example is Creative Loafing Charlotte, which features a range of news and feature stories as well as thorough listings of arts, entertain- ment and events. These are sometimes better read and may have higher credibility (especially among cul- tural creatives) than are traditional newspapers.

Other relevant recipients of publicity are activist net- works. Each such network is run by grassroots activists concerned with civil rights, feminism, peace, ecology or some other issue. Virtually all have websites, and they frequendy have well-read blogs. The opportunities are endless for public relations practitioners to reach their audiences if they think “micro” rather than “macro” in terms of publicity, and if they target releases especially for the audience of the medium selected.

Connecting an organization to hard news can work if there is really something to contribute. Orga- nizations often “stretch” when trying to tie their organizations to something that has occurred and can look opportunistic. For example, some compa- nies were criticized after 9/11 for trying to exploit the catastrophe by bringing attention to themselves through their aid to, or connection with, the victims of the terrorist attack; this undoubtedly made many companies more cautious in promoting their relief efforts for tsunami victims as well as for the outpour- ing of aid for those left homeless by Hurricane Katrina and for more recent disasters globally. Orga- nizations wanting to help earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown victims in Japan as well as those impacted by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have had to do so without suggesting self-serving benefits to themselves.

In different parts of the world, handling the news media varies so widely that a local practitioner is often needed for guidance. Customs such as giving out free samples vary, and the style of the presenta- tion in the releases is different too. In many cases, English-language releases work well, but even if the country uses English, it may not be American English. Spellings and word meanings may be differ- ent, even when the language is the same. Having releases available in the local language is good, as long as you are confident about the translation. This is especially critical with important documents, such as the releases that go with annual reports or other financial matters.19

242 Part Four / PR in Action

Wild Art: Photo Publicity

An emperor in imining

The Ajtfociurcd Pros

An emperor penguin lends to his newly hatched chick at Sea W orld of C alifornia . The San Diego site is the only zoological facility in the world to successfully breed emperor penguins. The chick is the 16 th hatched at the facility and w i l l remain on its father's feet for the first few weeks of life. It was hatched Sept. 17 .

Source: AP Photo/Ho.

Chapter 9 / Communication Channels and Media 243

You need a sophisticated knowledge of the medium to be able to prepare broadcast-quality publicity. Smaller market television may still use videotape cassettes, for example DVC Pro cassettes, with sound or satellite feeds, but larger markets are using digital video cam- eras that can download directly into a computer and will appear both in television broadcasts and on that station’s website. Although TV news directors prefer to use their own staffs’ material or something from another news source, they do use publicity videos. VNRs (video news releases) often cover hard news, not just feature stories, and may be transmitted by sat- ellite. It is also important to remember that different television broadcast standards exist throughout the world, so you must know and meet the technical stan- dards that exist in a particular country if your publicity is to be used. Also, video cassettes and their players from one country may not be compatible with die sys- tem used in another country.

VNRs and B-roll (sent along so that news directors can create different versions of the piece) are so widely used now that the video distribution industry has grown exponentially. Media distribution agencies will send advisories to television news directors by newswire, fax or through one of the computer networks and transmit the VNR by satellite to all the stations at once. Most production companies are able to provide the uplinks. The media distribution companies will also provide ver- ification of station use. Some cassettes are still sent too, but it’s cheaper to use the satellite.

One way to contain costs is to partner with another company. These co-op VNRs spread production and distribution costs and can result in a video with a broader appeal. Issues and events, such as holidays, are especially good for co-op VNRs because they can explore trends, offer different aspects or provide research information. In one example, a major pro- ducer of notebook computers cooperated with another electronics manufacturer to talk about home electronics during the Christmas buying season.20 Some VNRs have been successfully used to support marketing campaigns, but this only works if the VNR precedes the commercial message.21

One use of VNRs can be to provide television sta- tions with background they couldn’t get and with quotes from experts not accessible to them. That’s what happened when the Journal of the American Med- ical Association began offering VNRs on various topics. Also, each week, JAMA produces a one-minute radio news package and makes it available to radio stations free of charge to at www.TheJAMAReport.org.

Producers can download MP3 versions and are free to edit the content and use the actualities (recordings) as best suits their stations’ needs.22

Educational TV often uses PR-produced feature videos if they contain no commercialism, and on rare occasions so does commercial TV. Frequently, tele- vision stations show a short feature video offered by a group. These are usually 90 seconds long, but some are three minutes long; most are entertaining, tight and informative. Local stations use these most often on weekends, when news is slow and they have time they can fill with nonnetwork shows.

Publicity never supplants spot news—news recorded at the time an event occurs (usually by journalists)—but it is the best way to tell an advance story. However, such a video is just as subject to editing as a written news release is, and it too may not be used at all. This is definitely an uncontrolled area—nearly as uncontrolled as the spot coverage of news that results when a television crew is alerted to an event.

Sometimes, an organization or profession is the sub- ject of a television documentary. The PR practitioner can cooperate with those who are researching, writing and filming the documentary, but that is all that the PR person can do: help and hope for the best

A form of television publicity that cannot be over- looked is the talk show. Daytime and evening talk shows continually present people promoting their lat- est book, movie, song or persona. Most local stations have a format that allows for local bookings. In such events, the PR person should be sure of three things: (1) that the show fits the PR objective, (2) that the organization or sponsor gets credit and (3) that the spokesperson is well-coached or skilled in television appearances. Some interviews also may be sent by a news distribution service via satellite. However, most stations still record the “send” for later use.

One of the myths that haunt public relations peo- ple is the notion that television exposure is critically important. This is not so. Television exposure is so fleeting and the audience is so fragmented that, unless all networks use the information, the impact may be minimal. Furthermore, television is becom- ing less important in an era of the Internet and its new social media. Most of the impact from local cov- erage comes from documentaries or news features.

Just as the possible benefits of being on television or in newspapers or magazines are exaggerated, so is the damage caused by negative stories. Some bal- anced stories that tell both sides of a story are seen within an organization as being “negative”

244 Part Four / PR in Action

New communication channels and media mean new legal and ethical questions for public relations practitioners as well as for others in the organizations for which the practitioners work. Legal ques- tions include: Is email treated legally like a phone call or a written note? Is a computer like a photo- copier or a bulletin board? Is a password-protected folder in a computer like an employee’s locker? Can a company legally enforce a complete ban on all nonbusiness use of email by employees? Email communication and Internet usage in organizations are raising many questions that public relations practitioners, as well as the courts, must continue to deliberate.1

How about court records, which in the past have been public, but actually were viewed by few people? Some courts are posting rulings and related documents on the Web, which could cause ethi- cal privacy problems when, for example, people filing for personal bankruptcy must disclose Social Security, bank and credit card numbers, account balances and even names and ages of their children, or when court files contain medical and psychiatric records, tax returns and unproven allegations.2

The Internet, however, also provides a way to counteract unethical or incorrect information that is being disseminated by others. Against conventional wisdom, presidential contender Barack Obama decided in the summer of 2008 to fight rumors head-on with a dedicated website named Fightthersmears.com on which the candidate hoped to easily refute “smears” with videos and photographs.3

1 Michael, J. McCarthy, “Your Manager’s Policy on Employee’s E-Mail May Have a Weak Spot,” The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2000, pp. A1, A10. 2Jerry Markon, “Curbs Debated as Court Records Go Public on Net,” The Wall Street Journal, February 27, 2001, pp. B1, B4. 3Karen Tumulty, “Can Obama Shred the Rumors?” Time, June 23, 2008, pp. 40-1.

because they say something against the organiza- tion. You can’t avoid that, but you can be sure you tell the organization’s side of the story successfully. There are ample opportunities to do so today through the Internet, an organization’s websites and social media.

However, just because the envelope arrives does not mean the message will be received.

Another form of direct mail is electronic mail (email), which is excellent for “perishable” messages that need instant delivery and a prompt response. “Spammed” direct mail messages delivered over the Internet are, however, a nuisance and thus counter- productive, and “spam filters” have become increas- ingly effective in quarantining these messages.

Traditional direct mail has a high mortality rate, which is why so much is invested in designing appeals and in doing multiple mailings. The hope is that at least one effort will reach its intended audience.

The seven cardinal rules governing direct mail are as follows:

1. Know what the objective of the mailing is, and concentrate on it.

2. Use the correct mailing list. Remember that December through February is a significant job-change period; if you don’t have time to check the accuracy of your list, mailings at this time should go to the title and not to the person.

Traditional Hybrid: Direct Mail

Direct mail is a hybrid of publicity and advertising. In certain instances (such as newsletters from politi- cians), direct mail can be considered publicity. On the other hand, direct mail that seeks magazine sub- scriptions, for example, most certainly is advertising. Direct mail is a form of controlled communication: The message can say anything that does not violate a law; it can be any size or shape the U.S. Postal Ser- vice will accept; and it can be sent any time its sender chooses. Mailing lists are available for almost any audience you might wish to reach (otherwise you can send it to “Occupant” at a particular address).

Chapter 9 / Communication Channels and Media 245

3. Write copy that explains what the product or service does for the recipient.

4. Design the layout and format to fit the image of the product or service you are presenting.

5. Make it easy for the prospect to take the action you want taken.

6. Tell the story at least three times, and repeat the mailings two or three times.

7. Research all direct mail by testing the offer, pack- age and fist Test to see if the offer is attractive to target audiences. Use alternative offers to make sure you have the best incentive. Test the package (presentation). Make sure respondents know what to do with the offer, and keep the directions sim- ple and clear. Test the list with a sample mailing to ensure that it’s accurate. Test the mailing even if it is as litde as 1,000 pieces. Don’t ever drop untested pieces in the mail. Figure 9.4 shows a direct-mail piece in multiple languages.

Three important considerations go into planning a direct mailing: recency, frequency and monetary matters. The recency of a direct mailing is significant in evaluating response; stories of delayed-action response are rare. Frequent mailings increase your chances of response by providing reminders. The monetary aspect—what you can afford to spend— influences the design and outcome of a direct mailing.

Usually, direct-mail investments more than pay their way. The key to success is the mailing list you select. Occupant lists—lists organized by addresses— are easy to find and inexpensive but offensively imper- sonal. If you are mailing to a limited geographical area, you can make up your own list from the crisscross, or city, directory. Specialized lists are available according to age, income, educational status and almost any other kind of breakdown you want. Many organizations sell lists of their membership, and you can buy other lists from direct-mail list companies. Some base their lists on auto registrations, others on phone directories and others on complex sampling strata.

The price you pay for use of a list entitles you to use it only once. To protect its fist, the mailing house actually sends out the material for you. The U.S. Postal Service reports that about 14 percent of the nation’s population moves every year, generating more than 46 million address changes. Planning a periodic check of your list is the best way to safeguard the integrity of your basic mailing file.

The U.S. Postal Service will help. The U.S. Postal Service provides a range of services, fully described on its website (www.usps.com), that helps its customers standardize addresses, make sure cities match zip codes, validate the zip codes and add four extra digits to each code. Your post office also will report any addresses that can’t be coded. U.S. Postal Service employees are invariably helpful in answering any questions related to using their ser- vices, not only as policy, but also because informed Postal Service customers make their jobs easier.

Remember that eveiy piece of correspondence going out of the office is an image maker or breaker. Careful attention to spelling indicates that you care about the recipient. Typographical errors suggest that the message was not important enough to com- mand the writer’s attention, and the person receiving the letter might wonder why it should deserve his or hers. Accurate spelling and syntax also imply knowl- edge and authority. Perhaps the most compelling rea- son for making every piece of copy perfect is that your letterhead is your signature.

Developing Hybrids

Digital technology has created a whole new way of conveying information and interacting with publics. Some of you may be “attending” your public rela- tions class online where you have assignments elec- tronically delivered and returned, or perhaps you are sitting in a fiber optic distance education center far from your professor’s classroom. This textbook has a website, and you may have class discussions in a “chat room,” while you may get your academic counseling for the class in personal responses to your email mes- sages from your instructor. You’ll perform your aca- demic research online, and your personal research too, such as finding the cheapest tickets for a trip home or a break from school and buying them online as well.

You may be using a CD-ROM with a class, and your classroom may have a teaching station that accesses the Internet, to which your professor uses a universal serial bus (USB) to access electronic course materials and to access such content sites as Blackboard Vista or Moodle. Although not a new technology, more public relations people are using CD-ROMs now instead of brochures or in place of

Part Four / PR in Action246

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248 Part Four / PR in Action

whole presentations such as media kits. There’s more space for information, and the quality of the video is superb. You can use a CD, DVD or Internet RSS to deliver VNRs.

Computerized touch-screen kiosks offer interac- tive displays at trade shows. If you are selling an expensive item such as a house or car, prospective buyers can look at different options, select what they want and go as far with the transaction as the company allows, electronically.

The Internet offers websites that provide 24- hour-a-day global sources for news media. Reporters are likely to go to a website first for information and may or may not try the telephone or fax. All kinds of consumers of information use websites, and the news media have their own websites where users expect to find the latest information being processed by these news media.

the first subscription service that automatically searches and monitors videoclips posted on video sharing websites and tracks news videos that are posted to online news sources.23 The two-way inter- active aspect is what makes the Internet so attractive as a new communication channel. Make your website as interactive as possible, and by all means make sure that timely responses are given to consumers’ questions.

Benefits and Disadvantages of Interactive Audio/Text/Video The Internet has dramatically changed public rela- tions practice, in that publics can be defined more clearly and targeted more precisely. Furthermore, the interactive nature of the Internet allows for more reliable monitoring and evaluating. The down- side to this change is that bad news may be instantly global, and email and chat room conversations can spread rumors and even pretend to originate from organizations. Organizations can also be attacked outright by rogue sites that mimic theirs.

Websites are often created and then abandoned, reflecting badly on the organization. Some websites are simply too complex to use efficiently, and people don’t return to them unless they find the technology intriguing. Today, blogs constitute a greater threat— and perhaps a greater opportunity. Bloggers, some of whom may be reporters for news media, may enjoy considerable readership among people who also con- tribute their thoughts to the blog, but may have nothing nice to say about your organization or the products and/or services that it provides. Fortu- nately, search tools have become more sophisticated in searching for blogs and RSS news feeds. However, corporations are beginning to hire their own blog- gers to keep Web logs for their customers and other publics.

A stand-alone unit for interactive use, such as a kiosk, can be a good teaching tool and an intrigu- ing draw at a meeting or show. However, unless well conceived, it can be simplistic and boring as well as not really providing any information about the user.

Communication technology is moving so quickly that it takes conscientious effort on the part of public relations practitioners to keep up with the constantly evolving channels of communication and newly dis- covered ways to use these channels. Wiki software that allows “open editing” of Web page content by

The Internet Organizations of all kinds, profit and nonprofit (including government), have websites, and when you access those pages, especially those of profit- making organizations, you are likely to get both advertising and editorial messages. That makes the website one of the most versatile of the new hybrids.

There are several ongoing tasks that are impor- tant for maintaining interest in a website. These include offering substantive content, keeping it updated and fresh, making it easy to navigate and having all of the “basic” data such as you would expect to find on organizational “fact sheets.” You also will include frequently asked questions (FAQs) and particularly the newsworthy items that would attract all of your publics, not just media.

For that to happen, you might consider microsite links for a number of functions, such as new cam- paigns, special offers, crisis communications and online sales. Although you can use a link from a home page, if special items aren’t easy to find and use, people will give up.

The Internet is also considered a reliable source for video news as well. While probably not the best way to distribute VNRs, online video is interesting not just to newspeople. TV producers can get RSS feeds off the Internet, and they may get story ideas there where they can see what is available. Of course, those opposed to your organization might post their own VNRs. In late 2007, CyberAlert, Inc. launched

Chapter 9 / Communication Channels and Media 249

Valentini and Kruckeberg observe that we live in an ambiguous world in which truths are uncertain and are continually being challenged. Authority, moral and otherwise, in many respects no longer exists. We belong to multiple communities, both physical and virtual. Public relations practitioners must be at the “epicenter” of trust-building for their organizations, whether these are governments, civil society organizations or corporations. Trust, however , is a phenomenon that can only exist when it is deserved, i.e. , when society’s members can reasonably predict and anticipate an action by an actor based on that actor’s prior behaviour and other communication; with betrayal , trust cannot exist.

This role of public relations in the 21st Century is certainly among the most important of any pro- fessionalized occupation in organizations as well as in contemporary society-at-large. However, these public relations scholars argue that the role of public relations in contemporary society should be reconceptualised because publics are now more active, more knowledgeable and more empowered in their decisions, and thus these publics must be engaged and involved more so than in the past in the construction of values and meanings of public, private, and not-for profit organizations. Even the com- monly accepted view that public relations is a strategic management function should be re-considered and re-qualified according to a societal approach. The authors observe that public relations practi- tioners are educated to think “strategically," primarily within the framework of a sender-receiver, i.e., transmission, model of communication in which receivers, i.e. , audiences, are not active players in constructing meaning. To enhance, maintain and ensure trust, public relations practitioners must think not only strategically, but meta-strategically, beginning with a normative theory of society that is built on the foundation of existing social theory. They must also build social theory that must exist within the framework of communication technology as an intervening variable that—short of cataclys- mic societal changes—has created increasing globalism while attempting to reconcile the exacerbating challenges of its obverse, multiculturalism.

Source: Chiara Valentini and Dean Kruckeberg, “Public Relations and Trust in Contemporary Global Society: A Luhman- nian Perspective,” Central European Journal of Communication, Spring 2011.

users, RSS feeds, FTP, podcasting and video blog- ging, HDTV (high-definition television), the world of Twitter—mid-career public relations professionals learned about none of these when they were studying to be practitioners. At no other time has public rela- tions been so fascinating, so challenging and so important as it is today in a multicultural, global soci- ety that is linked so closely together through such communication technology.

with one another and with the practitioner’s organization?

2. What, if any, are the disadvantages of Internet communication and such phenomena as text messaging? Is faster communication always bet- ter? Explain your answer. What media, if any, do you expect to become obsolete in the next few years?

3. What criteria should be used to determine pub- lic relations practitioners’ choice of a channel and medium to communicate with a particular public?

4. How have new forms of communication affected the lives of college students today? How do you communicate with your friends? What do you do for recreation that you believe students in earlier generations couldn’t or wouldn’t do?

Discussion Questions 1. What channels of communication do you think

will evolve the most in the next two years? Five years? What new channels do you think will affect public relations practice as well as the way that members of a public can communicate

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

250 Part Four / PR in Action

Publicity can go directly to audiences or can be sent through mass and/or specialized media. Organizations generally produce publications such as magazines, newsletters and annual reports and at least the last two are being made available electronically, usually through a website. Publications may be done in-house or externally. Most film and video work is produced by outside specialists unless the organization is large enough to support an in-house facility. Internet websites and intranets are often handled in-house by large organizations, but smaller ones use providers. Meetings and speeches are also a form of media, and speeches may be mailed for additional exposure. Other media for promotional messages include exhibits, characters identified with the organiza- tion, multimedia presentations, closed-circuit tele- vision, books, commemorative stamps and even cartoons. Publicity in the mass media and in specialized media outside the organization is uncontrolled and demands careful preparation to meet the demands of the medium. Use of video news releases (VNRs) by broad- casters and the video distribution industry has grown exponentially. A traditional hybrid (combinations of advertising and publicity) is direct mail. The success of direct mail depends on research to keep target audiences identified. Digital technology has created a whole new way of conveying information and interacting with publics. CD-ROMs and websites offer opportu- nities for profit and nonprofit organizations to send direct messages to specific publics. Websites on the Internet provide sources of infor- mation and video for news media seekers as well as others. Along with the many benefits of the Internet, there are some downsides, such as the global spread of bad news and rumors and outright attacks by rogue websites and misleading email.

Points to Remember Channels of communication are public or private paths by which messages travel through media. Public channels are for the mass media, and pri- vate channels apply to the print and electronic media of organizations. The two principal types of public relations com- munication are advertising and publicity, both of which may take many media forms. In planning a public relations strategy, the practi- tioner chooses channels and media based on the purpose of the communication, the intended audi- ence, the message to be delivered, the resources available and the credibility of the medium chosen to carry the message. A mix of media is generally used, and media can be categorized as controlled or uncontrolled. Public relations uses many types of advertising in various formats, which means that PR practi- tioners have to know how to prepare, place and evaluate ad copy. Creating most advertising messages of any kind— public service announcements or commercial messages—is a cosdy process, and evaluations of effectiveness are difficult. Advertising can create problems as well as solve them. Especially in a global environment, ads must be watched for their suitability in terms of language and culture for the intended audience as well as the unintended audience that might be exposed to them. Using ads may be especially important when a problem occurs, because it is a controlled format. Uncontrollable problems with advertising include undesirable placement, competitors’ imitation of good advertising ideas and negative effects. Two myths associated with advertising are that a single concept can be used globally and that a sin- gle concept can work with all audiences within one culture. Messages that are not advertising generally are referred to as publicity—some form of news or information about the organization.

Chapter 9 / Communication Channels and Media 251

New technologies hold a lot of promise for public relations use, but such communication technolo- gies’ impact has to be carefully considered. Put news releases on your organization’s website to reach those most interested in your organization.

American Advertising Federation (AAF) http://www.aaf.org/

American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) http://www2.aaaa.org/Portal/Pages/default. aspx

Interactive Advertising Bureau http://www.iab.net/

Nielsen/Net Ratings http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

Other Related Websites to Review Advertising Association (British)

http://www.adassoc.org.uk/

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To appreciate the distinctions among advertising, publicity, publications, annual reports and special events, and to understand the unique tactical and technical requirements for preparing messages in each. To recognize the best tactics and techniques for message presentation in a variety of media that are available to public relations practitioners. To understand how media workers perform their jobs and the best ways that public relations practitioners can help them to do so. To develop sensitivity to how cultural differences among audiences can affect the way public relations messages are interpreted and perceived.

Techniques

Details that Make PR Strategy Work

ublic relations work is somewhat like a giant jigsaw puzzle: There are many pieces, and each must fit

perfectly with the others to make the whole picture. In Chapter 8, you learned strategies to help you develop the picture. In Chapter 9, you surveyed the communication channels PR practitioners use as the framework for that picture. In this chapter, you get a look at the pieces. Have you ever worked a jigsaw puzzle by first separating what appeared to be ground from what looked like sky? Well, you can divide the major sections of the public relations puzzle—advertising and publicity—in the same way. In trying to sort out puzzle pieces by “sky” and “ground,” however, you may sometimes have found pieces that included parts of both, and others that looked like one but were actually the other. That’s also the case with advertising and publicity in public relations.

P The explosion of media during the past

few decades has led marketers to

address many parts of the U.S. popula- tion that previously lacked audiovisual identities. Ethnic groups, racial groups, gender groups, and groups arrayed

around political positions have seen versions of entertainment and news aimed at them. This sort of cultural diversity ought to be celebrated as the font of a strong, idea-rich society.... But to do that it ought to be shared among the population as a whole. The major problem with the emerging

media world is its impulse to keep

diversity hidden. Advertising

—Joseph Turow, in Breaking Up America' Advertising has been defined as paid-for time or space, except in the case of public service announcements (PSAs), for which the time and space are donated to a nonprofit organization. But in some situations, advertising looks a lot like publicity. Usually, when advertising takes on the appear- ance of publicity, there is no intention to deceive the careful viewer. Ads are supposed to be clearly labeled as such, but they can be labeled and still look very much like editorial

254 Part Four / PR in Action

copy. Sometimes, when a newspaper publishes a spe- cial section on something such as the opening of a hospital, the reader may not be aware that almost all of that section—even the news columns—consists of advertising that has been paid for.

The tendency of some public relations people to view PSAs as publicity, because no money changes hands, is confusing to most students and mystifying to others. Clearly, though, print PSAs look exactly like ads, and broadcast PSAs sound exactly like com- mercials. Moreover, they are handled through the advertising departments of print media and through public service directors at radio and television stations. Publicity, on the other hand, is handled by media news staffs and must compete for time or space with staff-generated news material. Perhaps the most clear- cut difference, however, is that PSAs, like other adver- tising, are controlled communications, the precise content of which is dictated by the originating orga- nization. In contrast, publicity is subject to whatever revisions or editing the news media see fit to impose.

dropped in 2010, the rate was slowing, with 40 percent of Americans reading newspapers, either in print or online, at least three times a week, down from 52 per- cent in 2006. Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, observed that the news business used to be the intermediary, but now it is the device makers and software developers.2 Newspapers today have been trying to highlight a new measure to document their market penetration, that is, the total number of online and print readers instead of the number of print newspapers delivered each day.3

And while video news releases (VNRs) have been around a long time, criticism of their use and misuse remains. The Center for Media and Democracy reported widespread use of VNRs or related satellite media tours (SMTs) without disclosure of their sources; some television stations actively disguised the sponsored content to make the VNR appear to be their own report- ing, and for more than one third of the time stations aired the prepackaged VNR in its entirety. The Center noted that “Without strong disclosure requirements and the attention and action of TV station personnel, view- ers cannot know when the news segment they’re watch- ing was bought and paid for by the very subjects of that ‘report.’ ,A What all of this means is that such traditional dichotomies between news-editorial and advertising content are becoming indistinct, as are such categories as print journalism and electronic media. All such mes- sages may be considered promotional pieces, however, and wouldn’t pass muster as a news story if submitted to an editor in a traditional medium.

Sometimes, public relations people have difficulty with ads that closely resemble publicity releases because unsophisticated managements don’t know the difference between the two. Often, as in the “Homes” sections of Sunday newspapers, whole sec- tions of copy may be involved, all consisting of dis- play advertising (see Figure 10.1). In addition, newspapers sometimes run special sections—whole sections devoted to a special topic or event and built around the advertising that is sold.

The editorial copy in such a section is essentially written for those who have taken out ads. The amount of space purchased determines the length of the stories, as well as the amount of illustration material (art) that accompanies them. The only “free” copy in the section is what you write about the event or the topic itself, such as a historical fea- ture, a current “what’s going on” news item, profiles of people from previous events and photos related to the topical content of the section. The copy in most

Ads as News Look-Alikes Ads sometimes look like publicity. Although the copy is clearly marked as advertising, it may resemble a news feature and may be read as one by readers. These ads appear frequently in local publications and highlight products and services offered by local businesses. Some types of product advertising done by specialty houses look like a feature story or col- umn. The line between advertising and publicity will blur further as traditional media are supplemented in creative ways using Internet and social media technol- ogy and as contemporary consumers of media lose their ability to distinguish between “fair and unbiased” news messages and information that has not been “vetted” by professionally trained journalists in their traditional role. Are bloggers, for example, just private citizens with an interest in a subject, or are they “citi- zen journalists”? Today, blogs are attracting and mak- ing money from advertisers, and public relations campaigns increasingly are pitching to bloggers.

Consumers are increasing using their smartphones and electronic tablets to get their news. While local, network and cable news, as well as newspapers, radio and magazines, all lost audience in 2010, news con- sumption online increased 17 percent from 2009. In December 2010, 41 percent of Americans said they got their news about national and international issues on the Internet. Although newspaper circulation

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When the big day comes, Boote stays with her patient throughout the entire labor and delivery. Generally she keeps the room quiet and the lights low to create a relaxing envi- ronment .

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Kim Boote, a certified nurse midwife with OB-GYN Specialists, provided the per- fect option.

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256 Part Four / PR in Action

encounter in shooting, including actors, location, permissions, music and sound.

special sections, other than the Sunday real estate sections, looks like news but is not straight news.

Special sections may appear in many different forms. A special section on health care, for example, may look like a regular newspaper section, as might a single advertiser supplement for a new store. Alterna- tively, a store may use a magazine format to be inserted within a newspaper. A chamber of com- merce annual report may look like a Sunday tabloid insert similar to The New York Times Book Review section (which is editorial matter, not advertising). Advertorials—magazine advertising supplements— often look like special features. Broadcast advertor- ials, or infomercials, though, look like editorials and deal with ideas or issues and not with products or

Another area that invites confusion is

Preparing Successful Ads Your most important consideration in preparing any type of advertising copy is effectiveness—achieving your purpose. The purpose must be clear because it’s difficult for even the best copy to create aware- ness, convey specific information, get action and affect attitudes. You must decide where the public is in relation to the product or service (including a nonprofit organization’s service) and go from there. The fact that memory is multidimensional means that, to be able to measure your ad’s effectiveness with some degree of reliability, you have to know exactly what you wish to achieve and how prepared a specific public is to receive your message.5

Decisions about effectiveness include whether to use humor, whether to make comparisons and whether to use negative comments. Again, what you decide depends on what you are trying to accomplish and whom you are trying to reach. Humorous ads seem to get attention (see Figure 10.2), but they con- vey less information and don’t always ensure recall of the advertiser.6 There’s a risk in comparative ads too, especially in credibility. Credibility also can be at stake in negative advertising, but you can usually count on recall. And although most people say they don’t like negative advertising, they do respond to negative political advertising that seems to offer insight into an issue or an opponent’s personal characteristics.7 One of the most memorable parts of any ad is the organization’s logo, designed not only for high recog- nition, but also for a positive attraction or reaction.

According to one study, “Successful corporate sym- bols will be those which effectively evoke the positive and powerful responses already present in the mind of the subject and those which were learned at a much ear- lier stage of their cultural education.”8 The latter point suggests that as organizations become involved in global communication, and as electronic channels of commu- nication allow anyone in the world access to an organi- zation’s website, these logos should be pretested abroad to ensure that they meet with cultural acceptance. Orga- nizations often change their logos so that they can “grow” with the organization and reflect a more modem look or encompass appreciation and understanding by a more diverse array of people. Sometimes, logos change for a special occasion. Other organizations cling to an established logo for high recognition.

services. broadcast news promos (the broadcast equivalent of house ads). These often sound like actual news sound bites and can mislead the viewer or listener.

Print and Broadcast PSAs Public service announcements are examples of publicity-generating ad copy that are similar to spe- cial sections and display advertising. In all of these forms, you do not work with the publication’s edito- rial staff in placing them. With print PSAs, you will probably deal with newspaper or magazine designers and layout artists in the publication’s advertising department, who position ads and editorial matter. You might also work with a newspaper’s advertising director to get a drop-in ad placed in a regular advertiser’s space, with that advertiser’s permission. Or you might work with a large regular advertiser to sponsor your space. Regular advertisers usually agree to do this only for nonprofit organizations or in conjunction with special civic events that are open to all, such as a Fourth of July fireworks celebration.

If your message is for the electronic media, you will deal with public service directors who are usually partial to general interest subjects such as health and safety or to specific social problems such as substance abuse. You can sponsor a PSA if you represent a profit-making organization as long as you are deliv- ering a nonprofit organization’s message that does not directly benefit your own organization.

When you are planning a PSA, you first need to consider its purpose. Then, you must consider the budget: the amount of money you have to spend and the amount you can get from donations. You must also try to foresee problems you are likely to

Chapter 10 / Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work 257

Advertisement Using Humor 1. Know thy enemy. ( Skiouros Rodentia) Better known

as the common ground squirrel. Often referred to as Nature’s Perfect Killing Machine. Quick, nimble, agile. These are ferocious adjectives in the digital economy. Fear not, however. There are valuable lessons to be learned from the squirrel. Cold, hard, valuable lessons. And make no mistake, the squirrel does not grade on a curve.

2. Get nimble. That is, Be the squirrel. “To beat the squirrel, you must think like the squirrel.” This all-out run for the glory that is the digital economy is no place for the meek or the sluggish. Quick response, efficiency, flexibility. These are the watch words of the successful competitor. More on that later.

3. Respect the squirrel. This is not a game. The squirrel means business. Serious business. As a great philosopher once said: “This ain’t no party. This ain’t no disco. This ain’t no fooling around.”

4. Run. Run like the wind. Run like the wind on performance-enhancing growth hormones. This is dangerous territory. You’re going to need every advantage you can get. And every advantage is pre- cisely what EDS is here for. Our intelligent Network Foundation is the first network infrastructure to deliver voice, video, and data on both wired and wireless platforms. Our EDS Digital CRM Solutions help you plan, implement, and operate comprehensive customer care programs. These are just some of the services designed to help beat the squirrel at its own game. Designed to help you run with grace and confidence, even with the beast breathing at your heels. In short, we have the services to make you quicker, more nimble, and more agile in today’s digital economy.

f."

' #

This ad campaign for EDS is a take-off of “running with the bulls” in Pamplona, Spain. “Tips for Those Who Dare to Run with the Squirrels” is a humorous spoof that grabs attention, but also positions the company as offer- ing services “to make you quicker, more nimble, and more agile in today’s digital economy.” Source: Reprinted by permission of Fallon Minneapolis and EDS.

258 Part Four / PR in Action

Entertainer Britney Spears made a half million dollars for product placement on her 2011 “Hold It Against Me” me video, plugging products such as Sony, Radiance perfume, Make Up Forever cos- metics and Plentyoffish.com. Product placements are commonplace in media, and federal regulators are concerned because television has been using more of these product placements to reach viewers who are using technology to skip commercials.

“You shouldn’t need a magnifying glass to know who’s pitching you,” said Federal Communica- tions Commission Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. “A crawl at the end of the show shrunk down so small the human eye can’t read it isn’t really in the spirit of the law,” which requires disclosure, but which allows this disclosure at the end of the show. The FCC is also concerned about embedded advertisements in children’s programming , which require a few-second break between the show and an ad. Cable programmers are exempt from product-placement rules. The tactics and techniques of product placement have many implications for public relations practitioners in counseling their organi- zations. Public relations practitioners have available a range of tactics and techniques to communicate messages, and they also must examine the public relations ramifications of all of their organizations’ messages that are being communicated by the organizations’ marketers and advertisers.

Sources: Soraya Roberts, “Britney Spears ‘Hold It Against Me’ Video Earns Her $500,000; Katy Perry Slams Product Placement, ” New York Daily News, February 22, 2011 , accessed from: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ music/2011 .Amy Schatz and Suzanne Vranica, “Product Placements Get FCC Scrutiny," The Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2008, p. B3.

Sometimes, speeches by top executives and reports by researchers are produced in brochure or magazine format and are sent to stakeholders as publicity.

Publicists often get extra mileage out of their newspaper and magazine stories by reprinting them for their own mailings. An organization’s website should have a link to its online annual report, and the link should show the covers and inside pages of the annual report.

Publicity and Publications

Just as some advertising resembles publicity, some publicity and promotional pieces look like advertis- ing. This is particularly true of brochures, which are as likely to be sales pieces as to be news or informa- tion pieces.

Brochures are one type of publication that organi- zations regularly produce themselves. Desktop pub- lishing in the past several decades has increased the number and decreased the expense of such in-house publications. Except for brochures, house publications generally follow a magazine format, although some are designed as megapapers—oversized newspapers that are folded for a magazine or newsletter look.

One of the most important magazine-format pub- lications an organization produces is its annual report. Although only publicly held companies are required by law to produce annual reports for their stock- holders and for the Securities and Exchange Commis- sion (SEC), many nonprofits publish annual reports for their stakeholders as well. But nonprofit organiza- tions are less likely to produce quarterly reports. Pub- licly held companies must do so, and these often take the form of brochures of variable size and format.

Producing Brochures and House Publications Publishing is a highly technical part of public relations activity, and it has changed so much that the public relations practitioner who has not been paying atten- tion over the past 20 years, 10 years or even five years would have a lot of catching up to do. However, the speed of the evolution of publishing has been inconsis- tent throughout the world, because cutting-edge tech- nology that is used in some parts of the world is not so advanced in others. Some skills that were essential a decade ago are no longer needed, but new ones must be learned. Publishing is full of traps for the unwary— and unfortunately, mistakes are tangible and easily noticed. With desktop publishing, virtually all materi- als such as brochures and house publications have been

Chapter 10 / Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work 259

computer-generated for decades, and the ease of doing this has meant that not all of these are prepared by the PR department. Indeed, Mary L. Taylor, publications coordinator in the University of Northern Iowa’s office of marketing and public relations, says amateur use of such publishing software “is the bane of our existence.” She means that nonprofessionals can mas- ter the software, but that doesn’t mean they know any- thing about graphic design or writing or other components of such publications and thus their pub- lications can appear amateurish and be ineffective. Therefore, the public relations practitioner may have to publish some guidelines for the publications’ physi- cal appearance so that they look as though they belong to the same organization, no matter who produces them. Publications from an organization should appear to belong to a “family.” If the public relations practi- tioner doesn’t control this family, working closely with marketing and advertising departments, the organiza- tion’s image will suffer fragmentation.

answer most questions, although they, of course, can’t speak with the authority of those in the U.S. Postal Service about postal requirements that can and do change frequently. Larger public relations departments will have design staffs that include graphic designers (experts who may not necessarily be “artists” who can draw, but who know layout and design). In such departments, the public rela- tions practitioner should have an initial consultation with design staff, that is, a “format discussion,” and will in most cases let these graphic designers lay out and otherwise design the publication; choose its col- ors, paper stock and other design elements; and have them work with the outside or in-house printers— always in consultation and close communication with the public relations practitioner.

After determining the physical properties of the brochure and its envelope (if there is to be one), the designer might do a computer-generated mockup to discuss with the practitioner. Visualizing helps. You already know the basic message and theme of what you want to communicate, but now you need to decide more specifically what is to be said and how. Figure out what can be said with illustrations. Although the copy, that is, the text, will be most important in most bro- chures, nevertheless brochures often succeed or fail with readers in good part because of the strength or weakness of their graphics, so it is important to begin working early with design staff. Also, postage costs vary tremendously according to variables such as size and weight. The graphic designer responsible for the design must know the concept and the purpose, as well as the distribution method and how it affects the design. Together you must reach some decisions about color (ordinarily a financial, rather than an aesthetic, decision) and about the method of reproduction.

You might want to ask for rough layouts and may ask the artist to offer a choice of several different ideas. However, this adds cost, unless the extra work is done in-house and is not billed; designers and design agencies charge by the hour.

Once you have approved the design, you must decide on the exact paper stock, finish, weight and color; the precise color of ink; and the kind and size of type for each portion of the layout The graphic design staff will often provide suggestions and advice, or you might leave such decisions to the graphic designers. Also, paper suppliers and printing companies usually have samples, which graphic designers keep on hand. Choose the printing company carefully, because an attractive layout that is carelessly printed is unusable.

Brochures The first decision you have to make in producing a brochure is to determine its purpose and its audience. This will suggest not only the num- ber of copies to print, but also the distribution method to use. Distribution is critical to planning and can determine the brochure’s format—for instance, whether it will be mailed as a self-mailer or whether it will need to fit into an envelope, or whether it will be virtually available on a website.

Brochures can come in all shapes and sizes, but these characteristics are mostly predetermined if the piece has to be mailed. If it is going in the mail, you must decide whether to enclose it in an envelope at additional expense or to send it as a self-mailer—that is, a folded piece with a tab closing and part of the surface reserved for the recipient’s name and address. In either case, it is essential first to check with the U.S. Postal Service, particularly if your piece requires a specially designed and irregular envelope, because there are regulations governing acceptable envelope size. There are also regulations about sealing and addressing self-mailers and about sending a bulk mail- ing. Finding out all this in advance is important because this information affects brochure design, including the choice of paper stock. U.S. Postal Ser- vice workers are invariably friendly and helpful in explaining postal limitations because they want your publication to conform to their regulations.

Oftentimes, an organization’s mail center will have on staff highly knowledgeable people who can

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260 Part Four / PR in Action

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The number of brochures printed affects their cost: the more printed, the lower the cost for each.

The graphic designer can go ahead with produc- tion after all details are settled, copy has been written and supplied and either illustrations have been sup- plied or artwork has been approved.

Copyfitting and layout may fall to the graphic designer or to another person skilled at layout, but public relations people should also master these tech- niques. It is generally accepted that the PR person can write the copy, design the format and produce a PDF, a CD or a digital file to be sent electronically to the printing company. When it is time to begin work with the printer, be sure to arrange with the printer to check at least low-resolution (low-res) proofs and possibly high-resolution (high-res) proofs before printing the publication. Proofing is your last chance. Take it.

When a large printing run is complete and the folding is done, it may be worthwhile to have the stuffing and mailing handled by the printer or a mail service. Such mail service firms offer different services, but nearly all will work with a mailing list you provide electronically and either charge for labeling or use your labels. Virtually all labels are now printed directly onto the printed piece with ink jets. After the mailing, be sure to keep enough brochures on hand to meet additional requests. Keep

at least five as file copies as well as a CD. You may need them for reference.9

House Publications When you are producing a house publication, all production decisions depend on who the audience is. Because a house publication goes to employees or other organizational members only, it is likely to have quite a different design than that of a publication that receives broader distribution. What type of publication, then, is most likely to be accepted and read—a newsletter, tabloid newspaper or magazine format? This decision is usually influ- enced by the budget allotted, which sometimes makes such a question moot.

The next decision involves frequency of publica- tion. Frequency usually depends on the public rela- tions department, and monthly issues are about all most PR departments can cope with. Some produce quarterly publications, whereas others publish simple and inexpensive daily or weekly “news sheets.” The method of distribution is another consideration. If it is entirely internal, with distribution either in pick-up boxes or by supervisory personnel or in-house mail service, you need not be concerned about mailing reg- ulations and labeling. However, many companies have found it advantageous to send the publication to the recipients’ homes. Then, employees won’t read it “on company time” and won’t throw it away at work

Chapter 10 / Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work 261

because they are busy there. Furthermore, home deliv- ery encourages other family members to read the pub- lication. When home delivery is used, it is important to keep up with address changes, which the human resources department should have in its employee records, and it is critical to consult with the mail center so that delivery can be worked into a reasonable sched- ule, with consideration given for the mail center staffs other duties. Many organizations also allow electronic access to these publications on their websites.

Once these policies are decided, content deserves the most careful attention. Enlightened management knows that what the employees want to know about the company is more important than what the com- pany wants to tell the employees. Built into the publication should be ways to convey information and allowances for two-way communication—perhaps through letters to the editor or a response column that answers questions of general concern. Many employee publications give an intranet address also. The tone of the publication—which includes writing style, layout, artwork, type choice and general design—greatly affects the attitude the employees adopt toward it: whether they perceive it as their publication or as an authoritarian top-down management tool.

To help determine content, and even type and frequency of publication, PR staffs have used ques- tionnaires to find out what employees might like in the way of employee publications. The difficulty here is that some employees have no idea of what is possible. Choosing among unknowns is a bit of a problem. What seems to work better is to get a sam- ple of house publications from others (not necessarily in the same type of organization) and select a repre- sentative panel of employees to meet on company time and discuss the type of employee publication that might be effective and that could be produced within budget, time and talent restrictions.

It is a good idea to retain the panel even after the publication appears, because panel judgments provide a check on whether the publication is being read, what part of it is best liked and what is missing.

Develop a dummy or mockup suggesting design and general type of content. Estimate how much copy and artwork will appear in each publication and approxi- mately how many pages each will be; then determine how the publication will be printed. Learn what kind of presses will be used, because the number of pages (excluding cover) might have to be multiples of eight or at least four. Also, you will need to decide whether you want a separate cover rather than a self-cover.

Larger organizations may have in-house printing facilities; if you need to choose an outside printer, how- ever, make sure to get bids from several. The printer will need to see the dummy, know how many copies are needed and know how often the publication will appear. Printers also need to know whether the publi- cation will be coming to the shop electronically or whether the printer will be responsible for designing the publication. Together with the graphic designer or the printer, you have to decide on paper stock for the cover and inside pages and also headline and body type. The printer will have a price fist for artwork and special effects to help in estimating the cost of each issue. Remember, the printer with the lowest bid might not provide as high-quality work and might have more expensive “alteration costs” for changes you might make as the process of printing proceeds.

Staff is a major concern in starting a house publi- cation. Who will write and edit? Where can help and talent be found and put to work? Writers, photogra- phers and graphic designers are all important to the success of a house publication, and some reasonable assessment of potential must be made before a pub- lication can be launched. Again, budget is a factor in deciding how much talent can be bought. In the case of an employee publication, however, ego appeals, esprit de corps and gentle persuasion often work in lieu of remuneration.

A “beat” system and network of news correspon- dents for gathering information and preparing it for publication on schedule must be developed. Deadlines must be set for all copy and art, as must specifications for the way material is to be submitted. Some success- ful operations use reporting sheets, which are handled by a designated reporter rather than a person in each department. These are turned over to the editor and help in gathering news. Some departments ask that news be sent by email to an editor. Longer articles are generally determined by editorial/ administrative decision and worked out on an assignment basis. Some editors plan a whole year’s content; others plan one issue at a time, working only two or three months in advance on major stories.10

Some publications are prepared by institutions to be a customer or client service, offered at no charge. These bonus publications, from institutions such as insurance companies, are designed to make the cus- tomers feel good about the organization. The publi- cations act as subtle ads, suggesting that the company cares about its customers. Often, the publications do not call attention to their sponsorship. An example is

262 Part Four / PR in Action

a fitness magazine sent out by a hospital group. Some organizations produce magazines that compete with consumer periodicals. Examples are Smithsonian (the Smithsonian Institution’s magazine) and Audubon (an environmental club magazine that holds its own well against independent commercial environmental magazines).

Some organizations have abandoned their printed house publications in favor of CDs, DVDs and Web- based “magazines” that are readily available to their employees in their homes or elsewhere employees have opportunities to read or view these materials.

report might be used to communicate with various publics, because this could have some bearing on the presentation adopted.

Annual reports were once almost synonymous with complex and obscure prose, but some are now down-to-earth and occasionally even entertaining. Several companies have bought enough pages in magazines such as Time to present the entire annual report to an audience of millions.

Getting your report to “millions” may be overkill, but to make the most of the published report, it does need to be in the hands of all interested publics. Again, the communications expert should suggest to other departments the most effective use of the publication.

Some annual report planning begins nearly a year in advance. It is common to begin at the end of the first quarter, and certainly work should commence no later than three to six months before the close of the fiscal year. The wise public relations person builds some pad- ding into any schedule, and the annual report is the publication most likely to need it, because it is such a significant document (and for publicly held companies, it is legally required, with firm deadlines for its distri- bution). After all, it constitutes the organization’s most comprehensive statement about itself.

The annual report is a process as much as it is a publication—a comprehensive review of the past year. Because approvals and participation are so important and because the report must be produced on a deadline, the schedule needs to be structured so as to prevent delays. You’ll have to work with outside auditors, who are responsible for the financial con- tent, and have the entire report reviewed by legal counsel as well as the company’s audit committee of its board of directors. Because most of the content is reportable statistics, the chief financial officer gen- erally has oversight of the annual report, as does the investor relations practitioner, who usually reports to the chief financial officer (CFO) and who may or may not be in the public relations department.

Every annual report normally contains the same kind of information, but reports differ from company to company as to the order in which the information is presented or to their headings. Most contain the following five elements: (1) a letter from the chair- person, (2) the auditor’s report, (3) financial state- ments, (4) a longer section narrating pertinent facts about the past year’s operation and (5) photos and charts. Most are now distributed electronically.

Shareholders also get quarterly reports, and some companies package these attractively as newsletters.

Producing Annual Reports Responsibility for the annual report should be shared by two key people: a communications specialist responsible for deciding the character of the report and a high-level management representative (gener- ally, the chief financial officer or the chief executive officer) responsible for the content.n The design and the language of the report should be the province of the communications specialist, who should not have to yield to the style preferences of persons whose expertise lies in different areas.

To give these two individuals the authority they need, all key management personnel should be informed about who has the responsibility for the report and should be involved in contributing to the point of view the report ultimately reflects. Through meetings, a consensus may be reached on theme and approach.

The communications expert should prepare the first draft, working with content supplied by the other key person, and this document should be circulated for comment and contributions. Its impact on all audiences should be weighed, but specifically its effect on priority publics should be determined. For example, crises may have to be addressed, e.g., a petroleum company’s oil spill, or the ramifications of Japan’s earthquake, tsu- nami and nuclear meltdown. Also, many annual reports contain copy that touts diversity in the workforce and professes a commitment to teamwork, but then these reports show disdain for employees in the illustrations or have pictures that clearly reveal power resting in the hands of a few white males. Annual reports going to many different countries must be carefully checked for culturally sensitive material. In addition to being sensi- tive to such representations while the report is being planned, the communications expert should suggest to other members of management how the published

Chapter 10 / Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work 263

Others use a brochure format or create packages that resemble thick statement stuffers. (Chapter 7 dis- cusses SEC requirements for the annual report and the 10K quarterly reports.)

Ever since the SEC began requiring that a com- pany publish its 10K and go online with it, the annual report has ceased to serve primarily as a financial document and has instead become primarily a public relations publication.

Even though annual reports have taken on a differ- ent significance, many remain hard for the shareholder (who may not be a financial expert) to understand. To many CEOs, therefore, the idea of an executive sum- mary, or shortened version of the report, has seemed a good one. In 1987, the Financial Executives Institute devised the summary format, according to which financial information is relegated to the 10K and to the annual meeting proxy statement. Since then, busi- nesses have come to use the executive summary format routinely, in addition to the annual report, although not all companies favor it.

over closed-circuit TV, on the organization’s website or over other internal audiovisual communication sys- tems. You can also refer to the video the next time you write a speech for that person, to ascertain what gestures the individual is comfortable with and what idioms she or he is likely to use. The question- and-answer session after a speech is especially helpful in these areas (see Figure 10.3).12 Of course, the orga- nization’s website is an ideal place to have a link to a Web-based video of the executive’s speech.

Special Events Although a speech can be a special event, other events such as an open house are really just occasions or celebrations. Then, there are big events such as a celebrity visit; a convention; or a trade, commercial or consumer show. Thorough planning for special events is the key.13 Event-planning software is avail- able, and some firms do nothing but special events for organizations.

Setting up for Events There are nine steps or stages in planning for meetings or special events such as dedications, open houses and plant tours:

Speeches as Publicity or Publications For all the time and trouble that goes into preparing an executive’s speech, you need to get more out of it than just one-time media coverage at the event. That’s likely to be limited at best, even if the speaker is important.

A speech is one of many types of presentations that an organization may use for further publicity (by sending speech texts or meeting transcripts to the news media). These events are often video recorded as an additional way to generate publicity. Some videos are made expressly for such publicity.

Many organizations reprint major addresses in bro- chure format and mail them to their special publics with a printed notice or a business card attached, and sometimes a video-recorded speech may be placed on the company’s website and even on social media. Remember also to send copies to publications such as Vital Speeches of the Day. This prestigious and often- quoted periodical reviews and analyzes the speeches sent to it and reprints the best ones in its own pages.

