Hanson, Mass Communication 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Lecture Notes
Chapter 13: Public Relations: Interactions, Relationships, and the News
Learning Objectives
1-1 Identify the two key founders of modern public relations and describe their individual
contributions to the PR industry
1-2 Describe the three major functions of public relations
1-4 Describe two examples of how the internet has made public relations more difficult
1-6 Identify the three things Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said needed to be combined in the
media to eliminate segregation laws
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. The Growth of Public Relations
A. Critical role in industry, government, and non-profit organizations
B. Public: a group of people who share a common set of interests
C. Generally seen to have grown out of the Industrial Revolution
D. Press agentry: a one-way form of public relations that involved sending material from
the press agent to the media with little opportunity for interaction and feedback
E. First major users of public relations: railroads
F. Ivy Lee and the use of symbolism
i. First PR professional to deal with crisis management
G. Edward Bernays
i. First person to apply social-scientific research techniques to the field
ii. Engineering consent: action based only on thorough knowledge of the situation
H. World War I: The Federal Government Starts Using Public Relations
i. Period of major growth for public relations
ii. Use of communication to mobilize popular support for a major war
I. Public Relations Becomes a Profession
i. Growth during the 1940s and 1950s
ii. Need for institutions to actively manage their images in the 1970s with the rise of
investigative reporting
II. The Business of Public Relations
A. Bernays’s three major functions of public relations
i. Informing
ii. Persuading
iii. Integrating
B. Modern public relations: the management function that establishes and maintains
mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its
success or failure depends
C. The Public Relations Process
i. Use of ROPES process to examine how P&G handled the Tide Pod issue
ii. Research
a. Monitored social media, news, and public health reports
b. Tide Pod Challenge and need for response
iii. Objectives
a. Necessary to have a clear definition of what the client wants to
accomplish
b. P&G’s objectives
a. Maintaining the trust of its customers
b. Encouraging safe storage and use of the pods
iv. Programming
a. Phases of product updates and communication
a. Toddler-prevention and improved safety information
b. Discouraging the Tide Pod Challenge
v. Evaluation
a. Effectiveness of the campaign
b. Increased sales and stable number of accidental injuries
III. The Publics
A. Many groups of publics
B. Important audience: internal public
Hanson, Mass Communication 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
i. Communications for the internal publics
a. Intranets: computer networks that are open only to members of that
organization
C. Wide range of external publics
i. Importance of building a good relationship with the press
D. Crisis Communication
i. Crisis: an event perceived by the public as being damaging to the organization’s
reputation or image
a. E.g., Boeing and airplane crashes
a. 737 Max planes are still grounded globally in 2020
ii. Principles of Crisis Communication
a. Be prepared
iii. The Tylenol Scare
a. Crisis: deaths from cyanide-laced Extra Strength Tylenol capsules
b. Honesty and immediate action from the company
c. Relaunch of Extra Strength Tylenol with an extensive PR campaign
iv. The Exxon Valdez and BP Oil Spills
a. Spending of more than $2 billion on cleanup and resulting tarnished
image
b. Differences
a. Perception of fault
b. Lack of effective crisis plan
c. Still the standard of comparison today
d. Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010
IV. Public Relations Goes Online
A. Internet as new way to research and distribute information and powerful channel for
development of crises
i. Media interactions
ii. Means of direct communication with various publics
iii. Significant new PR challenges
B. Social Media—Interacting Directly With Your Publics
Hanson, Mass Communication 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
iii. Kraft and the Cheesepocalypse
iv. Domino’s: Fighting Back Against Social Media
a. PR nightmares from amateur-produced mobile phone videos
b. Preparation for online crisis communication
a. Identify your crisis team
b. Imagine your nightmare scenarios
C. IMC & Coca-Cola Freestyle
i. Machine that customizes Coke drinks
a. Tracks what people are drinking and when
ii. Internet of Things: noncomputer devices that surround our lives that collect data
and transmit them over the internet
V. Public Relations and Society
A. Shapes the news, views of politicians and public policy, and social movements
B. 40% to 90% of all news starts out as public relations
C. Government relations
i. Efforts to work with government to shape legislation and regulations that are
favorable to their interests
ii. Includes lobbying for laws as well as building goodwill with legislators and
regulatory bodies
D. Government practice of public relations
E. Spin Control: A More Personal Form of Public Relations
i. Attempts to influence how a story is portrayed and discussed
ii. Spin doctor actions
a. Selectively leak information in advance, hoping that reporters will pay
VI. Public Relations and the Civil Rights Movement
A. Tool for social change
B. E.g., Coalition of Immokalee Workers