Public Relations Week 4

The Power of Language

Language is Power and finding the right spin but underdtanding the language and how it affects public opinion. Can be seen as more powerful than armed forces and but must be done the right way as words can be harmful.

Rhetorical-words and symbols (semiotics) to persuade, convince and achieve.

Rhetorical Power/Source Credibility/Two-step-flow– People who are rich or famous or have much influence on public opinion have rhetorical power and can easily persuade public opinion. People believe them because they may seem like an expert or they value their opinion.

Major Communications Foundations

Research

• Know the audience message and plan it well
• Understand Grunig
• Understand media framing
• Understand media theories

Media

Using media is a powerful responsibly and therefore everything must be accurate. However the media can ‘twist’ things out of reality into a ‘perceived reality’. They can turn things into ‘infotainment’ instead of factual news. For example- why is obesity a crisis?

Framing Devices

• history/tradition
• conflict
• power
• winning/loosing
• fault/blaming
• money as a measure
• fear/shock
• celebrities
• emotion

Words- words can sometimes become associated with other things that are not accuate or always true. For example when you think of geeks you think of ‘smart’ and when you think of refugee you think of ‘illegal’.

Agenda Setting– what is dominant in the news or under discussion can be part of setting up agendas for something else. For example when an election is coming up there would be more discussion about politics than there usually is on the news.

Public Relations Weeks 1, 2, 3

What is Public Relations?

PR is defined as ‘the development and management of ethical strategies using communication to build relationships with stake holders. PR can play an important role in liaising between organization and stakeholders to the organizations, such as and the city council and government, the media or employee. For an organization to succeed PR must use strategies such as communications and systems to achieve its specific goals for that organization.

Sison’s Ladder

This is a guideline that many PR practitioner use. It includes systems theory, communications theory, PR theory and rhetorical and critical theory.

System’s Theory

A system is a set of interacting units that endure overtime. The System’s Theory is how the organization is structured using the following:

Cybernetics- ‘primarily deals with how systems adjust to feedback received. Public relations practitioners apply cybernetics which they provide and respond to feedback between their organizations and their publics.’

Requisite variety-requisite variety suggests that organizations will be better prepared to deal with change if they have employees with different view points.

Boundary Spanning- public relations practitioners ‘are the go-betweens, explaining the organization to its stakeholders and interpreting the environment to the organization’.

Below is a diagram which shows a basic management system.

Communications Theory

The Communications Theory is the theory on how people communicate. It  is about the information transmission that has multiple steps. It is also about agenda setting and framing. The diagram below shoes the steps that are undertaken for the communication.

Public Relations Theory

The Public Relations Theory is the framework for Public Relations and communications. Grunig and Hunts Theory has 4 models which are shown in the picture below.

Rhetorical & Critical Perspectives

The Rhetorical and Critical Perspectives of Sison’s ladder are about the cultural and critical theories.

Critical- a movement within sociology and cultural studies that criticizes the way citizens are influenced to think by their surrounding capitalist culture…. This theory suggests that big business and big government overwhelm the news media and dominate their means of communication and cultural expression.

Rhetorical-the process of persuading people to hold certain views. It can be applied to any theory of how to discourse is used to influence thought.

Who Are Publics and Stakeholders?

Publics are ‘a group who have a common interest or value in a particular situation’ and Stakeholders are ‘a person or public that has a stake or an interest in an organization, or an issue that involves it’.

Publics

There are various types of publics and many ways of describing them. These descriptions are:

Primary Publics- most affected by organizations success

Secondary Publics- minimally affected by an organization

Internal and External Publics- internal operate within the organization and external operate outside the organization.

Some examples of publics are:

Employees- these are the most important publics as they are the ones that make the organization run and succeed.

Media- acts like a ‘gatekeeper’ to the public, informing them when need be.

Investors- people who invest their money into the organization and are concerned by how well it is doing.

Stakeholders

There are various types of stakeholders and there are ways of describing their position against an organization if there is an issue. These descriptions are:

Latent stakeholders- not yet aware of issue

Aware stakeholders- recognize issue but do not act on it

Active stakeholders- aware of issue and act on it

Conclusion

Over the last few weeks I have started to get a much better understanding of Public Relations. I have learnt about the roles of PR practitioners and how they practice PR. I have learned about the Sison’s theory in detail, and the many people and groups who are affected by organizations such as publics and stakeholders. I also learned about how PR is not like marketing, as it can cover organizations, which are not for profit, as marketing is mainly buying and selling.  I look forward to learning about PR in the weeks to come!