You need to circulate copies of the speech inter- nally as well. Remember that your employees are PR’s front line. What would their response be if someone told them about a major speech by your organization’s president that they were unaware of? Employees need facts to help you. You might even consider video recording the speech for internal use

1. Start planning early. Depending on the size of your event, a year in advance is not too soon.

2. Make a blueprint and a timetable. Plan every detail, no matter how minor, and assign people to be responsible for each. Have alternates selected as “backups.” These can be one or two extras—people without specific assignments but involved in planning so they can step in if neces- sary. Once you have all details listed, “walk through” the event mentally as a participant. That way, you will find what you overlooked.

3. Form as many committees as you deem feasible. By involving management and employees in this event, you spread the workload and get the employees enthusiastic and knowledgeable.

4. Use company professionals wherever possible: artists, design personnel, copywriters, exhibit specialists and the like.

5. Provide special attractions to ensure attendance and to make the event memorable. Examples: prominent personalities, parades, concerts, dances, films, exhibits of historical materials, citations or awards, prizes and drawings, product demonstra- tions and tours of the plant in operation.

264 Part Four / PR in Action

Meeting or Speech Checklist

This is perhaps the most common arrangement asked of PR people and one that is often carelessly handled. The following detailed list may be adapted to suit particular situations. 1. Set up a day in advance when possible; if not, set up

at least two hours before the program. Check the podium for proper height (short or tall speakers); test the podium light and microphone.

2. Find out what activity will be going on in the room next to your speaker, you don’t want the speaker to have to yell to make him- or herself heard. When planning for a large group, it is important to see whether the hotel or restaurant expects another large group and, if so, what that group is. If your group consists of retired schoolteachers, they may not enjoy being housed in a hotel with a group of boisterous rodeo riders.

3. Check out the sound system, amplifiers and speakers. Find the cutoff switch for piped-in music.

4. Find access to the lighting controls. 5. Check access to electrical outlets. Have spare heavy-

duty extension cords ready for broadcast media. 6. If visuals are to be used, check out the projection

system for equipment being used, that is, VCR, CD player, computer and extra cables and cords. Test the proper distance for projection for VCR, CD player or computer. Make sure a table for the projectors is set up at the proper distance. Run two projectors, one on blackout so that it’s ready if the other fails. Test the PowerPoint, computer and projector being used.

7. Have the proper number of chairs and tables on hand, and have them placed correcdy. It may be desirable

to cover the tables with cloths. Arrange the tables so that they are as close as possible to the speaker with- out crowding. However, a smaller room with some crowding is preferable to the yawning cavern of a big hall if attendance is light. If you get early enough warning about impending light attendance, most hotels can use screens to help “shrink” the room space.

8. Make arrangements for water and glasses; also, for coffee or other refreshments. Be sure there is a firm understanding about the service: when delivered, replenished and removed, and in what quantity.

9. Locate the telephone. If one is in the room, be sure to disconnect it or arrange for an immediate answer if a ring should interrupt the speaker, and remind those attending to turn off their mobile phones.

10. Make out name tags and have additional blank tags on hand. Remember that women guests may not have pockets for the pocket insert tags. Use pressure-sensitive tags, clips or pin-ons.

11. Set up a table for guest registration and name tags. 12. Maintain a list of guests invited, marked for those

who confirmed their acceptance and for those who sent their regrets.

13. Have place cards or attendants to help guests to their seats.

14. Prepare a program of activities for the speaker and for guests, too, if possible.

15. Have writing materials, including cards, available in case the speaker wants to make last-minute notes.

16. Have information kits to give to guests. 17. Have an easy-to-read clock or stopwatch for timing. 18. Be sure all computer components are compatible.

6. Provide giveaways and souvenirs (they need not be expensive) for everyone. There should be dif- ferent souvenirs for different target audiences. Personalize all items and tie them to the event. (Advertising specialty companies have catalogs filled with suggestions.)

7. To ensure smooth flow of traffic, arrange for parking; if the plant is some distance from the population center, provide bus transportation from points of departure. Train guides to con- duct tours for visitors, and have knowledgeable employees positioned at strategic points to

provide information and answer questions. Use signs and printed maps to direct visitors.

8. Publicize the event well in advance through all possible channels. Use all available controlled media to keep employees and other publics informed. Use the mass media for a broad appeal. If necessary, use advertising.

9. When the event is over, thank everyone who helped and participated. A successful dedication or open house requires the services of many— and hard work by quite a few—and their efforts should be gratefully acknowledged.

Chapter 10 / Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work 265

See Figure 10.4 for a checklist to use in preparing for events.

red-eyed and discouraged. Slides must have good color contrast, clear details that are kept to a mini- mum and type or letters of an appropriate size. You may also want to provide handouts of the slide mate- rial for audiences to follow along with or take away.

A good four-step rule of thumb that almost always works can help you evaluate whether a given piece of material can be translated into a slide:

Handling Visual Presentations Public relations practi- tioners frequently plan presentations that involve the use of visual materials—a presentation to financial analysts, for example, or one to employees explaining a new benefits package. Visual Devices You will be using various devices for visual presentations. Easel pads, overhead projec- tors, PowerPoint computer projection and slides are described here.

An easel pad and similar visual aids may seem primitive in an age of PowerPoint and other elec- tronic communication, but these can still be used to help executives quickly generate ideas and to reach conclusions in the shortest time possible. An easel pad can stimulate group interest, help organize discus- sions, help explain or clarify and help summarize and review. Be sure to keep a supply of markers and mask- ing tape on hand so that you can tape tom-off pages where they can be reviewed. (However, be careful to what you tape these pages, e.g., tape removed from wallboard might remove the wall’s paint.)

Overhead projectors are simple to set up and use, but make certain you understand how to operate the simple-to-use projector, and keep an extra fight bulb handy. Traditional overhead projectors use transpar- encies, which can be quickly made on a photocopy machine. Much more common today is PowerPoint, a computer-generated presentation software that cre- ates slide shows that are projected from a computer screen. You can project directly from the computer screen to the projector screen, much as professors do from their classroom teaching stations.

Commonly, presentation rooms are equipped with interactive computers finked to wall-mounted high-resolution screens. Texts from laptops on the conference table can immediately be shown on the screen for all to see, and items for discussion can be quickly arranged categorically as participants gener- ate new ideas. Always be careful not to clutter your presentation with too much material. The informa- tion put on the overhead must be clear and easy for anyone in the room to read. It should be the type of material that would be difficult to capture in words only and should include graphs, charts and statistics.

Not everything can be made into good slides. Poor color choice, intricate diagrams, cluttered charts and small-size type or lettering can leave your audience

1. Measure the widest part of the material being considered for a slide.

2. Provide a reasonably wide border, and measure the border on both sides.

3. Add items 1 and 2 together. 4. Multiply the total by six, giving you a total dis-

tance in inches (or feet, as the case may be) from your eyes or from the eyes of a person with 20/40 vision to the material. This is important. If someone with 20/40 vision can read the mate- rial easily and see all the pertinent details, then the material could make a good slide. If the material can’t be easily read, it must be modified until it does pass the test.

Of course, most slides today are computer- generated, and your work computer most likely has this capability. Such slides can be very simple (which is oftentimes best), or they can be so elaborate that they give the impression of movement, resembling the animated art used in cartoons.

When you plan a slide presentation, you need to consider its eventual development into another for- mat such as a CD. This is especially important if you intend to present it often. A video presentation requires more slides and more consideration of visual “ bridges” established by transition slides. A CD has similar requirements, but the images must be digita- lized. Both benefit from the addition of audio.

Handling Audio Presentations A sound system can make or break a presentation. To avoid a major breakdown, you must pay attention to four key areas of sound system preparation: sound amplifica- tion, rented or company equipment, basic equipment and choosing components.

Never accept the word of a hotel that adequate sound amplification will be available. Few hotels own acceptable professional equipment. Hotels’ electronic rostrums, microphones and portable loudspeakers vary widely in age, quality and condition. Frequently,

266 Part Four / PR in Action

Checklist for Facilities

Organization is essential to ensuring that significant details are not overlooked. One of the easiest ways is to make a checklist far enough in advance so that you can add those “middle of the night” thoughts to it in plenty of time to plan for and implement them.

One Week Before Complete media kits, including speeches, bios and photos, with event timing indicated for broadcast news.

Following Week Send follow-up letters to news media represented.

Day Before Have kits available for news media on request.

Day of Event Meet with news media representatives; distribute kits.

Advance release out.

Find out what special facili- ties news media will need, and make arrangements to accommodate these needs. Order all supplies and equipment for newsroom or media use area. Check lighting, sound levels, electric outlets and so on.

Set up media area. Check out all equipment and special facilities. Check all visual displays and logos.

Recheck news media area to be sure all supplies and equipment are ready for use.

Draft final guest acceptance list.

Prepare guest information kits including program, brochures and the like. Prepare media, guest and host badges.

Distribute guest informa- tion kits with badges.

Set up physical facility and procedure for badge distribution.

Check badges and be sure badge issuance is recorded.

Make arrangements defi- nite. Be specific and agree on contingency plans. Plan cleaning of site and arrange for any special decorations. Remember logos, displays and so on.

Check eating area and order. Be sure time of service, place and cleanup are clear. Check site, grounds and all facilities.

Check food preparation, delivery and service.

(continued )

the components are not physically or electronically compatible with one another.

Do not check “sound amplification” off your fist until a dry run—held in the meeting room itself — has demonstrated that every component in the system functions properly. Make certain that any assistant who must operate the equipment knows exactly how it works, knows the location of all switches and

controls, knows the proper volume and tone-control settings and knows how to operate auxiliary equipment such as audio recorders and additional microphones. It exasperates both the audience and speaker to have to break the bond of communication to give mechanical instructions to an equipment operator.

Check out the loudspeaker system. Adjust its vol- ume level to a point slighdy higher than you would

Chapter 10 / Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work 267

Checklist for Facilities (continued)Figure IQ.4 One Week Before Assign hosts for VIPs.

Day Before Check with VIP host to confirm schedules.

Day of Event Be sure all VIPs’ needs are met.

Following Week Mail thank-yous.

Arrange for any citations or presentation materials.

Check to be sure special presentation materials are on hand.

Be sure persons making pre- sentation have materials.

Communicate individual responsibilities clearly and accurately.

Detail any necessary safety precautions. Outline plan for emergency situation. Anticipate and be sure to communicate all emergency planning to all who might be involved.

Arrange for message board for media and guests. Have local airline schedules, taxi numbers and hotel and restaurant lists, with times and phone numbers available.

Make final transportation and hotel arrangements for guests. If remote, plan transportation and hotel accommodations for news media also.

normally set it—recognizing that the room, when filled with people, will be much more sound- absorptive than when it is empty.

If you cannot rely on the hotel sound equipment, you can rent suitable gear from a nearby audio rental facility. Or you can bring it in and have your own firm set it up (subject to local union regulations and hotel convention requirements). The last approach is prob- ably the most reliable—and the most economical.

When selecting the equipment you will use, remember the auto mechanic’s maxim: You’ll never have trouble with the accessories they don’t include. A bewildering array of microphones, loudspeaker sys- tems, amplifiers and accessory equipment is available

for highly specialized uses and for startling effects. But keep your equipment basic and simple.

The technical information you need to make a wise choice regarding components is not great, and most manufacturers furnish helpful literature that even a novice can readily understand.

It’s a good idea, nevertheless, to choose compo- nents to suit your individual needs. Microphones, for instance, are available in a great many types and prices, but no other element is so vital to the sound system. However good the other components are, they cannot compensate for a poor microphone. Be sure it is suited to the use for which it is intended. Price is no index to suitability.

268 Part Four / PR in Action

Numerous evils commonly associated with poor sound amplification are actually side effects of unsuc- cessful attempts to offset microphone deficiencies. Amplifier hum or background noise may be caused by a microphone with a low output, inadequately compensated for by turning up amplifier gain (volume). Ear-splitting treble emphasis often occurs because an amplifier’s treble control was turned up to overcome a loss of articulation at the microphone. When amplifier gain is held so low that the audience must strain to hear, the microphone is often to blame. In this case, if the gain were turned up, intolerable feedback would result because of the microphone’s inability to distinguish wanted from unwanted sound.

3. Audience Suitability: Does it clearly address the or the group you planaudience it’s aimed at • • •

to show it to? 4. Visuals: Are the pictures in focus? Properly

exposed? Are the colors true? If there are graphics, do they help to clarify and explain, or are they just there for effects?

5. Timeliness: Are the visuals up-to-date? (Nothing turns off an audience faster than an old- fashioned haircut or clothing style or any printed matter on the screen that shows the age of the video.)

6. Talent: Are the participants or actors real and nat- ural? Do you believe them? Can you hear and clearly understand what they’re saying?

7. Sound: Are the sound effects and/or music appro- priate to the action? Is there proper balance among words, sound effects and music so that the message gets across in the most effective way?

8. Editing: Does the story flow naturally? Is the edit- ing pace good, so the story neither drags nor moves too fast? Are you jolted by unusual angles, jumps in action, scenes that are too short or too long or by bad sound?

9. Script Content: Someone once said (or wrote) that the best script for a video is one with the fewest possible words. A well-done informational video should rely heavily on visuals to tell the story. Words should fill in, adding information that cannot be seen. Most videos have too many words. And words should be simple. Long words or cumbersome phrases are distracting.

10. Believability'. Is the film “professional,” in the sense that it moves along smoothly, in a logical fashion, and you’re not distracted by the mechan- ics of the medium? In summary, did you find the video to be honest and believable?14

Producing Institutional Video-Recordings and Films Some annual reports are now produced on CDs or video-recordings as well as published in print. These are often used to introduce the firm to new audi- ences, such as securities analysts who have not previ- ously followed the firm, communities in which the firm has not previously operated, large groups of new employees hired for specific tasks or successful job candidates who have been hired for high-level positions. Most postproduction video work has shifted to digital. With digital editing, a video story can be edited much the same way you use a word processing program in a computer to edit text.

You’ll need to be very specific in describing your video needs to the person who will be producing it. Many in-house and commercial producers use stan- dard project proposal forms (see Figure 10.5).

Before looking at the video, be sure you know its subject, purpose and the nature of the audience it purports to reach. Only then can you judge whether it meets its goals, or is suitable.

As you look at the video, rate it on each of these 10 points: Handling Celebrity Appearances

The presence of celebrities almost guarantees public- ity, so alluring them and making them glad they came is important. Arrangements for a celebrity’s appearance may be made through an organization with which the celebrity is involved—for example, a charity for which the celebrity is the national spokes- person. Or if the celebrity is a columnist or television star, contact may be made through her or his syndi- cate or network, using a local publication or network

1. Attention Span: Is it “gripping,” or “interesting,” or just plain able to hold the audience’s attention throughout? This is critical: if it is boring, noth- ing else really matters!

2. Subject: Does the video adequately cover the subject in a clear way and fulfill its expressed purpose? Is it too long? Or (seldom) not long enough?

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affiliate station as a starting point. Ultimately, though, you will probably deal with the celebrity’s agent. It is important to remember that this person is a business agent.

Once you have the celebrity scheduled, you should request updated biographical information from his or her agent or public relations person and digital photographs of at least two different poses. Also, get an appropriate digital version for websites and other electronic publication. The bio- graphical data will give you a start in preparing the advance publicity. It is helpful if you can also get a telephone interview to fill in details, because curric- ulum vitae/resume sheets are sometimes outdated or incomplete. Further, personal information and a per- sonal contact offer insight into the celebrity’s likes and dislikes and give some indication of what type of promotion would be best. It is important to deter- mine what that person likes to do and does best because this is where he or she will perform best for you. Recognize that some celebrities have unusual demands—for example, the availability of multicolored candy with all the pieces of certain col- ors removed from the dish.

In planning the celebrity’s schedule, you will prob- ably work with the agent or with a person charged with scheduling. Make sine your communications

with this person are clear, concise and definite. Your dependence is mutual, so you should try hard to establish rapport. Get off to a good start in your first contact by providing the following information: (1) travel arrangements, including who will be meet- ing the celebrity (and whether an airport arrival inter- view is planned); (2) where the celebrity will be staying; (3) what provision has been made for trans- portation; (4) what financial arrangements have been made (iron these out early!); (5) what the schedule of appearances is; and (6) what other group appearances have been scheduled and what special events the celebrity will participate in. Make multiple copies of the schedule so your staff and the celebrity’s staff have contact information. Include phone numbers at vari- ous locations and mobile phone numbers.

Give the celebrity as much background as possi- ble, not only on relevant groups and people, but also on the city. Personalize this by tying the information into the celebrity’s own background, career or special interests. This will help prepare the celebrity for the questions that he or she will have to field, and it will also make him or her feel comfortable and welcome rather than exploited.

Be sure all newsmaking events on the schedule are covered by your own staff reporter and photog- rapher. In fact, don’t go anywhere without your

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photographer. Some of the best picture possibilities can be missed if you depend on news media pho- tographers working only on assignment. Moreover, the celebrity may want pictures, and these are easier to get from your staff than from the media. Someone in the office should keep a log of television appear- ances and clippings to present later to the celebrity, or to the accompanying PR person or agent.

Media information kits should be prepared and dis- tributed in advance of the celebrity’s appearance, but keep extra ones with you at all times. Reporters assigned to the story who have not seen the kit may ask you numerous questions that are already answered in the kit.

Arrangements should reflect not only the celeb- rity’s star status, but also be personalized. One tele- vision actor found that the PR director at an affiliate station had keyed everything, even the fruit in his room, to the TV series in which he portrayed a teacher (the fruit was, of course, apples). For another celebrity, who was an art lover, pictures in the hotel suite were replaced with valuable paintings on loan from the local art museum.

The red-carpet treatment begins at the airport, where most major airlines maintain luxurious VIP rooms suitable for interviews. It may be the best place to have an initial press conference and have the celebrity greeted by a city official. Make arrange- ments through the airline’s local public relations rep- resentative. Most airlines will also expedite baggage handling. The hotel’s PR department is also eager to cooperate in seeing that the celebrity’s room is spe- cially prepared with flowers or fruit. You should check the celebrity in before arrival and have the room key in hand to make this a smoother operation.

For transportation, a chauffeured limousine is almost a must for important celebrities; if this is impossible, try to get a new car on loan, say a demon- stration model from a promotion-conscious dealer. Get a courteous driver who understands time sche- dules and knows the city. Be sure the celebrity knows how to contact the limousine service or driver in case of an emergency or a change in plans. One solution is to put up the driver in the same hotel as the celebrity so that immediate access is possible. Mobile phones— or at least a pager for the driver—are essential here.

Assign someone who is understanding and sympa- thetic to be with the celebrity throughout the sched- ule. This person should be able to handle special requests such as hairdressers at 6 a.m. or filet mignon at midnight. Be sure it is someone with patience, tact

and diplomacy who also understands the significance of keeping on schedule. After a celebrity appearance is over, this person can probably suggest the best way to say thank-you.

Take care of all departure details such as checkout, bills, airline flight confirmation and baggage check-in. Attention to the celebrity cannot be relaxed just because the itinerary is closed. The farewell remarks of a celeb- rity are usually recorded and remembered too. One thought to keep in mind is that celebrities talk to other celebrities. A public relations director who was having difficulty “getting” a particular celebrity happened to mention it to another celebrity who had once been the organization’s guest for the same event. To the PR per- son’s surprise, the celebrity said, “Well, I’ll just call and tell her she needs to be here. It’s a good promotion vehi- cle, and you people know how to do things right ”

Some celebrities you may be responsible for han- dling are relatively new at public relations appear- ances. For example, the book publishing business is so highly competitive that authors are frequently sent “on the road” to garner sales for their books. Some of these new celebrities may be more difficult to han- dle than are more seasoned people because, while they are less likely to have high expectations of rec- ognition, they are more likely to expect some privacy or time for themselves.

Preservation of talent may be necessary if the celebrity is a performer. Some performers are asked to make a number of appearances and play, sing or do whatever they do either too close to their perfor- mance schedule or in conditions that might jeopar- dize their being able to perform—soloists singing outside in cold night air, for example. You may be responsible for the schedules of some celebrities who are traveling without their own staffs, and you need to think of their needs in planning their appearances.

Publicity Through the Mass Media

Good working relationships with media personnel are always important for smooth functioning, but they are particularly crucial when they can facilitate, impede or even destroy a public relations program. The secret of success in placing publicity is to develop a good work- ing relationship by knowing and anticipating the needs of the media. Your PR efforts in handling publicity are usually a two-part operation: providing the informa- tion you want to convey to that medium’s public and responding to inquiries. Your contacts are valuable as

272 Part Four / PR in Action

your contacts abroad during their working day, because of time differences.

Knowing the media’s working schedules will save you a great deal of grief. And it might be wise to call a sports, business or other section editor periodically to check on the possibility of new deadlines. Such attention to details separates the professional from the inept amateur.

Knowing whom to contact at the various media with your news is also essential. You need to make sure your releases get to the reporter or editor who covers your organization. Because media people change jobs and assignments frequently, your cur- rent media contact may not be the same person you dealt with last week.

If it is someone you need to call after normal working hours, be sure you have the bypass or after-hours and mobile phone number, or you’ll get stopped by a recording.

a source for placing stories or story ideas and as a resource for keeping you advised of media changes in personnel or procedures.

Fortunately, some things never change, and among them are the standards by which publicity is measured. Publicity is ranked by editors and TV assignment editors and radio news directors for news value. Publicity should meet three criteria:

1. Is it important to this medium’s audience (read- ers, listeners or viewers)? For local media, it must be of local significance to be considered (i.e., it must have a local angle).

2. Is it timely? It must be news something that just happened, is happening now or is scheduled to happen in the near future—not something the beat reporter had three days ago.

3. Is it accurate, truthful and complete?

One PR person who had heard a newspaper’s assis- tant metropolitan editor chew out an unfortunate publicist for offering copy with “more holes than a sieve” was later asked by the editor if the reaction had been too harsh. “Not at all,” he replied. “Sloppy copy just makes it harder for the rest of us.”

Actual news value is one yardstick of newsworthi- ness. Another is human interest, a story or picture with humor, drama or poignancy. Humorous stories, espe- cially, have an edge because so much of what editors must print is serious. A publicity piece that is genuinely funny or appealing is usually given good display.

In handling publicity, you are concerned with offering news releases to mass and specialized media: print, broadcast and other forms of electronic media. Your primary task is to interest the media in story and picture ideas they might cover. In doing this job, you must prepare materials that tell about the institution, such as newsletters, brochures and pamphlets, television and radio spots, PowerPoint presentations and perhaps video-recordings. When necessary, you must arrange for the media to talk directly to management in interviews and confer- ences. Therefore, you must master the styles of all media and develop working relationships with pro- fessionals in all of these fields.

Technology and Public Relations A PR person must keep current in the area of new technology for mass communications, and this knowl- edge must extend far beyond a knowledge of the soft- ware on his or her computer or his or her basic working knowledge of the Internet and social media.

PR Wire and Video Services Specialized wire and video services carry public relations news directly into the world’s newspaper and broadcast news- rooms. This capability is especially important because the PR newswires provide copy from com- puter to computer so it can then be called up on a computer for editing and subsequent direct transmis- sion to the typesetting equipment.

While television has arguably become less impor- tant, the medium still remains important, and a heightened need for video news releases (VNRs) exists because of the Internet. Satellite transmission has made the world’s broadcast stations readily accessible to such releases, and videos can be placed on an organization’s website as well as on a range of Internet sites, including those social media such as YouTube. Many public relations media services pro- vide a complete publicity package of video news releases and satellite transmission.

The privately owned publicity services offer simultaneous transmission of video news releases and provide an efficient national network. Although they are membership organizations and charge for

A PR person must know, for example, the exact deadlines for all local media and the approxi-copy

mate deadlines for state and national media. If you are involved in international PR, you must be pre- pared to work late (in some cases very late) to reach

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their services, they are run much like news bureaus, and their editors may reject copy as they try to exer- cise some judgment about what to send.

These PR suppliers provide journalists (via com- puter) with news releases, fact sheets, graphics and other information that PR people pay to have sent. Such publicity services charge clients an annual fee and then charge for each release. The price depends on the distribution ordered. A surcharge is usually added for larger-than-average releases (more than 400 words) and more complex ones with photos, gra- phics, spread sheets and audio. Video rates are more expensive. In addition to publicity, clients may send advisories and invitations, such as notifications of news conferences.

One particular advantage public relations wire ser- vices have for practitioners is the resulting national and international coverage now available for clients of a practitioner working from a single base.

Another advantage to the practitioner is editorial acceptance of the PR sources. Because copy is carefully checked before it is moved (even though the practi- tioners supplying the material are “clients”), news media are assured of a double check on details, timeli- ness and other elements that often make PR copy unac- ceptable. To preserve their own reputations, the PR news bureaus won’t move inferior or inaccurate copy. One service even reminds clients: “Write to wire style and member newspaper computerization [constraints]. Following Associated Press (AP) style and keeping computer specifications in mind are marks of commu- nications professionalism that improve your release’s chances. Again, we’ll be glad to help whenever you need us.” The company has built a reputation for reli- ability with the media it services.

Yet another advantage of public relations wire ser- vices is that they are already in the newsroom. Many metropolitan dailies have a PR newswire feeding their computers right along with the AP, Reuters and other services’ wires. Copy is pulled from that source and is considered for use on its merits. Broad- cast releases are often a direct feed, after an advisory is wired. In contrast, many mailed releases (print and video) that reach reporters are never even opened. In addition, mail service may be delayed by lack of weekend delivery or by holiday closing. For all of these reasons, a newswire service is a good invest- ment when broad coverage is desired, timing is sig- nificant and the budget allows.

Computer technology helps outside the news- room as well. Reporters use laptop computers to

cover news outside the office. At a special event, they can use a computer billboard service to keep up with what’s going on from their hotel room. They can download a news conference release and work their stories from that information, if they wish, and then send the stories directly to the news- paper’s computer.

A side benefit of PR distribution services such as Medialink is that most also supply basic news data banks for storing releases and published stories. These data banks can give a news story a longer shelf life.

Most of these services, as well as specialized clip- ping and monitoring services such as BurrellesLuce and VMS, provide an accounting of media use. Some users complain that the services (particularly some of the video services) are not exhaustive, but inflated figures are probably more of a concern than under- reporting. Many organizations supplement their data services by hiring at-home workers to monitor video releases for them.

Following up on news releases yourself is more difficult, because you won’t have the fist of media that a service uses. Distribution and clipping services do maintain up-to-date media lists, because that’s the heart of their business, but you will be given a copy of only a general distribution fist.

You’ll probably develop your own limited media directories. Lists of media abroad are now more read- ily available, with international directories and through the Internet. New software packages also offer solu- tions to building and maintaining media fists and mea- suring results. You’ll also keep fists of where you placed your advertising, of course, and the monitoring services will trace your advertising as well as your releases if you want to purchase that additional service. The services will also perform an analysis of both. Television services that handle production for your PSAs sometimes monitor the use of your PSAs, too. But even the best services won’t catch everything. They may misreport or misinterpret events. Use infor- mation from these services as a monitoring device; use your own research to measure results.

Media Electronic Systems When a PR person gets a story of regional or national interest in a local paper, there is a good chance that the story will receive reg- ular newswire service attention. The AP wire service uses a computer-to-computer hookup that allows newspapers to send copies of their local stories instantly into local AP bureau computers. Flow of stories from member papers to the bureaus increases

274 Part Four / PR in Action

their use by other papers of PR-generated stories of regional or national significance.

AP computers also can improve laser photos so that photo editors can crop, enlarge, reduce, brighten, darken or otherwise improve the quality of photos sent.

Newspapers’ electronic information systems (EISs) are copy cannibals—devouring vast amounts of incoming material and immediately relaying facts, breaking news, sports scores, recent stock reports and such. EISs have enlarged the medium’s “news hole” of available space for news. Cable is another cannibal, using programming 24 hours a day. Much of cable’s programming gives PR practi- tioners special opportunities to reach some TV audi- ences with long video productions.

What do public relations practitioners need to know about the Internet? As much as possible, and many mid-career and senior-level practitioners who never had a computer course in college have become experts who enthusiastically continue to learn more. However, if your organization does yet not have a Web page, the best choice would be a Web develop- ment agency. Knowledgeable staff will work with you to create a website that will attractively present your organization to hundreds of millions of Web users; will register a domain name for your organization, for example, http://www.uncc.edu; and will provide email addresses, for example, [email protected]. Such a consulting firm may not necessarily promote your website to search engines and Internet direc- tories, but specialized companies do that. However, Web hosting providers, not development/design agencies, will use their servers to connect you to the Web, or you may have your own server and host it yourself or else host your own server with a hosting provider—depending on your needs and your budget. “Search engine optimization” means the company will attempt to improve your organization’s ranking in search results for keywords or phrases related to your organization. However, some optimization prac- tices are questionable; for example, some attempt to “trick” the search engine in various ways. Note that Google, for example, will exclude your URL from its database if it catches this being done.

A website is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and can be a lot cheaper than many forms of compara- ble advertising and promotion. Of course, your orga- nization can host its own server, design its own website and hire a Web manager. (A Web manager is usually responsible for Web content, whereas a webmaster is responsible for the technical side; in small companies, one person often fills both roles, which is not very professional in some respects.) However, many public relations practitioners are learning and using econom- ical software, such as Adobe Dreamweaver and others, to create and regularly update their organizations’ Web pages. Companies are using their Web pages to accept customer orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no personnel needed to answer the phone. Credit cards are processed online, and the order goes straight to the shipping department. Furthermore, question- and-answer pages result in satisfied customers, and operations manuals on the Web save a lot of printing costs. A website’s design should be user-friendly and interactive. Information should be compartmental- ized, not cluttered, and links to other information

In-House Electronic Systems Material that organiza- tions can offer to news media and to other publics is much more sophisticated now. In particular, PR firms and departments have found that computers make preparing graphics much easier.

Computer-delivered photos are also readily avail- able from digital cameras—either stand-alone or built into other electronic devices such as phones or pads. These have built-in LCDs so images can be viewed as soon as they are shot, and with a direct connection to a computer, the images are immedi- ately available for editing, processing and integrating into presentations.

PR and the Internet You cannot effectively practice public relations today without using the Internet and its World Wide Web (referred to as the Web), and you must be intimately familiar with its uses by consumers, including knowl- edge about blogs and social media. Initially, the Inter- net was a text-based system that only connected academic institutions and government agencies; it was no more than a government-supported utility. With the arrival of Mosaic software, the Web began to feature graphics as well as sound and video content, and it quickly gained commercial attention. Of course, today both audio and video are ubiquitous on web- sites. The Internet became a “network of networks” that nobody owns or manages. Journals and most other mass media as well as even the smallest busi- nesses and organizations throughout the world main- tain a Web presence and announce their Web addresses in their promotions and advertisements.

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should be simple and clear. The way out of various areas and access to the home page should be instant and easy.

An important advantage of a website for PR prac- titioners, according to the late Gerald Anglum, for- mer associate director of public relations at the University of Northern Iowa, is that corrections can be made in five minutes and at no cost (as opposed to a glaring error in a publication that had a 15,000-copy press run). However, Anglum noted that a Web page can be “horrible” if it implies that your organization is “out of touch” and appears to be poorly organized.

same access. Start with secondary sources, finding out if the company files contain anything written about the subject—any research or sales reports, any memos. Then seek out the primary sources, interviewing people to learn everything they know and are willing to share.

A good publicist keeps a basic file of the following:

Statistical information Governmental information—regulatory and other Basic reference books for the field of interest and for related fields All legislation on problems—pending or proposed Trade association data Trade union literature—each union, and how it operates Records of the organization—a file copy of all your own publications File of ads run File of speeches by organization officials Chppings of all information about the company, with pubUcation name and date for each List of individuals and organizations interested in the company, including civic groups appealing for contributions Biographies of top executives Pictures of stores, plants, products and other activities Lists of editors and publications People in all media to contact as potential recipi- ents or sources of releases or information File on major competition and antagonists and their efforts Timetables of occasions for pubficity, with some code for indicating news releases Electronically available material that you are likely to need quickly

Like a reporter, you should never begin work with some predetermined idea about the length of the story. Find out everything you can, because you must have complete information before you can properly condense it—otherwise, news people won’t be able to get answers from you later to ques- tions you never anticipated (which they will ask). In doing your research, you may find that you have accumulated information for not one but several

Preparing to Work with the Media Because you must constantly sell ideas in stories or pictures to the media, you have to do advance work in gathering ideas and information.

Preparing the Story You should have some basic training as a reporter; this is because in order to write about news, you have to be able to recognize it when you see or hear it In a large institution, where people may be too busy to bother giving you news tips, you must be enterprising enough to search out the news yourself. One way to encourage news cooperation in a large organization is to tell people exactly what you need and how and when to get it to you. Of course, once you have the information, you are often expected to make banner headlines with it.

Sometimes, a PR person’s news sense becomes dulled by spending too much time reading company materials and too little time perusing outside news and newscasts—not to mention talking too much to com- pany people instead of to newspeople. When this hap- pens, he or she is likely to produce a three-page story in response to the boss’s suggestion for a “great news story” when in fact the story deserves only three para- graphs. Although you should listen to the suggestion carefully (never discourage any news source), you should assess the story from a news editor’s perspec- tive, not from a company perspective. Is it really worth three pages, is it simply a column item, or does it deserve no exposure at all? Maybe, the idea is good, but the medium is wrong. Maybe, the idea is good for the company pubUcation, but lacks appeal outside the institution. A pubficity person must keep his or her sense of news value finely honed.

In gathering information for a release, a pubficity writer must act the way a reporter would with the

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

276 Part Four / PR in Action

stories. You may find that, with a different emphasis, the story could be used by the newspaper, the local city magazine, an industry publication and your com- pany’s own house periodical. If your story focuses on a person, there may be even more opportunities for publication, because (again with a different emphasis) the story may be used in professional, religious or other publications of organizations in which that person is active. Research represents your principal investment in time. Make it pay off for you.

You should be familiar enough with the medium to which you are submitting copy to be absolutely certain the writing style you have used precisely matches the style of the medium. For instance, it is important to know whether a newspaper has an “up” or “down” style—that is, whether it uses capital letters frequently (up) or seldom (down). Find out and accommodate. Beware especially of writing the way people from whom you got your information talk, because they often use jargon (business, professional, educational, governmental) that is unintelligible to outsiders. Don’t write what someone says; write what the person means. Of course, this is impossible if you don’t understand it yourself, so never be afraid to say to a source, “I’m sorry, that is out of my area. You’ll have to explain. I don’t understand.” They probably don’t know anything about communications either, so you’re even. Most PR people emphasize the need to be creative and conceptual—to be able to see the “big picture.” Although they agree with that idea, experienced PR people will tell you it is the details that matter.

your story on their schedules or in their “futures” books. One way to offer easy access to your organization’s news releases is to offer them through your website.

Each story for newspaper and broadcast news should be prepared in a style and form appropriate to the particular medium. You must use the inverted pyramid or modified inverted pyramid format for news releases and accepted formats for features. In all cases, you must write the story as if you were a reporter.

Planning Publicity Photos and Illustrations A publicity story generally has a better chance of being accepted

a news medium if you can offer an illustration (line art or photos) to go with it Many newspapers prefer to shoot their own photos, and the wire ser- vices almost always do. In such cases, you must work in advance of the day the newspaper intends to use the story to preserve its timeliness and still allow the editor to schedule a photographer at a time when you can set up the picture. You should have all the elements of the photo assembled—people, things or both—before the photographer arrives. But how the photographer arranges or uses the subjects is his or her business. Don’t interfere.

If you have hired a photographer to take the pic- ture for you, you may have to offer substantial guid- ance, depending on the photographer’s background. If the photographer has news experience, you can probably trust the person’s news judgment. But if he or she is a commercial photographer with no idea of newspaper requirements, you must make sure that the following five guidelines are observed: (1) keep the number of subjects down to four or less, (2) get high contrast and sharp detail suitable for publishing in print media, (3) avoid cliches (people shaking hands or receiving a plaque), (4) position your subjects close together and (5) keep the backgrounds neutral.

Make the most of the photographer you have hired and get the photos you need—not only for one particular story but for other possible versions of the story for different media. Once you have good photographs, you can use them in a number of ways. It is a good investment of your time to go with the photographer to ensure that you get the shots you want and to confirm spellings of names and other cutline information.

In ordering photographs, be sure to get some for your own digital files. Keep your photographic files up-to-date so you aren’t caught offering an old photo to a news source when a news opportunity occurs. The news media often pull photos out of their own libraries

News Releases Public relations people are news man- agers, whether they are dealing with news releases that they initiate (and subsequently distribute, mail or put on PR wires) or whether they are issuing responses to media inquiries. Sometimes, these inquiries result from leaks of information that the PR person was try- ing to “manage.” At special events, PR-sponsored newsrooms facilitate both news releases and response releases because there is a PR newsroom manager on duty who either has the information or knows where to get it promptly. The newsroom manager also knows the needs and schedules of the news media.

Whatever the circumstances, you have to be sensitive to media schedules. Your news schedules have to be worked out to fit the media served in each case. Deadline means just that. It is the last minute for handling new information, not the preferable time for doing so. When you are initiating news, you should let editors know your plans in advance, if possible, so that they can put

Chapter 10 / Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work 277

to use, but they expect to get something new from someone seeking publicity—even if they initiate the request. Anticipate this with adequate digital photo files. In addition, do not give competing media the same picture, even if it only a photograph of a person.

Try to arrange with a photographer for your orga- nization to buy the photographs for continued use. This is particularly important for high-cost assign- ments that involve color or aerial photography. Get a written contract Otherwise, because of copyright law, the pictures belong to the photographer, and you have only bought specific rights. If the photogra- pher will not sell the photographs or sign releases on “work for hire,” you must anticipate all future uses of the photos you order for the digital file (publicity, ads, promotional materials) and identify those uses in the contract. If you own the photographs, you may for convenience ask the photographer to store them elec- tronically for you at his or her studio.

The same is true for other artwork and video. If you plan to invest in elaborate schematics, maps, charts or graphs, make sure they become yours. Sim- ilarly, when you hire someone to shoot video to use in releases to television (although most TV stations and all networks prefer to shoot their own videos), it is all right to let the company that processes and duplicates the video keep the master, because it has a controlled environment to preserve it; but be sure you own that master. Make sure everyone knows and understands who the owner of a video is and how much duplication costs.

News photographers do not have time to make prints for you or send you photographs digitally; nei- ther do the wire services. Both newspapers and wire services have photo sales departments to take care of such requests. Television stations may have commer- cial operations that can duplicate videos. Be prepared to pay for whatever you ask for. If you ask for video to be prepared at a station or for illustrations to be handled by a newspaper’s art department—whether it involves photo retouching or designing the cover for a special section—get your checkbook out. The news media are businesses.

When you hire a photographer or when one is assigned by a publication to cover some event, try to think of an original pose to replace unimaginative stock poses. Make sure all the people and the props the photographer will need are ready well before the time for the shot. Action shots are best because they help tell a story, but a “portrait” character study of a person whose face shows deep emotion is also

desirable, especially when that person is in an inter- esting environment that relates to the accompanying story.

You should have at least two specific shots (including different camera angles) in mind before “shooting” the event. Discuss these with the photographer beforehand. Consider publication needs in terms of horizontal or vertical shots, the number of people to be included in the pictures and whether you need color or black- and-white photos. You also need to consider the event from the standpoint of the photographer, including how close the photographs can be taken. In some cases, the photographer needs to be unobtrusive. For that reason, many PR directors insist that their staffs have firsthand knowledge of photography, to understand how to use digital cameras and to control variables such as compo- sition of the photograph’s lighting. When you have a picture in mind, look through the lens to be sure it is there. If it isn’t, work toward what you want. The more professional the photographer, the less direction he or she will need. Allow for travel time and rest periods while shooting, and be prepared to pay half or all the agreed-upon fee if you must cancel at the last minute.

Video News Releases (VNRs) Some organizations pre- pare their own video news releases, but others out- source this form of release. Many public relations services will handle video news releases for you, transmitting them worldwide by satellite. They also can monitor use of your video news release.

Video news releases continue to meet with resis- tance from media critics as well as from some news directors who feel they have less control over pack- aging news stories that come in this form from an outside source. However, it’s so easy to edit videos that many news directors accept video news releases, especially when they have B-roll (supplemental foot- age) to use. Public relations services that produce and distribute video releases make it their business to know what the trends are, and they keep up with the preferences of network, cable and major station news directors. A telephone call or email to the sta- tions you want to reach is important to learn their requirements, which can vary from market to market.

Promotions The notion that media attention follows good promo- tions is not new. Edward L. Bemays said that the idea is to make news—to create really newsworthy events.

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Image Marketing An image is the impression of a person, company or institution that is held by one or more publics. An image is not a picture; that is, it is not a detailed, accurate representation. Rather, it is a few details softened with the fuzziness of perception.

Image marketing reaches out to publics and tries to build a relationship beyond the product or service, but usually related to it. Sometimes, customers develop their own relationships, and it’s not always what the company had in mind. Examples are the nicknames customers give products or companies. For years Coca-Cola resisted being called “Coke.” Its advertis- ing even urged, “Call for it by its full name. Nick- names encourage substitution.” But by the 1940s, it gave up and decided not only to live with Coke, but to endorse it. In 1982, the company’s new low-calorie drink was introduced as Diet Coke. Another nick- name that was first resisted and then adopted is “FedEx.” However, “Mickey D’s” for McDonald’s may still not be exactly what the company prefers, but it is the way some customers have personalized their experience. Indeed, one owner of three McDonald’s restaurants in Texas created Camp Mickey D’s to help students learn to adapt to the demands of school and work.16 If the nickname is negative, it may be best to ignore it, as Neiman- Marcus has done with “Needless Markup,” and the abbreviated “Neiman’s,” which the company doesn’t like either. Stanley Marcus noted that “you give it more publicity by fighting it than by ignoring it.”17

Pseudo-events have earned some “bad PR” for promo- tions. And, of course, promotions themselves often earn a bad name for PR. In promotions, you see PR’s closest ties to marketing—so close that some observers have called promotions “marketing PR.” You are even likely to hear a component of marketing described as “advertising, selling and public relations.” Sometimes, you have to sell an idea or concept to sell a product, as Bernays promoted the “American break- fast” of bacon and eggs to sell his client’s product.

When you see an ad that focuses on an event or a problem, look for the publicity. And when you see the publicity, such as stories about champagne around New Year’s or exotic recipes using particular fruits in newspapers and magazines, look for the advertising. Sometimes, there is also direct contact with the product itself, such as food samples in gro- cery stores. It’s all promotion.

Often, the only place you have to look is up. The skies are crowded with blimps, including ones you can see at night. The familiar Goodyear dirigible, a 195-foot ship, has smaller competitors, the 123-foot long Lightships that American Blimp Corp. began building in 1990. The design staff works on compu- ters to build the airborne billboards that are lighted from inside. The new ships compete with the three Goodyear ships that the company made, a Fuji ship made in England and a Florida blimp builder’s ship leased to H. P. Hood, a New England dairy products company. At sporting events, the ships have camera platforms for network crews, and the networks also insist that the blimp sponsor buy ad airtime. The floating ads are becoming increasingly popular, although certainly not for all products. A Miami cor- porate image consultant observed that you’ll proba- bly not see one advertising WeightWatchers.1:1 (See Figure 10.6.)

Publicity Spin-Offs Whenever a company engages in a conflict, the incident will be covered, and the pub- licity is likely to be negative. However, spin-offs that promote personalities and events are commonly used to generate positive publicity for people and events. IndyCar racer Danica Patrick was rookie of the year

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for both the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and the 2005 IndyCar Series season. Her win in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 made her the first woman to win an Indy car race. Her accomplishments might have been known primarily to racing fans and to those cham- pioning the achievements of women. However, when she appeared in the Sports Illustrated, 2008 swimsuit edition, undoubtedly a lot more people learned about this type of motor racing and about Patrick’s “#7 Motorola” car, as well as about Patrick’s autobiogra- phy. Of course, some critics would question whether such publicity was the best image to present.18

Michael Vick’s involvement with dog-fighting, Tiger Woods’s infidelity scandal or Charlie Sheen’s scandals in early 2011 that resulted in the cancella- tion of his television sitcom, Two and a Half Men. Advertising has used celebrities ffequendy enough to have a long history of good and bad experiences. Although celebrities can increase recognition, they can’t rescue a product, and the wrong celebrity, such as one exposed in compromising circumstances, may actually harm it.

These risks dictate that care be taken in choosing the celebrity. If you don’t know much about the celebrity personally, you may need to contact a major talent agency or one of the national services that tracks celeb- rities—where they have appeared, how they have been received and how they behaved. You want to find a celebrity who is a good “fit” for your event, and you want to be sure you have a contract that covers all that you will want the celebrity to be involved in.

Celebrities’ names and pictures are often used in the prepromotion of a special event. Be sure you

Celebrity Spin-offs Promotion planners often look for a “ big name” to attract media attention. It’s not a novel idea, but sometimes it can result in negative publicity that has nothing to do with the product. For instance, the celebrity’s private life may make the news in a way that hurts the promotion, such as when professional athletes are involved in scandals. Examples include Atlanta Falcons’ quarterback

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PETA’s Super Bowl ad was rejected once again for the 2011 Super Bowl. 1 Communication tactics and techniques don’t always use traditional communication messages, channels or media , and some organizations use outrageous media events to publicize their causes. The world campaign by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ( PETA) has enlisted the help of celebrities such as rock stars and bands and has staged more than 12 ,000 protests at KFC restaurants and outside the homes of its senior executives. The campaign against KFC also featured an online video game called “Super Chick Sisters, ” in which players rescue celebrity Pamela Anderson.2 The group has also identified horse racing as a use of animals that it opposes. After the racehorse “Eight Belles” had to be euthanized on the track of the 2008 Kentucky Derby, where she had frac- tured both of her front ankles after finishing the race, PETA noted, “The racing industry would have you believe that these horses are cared for and pampered. The reality is that this is an industry about speed and profit, and the horses are the tools to achieve that .”3 In 2006 , two female mem- bers of PETA staged a naked protest in Sydney, Australia , against wearing fur, covering their bod- ies with a banner.4 About PETA’s common practice of protesting nude, the director for PETA Asia Pacific said, “Naked is what gets people’s attention and this is a funny way to talk about a serious issue. ” The Australian protest had followed another a few months earlier in Moscow by two bikini- clad activists who had locked themselves in a cage near a KFC restaurant5 and one in February 2007 in Dublin, where a nearly naked protester from France said, “I don’t mind taking my clothes off if it means highlighting how wrong this industry is” (referring to fur farming , which PETA wants Ireland to ban).6

Professional public relations practitioners do not use means that are unethical, inappropriate or illegal, or in this example arguably tasteless, but such tactics create media events that can be interest- ing to study because of the creativity of their originators. Without question, PETA gets considerable media attention from its protests.

1«PETA’S Banned Super Bowl Ad Has Women Really Enjoying Their Veggies (Video),” accessed April 3 , 2011 , from http:// www.joyfm.com. 2Hollie Shaw , “KFC Adopts Ethical Killing Standards; PETA Pressure, ” Financial Post, June 3, 2008, p. FP6, accessed September 8, 2011, from http://sklarwilton .eom/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Article-Financial-Post-KFC-Adopts-ethical-killing- standards.pdf. 3Andrew Strickler, “Animal Rights Group to Demonstrate at Preakness, Belmont for First Time in Wake of Death of Filly at Derby," Newsday, May 16, 2008, p. A06, accessed Sept. 9, 2011 , from http://www .sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Closing- Bell/2008/05/16/No-Headline . aspx?hl=2008%20Year%20ln%20Review& sc=0. 4Claudia Ferraz, “Raw Emotion on the Streets in Fur Battle,” Hobart Mercury, December 13, 2006, p. 21, accessed June 23, 2008, from http://www. lexisnexis.com:80/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinklnd=true&risb=21_T4020929060& format=GNBFI &sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsllrlKey=29_T4020929063&cisb=22_T4020929062&treeMax=true&tree Width=0&csi=244810&docNo=1. 5Maria Levitov, “Bikini-Clad Activists Target KFC,” Moscow Times, August 2, 2006, accessed June 23 , 2008, from http:// www.lexisnexis.com:80/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinklnd=true& risb=21_T4020942357&format= GNBFI& sort=& startDocNo=1 &resultsUrlKey=29_T4020942393&cisb=22_T4020942392 &treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi= 145252&docNo=1. 6Aideen Sheehan, “Nude Protest Exposes Truth About Fur Trade,” Irish Independent, February 14, 2007, accessed June 23 , 2008, from http://www.lexisnexis.com :80/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview .do?docLinklnd=true& risb=21_T4020959733& format=GNBFI& sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsllrlKey=29_T4020959736&cisb=22_T4020959735 & treeMax=true& treeWidth=0&csi=227171&docNo=1.

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have the celebrity’s specific, written permission before using his or her name and picture in any advertising. Some who may agree to come to an event will not let their names or photographs be used in advertising because of previous advertising contracts for products or services. You must also make sure that any prior advertising association of the celebrity will not conflict with the image you want to create for your organization.

In using a celebrity for promotion, you may encounter the same problem that advertisers have when they use celebrities: People remember the celebrity, but not the message. You should also be aware that the celebrities are less concerned about the promotion than you are, and they are not under the same control in a publicity event as they are in producing a commercial. Don’t expect them to be. Things that you didn’t plan for can and do happen. Publicizing Special Events A special event may be any newsmaking situation— from a corporate open house to a freeway ribbon- cutting to the preview of an exhibition of rare paintings. The publicity for each event requires its own unique handling, but a few basic rules apply to virtually every case.

that briefly explains the event. The basic contents of media kits include:

A fact sheet for the organization A fact sheet for the occasion Biographies and photos of the people involved A background on the organization and one on the event or situation A program or schedule of events A complete fist of all participants A straight news story—summary A feature story A page of facts about the event or organization Visual materials such as logos Information about cooperating organizations

Some news distribution services will prepare media kits for you and coordinate their delivery. But you must provide the information the service needs to prepare the kits, along with any special instructions that you want them to have. For exam- ple, some have found it especially effective to put the guidance heads (suggested headlines for news releases) on the front of envelopes going to the news media. If you want something special like this, you have to tell the distribution service.

