public relations is about reputation
Student Name: Ge Bai
Student Number: 140254909
Module Code: COM 8065
Module Title: Theoretical Approaches to PR
The Assignment Title:
PR is about reputation – ‘the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you’ (www.cipr.co.uk). How does this compare with Bernays’ ideas of PR as Propaganda and today’s Nudge and Persuasion theories?
Submission Date:
24/10/2014
Word Count:
1572 words
According to CIPR (accessed in 2014), public relations is about reputation. This essay will focus on CIPR’s arguments and compare it with Bernays’ ideas and Nudge and persuasion theories. In the first place, this essay will introduce Grunig and Hunt (1984)’s four models; and then, analyse and evaluate Bernays’ ideas of public relations as propaganda and Nudge and persuasion theories; at the end, explore the similarities as well as differences among Bernays’ propaganda, Nudge and persuasion and CIPR’s ideas of public relations.
According to Grunig and Hunt (1984), public relations has four models which are press agentry/publicity model, public Information model, two-way asymmetric model and two-way symmetric model. The first three models belong to one-way communication, while the fourth model is a two-way communication.
Public relations is historically rooted in propaganda. Propaganda as a powerful tool has been debated for decades after World War I. Edward Bernays (1928: 37) studies the efforts of propaganda in wartime, and argues that public relations as propaganda is a way of ‘manipulation’. For Bernays (1928: 37), this conscious, intelligent and organised manipulation is ‘an important element in democratic society’, and ‘those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country’. Therefore, in Bernays’ opinion, public relations as propaganda is a press agentry/publicity model, for it use manipulation to influence publics’ behaviour to fulfil the desire of the organisation.
Student Number: 140254909
Module Code: COM 8065
Module Title: Theoretical Approaches to PR
The Assignment Title:
PR is about reputation – ‘the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you’ (www.cipr.co.uk). How does this compare with Bernays’ ideas of PR as Propaganda and today’s Nudge and Persuasion theories?
Submission Date:
24/10/2014
Word Count:
1572 words
According to CIPR (accessed in 2014), public relations is about reputation. This essay will focus on CIPR’s arguments and compare it with Bernays’ ideas and Nudge and persuasion theories. In the first place, this essay will introduce Grunig and Hunt (1984)’s four models; and then, analyse and evaluate Bernays’ ideas of public relations as propaganda and Nudge and persuasion theories; at the end, explore the similarities as well as differences among Bernays’ propaganda, Nudge and persuasion and CIPR’s ideas of public relations.
According to Grunig and Hunt (1984), public relations has four models which are press agentry/publicity model, public Information model, two-way asymmetric model and two-way symmetric model. The first three models belong to one-way communication, while the fourth model is a two-way communication.
Public relations is historically rooted in propaganda. Propaganda as a powerful tool has been debated for decades after World War I. Edward Bernays (1928: 37) studies the efforts of propaganda in wartime, and argues that public relations as propaganda is a way of ‘manipulation’. For Bernays (1928: 37), this conscious, intelligent and organised manipulation is ‘an important element in democratic society’, and ‘those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country’. Therefore, in Bernays’ opinion, public relations as propaganda is a press agentry/publicity model, for it use manipulation to influence publics’ behaviour to fulfil the desire of the organisation.
Bibliography: Bernays, E. (1928) Propaganda, New York: Liveright. Cutlip, S. et al (2000) Effective Public Relations, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Fawkes, J. (2006) ‘Can ethics save public relations from the charge of propaganda’, Ethical Space: Journal of the Institute of Communication Ethics, 3 (1): 32–42. Grunig, J. E. and Hunt, T. (1984) Managing Public Relations, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Jefkins, F. (1994) Public Relations Techniques, 2nd edition, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. McKenna, R. (1984) Mac Launch Super Bowl XVIII Perloff, R Pratkanis, A. and Aronson, E. (2001) Age of Propaganda, New York: Freeman/Owl Books. Tench, R. and Yeomans, L. (2013) Exploring Public Relations, 3rd edition, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Thaler, R. and Sunstein, C. (2008) Nudge, London: Penguin Books.