Online Public Relations - lectures

Online Public Relations – lecture 1 – 24/10/2024

Key words: defining PR
 Public Relations (PR) =
 Public relations are a distinctive management function which helps establish and
maintain;
 Mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance and cooperation
between an organization and its publics;
 Involves the management of problems or issues: helps management to keep
informed on and responsible to public opinion;
 Defines and emphasizes the responsibility of management to serve the public
interest;
 Helps management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change;
 Serving as an early warning system to help anticipate trends
- Observe the external world, see where they need to adapt
 And uses research and ethical communication techniques as its principal tools;
- Base your strategies and advice on research

Defining PR
 Grunig & Hunt: “the management of communication between an organization and its
publics”
 “An organization’s managed communications behavior”
- Focusses on external communication

The CIPR (UK’s Charted Institute of Public Relations)
 They focused on reputation with the aim of earning, understanding and support and
influencing opinion and behavior
 It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual
understanding between an organization and its publics
 First definition that links PR to reputation
 About reputation: the result of what you do, say and what others say about you
 External view of the company  reputation
 The public feels things about the company based on more than one image
 Reputation is built on more stable and long-term ideas about a company

 Guth & Marsh (2006): 5 core concepts that help to define PR
1. Management function
2. Two-way communication
3. Planned activity
- Presupposes that you prepare and analyze things
4. Research-based social science
- You want to influence; helpful if you know how to
5. Socially responsibly

 Reputation = the beliefs and opinions someone
has about another person, organization or object
 Identity & image

,  Reputation is foundation on which an organization builds
 Corporate identity = internal image; perceived by the employees and the staff itself
 Corporate image = perceived by the stakeholders




History of PR
 19th century: industrialization and mass media
 Entwined with social, economic and political developments
 Key date: 1984, study Grunig & Hunt (what we saw in the beginning)
 Distinguish among 4 categories of communication
1. Propaganda (1 way, truth unimportant)
o Newspapers about war
o PR started off as propaganda
2. Dissemination of information (1 way, truth important)
3. Scientific persuasion (2-way, imbalanced effects)
4. Mutual understanding (2-way, balanced effects)
- Nowadays: two-way balanced symmetrical PR is considered best
o Social media nowadays; offer much information, but it also presupposes
that the organization handles and acts upon that information
o Presence of social media stimulates that two-way communication
- Not always good, but do not underestimate
 Nowadays: two-way balanced symmetrical PR is considered best
 Ideal form:
 Building true relationships
 Dialogue and conversation
 Allow mutual influence to accommodate the need of the other



PR today

, Communication
 Planning
 When to communicate what
 Research
 You base your planning on research
 What strategy would be the best to react in a certain situation
 Evaluation
 Evaluation of the communication
- These are interconnected

Basic stakeholder model
 The organization employees
 Corporate PR
 Consumers or equivalents
 Marketing communication
 Marketing and PR are not exactly the same
 Use marketing communication as a tool for
PR
- Relevant for your primary
stakeholders (on who you depend,
such as customers)
 All other publics or stakeholders
 Corporate PR
 Reputation
 Cumulative understanding of the
organization by all stakeholders

Takeaways
 PR is a complex concept
 PR focuses on relationships with stakeholders
 Reputation is fundamental
 Different PR types and channels are being used
 PR is a distinct discipline, it differs from e.g., marketing and advertising
 BUT: there is overlap


Online Public Relations – lecture 2 – 25/10/2024

, Ethics and professionalism in public relations
Q1: Why are ethics important in PR?

Ethics and PR
 Ethics and morality are related concepts
 Morality = principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong, or good
and bad behavior
- Moral rules help to structure society
- Breaking them could lead to various types of sanctions
 Ethics = moral principles that govern an actor’s behavior
- Moral rules for public relations
o Being trustworthy is an important asset for an organization

Ethical theories: two schools
1. Utilitarianism/consequentionalist perspective
 The morally right action
 The action that produces ‘the most good’
 In terms of consequences produced
 Maximizing the overall good is the idea behind it (the good of others as well as one’s
own good
- Disadvantage: it permits the sacrificing of the interests of individuals and
minorities for the greater good
2. Deontological perspective
 Motivation determines whether actions are ethical or not
 Kantianism or the non-consequentionalist perspective
- Deon = Greek for duty
- According to this approach, we have a moral duty
- Kant: an act is carried out from a sense of duty when it is in accordance with the
categorical imperative
- It could become a universal law
o An action is only moral if you can make your reason for acting into a rule
that everyone can follow
- Disadvantage: what if there are two conflicting categorical imperatives?
o Two moral guidelines
 However, both schools, utilitarianism as well as deontology have shortcomings
 Moreover:
 Cultural differences ---> what is considered right or wrong may differ between
organizations, industries and countries
 Gregory: PR practioners’ duties
1. Be guided by your own value system
2. The duty to the public: provides all facts, so they can make their own judgement
3. The duty to reckon society’s interest



Professionalism: is PR a profession?