The Mechanics First, because so many events have to dovetail, you must establish a timetable. It should include the dates for the first announcement, which must be coordinated with any special invitations and advertising. Second, prepare mailing fists for both special activities and the news media. You must start early and set restrictive policies on handing out news media credentials. (You should not invite your PR colleagues to any media-day function, unless they had an active part in the planning.) Third, plan the promotion campaign itself in detail, selecting a theme that will carry through all advertis- ing, publicity, letterheads, invitations and posters.

Prepare a media kit for the event, and make sure it is one of the most carefully thought-out pieces of the entire promotion. Most media kits today are on CDs and are sent in advance to people who may not attend the special event but who may write something about it Media kits are available on the organization’s web- site and handed out at the event itself. Because the kits must serve a variety of media—specialized and mass, print and broadcasting—parts of the kits differ.

Media kits have to be tailored to each occasion; if mailed, they should also include a cover letter

Setting Up a Newsroom The next most important planning should go into arranging the media facili- ties during the event. Find out from the local media what they will need, and then plan for the out- of-town reporters.

Setting up and maintaining a newsroom or media facility for a convention, meeting or any special event requires planning and constant attention. You will need three to four weeks for phone installations, although, in a crisis, you can get a portable phone bank installed at considerable extra cost The phone fines are helpful for electronic transmissions. Most reporters will have mobile phones and laptop com- puters. The facility you set up is for people responsi- ble for gathering the news and getting it out, so it must operate efficiendy. When a newsroom is cramped, badly located or understaffed, it can result in poor coverage. The following elements are essen- tial for a smooth-running operation.

First, have a sign-up sheet in the newsroom. Provide space for each representative’s name, the

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medium that he or she represents and the local tele- phone number and address where the person can be reached.

Second, use a rack or display stand to keep media kits from falling apart and to let you know when supplies are running low. Have a separate place for the “news tips of the day,” pick-up schedules, new fact sheets and new news releases. Daily news releases should list the day’s events and summarize results of the previous day’s events. All information must be easily available to media representatives. This means accessibility of news information, back- ground material and releases, illustrations and people to be interviewed.

Third, select for the newsroom staff an experi- enced crew that is cognizant of the need to be helpful and friendly and that knows the importance of media deadlines. The number of staffers depends on the size of the event and the expected news coverage, as indicated by past occasions. The importance of having one well-qualified person in charge cannot be overemphasized. That person is an “anchor” who should always be available during regular hours and should be replaced by another “anchor” at other times. (When you have international cover- age of an event, you have to run a 24-hour newsroom.) This person should be able to handle emergencies and opportunities and know how to deal with delicate press and personal relations. Leav- ing the goodwill of an organization up to an inexpe- rienced person can be damaging. Make sure all staffers know one another’s cell/mobile phone num- bers. In some situations, key people may need hand- held radios so they can get messages instantly.

Fourth, separate the newsroom from the traffic of the convention or meeting.

Fifth, provide separate interview rooms for print and broadcast reporters. It is advisable to have an interview “set” for television coverage, another area for radio interviewing and a third location where newspaper and magazine reporters can talk with peo- ple. There should be plenty of wall plugs and exten- sion cords for lights and other electronic equipment.

Sixth, plan for special equipment needs. Minicams and TV vans have made coverage easier for TV reporters, but large doors must be available nearby to allow equipment to be brought into the newsroom area. Get information in advance about any electrical outlets and other essentials that the TV crews might want. Murphy’s Law (what can go wrong will go wrong) almost guarantees that someone will blow a

fuse or trip a circuit breaker. At large news confer- ences, risers are usually necessary for each camera to have a clear shot.

Seventh, be aware that the overwhelming majority of journalists file their stories remotely to their news- rooms via laptop computers using wireless connec- tions. Nevertheless, you should still provide a few plug-in telephones and single telephone lines, so make sure that at least some phone jacks are available to assure that as many journalists as possible can cover the event. Eighth, make certain that the news- room has the following supplies: (1) for some events, such as sports events in press boxes, the press row should always have a phone for each seat, even though all journalists carry cell/mobile phones; (2) copy machines; (3) computers and printers; (4) bulletin boards and pins or tacks and boards with erasable markers and erasers; (5) individual desks or tables with comfortable chairs and good fighting; (6) coat hangers and space to hang coats; (7) wastebaskets; (8) paper for the printers and cop- iers, shorthand spiral notebooks, envelopes and pen- cils; (9) drinking water in bottles and paper cups for hot and cold liquids; (10) paper towels; (11) an extra digital camera, batteries of all types, computer cables, jewelers’ tools for quick repairs and basic tools such as hammers, pliers and flathead and Phillips-head screwdrivers in assorted sizes. Ideally, you would have an electrician available. The building may have one. If so, make special pay arrangements for the help you might need, and then be prepared to pay by the hour for actual work.

Ninth, darkroom facilities are no longer needed for photographers, virtually all of whom use digital cameras. However, although most of them carry equipment with them to file for print/onfine publica- tions and to social media, they might still appreciate computers and Internet access to transmit their photographs to their newsrooms.

Tenth, providing food and drinks in the newsroom is practically a must. Especially, if the event that the journalists are covering is long, make sure there is plenty of food and soft drinks and coffee. As one jour- nalist noted, “Journalists remember the experience of an assignment as much as what was said or what hap- pened at the event that they were covering.” Food is worth the cost because reporters expect it, and it keeps them from wandering away from the site. How elaborate the food table is depends on the bud- get and generosity of the organization operating the newsroom. The basic requirements are coffee with

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donuts or rolls in the morning, sandwiches for lunch and coffee and soft drinks throughout the day. Parties, however, should be held elsewhere. The distinction between working newspeople and partying newspeo- ple is important to maintain. Never call a news con- ference unless it is a working session; never have a party for newspeople and expect them to work. How- ever, it is customary at large conventions to have a cocktail hour or reception for the reporters at the end of the working day and to provide free tickets for evening meals. If lunchtime includes a regular ses- sion of the program, a media table should be set up in the eating area.

Eleventh, be sure restroom facilities are nearby and that they are kept locked, but keep several keys in the newsroom. Check periodically on restrooms’ cleanliness and on the availability of supplies. Arrange for building maintenance people to help and be prepared to pay them. It is useless to know that you need towels if you can’t get to a supply.

Twelfth, to protect the equipment, secure the newsroom for use only by authorized media repre- sentatives. It cannot be a social lounge for curiosity seekers, people looking for a cup of coffee (or other nourishment) and registrants to the meeting, who always seem to prefer the newsroom but get in the way. Visitors and unaccredited persons—regardless of who they may be—should be handled firmly and not admitted to the news area, where they interfere with the news-gathering process and are resented by the working newspeople.

Finally, to ensure a good news operation, put yourself in the place of the reporter or editor. Update your Web page regularly and post news releases as well as other updates. Evaluate what you would need to cover the meeting properly, and then plan from that point. If your newsworthy event didn’t get the proper coverage, it may be because the PR people didn’t put the time, money and staff into a sincere effort.

event is an annual attraction or has some civic inter- est Exhibits and displays can be developed and placed with institutions such as banks, utilities, schools and libraries. The chamber of commerce usually has a list of simultaneous conventions and meetings, and a special offer might be made to the sponsors to show your exhibit or display at these, if attracting crowds is one purpose of the special event.

Gimmicks Some public relations people plan news- making gimmicks that will attract attention to their clients. At a groundbreaking for the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) of Texas, two trained dogs manipulated the shovel. Airplanes are available to tow banners over large crowd assem- blies, such as football games and music festivals. Helium balloons, painted with logos, can be rented to float over the event, although make sure these are not released, drifting away and causing ecological damage or harm to animals. Even squadrons of air- craft that puff smoke on computerized command (called sky-typing) can be hired, and biplanes can do classic skywriting.

Stunts of this type are clever and are accepted for their general interest. Any stunt that misleads, how- ever, or creates a hazard—such as a human fly who walks up the side of a building, tying up traffic and requiring rescue forces from the police and fire departments—is not generally regarded too highly by the news media.

Extending Publicity Coverage To get as much mileage as possible out of your publicity, you can send clip- pings and stories to special publications, such as trade magazines and newsletters, as well as to other media that serve special publics. If possible, it is always newsworthy to get a mayor, governor or state legis- lator to issue a proclamation to mark the event.

You can also produce your own magazines and books for a special event, such as a corporate anniver- sary or a merger. Banks and newspapers have been known to commission books from historians for their anniversaries, but most often the job falls to a public relations writer. Whenever possible, give the job to a historian. You will probably have many dis- agreements along the way, but the historian’s reputa- tion and desire not to compromise her or his scholarship will bring credibility to the publication. Management may not appreciate the historian’s “warts ‘n’ all” approach, however; and management may also dislike the fees that will have to be paid.

Other Special Event Considerations The day before the event, call local media as a reminder; you can check on their technical needs again at this time. If you have arranged for some- thing like one of the blimps as a symbol of publicity, you don’t want to miss getting coverage.

Plan tie-ins to the special event. Motels and busi- nesses around town are usually willing to display spe- cial messages on their marquees, especially if the

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Venezuelan-American scholar Juan-Carlos Molleda and Russian public relations scholar Alexander V. Laskin investigated trade press and academic articles on international public relations and related materi- als that were published by selected U.S. and UK academic journals, online publications of the Institute for Public Relations and articles in international association publications (i.e., those published by the International Association of Business Communicators and the International Public Relations Association) from 1990 to 2005. Molleda and Laskin learned that research in international public relations experi- enced a rise in the early 1990s, especially in 1992—possibly because of the breakup of the former Soviet Union in December 1991 and the sudden opening of new markets in the former socialist coun- tries. However, after 1992, academic journals increased the number of articles on international public relations, while the number of articles in trade publications for practitioners went down and stayed level through 2005. The researchers also learned that international collaboration among authors was rare, with most trade and academic journal articles as well as book chapters having been written by one author or, if they were multiauthored, by authors from the same country. The majority of interna- tional public relations scholarship is concentrated in the USA, and the two countries that researchers most often focused on were the USA and the UK. Overall, the two most researched regions were Europe and Asia. International public relations research mostly focused on the public relations profession and public relations education and largely ignored image/reputation/impression, social responsibility or women’s issues. The researchers observed, "... [Wjhen a U.S. scholar studies public relations practices in the United States, we do not even attempt to call it an international research. However, if an Australian scholar writes an article about public relations practices in Australia, we would not be surprised to see it published in [the] international section of the journal.” They concluded, “Such ethnocentric approach to defining international public relations is outdated in the modern century.”

Source: Juan-Carlos Molleda and Alexander V. Laskin, “Global, International, Comparative and Regional Public Relations Knowledge , ” Institute for Public Relations, accessed June 24 , 2008 , from http://www.instituteforpr.org/research_single/ globaIJnternationaLcomparative/.

Sometimes, “extended coverage” of promotions and events is neither favorable nor desirable. Promo- tions that are tied to sales often turn negative, for sev- eral reasons. The promises stated or implied in sales promotions may result in some disenchanted consu- mers whose complaining can create negative media attention. Furthermore, business editors are likely to look for the bottom-line consequences of sales pro- motions, which are increasingly seen as unprofitable. (Some sales promotions are not intended to be profit- able, especially when the product is new and the pur- pose is to introduce the product.)18

Sometimes, news coverage can be negative in near-disastrous ways. For example, after journalist Ward Bushee wrote an editorial criticizing the dan- gers of ceremonial jet flyovers, he was invited to fly with a National Guard pilot. It was necessary to secure special permission for a civilian to go along through the public affairs office at the Pentagon, so

this wasn’t a casual invitation. Nevertheless, the plane that Bushee was in collided with another, and his pilot had to push the eject button to save both of their fives. Fortunately, Bushee was not critically injured, and the Iowa National Guard said the acci- dent wouldn’t affect its policy on public relations flights.19 But the episode is something to consider.

On the Job with Media People

Successful publicity is often closely tied to the rela- tionships you form in getting and disseminating information. Four groups are especially important to the publicist: (1) newspeople, (2) production peo- ple, (3) other PR people and (4) freelance writers. You need to know whom to turn to first in all four categories. Next, you need to know the level of their

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Chapter 10 / Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work 285

skills, either by examining their work (when possible) or by checking their reputations (second best, but everyone seems to know everyone else in the media). Remember, you too will quickly become known by your degree of trustworthiness and by the quality of your work.

stories that might interest them. Usually, this is a personal, individual effort, but organizations also send collections of news tips or story ideas for the state and national media. Most news releases are posted on websites, and media are alerted to the releases by an advisory.

If you are sending out many releases a week to the local media, you obviously cannot hand-deliver all of them, but it is important that you see all local news- people on your mailing list at least once a month; there are no “little” or insignificant newspeople. James E. O’Connor, assistant vice president for mar- keting and public relations at the University of North- ern Iowa, says he likes to visit all media to which the university routinely communicates, doing so at least once a year.

Most importantly, be available. PR people not only should not have unlisted telephone numbers, they should deliberately list their home phone numbers (as well as business phones) at the top of each release. A story may be processed after 5 p.m., and if you want it on the 10 p.m. news or in the morning paper, you should be available to answer questions. Often, the caller is not an editor, but someone from the copy desk who wants to check the spelling of a name in your story or get some background to flesh out the story. You should immediately oblige them. The need comes at the time of the request, not later, when it is convenient for you.

In working with news photographers, never tell them how to take their pictures, because they know what their editors expect. But remember that, as the PR practitioner, you know the event, the institution and the people, so you may be able to think of other pictures that might be newsworthy and suggest—the word cannot be too strongly emphasized—these photo ideas to the photographer.

In working with television journalists, think and talk in 10-second sound bites, and remember the visual aspect of the coverage.

Relations with Newspeople A good PR practitioner knows newspeople’s jobs almost as well as the newspeople do, and is courteous and considerate toward newspeople. The PR profes- sional also knows the importance of getting to know the newspeople and therefore initiates contact. One way is to hand-carry news releases to all the local media. It is time-consuming, and they might ask you to email them next time instead, but by occasionally hand-delivering hard-copy news releases, or a CD with the releases on them, the PR person establishes a working relationship with the media that permits extra consideration when the institution he or she represents may be under attack. Take the release to the particular editor or reporter who should receive it Make sure no questions are left unanswered. Visits should not be long, and you must be alert for hints that you should leave. Minutes to a newsperson are precious. Don’t engage in extended conversation unless the newsperson invites it (say, by offering you a cup of coffee), and then be sure to take the time. Plan a delivery schedule that gives you the needed flexibility but still allows you to get the releases to other media with deadlines. You probably will find that you have to call ahead to get in. Most media now have security checks, so you can only get in to see someone if the person knows you are coming.

Include in your fist of local media not just the daily metropolitan newspapers but also television and radio stations and suburban newspapers. Include ethnic and alternative media too.20 If it is necessary to translate the release into a different language, call on the fac- ulty of commercial language schools and local college or university language departments or on one of the relatively new firms of language specialists that handle business and industrial translations. (Be sure the trans- lator knows current idiomatic use of the language.)21

When special events attract newspeople from out- side the local area or members of the specialized media, such as travel or outdoor publications, be sure to make personal contact while the opportunity is there. Contacts make one of the more effective PR efforts go more smoothly—alerting news media to

Relations with Production People PR people need to work effectively with two types of production people: those in the media and suppliers. In the media, much of the technical work is handled electronically. However, knowing the production staffs and understanding production processes make it easier for you to avoid problems with the material you supply and to unsnarl problems that do occur. You need to know what is and is not technically

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possible in the various media, and it helps to be familiar with the terminology.

Knowing the terminology and production proc- esses can be critical when you are dealing with sup- pliers. Technical suppliers produce your printed pieces, color separations for your artwork, Power- Point slides, videotapes and sound. You also may be using a supplier to handle your website. You have to know what you want, and you have to appreciate and be able to pay for quality (or accept less if you don’t have the budget). More importantly, your directions will be followed by the producers. Just as with other craftspeople, if the mistake is the suppliers’, they will correct it at no charge; but if it is your error or change of mind, they will charge for “alteration costs.” Mis- takes always cause delays, and the ones you make can be costly to fix. A PR project can go over budget quickly if it encounters technical problems.

When production people contribute to a nonprofit effort, as production houses and printers often do, you are likely to get a credit slip, like the ones you receive from broadcast stations after your PSAs have run. A gracious thank-you certainly is in order.

a story they hope to sell or for a book they are writ- ing. The freelancer may have a contact you lack, and the writer’s status as a free agent lends credibility to the material.

Of course, freelancers can also waste your time, especially if they are really nonwriters or writer “hopefuls” on a fishing expedition. There are a couple of ways to check, without offending them. One is to ask them what and for whom they have written, and then look up the articles, which may be conveniently available in electronic databases. Another way is to ask them if they have sent a magazine or newspaper query on the article idea and received a response; if they say they have, you can call the editor for confirmation. (To make it seem like less of a “corroboration” check, you can suggest to the editor that you certainly are willing to cooperate but that perhaps you could be more help to the writer if you knew what direction the story will take and whether art is needed.) Most editors will tell you immediately if the writer is work- ing on assignment or on speculation. You should not dismiss the writer working without assignment; on the contrary, you may be able to help an inexperienced writer who may, in fact, sell the story.

Many magazines use staff for stories or assign wri- ters. Working with a magazine’s experienced people usually increases your own appreciation for what you are publicizing and is a pleasurable, albeit time- demanding, experience. One news bureau director and university magazine editor who was contacted by a nationally syndicated Sunday supplement about a story on the university found that three weeks of work with the magazine writers produced not only national coverage, but a handsome reprint she could use as the major portion of one of her magazines.

Sometimes, a writer has malicious intent, but an experienced PR person can take the offensive to advantage. As one practitioner says, “I give them the straight stuff, and I try to keep them busy. Every time I say something, I try to think how it could be distorted, contorted, twisted beyond recog- nition, and if it still seems to shake out okay, I spit it out. One thing I do know, while they are talking to me they are not talking to the opposition or gather- ing facts against us.” The key here is to anticipate how the truth might be used against you.

If a story seems unfair or distorted, employers are likely to blame the PR person, but the PR person cannot pass the blame on to the media without aggra- vating the situation. Most professional public relations people have never registered a complaint with any

Relations with Other PR People On occasion, you may work with PR people from other places. It may be in a cooperative promotion; it may be because you’ve hired a firm to help with a special event; or it may be that you have a longstand- ing relationship with an advertising agency.

Fiascos have occurred when a practitioner who is supposedly directing the agency’s efforts has sud- denly felt threatened by other PR people and has withdrawn his or her support and cooperation. To avoid such trauma, be sure to spell out in the begin- ning who has final approval over copy, and make sure deadlines and timetables are worked out to pre- serve your long-established relationships with the media. Then, relax and manage. It is your job to supply the major source of information to the firm or agency and to see that work is expedited, that deadlines are kept and that quality is maintained. It should be a rewarding experience from which all par- ticipants benefit.

Relations with Freelance Writers Although it may be time-consuming, you should try to cooperate with freelancers who may be using your PR department as a source of information for

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news medium in their entire careers. The standing rule with respect to the media is to call only if they have made a substantial error. If the story is libelous, let your institution’s lawyer make the call. On the other hand, some PR practitioners think talking back gets attention, consideration and corrections.

Protecting Relationships: Contracts and Deadlines One way to establish some understanding about what is to occur in PR-media relationships is to sign con- tracts and to keep to your written and unwritten obligations. Contracts Trouble with some media arrangements, such as exclusive cover stories or special TV appear- ances, can be avoided through contracts. Contracts have enormous value as preventatives. The PR person also arranges contracts with suppliers of services. You should consider having contracts with an outside agency or studio, with a printer, with models and with any artists or photographers, even if they are your best friends or relatives. If your close friend, the photographer, has a contract, you can say, “The boss wants one of those color prints for his office,” and your friend can say, “Well, it’s not in the contract. How much do you think we ought to charge him for it?” A contract gives you the chance to suggest a fair price or say, “Forget it!” Bad feelings resulting from unexpected charges can be avoided if things are spelled out—in friendly but specific language.

media. It may be one-on-one in the office of the executive, or it may be a news conference on familiar or unfamiliar ground with many reporters. In some instances, there may be a series of interviews on a “media tour,” where the executive spokesperson is taken to different media that have accepted “book- ings” (i.e., made arrangements) for the executive to talk with editors, specialized reporters or representa- tives of special-interest publications. The tour may also include visits with news departments of broad- cast stations and perhaps appearances on talk shows. On the latter, the executive may appear alone, as part of a panel or as the guest of an on-air personality. In any event, the success of the interview depends less on the interviewee’s personality (although that is cer- tainly important) than it does on his or her prepara- tion for the interview situation. The most efficient media “tours” today are by satellite, because it saves time for the interviewee and the media.

Some problems occur when the executive being interviewed has not done the necessary homework and is not fully prepared for questions. Not only must the interviewee be consistently ready with a brief, concise, clear and honest response, but he or she also must be aware of the interviewer’s style and personal back- ground. One exasperated PR executive said it was a problem to get his company’s spokesperson to remem- ber even an interviewer’s name, much less his or her background and style. As a consequence, this PR person insisted on a role-playing exercise for the executive before any scheduled appearance. Although the execu- tive was not ecstatic about submitting to the PR person’s aggressive interviewing rehearsal, the spokesperson did prefer preparing in this manner to “reading all that dry stuff.” Even if an executive is willing to prepare, how- ever, it helps to have a run-through, with someone playing the devil’s advocate and asking provocative ques- tions. It is also important to have the executive listen carefully to the questions asked—a skill that can be learned in rehearsal.

In planning for an appearance, the executive and the PR director should develop some quotable mate- rial—ideally something carefully researched to appear fresh and newsworthy. Remember, the reporter is looking for a story, and it is wise to be able to offer one. If the reporter gets into a sensitive area, it is a mistake to mislead or skirt the truth, because most good reporters can spot such deceit quickly and then they move in for the kill. Rarely should one try to go “off the record” (although this is possible in certain circumstances with print media). It is usually better

Deadlines Meeting deadlines is essential to a smooth operation. Allow enough flexibility in planning for mistakes—yours and those of others. Once you have promised copy to the artist or typesetter or ads to the media, you must make that deadline. This is an unforgiving business, and either you func- tion within the framework of allotted time segments or you don’t function at all. Remember the signifi- cance of both contractual agreements and deadlines. The former may be invalid if the latter are not observed. Make sure that you get the ad or commer- cial to the proper person at the agreed-upon time in a form usable to the medium.

Direct Contact: Client or Boss and Newsperson Public relations people usually have to prepare top management for an interview situation with the

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to say something, rather than “no comment.” It is also a good idea to ensure that the reporter has follow-up access to the executive in case he or she needs to clar- ify something (see Figure 10.7).

The best way to get an accurate representation in the news media is to give a good performance. Does that mean a mistake-free performance? No, but it means correcting any mistakes immediately.

The role of the PR person in the interview is that of preparer, facilitator and clarifier. The public rela- tions person who tries to inject himself or herself into the process during the actual interview is asking for a hostile reaction. The role of clarifier includes interpreting facts and technical language, offering

background information, reminding the interviewee of questions that might have been overlooked and perhaps extending the interview if necessary.

Phillips Petroleum once printed on 2 x 3-inch cards its “golden rules” for handling newspeople and gave these cards to executives who took the com- pany’s media training class. The flip side of each card fisted the company’s public relations contacts, with home and office numbers. Among the seven rules was the admonition to “Be brief and to the point. Be pleasant even when the reporter is hostile. Answer the question, then shut up. Dead air isn’t your prob- lem. Correct misstatements.” Another rule states, “Never answer hypothetical questions. These get you

Conducting Media Interviews

The element of control that is present with written com- munications is far less so in an interview situation. As a consequence, the danger of looking bad in print is far greater when news is provided through this method. Cer- tain ground rules, however, can make the interview more manageable and less burdensome to the person being interviewed. Following are guidelines for public relations people and executives to follow in conducting media interviews. Rules for PR People 1. Select the place for the interview, one preferably on

the home ground of the person being interviewed. 2. Be sure to allow sufficient time for the interviewer

to complete an assignment. 3. Know the topic of discussion, and have supporting

material at hand. 4. School the person interviewed beforehand as to

what questions to expect. Be prepared to handle touchy questions.

5. Know your reporter’s habits and interviewing style and give the person being interviewed a verbal sketch. At the same time, make sure the reporter is completely aware of the person being inter- viewed— background, hobbies and so on. These things can help establish rapport in preliminary conversation.

6. Set ground rules for the interview, and make sure both parties understand them.

7. Avoid off-the-record remarks. If it’s off the record, keep it that way. Exceptions might occur if the reporter is known and trusted.

8. Help the reporter wind up the story in one day.

9. Make sure the reporter gets the story sought. In agreeing to do the interview, you have said in essence that you will give the reporter the story.

10. Stay in the background, and do not try to answer questions. If the question is one that requires an answer contrary to company policy and the person being interviewed starts to answer, remind him or her it is policy not to disclose that information. Or if the interviewee wants to hedge on a question that is perfecdy all right to answer, say it is OK to answer.

11. Offer to answer further questions later. 12. Do not ask the reporter when the story will run or

how big it will be.

Rules for Executives Being Interviewed 1. Know the topic you are to discuss. 2. Anticipate touchy questions. 3. Be completely honest. 4. Answer questions directly. If you cannot answer the

question, say you cannot. 5. If you don’t know an answer, say so and offer to get

one. Follow up on this offer. 6. Keep the meeting as cordial as possible even in the

face of bantering and pushing. 7. Avoid off-the-record remarks unless you know and

trust the reporter. Explain that the information is not for public disclosure and politely decline an answer.

8. Be sure to answer questions that are matters of pub- lic record or not against company policy.

9. Use the personality that helped get you into a man- agement position, and look professional.

10. Offer help later if the reporter needs it.

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into trouble with speculation.” And still another good piece of advice: “ Never use expert talk. Sharks are sharks, not marine life.”23

Tape-record the interview yourself. Correct any inaccuracy or misrepresentation immediately.

You can hire a professional coach from a good firm such as News Broadcast Network to help prepare the executive to be interviewed. Some agencies such as Burson-Marsteller and Hill & Knowlton also prepare their clients for these experiences and for others, such as appearing as an expert witness or giving govern- ment testimony. People who are going to give deposi- tions or appear on the witness stand can benefit a great deal from role-playing sessions in which they are questioned aggressively and challenged, because that’s what’s going to happen to them.

Some top executives haven’t been seriously chal- lenged face-to-face, much less insulted, in years. They may need some training in proper reactions and responses under verbal fire. They also may need to be reminded of the different types of audi- ences who will respond to their remarks. These audi- ences include news media, employees, other industry or association people, consumers and various others. They need to think through responses to see how each sensitive public is likely to react.

Other recommendations include the following:

10. Plan your schedule so that you will have time to meet with reporters afterward.24

When the client or the boss comes into direct contact with the news media, both sides probably have some misperceptions of the other. But the greater misperceptions probably are held by the cli- ent/boss. Most have had limited contact with news- people, and some have had bad experiences. Your job is to see that all encounters are productive, if not altogether positive, experiences.

Again, there are two steps you can take to help accomplish this. First, prepare your client or boss for the experience by going over the issues that are likely to come up, whether or not these are the main topics to be discussed. Be sure she or he understands how responses are likely to be interpreted and reported. Second, make sure you are there to see what happens and to follow up with informa- tion, interpretation, pictures or whatever else is needed. News Conferences and Results In general, don’t call a news conference if you can avoid it, and never call one unless you are sure that what is to be said is newsworthy. But especially if there is a controversy, call a news conference in such a way that the organi- zation doesn’t appear to be hiding something. Call a news conference if you have a celebrity whose time is severely limited and if you believe many newspeople would want to meet her or him. And make sure you have your organization’s logo or name on the podium at which speakers will stand to make sure no still photo or video can avoid identifying you.

Some general rules to follow are these:

1. Go to the location prior to the interview if pos- sible, and get an idea about the physical setting.

2. Go early to get a seat so you can hear and see before you appear or before your client or boss appears. Get a seat for the person who will be interviewed.

3. If prepared testimony is to be given and if it is longer than two pages, attach a summary state- ment to the front.

4. Bring extra copies of the testimony and of your news release about it for the media’s table at the hearing.

5. Know how to address the person in charge. 6. Dress conservatively and in your best outfit. 7. Be courteous and respectful, but stand your

ground. 8. Thank the person presiding for giving you an

opportunity to speak when you begin and when you finish.

9. Have an adequate supply of business cards to give to reporters.

1. Choose a convenient (to the news media) loca- tion with adequate facilities. Try to choose a site that is appropriate to illustrate or provide an appropriate backdrop for the story—unless it’s miles away from journalists’ newsrooms.

2. Choose the right day and time, if you have a choice. Monday is good for coverage, and, in some metropolitan locations, Sunday may be acceptable if sufficient numbers of news staff are working.

3. Plan to have the news conference covered for your own organization (video and audio—in addition to and separate from the primary sound-on video—and also take still photo- graphs). You need to be sure what was said,

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and you may be able to use some of the material later in your own follow-up story.

4. Take all of the background information on the person and the organization that you will need. Assign someone to get the names of reporters and media they represent, with phone numbers for callbacks.

5. Offer a story and pictures (sound bites and video release when possible) to news media who weren’t able to attend. Give them the same background material you prepared for those who showed up. You should provide media kits for all news conferences.

6. Rehearse your spokesperson and be as aggressive in your drill as you can possibly be. Play devil’s advocate.

7. Evaluate with your spokesperson the results right after the conference and again when the stories are in. Show him or her how the news media used what was said.

candidate, capitalizing on the scarcity of things to report once his campaign was underway, had media kits constantly updated with “The Campaign to Date,” his own version of the varying emphasis he gave his speech in different towns or to particular audiences. A political columnist who was a member of the opposing political party admiringly called the update “useful to us and damn smart politics.” The image of the individual is what is being sold in tours by personalities.

These rules for on-the-road media tours will get the best results:

1. Become thoroughly familiar with the people you will meet on the schedule. Know their media. Be familiar with their work.

2. Be sure all physical arrangements are firm, and confirm these by letter. Call your office or agency daily to get changes and messages.

3. Take plenty of money and letters of credit. You may have to charter a plane to keep on schedule.

4. Be sure your person keeps on schedule and ful- fills all commitments. Take advantage of any “down” time to make phone calls to let people know you are in town. Watch the person’s health and personal appearance. Anyone going through this ordeal needs help and attention to his or her personal needs such as rest and diet.

5. Keep up with props, supplies of media kits, lug- gage and so forth.

6. Make notes at stops of what follow-up is needed. If some of it can be done by the office, pass along instructions in your twice-daily calls to staff.

7. Keep clippings if you are in town long enough to get them. In any case, take notes of who attended all sessions.

8. Be responsive and sensitive to both sides. Keep your client or boss from getting depressed or burned out. The satellite media tour is easier on the individual involved because the person can stay in one location and reach stations all over the nation.

Media Tours: Print and Broadcast Although you can hire a PR news service or an agency to arrange a tour, you must be aware that, while your client or boss is providing information, he or she is also creat- ing an image. A national business publication described an interviewee—an author on a book promotion tour—as looking like a “wrung-out politician.” A newspaper columnist told how another interviewee asked him what day it was; this person, a film star riding the circuit to promote a new movie, did not know what city he was in, either. The agenda is rigorous: one-night stands in major market cities talking with entertainment columnists, appearing on TV talk shows, opening new buildings and being the guest celebrity for special events in places such as shopping malls. The name of the game is exposure. Winning national exposure is a bone-wearying job. It requires a lot of calls and a lot of small efforts to create some momentum toward major recognition.

Politicians use the personal appearance as a media event to help create exposure. Candidates develop a message (called “The Speech” by media who travel with them) and present it as often as a dozen times in one day to different audiences. The most skillful emphasize some portion of it for a particular audi- ence. The result of this single-message presentation is that the news media stop reporting on the speech and begin to report instead on audience reaction to it or on trivia of the campaign. One gubernatorial

More Informal Contacts Trade shows are in the category of special events, as are most PR parties. The problems that can arise from these are due to the less-controlled circumstances involved and the consequent increased opportunities for Murphy’s

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Law (what can go wrong will go wrong) to operate. At trade shows, you must be alert to the presence of media people from specialized publications. Many feel that they deserve special attention, and they should get it. They certainly shouldn’t be ignored.

small problems can become big problems. Organiza- tions are learning that they must continually monitor these little problems, and that’s what is creating a market for services such as PR Newswire’s eWatch, which tracks comments that are being made on the Internet’s thousands of electronic forums and discus- sion groups.

Goofs and glitches have a way of creating problems, some of them serious. Sometimes, you only find out about them when you get an early morning phone call, “Have you seen the morning paper or the TV news? ” or “Are you online or listen- ing to the radio? ”

Goofs and Glitches

Today, world markets are the only markets, and translating materials is therefore a commonplace task. Perhaps, in the future, PR departments will consider as standard equipment the handheld com- puter that translates words and phrases into any lan- guage with the help of the appropriate audio recorder. Few agencies actually handle their own translations, with or without computer assistance. The problem involves the nuances of a language.

For example, a PR and advertising agency director in Mexico City tells about the agency’s U.S.-based affiliate, which insisted on sending them billboards for a client, Parker Pen, that were ready to put up. The Mexico City agency had wanted to handle the art and translations. When a billboard of 24 sheets arrived, a secretary in the office opened one package of poster duplicates of the billboard, gasped and began laughing. The Spanish translation had not taken into consideration local usage—and it was advertising that its new product would help prevent unwanted pregnancies! The Mexico agency’s experi- ence is not unique. Otis Engineering Company dis- played a poster at a Moscow trade show saying that its oil-well completion equipment was effective in improving one’s sex life. Ads for “rendez-vous lounges” on an airline’s flight in Brazil startled and offended patrons, because “rendezvous” in Portu- guese translates as a place to have sex.

But you don’t have to go abroad to get into trou- ble with sensitivities. In promoting its mouthwash Scope, Procter & Gamble announced a list of “least kissable” celebrities just before Valentine’s Day, using names gathered from a survey. One of the least kissable was Rosie O’Donnell, who then repeat- edly said, “Only dopes use Scope,” on her popular talk show. Rival Listerine not only donated bottles of its product to the celebrity and the show’s audi- ence, but also sent $1,000 to For All Kids Founda- tion, O’Donnell’s favorite charity, each time she kissed a guest celebrity on her show.25

Perhaps the worst goofs occur because of compla- cency, arrogance and “head-in-the-sand” denial that

Talking Back and Correcting

The PR edict for years was “suffer in silence” when the news media made a mistake in their coverage. There was reason for such a decision: “You can’t fight with a pen people who buy ink by the barrel.” There were also adages such as, “Why spit into the wind?” and “I was taught not to kick jackasses.” Today, for most PR peo- ple, the idea of talking back is still limited to demanding and getting their side of the story presented. Some, however, launch a campaign.

Ronald Rhody of The Rhody Consultancy offers several observations and postulates for responding to media, which he calls the Ben Franklin approach to the problem because they are based on this Franklin quote: “A litde neglect may breed mischief: for want of a shoe the horse was lost; for want of a horse the rider was lost; for want of a rider the battle was lost; for want of a batde the kingdom was lost.

The following are Rhody’s principal postulates of the Ben Franklin approach:

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1. No contest was ever won from the sidelines. Be players, not spectators.

2. The public has a right to accurate and balanced information about your operations.

3. The public’s right to know is as much your responsibility as it is the responsibility of gov- ernment or the media.

4. Fear of controversy or criticism is a luxury no institution in today’s society can afford. Silence never swayed any masses, and timidity never won any ball games.

5. Take the initiative in all circumstances, whether the news is good or bad.

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Rhody thus disputes the conventional wisdom that is employed when dealing with this constituency (namely, remember that the news media represent a public). The only caution he considers appropriate in taking on the news media is the same one you would exercise with any other public: making sure you have documentable facts on your side.

Most PR people now endorse the notion that you can get substantial errors corrected—preferably edi- torially, and if not, by advertising. If redress seems necessary, file a lawsuit.

PSAs are handled through the advertising depart- ments of print media and through public service directors at radio and television stations. Publicity, on the other hand, is handled by media news staffs and must compete for time or space with staff- generated news materials. The purpose of advertising must be clear because it’s difficult for even the best copy to create aware- ness, convey specific information, get action and affect attitudes. One of the most memorable parts of any ad is the organization’s logo, which is designed for high recognition and positive attraction. As organizations become involved in global com- munication, logos should be pretested abroad to ensure that they meet with cultural acceptance. Except for brochures, house publications gener- ally follow a magazine format. Some, however, are designed as megapapers—oversized newspa- pers that are folded for a magazine or newsletter look. The first decisions to make in producing a bro- chure are to determine its purpose and its audience. Because a house publication goes to employees or members only, it is likely to have a different design from a publication that receives broader circulation. What employees want to know about a company is more important than what the company wants to tell employees. A house publication should make allowances for two-way communication. Although only publicly held companies are required by law to produce annual reports, many nonprofits publish annual reports for their stakeholders. Responsibility for the annual report should be shared by two people: a communications specialist responsible for the character of the publication, and a high-level management representative responsible for the content. Most annual reports contain the following five components: (1) a letter from the chairperson, (2) the auditor’s report, (3) financial statements, (4) a longer section narrating pertinent facts about the past year’s operation and (5) photos and charts. Some annual reports are now pro- duced on video formats as well as in print.

Discussion Questions 1. Find an advertisement that looks like publicity,

that is, one that appears to be a news story, in the editorial portion of a newspaper, magazine or other periodical publication. What are the ethical implications of such advertisements? Are they always ethical? If not, under what cir- cumstances would they not be ethical?

2. How many companies or products and services can you recognize just from their logos? Find a logo with which you were unfamiliar. How does it communicate the image of the company or other organization that it represents?

3. What should be the editorial objectives of an employee publication? What purposes can such a publication serve?

4. What are some of the obvious goals of an annual report? What other functions can an annual report fulfill? What components or information in an annual report would give you confidence in investing in that company? In buying products from that company?

5. Can you think of situations in which people of one culture might not understand a public rela- tions message that was effective in another cul- ture? What are some of the misunderstandings that could occur in such cross-cultural message dissemination?

Points to Remember Advertising is paid-for time or space, except in the case of public service announcements (PSAs), for which the time and space are donated to a non- profit organization or cause. Usually, when adver- tising takes on the appearance of publicity, there is no intention to deceive.

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Visual presentations include easel pads, overhead projectors and transparencies, PowerPoint slides and other computer projections as well as slides that can be projected directly from the computer to the screen. Not everything can be made into a good visual, however. The function of a visual is to illus- trate a point and to clarify and fix a factor or image. A video should have an objective—a specific, stated purpose. It cannot “tell the whole story.” The secret of success in placing publicity is to develop a good working relationship with journal- ists by knowing and anticipating the needs of the media. Efforts usually have two parts: providing the information you want to convey to that me- dium’s public, and responding to inquiries. Specialized wire and video services directly link public relations news to the world’s newspaper and broadcast newsrooms. The privately owned publicity services offer simultaneous transmission of news releases and national or even global networks. PR people use the Internet for external publicity and intranets for internal communication. Posting information and news releases at a website makes such information available 24 hours a day and allows for instant updating. Computer graphics for three-dimensional color designs can be made either with an electronic pen or directly by a computer; laser graphics pro- vide movement and three-dimensional effects. In-house PR use of technology includes access to data banks, word processing, computer generation of art, desktop publishing and communication by video conferences and electronic mail systems. Public relations people are news managers when they deal with news releases they initiate and when they issue responses to media inquiries.

A deadline is the last minute for handling news information; when you are initiating news, let edi- tors know your plans in advance so they can put your story on their schedules. Each story should be prepared in a style and form appropriate to the particular medium. A publicity story generally has a better chance of being accepted by a news medium if you can offer an illustration to go with it. Keep your graphic and photographic files up- to-date so that you aren’t caught offering old art- work to a news source when a news opportunity occurs. You should have at least two specific shots in mind before going to shoot the event. Don’t call a news conference if you can avoid it, and never call one unless you are sure that what is to be said is newsworthy. Words, emblems and gestures all have cultural connotations. Be aware of meanings, especially taboos. For most PR people, the idea of talking back to media is limited to demanding and getting their sides of their stories presented. However, some PR people aggressively reply to media when they think media have wronged them.

Other Related Websites to Review Direct Marketing Association (DMA)

http://www.the-dma.org/ Tactics

http://www.prsa.org

To know the types of campaigns public relations practitioners typically perform for their organizations. To understand the campaign process and be able to identify the characteristics of a successful campaign. To understand how to prepare a campaign, including planning, goal-setting, timetables and budgets. To understand the need for campaign evaluation and be able to identify types of evaluation appropriate for public relations campaigns. To develop a sensitivity toward cultural distinctions throughout the world and an understanding of how different campaign strategies, tactics and techniques for different publics may be needed when planning a public relations campaign that is worldwide in scope.

Campaigns

he interactions of organizations with their publics provide the setting for specific efforts such as public

relations campaigns; such interactions also form the background against which all case studies must be examined. The study of campaigns is more than a shared learning experience or the basis for developing a public relations repertoire; it is ongoing research into what gives an organization viability and credibility in a fluid socio- economic and political environment that is global in scope. In this chapter we look at the planning, imple- mentation and evaluation of campaigns.

T Experience keeps a dear School, but Fools will learn in no other, and scarce is that; for it is true, we may give Advice, but we cannot give Conduct as Poor Richard says: However, remember this, They that won’t be counselled, can’t be helped, as Poor Richard says: and farther, That if you will not hear Reason, she’ll surely wrap your Knuckles.

Types of Campaigns—Benjamin Franklin, “The Sayings of Poor Richard ”1

Campaigns are coordinated, purposeful, extended efforts designed to achieve a specific goal or a set of interrelated goals that will move the organization toward a longer- range objective expressed as its mission statement (see Figure 11.1).

Campaigns are designed and developed to address an issue, to solve a problem or to correct or improve a situa- tion. They accomplish these purposes by changing a behavior; by modifying a law or opinion; or by retaining a desirable behavior, law or opinion that is being chal- lenged. To get an idea of the scope of campaigns for a wide range of publics, look at the awards for successful campaigns given by organizations such as the Public

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Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Inter- national Public Relations Association (IPRA) as well as by the trade press, such as PRWeek. A campaign may be constructed around a positioning statement— an objective operating statement for the organiza- tion. Communication planning is then structured to help the organization achieve its mission, in light of how the organization has positioned itself.

The term positioning is often used in marketing to refer to a competitive strategy—a way to identify a niche in the market for a product or service. Public relations practitioners tend to talk about positioning in terms of the entire organization and to build a communications effort around a statement that describes the organization’s positioning of itself. When the positioning is to set a new course, it calls for a campaign.

Of course, there are many other reasons for a campaign. Indeed, most organizations have more than one campaign going on at a time. But not all of these campaigns are so central to the organization as to change its positioning or alter its corporate culture.

Various types of PR campaigns exist. The late PatrickJackson, who was senior counsel and cofounder of Jackson, Jackson and Wagner, an international firm located in New Hampshire, and former president of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), identified these types of public relations campaigns: (1) public

awareness campaign; (2) public information campaign, which provides information together with awareness and is totally different from a simple awareness cam- paign; (3) public education campaign, in which mem- bers of a public are emotionally and attitudinally comfortable enough that they can apply what they learn to daily behavior; (4) reinforcement of attitudes and behavior of those who are in agreement with your organization’s position; (5) changing or attempting to change attitudes of those who do not agree; and (6) behavior modification campaign, for example, to get people to wear seat belts or helmets.2

Characteristics of Successful Campaigns

Regardless of how you categorize campaigns, experi- ence suggests that successful ones share some basic principles and characteristics. Five principles of suc- cessful campaigns can be identified: (1) assessment of the needs, goals and capabilities of priority publics; (2) systematic campaign planning and production; (3) continuous monitoring and evaluation to see what is working and where extra effort or changes need to be made; (4) consideration of the complementary roles of different media and interpersonal communication;

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and (5) selection of the appropriate media for each priority public, with due consideration for each me- dium’s ability to deliver the message.

Studies of successful campaigns indicate that five elements or characteristics are always present. First is the educational aspect of a campaign. A campaign should always enlighten its publics—telling them something they didn’t know or giving them a differ- ent perspective or way of looking at something they already knew, or thought they knew.

The second element is engineering—a factor criti- cal to behavior change, which is the objective of almost all campaigns. Engineering involves ensuring that the means are there (and convenient) for publics to do what you want them to do. Thus, if you want them to throw trash into containers instead of on the ground, the containers must be conveniently located. (One city placed its trash barrels on the median at left turn signals at a convenient angle so that drivers waiting for the green arrow could dump trash there instead of pitching it out the window.) Asking women in developing nations to have their children inoculated against disease can achieve the desired result only if the medical personnel and the serums are readily available—probably taken to women and their children in the villages. You can’t expect a woman who works from daylight to dusk, and often beyond, to take a day off to walk miles carrying an infant to get a shot and then to walk miles back car- rying the same, now unhappy, child.

The third element of successful campaigns is enforcement. There must be something beyond incen- tive to underscore the significance of the campaign. Many automobile seat-belt campaigns went through the education and engineering phases, but failed to

elicit behavioral change until laws approved fines for noncompliance. The same has been true for cam- paigns in favor of motorcycle helmets, and in many developed nations for campaigns to inoculate chil- dren. Today children are not allowed to attend school until they can prove that they have had cer- tain inoculations or have a government-approved reason for exemption.

The fourth element in successful campaigns is enti- tlement, which is also a form of reinforcement. Entide- ment means that publics are convinced of the value of the appeals of the campaign and in a sense “buy into” the message. This helps with reinforcement, because it extends the message statement by having others outside the campaign give it voice. Such reinforce- ment is needed not only because people forget, but because new members of a public are added daily, and continuing messages have to be available for them. Those who are complying also need the rein- forcement so that they will continue to do what they have been doing. The “Smokey Bear” ( the isn’t Smo- key’s middle name) campaign in the USA to prevent forest fires is one of the most successful information campaigns ever; created in 1944, it’s still going. The message began as “Smokey Says—Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires.” In 1947, a small change was made to read: “Remember ... Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.” This forest fire prevention message remaining unchanged until April 2001, when the Ad Council updated Smokey’s message from “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires” to “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires.”3

Evaluation of a campaign is the fifth significant element. In ongoing campaigns such as Smokey, there are annual evaluations, as well as three- and

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five-year checks. The evaluation is a campaign’s report card. It identifies what kind of desired behav- ior change occurred, when and in which publics.

Setting Goals, Timetables and Budgets Results can be identified on several levels. Suppose, for example, that you are in charge of public relations for the local public library system. Your first goal may be to get a bond issue passed for a new library. But you also want to increase awareness of specific areas of library service and, perhaps, to stimulate demand for more bookmobiles to serve more distant locations of the library’s service area. You may lose the bond issue, but if results are positive with the other two objectives, you will have accumulated goodwill that can help at future budget hearings to increase services and to provide more bookmobiles.

Estimates or timetables for achieving results need be no more elaborate than a marked calendar, but the deadlines must be realistic, given the objectives involved. Allow for foul-up time, and try to finish work ahead of schedule. Avoid the need to explain continually why you are behind. Contingency plan- ning means deciding in advance who will pick up the ball if someone drops it and what effect the substitu- tion will have. Downtime from mistakes can be reduced considerably if you have a realistic timetable. Don’t crowd yourself or your staff. Consider how to integrate the project into the overall schedule of PR activities so that it won’t conflict with regular duties such as writing the annual report or preparing for a stockholders’ meeting. If necessary, allow for calling in extra clerical help when there is an overload.

You have to know at this point whether you are working from your department’s regular allocated budget or from a special project budget. If it is a special project budget, you must know its size and be aware of conditions or restrictions that are being placed on it. Alternatively, the budget may be a mix- ture of your regular budget plus specific additional amounts for specific purposes. It might also be that additional money must be allocated before your bud- get is complete. Accurate knowledge of your budget will allow you to see what extra help you can contract for, how creative you can get, which media you can use and how often you can use these media.

Planning a Campaign

As discussed in Chapter 8, the first task in planning a campaign is to look at the organization’s mission statement to clarify the objectives and goals of the PR program. Within the limits of the organization’s objectives and goals, you must set those that your research suggests are needed for the PR program. Define the goals—what you want to accomplish—as precisely as possible and in long-range terms. Then, attach measurable short-range objectives. A clear statement of goals and measurable objectives means you will be able to evaluate the success of your cam- paign because you can measure how close you came to achieving them or by how much you surpassed what you had expected.

Look critically at the goals and objectives you’ve set, and ask some probing questions. Are they com- patible with the current PR program? Where are they headed, ultimately? Would any conflict with your institution’s mission statement and policies? Is there possible conflict with a primary public? With any particular public, including secondary publics? How significant is the conflict? Could it destroy a program? More pragmatically, how will you measure success along the way?

You must clearly define your publics before plan- ning your strategy. The demographics and psycho- graphics of your publics will give you insight into the tactics and techniques you should employ to make your strategy succeed. Demographics comprise objective, statistical data such as age, sex, education and income. Psychographics comprise the value statements you can make about audiences, their life- styles, their likes and their dislikes. Part of your strat- egy involves deciding the most effective ways to reach each public, which could include a range of mass media as well as interpersonal communications. What do you want to have happen as a result of this communication? How far do you need to take a pub- lic to get that to happen? Because there are six steps in the persuasion process, a public is likely to be at one of these six levels. You have to reach them at that level and bring them along through the other levels to the acting level (see Chapter 5).

Setting Creative Strategy: Choosing the Theme and Media The success or failure of a PR campaign depends largely on your problem-solving ability and creativity— in deciding on the theme, in choosing the media and in using the media. Go back and ask yourself

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what you expect to achieve. How will you monitor progress toward that expectation, and how will you measure results? What does each public need to know? What is the best way to present and deliver this message? What would be the most likely way to get that public’s attention? This is where creativity— in use of words or symbols in an original approach to the medium—makes the difference.

The theme may be determined in a number of ways—from several persons brainstorming together, from one person’s new idea or from adaptation of someone else’s successful idea. It is important to enter- tain all ideas without prejudging them. Criticism kills creativity and may snuff out a potentially good idea at birth. Stimulate people to share ideas—no matter how wild—by offering encouragement and enthusiasm. A good theme won’t save a poorly executed campaign, but well-oiled campaign machinery won’t save a bad idea either. You also need to pretest ideas as well as completed materials, getting feedback from the publics with whom you want to communicate.

