Photo by krosseel, courtesy of morguefile.com
As Wilcox and Cameron (2012), Curtin and Gaither (2013) and Medel and Ferguson (2018) point out, defining the art of public relations has never been an easy thing to do. This is partially because the discipline itself has changed over the years, partially because its functions overlap with other areas of communications, like marketing or corporate, and partially because it is perceived as well as carried out differently in the United States versus other countries. At its core, the field of public relations is comprised of complex tasks and different aspects of communications.
What is clear is that public relations is all about a process which incorporates intentional and organized communications underpinned by strategic decisions and designed to align public interests with the entity’s. Public relations is not only the dissemination of information, but also uses research to inform its stakeholders about public perception, to define goals and to report on measurable outcomes. Because public relations is vested in what the public thinks of the company/organization/product/service, etc., it is in management’s best interest to elevate public relations’ importance to a most senior level.
The processes that Wilcox and Cameron (2012) describe offer practitioners an even fuller blueprint for how to practice public relations. Research, Program Planning, Communication (or as others call it, implementation) and Evaluation are very similar to stages used in other fields. That is, in the Public Administration track of my dual master’s degree program, we have studied these stages as they apply to both budgeting and policy/program creation when working for the government. (A few years ago, I also wrote on this process, albeit in a broader way.) Knowing how to effectively planning, execute and evaluate a campaign is a useful skillset, no matter the field.
In fact, the history of the tactics and strategies that make up the field of public relations goes back to Herdootus even if they were not called by that name; Medel and Ferguson take it a step further to systematically study the Apostle Paul’s missionary work, allowing it to be used as an example that even the church could draw from. While his efforts had less breadth than today’s public relations scope of activities, Paul set goals, planned, employed audience segmentation, monitored and evaluated progress, and used different forms of media available to him to create a multi-pronged approach.
Another aspect of public relations brought up in this week’s readings was how it is practiced differently throughout the world. Curtin and Gaither (2013) offered a few examples, especially how in different regions in the world, it is employed in different ways by governments and called different things. One example not brought up was Israel. Though it is also called public relations in Hebrew (יחסי ציבור), there is a slice of it which has its own considerations. Public diplomacy (also thought of as propaganda) goes by the name Hasbara (הסבּרה) in Hebrew, and it can be literally translated as explaining. Its purpose isn’t to explain away bad news that comes out of the country but to promote the good things, like technological advances, medical discoveries or catastrophe aid. What is different there is that anyone can take part in hasbara, not only paid professionals. In some ways, it could be thought of as borrowing from the marketing concept of brand ambassadors, where people with a vested interest, whether colleagues or fans, pair their enthusiasm with consistent messaging to help reinforce perception with those they come in contact with. At the same time, global public relations communicators, as Fry, Sosin and Stein (n.d.) explain, understand that messages are not a one size fits all for different countries.
In describing how Teresa Dorn led Burson-Marstellar’s growth in Spain, RodrÃguez-Salcedo and Gómez-Baceiredo (2017) also offer a larger look at how the field of public relations grew in the 1980s and 1990s in Spain and in Europe. While she was able to grow it from a budget of nothing in her day, Fry, Sosin and Stein’s (n.d.) interviews with global PR executives, as well as a larger study of senior corporate communications figures, all call for bigger budgets to address the future of emerging global markets.
Public relations is a growing field. Wilcox and Cameron (2012) delineate its differences from journalism, advertising and marketing, while also explaining how it supports marketing. Ultimately, they do paint a picture of how the fields are integrated. The company I work for is a large multinational. Its Marketing and Communications department serves as the umbrella. The business units use Marketing to drive the strategy and the public relations manager to handle media relations. Internal communications and change management are handled separately but within the department, as is investor relations. This is relevant because while Wilcox and Cameron (2012) describe the roles that students can aspire to, the way to arrive at these positions may vary. Much has changed, especially where social media is concerned. The examples they gave regarding how companies interact directly with the public and how viral reactions can drive the story have, I believe, taken on new dimensions in the eight years since the book was published.
Fry, Sosin and Stein (n.d.) quote communicators in saying that PR and digital are not separate fields, and they may be right, but social media managers are usually hired into the marketing department. On the one hand, the explosion in how disgruntled publics are weaponizing social media within the framework of cancel culture means that social media managers have to be schooled in dealing with the public strategically (it also means that more companies need to buy reputation management insurance). On the other hand, many companies align social media marketing with marketing and not public relations (the use of influencers may also explain why). Given these two trends, it would make sense that integration of all aspects of communications will be the model more and more organizations move to, and in that world, terminology may wind up taking on narrower functions than they presently do, as practitioners become adept at all aspects – strategic planning, marketing, media relations, etc.
What will public relations become? Now it is a role with many facets, but it may very well become a facet that is built into many, many roles.