Public Relations

Histories of public relations

Dr Kate Fitch

School of Arts

Lecture objectives

• To introduce public relations history and historiography

• To reveal the ideologies underpinning different perspectives on public relations history

• To consider how these ideologies shape current understandings of public relations and its development.

• To consider new perspectives on public relations history.

Torches of Freedom

“Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group.” (Bernays, 1928)

“After WWI, Bernays was hired by the American Tobacco Company to encourage women to start smoking. …He then told the press to expect that women suffragists would light up ‘torches of freedom’ during the parade to show they were equal to men.” (Source: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/02/27/torches-of- freedom-women-and-smoking-propaganda/)

Karen Miller Russell: we need to reclaim embarrassing moments in PR history – it did not emerge suddenly in corporate America in twentieth century.

US models

• Historical periods – ‘colligation’ (periodisation)

• ‘The’ four (US historical) models: publicity/press agentry; public information; one-way asymmetrical; two-way symmetrical

• Historical periods used as developmental typology

• Privileging US experience

• Application to other cultures

Multiple perspectives

• Explosion of PR history within and outwith field

• Counter-narratives

• Grand narratives and generalised accounts versus archival/testimonial evidence

• Re-conceptualisation of the field and its boundaries

Australian PR history

• Textbook histories refer to World War II as a catalyst for Australian public relations.

• One of General Douglas Macarthur’s team, Asher Joel, was instrumental in establishing a professional institute.

• Most memoirs and perspectives understand Australian public relations in terms of its steady development towards professional status.

• The understanding of public relations is arguably a narrow conceptualisation that uncritically positions public relations as a management discipline in the corporate sector and ignores other kinds of PR activity.

Gender, history & professionalism

• Australian public relations history is highly gendered: heroes, legends, founding fathers, ‘Man of Achievement’ awards

• Mid-twentieth century saw the emergence of two professional institutes: AIPR in Sydney and PRIA (Victoria) in Melbourne

• Women made up approximately 15% of financial members of PRIA in 1956 and served on committees, wrote newsletter articles and columns

Jessie Fawsitt

‘interviewing agents, arranging window displays, dealing, with press publicity and occasional secretarial work for executives visiting, from overseas’ (Arrived on a Visit, 1949)

‘many media—the press, radio, films, exhibitions, window displays, posters, photographs and colourful literature [and] compering fashion parades of clothes suitable for air travel’ (Air News, 1954)

organizing and compering beauty pageants, fashion parades, and photography exhibitions in Australia and New Zealand, managing relationships with department stores, and ensuring extensive media coverage (What We’re Doing, 1956).

Fashion & travel

Conceptualising the ‘other’

Gender in Australian PR history

• More opportunities for women and work through increased access to education, second-wave feminism, & expansion of corporate sector and knowledge economy in the 1980s

• Increasing institutionalisation and professionalisation of public relations, with PRIA’s greater regulation of membership from mid-1980s

• Resulted in a gendered stratification between technical and professional work that continues to constrain understandings of public relations

Image: Ellis, R. (1983)

A manifesto for PR history

• Challenge histories of public relations

• Question the sources of evidence, especially practitioner memoirs

• Consider the ideology underpinning particularly conceptualisations of public relations

• Seek documentary evidence to support claims

• Explore the particular social and political contexts for public relations activity