Your choice of media depends both on the publics you want to reach and on the message you want to deliver. You should be able to make a preliminary decision as to which media are right once your goals are determined; however, the creative choice of media is something different. What is a unique way to reach a special public? What media have not been used before, but could be? Someone, after all, was the first to use bumper stickers, skywriting and silk- screened T-shirts, and today’s communication tech- nology allows—indeed encourages—much creativity with unprecedented opportunities to communicate effectively and relatively inexpensively with a range of publics without limitations of time and space.

The creative use of media is also important. A media schedule that lists which media to use and when can be the key to a campaign’s success—and also to its failure. Cereal companies that began advertising in the comics might have been laughed at by those who advertised in women’s pages, but the comic-page advertisers knew who their real consumers were and how to reach them. Today’s advertisers reach children through “adver- games,” that is, video games on websites. Although a TV commercial may last only 30 seconds, children spend on average of five to seven minutes playing an advergame.4 In most campaigns, PR practitioners have to be careful about the complementary use of advertis- ing and publicity. Advertising is definite, scheduled communication that appears along with whatever planned activities it is designed to promote. Publicity

is indefinite communication that cannot be guaranteed except in controlled media. If the planned activities are especially innovative or newsworthy enough, media attention may result. Often, this occurs when some- thing gets started by a blog or in social media that catches the attention of legacy (traditional) news media.

Campaigns may be structured to start only in the interactive media. Shortly after the 2010 devastating earthquake in Haiti, appeals for aid that went out first on social media resulted in an influx of dona- tions, followed by humanitarian organizations asking for and getting contributions, a good bit of that hap- pening online, through their websites. Companies also got involved, inviting their customers to contrib- ute, some by offering to match donations.

In both advertising and publicity, you are present- ing a message—information. People either seek information or just process it. If they are involved enough in the subject to seek information, they are not likely to turn to legacy media, says PR researcher James E. Grunig.5 Grunig found that only people with extra time to spend are exposed to mass media. The more active people are, the less time they spend with mass media.

However, people are very dependent on their hand- held devices, which serve as a medium for delivering Information. Messages, therefore, are more likely to reach them quickly. Still, it is necessary to reach the highly involved with specialized media, because that is where people go who are actively seeking information on the subject. Even if you are aiming for low public involvement and perhaps just want exposure to an

online media are in the mix because that is theissue primary news source for many. But legacy media also are appropriate, especially television, because it forces audiences to process information. Remember, though, that the public you most want to reach might not be using these media, and your effort (if publicity) or expense (if advertising) may be wasted.

Your budget has a great deal to do with how much flexibility you have in choosing media, and with how many publics you can reach effectively.

Contingency Planning One cheerful PR person says his smile is the result of always anticipating the worst that could happen, and then being pleasantly surprised when it doesn’t. Undesirable possible outcomes always have to be kept in the back of your mind. What if a billboard company confuses dates, and your ads don’t go up on

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time? Can you use newspaper advertising and radio or TV commercials to take up the slack or rely on people to access the information on your website? What if your publicity is pushed off by a disaster or other breaking story, such as the earthquake, tsunami and damaged nuclear plant in Japan? What if your TV time is preempted to cover such an event? Flex- ibility and contingency plans are needed.

A PR director can get help in contingency plan- ning from his or her staff. Not only will the staff make creative suggestions and come up with good alternative proposals, but they will support the proj- ect, particularly when it is likely to consume a lot of their time. The director should evaluate accurately and honestly what each individual can best contrib- ute to the project (and should think about the talents of individuals rather than just about the jobs each has done before). After the project proposal is accepted by management, the director must write down every- one’s duties and responsibilities to avoid misunder- standings over who does what and when.

Remember to allow for contingencies in the time- table too. Build in some leeway, or one missed dead- line will jeopardize the entire effort. Elasticity in the schedule will also allow you to take advantage of opportunities and make changes.

You will undoubtedly experience having some critical element in a project barely make it—event programs delivered from the printers with the ink barely dry, artwork delivered only an hour before it is needed for printing production. But if a PR direc- tor allows this to happen often, his or her staff will find the work environment too harrowing and unpleasant, and the PR practitioner will risk his or her mental and physical health as well as job and reputation.

quantitatively oriented than others. Cultural differ- ences can complicate matters, too. One U.S. employee in a Japanese company was excited by some successful promotions, but in reporting these to his Japanese boss, he had his enthusiasm consider- ably dampened by questions such as: “How much are you going to spend ? What are you going to accom- plish? How much more are you going to sell next month, next quarter, next year as a result? ” He resisted, but finally was pushed into putting numbers on the board for the demanding manager.

The greatest danger in presenting a plan rests in fading to anticipate questions and challenges. Listen to opposing points of view, but maintain control and do not allow “a good plan to get nibbled to death,” as one PR director put it, before you have a chance to test its effectiveness. One PR director who had to work in a hostile climate made a practice of duplicating her presentations and circulating them to management instead of calling a conference, because she said people will approve ideas on paper or in an email attachment that they would never approve in an open meeting. If necessary, show your plan to several important people first so that you can anticipate the reception it will get, before you actually present it formally. The whole process is not unlike caucusing in politics before call- ing for a committee vote. Much verbal batde can be eliminated by careful listening in the planning stages.

Implementing the Campaign

Implementing the project involves adapting and applying tactics to strategies while adhering to the timetable and budget, keeping people informed and solving problems positively.

Setting Internal Strategy: Selling Programs Within the Organization After you have set your goals, you must plan the strat- egy you will use to achieve them. One of your first tasks in mapping your strategy is to sell your plan to management. You do this with a carefully reasoned and well-designed presentation, based at least in part on what has received approval in the past.

People doing a job tend to get so caught up in their enthusiasm that they forget that others, including top management, may not know what they are supposed to be doing or why. In addition, some CEOs demand to know more than others, and some are more

Adapting and Applying Tactics to Strategies The framework for your whole campaign must be suited to its institutional environment (either a closed or an open communication system), as deter- mined by top management. This is not synonymous with proaction and reaction. A campaign is proactive. But some campaigns are mounted by closed commu- nication organizations.

You will choose messages and messengers for each public, drawn from what your research tells you are the best choices. You will select a master com- munications strategy—a functional strategy based on

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differentiation, segmentation or modification. This, with other factors such as what your image research tells you is the goal to be achieved, will determine your campaign’s emphasis—publicity, advertising and/or promotion. You will set persuasive strategies for your publics because you want to make sure that something happens.

You will use tactics to shape specific messages for delivery to each public in order to achieve the pur- pose you have determined. You have to keep on a schedule and within the budget in making these choices. If the publicity writer says it is impossible to get the information needed for a story in time for it to go into the media kit as scheduled, deter- mine how long the delay may be, set an absolute deadline and make sure it is one you can live with. Most importantly, keep people informed of changes as well as of first plans. Most foul-ups occur because one person does not know the problems besetting another person whose work is related.

Solving Problems Positively Still, even in the most carefully planned and well- managed effort, complications and confusion do occur. The important thing is to resolve each problem and get the job done successfully. Placing blame wastes time and energy and can damage working rela- tionships. Good working relationships are imperative for smooth functioning any time, but particularly where personal relationships can facilitate or impede (or even destroy) the public relations program.

Whatever the PR projects, all internal publics should be kept informed. This is easy to overlook, especially when there is dynamic leadership.

Pleasing everyone is impossible, but the PR practi- tioner who works according to policy—real policy, not “unwritten policy”—is usually safe. Unwritten policies may seem as compelling as written ones, but persis- tence and diplomacy can often change them— although this may be difficult if they represent the principal interests of the major stakeholders. Written policy generally is much less flexible and should be followed carefully until changes are adopted. Policies can be changed by those who are bold enough to do so, but you must first devise a strong justification for any change and then determine how to sell it to the publics involved, anticipating how they will perceive it.

Keeping People Informed There are many ways to solve internal communica- tions problems. The head of one small PR firm, not- ing that his staffers headed for the coffeepot between 9:30 and 10 a.m., scheduled a coffee-break confer- ence time with free doughnuts. In persuading his staff members to sit for a while and discuss their suc- cesses and problems, he helped them integrate their staff work. Staffers, hearing the problems of others, discovered how their own timetables were going to be affected.

The chief executive of a larger PR operation, after observing the most horrendous arguments among his staff over who was to blame for a delay, insisted that written communications be sent to everyone. Although he admits that sometimes snafus still occur, he says it is only because someone did not read a communique.

A multibranch operation has another alternative: a weekly speaker phone conference (telecon) or using an electronic format such as “go to meeting,” where it may be brought out that someone from Dallas and someone from Chicago are both heading for, say, a plant in Montreal. The PR corporate director can then tell the Chicago person to take care of both assignments, thereby reducing costs in travel expenses and staff. Videoconferencing is likewise common in organizations having geographically dis- persed offices and plant operations.

Evaluating the Campaign

Two types of evaluations have to occur in a cam- paign: monitoring and postmortems.

Monitoring You need an ongoing system for monitoring all major activities. Some measures can be unobtrusive, such as counting the number of color-coded tickets collected for an event, the number of gift certificates redeemed or the number of website “hits.” Other areas require the more careful monitoring of formal research (see Chapter 3). Monitoring is important in a campaign because you may need to change directions, reallocate resources or redefine priorities to achieve your objective. Monitoring makes it pos- sible, for instance, for political candidates during a campaign to increase television exposure in an area where their name recognition or support is low, or to arrange for an unscheduled appearance in the area.

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Although results of such monitoring are less visi- ble in other types of campaigns, the need to monitor remains. Think about it on a personal level. You wouldn’t want to plan a party, send out invitations and not know if anyone was coming. You would be buying food or guaranteeing a certain turnout for a caterer. Before you did these things, you would cer- tainly want to know how many people to expect.

the effect on the organization’s goals and mission; the effect on the attitudes of publics toward the orga- nization and on their perception of the organization; and the effects on the organization’s financial status, ethical stance and social responsibility.

The most effective evaluations are continuing programs—for instance, annual surveys of what audi- ences like or dislike, surveys of employee attitudes and measurements of consumer attitudes. Informal evaluative research may be done by reading letters and taking phone calls from happy and unhappy pub- lics and by talking with representatives of various publics to ascertain their attitudes. These give you benchmarks against which to measure a campaign’s effects. If you say after a campaign, “It’s all over, we can forget it,” instead of initiating an ongoing evalu- ation program, you will put yourself in the position of, as one astute advertising executive put it, “con- stantly reinventing the wheel.”

Although this discussion has addressed campaigns mounted for a specific purpose and for a specific period of time, an organization should have an over- all public relations program tied to its fundamental mission and goals. This should be a written program complete with rationale, policy support statements, listed priorities, identified publics and illustrations of the tools to be used. It should be reviewed regu- larly and modified as needed. Most importantly, it should receive top management endorsement, just as budgets do.

In each campaign, you need to look for the “self-interest” appeal being made to each target audience—the key to all effective communication to this public. Search out the other communication strategies in message structure and media delivery that have proved successful (or unsuccessful) in informing and influencing the target audience.7

Postmortems Every PR campaign deserves a thorough and honest autopsy. What worked, what didn’t and why? What was accidentally a success? What could have been done better?

Formal research is needed here. You need to uncover some solid evidence that objectives were achieved or not achieved, making it critical that you have stated those objectives in the research design. You need to establish what missed the mark and by how much. Anecdotal evaluation is useful and often insightful, but it does not make a good budget defense or tell you whether the public relations prob- lem was resolved through the campaign.

To make a postmortem successful, you must keep all analyses on a professional level; no witch hunts should be permitted. If something did not work, there is usually more than one reason for its failure and more than one person responsible. Use con- structive criticism to suggest, “If we had attempted to do this, would it have worked better than what we did try? ” Egos, especially creative egos, are fragile things, yet no one minds looking into the mirror unless she or he sees someone in the background pointing an accusing finger.

As mentioned in Chapter 3, you need to evaluate several results. These include the impact on publics;

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Look beyond the specific strategies to find their base in some general concept that you can apply to other campaigns. Then, plan your program by integrating all of these elements into a flexible and feasible time- table, and secure management and staff support. Select media that will ensure successful and on-time implementation of the program. Finally, evaluate the results or effectiveness of the program through for- mal post-program research and through less formal methods of responses and reactions from staff and publics. Post-program research should always include measurements of success or failure for not only financial impact, but also for ethical impact and social responsibility.

changes. This is the case even when campaigns start at the awareness level, because the purpose of a campaign to create awareness (of a problem, of a product or service or of a person) is ultimately to get a response to the campaign that is action. The same goes for “information campaigns” as well: What is desired is action, which may mean getting people to behave differently from how they usually behave.

The ethical question of the propriety of such cam- paigns is not always raised, especially when the cam- paign appears to reflect majority social values. But sources behind the campaign pay for it, and their values or “social agenda” may not match that of indi- viduals who lack the means and (in some cases) the access to communicate through public and private media. Imbalances of means and access are part of the concern over development campaigns in some countries. These “public information campaigns” usually are handled by the government, which may not allow much input from those who are the objects of the campaign. All information campaigns, Charles T. Salmon says, represent weapons in conflicts of interest, and social intervention involves conflicts of values.8

A successful campaign—one that changes behav- ior—has three elements, according to the U.S. Forest Service: education, engineering and enforce- ment.9 The educational part consists of telling peo- ple what you want them to do, which in the case of the U.S. Forest Service was to refrain from destroy- ing the forest and, since April 2001, all of the nation’s wildlands. The second step, engineering, enables people to accomplish what you are asking. To this end, the Forest Service built “fire-safe” campsites and put up steel signs that were difficult to vandalize. The third step is enforcement, where the will of the people begins to get restricted. Laws were enacted to protect the national forests, and peo- ple who failed to obey the laws became subject to fines. Regulations also permit access to forests to be restricted if the U.S. Forest Service determines that the danger of damage to the forest is too high.

But laws can be overturned, or people can fla- grantly violate them. What is it that makes people accept and obey? William Paisley says that because people in the USA accept the notion of a “free mar- ketplace of ideas,” campaigns (even conflicting ones) are common. But to gain public support, a social issues campaign must get on the public agenda of issues, and the issue must be seen as having some public merit.10

Campaign Outline

Before narrowing our focus to the issue of changing behavior, let’s review the steps involved in the whole process of developing and executing a campaign. In summary:

Define the problem. Set goals and objectives for the campaign within an organizational framework. Evaluate the impact of the problem on publics and on the organization, and define clearly the issues involved in the problem. Develop an organizational strategy consonant with the mission. Determine a communication strategy to reach the stated goals and objectives. Plan actions, themes and appeals to publics. In devel- oping a functional strategy, plan where the emphasis will be—ads, publicity and/or promotion. Develop an organizational responsibilities plan, with budgets and timetables. Decide which tactics and techniques fit the strat- egy best and how you will monitor each aspect. Evaluate the results or effectiveness of the program.

Changing Behavior

Public relations practitioners are often depicted as masters of manipulative techniques designed to get people to think or act in a certain way, and in fact most campaigns do strive to produce behavior

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Public relations students are commonly taught that there is no “general public”; rather, to practice public relations, an organization’s “publics” must be identified and segmented. In his 2007 thesis for his master of arts degree in communication studies at the University of Northern Iowa, graduate student Sergei Golitsinski questions this fundamental principle that organizations should focus their communication only on those publics that have been identified as having the potential to cause these organizations negative consequences and that a general public is insignificant and, in fact, nonexistent.

Rather, Golitsinski argues that new communication technologies have given the “general public” the power to cause direct negative consequences for organizations. To evaluate this hypothesis, his study examined the October 2006 Edelman/Walmart crisis that was caused by the “Wal-Marting Across America” blog. The blog was launched by Edelman, an independent global public relations firm, as a publicity stunt on behalf of Walmart, yet it was presented as an independent blog that was being maintained by a couple who were traveling in their recreational vehicle and were writing stories about happy Walmart employees. The truth was revealed in a Business Week article, which triggered a massive discussion in the blogosphere and in mainstream media.

The methodology of Golitsinski’s study involved quantitative and qualitative analysis of blog posts and mainstream media articles. Relevant blog posts were collected and processed with the help of a computer science approach (Golitsinski was concurrently earning his master of science degree in computer science), which consisted of automatically exploring the Web and discovering blogs partici- pating in the conversation and constructing a chronological model of this conversation for further analysis, represented as a graph, with nodes denoting blog posts and the edges—the links between these posts. The final data set consisted of 18 mainstream media articles and 156 blogs containing 201 relevant posts, connected by 1,548 links.

The results of the study demonstrate that Edelman suffered significant negative consequences from its exposure in the blogosphere. The negative consequences included significant negative public- ity, as well as a negative public opinion about Edelman, which was formed through the discussion on the blogosphere. The study demonstrates that the consequences were caused by collective action on behalf of all blogs that were involved in the conversation. Golitsinski argued that the individuals and groups behind these blogs represent multiple publics, which can be described in the context of this study as the “general public.” Therefore, the hypothesis of this study was supported: New communi- cation technologies, such as the blogosphere, have given the “general public” the power to cause direct negative consequences for organizations.

Source: Summary of 2007 thesis from Significance of the General Public for Public Relations: A Study of the Blogosphere’s Impact on the October 2006 Edelman/War-Mart Crisis by Sergey Golitsynskiy, Unpublished master’s thesis, 2007. University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls , IA. Reprinted by permission of Sergey Golitsynskiy.

Then, in addressing the merit of an issue, a fourth ntitlement—is added to the list of campaign

elements.11 Some public issues are seen as obliga- tions and others as opportunities, but entidement involves laws, public policy and public acceptance. Laws can be upheld or changed, and laws tend to change with society’s social agenda, as drinking-age laws illustrate. Public policy becomes a part of the

entidement consideration when more than one group or agency claims a social issue; and certainly environmental issues of all kinds have multiple spon- sors who usually carve out their own part of the issue and try to make their identification with it distinc- tive. The final part of entitlement, as Paisley sees it, is public acceptance. In the USA, the issue requires association with first-party stakeholders—those

“E”

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Public relations scholars Dean Kruckeberg and Marina Vujnovic argue that U.S. public diplomacy needs public relations rather than propaganda in today’s world. They note that, while propaganda was central to U.S. public diplomacy in earlier times, and remains central today, the USA must now practice true public diplomacy, which should rely not only on political theory and the theories of inter- national relations, but also on theories and models of public relations that are based on two-way sym- metrical communication and community-building.

The core problem, they say, is that U.S. public diplomacy today is best characterized as “marketing communication” that focuses on “building bridges” by filling information gaps between other coun- tries and the USA, that is, messages that give citizens throughout the world more of us and more of what we see as America: music, entertainment and Hollywood dream-factory movies, without any sen- sitivity to the fact that this is exactly how people of many other countries interpret cultural imperialism.

The authors say that U.S. public diplomacy must recognize that U.S. constituents are “publics,” not “markets,” and that an effective public diplomacy model must be one that is not propaganda or market-oriented advocacy, but one that is based on two-way symmetrical communication and community-building. A propaganda model centers the USA at the hub of the global milieu in its rela- tionships with other nations, that is, a diplomatic worldview in which the “spokes” of the USA’s com- munication and relationships radiate outward to satellites of stakeholders (other nations and their people). This Cold War model is inferior to a community-building model that recognizes that the USA is only one part of a global social system.

Source: Dean Kruckeberg and Marina Vujnovic, “Public Relations, Not Propaganda, for U.S. Public Diplomacy in a Post-9/11 World: Challenges and Opportunities,” Journal of Communication Management, 9(4) , 2005, pp. 296-304.

whom the issue affects directly—to have credibility and thus win widespread public support. The fifth “E” is evaluation.12

Changing behavior works best when the people who are being asked to change are encouraged to participate in formulating the behavioral goals. Top-down information campaigns in most coun- tries are doomed to failure. On the other hand, if members of the public become partners in the planning, they share ego involvement in the push for successful outcome. Self-persuasion is a major ingredient.

Billboards often play an important role in devel- opment communication campaigns, and they often rely on drama and symbols more than on words. That’s important, given the communications prob- lems of a high rate of illiteracy and/or a multiplicity of languages. Language problems make radio an important campaign medium, as well. Unfortunately, many development campaigns have depended on mass media and top-down message construction,

no development of infrastructures to make

carrying out the messages possible. The result has been some information or education about what the government wants people to do, but not much in the way of engineering to see that it’s feasible, and very little interactivity and feedback, although this is improving as governments realize that even authoritarian governments need “entidement” to gain compliance.

One type of campaign that has received wide- spread mass media attention is the campaign for pop- ulation control. Although various countries’ experiences could be cited, the pattern is the same for many. Billboards and radio spots carry slogans and jingles. In some countries, television is also used, especially soap operas. A few countries have tried taking folk media, puppets and plays to oudying villages.

These campaigns encounter at least two basic problems. First, the message of having few children appears to make litde sense in a rural community where many hands are needed and mortality rates are high. Second, too few family-oriented clinics orwith

308 Part Four / PR in Action

Walmart is the biggest company in the world and a global symbol of business power with 8,970 retail units in 15 countries and with fiscal year 2011 sales of $419 billion.1 Observers said founder Sam Walton, who died in 1992, disdained the press, publicists and government relations, focusing instead on customers. After the successful merchandiser was accused of destroying small-town America, it drew other critics in its newer global role. The company has hired publicists and lobbyists as well as lawyers, and its top executives give speeches to defend Walmart from problems ranging from sex- discrimination litigation, wage and pay disputes and fights with unions, a multimillion-dollar settle- ment with immigration authorities over undocumented workers and to the resignation of a top com- pany officer after allegations of financial improprieties (which Fortune magazine writer Andy Serwer calls a management and public relations quagmire and what one financial analyst called “headline risk”). The company now has 2.1 million “associates” (employees) worldwide (with 1.4 million in the USA), and its global marketing penetration has resulted in the company being one of the largest employers in the USA, the largest employer in Mexico and one of the largest in Canada.

By all appearances, Walmart has learned to take its public relations more seriously. It publicizes the millions of dollars it contributes to community organizations, runs a TV image-advertising cam- paign, has a website (Walmartstores.com/PressRoom/9689.aspx) to help counter criticisms and has engaged a major public relations firm and hired dozens of communications specialists in regional offices, state capitals and in Washington, D.C.2 Walmart, which also operates in Argentina, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Nicaragua, the UK and India, as well as in all 50 states in the USA, donated $17 million for Hurricane Katrina relief and established mini Wal- mart stores in areas impacted by the hurricane. Items such as clothing, diapers, baby wipes, food, formula, toothbrushes, bedding and water were given out free of charge to those with a demonstrated need, and the company also collected contributions at its 3,800 stores and websites.3 In 2007, the company and its foundation gave $296 million to charitable causes, a $24 million increase over 2006.4 By mid-June 2008, Walmart had already made a $500,000 commitment to assist with relief efforts due to the floods in the Midwestern USA.5

1«Walmart.com Creates ‘Bieber Fever’ with Exclusive Pre-Order of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never DVD/Blu-Ray Combo Pack, ” accessed April 3, 2011, from http://walmartstores.com/pressroom/news/10568.aspx. 2Andy Serwer, “Bruised in Bentonville,” Fortune, April 18, 2005 , pp. 84-9; “Corporate Facts: Walmart by the Numbers,” accessed June 24 , 2008, from http://walmartstores.com/FactsNews/FactSheets/. 3“Katrina Relief: Walmart Commits Additional $15 Million ,” Walmart news release dated September 1 , 2005, and “International Operations,” accessed June 24 , 2008, from http://walmartstores.com/FactsNews/FactSheets/. 4“Walmart Gives More than $296 Million in 2007,” Walmart news release dated February 25, 2008, accessed June 24 , 2008, from http://walmartstores.com/FactsNews/newsroom/7991 .aspx. 5“Walmart Commits $500,000 to Support Flood Relief Efforts," Walmart news release dated June 11, 2008, accessed June 24 , 2008, from http://walmartstores.com/FactsNews/NewsRoom/8385.aspx.

health programs may be available for follow-up counseling and materials, and in any case the male typically makes most of the family-planning decisions.

Women living in these societies could tell the planners why their messages won’t work, but while many people might talk to them, few people ask them anything and even fewer listen. One difficulty

in getting useful interaction with or feedback from people in many countries relates to their social rela- tionships. Recognizing this problem, Hernando Gonzales has offered a revised interpretation of the interactive model that doesn’t look at the flow of information up or down in situations where status and power are likely designators.13 Instead, his model looks at the already established norms of

Chapter 11 / Campaigns 309

Barbara M. Burns, APR, Fellow PRSA, said companies everywhere are portraying themselves as social movements, but ironically it is the “hip” companies that the antiglobal people hate. They hate them because these companies have made a mockery of these people’s values. In the 2001 Atlas Award Lecture on International Public Relations at the International Conference of the Public Relations Soci- ety of America, Burns provided insights into “The NGO War Against Globalization: Implications for International Public Relations.” Burns noted that websites are devoted to exposing what is “fake, false, and fagade” about companies, including those whose sport utility vehicle (SUV) ads pretend to bring their drivers closer to nature, while these gas guzzlers are used mostly to go to shopping malls.

Indeed, said Burns, an international movement has grown up against “branded life.” Burns said that, in rethinking corporate social responsibility, public relations practitioners must make their mes- sages more authentic because corporate reputations can’t rest on cosmetic slogans or advertising. “In the corporate world ... as public relations professionals, we have to do a much better job of explaining our traditions and values. We have to stop the spin,” she said.

In addition to structuring clearer, honest messages in English, Burns said more American public relations professionals should also be studying foreign languages. This is because language opens up the door to culture and understanding so that public relations practitioners can understand how native speakers arrive at their view of the world. Burns further recommended taking a more scientific approach to structuring public relations messages. Burns said, “We know that opinion differs from culture to culture, within cultures and also from media to media. In order to structure clear messages, we need to understand our reputation on a global and local scale.”

Formal research helps practitioners be more accurate in their assessments. Burns noted that public relations can have a much greater influence on events than the media can. Public relations practi- tioners are the persuaders working behind the scenes, influencing what bosses and clients do and say. Although the media have a crucial role, they don’t have the same influence as public relations does.

Source: Barbara Burns, “The NGO War Against Globalization: Implications for International Public Relations,” speech presented at the International Conference of the Public Relations Society of America on October 30, 2001.

interactivity, with a view toward building coalitions so that power can accrue to these groups, which can then act as representative voices.

special efforts to correct problems or make improve- ments. In the USA, many government agencies form coalitions in areas where their interests coincide, and they often create alliances with nonprofit groups that have similar purposes. Sometimes, they are joined by corporations.

National coalitions like this are mirrored in inter- national campaigns such as conferences on popula- tion control and the environment. The United Nations is a focal point for many international efforts that benefit multiple countries.

Government Campaigns

Most countries have some sort of government agency responsible for conducting campaigns for the country as a whole. These often deal with issues of population control in countries such as China and India, economic restructuring in newly democratized countries such as Romania and Bulgaria and tourism in Mexico and many island nations.

In addition to those major campaigns, different units of central governments may be involved in

Global Campaigns: Does One Fit All? The nations of the world always have engaged in a great deal of economic interaction, but something quite different happened after World War II. First,

310 Part Four / PR in Action

Media Relations at a Russian Luxury Hotel By Natalia Ermashova Now, Director of Pubic Relations Hermitage Group St. Petersburg, Russia

In modern Russia, especially in the large metropolitan areas such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, the market for luxury products of all kinds is undergoing rapid development. As more and more people are able to afford expensive consumer goods and services, the supply is growing at a steady pace. The economic crisis of the last couple of years has temporarily slowed this down, but it is picking up again. However, this situation is not true with luxury hotels.

During the past decade, the hotel business in Russia began booming. More and more world- famous hotel brands expressed their interest in expanding to the Russian Federation. But after many luxury hotel projects were started, they were then caught off guard by the financial crisis.

Some hotel projects were stopped for a time; others eventually opened with big delays, thus add- ing room supply to cities already saturated with premium-brand hotels (such as St Petersburg).

The competition now is very acute. The hotels are fighting hard for their customers. As the hotels are in dire need of attracting potential guests to achieve estimated income but pressed to cut expendi- tures at the same time, the importance of public relations cannot be overestimated.

Advertising budgets are severely cut under difficult financial circumstances, and PR departments have to function within very limited means. This increased the need to hold multiple events, sponsor- ships and barter deals—anything that attracts the attention of target clientele to the hotel, yet without spending too much money to do so. The organizers of exhibitions, festivals, cross-promotions and opening and closing ceremonies of musical and theater events are also facing financial constraints and are actively searching for sponsors. Thus, at minimal cost, the hotel can provide function space, rooms and food in exchange for media exposure covering the events.

High-profile society events are the key to the success of a luxury hotel. This means selecting func- tions that will attract the right guests, and ideally, some celebrities. The hotel will receive good coverage in glossy photos of the event in society sections and secure the name of the hotel in people’s minds: they will see it as a place with a lively atmosphere, where something interesting is always happening.

Celebrity bookings are another tool for which every good hotel competes. Having a star staying at your property gives you a whole range of media opportunities, such as photos with management, photo ses- sions in hotel interiors and media interviews. This provides an additional competitive advantage, because many people will want to stay in the hotel where celebrity X always stays. Of course the hotel pays a price—low rates and lots of freebies for the star and tour manager—but this is always a good investment.

Hotels have a unique quality, a disadvantage that sometimes turns out to be an advantage. A hotel room is a perishable commodity. If a room was not sold today, it cannot be sold twice tomorrow. This allows hotel PR departments to offer rooms free of charge to journalists and celebrities and for certain events on low-occupancy dates; this helps achieve promotional goals without hurting revenue (which will not be achieved anyway, if the rooms are not booked).

Nowadays, some modern luxury hotels have no budget for direct advertising whatsoever, placing pro- motional efforts squarely on PR. Fashion shows and fashion photo shootings for glossy, high-caliber magazines, charity events, lectures, balls—you name it. A good hotel is a whole world of pleasure and glamour and events happening inside communicate this idea better than the best advertising. Such events also help achieve publicity free of charge; this of course is very important, as many hotels still measure the success of their PR department by the amount of measurable media exposure.

Source: Natalia Yermashova Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Chapter 11 / Campaigns 311

many national economies were shattered, and the USA invested heavily in the Marshall Plan to rebuild them. As the various nations began to recover their economic strength, they turned to the USA first as a marketplace for their goods and later as a place to invest their new wealth.

Along with the increase in international economic activity came the need for help in dealing with dif- ferent governments, with the languages and customs of foreign and unfamiliar customers and with the effects of two new technologies—aviation and televi- sion. This need existed both in the USA and in the foreign countries. The USA was rapidly expanding its political and commercial involvement abroad, and the foreign nations were discovering the USA as an eager customer. The borders between countries seemed to vanish, and businesspeople talked of “ jet lag.” Later, the micronization of electronic tech- nology and the advent of the computer made virtual face-to-face contact such as videoconferencing possi- ble throughout the world. Going global is even more necessary today, but it is still an untidy and uncertain business. The PR firms that got in early (in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s) are still among those at the top of the heap: Burson-Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton, Ketchum and Ogilvy & Mather.

Although PR firms and networks are available to do the job, some companies handle their own PR/ advertising/marketing/sales campaigns at home and abroad. Their PR and marketing people may or may not work together. The U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2008, there were about 50,100 advertising and public relations services establishments in the USA. About 38 percent wrote copy and prepared artwork, graphics and other creative work and then placed the resulting ads on television, radio or on the Inter- net or in periodicals, newspapers or other advertising media. Within the industry, only these full-service establishments are known as advertising agencies. About 18 percent were public relations firms. Many of the largest agencies are international, with a sub- stantial proportion of their revenue coming from abroad.1 Public relations in full-service agencies commonly is used for publicity and promotion. With today’s global economy and instant communi- cation, together with global tensions over problems related to everything from nuclear arms to world- wide fuel and food shortages, public relations for corporations, civil society organizations and govern- ments is even more important, indeed essential, and

can no longer be marginalized as a support function of marketing and advertising.

One of the most intensive global campaigns is the World Health Organization’s AIDS campaign. In addition to experiencing the problems of any cam- paign (language barriers, government regulations and media), the AIDS campaign suffers from a lack of infrastructure—a problem not limited to non- industrialized nations. Add to that the cultural taboos of many societies regarding any discussion of sexual matters, as well as the objections of social conserva- tives in all cultures who fear that sex education encourages promiscuity, and you have a real cam- paign challenge.

The World Health Organization has responded by creating basic educational materials that it fur- nishes to health authorities in various countries to adapt to the cultures of the country. Many countries have turned the development of their plan (and the funds to implement it) over to public relations firms. Although many nations have taken aggressive action, others have not, perhaps because they face too many other issues that demand immediate attention. But the problem is global and involves essentially the same facts everywhere, so at some point the cam- paigns tailored for various countries and for the eth- nic and cultural groups within those countries will offer a remarkable case study.

Discussion Questions 1. Think of five or six public relations campaigns

with which you are familiar. Identify which kind of campaign each is, that is, (1) public awareness campaign, (2) public information campaign, (3) public education campaign, (4) reinforce- ment of attitudes and behavior of those who are in agreement with your organization’s posi- tion, (5) changing or attempting to change atti- tudes of those who do not agree and (6) behavior modification campaign. What about “advertising campaigns” and “health campaigns” and other types of communication campaigns? Are these public relations campaigns? Identify how these might be alike or different from other types of public relations campaigns. Through which media did you first learn about each?

2. What are some of the ethical questions you have to consider when conducting a public relations campaign?

312 Part Four / PR in Action

3. Can you think of an example of a campaign that has been effective in one country or culture, but that failed in another country or culture? Why do you think this was? What could have been done to make the campaign more effective in the other country or culture?

4. Can you think of a public relations campaign that influenced your behavior, for example, a campaign to quit smoking, to use automobile seatbelts or to consume healthy foods? What was it about that campaign that influenced you, do you think? Once interested, which media, including social media, gave you the most impe- tus to change your behavior? Why?

conduct several campaigns at the same time. Some of these are handled by government departments. Often, campaigns are undertaken by coalitions. Most global campaigns, even those for a product being sold around the world, do not work well across cultures. The cultural aspect is more important than are national borders or languages, although laws can affect certain campaign tactics. Campaigns are usually built around a desire to establish, change or modify behaviors. The five Es of a successful campaign are education, engi- neering, enforcement, entitlement and evaluation.

Other Related Websites to Review 0’Dwyer’s Blog: Covering PR, public affairs,

marketing and the world of communications http://www.odwyer.com/blog/index.php?ser- endipity% 5Baction% 5D=search&serendipity% 5BsearchTerm% 5D=public+interest+newswire.

Advertising Age http://www.adage.com

Adweek http://www.adweek.com

Free Publicity http://www.adweek.com/advertising-branding

PRJobSeek.com http://www.prjobseek.com

O’Dwyer’s PR Daily http://www.odwyerpr.com

PRWeek http://www.prweek.com/

The Business Communicator, Corporate Responsibility Management and Strategic Communication Management http://www.melcrum.com

The Strategist http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/The Strategist/Issues

Points to Remember Campaigns are designed to accomplish specific organizational objectives. A campaign’s foundation is the organizational mission, and its roof or containing factor is the budget. The elements are research, publics, action and evaluation. Planning for a campaign involves setting goals, creating timetables and developing budgets. Setting the creative strategy means choosing a theme and media to use in communicating with the designated publics. Internal strategy is critical to establishing organi- zational support for the campaign. Implementation has three major components: (1) adapting and applying tactics to strategies, (2) keeping people informed and (3) solving all problems positively. While a campaign is in progress, all elements have to be monitored so goals are achieved. After the campaign, a review or postmortem to determine what worked and what didn’t is important for future planning. Governments conduct comprehensive campaigns to make improvements or to solve problems. Like other organizations, governments often

To create awareness of situations that could become crises. To plan strategies and implement policies that help an organization through a crisis. To recognize the triggering event that precipitates a crisis. To understand management’s likely response to a crisis and to plan a coping strategy. To be sensitive to the needs of all stakeholders, including nimbus publics, when a crisis occurs.

Crisis and Credibility

rises challenge organizations to live up to their reputations, and the way a crisis is handled determines

the outcome, both in the court of public opinion and in terms of an organization’s credibility. The degree of success results in the organization’s post-crisis reputation. Crises and credibility go hand in hand. The 21st Centuiy already has experienced a high volume of crises, creating a history of significant damages and low levels of credibility for the organizations involved.

Globalization has hit the world hard and fast, resulting in the world’s citizens experiencing more global crises in dramatic climate change, energy, finance, food and housing—all basic to human fife. Global warming has disrupted growing seasons, wildlife habitats (plants and animals) and the previously somewhat predictable but infrequent occurrence of natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. The earthquake that shook Japan in 2011 and the tsunami that followed also seriously damaged four of the six reactors in a nuclear plant. Risks of escaping radiation were a reminder that energy sources are also safety concerns, as the Texas Gulf spill in 2010 gave dramatic evidence. An interlocking world economy has spread the contagion of financial misdeeds and energy demands. Conflict around the globe has brought world hunger to the forefront, along with refugee issues that involve not only food but also shelter, consequently creating impositions on the infrastructure of many nations.

C Corporations have challenges that they have never faced before. This presents global opportunities for

those who practice public relations.

—Harold Burson, Burson-Marsteller

314 Part Four / PR in Action

The interrelatedness of these issues only exacerbates the difficulty of solutions. Although much attention has been given to the conflict of different value systems as being at the root of these problems, tension created by the issues themselves cannot be discounted as a significant factor. Take the food crisis, for example. Weather changes have made some areas arable while others have become barren. There is more food in some places, less in others. The solution has been to move food to where it is needed. Energy is required to both produce and distribute food. The major source of energy, fossil fuels, is being depleted at record rates as populations increase and more nations become industrialized. Among the many solutions are to use food products for fuel, especially com. The unintended consequence is a scarcity of produce generally used as food for both people and animals.

Scarcity drives up prices so food, even when available, is priced beyond the budgets of so many people that social unrest then contributes to conflict.

Ethical issues everywhere often provide the trigger- ing event for crises, including upheavals in govern- ments as occurred in the Middle East in 2011. The lack of product supervision caused a wave of crises involving food for people and animals, prescription and over-the-counter dmgs and toys. A global finan- cial crisis has created joblessness, housing foreclosures and loss and more malnutrition and hunger, even in industrialized countries. Providing for refugees from conflict and natural disasters has also commanded more resources from a declining supply. Crises often beget crises. That makes planning for the inevitable essential.

Anticipating a Crisis

There is some structure to anticipating and planning for a crisis. Issue awareness and recognition, discussed in Chapter 8, is a major factor in anticipating a crisis. The problem is deciding which issues are likely to engage publics or contain triggering events that will precipitate a full-blown crisis1 (see Table 12.1).

Crisis TypologyTable 1 2 . 1

Use this as a guide to classify crises in current news reports. Violent: Cataclysmic—Immediate

Source of Crisis Loss of Life or Property Nonviolent: Sudden Upheaval, but Damages, if Any, Are Delayed

Act of Nature Forest fires, earthquakes, mud slides and floods such as the one in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in 2010 and Japan’s 2011 earthquake.

Acts of terrorism, including product tampering, when these result in loss of life or destruction of property. The most obvious in 2010-2011 were suicide bombings in crowded areas such as mosques, restaurants and attacks on military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq, with one of the most horrific being the August 2011 downing of a U.S. Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan that killed 31, 30 Americans including 17 members of the U.S. Navy’s elite Seals. Explosions, fires, leaks and other accidents, such as the BP Texas Gulf oil spill from the explosion of a deep water drilling rig April 20, 2010, which created the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Droughts, epidemics, diseases, such as the H1N1 flu virus in 2009-2010.

Intentional Bomb and product-tampering threats, hos- tile takeovers, insider trading, malicious rumors and other malfeasance, such as the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme that col- lapsed in 2008, leaving many individual and institutional investors facing large, if not total, losses.

Unintentional Process or product problems with delayed consequences, as in the egg recall in the USA in 2010 and various drug, toy and automobile recalls also in 2010.

Source: Doug Newsom, “A Crisis Typology,” paper presented at the Latin American and Caribbean Communication Conference, Florida, February 5, 1988.

Chapter 12 / Crisis and Credibility 315

Public relations practitioners routinely inform top management of issues and situations that could esca- late. They recommend that some attention be given to those issues that might need action now and that others only bear watching, particularly in all inter- active media, especially social media. The corporate culture and the attitude of management have a lot to do with how executives respond to these warnings. Time is also a factor for top executives, but it is something that crises don’t allow. Response must be instant. Both the crisis and the response must be anticipated.

Learning how to approach executives with poten- tial problems is a skill that has to be relearned with management changes. Often, the public relations person will be working directly with the manager of a particular division where the crisis might develop rather than with top management, but top manage- ment needs to be kept informed so as not to be sur- prised if a crisis does occur (see Table 12.2).

recommendations for solutions. It doesn’t hurt to ask the board of directors for help, either.3 Crisis counselor James E. Lukaszewsld says, “Codes of silence are ethical impediments to the truth.” He also says, “Overcoming codes of silence is often the critical element in achieving successful crisis management.”4 All of an organization’s stakeholders need and deserve the truth. Furthermore, the tone of the immediate response to the crisis affects the repu- tation as much as or even more sometimes than the content. A defensive response can be damaging to the organization’s reputation, especially if its reputa- tion already is weak or unfavorable.5

Sometimes, crises are not new, but recurring. Urban myths often resurrect old crises, as Procter & Gamble discovered when the myth about satanic sym- bolism in a logo it had long since discontinued reap- peared on the Internet. In a situation like this, be sure your organization’s facts are on fact-checking sites, especially Wikipedia.

You always need to be aware of “nimbus publics.” (See Chapter 8.) Although they may not normally be considered among your stakeholders, they may be self-appointed ones. These groups may be very diverse but feel some relationship to the issue or the publics involved. Nimbus publics usually receive information about the crisis because of the global nature of technology, can develop a constituency and can create a crisis or exacerbate an existing one.

For example, Coca-Cola was accused of environ- mental damage and possible product contamination with pesticides in India. The accusations circulated on the Internet were created by activists, many asso- ciated with nongovernment organizations (NGOs) or, as they sometimes are designated, CSOs (civil society organizations). Occasionally, success at achieving change stimulates activists’ attention to an industry. That happened to Unilever in 2008, widely celebrated in 2004 and 2005 for its Dove campaign that championed natural beauty. The Dove cam- paign moved quickly through the social media. Now those same media have farmed the flames of criticism of the company for its use of palm oil in its beauty products. Greenpeace launched its 2008 campaign in Britain and put parodies of Dove’s award-winning ads on YouTube to call attention to the depletion of Indonesian rain forests to get that palm oil. The activist organization claimed victory when Unilever issued a promise not to use palm oil except from suppliers who could provide proof that the origin was not endangered forest areas.

Management's Behavior In planning for crises, you need to be able to antici- pate the communication climate by predicting how management is likely to act and react as the drama of a crisis unfolds. Relying on case studies and Hazel Henderson’s pattern for typical management responses to problems, the late Dr. Bob Carrell of the University of Oklahoma developed some guide- lines for anticipating management reactions in the three stages of crisis management: (1) prior to the crisis during normal day-to-day operations; (2) at the moment some event triggers the crisis; and (3) during the crisis situation that follows the event (see Table 12.2).2

Carrell noted that the tendency of management toward an open or closed communication style, along with the corporate culture that the style cre- ates, has a great deal to do with the way the organi- zation responds both internally and externally. Organizations already in ongoing dialogue with con- stituencies are likely to find more acceptance to their crisis communication and may even discover some “self-appointed” supporters initiating positive com- ments online.

One of the worse management behaviors in a crisis is not telling the truth or simply remaining silent. When an organization is in trouble, top man- agement has to offer a clear definition of the situa- tion and take responsibility for coming up with

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ONGOING Divelopmiit if Crlils Minigimiiri Convninkatten PIJP

SITUATIONALa If5 *< a c w Actevile Crisis

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R«P0 N$IILE MAMAGFMFHT lEHAVlOR LEVEL 4 < 4 *r

Prudent cvalualioi or ail categories. of po - tential crises Evaluates risks- Considers , prepares slraieg.es and plans lo prevent, rnirvmiM impact of crisis Management is opli - misUc . confident, open -minded and aggressive

•Idenuly management team

• Assign specific duties •Designate one person

only to convey mfor mahon lo internal and external audiences

•Tram spokesperson, olher members of cri - sis team Plan viewed as posi - tive way ol meeting private and public responsibilities

4 Plan reviewed and re - vised regulaily

• Copmuntcatiori Inno - tion rigarded as de - fensive necessity

• Communicates only 35 rrucn and as often as required by internal and external pressure

- DOES sometraming bul not much lollow - up lo Keep plan current

« Imp emend w hilt capacity 10 00 so, DO icies and strategies lo prevent or minimize impact at crisis Lpdb 'es lor govern meni' pub'ic support lor changes m laws and regulations- Aggressive, proaClive commumcal on pro - gram rp prepare audi- ences 1or Cri$i$

* fieiievHs »n pnncipte of inoculation

* Spokesperson lakes cnafge ol cammiiruca tion function

« Time7, consistent , candid information to jnterna and externa audiences- Conveys nfarmalionvital 10 public safety- Allays tears

• Stifles rumors by sup - s-lyir'Q appropriate, tactual rnlormalion

- Males cnaiiQes in pol icies and siraiegres. to enhance recovery Makes slight iif any! changes n organi aalianai structure or personnel Chances of recovery and turnaround are good

* Eva :uates causes of recent crisis, re sponses 10 it. and outcomes

•Reviews. revises co s«s mjnag emem.corn- mumcation p an lor fulure USE m light of recent eiper en«

• inspires wholesome exchange ol mlorma - tion with internal and external audiences

•Seeks suppon as necessary

•Makes adiustnenls n polic - es and strategies to arrest crises

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§ s i fIcft ~s- srr LUx s it8 -c B P LUn c n ft P- i s O -aEvaluates some po -

tential crisis cate - genes , ignores others

• Planning $ spstiy. myopic- Control systems questionable- warns to pee* eni - min - imize potential crisis but nm tuny commit- ted to damp every- thing they can

•Management often compiaceni

• L p service to plan - ning and preparation lor crises

• Management more concEned wiih sus - taining pa *er'stalusLacks sense 0* public responsibility

Selective implementa - tion ol puligre$;$lrate - gies designed to pre- vent* ffiinunif* impactof Crisis but could do more- Sporadic pxniopinl in lobbying programs

* Little, il any . commil - ment to cam muni ca - tion program ID edu - cate, prepare audiences lor crisis

* Pasturing messages -wim -dtio substance ’face - saving approach

Rumors and gropa ganda orten go unchclien &id or uncorrected Group think creeps in Grudgingly admils cri - sis but oiler denies culpatiiiily

‘ OHers plausible excuses

RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT BEHAVIOR LEVEL 3 ( +r

Exchanges only limn- ed inrornation with internal and enema) audiences

« fears ridicule- Makes policy me strategy changes only fuflidcnl l<i Jrrt&t crisis, no more Audiences brga * onatior with skepticism

May make changes in policies and SUM - gtes but usually these are very tew

- May make some changes in personnel but organ tationai changes are rare

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I BP’s Oil Spill Disaster: Issues Management Problem By Ashli Q. Stokes, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies University of North Carolina at Charlotte In many public relations classrooms, BP may become a classic example in teaching students what not to do during a public relations crisis. Following the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Hori- zon oil rig and resulting massive spill into the Gulf of Mexico, BP’s public relations response to the crisis received much critique. Its choice of CEO Tony Hayward as spokesperson, who said he’d “like my life back” following the disaster, made the company’s apologies for the spill seem insincere. BP’s posting of doctored images of its response efforts to its website drew negative attention among social media users. Release of an Associated Press story detailing BP’s crisis plan only made matters worse. The plan contained a host of errors and omissions and included references to protecting walruses, sea lions and seals wildlife that does not live in the Gulf1 (MSNBC, 2010). Hindsight may be 20/20, but each of these examples of poor public relations points to the need for BP’s greater attention to issues management years before.

Issues management is a practice that helps organizations integrate public relations, government and legal affairs and strategic planning. Scholars Crable and Vibbert2 (1985) wisely pointed out that although organizations do not have the authority to determine public policy, issues management can help them develop a more favorable policy environment regarding important political issues, like con- cerns over the environment. When organizations lack savvy issues management planning they can find themselves facing variations of the types of regulation BP now does: limitations on offshore drilling in the Gulf, increased governmental scrutiny and arguments about the company’s legal liability for the spill.

BP’s decision to focus on image building instead of issues management in the years before the spill left it scrambling to respond effectively to the largest environmental disaster in United States his- tory. In 1989 it began promoting a greener, more socially response image. It redoubled these efforts in 2000, seeking to rebrand itself as an environmentally friendly, forward-thinking oil company that sought to look “Beyond Petroleum”3 (A.L., 2005; Beder, 2002). It might have looked forward thinking, but BP followed a “reactive” issues management stance and did not consider adequately its stake- holders’ growing concerns about sustainable energy. In fact, it faced a series of fines for its environ- mental practices and had the worst safety record of all the major oil companies4 ( The Independent, 2007). If BP had followed the steps of issues management, it would have considered changing more of its business practices along with its image. Instead, for example, BP chose to invest more in its image campaign than in alternative energy sources. Using issues management theory to examine BP helps explain two things about public relations crisis. For companies, issues management can help avoid crises, or at least mitigate their damage. For students, it helps explain why a crisis plan (espe- cially a poor one) is not insurance for successfully managing a crisis. Understanding the range of public relations theory and carefully applying it to each unique public relations problem is necessary to help organizations respond successfully to their challenges.

MSNBC. (2010, June 9) . BP’s government-approved, fake spill response. MSNBC. Retrieved on September, 2010, from www.msnbc.com. 2Crable , R . E. & Vibbert, S. L. (1985). Managing issues and influencing public policy. Public Relations Review, 11, 3-16. 3A. L. (2005 , October 31). BP. Fortune. Retrieved on September 5, 2010, from the Ebscohost Database and Beder, S. (2002). BP: In E. Lubbers, (Ed.), Battling big business: Countering greenwash, infiltration, and other forms of corporate bullying. Devon, UK: Green. 4The Independent. (2007, January 17). British Petroleum . The Independent. Retrieved on September 5, 2010, from the LexisNexis Database.

