Public relations: An overview

Public relations, as a professional engagement and academic discipline, is likened to many other activities such as advertising, publicity, propaganda and so on. In this piece, I shall demystify public relations as a concept and establish its relationship with the concepts listed above.

The piece will further discuss the basic public relations skills, general principles of public relations, as well as the place of persuasion and public opinion in public relations.

For starters, Encyclopedia Britannica gives the definition of public relations as policies and activities designed to convey information about and improve the public attitude toward an individual, corporation, government agencies or other organisations.

Further, Bakare (2017) explains public relations as the management function that focuses on the relationships and communications that individuals and organisations have with groups for the purpose of creating mutual goodwill; these groups are often referred to as publics which include employees, customers, stockholders, competitors, suppliers and so on, or just the general public.

The field of public relations in the twentieth century used to be restricted to publicity and media relations. In recent times, however, the field has extended to employee relations, investor relations, community relations, public affairs, lobbying and social media, among other areas.

The field of public relations is somewhat different from some other fields and concepts such as publicity, advertising and propaganda. Publicity is a segment or activity within public relations; it is usually a short-term strategy of achieving public relations goals.

Publicity is a vital aspect of public relations because, unlike advertising, publicity is unpaid for; and that makes it enjoy credibility among the general public. Advertising and public relations are similar, but the scope of public relations is wider than that of advertising. Frank Jekfins differentiated them thus: the relationship between public relations and advertising is that, unless people understand an organisation or its product, there can be no goodwill, and advertising becomes useless.

This implies that public relations would do the underground work for advertising to leverage. Another similar concept to public relations is propaganda. While communication with, or to, the public is a common ground for public relations, advertising and propaganda, propaganda rides more on emotion than logic. It is a tool often carefully deployed in public relations to entice the general public to an opinion, idea or belief.

There are certain skills that must be possessed in order for one to be functional in public relations. The first among them is an effective writing skill. Anyone who will carve a niche for himself or herself in public relations must have mastery of the operational language in terms of its grammar and broad vocabulary. Another skill needed for public relations is good interpersonal communication.

A public relations officer must be good at creating and sustaining rapport with others. Media and cultural literacy are also inevitable requirements of public relations. Versatility with different media, including social media, and cultural awareness in terms of the values and biases of a people are integral to a successful public relations venture.

People with business knowledge and critical thinking skills equally stand a good chance in public relations. Lastly, research skills which encompass the ability to engage in feasibility studies and analyse data are advantageous in public relations.

There are also important principles of public relations, as put forward by notable scholars like Newson and Scott (1981). One essential principle of public relations is that it is a service-oriented profession which dwells on public interest, not just personal gains.

Public relations also strives on reality, not falsehood. A public relations practitioner must maintain the integrity of the media; this implies ascertaining the veracity of any situation before disseminating the same to the public. Not only that, public relations organisations are expected to be proactive in handling social problems and forestall such from generating into crises.

Read also: How not to manage a public relations crisis

Finally, I shall discuss the place of persuasion and public opinion in public relations. Persuasion involves an effort towards causing a change in a person’s, group’s or society’s attitude.

Persuasion is aimed at affecting behaviour. It is deployed in public relations for three major reasons which are to reinforce or intensify an existing belief, to add to an existing system and/or to create a disbelief in an attitude by weakening its stability or importance. A public relations practitioner must, therefore, equip himself or herself with persuasive strategies.

Away from that, public opinion is the popular opinion that the public holds on a given issue. It is usually more emotion-driven than reason-based. Opinion moulders leverage power such as a legal system and influence such as getting celebrities to spearhead a cause in order to spread it in society.

By the same token, a public relations firm and personnel must be in the know about public opinions on issues and be ready to either strengthen such an opinion if favourable or weaken it through media orientation and publicity.

Incontrovertibly, the field of public relations is a fast-growing venture where opportunities lie for everyone. My next treatise will further discuss this lucrative communication sector.