318 Part Four / PR in Action

New events related to old issues also revive crises, such as mad cow disease—a problem in the UK since the 1980s when the disease appeared in the USA. This caused a ban in the USA on importing cattle from Canada, the supposed source of the sick animal in a U.S. herd, and a ban on accepting U.S. beef exports by other countries. In 2008, a rumor circulated in South Korea that Americans were exporting their beef be- cause no one in the country would eat it. Rumor often is more difficult to deal with than reality.

Crises are like plays; there are only so many basic plots. Everything else is a variation. Two factors are always present: crises involve people, and they inter- rupt the normal “chain of command.” Whatever organization you are working in or with, you can predict and thus anticipate most possible crises. This means that you can plan for crises.

The key to good crisis management is anticipation.

the risks; (3) develop your strategy; (4) develop your plan; and (5) rehearse your plan. The booklet also offers seven points to include in planning: (1) make it clear who needs to do what; (2) use checklists that people can follow easily; (3) include clear, direct instructions for the crucial first hour after an incident; (4) agree how often you will check your plan to ensure it is always a “living docu- ment”; (5) update it to reflect changes in personnel and the risks you may face—a good plan is simple without being simplistic (you can’t plan in detail for every event); (6) remember that people need to be able to react quickly in an emergency—there will be no time to read lots of detail; and (7) plan for worst-case scenarios. If your plan covers how to get back in business if a flood destroys your building, it also will work if just one floor is flooded.7

Crisis management is also immeasurably aided when top executives accept an integrated two-way symmetrical model of public relations. A global com- munication environment that is interactive has chan- ged the balance so that there’s really no wise choice except to be involved in a dialogue with stakeholders. When channels of communication are open and two- way, warnings about potential crises may come from employees or suppliers, rather than from whistle- blowers, who can always take to the Internet.

In considering the source of what your organization may perceive to be a “negative message” that creates or seems to create a “crisis,” remember that activists are all advocates for change. Most nonprofit organizations fall into this category—advocates for change. This doesn’t mean that the change, although it may impact your organization, is bad. The reason for dialogue is to see how the change can be implemented in the public good and perhaps with the support of your organiza- tion. Consider the campaigns for reducing salt in our diets, getting rid of obesity, improving air or water quality and various safety issues.

Openness in dialogue can occur, though, only when the corporate culture permits candor. When real stakeholder dialogue is used with proactivity and symmetry—along with issues/event anticipation, prevention and implementation—resolving conflicts that a crisis might cause is likely to be easier, because the organization and its various and diverse publics have been talking to each other all along.8

An organization confronted with a crisis is con- cerned with its own behavior and with the behavior of all of its publics. Every crisis plan needs to take into account the potential global impact of crises,

Imagining the Worst Part of anticipating crises is fisting the kinds of crises your organization is most likely to face and preparing for the worst, not only in terms of the crisis itself, but also in terms of management’s response. Advance thinking often results in making or changing policies as a preventive measure.

Many such policies develop from a risk assessment process. Risk assessment comes from interpretations of data from a number of sources, many of them scientific, to determine safety levels. An example is evaluating risks from exposure to pesticides used on foods—processed or unprocessed. Research helps policymakers develop some risk assumptions, and these govern policy, including government regula- tory decisions.6

An important part of assessing any potential crisis is evaluating the vulnerability of the organization to the worst-case scenario of that crisis. For very serious potential crises, many managers use simulations to test vulnerability and the potential success of their crisis plans. In 2003, London First issued a 30-page action plan, “Expecting the Unexpected,” telling how to plan for different types of crisis, which ones to anticipate and how to provide for a continuity of business operations regardless of the crisis. London First is an organization of businesses wanting to improve and promote the city and develop action plans to cope with crises for both small and large businesses. The brochure fists five steps to provide for continuity: (1) analyze your business; (2) assess

Chapter 12 / Crisis and Credibility 319

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even when these are viewed as being essentially domestic. Organizations experience a crisis, not as an isolated event or series of events, but as one or more occurrences that develop in the total environ- ment of public opinion in which the organization operates. That total environment encompasses vari- ous nimbus publics that the organization may not have recognized as being affected by the crisis and by the organization’s response to it.

well-trained and why they need to be listened to when they have issues or complaints. Health is also a consideration because of exposure to environmen- tal contamination or contagious disease. Products or services always have to be reviewed in terms of their convenience, safety and effect on the environment. Processes are especially important to regulators, cus- tomers and suppliers. The location of an organiza- tion is often an element in crises, especially in other countries when the political or economic climate is uncertain.

Because these areas are so diverse, it is important to ask those “how to wreck” and “how to recover” questions of management at all levels. CEOs will tell you that it’s impossible for them to know all the details of their organization, and the devil often is in the details. There is no time for assembling such material in a timeframe of minutes.

While you are imagining the worst, consider the impact that each event you can identify will have on each stakeholder individually. When you do this, you can anticipate possible chain reactions—that is, for example, what an explosion that contaminates your product will do to your stock price and how you are perceived by important publics.

A crisis doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It occurs in an operational environment that includes all stake- holders, any of which can complicate the crisis situation and further test the credibility of the orga- nization. The way you handle a crisis while it is occurring can lessen or increase its impact signifi- candy. Planning can help you develop strategies out of the intensity of a crisis. It also helps you to clarify or modify a management response.

An organization’s communication climate has a great impact on how management handles crises. Rumors are less likely to start when information is openly available and a residue of trust exists inside

Preparation for a Crisis Remember that employees are an organization’s most important stakeholders, especially in a crisis. Their involvement gives them high credibility with all other stakeholders. Use them, then, before a crisis occurs. Applying the typology for your organization, many crises can be anticipated with good imaginative powers that are exercised through brainstorming.

Various departments within the organization should participate, because someone may be aware of a possibility that you couldn’t imagine without having that person’s special job-related knowledge. Look at all aspects of the organization.

The “imagining” process in which you want to engage management involves taking the role of an intelligent and resourceful adversary and asking, “What’s the best way to wreck this company?” Then, you assume the role of corporate management and ask, “What is the best response?”

Some places to start with the imagining process are money, people, products or services, processes and locations of operations. Being accountable for money is important to all stakeholders, and being able to explain where the money came from and where it went is important to all organizations, not just commercial operations. People can cause all sorts of problems, which is the reason they need to be

320 Part Four / PR in Action

and outside the organization. You must always con- sider an organization’s communication climate when you undertake crisis planning.

In planning for a crisis, you must always recognize that information is going to be in great demand. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to get much infor- mation about the crisis itself ahead of time. You can make a crisis easier to handle, though, if you orga- nize the information you can obtain in advance. You should collect information on products/services, processes, locales, people and the policies that govern the organization. Keep all of this information readily available to those most likely to need it, and keep it in a form that is most likely to be usable in a crisis. Infor- mation is useless if the people who need it don’t know it is available or don’t understand how to use it.

What kind of information should be gathered, and in what form should it be kept? You need details and descriptions of products and services, product contents and product development processes or ser- vice processes, as well as a list of general operating procedures. You should also have current safety and instruction manuals and copies of all recent inspec- tion reports. In case of an explosion or fire, you will have to describe contents and processes, with full awareness of potential danger areas—that is, the explosive nature of stored grains or the use of inflam- mable chemicals in a cleaning operation. You need a full description of all locations, including what is kept in surrounding areas and specifics such as acreage, street names and the locations of nearby homes, businesses and nonprofit organizations.

For every operation, you need a list of personnel and the times that specific personnel are likely to be occupying an area. If the organization has clients or customers who are likely to be on the premises, you need that information, too. In 24-hour operations— for example, mines, manufacturing plants, some retail stores, medical facilities and residential educa- tional or caregiving institutions that operate with shift changes—you must set up a system with your personnel or human resources department so that you have at your fingertips an up-to-the-minute record of which employees are working where and at what particular time. This information must be kept remote from the location. For example, at the time of a disaster, one mining company had to call all families and ask which family members were missing to determine who was trapped in a mine. This occurred because an explosion close to the opening of the mine blew up the shack in which miners had

signed on for the shift. You should also keep a fist of personnel benefits that employees receive in the event of death or injury on the job. This can’t hap- pen in an electronic age? Think again. Technology can crash, or not even exist in some remote locations. In a disaster, loss of communication tools is almost predictable; plan for backups. Also, keep printed cop- ies of important information available, and in more than one location.

For example, have separation policies on hand in the event that an employee or employees are respon- sible for the crisis. You should have policies and pro- cesses governing access to facilities, because many crises are caused by disgruntled employees or former employees. You also need access to as much informa- tion as your human resources office has on all employees and officers in the event of a crisis that involves them. You may not use all of the available information, for reasons of privacy, but the undis- closed facts available to you may help you to put a situation into perspective.

Part of being prepared is routine and consists of maintaining current corporate fact sheets containing all necessary basic information in the files at all times. Such information should include the following: 1. Addresses of the home office and all branches or

subsidiaries (if any) and all contact information for individuals. Yes, everyone.

2. Descriptions and schematics of all facilities, in detail, giving layouts and square footage and the number of people in each area (very impor- tant facts in case of fires, explosions, cave-ins, floods and earthquakes.).

3. Biographical information on all employees, and long, in-depth pieces on key executives. Often called “current biographical summaries,” these are useful for speeches and introductions, but here they might become standing obituaries, material ready to use with only the addition of cause of death.

4. Digital photos of all facilities and all principals (recent photographs; not the architects’ render- ing of the 10-year-old building or the CEO’s favorite photo from several years past).

5. Statistics on the facilities and the institution: number of people employed now; cost of build- ings and equipment; annual net (or gross) earn- ings; descriptions of products or services, or both if that is the nature of the institution; major

Chapter 12 / Crisis and Credibility 321

contracts with unions and suppliers; details of lawsuits pending or charges against the institu- tion; information on regulatory or accrediting agencies with some sort of oversight covering the institution, its products and its services (for instance, federal, state and local oversight over products or facilities in that area or hospital accreditation over health care institutions).

6. A history of the institution, including major milestones, prepared like a fact sheet.

7. Emergency information such as nearest hospital, police and fire chiefs direct numbers, best access routes, hazardous substances identification and potential threat, local government officials’ direct numbers and numbers for contacts at reg- ulatory agencies.

8. Ways to check personnel to see who might have been involved—a format for accounting for each member of the workforce.

9. The organization’s mission statement and related documents, such as values and position- ing statements.

10. Position papers. 11. Key publics and contact information, including

bypass information for media and strategic sup- pliers and regulators.

12. Digitized video. Remember, anyone with a mobile device on-site can send video directly from the site of a crisis.

Simply keeping all these materials up-to-date is a major undertaking, but it is vitally important Most institutions handle them piecemeal, updating employee biographies annually and photos less fre- quently and gathering new and relevant facts once the base is established. A periodic review of these materials is essential. Make a checklist and use it, marking the date of the most recent check next to it.

The crisis plan itself should be a guideline rather than a heavily detailed process for two reasons: ease of recall and flexibility. Both features aid in the crea- tive handling of a specific crisis.

even the smallest details, not only for accuracy, but also to maintain trust. The most valuable asset a PR person can offer an organization in a crisis is helping management understand the perspective of the critic or opponent. Management’s tendency is to dismiss the attack and the attacker out-of-hand. Not only is that not useful, but it is also dangerous.

Communication Before and During a Crisis Some crisis plans are thorough and comprehensive, but they are never communicated. Then, when a cri- sis occurs, employees either don’t have a copy of the plan or don’t know how to follow its instructions. A good plan should include an easy-to-use fact sheet and background information.9

Having a dark site on the organizational intranet, password-protected, is one way to provide instant access to information for insider publics in case of a crisis.10 Contrary to assumptions that the instanta- neous onset of crisis eliminates the need for a dark site, it actually accentuates it. Dark site materials are updated regularly and systematically because crises often come without warning. They are activated as soon as the crisis occurs. On the site should be an internal crisis manual with step-by-step action items, a fist of suggested procedures and all the infor- mation and materials mentioned in this chapter’s planning and materials section. In addition, an exter- nal dark site to serve as a crisis channel for the public needs to be created so that it can be activated imme- diately for the public. Frames can be prepared in Word/HTML to be uploaded as needed. For visuals, as well as text, you can prepare materials in PDF or JPEG formats. Current information and news releases can be added when the site is activated.

You should hold regularly scheduled meetings with all managers and supervisors likely to have to deal with a crisis, to review crisis response proce- dures. “Regularly” really depends on an organiza- tion’s structure. In an organization with high turnover, quarterly review meetings may be appro- priate. An organization with more stable employ- ment and a system for giving information to new hires may prefer annual reviews. Reviews not only renew familiarity with procedures, but they also allow planners to review the procedures themselves to ensure that they are relevant. Reviews spaced more than a year apart court trouble.

One reason to discuss crisis planning in advance is to get management involved in handling various

Dealing with a Crisis

Dealing with a crisis requires an ability to keep an eye on the objective—to maintain corporate credibil- ity, even if the organization is at fault, and attend to

322 Part Four / PR in Action

publics before a crisis occurs. You may be able to alter some management tendencies toward procrastination by offering hypothetical examples of the effects of such behavior and by encouraging role playing. In organizations such as hospitals and banks, employees should be crisis-trained for the possibility that they may either have to negotiate with a hostage-taker or survive as hostages themselves.11

Three key elements promote successful commu- nication during a crisis: (1) the existence of a com- munication plan as a part of the overall crisis plan, taking into consideration that normal channels may not be open; (2) the ability to assemble a crisis team when a crisis occurs; (3) the use of a single spokes- person during the crisis.

In developing a communication plan, remember that employees are going to talk to neighbors and to casual acquaintances whether authorized to do so or not. Consequendy, your communication plan must include strong internal as well as external com- munication. Determine the best system to use. Iden- tify people likely to be the principal participants in a communication plan, and develop a system for reach- ing them immediately.

The onset of some crises is instant, so plan for that. Go through different scenarios with the crisis management team, including legal and risk manage- ment members, and develop general statements for each scenario. Having these statements on file will make it easier to modify the message to fit the actual situation when it occurs.

When a situation suggests an impending crisis, there is time for message statements to be generated by the crisis management team that you have already assembled from staff. If a crisis is looming, you may need to retain outside help, with management’s con- sent. If that occurs, the team will be advised by out- side counsel.

Once the crisis is triggered, isolate the crisis man- agement team from normal day-to-day business affairs during the crisis. If day-to-day business is interrupted, the company will appear to be con- sumed by the crisis and unable to manage the situa- tion. Management of communication during the crisis is not the same as managing the crisis itself.

Designate members of the crisis team as fact finders—people who will dig out facts, organize facts, resolve conflicting data and control and direct the flow of information to the team members and the spokes- person. Designate a person to evaluate the effects of the crisis on all publics and to monitor how the

messages from the organization are influencing various publics and the factions within these publics.

You must include legal counsel in all planning because when a crisis occurs, legal advice and PR advice to top management may conflict, especially on issues of transparency. Because the opposition seizes upon every word, lawyers understandably believe that it is better to say very little. Openness clearly creates more difficulty for lawyers who are try- ing to defend an organization. As a PR practitioner, you must accept that fact. But at the same time, the openness of an organization in a crisis also affects public opinion favorably. Whether the situation involves a jury trial or a Supreme Court hearing, the proceedings occur within the climate of public opin- ion. Most trial lawyers understand that.

The reason Internet crises require immediate attention is because online activists can damage a reputation, affect stock prices, create mistrust among consumers and/or suppliers, alert regulators with untrue information, cause internal discontent or lower employee morale, even inspire lawsuits. A prompt response is a brief but succinct email to all identified with copies to those the message would impact. The email should offer documentation through connections to existing information. Inter- cepting the electronic mischief in a timely way is crit- ical. That’s why good management assigns people to do this. (See Chapter 7 and 8).

The way the crisis story is told is important too because it must be credible and acceptable. For that reason, public relations educator Robert L. Heath advocates using a narrative format while recognizing that the news media need the who, what, when, where, why and how. Heath says, “First, people need to recognize that crisis response entails the tell- ing of a story—the enactment of a crisis narrative. The next consideration is the critical and strategic selection of the specific narrative account for and report on that event....” It is essential that the story be truthful, that key publics are able to relate to the story and that the narrative demonstrates that the organization has control of the situation for a suc- cessful resolution to the story.12

After developing a plan for responding to a crisis and making people in the organization familiar with it, the next most important part of dealing with a crisis is designating the (that is, the single ) most cred- ible spokesperson. Some authorities say that choos- ing the spokesperson is the most important part of dealing with a crisis, because that person sets the

Chapter 12 / Crisis and Credibility 323

style for handling the crisis. It may or may not be the CEO. When the CEO is not the spokesperson, she or he must be immediately visible in the originating response. Frequendy, the CEO is involved in making critical decisions to resolve the crisis if that responsi- bility has not been delegated to someone else. In any case, the person designated as spokesperson should be someone who is perceived by the organization’s publics as knowledgeable and who is kept up-to-date on all developments.

The spokesperson must know all aspects of the crisis, must understand their implications and must have sole responsibility and authority for speaking in the name of the organization. The appropriate spokesperson may be different in different crises. When a university was dealing with a football scan- dal, the designated spokesperson was the coach. The same school, when faced with an academic crisis, used the academic vice president. Each had been pre- viously trained to deal with the news media. The spokesperson is usually a member of the crisis team and functions as your key contact for all media. If for some reason (probably time pressures) you decide to use a different spokesperson inside for employees than for the news media, you must be sine that the inside and outside spokespersons present exactly the same information. The only difference should be the inside slant that the spokesperson for employees gives. Using an inside slant does not mean presenting biased information; it means taking into consideration the special concerns of employees. You might also choose an inside person because that person has greater credibility with inside audiences. But the external spokesperson must be someone respected and highly credible to inside audiences as well, or you will damage the credibility of the inside person in the process. The spokesperson should not be an outsider, even if that outsider is a quasi-insider, such as a staff member from the public relations firm of record or from a law firm. Corporate response to the crisis is as important as the outcome.13

them effectively in a crisis. They are the organiza- tion’s most credible representatives to the people outside the organization with whom they come in contact; when you think about it, those people con- stitute all the rest of your publics—from media to customers, from clients to suppliers. People will develop perceptions from the way employees respond to their questions and from their behavior. Unfortunately, most organizations in crises tend to neglect their employees. This not only mistreats per- sonnel, but also harms the organization.

Employees get depressed during a crisis. They worry first about themselves and then about the organization. They become overly dependent on internal networks fed by rumors and on the news media. Employees should never first learn something about their organization from the news media unless it is something that has just occurred, such as a fire. “Employees may hold the key to the organization’s ability to survive and then recover from fife- threatening crises,” according to two researchers who have looked at the stress that crises cause employees.14

Carrell acknowledged that the crisis management effort can be hampered by the following elements:

The extent of a crisis may not be known immediately. Persons or audiences affected by a crisis may be difficult to identify. The cause of a crisis may be difficult to iden- tify, and its cause(s) may never be fully known. A crisis is always traumatic to audiences affected directly by it. Accurate and appropriate information about a crisis is an expectation—sometimes rising to unreasonable levels—of audiences, especially by those directly affected. Information decisions are made under condi- tions of high stress. Because the situation is a crisis, the credibility of the organization is suspect among audiences directly and indirectly affected by it. A crisis incites emotional behavior by everyone related to it. Physical exhaustion also takes a toll on everyone involved.13

3 .

7. Employee and Management Roles in a Crisis As “insiders,” employees are the most trusted sources for information, more so than management, espe- cially if the crisis involves management actions or inactions.

Crisis Constants Five communication elements that remain constant in any crisis help explain how people

Employees’ Critical Role You must truly believe your employees are the front fine in public relations to use

324 Part Four / PR in Action

An organization’s reputation affects publics’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward an organization in a crisis situation, as does the type of response an organization makes to the crisis—at least hypo- thetically. But what about in the “real world” of “real” organizations facing “real” crises?

A research team headed by Virginia Commonwealth University faculty conducted an experiment to test previous hypothetical relationships between reputation and type of response and added a third var- iable: visibility of the organization’s CEO in the response.1 College students from a large Mid-Atlantic University completed a questionnaire asking their assessments of the public reputation of eight compa- nies: Toyota, British Petroleum, Chrysler, Google, Bank of America, Citigroup, Johnson & Johnson and Southwest Airlines. Each of these companies had faced a major crisis in the past five years. The student respondents were then shown videos of the companies’ responses to the crises they faced, and students afterward responded to additional questions related to the type of response to the crisis and the visibility of the CEO in that response. The researchers were looking for the interaction of repu- tation, crisis response and CEO presence in the response.

The results:

Attitudes and behavioral (purchasing) intentions toward a company with a good reputation prior to a crisis were better than toward a company with a bad reputation. Attitudes toward a company using an apologetic response were better than toward a company making a defensive response. However, whether a company’s response was apologetic or defensive had no significant effect on behavioral/purchasing intentions toward that company. Surprisingly, a defensive response was more positive in its effect than an apologetic response, especially when the company’s reputation was positive. Attitudes and behavioral/purchasing intentions toward a company whose CEO was visibly pres- ent in the company’s early response to a crisis were better toward the company than toward companies where the CEO was not visible.

Good reputation, defensive crisis response and CEO visibility in immediate crisis response inter- acted to become the best combination for effective crisis communication. Good reputation is almost always desirable regardless of any other factors. So a company needs to confirm its reputation while it is not in crisis mode.2

CEO visibility in a crisis response was found to be important. So everything else being equal, a company having its CEO visible when the company’s crisis response is delivered will fare better in the attitudes and behavioral intentions of its publics.

An apologetic response to a crisis was generally preferred, but a company with a good reputation may find that a defensive response resonates positively with stakeholders.

Bottom line: having a good reputation prior to a crisis and having the CEO visible during the initial response to a crisis make a defensive response just as effective—and perhaps more effective in some crisis situations—as a response in which a company apologizes.3

1Lyons, L.J. and Cameron, G.T. (2004) A Relational Approach Examining the Interplay of Prior Reputation and Immediate Response to a Crisis. Journal of Public Relations Research 16(3) , 213-241. 2Coombs, W .T. and Holladay, S.J. (1996) An extended examination of the crisis situation: A fusion of the relational man- agement and symbolic approaches. Journal of Public Relations Research, 13, 321-340. 3Turk, JV ; Jin, Y; Stewart , S; Kim , J. and Hippie , J. R . “Examining the Interplay of an Organization’s Prior Reputation, CEO’s Visibility and Immediate Response to a Crisis,” paper delivered at the 14th annual International Public Relations Research Conference, Miami, FL, March 2011 .

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who do not directly experience the crisis will evaluate it. First, people learn about crises primarily from personal networks, if the situation is geographically close or if there is some relationship between the crisis and the network. An example would be an explosion in a nearby plant where employee net- works carry the news to other employees faster than the mass media carry it. Furthermore, the mes- sage may be sent as a tweet to a larger audience. If visual evidence is available, it could be posted on video sites within seconds. Second, people tend to interpret the seriousness of a crisis in terms of per- sonal risk or risk to people important to them. This perception may be based more on subjective than objective factors, so public and official percep- tions of risk sometimes differ considerably. Third, government sources are relied on as the most author- itative. Fourth, the amount of mass media coverage indicates the significance of the crisis to a global public. Fifth, the availability of information in an open-communication environment reduces rumor and increases the accuracy of others’ assessments of the situation.

Any crisis involves many more entities than just the organization that is experiencing the damage and is most responsible for the remedy. Developing an image that suggests the organization is success- fully handling the situation depends on two factors: the reality of the organization’s being able to cope with the problem, and how well the organization communicates its successful handling of the problem to those who didn’t experience the crisis. An organi- zation’s inability to cope with a crisis or the percep- tion that it is bungling its efforts to cope can dramatically damage its credibility.

One thing to remember is that the major issue is not so much when a crisis disappears, but how it leaves, which is the mark of success or failure. A cor- porate communications expert offers 10 guidelines. The first, again, is to take responsibility, and the second is to recognize the difference between bad publicity and a real crisis and adjust your response accordingly. A third rule is to use research to deter- mine how you are going to respond to both the facts of the situation and to what major publics are think- ing about the situation, and a fourth rule is to recruit some credible third parties to speak on your behalf. A fifth rule is to treat the news media as conduits of information, not enemies, and the sixth rule is to assume you will be sued whatever you do, but openness may be a factor in your favor in litigation.

Seventh, watch the Internet as closely as you watch traditional news media to get some insight into how the situation is being perceived, and eighth, demon- strate empathy and concern. Rule nine is to take the first 24 hours very, very seriously because this is when the issues are framed and the company is judged by its response. The first few minutes matter most, however. The tenth rule is to begin building corporate assets in the area of public opinion—orga- nizational reputation—right away because you will need to draw on these in a crisis.16

PR's Responsibility for a Crisis When the advent of a crisis catches an organization unaware, this may bring criticism of public relations people. It is often seen as the PR person’s responsi- bility to forewarn and prepare management. In some respects that’s true. One invaluable contribution that PR makes is issue monitoring. (See Chapter 4) Another significant factor is the PR person’s contin- uous monitoring of publics, which should again offer an opportunity for PR to be a bellwether of potential problems. If crisis anticipation is to remain a recog- nized role for PR, ignorance cannot be a good excuse. But even when warnings are given, PR does not run an organization; it is only a part of the man- agement team.

It is the PR person’s responsibility to convince management to act. Often, when you wonder where the PR person was when a crisis escalated, it’s a sign the PR person probably lost an internal battle. A way to avoid that, according to crisis spe- cialist James E. Lukazewski, is to approach your dis- cussion from a management perspective.1 Discuss management objectives and the impact of the crisis situation on all the publics, instead of dwelling on the news media. Talk about the organization’s mission statement, its reputation, its objectives and its busi- ness strategy. Take management through a compari- son of peer companies in similar situations and help management see opportunities in the crisis instead of just negatives.

Your job is public relations, and your responsibil- ity in a crisis is to give the rest of the management team insight and information they don’t have because of their backgrounds and training. When you present it in terms they understand and are com- fortable with, you’ll be more likely to persuade them to make some decisions you can communicate so that everyone in the organization is speaking with one

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voice and has focused on the issue and an appropriate response to it.

When an organization fails to respond to a crisis in the making, it’s often due to management’s reac- tion to predictions or forewarnings. At least one response that usually causes trouble is arrogance. Arrogance leads to making some assumptions about the vulnerability of the company or the significance of the perceived problem. Ignoring nimbus publics is another difficulty that arises from arrogance, a feel- ing that some publics are just not important enough for consideration.

Another management mistake that causes trouble is the failure to get objective information from all publics that might be involved in a potential prob- lem. Just asking one or a few publics won’t work. If there is a potential problem, all the publics involved need to be targets of good information gathering and listening. When a public has some misinformation that is causing the problem, a crisis might be averted by correcting misperceptions or misunderstandings before something erupts. This is often the case with employee relations issues, supplier problems or customer complaints.

Yet another cause for crises going undetected before they really develop is using bad judgment. An example of bad judgment that may be lethal is failing to alert employees to problems or potential problems. Even if employees can’t be completely taken into confidence, they need to know enough to be helpful. One thing this accomplishes is making employees, especially line managers, aware of the public relations impact of events, actions and issues. They are then more likely to alert PR staff to poten- tial or developing problems. They may become willing collaborators, because any crisis is seen as their crisis too. This kind of involvement also ensures their support and cooperation when the unpredictable crisis does occur. They are even better equipped to anticipate and make decisions on their own that will be useful in responding to the crisis at their level.

Getting employees involved and alerting them to issues are quite useful because they have information the management team may not even know exists. Email messages between and among employees can be discovered and give ammunition to prosecutors. Internal emails with information that could be mis- understood can be leaked or hacked and can even create a crisis.

Responding Internally and Externally in Crises Every crisis produces an initial management consul- tation that occurs face-to-face, by telephone confer- ence call or through a satellite teleconference. It is important to keep comprehensive notes of this meet- ing. After the meeting, you should write a response release, clearing it first with top management and the organization’s attorney. You need a recorded actual- ity simultaneously with the spokesperson’s state- ment. Depending on the status of the crisis, you may need to call a news conference. If so, you must prepare a list of points you want to make; and of course, you must be prepared for the reporters’ ques- tions. Certainly, it has to be posted on the organiza- tion’s website and other media being used.

With all interactive media, especially social, being a major source of information, a single strong mes- sage statement works best. In communicating later with different stakeholders, the statement can be expanded upon, but it needs to support the single declarative statement issued initially.

As news develops, you will issue bulletins and news briefs with videotaped actualities to keep all publics informed. All will quote the spokesperson.

Websites help in managing requests for informa- tion, but individual responses coming from inter- active media must be attended to as well. All media must get updated quickly with information and digi- tized images. Interested publics also have access to this information that can be put on the usual website or on an activated dark site finked to the home page. Employees have access to that information as well as special information that can be put on their intranet.

Often, the telephone must be used, too. It may be necessary to get an 800 number with a recorded mes- sage that is updated as necessary, as well as a way for callers to hear a recorded message, updated regu- larly, and to leave a message.

Constraints of the crisis situation will keep you from communicating as freely as you would like, but all responders must understand that responses should never be misleading or deceptive in any way. Media representatives usually seek authoritative information about a crisis, primarily from govern- ment sources. When a crisis occurs, though, people in positions of authority are generally absorbed in helping solve the crisis. Therefore, they seldom see the value of setting aside time to communicate

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information about the crisis. In addition, those involved in solving the crisis may be a mix of govern- ment and nongovernment personnel, such as in a natural disaster or terrorist act, when law enforce- ment, fire and safety groups work with others from the government. These may also interact with non- profit relief groups such as the Red Cross. All must work with the organization at the center of the crisis, which may be a privately owned business.

Although each group involved may have its own traditional methods of dealing with the news media as a single organization, they are less effective in responding to media inquiries when forced to do so as a loosely organized unit brought together by the crisis. Lines of authority are blurred, and some of the personnel may be out of their usual geographic boundaries. Beyond that, even the best-prepared organizations—and there aren’t many of those seldom cope with the demands of the news media for information once the media have been attracted to the crisis. The more experienced an organization is with handling crises, the better the response will be.

Another problem is the tendency to close down the normal communication channels discussed ear- lier in this chapter. Often, the crisis is such a threat to an organization that either the organization itself or others with control over it, such as the govern- ment, severely limit information about the crisis.

Even in the best of circumstances, a crisis gener- ates contradictory information. So much occurs at the same time, and so many people have different pieces of information, that it is difficult to present a clear picture. Disasters make correct information dif- ficult to get, and the result usually is rumors and falsehoods that spread rapidly in legacy and in social media. The situation is even more complicated if the crisis is the result of an adversarial action, even non- violent ones, such as a hostile takeover. In an adver- sarial situation, the crisis is complicated by counter rhetoric that also helps to shape the reality for all publics. In such situations, the most credible source often wins the battle for public opinion.

Sometimes, a crisis situation turns around for a while but then resurfaces because of an accident, investigative reporting or legal action. Some crises continue for years, so you need to plan for short- and long-term cri- sis management. The key is to maintain credibility.18

Credibility is always at stake. Public perception of an organization’s honesty and openness in the begin- ning is essential. Observations in news reports that

someone was unavailable or refused to comment erode confidence quickly. Failure of an organization to be prepared is also an issue. This is not easily forgiven in most cases in which there was opportu- nity to discover the problem. Even in sudden and unpredictable situations, though, a company can still look bad. A good example is when cities fail to warn residents of impending natural disasters such as storms. Not anticipating such acts of nature and fail- ing to prepare for them cause a loss of confidence and credibility. Responses from a company or orga- nization that seem self-centered and devoid of sym- pathy for victims are among the most serious mistakes. How to find the proper emotion in a response to a given situation or crisis has been stud- ied by academician and researcher W. Timothy Coombs, who developed a typology of responses. His guidelines are useful because he examines the crisis, considers the management-response strategy and looks at the various factors that influence the type of response, such as whether the organization is truly at fault or if there is a misunderstanding.19

When media are involved in direct coverage of a crisis, some slanting is expected due to the factors mentioned such as timeliness, deadlines and compe- tition. Bias is likely to enter the reporting of crises in any case, something to keep in mind if your company is a multinational one. The bias is likely to represent the political-economic position of the reporter’s country. In cases of religious states, tenets of the faith may also become an important factor. The amount of attention paid to a crisis and the approach to the story are both influenced by such bias.

So what happens when the media get it wrong?

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Talking Back in a Crisis Organizations used to take their lumps in the tradi- tional (legacy) news media silently when negative publicity occurred, especially if they had tried to be open and cooperative and the policy had backfired. No longer! News is presented online in mediated and nonmediated sites, and it is instantly received globally. To correct immediately is essential to dampen angry responses and to give defenders some material to support the medium.

Responding includes taking on bloggers, too. Blogs are a mix of fact and opinion, but the slant of the blog might seriously mislead, especially if mate- rial essential to meaning is deliberately omitted.

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Hostility levels between business and the news media go up and down, and the PR person usually tries to ride the tide without drowning. Organization officers often admit that they rely on their PR person to handle all contact with the news media because their rage wouldn’t permit civility. Of course, when PR people get along well with news media represen- tatives—as they must—their internal loyalty some- times becomes suspect. Nevertheless, the advice PR people gave for years to irate CEOs who wanted to talk back or talk to the news media representatives was “let me handle them.” The public relations and public affairs officers still handle the responses, but their stance is different. More companies and orga- nizations are talking back forcefully. The difficulty is that, as more aggressive action is taken, public credi- bility is severely strained.

Legal counsel often is on the side of aggressive action. Lawyers also don’t want anyone to apologize in a crisis that involves payment of damages. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) did issue a public apology in the hazing death of an undergrad- uate student. The mother also got a hug as she was given the $6 million dollar check that MIT paid to settle the negligence suit. Lawyers and risk manage- ment officers who deal with insurance carriers fear that any soothing words are likely to cause them problems in defending the organization. Evidence from crises, though, suggests that the tone of messages to victims and their families in a crisis often predicts their responses.

Apologies and/or expressions of regret give a human face to the organization and occasionally soften demands. Remember, the case probably will go to court anyway, and trials are open to the public. Angry, abused people may and will say anything if they feel they’ve been ill-treated or discounted.

Perception is also an issue now that crises are instandy global.20 The impression of witnessing cri- ses firsthand through the media is simply a percep- tion drawn from what the media choose to show or are able to show. People act on those perceptions— sending aid to crisis sites with sympathetic appeals or avoiding areas that appear to be dangerous due to natural or political crises.

In addition to problems of perception versus real- ity that instantaneous coverage creates, “crisis while it happens” coverage raises credibility problems because, in any breaking news situation, information is sketchy and conflicting. When the information is released without benefit of editing (which involves

checking), it places a heavy burden of responsibility on the news staff providing the coverage. Compare two 2010 crises: the rig explosion in deep water resulting in a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the 33 miners trapped alive deep in a mine in Chile. The BP oil spill elicited negative coverage almost from the beginning due to BP’s seeming lack of sympathy for those affected; in contrast, the constant coverage of efforts to rescue the miners and the treatment of them and their families gripped watchers worldwide in support of the rescue effort. Both situations ended with pending lawsuits, but the attitudes of those involved in the Chilean incident and of global public opinion toward the mine inci- dent was positive while attitudes toward BP were almost uniformly negative. Safety issues are at the core of both crises, and in the mine incident, news coverage put a greater emphasis on what was learned to make a dangerous occupation safer. The response to deepwater drilling was largely the need to simply stop it. Companies that have not had incidents are being affected negatively by the crisis too.

When the crisis involves confidentiality, the diffi- culty of getting accurate information to the public through the news media is increased. The role of the public relations spokesperson becomes more cru- cial, and the spokesperson is often subjected to intense media criticism. The military spokespeople who handled briefings during the Persian Gulf crisis were subjected to intense grilling. And even though the media had unprecedented access to the field in the 2003 war in Iraq because of the military’s autho- rization of “embedded” reporters, there was criticism of the U.S. command’s control over media briefings. But despite government censorship and controls, the instantaneous coverage that is transmitted globally has circumvented the traditional editing process, and editing now is left to reporters who often don’t have the luxury of time to check and confirm their information. Media coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan created even more negative public opinion, reinforced by public disclosure by WikiLeaks of official military reports on Iraq and Afghanistan and diplomatic correspondence.21

Instant coverage of terrorist attacks has always been a source of difficulty, which, because of continu- ing problems in the Middle East, made even more so by the constant risk of bombings and other terrorist incidents as wars continue in the Middle East. There is some evidence that the news media, like witnesses, are less likely than government sources to use

Chapter 12 / Crisis and Credibility 329

sensationalist, judgmental or inflammatory words in describing acts of terrorism, although they do often use inflammatory characterizations of the perpetrators of terrorism.22 Presumably, the political nature of government sources influences them to characterize terrorism as political violence.

When an organization (whether a nonprofit group or a company) is the victim of terrorism, espe- cially in the case of hostage-taking, witnesses should be made available to the news media, when possible, because they have credibility and are less likely than government sources to use inflammatory words. It is also important to try to control the tendency of news media (and often of government officials) to use the victims of terrorism as symbols. For example, if the hostage is depicted as representing the USA or American citizens, the hostage’s value to terrorists acting out a protest against the USA or its policies increases. The same could be said for employees of financial institutions, taken hostage to protest eco- nomic disparities.

There is a fine line between keeping a hostage from becoming a valuable symbol and projecting an uncaring attitude about the person’s fate. The role of the public relations spokesperson in working with the news media in this situation is critical. The media’s contribution in a crisis as interpreters and educators could be enhanced in many instances if media personnel were dealing with adequately pre- pared and trained public relations spokespeople who could supply accurate background information.

Some of the most serious issues that occur in reporting global crises arise from a conflict of opinion about the function, role and responsibility of the mass media. In some countries, news media are privately owned and function with few government restraints. In other countries, news media are under considerable

government regulation and supervision. There are differences in government oversight among the media, with broadcast media being the most highly regulated, even in the USA. Media roles are inter- preted differently, too, with some countries seeing them as representative spokespersons for the country. Even more controversial is the view of media “respon- sibility,” which varies individually among journalists as well as collectively among media organizations, and is closely tied to values.

The way news media representatives interpret the function, role and responsibility of the news media affects how they report a crisis, how they interact with news sources in a crisis and how their media offices present information from reporters to their audiences. Regardless of where these media are situ- ated, technology has made their reports potentially accessible to audiences all over the world. Accounts of crises are evaluated for the timeliness and usefulness of the information they contain. That information is the result of cooperation between the news media and the spokespersons for the organization in crisis.

When the organization sees news media coverage as a threat and withholds information or makes it difficult for news media to obtain information, reports of the crisis are much more distorted and the organi- zation’s perceived ability to cope with the crisis is much reduced. Fear that disclosure will damage an organization’s image virtually ensures that the crisis will be reported in greater depth, over a longer period of time and with added sensationalism, because media will turn to outside sources that often deliver specula- tion and rumor rather than facts.

Increasingly, blogs and electronic bulletin boards, which have no editors and are global, with little reg- ulation, are being used as a source of information (with impact) and rumor.

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Rumors might have enough truth to them to require action serious enough for a recall. You know your reputation is in trouble when that occurs. Determining when to recall a product can be diffi- cult, and you might be too hasty. Various carmakers encountered that difficulty in 2010 when some causes of accidents were operator-related, rather than faulty mechanics or engineering.

The right decision in a whistle-blower case can be difficult too. Deciding on the right thing to do in a whistle-blower case starts with determining the valid- ity of the accuser and the accusations. A whistle- blower usually is an insider with access to information that is being withheld. The whistle-blower knows that if this information is made public, it could damage an organization’s reputation, precipitate litigation or reg- ulatory action, or require costly changes in a product.

The term whistle-blower often invites memories of the Karen Silkwood case that resulted in a book and a film. Normally, whistle-blowers are legally challenged by the company, not physically attacked. However, that is risky, too, because whistle-blowers have high credibility because of their inside information.

An organization’s first job is to ask for the whistle- blower’s evidence and determine whether the accusa- tion is real or contrived. Because the whistle-blower generally is known by the company, there is often an initial reaction to that person’s credibility based on her or his reputation. When a person with a solid work reputation goes public, or, as is often the case, threatens to go public with some information, wise management investigates the accusation and fixes it.

The best companies avoid the whole issue by invit- ing and rewarding employees who find flaws and sug- gest repairs. Now, as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley law, whistle-blowers have a direct line to corporate boards of directors, so management has to discuss the issue with the board (see Chapter 7). What often happens, though, is that an unhappy employee goes public with some information, either by reporting a complaint to a regulator or by going directly to the news media, sometimes going to the Internet first. That is what provokes a crisis. Whatever the organi- zation does looks defensive. If it tries to counter the information, it has to avoid attacking the individual, not only for legal reasons, but because it looks like a giant crushing an ant trying to carry food to the colony. The best defense, the only defense, is the truth. Unfortunately, that often takes some time to determine. From a public relations standpoint, the best initial response is to acknowledge the information without any judgment and report back as soon as pos- sible with the facts. Failure to investigate the

Reacting to Special Crisis Situations: Rumors, Recalls, WhistleBlowers, Takeovers and Litigation Journalism/PR Rumors can start anywhere, and rumors can create a crisis, demanding an immediate response when many facts are unknown. Rumors also are very likely to start at the onset of a situation that becomes a full-blown crisis, again because facts are difficult to gather for a credible response. The longer a crisis continues, the more likely rumors are to develop, especially if reli- able information is not continuously available.

Once rumors begin, they spread with considerable speed, and it is extremely difficult to stop them. The best way to combat rumors is preventively— restricting the need for them in the first place by keeping people prompdy and accurately informed and by maintaining good two-way communication, especially in the informal networks. When rumors do start, you need to act immediately to control or counteract them. Most people learn of crises from someone they know, personally or electronically. Being a part of electronic networks, such as Twitter, gives you the entree you need to respond.

Almost immediately after the 9/11 attacks on the USA in 2001, rumors were proliferating on the Inter- net, and some of them were hoaxes perpetrated by people trying to profit from the tragedy. For example, a spam email campaign with a bogus cause tried to attract contributions. The American Red Cross sent a news release directing email recipients to its official website or online partners. The release warned about spam and said the organization would work with offi- cials to prosecute offenders and ensure that only legit- imate causes were promoted.23 So many crises have occurred since then (bombings, kidnappings, earth- quakes, floods, etc.) that astute organizations are set up to squelch rumors immediately.

Sometimes, a rumor starts from rogue websites. Some decisions have to be made about responding. Engaging the operator of the site might not only be ineffective and a waste of time, but what you say could be distorted and used against you. The complaints need to be examined, though, for any possible truth and then addressed on your website in an interactive way. If the site is something that infringes on your name, it can be shut down under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Process (UDRP), which comes from the Internet’s managing authority, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Num- bers (ICANN). Filing a complaint does cost money but could be worth it See www.icann.org/udrp/ udrp-rules-24oct99.htm for more information.24

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accusation and report the findings will damage credi- bility. Public opinion is likely to be based on the axiom, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Mergers and acquisitions often get talked about as though they are the same. That’s not the case. Mergers are when two organizations decide to become one and determine, in addition to the financial arrangements, how the joined organizations will be structured. Some- times, the names are hyphenated, at least initially, to preserve identity and signify balance. The boards are balanced with representatives for each entity, and deci- sions are made about management before agreements are signed. Because of all that is involved to provide such balance, it is no wonder that mergers often fail before being completed. Acquisitions are another mat- ter. One company is buying another. Usually, it is a larger company buying a smaller one, the AOL- Time Warner situation being something of a surprise. The acquirer holds more power, although usually every effort is made to retain key employees because that is part of the value of any purchase. The problem with both of these situations, though, is that the pro- cess invites unwanted entry of an outside company in the form of a hostile takeover. The crisis begins.

To manage the crisis, a message statement has to be crafted that is clear and understandable, no matter how complex the situation. Telling someone that the issue is “complicated” makes eyes glaze over and sus- picions surface. What you can be sure of is vilifica- tion, accusations, rumors, wildly inaccurate stories in the media (including, and maybe particularly, on the Internet) and lawsuits of all sorts.

The risk in dealing with takeovers is that people will resort to name-calling, waste energy on anger and fall for false issues that seemingly need to be addressed. Expending your organization’s energy and resources is part of a takeover strategy. Keep on the message, stay positive and be open, assertive and aggressive. Be honest and timely in responses. Sometimes, getting the attorneys to agree to let you do that may be your first battle, although more and more they are seeing the wisdom in hiring out- side PR counsel in such battles because there is too much pressure on the inside PR staff who must man- age day-to-day business to keep confidence in the organization’s ability to handle the situation.

Lawyers are using public relations tactics them- selves, and what was first called litigation journalism is now often called litigation/PR. What occurs is that attorneys try their cases in the court of public opin- ion before they get to trial. That is not a crisis unless you have a court case with some strong human inter- est elements that can be exploited before the trial.

As an organization, you may be hamstrung legally to respond if it is an individual who is suing. There will be misrepresentation of your position, unquestionably, and facts in your defense suppressed. Remember, this is prosecution, and you are the defendant. The way you defend your position with- out attacking an individual is key to handling this crisis. Incidentally, avoiding this public display is the reason many cases are settled out of court, even if the company is certain it has done nothing wrong. It saves money for continued litigation and saves the company’s reputation from continued exposure to the accusations. (See Chapter 7)

Crises are evaluated in terms of the damage done or the risk of future damage. Evaluations not based on experience are based entirely on communication, and even people involved in a crisis rely heavily on com- munication in interpreting the crisis. Because many people depend on the mass media, particularly tele- vision, for information in a crisis situation, those attempting to handle the crisis must try to get the most accurate information to the news media, posting it in many outlets available to them on the Internet and getting it to the legacy media as well as placing it with constant updates on their own websites. This must be done not only to quiet rumors that exaggerate the situation and later damage credibility, but also to instill confidence in priority publics regarding the organization’s ability to manage the crisis.

Recovery and Evaluation

For help in recovering from a crisis, the late Bob Carrell, professor emeritus of advertising at the Uni- versity of Oklahoma, suggested looking again at the first phase in his matrix of crisis communication management—a phase before the crisis event occurs. He made these recommendations for getting a crisis under control:

Determine the cause(s) of the crisis. It is important to undercut rumors and speculation that may have been rampant. Decide which strategies and policies can be developed that will prevent similar or related crises. Direct experience with a crisis, although painful, teaches more than even the best sce- nario ever could. A crisis is the most severe test of existing strategies and policies. Ask whether the crisis plan itself worked and whether changes should be made to it.

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4. Evaluate the performance of all personnel in the crisis situation. Any failures in the crisis plan may have been caused by faulty provisions in the plan or by poor execution.

Figuring out a good way to apologize for creating a crisis and selecting good timing for the apology are other aspects of recovery. Handling emotional ques- tioners and answering sensitive questions are usually what create some discomfort for respondents in a crisis, according to James E. Lukaszewski. His advice is to measure the emotional aspects of the situation by put- ting yourself in the position of the questioner and give the questioner respect by not making negative state- ments that create an adversarial relationship. He also advises to trying to defuse the situation. Staying posi- tive, telling the truth and focusing on a possible solu- tion helps. It’s also useful to stress procedures such a monitoring, regulations and oversight that apply.25

Whatever the strategy a company decides on, it needs to have the following outcomes to be considered a suc- cess in crisis handling, according to two management theorists: early detection, incident containment, business resumption, lessons leamed/policies implemented, improved reputation as a result of appropriate response, stakeholder resources readily available for response and timely decisions made on the basis of facts.26

Public relations people deal with crises that often originate and are played out in the media of cyberspace. Crises never truly go away. The way a company handles a crisis becomes a part of its reputation. Occasionally, an email about an old event resur- faces as “new information.”

If this occurs to your organization, be sure your information is with the various online sites that handle fact-checking. Organizations already in online dialogue with var- ious constituencies will be in a better position to have their crisis messages accepted and may even have some self-appointed supporters come to their rescue in cyberspace. The role of the CEO in a crisis is especially important. Looking at the variety of typical man- agement behavior will aid in planning. Historically, if the CEO has been involved in or responsible for the crisis, the organization has had greater difficulty in recovering. Anticipating such a situation may make planning awkward, but one way to cast it in planning is presenting a situation where something happens to the CEO, illness, kidnapping, etc. Anticipation through imagining crises that could occur is part of planning. It is especially important to determine the vulnerability of the organization to different types of crises. Crises that originate on the Internet require an immediate response. Anticipation of different types of online crises can offer guidance in craft- ing message statements. Remember to consider “nimbus” publics—publics that were not designated recipients of messages, activities or products/services of the organization, but who nevertheless become activated by the crisis. The credibility of an organization is always at stake, and that’s why working with the news media is so critical. However, expect bias to occur in the coverage. This often is rooted in often-intertwined economic and political reasons, especially in global situations. Employees are the most critical public in a crisis because they affect the way the crisis is interpreted by others. Make them aware of issues immedi- ately, give them the facts and ask for feedback. There are three key elements for dealing with a crisis: having a plan, assembling a team and using a single spokesperson.

Discussion Questions 1. Identify recent crises (total of six) to illustrate

each crisis in the typology in Figure 1.1 2. List three situations that are likely to cause a

crisis and name an organization that would be vulnerable in each situation.

3. For one of these situations, develop a compre- hensive list of publics/stakeholders, noting the impact of the crisis on each of them.

4. In that same situation, what plans would you make now to ward off the crisis or prepare for it if you think it can’t be prevented?

Points to Remember Crises challenge organizations to live up to their reputations, and the way a crisis is handled deter- mines the outcome, both in the court of public opinion and in terms of an organization’s credibil- ity and, hence, its reputation. Two broad categories of crises are violent and nonviolent. Within each of these two are subcate- gories for acts of nature, intentional acts and unintentional events.

Chapter 12 / Crisis and Credibility 333

The onset of a crisis may be instant, so plan for that. The same technology means word of a crisis is usually communicated globally. Have a team in place, a dark site in reserve and possible message statements drafted for different scenarios of potential crises. Telling the crisis story (narrative) and the tone of the message are critical to gain support. Spokespersons must know all aspects of a crisis to be able to craft instant and accurate response on the spot. Many factors change crisis responses whether these responses be words or action or both, so expect and plan for flexibility while maintaining responsiveness. In a crisis, other media will be there to cover it, including “citizen journalists,” but the organiza- tion’s own channels of communication may be disrupted or difficult to reach. Crises usually provoke rumors because there is a vacuum of information, and rumors can create crises that are difficult to quiet. Crisis constants help anchor planning—people learn from others, interpret the crisis in personal terms, rely on “official” sources of expertise for ver- ification, see the seriousness of the crisis in terms of global responses, perceive information made avail- able from the agent in the crisis as openness/trans- parency and are more likely to discredit rumor. Remember that the outcome of a crisis, what peo- ple remember, is what contributes to credibility and reputation. Some feel that dealing with crises openly is likely to create litigation, but you should expect to be sued anyway. If you’ve been open and honest in

your communication, that probably will be an asset in litigation. Maintain the management perspective to get the internal support needed. Remember the critical role of employees, all of them, in a crisis. Top management’s temperament and decision- making style affect the outcome of a crisis dramatically. Handling surprise events such as leaks and whistle-blowers well is critical to reputation because these sources have high credibility. Rumors can initiate or exacerbate a crisis, so these cannot be left unaddressed. Recalls of products can be a response to a crisis, but also an unexpected recall can create a crisis. The way recalls are handled and communicated affects public confidence in the organization. Some crises can be avoided through effective communication. All can be better managed. Good communication without action in dealing with a crisis is, however, not effective.

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Notes

16 Joey Reagan, Ronald Anderson, Janine Sumner and Scott Hill, “A Factor Analysis of Broom and Smith’s Public Relations Roles Scale,” Journalism Quarterly, 67(1) (Spring 1990), pp. 177-83. Michael Ryan, “Participative vs. Authoritative Envi- ronments,” Journalism Quarterly, 64(4) (Winter 1987), pp. 853-57.

18 Ibid., p. 855. 19 Ibid., p. 856. 20 Henderson is quoted by William A. Durbin, “Man-

aging Issues Is Pubbc Relations’ ResponsibiHty,” in “Tips and Tactics,” biweekly supplement of pr reporter, 16(9) (May 15, 1978), pp. 1, 2.

i Durbin, “Managing Issues,” pp. 1, 2. Reported in PRSA’s Public Relations Tactics (October 2010), p. 4.

23 David G. Clark and William B. Blankenburg, You & Media (San Francisco: Canfield Press, 1973), p. 175.

24 Frederick Andrews, “Puzzled Businessmen Ponder New Methods of Measuring Success,” The Wall Street Journal (September 9, 1971), p. 1. Reprinted with permission of The Wall Street Journal, © Dow Jones & Company, Inc., 1971.

25 Phifip Lesly, “Effective Management and the Human Factor,” Journal of Marketing, 29 (April 1965), pp. 1-4. Reprinted by permission of the American Marketing Association.

26 Phifip Lesly, “Challenges of the Communications Explosion,” The Freeman (October 1973), pp. 607-8. www.TheFreemanOnline.org.

27 David Finn, “Modifying Opinions in the New Human Climate,” Ruder & Finn Papers no. 1, re- printed from Public Relations Quarterly, 17 (Fall 1972), pp. 12-15, 26.

28 Ibid. 29 John Cook, “Consolidating the Communications

Function,” Public Relations Journal, 29(8) (August 1973), pp. 6-8, 27-8.

30 David Shaw, “‘Spin Doctors’ Provide New Twist,” Los Angeles Times (August 26, 1989), sec. 1, p. 24.

31 Claudia H. Deutsch, “Media Manipulation 101,” New York Times (January 21, 1990), sec. 3, part 2, p. 29.

Chapter 1 1 Robert I. Wakefield, “Effective Public Relations in

the Multinational Organization,” in Robert L. Heath, ed., Handbook of Public Relations (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001), p. 642.

2 “Stockholm Accords,” www.stockholmaccords.org Teleconference, “Stockholm Accords Analysis,” November 5, 2010, hosted by PRSA’s International e-Group.

4 Bruce Berger, “The Globalization of PR Educa- tion? ” International Public Relations Association, frontlineonline (September 9, 2010), http://www.ipra. org/frontlinedetail.asp?articleid=1851.

5 Lucien Matrat, “The Strategy of Confidence,” International Public Relations Review , 13(2) (1990), pp. 8-12. The quoted language is on p. 8.

6 PR News (October 10, 1994), p. 3. 7 Fraser Likely, “The Knock and the Roles in Public

Relations/Communications,” Journal of Corporate Public Relations (199-4—1995), pp. 7-13.

8 Frank Wylie, “The New Professionals,” Speech to the First National Student Conference, Public Relations Student Society of America, Dayton, Ohio (October 24, 1976); published by Chrysler Corpo- ration, p. 6.

9 Ibid., pp. 6-11. 10 Civil Society Team, “Issues and Options for

Improving Engagement Between the World Bank and Civil Society Organizations,” The World Bank (March 2005).

11 Stephen A. Greyser, “Changing Roles for Public Relations,” Public Relations Journal 37 (January 1981), p. 23. (Note: The Strategist is now the name of the magazine from PRSA.)

12 Philip Lesly, Managing the Human Climate, 54 (January-February 1979), p. 2.

13 James E. Grunig, “What Kind of Public Relations Do You Practice? New Theory of Public Relations Presents Four Models,” pr reporter, 27, Purview (April 9, 1984), p. 1.

14 Lalit Acharya, “Public Relations Environments,” Journalism Quarterly, 62(3) (Autumn 1985), pp. 577-84.

15 Glen M. Broom and George D. Smith, “Testing the Practitioner’s Impact on Clients,” Public Relations Review , 5(47) (1979), pp. 47-59.

336 Notes

Chapter 2 1 Labor Party media adviser to Great Britain’s

transport secretary on September 11, 2001, an hour after the first hijacked plane crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.

2 According to a report by Professor Eric Goldman of Princeton University, referred to by Edward L. Bemays in International Public Relations Review (September 1977), p. 4 of reprint. However, according to Sanat Lahiri of Calcutta, former International Public Relations Association (IPRA) president, in pr reporter (December 17, 1979), the phrase “public relations” was used much earlier by Thomas Jefferson. This reference appears in the first edition of Scott Cutlip and Allen Center, Effective Public Relations (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1952), p. 40.

3 Ibid. 4 Irwin Ross, The Image Merchants (Garden City, NY:

Doubleday, 1959), p. 51. 5 Edward L. Bemays, Public Relations (Norman:

University of Oklahoma Press, 1952), p. 84. 6 Based on Irwin Ross, The Image Merchants (Garden

City, NY: Doubleday, 1959), pp. 51-64. »7

J. A. R. Pimlott, Public Relations and American Democracy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1951), pp. 235-41.

8 Alan R. Raucher, “Public Relations in Business: A Business of Public Relations,” Public Relations Review, 16(3) (Fall 1990), p. 19.

9 Theodore Lustig, “Great Caesar’s Ghost,” Public Relations Journal (March 1986), pp. 17-20.

10 Theodore H. White, Caesar at the Rubicon (New York: Atheneum, 1968), p. 9.

11 Marcus Lee Hansen, The Atlantic Migration, 1607- 1860 (New York: Harper & Row, 1961), p. 30. Also see E. I. McCormac, White Servitude in Maryland, 1634-1820 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1904), pp. 11-14.

12 Scott M. Cutlip and Allen H. Center, Effective Public Relations, 4th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall, 1971), p. 49.

13 Richard Bissell, New Light on 1776 and All That (Boston: Little, Brown, 1975), p. 26.

14 Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism (New York: Macmillan, 1950), pp. 179-80.

15 Jerome Mushkat, Tammany: The Evolution of a Political Machine (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Univer- sity Press, 1971), pp. 373-74. “Public opinions” are noted, not “polls” specifically, in this reference. See

also Gustavas Myers, The History of Tammany Hall (New York: Gustavas Myers, 1901).

16 Stanley L. Jones, The Presidential Election of 1896 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1964), pp. 276-96.

17 Ibid., p. 295. 18 Deborah J. Warner, “The Women’s Pavilion,” in

Robert C. Post, ed., 1876: A Centennial Exhibition (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1976).

19 Vernon L. Parrington, Main Currents in American Thought (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1938), pp. 31-43, especially p. 40.

^ A Cudip and Center, Effective Public Relations, 4th ed., p. 49. See also John Walton, John Filson of Kentucky (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1956). Also in Cutlip, Center and Broom, 7th ed. (1994), p. 107.

21 Bernays, Public Relations, pp. 36-39. 22 Cudip and Center, Effective Public Relations, 4th ed.,

p. 83. 23 The rest of the remark, made in 1882 in his private

railroad car while being interviewed by reporters, was “I don’t take any stock in this silly nonsense about working for anybody’s good but our own because we’re not. When we make a move we do it because it is in our interest to do so.” Roger Butterfield, Amer- ican Past (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1947), p. 476.

24 Richard Bissell, The Monongahela (New York: Rinehart, 1952), pp. 184—91.

23 John Brooks, “From Dance Cards to the Ivy League Look,” The New Yorker (May 18, 1957), p. 74.

26 Vail also sought third-party credibility by subsidiz- ing the writing of favorable editorials and by giving newspaper editors free long-distance service. For more on this aspect of Vail, see Marvin N. Olasky, “The Development of Corporate Public Relations 1850-1930,” Journalism Monographs, 102 (April 1987) (Columbia, S.C.: Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 1987).

27 William R. Faith, “The American Public Relations Experience: 400 Years from Roanoke to Reagan” (New York: Institute of Public Relations Research and Education, unpublished manuscript).

28 Scott M. Cudip and Allen H. Center, Effective Public Relations, 5th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall, 1978), p. 73. Also in Cudip, Center and Broom, 7th ed. (1994), p. 98.

29 Forrest McDonald, Insull (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), pp. 44-45.

337Notes

53 Ibid. 54 Alan R. Raucher, “Public Relations in Business: A

Business of Public Relations,” Public Relations Review , 16(3) (Fall 1990), p. 21.

55 L.L.L. Golden, Only by Public Consent: American Corporations Search for Favorable Opinion (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1968), pp. 37—39.

56 George Creel, How We Advertised America: The First Telling of the Amazing Story of the Committee on Public Information That Carried the Gospel of Ameri- canism to Every Comer of the Globe (New York: Harper & Row, 1920), especially pp. 18-19. Bernays volunteered to help on the Foreign Press Bureau and had to have his loyalty investigated by military intelligence, since he was Austrian-born.

58 Who Was Who in America, vol. 3 (Chicago: Marquis—Who’s Who, Inc., 1960), p. 129.

59 Bernays, Public Relations, p. 84. 60 Walter Lippmann, in Clinton Rossiter and

James Lare, eds., The Essential Lippmann (New York: Vintage Books, 1963), p. 96.

61 Golden, Only by Public Consent, pp. 37-39. 62 Cutlip and Center, Effective Public Relations, 4th ed.,

p. 91. See also George Griswold, Jr., “How AT&T Public Relations Policies Developed,” Public Rela- tions Quarterly, 12 (Fall 1967), pp. 7-16. Golden, Only by Public Consent, p. 386.

64 Cutlip and Center, Effective Public Relations, 4th ed., pp. 674, 675.

63 Philip Meyer, Precision Journalism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973), pp. 144—45; seealso George H. Gallup and Saul Forbes Rae, The Pulse of Democracy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1940), pp. 41-56.

66 George Juergens, News from the White House: The Presidential Press Relationship in the Progressive Era (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), p. 29.

67 Rodger Streitmatter, “The Rise and Triumph of the White House Photo Opportunity,” Journalism Quarterly, 65(4) (Winter 1988), pp. 981-86. Ibid.

69 Ross, Image Merchants, p. 102. *7 C\ Charles S. Steinberg, The Creation of Consent (New

York: Hastings House, 1975), p. 27. Bernays, Public Relations, p. 145.

*7 -7 Richard Meran Barsam, The Nonfiction Film (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1973), p. 129.

30 Ronald A. Fullerton, “Art of Public Relations: U.S. Department Stores, 1876-1923,” Public Relations Review , 16(3) (Fall 1990), p. 69.

31 Ibid, p. 71. 32 Ibid, p. 72. 33 Sherman Morse, “An Awakening on Wall Street,”

American Magazine, 62 (September 1906), p. 460. 34 Faith, “The American Public Relations

Experience.” ^ r W. A. Swanberg, Pulitzer (New York: Scribner’s,

1967), pp. 73-122. 36 Cornelius C. Regier, The Era ofMuckrakers (Chapel

Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1932). Douglas Ann Johnson Newsom, “Creating Con- cepts of Reality: Media Reflections of the Con- sumer Movement” (Austin: University of Texas, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 1978).

38 Ross, Image Merchants, pp. 29-30. 39 Cutlip and Center, Effective Public Relations, 4th ed,

p. 72. In 7th ed, p. 101. See also Scott M. Cutlip, “The Nation’s First Public Relations Firm,” Jour- nalism Quarterly, 43 (Summer 1966), pp. 269-80.

40 William Kittle, “The Making of Public Opinion,” Arena, 41 (1909), pp. 433-50.

41 Cutlip and Center, Effective Public Relations, 4th ed, p. 83. In 7th ed, pp. 107-08.

42 Scott M. Cutlip, Fund Raising in the United States: Its Role in America's Philanthropy (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1965).

43 Ibid. 44 Ibid. 45 Ibid, (letter from Pendleton Dudley to Major Earl

F. Storer). 46 Howard Weeks, “The Development of Public

Relations as an Organized Activity in a Protestant Denomination” (Washington, D.C.: American University, unpublished master’s thesis, 1963).

47 McDonald, Insull, p. 3. David L. Lewis, “Pioneering the Film Business,” Public Relations Journal (June 6, 1971), pp. 14—18.

49 Cutlip and Center, Effective Public Relations, 4th ed, p. 82.

50 Ibid. 51 Lewis, “Pioneering the Film Business,” pp. 14-18. 52 Stephen Ponder, “Progressive Drive to Shape

Public Opinion, 1898-1913,” Public Relations Review , 16(3) (Fall 1990), p. 95.

338 Notes

73 Ibid., pp. 151-56. 74 Golden, Only by Public Consent, pp. 163-72.

Ross, Image Merchants, p. 93. 76 Ibid., pp. 87-88.

Cutlip and Center, Effective Public Relations, 4th ed., p. 673. See also comments in Golden, Only by Public Consent, pp. 347-50, and the Public Relations Society of America.

*7Q Richard W. Darrow et al., Public Relations Handbook (Chicago: Dartnell Corporation, 1967), pp. 55-56.

79 Facts an File, Vol. 17, “National Affairs” (New York: Facts on File, 1957), p. 116. PRSA Blue Book. See also Golden, Only by Public Consent, pp. 347-50.

81 Ibid. 82 Stephen A. Greyser and Steven L. Diamond,

“Business Is Adapting to Consumerism,” Harvard Business Review (September-October 1974), p. 38.

83 Public Relations Society of America, “Frustration Shock,” slide presentation script, 1974, p. 2. [Hereafter cited as PRSA, 1974.] Greyser and Diamond, “Business Is Adapting,” p. 38.

85 Rebecca Smith, “Before Nader, There Was Helen Nelson,” Dallas Morning News (Sept. 24, 1995), p. 7F. PRSA, 1974, p. 7.

87 Smith, “Before Nader,” p. 7F. Ralph Nader, “A Citizen’s Guide to the American Economy,” in Robert R. Evans, ed., Social Move- ments (Chicago: Rand McNally College Publishing, 1973), p. 217. Edgar Chasteen, “Public Accommodations,” in Robert R. Evans, ed., Social Movements (Chicago: Rand McNally College Publishing, 1973), p. 379. PRSA, 1974, pp. 3 1̂.

91 D. J. Aulik and L. J. Saleson, “Client Satisfaction: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Model Development—A Perspective,” paper presented at School of Business, University of Wisconsin at Madison, May 12, 1975.

92 Nader, “A Citizen’s Guide,” p. 220. 93 PRSA, 1974, p. 3. 94 According to the 1970 U.S. Census, this age group

accounted for 11 percent of the population. 95 Louise Cook, “Consumer Voices Being Heard,”

Fort Worth Evening Star-Telegram (May 18, 1976), p. 7A.

96 Anthony M. Orum, ed., The Seeds of Politics: Youth and Politics in America (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice- Hall, 1972), p. 3.

07 Robert Glessing, The Underground Press in America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970), p. 51. 1966 Facts on File, p. 526.

99 Bo Burlingham, “Popular Politics,” Economic Working Papers (Summer 1974), pp. 5-14. See also Cook, “Consumer Voices,” op. cit.; Richard Flacks, “The Liberated Generation,” in Orum, ed., The Seeds of Politics, pp. 267-68; Orum, The Seeds of Politics, p. 3. PRSA, 1974, p. 1. Ibid., p. 3. 1967 Facts on File, p. 85. 1971 Facts on File, p. 801. Aulik and Saleson, “Client Satisfaction,” p. 2. Sylvia Porter, “‘Fair Deal’ Wanted, Anybody Listening? ” Dallas Morning News, May 18, 1977, p. 5C. David G. Clark and William B. Blankenburg, You and Media (San Francisco: Canfield Press, 1973), p. 175. 1970 Facts on File, p. 830. Facts on File, vol. 29, “U.S. Developments” (New York: Facts on File, 1969), pp. 266-67; see also vol. 28, p. 625. Ibid. Andrew Hacker, “Survey of the 70s,” Britannica Book of the Year, 1980, pp. 129-37. Dave Montgomery, “A Texan Meets the Press (and Says a Little Prayer),” Fort Worth Star Telegram (April 10, 1983), p. 29A.

112 Sidney Blumenthal, “Brave New World: Marketing the President,” Dallas Morning- News (September 20, 1981), p. Gl.

113 Ibid. Streitmatter, “Rise and Triumph of White House Photo Opportunity,” p. 985. Howard Greene, “USIA’s TV Network Could Be ‘Most Powerful’ Propaganda Instrument in History of World,” TV Guide, 1987, news release, pp. 27-29. Randall Rothenberg, “Brits Buy Up the Ad Busi- ness,” New York Times Magazine (July 2, 1989), p. 14.

80 100

101

102

103

104

105

84 106

107

86 108

88 109

110

89 111

114

115

116

339Notes

117 Robin Massey, Ketchum’s 2008 Media, Myths and Realities Survey.

K Alicia Stetzer, “Teen Social Media Influencers Wield Power Online and Offline,” Ketchum’s 2008 survey of social media users age 13-19, accessed July 9, 2010, from http://newsroom.ketchum.com/news- releases/teen-social-media-influencers-wield-power- online-and-offline.

<; Staff, Science NOW, accessed July 11, 2010, from http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/04/ multitasking-splits-the-brain.html.

10 Louis C. Williams and David M. Dozier, “Framing Communication Audits to Create Positive Outcomes for Organizations,” paper presented at the 13th International Public Relations Research Conference, March 10-13, 2010, Miami, Florida, available through the Public Relations Institute.

11 Ibid. 12 Roger D. Wimmer and Joseph R. Dominick,

Mass Media Research, 8th ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2005).

13 Bernard Berelson, “Content Analysis in Communi- cation Research,” in Bernard Berelson and Morris Janowitz, eds., Reader in Public Opinion and Communication, 2nd ed. (Glencoe, EL: Free Press, 1953), p. 263.

14 Kristine Johnson, “Imagine This: Radio Revisited Through Podcasting” (August 2007), Texas Chris- tian University.

Chapter 4 1 Wilbur Schramm, Men, Messages, and Media: A Look

at Human Communication (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), pp. 243-45.

2 Andrea Gerlin, “Jury Pickers May Rely Too Much on Demographics,” The Wall Street Journal (December 16, 1994), pp. Bl, 8.

3 SRI International, VALS Program, 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, California 94025.

4 Sharon Begley, “What’s Really Human? The Trouble With Student Guinea Pigs,” Newsweek (August 2, 2010), p. 20.

5 See David Buckingham, “News Media, Political Socialization and Popular Citizenship: Towards a New Agenda,” Critical Studies in Mass Communica- tion, 14 (1997), pp. 344-66.

6 W. Timothy Coombs and Sherry J. I lolladay pro- vide a good discussion of this in IPs Not Just PR: Public Relations in Society (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007), pp. 109-11.

Tom Duncan, Clarke Caywood, and Doug Newsom, “Preparing Advertising and Public Relations Students for the Communications Industry in the 21st Century,” Report of the Task Force on Inte- grated Communications (December 1993), Appendix C. Carolyn Cline, Hank Smith, Nancy Johnson, Elizabeth Lance Toth, Judy VanSlyke Turk, and Lynne Masel Walters, “The Velvet Ghetto” (San Francisco: LABC Foundation, summary report, 1986). Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, “Public Relations Specialists (Washington: U.S. Department of Labor, n.d.) Retrieved January 27, 2011, from http://bls.gov/oco/ocos086.htm. 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer, “Key Findings,” retrieved January 27, 2011, from http://www.edel- man.com/trust/2O i l.

118

119

120

Chapter 3 1 Don W. Stacks, Preface, Primer of Public Relations

Research (New York: Guilford Press, 2002), p. vi. In the second edition (2011), Stacks notes in the pref- ace (p. vi) that: “Readers need to understand how the best-practices approach will make for better research and will aid them in evaluating the data and analyses provided by public relations research firms.” The best-practices emphasis shows how public relations objectives should focus on the overall business objectives and the final goal to offer evidence of return on investment (ROI).

2 For new research information, contact the Institute for Public Relations, www.instituteforpr.org. Do Search Engines Offer Objective Results on

Your Company? Maybe Not, IPR Learns,” Ragan's Interactive Public Relations, 6(11) (November 2000), pp. 1-2, 7. 90% of Americans Get Too Much Sodium,”

LiveScience (June 24, 2010), accessed July 8, 2010, from www.livesdence.com/health/americans-get- too-much-sodium-100624.

5 Robyn Massey, “Media in the 21st Century: The Great Melding Pot,” Ketchum’s 2008 Media, Myths and Realities Survey, accessed July 9, 2010, from www.ketchum.com/media_myths_and_realities_ 2008_survey_news_release.

6 Jennifer 8. Lee, “Digital Journalist Survival Guide: A Glossary of Tech Terms You Should Know,” PoynterOnline, accessed July 7, 2010, from www. poynter.org. A note by Steve Myers of Poynter said the latest version of the glossary is available on the Ilacks/I lackers website, www.poynter.org.

* «

4 44

Copyright 2012 Ccrgigc 1.earring All Right* Reversed May not he copied warned or djpUaxd m whole or in port. Due to electronic nghty «*»e third pirn concent may he suppressed from the eBook and/or cChapccri*). Editorial rev iew ho deemed that any suppressed content doc* not materially affect the overall learning experience. Ccrgagc Learning reserve* the right to rernene additional content at any time if subsequent right* restriction* require it.

340 Notes

John Bitter, “A Basic Training Document: Follow- ing a Problem Solving Cycle Steadies the Course in a Crisis,” pr reporter (January 24, 1983), pp. 1-2.

8 Otto Lerbinger, ed., “Issues Management Strategies Suitable for Different Lifecycle,” Purview (March 26, 1990), p. 277. From John F. Mahon, “Corporate Political Strategy,” Business in the Contemporary World, 2 (Autumn 1989), pp. 50-62. For a compre- hensive look at issues management and its implica- tions, see Robert L. Heath, “Corporate Issues Management: Theoretical Underpinnings and Research Foundations,” in Larissa A. and James E. Grunig, eds., Public Relations Research Annual, vol. 2 (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1990), pp. 29-65. For a good discussion of the application of theory to the process, see Gabriel M. Vasquez, “Testing a Communication Theory-Method- Message-Behavior Complex for the Investigation of Publics,” Journal of Public Relations Research, 6(4) (1994).

9 Richard K. Long, “Understanding Issue Dynamics,” in Darden Chambliss, ed., Public Affairs in the New Era (New York: PRSA, 1986), pp. 22-4.

10 For the ethnoecology approach to corporate cul- ture, see James L. Everett, “Organizational Culture and Ethnoecology in Public Relations Theory and Practice,” in Larissa A. and James E. Grunig, eds., Public Relations Research Annual, vol. 2 (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990), pp. 235-51.

11 Melvin L. DeFleur and Sandra Ball-Rokeach, Theo- ries of Mass Communication, 5th ed. (New York: Longman, 1989), p. 159. “Mass society refers to the relationship that exists between individuals and the social order around them. In mass society viduals are presumed to be in a situation of psycho- logical isolation from others, impersonality is said to prevail in their interaction with others, and they are said to be relatively free from demands of binding social obligations.”

12 Stephen M. Downey, “Corporate Identity’s Role in Economic Recovery,” PRSA Newsletter, 11(4, 5) (April-May 1983), p. 1.

1 1 Bernard Hennessy, Public Opinion, 4th ed. (Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole, 1981), p. 4. Social scientist Ithiel de Sola Pool also said: “An opinion is a proposition, while an attitude is a proclivity to be pro or anti something.” For his discussion of public opinion, see “Public Opinion,” Handbook of Communication (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1973), pp. 779-835.

14 Hennessy, Public Opinion, pp. 4-8.

13 Daniel Katz, “The Functional Approach to the Study of Attitudes,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 29 (1960), p. 163.

16 Maureen Honey, Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gen- der and Propaganda During World War 11 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984), p. 212. Charles W. Roll, Jr. and Albert H. Cantril, Polls: Their Use and Misuse in Politics (New York: Basic Books, 1972), p. 117.

18 Carroll J. Glynn, “The Communication of Public Opinion,” Journalism Quarterly, 64(4) (Winter 1987), pp. 688-97. See also Charles T. Salmon and Hayg Oshagan, “Community Size, Perceptions of Major- ity Opinion, and Opinion Expression,” in Public Relations Research Annual, vol. 2, pp.157-71.

19 Melvin DeFleur and Sandra Ball-Rokeach, Theories of Mass Communication (New York: Longman, 1989), p. 192.

r\ Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann, “Turbulences in the Climate of Opinion: Methodological Applications of the Spiral of Silence Theory,” Public Opinion Quar- terly, (1977), pp. 143-58, and The Spiral of Silence— Public Opinion, Our Social Skin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).

21 Hadley Cantril, Understanding Man's Social Behavior (Princeton, NJ: Office of Public Opinion Research, 1947), p. 31.

Chapter 5 1 For more on this, see Melvin L. DeFleur and Sandra

Ball-Rokeach, Theories of Mass Communication, 5th ed. (New York: Longman, 1989), pp. 29-43.

2 To understand the use of system theory in public relations, you need to go to theory books for mass communication and interpersonal communication. For interpersonal, read the latest edition of Stephen W. Litdejohn’s Theories of Human Communication; for mass communication, look in the latest edition of Communication Theories by Werner J. Severin and James W. Tankard, Jr. Daniel Katz and Robert L. Kahn, The Social Psy- chology of Organizing (New York: Wiley, 1978; from the initial 1966 publication).

4 Norman Wiener, Cybernetics-. On Control and Com- munication in the Animal and the Machine (New York: Wiley, 1948) and later his The Human Side of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor, 1954).

5 For more on grounded theory, see Barney Glaser and Anselm L. Strauss, The Discovery of Grounded Theory (Chicago: Aldine, 1967).

indi-• • •

341Notes

6 For more on this, see Doug Newsom, Bridging the Gaps in Global Communication, Chapter 5, Nonverbal Interaction: Action, Sound and Silence; and Chapter 6, Theories of Signs and Language (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. 2007). Jurgen Habermas, Knowledge and Human Interests, translated by Jeremy J. Shapiro (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), p. 192.

8 See Jean-Francois Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condi- tion: A Report on Knowledge (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984), and Jean Baudrillard’s Simulations (New York: Semiotext, 1983).

9 See Michael Foucault, Madness and Civilization, 1967, and The Order of Things, I972, both published by Tavistock in London. Behavioral Model Replacing Communications

Model as Basic Theoretical Underpinning of PR Practice,” pr reporter, 33(30) (July 30, 1990).

11 For integrated communication models, see the “Drivers of Brand Relationships” and “the integra- tion triangle” as well as a cross functional chart for internal organizational structure to facilitate inte- gration in Tom Duncan and Sandra Moriarty’s book, Driving Brand Value (New York: McGraw- Hill, 1997).

12 Somewhat different motivational patterns are given by Daniel Katz and Robert Kahn in The Social Psy- chology of Organizations (New York: John Wiley, 1966), p. 341. Given as “motivational patterns for producing various types of required behaviors” are the following: (1) legal compliance; (2) the use of rewards or instrumental satisfactions—either indi- vidual rewards or “system” rewards such as earned memberships or seniority, earned approval of leaders or affiliations with peers that win social approval; (3) internal patterns of self-determination and self-expression; and (4) internal values and self- concept.

1 * William J. McGuire, “Persuasion, Resistance, and Attitude Change,” in Ithiel de Sola Pool et al., eds., Handbook of Communication (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1973), p. 221.

14 Ibid., p. 223. [ - Herbert L Schiller, The Mind Managers (Boston:

Beacon Press, 1973), pp. 134-35. 16 Mark D. Harmon and Robert Muenchen, “Semantic

Framing in the Buildup to the Iraq War: Fox v CNN and other U.S. Broadcast News Programs” (ETC: A Review of General Semantics, vol. 66, No. 1) pp. 12-25. One source listed in their article is a framing definition by Robert M. Entman from Pro- jection of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion and

U.S. Foreign Policy (Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 2004) p. 5.

1 William L. Rivers, The Opinionmakers (Boston: Beacon Press, 1965), p. 1.

18 Zimbardo et al., Influencing Attitudes (Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1977), p. 156.

19 Robert B. Cialdini, Joyce E. Vincent, Stephen K. Lewis, Jose Catalan, Diane Wheeler and Betty Lee Darby, “Reciprocal Concessions Procedure for Inducing Compliance: The Door in the Face Technique,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychol- ogy, 31 (1975), pp. 206-15.

:( ) Stephen W. Littlejohn, Theories of Human Communication (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2002) pp. 126-8.

21 Ibid., pp. 128-30. 22 Cialdini et al., “ Reciprocal Concessions Procedure

for Inducing Compliance.” 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid. 25 Ibid. 26 From Earl Newsom’s published speeches: “Ele-

ments of a Good Public Relations Program,” pre- sented to public relations conference of Standard Oil (New Jersey) and affiliated companies, Decem- ber 3, 1946; “A Look at the Record,” presented to Annual Public Relations Conference of Standard Oil (New Jersey), December 16, 1947; “Our Job,” pre- sented to Reynolds Metal’s executives, March 21, 1957.

: Philip Lesly, “Guidelines on Public Relations and Public Affairs,” in Managing the Human Climate, no. 24, adapted from The People Factor: Managing the Human Climate (Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin, 1974). Another Propaganda Technique,” Glimpse, 39

(March 1987), p. 2. 29 Leon Festinger, “The Theory of Cognitive Disso-

nance,” in Wilbur Schramm, ed., The Science of Human Communications (New York: Basic Books, 1963), pp. 17-27. See also Festinger’s A Theory if Cognitive Dissonance (Stanford, CA: Stanford Uni- versity Press, 1982); and Philip B. Zimbardo, Ebbe B. Ebbesen and Christina Maslach, Influencing Atti- tudes and Changing Behavior: An Introduction to The- ory and Applications of Social Control arid Personal Power, 2d ed. (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1977).

30 Earl Newsom, “Elements of a Good Public Rela- tions Program.”

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342 Notes

31 Charles U. Larson, Persuasion Reception and Respon- sibility (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1998), pp. 31-32. Mary John Smith, Persuasion and Human Action (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1982), pp. 320-22. H. D. Lasswell, “The Structure and Function of Mass Communication in Society,” in The Commu- nication of Ideas, L. Bryson, ed. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1948). As a political scientist, Lasswell was primarily interested in propaganda and in 1927 wrote a book on propaganda used in World War I. To review his communication model and some modifications on it, see Denis McQuail and Sven Windahl, Communication Models, For the Study of Mass Communication (New York: Longman, 1981), pp. 10-11.

34 McQuail and Windahl, pp. 13-14. 35 Summaries at the first of each section are from

Alexis S. Tan, Mass Communication Theories and Research (New York: Allyn & Bacon/Longman, 1985), pp. 141-43, 164-65, 176-77, 204-05.

2 x

Jay A. Conger, “The Necessary Art of Persuasion,” Harvard Business Review (May-June 1998), pp. 84-95. Michael D. Slater and Donna Rouner, “How Mes- sage Evaluation and Source Attributes May Influ- ence Credibility Assessment and Belief Change,” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 73(4) (Winter 1996), pp. 974—91.

38 Lijiang Shen, “Mitigating Psychological Reactance: The Role of Message-Induced Empathy in Persua- sion,” Human Communication Research 36(3) (2010), pp. 397-422.

39 See the chart on page 55 of William McGuire, “Theoretical Foundations of Campaigns,” in Ronald E. Rice and William J. Paisley, eds., Public Commu- nication Campaigns (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1981).

40 Maxwell McCombs, Setting the Agenda: The News Media and Public Opinion (Cambridge, England: Polity Publishers, 2002). Watch for changes in agenda-setting as reactions to information in non- refereed media affect opinions; for example, the power of negative information to affect media agendas, especially in the case of personal attributes. See H. Denis Wu and Renita Coleman, “Advancing Agenda-Setting Theory: The Comparative Strength and New Contingent Conditions of the Two Levels of Agenda-Setting Effects,” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 86(4) (2009), pp. 775-89.

41 Jian-Hua Zhu, James A. Watt, Leslie B. Snyder, Jingtao Yan and Yansong Jiang, “Public Issue Pri- ority Formation: Media Agenda-Setting and Social

Interaction,” Journal of Communication, 43(1) (Win- ter 1993), pp. 8-29. See also Samuel Coad Dyer, “Descriptive Modeling for Public Relations Envi- ronmental Scanning: A Practitioner’s Perspective,” Journal of Public Relations Research, 8(3) (1996), pp. 137-50. Dyer operationalizes an agenda-setting model for research in public relations issues monitoring.

42 Richard D. Waters, Natalie T.J. Tindall and Timothy S. Morton, “Media Catching and the Journalist—Public Relations Practitioner: How Social Media Are Changing the Practice of Media Relations,” Journal of Public Relations Research 22(3) (2010), pp. 241-64.

43 For more on theories of discourse, see Doug Newsom, Bridging the Gaps in Global Communication, Part II, “The Cultural Context in Which Information Is Received, Interpreted and Understood,” especially pp. 45-124 (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell Publish- ing. 2007). Another good source about government communication has two valuable appendices: “Public Sector Attributes and Their Impact” and “Summary of Communication Theories and Models,” their See J. Suzanne Horsley, Brooke Fisher Liu and Abby Blake Levenshus in “Comparisons of U.S. Government Communication Practices: Expanding the Government Communication Decision Wheel, Communication Theory,” 20(3) (2010), pp. 269-95.

44 Edward L. Bernays, “Down with Image, Up with Reality,” Public Relations Quarterly, 22(1) (Spring 1977), p. 12.

43 Philip Lesly, “Another View of the Communica- tions Gap,” Managing the Human Climate, newsletter published by the Philip Lesly Company, Chicago, IL, 44 (May-June 1977). For the information on truthful and deceptive persuaders, see James W. Neufiep and Manfran Mattson, “The Use of Deception as a Compliance-Gaining Strategy,” Human Communication Research, 16(3) (Spring 1990), pp. 409-21.

46 Abraham Maslow, Motivation and Personality (New York: Harper & Row, 1954). See also Maslow’s Toward a Psychology of Being (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1962).

47 Don Fabun, Communications: The Transfer of Mean- ing (Encino, CA: Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp., distributed by Glencoe Press, 1969), p. 19. Copyrighted 1968 by Kaiser Aluminum and Chem- ical Corp., and reissued in 1987 by Macmillan Pub- fishing Company. For further information about readability indexes, see (1) Robert Gunning, The Technique of Clear

343Notes

Writing, rev. ed. (New York: McGraw-IIill, 1968); (2) Rudolph Flesch, How to Test Readability (New York: Harper & Row, 1951); The Art of Plain Talk (New York: Harper & Row, 1946), p. 197; and “A New Readability Yardstick,” Journal of Applied Psy- chology, 32 (June 1948), p. 221; (3) Edgar Dale and Jeanne Chall, “A Formula for Predicting Readabil- ity,” Educational Research Bulletin, 27, Ohio State University (January-February 1948); (4) Wilson L. Taylor, “Cloze Procedure: A New Tool for Measuring Readability,” Journalism Quarterly, 30 (Fall 1953), pp. 415-33; and “ Recent Developments in the Use of ‘Cloze Procedure,’” Journalism Quar- terly, 33 (Winter 1956), pp. 42-8. You might also want to read Irving E. Fang, “The Easy Listening Formula,” Journal of Broadcasting, 11 (Winter 1966- 1967), pp. 63-68; B. Aubrey Fisher, Perspectives in Human Communication (New York: Macmillan, 1978); Rudolph F. Flesch, “Estimating the Com- prehension Difficulty of Magazine Articles,” Journal of General Psychology , 28 (1943), pp. 63-80, and “Measuring the Level of Abstraction,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 34 (1950), pp. 384-90; Davis Foulger, “A Simplified Flesch Formula,” Journalism Quarterly, 55(1) (Spring 1978), pp. 167, 202.

4< > Robert Blood, “Icons and the Influence of Public Opinion,” Journal of Communication Management, 2(1) (1997), pp. 83-91. The Discipline of Language,” newsletter, Royal

Bank of Canada. 51 Steven H. Chaffee, Keith K. Stamm, Jose

L. Guerrero and Leonard P. Tipton, “Experiments on Cognitive Discrepancies,” Journalism Quarterly Monograph (December 1969). Illustrations are as follows: (1) Deadline pressures affected the selection of wire copy by wire editors; when under such con- straints, their biases affected the selection of mate- rial, whereas on other occasions, with no time pressures, they were impartial. (2) In an election campaign, there are one-sided exposures early and late that attempt to persuade voters of the opposi- tion to cross over, these should be timed to coincide with the period when they are likely to listen to arguments that run counter to their loyalties—cer-tainly not at the last minute, however, such as an election eve telethon. John C. Meyer, “Humor as a Double-Edged Sword: Four Functions of Humor in Communications,” Communication Theory, 10(3), pp. 310-31. Message Strength Withers When Borders Are

Crossed,” PR Week, May 6, 2002, p. 9. 54 Judy Motion, “ Personal Public Relations: The

Interdisciplinary Pitfalls and Innovative Possibilities

of Identity Work,” Journal of Communication Man- agement, 5(1), 2000, pp. 31-40. “A Respectful Approach To Solving Problems and Achieving Behavior Change,” pr reporter, 45(20), May 20, 2002, pp. 1-2. (Reporting on a speech by Jerry Stemin, assistant dean, Harvard Business School.)

56 Liz Yeomans, “Does Reflective Practice Have Rel- evance for Innovation in Public Relations? ” Journal of Communication Management, 5(1), 2000, pp. 72-80.

57 Ursula Stroh and Miia Jaatinen, “New Approaches to Communication Management for Transforma- tion and Change in Organizations,” Journal of Communication Management, 6(2), pp. 148-65.

58 Douglas Kiel and Euel Elliott, Chaos Theory in the Social Sciences: Foundation and Applications (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996).

5 V Juan-Carlos Molleda, “Exploratory Research About Integration of the International Corporate Public Relations Function,” paper presented at the Interna- tional Communication Association, May, 2001, Washington, D.C.

60 Rebecca Aguilar, “The One-Man Band,” The SPJ Digital Media Handbook, Part I, Society of Profes- sional Journalists (March 2010), p. 28 (online).

61 Gregg A. Payne, Jessica J. H. Severn and David M. Dozier, “Uses and Gratification Motives as Indicators of Magazine Readership,” Joumalism Quarterly, 65(4) (Winter 1988), p. 909.

62 For the evolution of the two-step flow theory, see Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld, Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in The Flow of Mass Com- munications (New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1955), pp. 15-42; Katz, “The Two-Step Flow of Communication: An Up-to-Date Report on a Hypothesis,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 21 (Spring 1957), pp. 61—78; Paul Lazarsfeld and Herbert Menzell, “xMass Media and Personal Influence,” in Wilbur Schramm, ed., Science of Human Communi- cation (New York: Basic Books, 1963); Johan Arndt, “A Test of the Two-Step Flow in Diffusion of a New Product,” Journalism Quarterly, 45 (Autumn 1968), pp. 457—65; Melvin L. DeFleur and Sandra Ball-Rokeach, Theories of Mass Communication, 5th ed. (New York: Longman, 1989), pp. 192-95, 318. Charles Russell, “Culture, Language and Behavior: Perception,” ETC, A Review of General Semantics (Spring 2000), pp. 4-27.

64 Albert xMehrabian, Silent Messages, 2nd ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1981).

50 «

53 «

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344 Notes

6? Patti Wood, “Nonverbal Cues That Show Credi- bility and Deception,” tips & tactics supplement to pr reporter, 40(5) (April 29, 2002).

66 Walter Lippmann, “Stereotypes,” in MorrisJanowitz and Paul M. Hirsch, eds., Reader in Public Opinion and

Human Communication Research, 5(1) (Fall 1978), pp. 27-39.

4 Carl I. Ilovland, Irving L. Janis and Harold H. Kelley, Communication and Persuasion: Psychologi- cal Studies of Opinion Change (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1953), p. 270. Stuart Henderson Britt, “Are So Called Successful Advertising Campaigns Really Successful? ” Journal of Advertising Research, 335 (June 1969), pp. 3-9. Also in Britt’s Consumer Behavior in Theory and Action (New York: John Wiley, 1970), pp. 46-48.

76 M. Beth Heffner and Kenneth M. Jackson, “Crite- rion States for Communication: Two Views of Understanding,” paper presented to Theory and Methodology Division, Association for Education in Journalism convention, Carbondale, Illinois, August 1972. James E. Grunig, “Communication Behaviors and Attitudes of Environmental Publics: Two Studies,” Journalism Monograph, 81 (March 1983).

8 Elizabeth Wolfe Morrison, “Information Seeking Within Organizations,” Human Communications Research, vol. 28, no. 2 (April 2002), pp. 229-42.

/ 9 Kelly Doyle Duncan, “Strategic Uses of Intranets, in High-Tech Companies: Connecting IMC Theory to Systems Development Best Practices,” IMC Research Journal (Spring 2001), pp. 27-32. pr reporter (January 6, 1986), p. 2.

81 Min-Sun Kim, “Attitude-Behavior Relations: Meta- Analysis of Attitudinal Relevance and Topic,” Journal of Communication, 43(1) (Winter 1993), pp. 101-42.

82 B. F. Skinner, “Origins of a Behaviorist,” Psychology Today (September 1983), p. 31.

Chapter 6 1 Robert W. McChesney, Rich Media, Poor Democracy:

Communication Politics in Dubious Times (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999).

2 Deon Binneman, “The Two Wolves Story,” Power Lines, 5(57) (July 7, 2005).

3 Ivan Hill, Common Sense and Everyday Ethics (Washington, D.C.: American Viewpoint, Ethics Resource Center, Incorporated, 1980), p. 95

4 John A. Koten, “Moving Toward Higher Standards for American Business,” Public Relations Review , 12(3) (Fall 1986), p. 3.

5 Andrew Hill, “BP’s Woes Are a Guide for Modem Executives,” Financial Times (January 18, 2011), p. 10.

pp. 29-37. 6 / The history of the magic bullet or hypodermic

needle theory appears in Jeffery L. Bineham’s “A Historical Account of the Hypodermic Model in Mass Communication,” Communication Monographs, 55 (1988), pp. 230-46. For a chronology of the effects debate, see Denis McQuail, Mass Communi- cation (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1987) pp. 252-56. For an update, look at Tara M. Emmers-Sommer and Mike Allen, “Surveying the Effect of Media Effects: A Meta-Analytic Summary of the Media Effects Research,” Human Communication Research, 25 (1999), pp. 478-97.

68 Alexis S. Tan, Mass Communication Theories and Research, 2nd ed. (New York: John Wiley, 1985), pp. 124-25.

69 Kurt Lewin, “Studies in Group Decision,” in Dorwin Cartwright and A. F. Zander, eds., Group Dynamics (Evanston, IL: Row Peterson, 1953); and Group Dynamics, Research and Theory, 3 rd ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1968).

70 Jose L. Guerrero and G. David Hughes, “An Empirical Test of the Fishbein Model,” Journalism Quarterly, 49 (Winter 1971), pp. 684-91.

1 Martin Fishbein, “Investigation of Relationship Between Belief About an Object and Attitude Toward That Object,” Human Relations, 16 (1963), pp. 233-39. While the illustration used here, for simplicity, involves individuals, the validity of the Fishbein model as a predictive tool for individual attitudes is disputed by Guerrero and Hughes, op. cit., who see its best application as being to group attitudes—certainly a significant observation for PR.

2 Solomon E. Asch, “Effects of Group Pressure upon the Modification and Distortion of Judgment,” in FI. Guetzkow, ed., Groups, Leadership and Men (Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press, 1951), pp. 177-90; R. S. Crutchfield, “Conformity and Character,” American Psychologist , 10 (1955), pp. 191-98. See also Asch and Crutchfield, quoted in Rex Harlow, Social Science in Public Relations (New York: I larper & Row, 1957), pp. 64-69.

3 Michael Burgoon, Marshall Cohen, Michael D. Miller and Charles Montgomery, “An Empirical Test of a Model of Resistance to Persuasion,”

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345Notes

20 Julia Angwin, “The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets,” The Wall Street Journal (July 30, 2010), accessed January 28, 2011, from http://online.wsj. com/article/SB1000142405274870394090457 5395073512989404.html

21 Ibid. 2 2 Michael Ryan, “Organization Constraints on Corporate

Public Relations Practitioners,” Journalism Quarterly,64 (2, 3) (Summer-Autumn 1987), pp. 473-82.

23 Loyalty Report Executive Summary (Indianapolis: Walker Information, September 2007), p. 3.

24 David C. Korten, When Corporations Rule the World (West Hartford, CT, and San Francisco: Berrett- Koehler Publishers), p. 212.

2 > Diana Middleton, “ B-Schools Try Makeover,” The Wall Street Journal (May 6, 2010), accessed January 28, 2011, from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100 0142405274870396110457522663204189408 8.html?KEYWORDS=curriculum+++ethics# printMode

26 For a discussion of personal responsibility in pro- fessional PR ethics, see Dean Kruckeberg, “Ethical Decision Making in Public Relations,” Public Rela- tions Review , 15(4) (1992), pp. 32-37.

2 Mark Cobley, “Norway Fund May Widen Ethics- Based Investing,” The Wall Street Journal Europe (January 18, 2008), accessed June 19, 2008, from http://online.wsj.com/article/ SB120061108879898973.html? mod=djem_ jiewr_be.

28 Nick Elliott, “ Bribery Is Top Risk for PE Firms, Says Corporate Investigator,” The Wall Street Jour- nal (January 20, 2011), accessed January 28, 2011, from http://blogs.wsj.com/privateequity/2011/01/ 20/bribery-is-top-risk-for-pe-firms-says-corporate- investigator/rKEYWORDS=corporate+bri bery.

29 Joe Palazzolo, “Professor Says FCPA Enforcement Is a fasade,” The Wall Street Journal (November 10, 2010), accessed January 28, 2011, from http^/blogs.wsj.com/corruption-currents/2010/11/10/professor- says-fcpa-enforcement-is-a-facade/?KEYWORD- S=antibribery+.

30 For articles discussing these issues, see Public Rela- tions Review , 19(1) (Spring 1993).

31 Katerina Tsetsura, “An Exploratory Study of Global Media Relations Practices,” Institute for Public Relations, accessed June 20, 2008, from http://www. instituteforpr.org/research_single/an_exploratory_s- tudy_of _global_media_relations_practices/.

32 Geoffrey A. Fowler, “ Beijing Tightens Olympics-Ad Grip,” The Wall Street Journal (June 4, 2008), pp. A17.

6 « DeLay Sentenced,” The Week (January 21, 2011), p. 9. Michael Ilickins and Aaron Rutkoff, “An Intro- spective Media Grapples with a WikiLeaks World,” The Wall Street Journal (December 11, 2010), accessed January 27, 2011, from blogs.wsj.com/ metropolis/2010/12/11/an-introspective-media/? mod=djem_ jiewrJM_domainid.

8 Justin LaHart and Mark Whitehouse, “Economists’ Group May Revamp Ethical Guide,” The Wall Street Journal (January 7, 2011), accessed January 27, 2011, from online.wsj.com/article/ SB10001424052 7487044151045760666115 32847124.html?mod=djem_ jiewr_BE-domainid. Aftershocks from the Arizona Shooting,” The Week

(Jan. 21, 2011), p. 6. 10 Hugh M. Culbertson, “IIow Public Relations

Textbooks Handle Honesty and Lying,” Public Relations Review, 9(2) (Summer 1983), pp. 65-73 (especially pp. 67, 68, 72).

11 Sissela Bok, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978).

12 Shailagh Murray and Bryan Gruley, “On Many Campuses, Big Brewers Play a Role in New Alcohol Policies,” The Wall Street Journal (November 2, 2000), pp. A1 and A10.

13 Rachel Zimmerman, “Wrangling over Abortion Intensifies as RU-486 Pill Nears the Market,” The Wall Street Journal (November 14, 2000), pp. B1 and B4.

14 Arthur W. Page, “The Page Philosophy” (Arthur Page Society, Inc., 317 xMadison Ave, Suite 2320, New York, NYC 10017).

I ? Marvin Olasky, “Public Relations vs. Private Enter- prise: An Enlightening History Which Raises Some Basic Questions,” Public Relations Quarterly, 30(4) (Winter 1985-1986), pp. 6-13.

16 “Wal-Mart Commits $500,000 to Support Flood Relief,” news release issued by Wal-Mart, June 11, 2008, accessed June 19, 2008, from http://walmart- stores.com/FactsNews/NewsRoom/8385.aspx.

1 Remi Trudel and June Cotte, “ Does Being Ethical Pay? Companies Spend Huge Amounts of Money to Be ‘Socially Responsible.’ Do Consumers Reward Them for It? And How Much?” The Wall Street Journal (May 12, 2008), p. Rl.

18 Hadley Cantril, Understanding Man's Social Behavior (Princeton, NJ: Office of Public Opinion Research, 1947), p. 60.

:<; Earl Babbie, The Practice of Social Science Research, 8th ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1998), pp. 438-46.

9 u

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346 Notes

33 Peter Loftus, “Glaxo Pulls Some Ads, Citing Image,” The Wall Street Journal (January 25, 2011), accessed January 28, 2011, from http://online.wsj. com/article/SB100014240527487035558045761 02113367709694.html?KEYWORDS=glaxosmithk line+++

34 Richard B. Schmitt, “Can Corporate Advertising Sway Juries? ” The Wall Street Journal (March 3, 1997), pp. Bl, 8.

35 Sarah Ellison, “Food Makers Propose Tougher Guidelines for Children’s Ads,” The Wall Street Journal (July 13, 2005), p. Bl.

36 Suzanne Vranica, “Controversial Snickers Ad Prompts GLAAD to Ask for Meeting with NFL,” The Wall Street Journal (February 7, 2007), pp. Al, 8.

3 Jennifer Levitz and Emily Steel, “ Boston Stunt Draws Legal, Ethical Fire,” The Wall Street Journal (February 2, 2007), p. B3.

38 Allyce Bess, “E-Mail Crusade Against Intel: Is It Trespass?” The Wall Street Journal (August 14, 2002), pp. Bl and B4.

39 Karen Tumulty, “Can Obama Shred the Rumors?” Time (June 23, 2008), pp. 40-41.

40 Emily Steel, “Multimedia Games Create TV-Show Buzz,” The Wall StreetJournal (December 7, 2007), p. B4.

41 Julie M. Donohue, Marisa Cevasco and Meredith B. Rosenthal, “A Decade of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs,” New England Journal of Medicine (August 16, 2007), accessed June 20, 2008, from http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/ full/357/7/673. AMA Calls for Tighter Drug Ad Oversight,”

ConsumerAffairs.com, accessed June 20, 2008, from http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/05/ ama_drug_ads.html. Post-It Scam Continues to Strike,” pr reporter

(March 4, 1996), p. 4. 44 Hazel Warlaumont, “ Blurring Advertising and Edi-

torial Photographic Formats,” Visual Communication Quarterly (Summer 1995), pp. 4-10.

43 David Lieberman, Fake News, TV Guide (February 22-28, 1992), pp. 10-16, 26. FCC Mulls Expanding Regulation for Prepackaged

News, PRSA Calls for Vigorous Application of Exist- ing Industry-Wide Disclosure Standards,” news release issued by PRSA (June 24, 2005), accessed Sep- tember 18, 2005, from http://media.prsa.org/article_- display.cfm?article_id=481.

4 Doug Levy, “What Kids Read About Smoking,” USA TODAY (October 11, 1994).

48 «Doctored Images Now Common,” pr reporter (April 10, 1995), p. 1.

49 Tom Wheeler and Tim Gleason, “Photography or Photofiction: An Ethical Protocol for the Digital Age,” Visual Communication Quarterly (Winter 1995), pp. 8-12.

30 Shiela Reaves, “The Unintended Effects of New Technology (and Why We Can Expect More),” Visual Communication Quarterly (Winter 1995), pp. 11-15.

'1 Public Relations Society of America, Public Relations Tactics: The Blue Book: PRSA Member Directory (New York: Public Relations Society of America, 2002), p. A3.

52 Carl Parkes, Travel Writing Subsidies, (April 11, 2007), accessed June 20, 2008, from http://travel- writers.blogspot.eom/2007/04/travel-writing-subsi- dies.html.

53 William B. Blankenburg, “The Adversaries and the News Ethic,” Public Relations Quarterly, 14(4) (Win- ter 1970), p. 31.

34 Andrew Buncombe, “There’s Beef in Your French Fries, Says McDonald’s,” Independent (London) (May 25, 2001), p. 18.

35 Alix M. Freedman, “As UNICEF Battles Baby- Formula Makers, African Infants Sicken,” The Wall Street Journal (December 5, 2000), pp. Al and A18.

56 Amar Bhide and Howard H. Stevenson, “Why Be Honest if Honesty Doesn’t Pay? ” Harvard Business Review, 67(5) (September-October 1990), pp. 121-29. Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr., “The Discipline of Build- ing Character,” Harvard Business Review (March- April 1998), pp. 114-19.

> H David Finn, “Medium Isn’t Always the Message,” Dallas Morning News (May 21, 1981), p. 4D.

Chapter 7 1 Morton J. Simon, speech to North Texas Chapter of

the Public Relations Society of America, Dallas, Texas, August 29, 1978.

2 Marian Iluttenstine, “New Roles, New Problems, New Concerns, New Law,” Southern Public Relations Journal, 1(1) (Spring 1993), p. 5.

3 Ibid. 4 Morton J. Simon, Public Relatiom Law (New York:

Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1969), pp. 16-17. Also see Joseph F. McSorley, A Portable Guide to Federal Conspiracy Law: Developing Strategies for Criminal and Civil Cases (Washington, D.C.: The American Bar Association, 1996).

42 «

43 u

46 u

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347Notes

5 Edward Felsenthal, “Justices Rule People Fined by U.S. Also Can Be Criminally Prosecuted,” The Wall Street Journal (December 11, 1997), p. B14.

6 Simon, 1969, pp. 16-17. Carole Gomey, introductory remarks, Symposium on Litigation Journalism, Austin O. Furst, Jr., Series at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1994.

H “Visual Litigation: Litigation Public Relations,” accessed August 21, 2010, from www.nyls.edu/cen- ters/projects/visual_persuasion/ visual_litigation_public_relations.

9 Huttenstine, “New Roles,” p. 5.

desk/archive/2010/05/06/market-meltdown- reaction.aspx.

2 3 Two major cases are SEC v. Texas Gulf Sulphur, 344 F. Supp. 1983 (1972), and Financial Industrial Fundv. McDonnell Douglas, 474 F. 2d 514 (1973).

26 SEC v. Texas Gulf Sulphur, 344 F. Supp. 1983 (1972).

2 Richard S. Seltzer, “The SEC Strikes Again,” Public Relations Journal, 28(4) (April 1972), p. 22.

28 SEC v. Pig W Whistle Corp., 359 F. Supp. 219 (1973).

29 Ibid. 30 SEC v. Pig ‘AT Whistle, CCH Fed. Sec. L. Rep.

(1972), pp. 34-38, 42-43. 31 For additional information, see Bryon Burrough,

“SEC Bid for Full Merger Disclosure Begs Ques- tion: What Is Disclosure? ” The Wall Street Journal (August 12, 1978), p. 17.

32 The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Con- sumer Protection Act (Pub.L.l11-203)

33 See Greenfield v. Heublein, 742 F. 2d 751 (1984), a decision that did not settle the matter of whether boards of directors have to approve agreements in principle prior to the announcement. The failure to settle caused a class action lawsuit in 1985 over the RCA-GE merger. Compare Levinson v. Basic, Inc., 786 F. 2d 741 (1986), where the court ruled that meetings occurring over a couple of months (during which time the company issued releases insisting it didn’t know why trading was heavy) on a possible merger were material and should have been dis- closed. The current Supreme Court rule is that materiality depends on the probability that the transaction under consideration will be consum- mated (99 L. Ed. 2d 220).

34 Cassell Bryan-Low, “New SEC Rules Will Aid Firms’ Insiders,” The Wall Street Journal (October 18, 2000), p. C15.

33 To follow false claims awards and companies involved, go to the False Claims Act Legal Center (TAF), www.taf.org/top20.htm.

36 Joanne Lipman, “FTC Zaps Misleading Infomer- cials,” The Wall Street Journal (June 19, 1980), pp. Bl, B6.

3 For updates and details, search FDA cases that will list and offer information about food and drug cases.

3 H William Power, “A Judge Prescribes a Dose of Truth to Ease the Pain of Analgesic Ads,” The Wall Street Journal (May 13, 1987), p. 31.

10 Ibid., pp. 5-7. 11 Ibid. pp. 7-8. 12 Ibid., p. 8. 13 Ibid., p. 10. 14 David H. Simon, “Lawyer and Public Relations

Counselor: Teamwork or Turmoil?” American Bar Journal, 63 (August 1977), pp. 1113-16.

13 James E. Lukaszewski, “Litigation Communication Management,” Executive Action (January/February/ March 2000), p. 1.

16 «(PR Communications Not Privileged, Can End Up in Court,” pr reporter (July 21, 1997), pp. 1, 2.

1 Morton Simon, Public Relations Law, pp. 16-17. 18 <‘The ABCs of Dealing with Whistle-Blower Suits,”

tips & tactics supplement of pr Reporter (May 27, 1996), pp. 1, 2.

19 Rowan v. Post Office Department, 397 U.S. 728 (1970), appeal of U.S. District Court for Central District of California, January 22, 1970, decided May 4, 1970.

20 For the complete law, visit the U.S. government website or see the Sarbanes-Oxley law.

21 For more information on Sarbanes-Oxley costs to Ad/PR conglomerates, see Jack O’Dwyer, “PR Commentary” (editorial) (August 2, 2004), www. odwyerpr.com.

22 See Carol Ilymowitz, “In Sarbanes-Oxley Era, Running a Nonprofit Is Only Getting Harder,” The Wall Street Journal (June 21, 2005), p. Bl.

23 “Compliance Update, Reg FD Sparks Smart, Interac- tive Outreach to Investors, Consumers and Media,” Interactive Public Relations (April 2001), 7(4), pp. 1-2, 4.

24 See Jonathan Rainer, “Market Meltdown Reaction” (May 6, 2010), accessed August 20, 2010, from http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/trading

Copyright 2012 Ccrgigc 1.earring All Right* Reversed May not he copied warned or duplicated in whole or in port. Due to electronic nghty «*»e third pirn concent may he suppressed from the eBook and/or cChapccri*). Editorial rev iew ho deemed that any suppressed content doc* no: materially affect the overall learning experience. Ccrgagc Learning reserve* the right to rernene additional content at any time if *ub*cqjcnt right* restriction* require it.

348 Notes

39 David G. Savage, “Corporate Free-Speech Ruling Speaks of Shift in the Supreme Court,” Los Angeles Times February 9, 2010, August 8, 2011, from http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/09;la-na- corpora tions-court10-201Ofeb.

'w Douglas Quenqua, “Nike CSR in Limbo as APCO Wins the Work,” PR Week (June 17, 2002), p. 1. For a thorough discussion of the ethical basis justifying regulation of corporate speech, see Robert L. Kerr, “Impartial Spectator in the Marketplace of Ideas: The Principles of Adam Smith as an Ethical Basis for Regulation of Corporate Speech,” JMC Quar- terly, 79(2) (Summer 2002), pp. 394-415. See Ste- phanie Kang, “Nike Settles Case with an Activist for $1.5 Million,” The Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2003, p. A10.

41 Rosalind C. Truitt, “The Cases for Commercial Speech,” Presstime (March 1996), pp. 29-31.

42 For more on the case mentioned in the FCC dis- cussion, see Jess Bravin and Amy Schatz, “Don’t Read His Lips—You Might Be Offended,” The Wall Street Journal (November 8, 2008), p A 14. For a discussion, see Chris Sienza, “Issues in Indecency,” Media Law Notes, vol. 37(1), Law Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Also, see Joel Timmer, “When a Commercial Is Not a Commercial: Advertising of Violent Entertainment and the First Amendment,” 7 Communication Law and Policy (2002), pp. 157-86.

43 For more on restrictions, see Catherine A. Pratt, “First Amendment Protection for Public Relations Expression: The Applicability and Limitation of the Commercial and Corporate Speech Models,” in Larissa A. and James E. Grunig, eds., Public Relations Research Annual, vol. 2 (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990), pp. 205-17. For back- ground on the issue, see two publications by Robert L. Kerr: “Justifying Corporate Speech Regulation Through a Town-Meeting Understanding of the Marketplace of Ideas,” Journalism Communication Monographs, 9 (Summer 2007) (Columbia, SC: Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication) and “Subordinating the Economic to the Political: The Evolution of the Corporate Speech Doctrine,” in 10 Communication Law & Pol- icy, pp. 63-99. For the ethics aspect see individual- istic and collectivist political philosophies in Elizabeth Blanks Hindman, “The Chickens Have Come Home to Roost: Individualism, Collectivism, and Conflict in Commercial Free Speech Doctrine,” paper presented to the Law Division of the Associ- ation for Education in Journalism and Mass Com- munication, Kansas City, July/August 2003.

44 Sam Ali, “Lessons Learned from Target: Flow Your Corporation Can Avoid the PR Hot Seat,” accessed August 24, 2010, from www.diversityinc.com/arti- cle/8006/Lessons-Learned-From-Target-How- Your-Corporation-Can-Avoid-the-PR-IIot-Seat/. Lobbying and Political Activity by Tax-Exempt

Organizations,” accessed August 26, 2010, from www.muridae.com/nporegulations/lobbying html.

46 Roy Beck, “National Religious Lobbying,” Social Contract Journal, 5(3), accessed August 26, 2010, from www.thesodalcontract.com.

4 George E. Stevens, “Newspaper Tort Liability for Harmful Advertising,” Newspaper Research Journal, 8(1) (Fall 1986), pp. 37^1.

4H Advice and policy guidance on FOLA is available through the executive branch’s Office of Informa- tion and Privacy. The FOIA counselor service can respond to inquiries at (202) 514-FOIA. Addition- ally, the U.S. Justice Department can make available a list of all the prindpal FOIA administrative and legal contacts at all federal agendes that deal with FOIA matters. For a discussion of the tension cre- ated by privacy and public interest, see Martin E. I lalstuk and Bill F. Chamberlin’s “The Freedom of Information Act 1966-2006: A Retrospective on the Rise of Privacy Protection Over the Public Interest In Knowing What the Government Is Up To,” 11 Communication Law & Policy , pp. 511-64. For FOIA and Open Meeting information, see Sodety of Professional Journalists magazine, Quill, Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Center, 3808 N Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46208.

49 The protection of intellectual property is changing due, in part, to a global sodety where information exchange is frequent, instant and facilitated by new media. To check on world rights, contact the World Intellectual Property Organization, www.wipo.int/ copyright/en/. In the USA, the House of Repre- sentatives revised the nation’s basic copyright law and passed a number of other related provisions in 2009-2010. They have yet to be considered by the U.S. Senate.; see www.copyright.gov/legislation. For a monograph on the implications of the interpreta- tion of copyright law for public relations, see I larold William Suckenik, “Copyright Rights Just Changed Forever—Do You Know What You’re Buying and Why? ” from the Institute for Public Relations, University of Florida, PO Box 118400, Gainesville, FL, 32611-8400. The American Sodety of Journal- ists and Authors’ Code of Ethics and Fair Practices has a position on work for hire and on model agreement The Society’s address is 1501 Broadway, Suite 302, New York, NY, 10036.

45 u

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349Notes

50 Write the U.S. Government Printing Office for copies of the copyright law that include revisions made in 2010. See also Kent R. Middleton, “Copy- right and the Journalist: New Powers for the Free- lancer,” Journalism Quarterly, 56(1) (Spring 1979), pp. 38-42. Information on the World Wide Web is a mix of copyrighted work and work that is in the public domain. Just because it is available on the Web doesn’t mean it can be used. For some assis- tance in checking on copyright restrictions, see the list of websites with information that appears in the Instructor's Manual for this text.

51 For Fair Use Rules, see www.copyright.gov/fls/ fll 02.html.

52 Nicole B. Casarez, “Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish: What Public Relations Professionals Must Know About Photocopying and Fair Use,” Public Relations Quarterly, 42(3) (Fall 1997), pp. 43 1̂7.

53 Anne Fadiman, “Nothing New Under the Sun,” Civilization (February/March 1997), pp. 86-87.

54 See Gregory Kent Laughlin, “Who Owns the Copyright to Faculty-Created Websites?: The Work-for-Hire Doctrine’s Applicability to Internet Resources Created for Distance Learning and Traditional Classroom Courses,” accessed August 27, 2010, from http://www.bc.edu/ bc_org/avp/law/lwsch/joumals/bclawr/41_3/ 02_TXT.htm.

55 Besides checking with the government’s copyright office (www.copyright.gov), to see if music is in the public domain, visit PD Info at www.pdinfo. com/copyrt.php, and the MENC Copyright Cen- ter at www.menc.org/resources/view/copyright- center.

56 Kai Ryssdal, PBS Marketplace Morning Report (August 5, 2010), accessed August 17, 2010, from www.marketplace.publicradio.org/display/Web/ 2010/08/05-susan-komen-fights-for-trademark.

5 / Ann Davis, “‘Invisible’ Trademarks on the Web Raise Novel Issue of Infringement,” The Wall Street Journal (September 15, 1997), p. B12. For a good example, see Veronica Tucci, “The Case of the Invisible Infringer: Metatags, Trademark Infringe- ment and False Designation of Origin,” Journal of Technology Law & Policy, (5)2, (Summer 2005), www. bpubs.com/intellectual_Property/Copyright/ more2html.

58 New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964). 59 Gertz v. Robert Welch Inc., 418 U.S. 323 (1974). 60 Susan Caudill, “Choosing the Standard of Care in

Private Individual Defamation Cases,” Journalism Quarterly, 66(7) (Summer 1989), pp. 396—434.

61 Linton Weeks, “Testing the Legal Limits of Cyberspace,” Washington Post National Weekly Edi- tion (September 8, 1997), p. 29.

62 Charles J. Glasser, Jr., ed., “Preface, Understanding Media Law in the Global Context,” International Libel & Privacy Handbook , 2nd ed. (New York: Bloomberg Press), pp. xiii-xxiii.

63 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, http://dhhs.gove/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/ summary/index.html.

64 Constance Johnson, “Anonymity On-Line? It Depends Who’s Asking,” The Wall Street Journal (November 24, 1995), pp. Bl , 10.

65 Puerto Rico New Birth Certificate Law, accessed August 18, 2010, from www.prfaa.com/certificates.

66 Frank Walsh, “Elements of a Consent Release,” Public Relations Journal (November 1983), p. 8.

6 / David M. Coronna, “The Right of Publicity,” Public Relations Journal (February 1983), pp. 29-31.

68 Examples of model releases as well as copyright and trademark registration forms are usually available online, some for a fee and some free.

69 Wendy Davis, “China’s Blocking of U.S. Websites Could Violate WTO Free Trade Rules,” MediaPostPublications, accessed December 11, 2007, from http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfrn? fuseaction=Articles.san&s=72460?Nid=37238&p= 114924.

0 Patrick M. Reilly and Joann S. Lublin, “Should Businesses Negotiate with Terrorists? ” The Wall Street Journal (September 20, 1995), pp. Bl, 5.

Chapter 8 1 International Public Relations Association’s frondi-

neonline. 9.9.10 IPRA. 2 Because this is a public relations text and not an

organizational management text, for a fuller discus- sion of these topics, go to the following sources. For advertising, see DAGMAR, “Designing Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Response,” in Don E. Schultz and Beth E. Barnes, Strategic Advertising Campaigns, 4th ed. (Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Busi- ness Books, 1994), p. 324. For organizational theory, see “MBO, Management by Objective,” pp. 177-78 in the discussion of Goal-Setting Processes; also p. 6, where goals are described as “narrowly defined”; and p. 8, where coordinating activities in organizations are discussed, in Katherine Miller, Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes, 4th ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2005). For a public relations interpretation from PRSA for accreditation examinations, a goal is a “more specific

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in pan. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed front the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

350 Notes

expression of a mission or purpose, and commonly described as the desired outcome of a plan of action designed to solve a specific problem over the life of a campaign.” (Italics added.) An objective is defined as “a specific aspect of the problem with each of several objectives contributing toward achieving the goal.” For a discussion of these under strategies, see pp. 247-51 in Robert Kendall, Public Relations Cam- paign Strategies, Planning for Implementation, 2nd ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 1996). PRSA acknowl- edges that the debate over w'hich comes first, goals or objectives, varies with organizations, but it decided on this application to simplify evaluating responses to its accreditation exam. If you’re inter- ested in history, you can find a discussion of the 1950s mix-up in Russell L. Colley, Defining Advertising Goals for Measuring Advertising Results (New York: Association of National Advertisers, 1961).

5 Linda Childers Hon and James E. Grunig, “Guide- lines for Measuring Relationships in Public Rela- tions,” Institute for Public Relations, 1999.

4 Ibid. 5 See the full story in “Handling Sensitive Subjects

with Stakeholders: One Approach Shows Various Pitfalls,” pr reporter, 45(15) (April 15, 2002), pp. 1-2. In trying to do what one public w'anted, school nurses in a school district in Pennsylvania made a whole batch of parents unhappy by sending them a letter talking about obesity in their children. The letters went to some parents who didn’t have an obese child, or who maybe had one obese child and one who wasn’t. The “public clamor” resulted in media coverage as far away as London and Australia.

6 See James E. Grunig, Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1992). Look for the “Cosmopolitan Index,” which is a guide to the permeability of certain areas to global communication flows, in Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Cosmopolitan Communications: Cultural Diversity in a Globalized World (New York: Cam- bridge University Press, 2009). The authors’ posi- tion is that information in a global citizen context is not likely to be understood, certainly not as intended, in some parts of the world.

Also, see Alan R. Freitag’s article “Ascending Cultural Competence Potential: An Assessment and Profile of USA Public Relations Practitioners’ Preparation for International Assigmnents,” where he points out that preparation is limited, but when it is given, it pays large rewards in increased cross- cultural competencies on the part of the individual.

His article appears in Journal of Public Relations Research, 14(3) (2002), pp. 207-27.

H See Margery Kraus, founder and CEO of APCO Worldwide, and 2010 chair of the Council of Public Relations Firms, http://blog.prfirms.org/2010/09/ pr-in-the-boardroom/ and “What’s the Best Way to Communicate with Staffers During a Company Crisis? ” from panelists Jules Andres, Keith Burton, Ron Kirkpatrick, Maril MacDonald and Concetta O’Leary, in PRWeek (September 2010), pp. 51-2.

9 Ousted Agriculture Department Employee Shirley Sherrod Declines - NPR August 24, 2010. Twitter; Facebook; E-mail; Share employee Shirley Sherrod at the National Associa- tion of Black Journalists Annual ...www.npr.org/.../ 2010/.../24/.../ousted-agriculture-department- employee- shirley-sherrod-declines-new-job-offer, accessed August 2, 2011

10 John E. Marston, The Nature of Public Relations (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963), pp. 161-73; also in his Modem Public Relations (New York: McGraw-I lill, 1979), pp. 185-95.

11 Scott M. Cudip and Allen H. Center, Effective Public Relations (Englew-ood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1952), p. 87.

12 Jerry A. Hendrix, Public Relations Cases (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1998), pp. 5-6.

13 Glen M. Broom and David M. Dozier, Using Research in Public Relations (Englewood Cliffs, Nf : Prentice Hall, 1990), p. 25.

14 Adapted from Robert L. Katz’s article, “Human Relations Skills Can Be Sharpened,” Harvard Busi- ness Review (July/August 1956). Look at his chart on page 64, still as useful today as then, which is usually the case with sound theory.

[ > See Barbara DeSanto, Danny Moss and Andrew Newman, “Building an Understanding of the Main Elements of Management in the Communication/ Public Relations Context: A Study of U.S. Practi- tioners’ Practices,” J&MC Quarterly, 84(3) (2007), pp. 439-54.

Chapter 9 1 Marina Vujnovic and Dean Kruckeberg, “Managing

Global Public Relations in the New Media Envi- ronment,” in Mark Deuze, ed., Managing Media Work (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage), p. 222.

2 Chiara Valentini and Dean Kruckeberg, “New and Social Media: A Conceptualization of the Meaning, Use and Implications of Communication Technol- ogies in Public Relations,” paper presented at the conference Exploring Global Issues and Relationships

Ousted U.S.D.A.•••

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351Notes

sponsored by the Center for Global Public Relations Research, April 15, 2011, Charlotte, NC.

3 Dean Kruckeberg and Marina Vujnovic, “The Death of the Concept of Publics [plural] in 21st Century Public Relations,” International Journal of Strategic Communication (Spring 2010), p. 117.

4 Brian Steinberg and James Bandler, “Blurring the Line?” The Wall Street Journal (August 9, 2004), pp. B1 and B3.

5 Adrian Kerr and Lilly Vitorovich, “U.K. Broadcasters Try Product Placement,” The Wall Street Journal (March 7, 2011), accessed April 1, 2011, from http:// online.wsj.com. News/Broadcast Network Studies Usage of PSAs

on Compact Disc,” PR News (October 23, 1993), p. 5. Over 200,000 Lapsed Catholics Return to Church

Through ‘Come Home’ Outreach,” ETN News (December 18, 2010), accessed April 1, 2011, from httpy/www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/US.php? Id=2338. Michael Hickins, “Groupon Brand Awareness to Linger as Long as Ad Controversy? ” The Wall Street Journal (February 8, 2011), accessed April 1, 2011, from http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/02/08/ groupon-brand-awareness-to-linger-as-long-as- ad-controversy. Gulf of Mexico Restoration,” accessed April 1,

2011, from http://www.bp.com. 10 Tom Webster, “The Podcast Consumer Revealed

2008,” Edison Media Research (n.d.), accessed June 21, 2008, from http://www.edisonresearch.com/ home/archives/2008/04/the_podcast_con_1.php.

11 Roxanne Darling, “Podcasting Listeners Are Paying Attention,” Bare Feet Studios (May 1, 2008), accessed June 21, 2008, from http://www.barefeetstudios. com/2008/05/01/podcasting-listeners-are-paying- attention.

12 Emily Glazer, “Apps to Trade on the Go,” The Wall Street Journal (March 8, 2011), accessed April 2, 2011, from http://online.wsj.com.

13 Bill Goodwill and Ken Fischer, “New Media-New Audiences-New Technologies: Social Media Is Changing the PSA Landscape,” PSA Research Center (n.d.), accessed June 21, 2008, from http://www. psaresearch.com/.

14 Chiara Valentini and Dean Kruckeberg, “New and Social Media: A Conceptualization of the Meaning, Use and Implications of Communication Technol- ogies in Public Relations,” paper presented at the conference Exploring Global Issues and Relationships

sponsored by the Center for Global Public Relations Research, April 15, 2011, Charlotte, NC.

15 Specialized Information Publishers Association, “Specialized Publishing Industry,” accessed April 2, 2011, from http://www.sipaonline.com/industry.

16 Best of Industry, accessed April 2, 2011, from http:// www.webaward/org/winner.

1 Zoe McCathrin, “The Key to Employee Commu- nication: Small Group Meetings,” Professional Com- municator (Spring 1990), pp. 6, 7, 10.

18 David Allen Ibsen, “‘Sex and the City* Movie: A Product Placement Bonanza,” Five Blogs Before Lunch (March 17, 2008), accessed June 21, 2008, from http://daveibsen.typepad.com/5_blogs_befor- e_lunch/2008/03/sex-and-the-cit.html. For a dis- cussion of the ethics of product placement, see Dean Kruckeberg and Kenneth Starck, “The Role and Ethics of Community Building for Consumer Products and Services,” in Mary-Lou Galician, ed., Handbook of Product Placement in the Mass Media: New Strategies in Marketing Theory, Practice, Trends and Ethics (New York: Best Business Books, 2004), pp. 133-146.

1 <; Aimee Stem, “Overseas Sales Hype,” International Business (February 1993), pp. 64, 66.

20 Judy L. Roberts, “Co-op VNRs Distribute Messages and Costs,” Tactics, PRSA (June 1997), pp. 20-21.

21 Douglas Simon, “VNRs Support Corporate Image Campaigns,” Tacticsy PRSA (June 1997), p. 26.

22 JAMA Radio Report, accessed April 2, 2011, from http.www.vnr1.tv.display_audio.

23 Bill Comcowich, “New Video Monitoring Service Automatically Searches Consumer Video Sharing Sites Each Day for Video Clips About Companies or Brands: Free Trial Offered,” CyberAlert (November 14, 2007), accessed June 21, 2008, from http://www.cyberalert.com/r_ l 11407.html.

6 M

7 «

9 «

Chapter 10 1 Joseph Turow, Breaking Up America: Advertisers and

the New Media World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997).

2 “Report: Internet Usage Transforming News Industry,” The Wall Street Journal (March 14, 2011), accessed April 3, 2011, from http://online.wsj.com/ article.

3 Sarah Ellison, “Newspapers Try New Math on Circulation,” The Wall Street Journal (November 6, 2007), p. BIO, accessed June 23, 2008, from http// online.wsj.com/article/SBl 19427904477182611. html?mod=djem_ jiewr_ jm.

Copyright 2012 Ccr^igc Learning All Rights Reserved May not be copied, warned, or duplicated. in whole or in port. Due to electronic nghtv woe third party concent rray be suppressed from the eBook and/or cChapccrU). Editorial rev iew has deemed that am* suppressed content docs no: materially affect the overall learning experience. Ccrgagc Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

352 Notes

4 Diane Farsetta and Daniel Price, “ Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed,” PRWatch.org, accessed April 6, 2006, from http*//www.prwatch. org/fakenews/execsummary.

? Victor V. Cordell and George M. Zinkhan, “Dimensional Relationships of Memory: Implica- tions for Print Advertisers,” Journalism Quarterly, 66(4) (Winter 1989), pp. 954-59.

6 Bob T. W. Wu, Kenneth E. Crocker and Martha Rogers, “I lumor and Comparatives in Ads for High- and Low-Involvement Products,n Journal- ism Quarterly, 66(3) (August 1989), pp. 653-61, 780. Karen S. Johnson-Cartee and Gary Copeland, “Southern Voters’ Reaction to Negative Political Ads in 1986 Election,” Journalism Quarterly, 66(4) (Winter 1989), pp. 888-93, 986.

8 Frank Thayer, “Measuring Recognition and Attrac- tion in Corporate, Advertising Trademarks,” Jour- nalism Quarterly, 65(2) (Summer 1985), pp. 439-42.

9 For production details, such as copyfitting, see Doug Newsom and Jim Haynes, Public Relations Writ- ing: Form & Style, 9th ed. (Boston: Cengage, 2011).

10 For a full discussion of this topic, see Newsom and Haynes, Public Relations Writings pp. 294-314.

11 William Ruder and David Finn, How to Make Your Annual Report Pay for Itself second booklet in Man- agement Methods, a series on public relations by members of Ruder and Finn, Inc. Formal Guidelines for Reviewing Information

Films or Videotapes,” pr reporter (February 23, 1982), p. 4. For information on writing scripts and speeches, see Doug Newsom and Jim Haynes, Public Relations Writing: Form fo Style, 9th ed., pp. 350-69.

13 Details by Jim Haynes on planning an event appear in the Instructor's Guide to the public relations writ- ing text

14 Bill Richards, “ Bright Idea Has Business Looking Up for Ad Blimps,” The Wall Street Journal (Oct 14, 1997), pp. Bl, 8. Camp Mickey D’s,” accessed April 3, 2011, from

http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/our_story/our_- communities/inspiraton.html.

16 Andy Dworkin, “Lighthearted Nicknames Have Serious Side,” Dallas Morning News (March 15, 1998), pp. HI, 2. Danica Patrick’s Q&A,” accessed June 23, 2008,

from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/ 2008_swimsuit/danica-patrick/qa.html.

18 Some negative financial aspects of promotions are detailed in two articles:John Philip Jones,

“The Double Jeopardy of Sales Promotions,” Har- vard Business Review (September-October 1990), pp. 145-52; xMagid M. Abraham and Leonard M. Lodish, “Getting the Most Out of Advertising and Promotion,” Harvard Business Review (May-June 1990), pp. 50-60. The latter carries this observation: “xManagers must cut back on unproductive promo- tions in favor of hard-to-imitate promotion events that directly contribute to incremental profitability. And they must use the new data to shape distinctive promotional efforts for specific local markets and key accounts” (p. 50).

19 Associated Press, “Flyover Foe Gives Ride a Try and Nearly Dies,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (June 4, 1990), sec. 1, p. 3.

20 Andrew Patner, “Papers Take Alternative Path to Success,” The Wall Street Journal (June 19, 1990), p. 31.

21 xMany U.S. publics do not recognize English as their language of choice, and the variety of languages in the USA alone can present a challenge. PR News reports that some 100 languages are spoken daily in the southern part of California alone. PR News, 66(46) (November 26, 1990), p. 3.

22 pr reporter (September 20, 1982), p. 3. 23 John xMartin xMeek, “How to Prepare Your Client

for Government Testimony,” Public Relations Journal (November 1985), pp. 35-37.

24 Yumiko Ono, “Mouthwash PR Bad-Mouths Star and Other Zlutzy Campaigns,” The Wall Street Journal (December 23, 1997), p. B8.

25 Ronald E. Rhody, “The Conventional Wisdom Is Wrong,” Public Relations Journal (February 1983), pp. 18-31.

26 Ibid., p. 19.

12 «

Chapter II 1 Benjamin Franklin, uThe Sayings of Poor Richard

The Prefaces, Proverbs, and Poems of Benjamin Franklin Originally Printed in Poor Richard's Almanacs for 1133-1758, Paul Leicester Ford, ed. (New York and London: G. D. Putnam’s Sons: The Knickerbocker Press, 1889), p. 282.

2 Patrick Jackson, speech for Vem C. Schranz Dis- tinguished Lectureship in Public Relations, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, 1984.

3 See SmokeyBear.com for more information. 4 Chicago Tribune, “As Fat Fears Grow, Oreo Tries

New Twist,” Courier (August 29, 2005), pp. A1 and A7. 5 pr reporter (May 29, 1978), p. 1.

is «

17 u

Copyright 2012 Ccr^igc 1.earring All Right* Reversed May not be copied, warned, or duplicated. in whole or in port. Due to electronic nghty «*»e third party concent may be uppeetted from the eBook and/or cChapccri*). Editorial rev iew ho deemed that any suppressed content doc* not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserve* the right to remove additional content at any time if uibseqacnt right* restriction* require it.

353Notes

6 John E. Rehfeld, “What Working for a Japanese Company Taught Me,” Harvard Business Review , 68 (6) (November-December 1990), pp. 167-76, espe- cially p. 171. Ronald E. Rice and William J. Paisley, eds., Public Communication Campaigns (Beverly Hills, CA Sage, 1981), p. 7.

H Charles T. Salmon, ed., Information Campaigns: Bal- ancing Values and Social Change (Newbury Park, CA; Sage, 1989), p. 47.

9 William Paisley, “Prologue,” in Ronald E. Rice and Charles K. Atkin, eds., Public Communication Cam- paigns, 2nd ed. (Newbury Park, CA; Sage, 1989), p. 17.

10 Ibid., p. 21. 11 Ibid., p. 23. 12 Ibid., p. 23. 13 Hernando Gonzales, “Interactivity and Feedback

in Third World Development Campaigns,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 6 (1989), pp. 295-314.

14 U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statis- tics, “Advertising and Public Relations Services,” accessed April 3, 2011, from http://www.bls.gov/ oco/cg/cgs03O.htm.

Chapter 12 1 Doug Newsom, “A Crisis Typology,” paper pre-

sented at the Latin American and Caribbean Com- munication Conference, Florida, February 5, 1988.

2 Bob Carrell, “Predicting Ethical and Responsible Communication Behavior of Organizations in Crisis Situations,” paper presented at International Asso- ciation of Mass Communication Research confer- ence, New Delhi, India, August 27, 1986.

3 Carol Hymowitz, “Should CEOs Tell Truth About Being in Trouble, Or Is That Foolhardy?” The Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2005, p. Bl.

4 James E. Lukaszewski, Executive Action Newsletter, April-May-June, 1999, p. 1.

5 Lisa Lyon and Glen T. Cameron, “A Relational Approach Examining the Interplay of Prior Repu- tation and Immediate Response to a Crisis,” Journal of Public Relations Research , 16(3), pp. 213-41.

6 James D. Wilson, “Connecting Risk Assessment to Risk Management: The Center’s Risk Analysis Program,” Center for Risk Management Newsletter, No. 9 (Winter 1996). Rupert Steiner, “Office Disaster? It’s All in the Planning,” Sunday Times (London) (June 29, 2003),

section 3, p. 12. For more details on physical preparation for planning, see Doug Newsom and Jim Haynes, “Crisis Communication,” in Public Relations Writing: Form and Style, 9th ed. (Boston, MA Wadsworth Division of Cengage, 2111), pp. 370-85.

H Alfonso Gonzales-Herrero and Cornelius B. Pratt, “An Integrated Symmetrical Model for Crisis- Communications xManagement,” Journal of Public Relations Research, 8(2), pp. 79-105.

<; See Doug Newsom and Jim Haynes, Public Relations Writing: Form and Style, 9th ed. (Boston, MA Wadsworth Division of Cengage, 2011).

10 Freda Colburne, “The Dark Side of Management,” PR News, March 20, 2000, p. 4.

11 A good reference for rehearsing negotiations in a hostage situation is “The Structure of Communica- tion Behavior in Simulated and Actual Crisis Negotiations,” by Paul J. Taylor and Ian Donald, in Human Communication Research, 30(4) (October 2004), pp. 443-78.

12 Robert L. Heath, “Telling a Story: A Narrative Approach to Communication During Crisis,” Speech Communication Association Conference (now National Communication Association), San Diego, California, 1996.

13 Colburne, “The Dark Side of xManagement.” 14 David Pincus and Lalit Acharya, “Employee

Communication During Crises: The Effects of Stress on Information Processing,” paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, San Antonio, Texas, August 1987. Published as “Employee Communication Strategies for Organizational Crises,” in Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 1(3) (1988), pp. 181-99. Also, see David L. Sturges, Bob J. Carrell, Douglas A Newsom and Marcus Barrera, “Crisis Commu- nication: Knowing I low Is Good, Knowing Why Is Essential,” paper for Third Conference on Corporate Communication, Global Communica- tions: Applying Resources Strategically, Fairleigh- Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey, xMay 23-24, 1990. Aso, see David Sturges, Bob Carrell, Doug Newsom and xMarcus Barrera, “Crisis Communication xManagement: The Public Opinion Node and Its Relationship to Environ- mental Nimbus,” SAM Advanced Management Journal, 56(3) (Summer 1991), pp. 22-27.

15 Carrell, “Predicting Ethical and Responsible Com- munication Behavior of Organizations in Crisis Situations.”

Copyright 2012 Ccrgigc Learning All Right* Reversed May not he copied, warned, or duplicated. in whole or in port. Due to electronic nghty «*»e third party concent may he uppeetted from the eBook and/or cOtapcerU). Editorial rev iew ho deemed that any suppressed content doc* not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserve* the right to remove additional content at any time if uibseqacnt right* restriction* require it.

354 Notes

16 Harlan Teller, Hill & Knowlton executive managing director of U.S. corporate communications practice, “Communicating During a Crisis Includes Research: 10 Rules of the Road,” tips & tactics, a supplement of pr reporter, 35(11) (September 8, 1997).

1 >7 James E. Lukazewski, “Getting the Boss to Listen,” Executive Action (January/February/March 2002), p. 1.

18 See Newsom and Haynes, “Crisis Communication and the Planning Process,” in Public Relations Writ- ing: Form & Style, 9th ed., pp. 371-85.

19 W. Timothy Coombs, “Choosing the Right Words,” Management Communication Quarterly, 8 (4) (May 1995), pp. 447-76. The typology referred to ranges from defensive (attack, deny, excuse, jus- tify) to accommodative (ingratiation, corrective action, full apology). Coombs’s modification strat- egy is for the organization to admit the situation is not good and everyone is working hard to make it better. The approach is humble with no admission of responsibility. For additional Coombs research, see “An Analytic Framework for Crisis Situations: Better Response from a Better Understanding of the Situation,” Journal of Public Relations Research, 10(3) (1998), pp. 117-91.

20 See Doug Newsom, “Crisis, No Longer Local, Always Global,” Public Relations Voice, 8(2) (2005) (India), p. 12.

21 WikiLeaks is a website founded by Julian Assange that specializes in posting leaked documents that have not been open to the public.

-\ -y Several research groups are examining how terror- ism is reported in the news media worldwide. One is the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). One of the first studies from another group appeared in 2007, Robert G. Picard and Lowndes (Rick) Stephens, directors, Terrorism and the News Media Research Project, funded by the Gannett Foundation and sponsored by the Associ- ation for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. “Corporate Communicators Respond to Rumors, Email Scams,” Ragan's PR Intelligence (November 2001), p. 9.

24 “Cybersquatter Problems? Here’s Your Cost- Effective Way to Handle ’Em,” Ragan's Interactive Public Relations, 6(12) (December 2000), p. 1.

23 James E. Lukaszewski, “Answering Tough, Touchy, Sensitive Questions And Responding to Emotional Questioners,” the Lukaszewski Group Inc., 10 Bank Street, Suite 530, White Plains, NY 10606-1966 (2006).

26 Otto Lerbinger, “Theorists Discuss Management Crisis Successes and Failures,” purview , a supple- ment of pr reporter, 436 (March 9, 1998).

Index

A Aeneid (Virgil), 25 Afghanistan, 328 Agenda-setting theory, 124—125 Aguilar, Rebecca, 130 Alexander the Great, 25 Alighieri, Dante, 26 AMA. See American Medical

Association America Online (AOL), 195 American Association of Industrial

Editors, 36 American Bell Telephone

Company, 31 American Blimp Corp., 278 American Broadcasting Company,

Attending, as step in persuasion process, 114

Attribution theory, 133 Audience information, 77-82 Audio presentations, 265-268 Audit Bureau of Circulations

(ABC), 64

ABC. See American Broadcasting Company

Academic.edu, 233 Acceptant legitimizer, 14 Accidental sample, 76 Accounting reform legislation, 182 Acharya, Lalit, 13-14 ACPR. See American Council on

Public Relations Acquisitions, 331. See also Mergers Acting, as step in persuasion

process, 114 Adams, Bill, 143 Adelstein, Jonathan, 258 Adoption, 136 Advertisements

as news look-alikes, 254—256 preparing, 256 print and broadcast PSAs, 256 product placement, 258 using humor, 257

Advertising choosing message for, 225-233 as controlled and uncontrolled

communication, 230-233 cooperative, 229 creating and solving problems

with, 228-229 doubletruck, 159 institutional, 227-228 issue, 187 languages and, 230 laws affecting, 200 nonprofit commercial, 228 in other formats, 229 preparing, 231-232 problems in, 232-233 product liability and, 189 by professionals, 229-230 protecting client, 155 protecting consumer, 155-156 responsibilities, 154—158 tactics and techniques for, 253-258 tobacco industry and, 155, 186 transit, 229 types used in public relations

practice, 225-230 Advertising value equivalency

(AVE), 69 Advocates, engage and encourage,

Audits communication, 65-68 opinion, 65-68

Authentic communication, 129 Authority, 119 AVE. See Advertising value

equivalency Awareness, 112, 136 Axis Sally, 127157

American Council on Public Relations (ACPR), 36

American Economic Association, 143 American Medical Association

(AMA), 158 American Red Cross, 34, 146, 330 American Telephone and Telegraphy

Company (AT&T), 35, 37 American Tobacco Company, 38 Analysis, 73-75 Analysts, 148 Anantachart, Saravudh, 27 Anglum, Gerald, 275 Annual reports, 11, 178-179,

262-263 Anonymity, 68 Anthony, Susan B., 29 Anticipation, crisis management

and, 314-321 AOL. See America Online AOL-Time Warner, 331 Apple Inc., 150 Arbitron, 64 Area sample, 77 Arnold, Thurman, 38 Arrogance, 326 Art, 159-160. See also Photography Arthur Andersen LLP, 143, 182 Ashrawi, Hanan, 51 Association of House Organ

Editors, 36 Association publications, 234 AT&T. See American Telephone

and Telegraphy Company Attending, 136

Badaracco, J. L., Jr., 164 Baer, George F., 34 Bakker, Jim, 47 Bakker, Tammy, 47 Bandwagon, as propaganda device,

117 Bank of America, 324 Bamurn, Phineas Taylor, 30, 31, 32 Baxter, Leone, 39 Beal, Richard, 45 Beder, S., 317 Beech-Nut Packing Company, 24 Behavior

changing through campaigns, 305-309

in diffusion process, 139 measurement of consumer, 122 in persuasion model, 112, 114 in persuasion strategies, 120 principles that apply to

consumer, 135 in self-persuasion, 118-119 theories of social and cognitive,

133-134 types of causes that explain,

133-134 Behavioral public relations model,

112-113, 114 Ben Franklin approach, 291 Benchmarking, 61 Benton and Bowles, 46 Berelson, Bernard, 74 Bergen, Jack D., 51 Berger, Bruce, 2217

356 Index

Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp v. Public Service Commission, 186

Change Makers: The Struggle for Consumer Rights, 41

Chaos theory, 130 Chasteen, Edgar, 41 Chicago Edison Company, 34 Chilean miners, 328 China. See People’s Republic of

China Christian Brothers, 232 Chronicle of Higher Education, 196 Chrysler, 324 Churchill, Winston, 127 Churnahsm.com, 238 Cialdini, Robert, 118 Cialis, 155 Citigroup, 324 Citizens for a Free Kuwait, 47 Civil libel, 193 Civil society organizations (CSOs),

9, 148, 315 Clarity, 119 Clark, David, 17, 43 Clark & Weinstock, 150 Clarke, Matthew St Clair, 30 Clarke, Victoria, 51 Clients, 147 Clinton, Bill, 48, 50, 116, 195 Coca-Cola, 238, 278, 315 Codes of silence, 315 Cognitive dissonance theory, 118,

133, 134 Cohan, George M., 232 Colley DAGMAR process., 208 Columbia Broadcasting System,

Berger, Charles, 133 Berger, Paul, 87 Bernays, Doris E. Fleischman, 39 Bernays, Edward L.

on making news, 277 as member of Creel Committee

Bureau of International Information (IIP), 8

Burns, Barbara M., 309 BurrellesLuce, 273 Burson-Marsteller, 46, 241, 289,

311 35 Bush, George H.W., 48, 50

Bush, George W., 113 Bushee, Ward, 284 Business Week , 306 Buyer’s rights, 41 Byoir, Carl, 35, 46

profile of, 23-24 promotional campaign for

smoking, 100 on public consent, 145 public relations as social science

and, 113 and use of the word image, 125

Better Business Bureau, 158 Bias

C Cacioppo, John, 121 Campaigns, 297-312

changing behavior, 305-309 characteristics of successful,

298-300 educational aspect of, 299 enforcement element of, 299 engineering factor of, 299 evaluation, 299, 303-305 government, 309-311 implementing, 302-303 monitoring, 303-304 outline, 305 planning, 300-302 population control, 307-308 postmortems, 304—305 reinforcement element of, 299 types of, 297-298

Canadian Public Relations Society, Inc., 4

Cantril, Albert Hadley, 101, 102-103, 117

Capra, Frank, 38 Car and Driver, 160 Card stacking, as propaganda

device, 117 Carl Byoir & Associates, 46 Carnegie, Andrew, 30-31 Carrell, Bob, 315, 323, 331 Carson, Rachel, 42 Case studies, 71-72 CBS. See Columbia Broadcasting

System CDC. See Centers for Disease

Control Celebrities, 197, 198, 268-271,

279-281 Center, Allen, 214 Center for Media and Democracy,

254 Centers for Disease Control

(CDC), 62

interviewer, 72 random sample and, 75

Bibliography of Public Relations Measurement, 59

Billboards, 229, 307 Bissell, Richard, 28 Black Monday, 48 Blankenburg, William, 17, 43 Blogs, 156, 210, 274, 306, 327 Blood, Robert, 128 Blumenthal, Sidney, 45, 195 BMW, 238 Bok, Sissela, 144 Boone, Daniel, 30 Borden Company, 31 Boston Tea Party, 28 Boston University, 38 Boston University School of

Management, 94 BP. See British Petroleum Brady, Jim, 45 Breast implants, 156 British Petroleum, 229, 324 British Petroleum oil disaster

contempt of court and, 187 crisis plan, 150 criticism of, 143 as extended news event, 116 litigation of, 185 management problems, 317 talking back in crisis and, 328

Brochures, 259-260 Broom, Glen M., 13, 214 Brown v. Board of Education of

Topeka, 40 Budgets, 217, 300 Bullock, John, 113 Bureau of Consumer Financial

Protection, 181

157 Commission on Public Relations

Education, 2, 51 Commitment, 208-209 Committee on Public Information,

24, 35 Communal relationship, 208-209 Communication

audits, 65-68 authentic, 129 basic functions, 216 benefits and disadvantages of

interactive audio/text/video in, 248-249

constant elements in crisis, 323-325

coordination of internal and external, 6

357Index

before and during crisis, 321-323 current channels of, 63 external, 5-6 integrated, 45-46, 93 internal, 5, 303 language of message and,

126-129 management, 219 matrix of crisis communication

management, 316, 331-332 media and channels of, 223-251 planning theory, 133 responding internally and

externally in crises, 326-327 source for, 122-123 stakeholders and strategic, 5-6 strategic, 209 symmetrical system for, 112-113 theories, 112-114

Communication facilitator, 14 Communication technician, 13 Community, 148 Comparative ethics, 143 Compensation. See Remuneration Competitors, 148 Complex of preferences, 99 Comprehending, as step in

persuasion process, 114 Conde Nast Traveler, 160 Congregatio de propaganda fide, 26 Conner, William C., 185 Consents, 198-200 Consistency, 118-119, 128-129 Consumer Advisory Council, 41 Consumer behavior

measurement, 122 principles that apply to, 135

Consumer Federation of America, 42 Consumer Financial Protection

Bureau, 41 Consumer Reports, 40 Consumerism, 41-43 Consumers

complying with rights of, 189-190

ethical responsibilities to, 148 Consumers Union, 40, 42 Contempt of court, 187 Content analysis, 74—75 Contingency planning, 301-302 Continuity, 318 Contracts, 198-200, 217

employee, 199 media arrangements and, 287 model releases, 198

photo agreement, 199 PR services and taxes, 199 production, 199 work for hire, 199 working across borders, 199-200

Control mutuality, 208-209 Controlled advertising, 230-231 Controlled media, 223 Cooke, Jay, 29 Coolidge, Calvin, 24, 36 Coombs, W. Timothy, 327 Cooperative (Co-op) advertising,

public opinion and, 103 social responsibility and, 16 source, 122-123

Creel, George, 24, 35, 38 Creel Committee, 35 Criminal libel, 193-194 Cripps, Kathy, 51 Crisis

anticipating, 314—321 behavior of management,

315-318 communication before and

during, 321-323 constant elements in, 323-325 credibility and, 313-3 33 dealing with, 321-331 employee and management roles

in, 323-325 imagining the worst, 318-319 Internet, 322 matrix of crisis communication

management, 316, 331-332 message statements and, 331 preparation for, 319-321 public relations’ responsibility

for, 325-326 reacting to special situations,

330-331 recovery from and evaluation of,

331-332 research, 324 responding internally and

externally in, 326-327 talking back in, 327-329 typology of, 314 use of corporate fact sheets in,

320-321 Critical theory, 111-112 Critical thinking, 121-122 CriticalTV 4.0, 64 Critics, 148 Crystallizing Public Opinion

(Bernays), 24 CSM. See Crawford Slip-Writing

Method CSOs. See Civil society

organizations CSR. See Corporate social

responsibility Culbertson, Hugh, 144 Cultivation theory, 125 Culture, 229 Custer, George Armstrong, 30 Cutlip, Scott, 214 Cybernetic systems theory, 111

229 Copyright

developments in technology and, 50

digitalized books and, 60 extent of protection, 190-191 fair use and, 191-192 infringement, 192 laws, 190-192 patents and trademarks, 193 plagiarism and, 192-193

(CSR), 142, 309 Corporate video, 236 Council for the Advancement

and Support of Education, 9 Council of Public Relations Firms,

51 Court Rulings, 185-200 Crable, R. E., 317 Crawford Shp-Writing Method

(CSM), 68-69 Creative strategy, 300-302 Credibility

of art/photos, 159-160 authentic communication

and, 129 British Petroleum oil

disaster, 150 consistency and, 128-129 crisis and, 313-333 dishonesty and, 144 electronic media and, 19 enhancing, 46 impersonal persuaders and, 116 of information, 69 lobbying and, 12 of opinion research, 36 of organizational voice, 185-186

358 Index

Electronic surveys, 61 Eli Lilly & Co., 155 Ellison, Larry, 151 E-mail, 244 Emblems, 292-293 Emotional stereotypes, as

propaganda device, 117 Emotions, 117-119, 127 Employee Retirement Income

Security Act (ERISA), 68 Employees

contracts, 199 as important public, 93 perceptions of organization by,

95-97 right of privacy, 197 role in crisis, 323

Engagement, 217 Enron, 143, 182 Equal-time provision, 156 ERISA. See Employee Retirement

Income Security Act Ermashova, Natalia, 310 Ethics. See also Responsibility

in advertising and sponsorships, 154-158

of changing behavior, 305 complexities in decision making,

144-154 guanxi, 16 individual responsibilities,

163-165 Internet privacy, 92 management principles, 145 monitoring research and, 79 new communication channels,

media and, 244 People for the Ethical Treatment

of Animals, 280 in practice, 149-154 product placement advertising,

258 public consent and, 145-146 public relations as source,

158-159 Public Relations Society of

America code of, 39-40, 160 in publicity, 158-163 and responsibilities to publics,

146-149 trust, 62, 103, 104 types of, 143-144 values and, 144—145 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and, 308

Ethics Resource Center, 141

Etzioni, Amitai, 142 EUPRERA. See European Public

Relations Education and Research Association

European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA), 2

Evaluation. See also Measurement advertising value equivalency

and, 69 of campaigns, 299, 303-305 crisis, 331-332 elaboration likelihood theory,

Dark site, 321 Davis, Elmer, 38 Deadlines, 287 Deaver, Michael, 45 Deepwater Horizon disaster. See

British Petroleum oil disaster Defamation, 193-196 Delay, Tom, 143 Demographics, 61 Departures, 159, 234 Descriptive ethics, 143 Diaries, 71-72 Diffusion process, phases of,

114, 136 Digital videos, 240 Dilenschneider, Robert L., 47 Direct mail, 244—245 Direct Marketing Association

(DMA), 176 Disclosure, 148, 178 Discourses (Machiavelli), 26 Dishonesty, 144 Disinformation, 43 Divine Comedy (Dante), 26 DMA. See Direct Marketing

Association Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform

and Consumer Protection Act, 180, 181

Donor relations, 10 Doublespeak, 127 Doubletruck, 159 Dove campaign, 315 Dow Chemical, 156 Dozier, David M., 68, 214 Drop-in ad, 256 Drudge, Matt, 195 Dudley, Pendleton, 34 Dudley-Anderson-Yutzy, 45 Durham, James, 158

121 impact of communication, 133 issues, 94-95 outcomes and, 65 as phase in diffusion process, 136 public opinion, 10 of video-recordings and

films, 268 Events. See Special events Evolutionary perspective theory,

110 eWatch, 291 Excellence in Public Relations and

Communication Management (Grunig), 13

Exchange relationship, 208-209 Experience, 69-70 Expert prescriber, 13 External communication, 326 External publics, 88-89, 95 Exxon Valdez oil spill, 116

F Fabun, Don, 126 Facebook

as element in management of public relations, 211

HARO group on, 125 as impersonal persuader, 115 media use and, 91 organizations and, 142 right to privacy issues, 197-198 as social media, 63 use of advertising and tracking

companies, 151-152 Fadiman, Anne, 192 Fair use, 191-192 False Claims Act, 175 Falwell, Jerry, 47 Familiarity, 119 Family Educational Rights and

Privacy Act (FERPA), 197 Farm Journal, 32

Easel pad, 265 Eaton, Dorman, 23 Economist, The, 142 Edelman, 306 Edelman, Richard, 217 Edison, Thomas, 24 Educational institutions, 9, 148 Effective Public Relations (Cudip &

Center), 214 Eisenhower, Dwight D., 39 Elaboration likelihood theory, 121 Electronic information systems

(EISs), 274

359Index

FCC. See Federal Communications Commission

FDA. See U.S. Food and Drug Administration

FDIC. See Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 157, 158, 184-185, 231

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), 179

Federal Election Commission, 187 Federal Home Loan Bank Board

(FHLBB), 179 Federal Trade Commission (FTC),

183-184, 230 Federalist Papers, The, 29 FedEx, 278 Feedback, 122 FERPA. See Family Educational

Rights and Privacy Act Festinger, Leon, 118, 133, 134 Fey, Tina, 232 FHLBB. See Federal Home Loan

Bank Board File Transfer Protocol. See FTP Films, 268. See also Videos Financial Accounting Standards

Board (FASB), 179 Financial Executives Institute, 263 Financial public relations, 11 Financial Relations Board, Inc., 180 Financial reports, 178 Financial responsibility, 146 Financial Times, 17 Finn, David, 18, 164-165 Firm/agency employees, 7 Fischer, Ken, 231 Fishbein, Martin, 134 Fishbein model, 134 Flaherty, Robert, 38 Flickr, 63 Flyers, 229 Focus groups, 72-73 FOIA. See Freedom of Information

Forward-looking statements, 179 Foucault, Michel, 112, 129 Framing, concept of, 115-116 Franklin, Benjamin, 297 Free speech

contempt of court and, 187 organizational voice and, 185-186 restrictions on, 186-187

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 11, 149, 162, 181, 189

Freelancers, 190, 286-287 FTC. See Federal Trade Commission FTP (File Transfer Protocol), 239 Fuji, 278 Fundraising, 9, 10

Goodyear dirigible, 278 Google, 60, 190, 324 Google+, 91 Gorbachev, Mikhail, 47 Gorney, Carole, 172 Gould, Jay, 31 Governance, 5 Government

activists and, 29 agencies, 148 campaigns, 309-311 federal, state or local government

employment, 11 foreign, 153-154 lobbying, 12 nongovernmental organizations’

government relations, 11 political public relations, 11-12 regulations, 34, 175-185

Government Accountability Office (GAO), 181

Gray Advertising, Inc., 232 Greeley, Horace, 30 Greenpeace, 228, 315 Greenwald, Anthony, 133 Gregory XV, Pope, 26 Greyser, Stephen A., 13 Griswold, Denny, 39 Group dynamics, 133 Groupon, 228 Grunig, James E., 13, 15, 135, 208,

209, 210 Guanxi, 16 Gutenberg, Johann, 27

G Gage, Matilda Joslyn, 29 Gallup poll, 36, 101 Gandhi, Mahatma, 40 GAO. See Government

Accountability Office General Agreement on Tariffs and

Trade (GATT), 50 General Foods Corporation, 232 General Motors, 156 General public, 306 Georgetown Publishing House, 158 Gerbner, George, 125 Gestures, 292-293 Gestures (Morris), 293 Giffords, Gabrielle, 143 Gillett, Frederick H., 8 Gillett Amendment, 8, 188 Gillmor, Dan, 217 Gimmicks, 283 Glasnost, 47 Glass, Ira, 77 Glasser, Charles J., Jr., 196 GlaxoSmithKline, 155 Glessing, Robert, 42 Glittering generalities, as

propaganda device, 117 Global Alliance for Public Relations

and Communication Management, 1-2, 51

Globus, Paul, 173 Goal evaluation, 126 Goals, 300 Goebbels, Joseph, 24, 99 Goggins, Colleen, 152 Goldman, Ronald, 160 Golitsinski, Sergei, 306 Gonzales, Alberto, 116 Gonzales, Hernando, 308 Goodwill, Bill, 231

H Habermas, Jurgen, 112 Hamilton, Alexander, 29 Hamilton, Richard F. “Tody,” 31 Handbook, employee, 236 Harlow, Rex, 36 Harmon, Mark D., 115 HARO group, 125 Harris, Louis, 42 Harvard Business Review , 163 Harvard College, 27 Harvard University, 30 Haslan, Robert T., 39 Hastings, Robert, 209 Haynes, Jim, 217 Health care, 12-13 Health Insurance Portability and

Accountability Act (ffiPAA), 196, 197

Heath, Robert L., 322 Hegel, Georg W.F., 111

Act Foote, Cone & Belding, 46 Ford, Henry, II, 39 Ford Motor Company, 34—35, 39 Ford Times, 35, 159 Form 10K, 178-179, 263 Formal research, 70-77

qualitative research, 70-74 quantitative research, 74—77 steps in, 70

360 Index

Heider, Fritz, 133, 134 Heinrichs, E.H., 31 Helmer, Dan, 102 Henderson, Hazel, 315 Henderson, Steuart, 135 Hendrix, Jerry, 214 Hennessy, Bernard, 99 Henry, Patrick, 29 Hewlett-Packard Company, 151 Hierarchy of human motives, 125 Hill, Anita, 48 Hill, Ivan, 141 Hill & Knowlton, Inc., 37, 45, 47,

68, 150, 289, 311 HIPAA. See Health Insurance

Portability and Accountability

direct mail, 244-245 Internet, 248

Hymowitz, Carol, 127 Hypothesis testing, 76-77

Initial public offerings (IPOs), 176, 177

Insider trading, 181-182 Institute for Public Relations (IPR),

3, 59, 81, 284 Institutional advancement, 9 Institutional advertising, 227-228 In-store advertising, 229 Insull, Samuel, 34 Integrated communication, 46 Interbrand, 150 Internal communication, 5, 303, 326 Internal publics, 88-89, 95 Internal Revenue Service (IRS),

185, 187 Internal strategy, 302 Internal videos, 236 International Association for

Measurement and Evaluation of Communications (AMEC), 81

International Association of Business Communicators (LABC), 148

International Broadcasting Act, 45 International Broadcasting Bureau

(IBB), 45 International Libel and Privacy, 195 International Public Relations

Association (IPRA), 3, 148, 298 Internet, 27, 50. See also World

Wide Web advertising on, 229 as communication channel, 62, 248 crises, 322 fragmentation of publics and, 91 FTP site on, 239 interpreting use of, 91 legal and ethical issues, 156-157 plagiarism and use of, 192 power of, 196 public service announcements

on, 231 tracking technology, 92 video news releases and, 273

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), 330

Interviewer bias, 72 Interviews

conducting media, 288 in-depth, 72 telephone, 61

Intranets, 237, 321, 326 Intuition, 69-70 Investor relations (TR), 11, 178, 179,

181, 182

I IABC. See International Association

of Business Communicators IABC Research Foundation, 210 Iacocca, Lee, 237 lacocca: An Autobiography (Iacocca),

237 IAG Research, 64 ICANN. See Internet Corporation

for Assigned Names and Numbers

Icons, 128 Identification, 119 HP. See Bureau of International

Information Illicit silence, as propaganda

device, 117 Illustrations, 276-277 Image, 95, 125 Image advertising, 227 Image marketing, 278 Impersonal persuaders, 115-116 Independent, 317 Independent practitioners/

counselors, 7-9 In-depth interviews, 72 Individual decisions, 163-164 Individual responsibilities, 163-165 Industry publications, 234 Industry relations, 11 Infant formula, 163 Infomercial, 170 Informal research, 65-70

audits and, 65-68 media research and, 68 risks and responsibilities of, 68-69 role of intuition and experience,

69-70 unobtrusive measures and, 65

Information audience, 77-82 health, 196-197 processing, 133, 135 retention of, 135 retrieval, 58-59 right of privacy, 196-198 right to, 162-163 superhighway, 50 websites for managing requests,

326 In-house electronic systems, 274

Act Historiography, 71-72 History, of public relations

beginnings in USA (1600-1799), 27-29

early practitioners, 24—25 era of global communication

(1980-present), 44—55 era of press agentry and publicity

(1800-1899), 29-32 functions, 25 growth as management function

(1940-1979), 37-44 reporters-in-residence (1900-

1939), 32-37 tactics, 26—27 uses and strategies, 25

History of the Standard Oil Company, The (Tarbell), 33

Hitler, Adolf, 24 Homeostasis, 125 Homestead Strike, 30 Hon, Linda C., 208 Hood, H.P., 278 Hoover, Herbert, 24, 35 Hormel Foods, 238 House ads, 225-226 House publications, 234, 260-262 Hovland, Carl, 133, 135 Howe, Louis McHenry, 38 Human transaction model, 131-132 Humor, 257 Hung, Chun-ju Flora, 27 Hurd, Mark, 151 Huttenstine, Marian, 171, 172 Hybrids

benefits and disadvantages of interactive audio/text/video, 248-249

developing, 245-249

361Index

IPRA. See International Public Relations Association

IR. See Investor relations Iran hostage crisis, ll6 Iraq War, 328 Iron Man, 156 IRS. See Internal Revenue Service Irving, Washington, 30 Issue advertisements, 187, 227 Issues

evaluation, 94-95 identification, 93-94 management, 10, 94-95, 211-212 monitoring, 211-212 process, 94 role of PR practitioner and,

95-99

Kruckeberg, Dean, 49, 147, 223 224, 233, 249, 307

Krupp Company, 27

Lindenman, Walt, 68 Linkedln, 91, 233 Lippmann, Walter, 24, 35 Litigation journalism. See

Litigation/PR Litigation/PR, 172-173, 331 Lobbying, 12, 188 Loeb, Harlan, 150 Long, Rich, 143 Lost, 157 Lou Williams Companies, Inc., 68 Louisiana Story (Flaherty), 38 Loyally Report Executive Summary, 153 Lucky Strike, 38 Lukaszewski, James E., 79, 315, 332 Lustig, Theodore, 25 Lying, 4, 45, 116, 143, 144

L Ladies Home Journal, 32 Langton, Stephen, 25 Language

changing behavior and, 307, 309 of gestures, 292-293 of message, 126-129 use in advertising, 229, 230

Larson, Charles, 122 Laskin, Alexander V., 284 Lasswell, H.D., 74, 122 Lasswell formula, 122, 133 Latent readiness, 112 Law

civil and criminal legal problems, MJ Machiavelli, Niccolo, 25-26 Madison, James, 29 Magazines, sponsored, 234 Mahon, John F., 94 Mail inserts, 229 Mainstream media (MSM), 63 Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, The

(Wilson), 39 Management, 5

communication, 219 crisis, 315-318 in defining mission of

organization, 207-208 issue monitoring and, 211-212 matrix of crisis communication,

316, 331-332 of monitoring, measuring and

reporting, 209-211 new media environment, 216 and planning public relations

work, 212-220 principles of good, 210 public relations and communi-

cation, 13 public relations practitioners and

social responsibility, 153 of publics and organizational

relationships, 208-209 relationship, 4 reputation, 4 of role and character of

organization, 206-207 role of public relations in organi-

zational structure as part of, 205-211

and working with public relations people, 217-220

171J. Walter Thompson, 45 Jackson, Jackson and Wagner, 298 Jackson, Patrick, 112-113, 298 Jay, John, 29 Jefferson, Thomas, 23 Jericho, 157 John, King of England, 25 John Deere, 238 John Paul II, Pope, 47 Johnson, Lyndon, 42 Johnson & Johnson, 152, 185,

191, 324 Jones, Terry, 233 Journal of the American Medical

Association, 243 Journals, academic, 60 Julin, Jeffrey, 51 Jungle, The (Sinclair), 34 Justin Boots, 92

court rulings and legal responsi- bilities, 185-200

government regulations, 34, 175-185

hypotheticals, 200-201 legal cases, 171-172 liabilities of practicing public

relations, 170-175 litigation journahsm/public

relations, 172-173 lobbying, 188 types of legal involvements, 174 ways to stay out of trouble, 174—175 working with legal counsel,

173-174 Leaks, 181 Lee, Ivy Ledbetter, 24, 32, 33, 34 Legacy media, 63, 125, 327 Legal counsel, 173-174, 322, 331 Legal involvements, types of, 174 Leisure time market, 13 Lesly, Philip, 13, 17, 18, 46, 120 Levick Strategic Communications,

K Kalb, Bernard, 45 Kasky, Mark, 186 Katz, Daniel, 100 KDPaine & Partners, 101 Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts, 232 Kendall, Amos, 29 Kennedy, John F., 41, 45, 127, 237 Kennedy, Paul, 142 Ketchum, Inc., 63, 64, 311 King, Martin Luther, Jr., 40 Kinko’s Copies, 191 Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, 236 Knickerbocker’s History of New York

(Irving), 30 Komen, Susan G., 193 Koran, 26

152 Lewandowsky, Stephan, 98 Lewin, Kurt, 133, 134 Lexis-Nexis, 198 Liabilities, 170-175 Libel

civil, 193 criminal, 193-194 defense against in USA, 194-196 tips to avoid suits globally, 194

Likely, Fraser, 4 Likert, Rensis, 111 Lincoln, Abraham, 36

362 Index

Manipulative model, 13 Manning, Selvage and Lee, 46 Marcus, Stanley, 237, 278 Marketing/public relations, 11, 278 Mars, Inc., 156 Marsteller, Inc., 46 Marston, John, 214 Marx, Karl, 111, 112 Maslow, Abraham H., 125 Mass media, 63. See also Media;

Social media conducting interviews, 288 Internet as, 274-275 opacity in, 147 promotions and, 277-281 publicity through, 271-284 special events, 281-284 use of technology for, 272-274 use of video news releases in,

243, 277 working with, 275-277, 284—291

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 328

Masterpiece Theatre, 43 Matrat, Lucien, 2 McCann Erickson, 41 McCarthy, Joseph, 39 McChesney, Robert W., 141 McClellan, Scott, 51, 157 McClure’s, 33 McCorkindale, Tina Carroll, 59 McDonald’s, 163, 278 McGuire, William, 123, 133 Measurement. See also Evaluation

consumer behavior, 122 Fishbein model, 134 of good management in public

relations, 210 public opinion, 99-100, 101 social media, 81 stratified sample, 76 of understanding, 135

Media. See also Mass media; Social media

advantages and disadvantages of various, 226

choosing, 224—225 controlled, 223 creative use of, 301 credibility test for, 131 current channels of communica-

tion, 63 electronic systems, 273-274 external, 223 gratification motives, 130-131

MN Forward, 187 Mobil Oil, 43 Models

computer, 208 releases, 198

Mohammed, 26, 27 Molleda, Juan-Carlos, 284 Monitoring, 211-212, 303-304 Moore, Jo, 23 Morgan, J.P., 30 Morris, Desmond, 293 MSM. See Mainstream media Muckrakers, 32 Muenchen, Robert, 115 Mutual Life Insurance Company, 31

interactive, 92, 216 internal, 223 legacy, 63, 125, 327 new, 216 news, 148, 158-159, 164, 329 opacity, 147 political PR and news, 162 reception test for, 131 relations at Russian luxury hotel,

310 research, 91 responding to, 291-294 right to know, 162-163 social, 63, 64, 68, 81, 233, 326 spiral of silence theory, 101 tours, 290 uncontrolled, 223 use, 91, 130-131

Media analysis, 63 Media opacity, 49 Meetings, 237 Melded media, 68 Mercedes Benz, 238 Merck, 183 Mergers, 331. See also Acquisitions Messages

choosing medium for, 224—225 context of, 128 during crisis, 331 format of, 123-124 language of, 126-129 orientation, 124-125 other considerations in strategy,

N Nader, Ralph, 41-42 Nader Organization, 42 Name calling, as propaganda

device, 117 National Association of Accredited

Publicity Directors, 36 National Association of

Manufacturers, 36 National Association of Public

Relations Counsel, 36 National Cash Register, 34 National Consumers League

(NCL), 34, 40, 42 National Endowment for the Arts

(NEA), 186 National Geographic, 159 National Investor Relations

Institute (NIRI), 178 National Labor Relations Board

(NLRB), 171 National Tuberculosis Association,

129 promotional, 237-238 purpose of, 125-126 receivers of, 131-136 receiving and accepting, 131-132 responses to, 132-136 source and, 129-130 texture of, 126 theories to apply in planning

message, 134 Michels, Mike, 151 Mickey D’s, 278 Middle East, 44, 328 Milton, John, 26 Minding the Store (Marcus), 237 Minorities, 93 Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris &

Glovsky, 158 Misinformation, 113 Mission statements, 207 MIT. See Massachusetts Institute of

Technology

34 NCL. See National Consumers

League NEA. See National Endowment for

the Arts Needless Markup, 278 Neiman-Marcus, 278 Nelson, Helen, 41 Nestle, 163 New York Evening Post, 30 New York Times, 18, 172, 196 New York Times Book Review , 256 New York Tribune, 30 New Yorker, The, 196 Newman, Sarah, 41 News conferences, 289-290, 326 News managers, 116 News media, 148, 158-159, 164, 329

363Index

News releases, 11, 177, 179, 276 Newsletters, 235 Newsom, Doug, 217 Newsom, Earl, 39, 119 Newsweek, 196 Newswires, 272 NGOs. See Nongovernmental

organizations Nielsen, 64 Nielsen, Nancy, 158 Nielsen Online, 217 Nike, 186 Nimbus publics, 214, 315 NIRI. See National Investor

Relations Institute Nixon, Richard, 116, 237 NLRB. See National Labor

Relations Board Noelle-Neumann, Elisabeth, 101 Nominal data, 76 Nongovernmental organizations

(NGOs), 9, 148, 315 Nonparametric statistics, 76 Nonprobability sampling, 76 Nonprofit organizations, 9 Nonrandom sampling, 76 Nonsampling errors, 75-76 Nonverbal symbols, 126 Normative ethics, 143 Norris, Frank, 32-33 North American Free Trade

Agreement (NAFTA), 50 Null hypothesis, 76 Nyhan, Brendan, 113

Open-meeting laws, 189-190 Opinion audits, 65-68 Opinion makers, 116 Ordinal data, 76 Organization for Economic

Cooperation and Development (OECD), 199

Organizational theory, 111-112,

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 280

People’s Republic of China, 16, 154 Perceptions

during crisis, 323, 325, 326, 328 employees, 95-97 of organization, 97-98 of problems and existing

situations, 214, 215 public opinion and, 99-101

Permanent Campaign, The (Blumenthal), 45

Personal persuaders, 115 Personality promotions, 129 Persuasion

belief and, 98 change and, 114—122 critical thinking, responsibility

and, 121 effectiveness of, 121 emotions and, 117-119 leadership for opinion change

and, 120 message orientation and,

124-125 models, 110-111, 114 Newsom’s principles of, 119 persuaders and their appeals,

115-116 process of, 114 propaganda and, 117 public diplomacy and, 102 responses to, 136 responsibility in practice,

149-153 strategies, 120-121 Yale approach to, 133

PETA. See People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Peterson, Esther, 41 Petty, Richard, 121 Pfizer, 155, 183 Phair, Judith, 159 Philanthropy, 146 Philip II of Macedonia, 25 Phillips, Michael M., 102 Phillips Petroleum, 288 Photography, 159-160, 199, 274,

276-277 Pickle, Paul, 180 Pig ‘N’ Whisde case, 180 Pit, The (Norris), 33 Plagiarism, 192-193 Plain folks, as propaganda

device, 117

125 Organizational voice, free speech

and, 185-186 Organizations

continuity of operations in crisis, 318

crisis and, 313-333 employees’ perceptions of, 95-97 mission statement/purpose of,

207-208 model of successful, 298 perceptions of, 97-98 publics and, 208-209 reputation of, 208 role and character of, 206-207 selling programs within, 302

O’Rourke, James S., 150, 152 OSHA. See Occupational Safety

and Health Administration Other Post Employment Benefits

(OPEB), 179 Otis Engineering Company, 291 Outcomes, 65 Overhead projectors, 265 OWL See Office of War

Information

O P Obama, Barack, 41, 113, 143 Occupational Outlook Handbook , 51 Occupational Safety and Health

Administration (OSHA), 189 O’Connor, James E., 238 Octopus, The (Norris), 33 O’Donnell, Rosie, 291 OECD. See Organization for

Economic Cooperation and Development

Office of War Information (OWI), 38

Ogilvy & Mather, 45 Ogilvy & Mather Direct, 45 Ogilvy Group, 45 Olasky, Marvin, 146 Olympics, 154—155 Omnicom Group Inc., 150, 156 OPEB. See Other Post

Employment Benefits

Page, Arthur W. on ethical behavior, 142 management principles that lead

to ethical behavior, 145 philosophy of public relations,

36, 37 Paid advertising. See Controlled

advertising Paisley, William, 305, 306 Pakistan, 328 Palin, Sarah, 113, 232 Paluszek, John, 2 Parametric statistics, 76 Parker, George F., 34 Parker Pen Company, 291 Patents, 193 Patrick, Danica, 278-279 Patronage, 114 Patterson, John and Frank, 34 Paul, Saint, 26

364 Index

Plank, Betsy, 44, 51 Planning

campaigns, 300-302 message strategy, 134 photos and illustrations, 276-277 priority publics and, 98-99 public relations work, 212-220 research, 61-65 strategies for problem solving

and, 214-215 surveys and, 61

Planning theory, 133 Playboy, 193 Political action committees (PACs),

161-162, 187-188 Political campaigns

ethical issues of, 156-157 media tours, 290 negative advertising and, 232 permanent campaign of Ronald

Reagan, 45 personality promotions and, 129 public relations use in, 29

Polling beginning of, 29 measuring public opinion, 101 research and, 12, 61 use by Ronald Reagan, 45

Population control, campaign for, 307-308

Porter, Sylvia, 42 Positioning, 298 Positioning statement, 298 Positive deviancy model, 129 Postal Service, 175-176 Posters, 229 Postmodernism, 112 Postmortems, 304—305 Power, 114 PR Newswire, 236, 291 pr reporter, 112 PR Tactics, 60 Presenting, as step in persuasion

process, 114 Press agentry, 29, 32, 40 Press agents, 32 Primary publics/stakeholders, 90 Primary research, 58, 71, 83-84 Prince, The (Machiavelli), 26 Priority publics, 90-91, 98-99 Privacy, right of, 196-198 Private channels of communication,

PRNewswire, 125 Probability, 75 Probability sample, 77 Problem solving

formulas for, 214 goofs and glitches, 291 problem analysis and, 83 problem identification and,

82-83 program development and

implementation, 83-84 research and, 82-84 strategies for planning and,

214-215 successful, 303

Problem-solving process facilitator, 14

Procter & Gamble Company, 24, 260, 291, 315

Product liability, 189 Product placement, 258 Professional Bond: Public Relations

Education for the 21st Century, The, 51

Profiles in Courage (Kennedy), 237 ProfNet, 125, 236 Promotions, 157-158, 163,

237-238, 277-278 Propaganda, 26, 117, 127-128, 307 PRSA. See Public Relations Society

of America PRWeek , 60, 298 PSA Research Center, 231 PSAs. See Public service

announcements Pseudo-events, 278 Psychodynamic model, 110 Psychographics, 61 P-TRAK, 198 Public affairs, 8, 11, 12 Pubfic awareness campaign, 298 Public channels of communication,

measurement of, 101 as moving target, 100-101 perceptions and, 99-101 promotions and, 163 research and public relations,

101-103 Walter Lippmann and, 35

Public Opinion (Lippmann), 35 Public Perspective, The, 101 Public relations

areas of specialization, 9-13 defined, 2-3 departments as source and

resource, 216-217 ethics and responsibilities of,

16, 141-167 ethnocentric approach to, 284 evaluation of, 69 function in business and society,

13-19 international consistency of

practice, 2 Internet and, 274-275 law and, 169-204 liabilities of practicing, 170-175 litigation journalism and, 172-173 news media and political, 162 newswires, 272 planning and managing

departments, 212-220 principles of, 4—6 public affairs and, 12 public opinion research and,

101-103 public’s right to know and,

162-163 reciprocal trust and, 164—165 responsibility for crisis, 325-326 role in organization as part of

management team, 205-211 roles and responsibilities, 1-21 social responsibility and, 16-19 as source, 158-159, 216-217 strategic management in practice,

205-221 technology and, 272-274 theoretical underpinnings for,

109-139 and trust in contemporary global

society, 249 use in political campaigns,

29, 157 value of, 15-16 video news releases and, 158-159 working in, 15

223 Public consent, 145-146 Public diplomacy, 102, 307 Pubfic education campaign, 298 Public information campaign, 298 Public opinion

communication problems and, 42 1̂3

dealing with, 103 defined, 99-100 Edward L. Bemays and, 24 evaluation, 10 formation of, 100

223 Private voluntary organizations

(PVOs), 9, 93, 99

365Index

Public Relations Cases (Hendrix), 214 Public Relations News, 39 Public relations practitioners

anticipating a crisis and, 314—321 conspiracy charges and, 171 employees’ perceptions of the

organization and, 95-97 ethical behavior of, 143, 148-149 as firm/agency employees, 7 governmental use of, 8 as independent practitioners/

counselors, 7-9 issues and role of, 95-99 knowledge of internal and

external publics, 95 legal cases, 171-172 liabilities, 170-175 perceptions of organization,

97-98 priority publics and planning,

98-99 product liability and, 189 registering political activity of,

188-189 and remuneration, 160-161 responsibilities, 188-189 role in organization, 212-213 self-perception of, 13-14 social responsible management

and, 153 as staff members, 6-7 stakeholders and, 2-3 use of RSS, 239

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), 2, 3, 36, 298

Betsy Plank and, 44 code of ethics,

39-40, 148, 153, 160 on defining mission of organi-

zation, 208 impact of consumerism on

business task force, 42 remarks on book by Scott

McClellan and commentary by Andrew Cohen, 51

types of successful campaigns, 297-298

Public Relations Student Society of America, 43

Public service announcements (PSAs), 184, 224, 227, 231, 256, 273

Public skepticism, 43 Public vulnerability importance

(PVI) index, 89

Publications annual reports,

11, 178-179, 262-263 association, 234 brochures, 259-260 house publications, 234, 260-262 industry, 234 professional and trade, 60, 234 publicity and, 258-271 speeches as, 263 tactics and techniques for,

258-271

spin-offs, 278-279 tactics and techniques for,

258-271 through mass media,

240-244, 271-284 types used in public relations

practice, 233-238 Publicity Bureau, 30, 34 Publics. See also Stakeholders

corporate videos for external, 236 general, 306 identifying and describing, 88-93 identifying and prioritizing,

89-90 internal and external, 95 media orientation of, 130 nimbus, 214, 315 organizational relationships and,

208-209 priority, 90-91 as receivers of messages,

131-136 reciprocal trust, 164—165 responsibility to, 146-149 right to know, 162-163 sensitivity to employees, women

and ethnic groups, 91-93 Pulitzer, Joseph, 32 Pure Food and Drug Act, 34, 40 PVI index. See Public vulnerability

importance index PVOs. See Private voluntary

organizations

types used in public relations practice, 234-236

Publicity advertising and, 187 art/photos in, 159-160 beginnings of public relations in

USA and, 28 broadcast-quality, 243 choosing message for, 233-244 as controlled and uncontrolled

communication, 238-244 direct, 239-240 era of press agentry and, 29-32 handling celebrity appearances,

268-271 news media, political public

relations and, 162 planning photos and illustrations,

276-277 political action committees and,

161-162 preparing, 239-244 producing annual reports,

262-263 producing brochures and house

publications, 256-262 producing institutional video-

recordings and films, 268 product liability, advertising

and, 189 promotions and public opinion,

l Qualitative research, 70-74, 111

measuring, 73-74 techniques of, 71-73

Quantitative research basics of, 75-77 content analysis and, 74—75 hypothesis testing and, 76-77 probability and, 75-76 questions asked in, 75 sampling and, 75 survey research and, 75

Questionnaires, 77-82 formats of, 80-82 preparing, 78-80 scale analysis of, 81-82 semantic differential scales of,

80-81 summated ratings of, 81

Quill, 190 Quota sample, 77

163 public relations as source and,

158-159 publications and, 258-271 public’s right to know and,

162-163 remuneration, 160-161 responsibility in, 158-163 rules for avoiding bad publicity

and nonpublicity, 241 special events, 263-268 speeches as, 263

366 Index

P Repetition, 128-129 Reputation management, 4, 62,

208, 219 Research, 57-86

agenda-setting, 125 corporate image advertising

and, 229 crisis, 324 documenting outcomes, 65 formal, 70-77 goals and objectives, 58 identifying and rank-ordering

stakeholders through, 89-90 on impersonal persuaders, 115 informal, 65-70 media, 91 planning and monitoring, 61-65 posing questions, 76 primary, 58, 71, 83-84 for problem analysis, 83 for problem identification, 82-83 problem solving and, 82-84 for program development and

implementation, primary research, 83-84

public opinion, 101-103 qualitative, 70-74 quantitative, 74-77 record keeping and retrieving

information for, 58-59 resources, 59-60 responsibility in practice

research, 149-153 secondary, 58, 68, 71, 83-84 on strategies of 21st Century

marketers, 260 survey, 75 types of, 58

Research International, 45 Responsibility. See also Ethics

in advertising and sponsorships, 154-158

corporate social, 142, 309 in crisis, 325-326 critical thinking and, 121-122 financial, 146 foreign governments and

locations, 153-154 individual, 163-165 legal, 185-200 in practice, 149-154 in promotions, 157-158 public relations practitioners and

social responsible management,

in publicity, 158-163 to publics, 146-149 in research and persuasion,

149-153 social, 16-19, 145-146

Retaining, as step in persuasion process, 114

Revlon Company, 39 Rhody, Ronald, 291-294 Riefenstahl, Leni, 128 Right to know laws, 162-163, 189 Rivers, William L., 116 RJR Nabisco, 155 Roberts, John G., 113 Robinson, Michael, 152 Rokeach, Milton, 118, 119 Roll, Charles, 101 Roosevelt, Eleanor, 38 Roosevelt, Franklin D., 36-37,

38, 128 Roosevelt, Theodore, 32, 34, 36 R-O-P-E, 214 Roper Center for Public Opinion

Research, 101 R-O-S-I-E, 214 Ross, Irwin, 23 Roussel, Pete, 44 - 45 RSS (Really Simple Syndication), 239 Ruder & Finn, 18 Rumors, 181, 318, 319, 330-331 Ryan, Michael, 14

R-A-C-E formula, 214 Radio, 64 Radio Act of 1927, 156 Ragan Report, The, 60 Rainforest Action Network, 228 Random sample, 75 Rating services, 64 Ratio data, 76 Raucher, Alan B., 24 Reagan, Ronald, 44-45, 47, 157 Really Simple Syndication. See RSS Receivers, 131-136 Reciprocal trust, 164-165 Reciprocity, 119 Record keeping, 58-59 Recovery, crisis, 331-332 Red Cross, 191, 327 Reflective PR practice, 129 Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure),

178, 182 Regulations

Federal Communications Commission, 184-185

Federal Trade Commission, 182-183

financial crisis of 2007-2010 reform and adjustments, 180

follow-up and executive com- pensation disclosures, 181-182

government, 34, 175-185 Postal Service, 175-178 Securities and Exchange

Commission (SEC), 176-180 Reifler, Jason, 113 Reinforcement, 136 Relationship(s)

components of, 208-209 with freelance writers, 286-287 insensitivity in, 93 management, 4 with newspeople, 285 with other PR people, 286 with production people, 285-286 protecting, 287 public relations and stakeholder,

95, 98 publics and organizational,

208-209 stakeholders and organization’s,

88-90 theory of symmetry in,

15, 112-113, 209 Releases, model, 198 Remuneration, 160-161

S Saatchi & Saatchi PLC, 45 Salmon, Charles T., 305 Salvation Army, 146 Sample error, 75 Samples, types and use in research

and surveys, 75-77 Sampling, 75-76 Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), 176,

181, 330 Satisfaction, 208 Saturday Night Live, 232 Scanning, 61 Scarcity, 119 Schenkler, Irv, 151 Schiller, Herbert I., 114 Schmertz, Herb, 43 Scholastic News, 159 Schoonover, Jean Way, 51 Schramm, Wilbur, 89, 111 Schroeder, Pat, 45 Scope, 291 Scraping, 64153

Copyright 2012 Ccrgigc Learning All Right* Reversed May not he copied warned or duplicated. in whole or in port. Due to electronic nghty «n»e third party concent may he uppeetted from the eBook andfor cOtapcerU). Editorial rev iew ho deemed that am* suppressed content doc* not materially affect the overall learning experience. Ccrgagc Learning reserve* the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent right* restriction* require it.

367Index

SEC. See Securities and Exchange Commission

Secondary research, 58, 68, 71, 83-84 Securities and Exchange Commis-

sion (SEC), 43, 176-180 publicity releases and, 171 requirements for annual reports

and interpretive news releases,

media research and, 68 monitoring by Nielsen, 64 newsletters and, 235 organizational relationships and,

209, 244 speeches on, 263 in technology and public

relations, 272, 274 types of, 233-234 uncontrollable problems and,

232, 233 use in crisis, 315, 327 use in politics, 156 video recordings and, 236

Social relationships theory, 101 Social responsibility, 16-19, 145-146 Social validation, 119 Society of Business Writers, 160 Society of Professional Journalists,

190 Sociocultural paradigm, 110 Source

credibility of, 122-123 orientation, 123 public relations as,

158-159, 216-217 Southwest Airlines, 324 SOX. See Sarbanes-Oxley Act Speakes, Larry, 45 Spears, Britney, 258 Special events

audio presentations, 265-268 checklist for facilities, 266-267 extending publicity coverage,

283-284 gimmicks, 283 mechanics of, 281 meeting or speech checklist, 264 newsroom for, 281-283 other considerations, 283-284 publicizing, 281-283 setting up for, 263-265 visual presentations, 265

Specialized Information Publishers Association, 235

Speech-act theory, 125 Speeches, 237, 264 Spin-offs

celebrity, 279-281 publicity, 278-279

Spiral of silence theory, 101 Sponsored magazines, 234 Sponsored video, 236 Sponsorships, 154—158 Sports, 13

Sports Illustrated, 279 SRI International, 90 Stacks, Don W., 57, 59 Staff member, 6-7 Stakeholders. See also Publics

crisis and, 319 identifying and describing, 88-93 interactions and, 87-107 perceptions of problems and

existing situations, 214 public relations knowledge of, 62 public relations practitioner and,

2-3 strategic communications and, 5-6

Standard Oil, 38-39 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 29 Statistics, 76 Steffens, Lincoln, 32 Steinberg, Charles, 38 Stereotypes, 117, 132 Stewart, Jane, 39 Stockholders, 148 Stockholm Accords, 1-2, 5, 14, 51 Stokes, Ashli Q., 317 Stoner, J.B., 157 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 29 Strategic communications, 5, 209 Strategic planning, 46 Strategies

of 21st Century marketers, 260 adapting and applying tactics to,

302-303 creative, 300-302 internal, 302 message, 129, 134 persuasion, 120-121 PR uses and, 25-26 for problem solving and

planning, 214-215 Strategist, The, 60 Stratified sample measurement, 76 Strick, Michael, 151 Structural functionalism theory, 110 Subversive rhetoric, as propaganda

device, 117 Suggestion of action, 119 Sunshine laws, 189 Super Bowl, 156 SurveyMonkey, 78 Surveys

cross-section, 77 electronic, 61 panels, 77 research, 75 telephone, 78 using for planning and

monitoring, 61

179 rules on annual reports and Form

10K, 178-179, 263 rules on disclosure, 148, 178 rules on insider trading, 181-182 rules on quarterly financial

reports, 178 Self-persuasion, 118 Seltzer, Richard S., 179 Semantic differential scales, 80-81 September 11, 2001, 330 Service model, 13 Seventh-Day Adventist Church, 34 Sex and the City, 156, 238 Sexual harassment, 48, 93 Shakespeare, William, 26 Shankman, Peter, 125 Shannon, Claude, 111, 122 Shannon-Weaver model, 122 Sheen, Charlie, 279 Shen, Lijiang, 123 Sherman, Margot, 41 Sherman Antitrust Act, 34 Silence, 315 Silent Spring (Carson), 42 Simon, Morton, 171, 172 Simpson, Nicole Brown, 160 Simpson, O. J., 116, 160 Sinclair, Upton, 33-34 Sitrick & Co., 151 Situational ethics, 144 Six Crises (Nixon), 237 60 Minutes, 196 Skinner, B.F., 136 Slander, 193-196 Smith, Charles J., 31 Smith, George D., 13 Smith, William Wolf, 34 Smokey Bear, 299 Social conflict theory, 110 Social learning theory, 134 Social media

advertising and publicity in, 254 as communication channel, 63 creative use of media and, 301 importance of, 223, 224 measurement, 81

368 Index

Sustainability, 5 Sustaining ads, 227 Swaggart, Jimmy, 47 Symbolic interactionism theory, 110 Symbols, 114, 126, 132, 135 Symmetry in relationships theory,

15, 112-113, 209 Systems theory, 111

Talking back, 291-294 Tammany Hall, 29 Tang, 233 Target, 187-188 Target public, 89 Technology, 272-274 Television, 39, 125, 130, 243 Terrorism, 328-329 Testimonial, as propaganda

device, 117 Texaco, 191 Texas Boys Choir, 155 Texas Gulf Sulphur case, 43, 179, 181 Textual analysis, 73-74 Theories

agenda-setting, 124-125 attribution, 133, 134 chaos, 130 cognitive dissonance, 118, 133, 134 communication, 112-113 critical, 111-112 cultivation, 125 cybernetic systems, 111 elaboration likelihood, 121 evolutionary perspective, 110 media, 122-125 organizational, 111-112, 125 persuasion, 114—122planning, 133 postmodernism, 112 psychological, 109-110 social conflict, 110 social learning, 134 social relationships, 101 sociological, 109 speech-act, 125 spiral of silence, 101 structural functionalism, 110 symbolic interactionism, 110 symmetry in relationships,

15, 112-113, 209 systems, 111 two-step flow, 131 Yale approach to persuasion, 133

This American Life, 77 Thomas, Clarence, 48 Time, 160, 262 Timetables, 300 TiVo, 64 TNS Media Research, 64 Tobacco industry, 155, 159, 186 Tokyo Rose, 127 Toyota Motor Corporation, 151, 324 Trade names, 155 Trade publications, 234

Trademarks, 193 Transactional model, 13 Transfer, as propaganda device, 117 Transit advertising, 229 Travel & Leisure, 159, 160 Trend analysis, 10, 61 Trial, 136 Trial balloon device, 36 Triggering event, 112 Triner, Alma, 51 Trinity Episcopal Church, 34 TripAdvisor, 233 Triumph of the Will (Riefenstahl), 128 Truman, Harry, 38 Trust

as element in study of opinion change, 119

ethics, 62, 103, 104 integrity of organization and,

208-209 and public relations in contem-

porary global society, 249 reciprocal, 164—165Truth, 330

Tsetsura, Katerina, 49, 147, 154 Turow, Joseph, 253 Twitter

Best Buy’s use of, 224 as element in management of

public relations, 211 media use and, 91 organizations and, 142 as social media, 63 use in advertising, 228 use of publicity on, 235

Two and a Half Men, 279 Two-step flow theory, 131 Tylenol, 152, 185

Tactics and techniques for ads as news look-alikes,

254-256 for advertising, 253-257 for contracts and deadlines, 287 direct contact with client/boss/

newsperson, 287-291 goofs and glitches, 291 for handling celebrity

appearances, 268-271 preparing successful ads, 256 preparing to work with the

media, 275-277 in print and broadcast PSAs, 256 for producing annual reports,

262-263 for producing brochures and

house publications, 256-262 for producing institutional video-

recordings and films, 268 for promotions, 277-281 public relations and the Internet,

274-275 for publicity and publications,

258-271 for publicity through the mass

media, 271-284 relations with freelance writers,

286-287 relations with newspeople, 285 relations with other PR

people, 286 relations with production people,

285-286 for special events,

263-268, 281-284 talking back and correcting,

291-294 throughout history, 26-27 using humor, 257 using speeches as publicity or

publications, 263 using technology in public

relations, 272-274 for working with media people,

284-291

U UAW. See United Automotive

Workers UBS AG, 185 UDRP. See Uniform Domain-Name

Dispute Resolution Process Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the

Lowly (Stowe), 29 Uncontrolled advertising, 231 Uncontrolled media, 223 UNICEF. See United Nations

Children’s Fund Uniform Domain-Name Dispute

Resolution Process (UDRP), 330

Unilever, 315 Union Pacific Railroad, 31

369Index

United Automotive Workers (UAW), 39

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 163

United States Catholic Conference (USCC), 47

Unsafe at Any Speed (Nader), 42 Urban II, Pope, 25 U.S. Chamber of Commerce,

36, 200 U.S. Department of Agriculture, 184 U.S. Department of Commerce, 193 U.S. Department of Defense, 209 U.S. Department of Health and

Human Service, 196 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau

of Labor Statistics, 311 U.S. Department of State, 8, 200 U.S. Food and Drug Administra-

tion (FDA), 61, 157 U.S. Forest Service, 35, 305 U.S. Information Agency (USIA),

38, 45 U.S. Information Service (USIS), 45 U.S. Marine Corps, 34 U.S. News if World Report, 104 U.S. Signal Corps, 38 U.S. Supreme Court, 40, 43, 187,

191, 194-195 USCC. See United States Catholic

Conference USIA. See U.S. Information Agency USIS. See U.S. Information Service USSR, 47

Videos. See also Video news releases digital, 240 evaluation of, 268 as informational and publicity

vehicles, 236 producing, 268 proposal, 269-270

Villareal, Claire, 102 Visual presentations, 265 VMS, 273 VNRs. See Video news releases von Bertalanffy, Ludwig, 111 Vranica, Suzanne, 150 Vujnovic, Marina, 223, 224, 307

Whistleblowers, 163, 175, 330-331

Wiener, Norbert, 111 WikiLeaks, 103, 143, 162, 328 Wikipedia, 315 Wiley, Harvey W, 34 Williams, Louis C., 68 Wilson, Sloan, 39 Wilson, Woodrow, 35, 36 Winans, R. Foster, 181 Women

changing behavior and, 308 critical theory and, 112 personal identification campaigns

for, 129 as public, 93 in public relations,

15, 39, 44, 51-52 reporters, 38 sexual harassment of, 48, 93 status in foreign locations and

ethical conflicts, 154 stereotyping of, 132 suffrage movement, 29 wages, 44 in workplace, 101

Woods, Tiger, 279 Work for hire agreement, 199 World Health Organization,

238, 311 World Trade Organization

(WTO), 199 World War H, 37-39, 100-101 World Wide Web, 50-51, 60, 159,

236. See also Internet Worldnet Television and Film

Service, 45 WPP Group, 45 WTO. See World Trade

Organization Wycliffe, John, 26 Wylie, Frank, 6

W Wakefield, Robert I., 1 Walker, Scott, 235 Wall Street Journal

arithmetic of quality, 17 business schools, 153 conviction of former reporter,

181 corruption in China, 154 doublespeak, 127 Enron effect, 143 ethically produced goods, 146 Hewlett-Packard Company, 151 Internet tracking technology, 92 jury selection, 90 persuasion as public diplomacy,

102 ranking of universities, 104 reception test for media, 131 story on anti-Islam pastor, 233 story on battle between unions

and Wisconsin legislature, 235 surveillance technology, 149

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 146, 306, 308

Walton, Sam, 308 Wanamaker, John, 31-32 War Advertising Council, 38 Weaver, Warren, 122 Web Marketing Association, 236 Weber, Max, 111 Websites, 326 Weekly Reader, 159 Weinstock, Davis, 150 Weldon, William, 152 Westinghouse Corporation, 31 What Happened: Inside the Bush

White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception (McClellan), 51, 157

Wheaton, Anne Williams, 39

V Vail, Theodore N., 31, 37 Valentini, Chiara, 224, 233, 249 VALS , 90, 118 Values, 118 van Ruler, Betteke, 27 Vanderbilt, William Henry, 30, 32 Velvet Ghetto, The, 51 Vercic, Dejan, 27 Viagra, 155 Vibbert, S. L., 317 Vick, Michael, 279 Video news releases (VNRs)

criticism of their use and misuse, 254

Internet and, 273 public relations as source and use

of, 158-159, 216 use in mass media, 243, 277 use on Internet, 248

Video services, 272-273

V Yale approach to persuasion theory,

133 Yale University, 30 Yielding, as step in persuasion

process, 114 Young and Rubicam, 45 Young Men’s Christian Association

(YMCA), 34 YouTube, 63, 91, 101, 211, 232

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
About the Authors
Brief Contents
Detailed Contents
Preface
1 PR Roles and Responsibilities
2 PR's Origins and Evolution
3 Research: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating
4 Stakeholders and Interactions
5 Theoretical Underpinnings for PR
6 PR Ethics and Responsibilities
7 PR and the Law
8 Strategic Management in PR Practice
9 Communication Channels and Media
10 Tactics and Techniques: Details that Make PR Strategy Work
11 Campaigns
12 Crisis and Credibility
Notes
Index