Spokesperson & Public relations (PR)

Ing. Jiří Šnajdar 2015

Spokesperson (press secretary, press officer )

In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have received formal training in journalism, communications, public relations and public affairs in this role in order to ensure that public announcements are made in the most appropriate fashion and through the most appropriate channels to maximize the impact of favorable messages, and to minimize the impact of unfavorable messages.

Responsibilities

Unlike an individual giving a personal testimonial, it is the job of a spokesperson to faithfully represent and advocate for the organization's positions, even when these conflict with his or her own opinion. Lots of celebrities have done some work as spokespeople.  As a result, spokespersons are generally selected from experienced, long-time employees or other people who are known to support the organization's goals.

Identity

A corporation may be represented in public by its chief executive officer, chairman or president, chief financial officer, counsel or external legal advisor.

In addition, on a day-to-day level and for more routine announcements, the job may be delegated to the corporate communications or investor relations departments (or equivalents), who will act as spokesmen.

A spokesperson , press secretary or press officer is a senior advisor who provides advice on how to deal with the news media and, using new management techniques, helps their employer to maintain a positive public image and avoid negative media coverage.

They often, but not always, act as the organization's senior  spokesperson. Many governments also have press secretaries. A deputy press secretary is typically a mid-level political staffer who assists the press secretary and communications director with aspects of public outreach. They often write the press releases and media advisories for review by the press secretary and communication director. There are usually assistant press secretaries and press officers that support the press secretary.

Public relations (PR), 1

is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organiztion and the public.  

Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment.

Public relations (PR), 2

 The aim of public relations by a company often is to persuade the public, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders to maintain a certain point of view about it, its leadership, products, or of political decisions.

Common activities include speaking at conferences, winning industry awards, working with the press, and employee communication.

According to Edward Bernays, public relations is "practically as old as society."

Some books and universities identify a Babylonian tablet from 1800 BC as the first example of public relations.

They also associate audience segmentation tactics used in gospels, political promotions in Rome and logos used by ancient craftsman as being early examples of public relations.

Most textbooks on public relations consider the antecedents to the field to have originated during the settlement of the New World.

Exaggerated promotions were used to attract settlers and the first fund-raising pamphlet, New England Fresh Fruits, was used to raise funding for Harvard. Pamphlets, media outreach and slogans were also used to spread anti-British sentiment.

Public relations as a paid profession began in 1900, when the first public relations agency, The Publicity Bureau, was founded. 

Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays, who are both referred to as the father of public relations, helped establish the field as a professional practice in the United States. 

Basil Clarke is considered the profession's founder in the UK and Arthur Page is considered the father of corporate public relations. The field became more established after World War II, in part due to talent from war-time publicity efforts moving into the private sector.

The 1990s were marked by "explosive growth" for the public relations field.

Internet technologies and social media changes public relations tactics, agencies consolidated and new specialties were introduced such as investor relations and community relations.

The field established a degree of professionalism, though to what extent is debated.

Ancient origins

Although the term "public relations" was not yet developed, some believe the history of public influence and communications management dates back to ancient civilizations.

According to Edward Bernays, one of the pioneers of public relations, “The three main elements of public relations are practically as old as society: informing people, persuading people, or integrating people with people.

Some books and universities identify stone tablets used by the Babylonians to educate farmers on how to sow and harvest crops from 1800 BC as the first known example of public relations.

In Egypt, scribes documented a pharaoh's deeds  and in Rome leaders like Julius Caesar wrote biographies on their military successes to persuade the public to support their political candidacy.

Ancient Greek philosophers such as Isocrates, Plato and Aristotle created early theories in rhetoric and persuasion / conviction.

According to Barbara Diggs-Brown

from the American University School of Communications, the PR field anchors its work in historical events in order to improve its perceived validity, but it didn't begin as a professional field until around 1900. The book, "Today's Public Relations: An Introduction," states that, though experts disagree on public relations' origins, many identify the early 1900s as its start as a paid profession.

The passage of the Hepburn Act, which added government controls over railroads, was seen as a victory for Roosevelt and a testament to his publicity skills.  According to Scott Cutlip, this "mastery of public relations profoundly shifted the power from the Congress to the Presidency."

Roosevelt also spurred the growth of the public relations field by using the media to promote  The New Deal and to blame corporations for the country's economic problems, which led companies to recruit their own publicists to defend themselves.

In 1929, Edward Bernays helped the Lucky Strike cigarette brand make their cigarettes more popular among women. Research showed that women were reluctant to carry a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes, because the brand's green color scheme clashed with popular fashion choices.

Bernays persuaded fashion designers, charity events, interior designers and others to popularize the color green.

"Fathers" of the profession Ivy Lee, a former Wall Street reporter, is sometimes called the father of public relations and was influential in establishing it as a professional practice.

In 1906, Lee published a Declaration of Principles, which said that public relations work should be done in the open, should be accurate and cover topics of public interest.

 Ivy Lee is also credited with developing the modern press release and the "two-way-street" philosophy of both listening to and communicating with respective publics.

Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, is also sometimes referred to as the father of public relations and the profession's first theoretician for his work in the 1920s.  

He took the approach that audiences had to be carefully understood and persuaded to see things from the client's perspective.

He wrote the first text-book on public relations and taught the first college course at New York University in 1923.

Former journalist Basil Clarke is considered by some to be the founder of public relations in the UK. He founded the UK's first PR agency, Editorial Services, in 1924.  

He also authored the world's first code of ethics for the field in 1929.  

Through his publicity efforts, Clarke was able to get imported skimmed milk marked as "unfit for babies" on behalf of pasteurized milk producers and fought to allow food colorants in preserved food for Heinz.

During the war Coca Cola promised that "every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents, wherever he is and whatever it costs the company."

The company received volumes of letters from soldiers saying that there was "no greater calamity" than running out of coke. Coca Cola successfully persuaded politicians that they were crucial to the war-effort.

As a result Coke was exempted from sugar rationing, ultimately leading to the once primarily US-based product developing into a dominant international brand.

According to one textbook, the period after World War II was a boon for the public relations field and "the 40 years from 1960 to 2000 are perhaps best characterized as the professional-development-building era in public relations.

This was caused by an increase in the number of media outlets and the talent previously used for government and military publicity that entered the private sector.

Trade associations were formed first in the US in 1947 with the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), followed by the Institute of Public Relations (now the Chartered Institute of Public Relations) in London in 1948.

Similar trade associations were created in Australia, Europe, South Africa, Italy and Singapore. The International Association of Public Relations was founded in 1955.

According to The Global Public Relations Handbook, public relations evolved from a series of "press agents or publicists" to a manner of theory and practice in the 1980s.

  Research was published in academic journals like Public Relations Review and the Journal of Public Relations Research, leading to consensus to categorize public relations work into a four-step process:

research, planning, communication and action.

According to one textbook, the public relations field experienced growth and consolidation during the 1990s.

New internet technology and social media websites changed social media tactics. It was also during this period that specialties for communicating to certain audiences and within certain market segments emerged. According to the textbook, "The 1990s were a time of explosive growth for public relations and corporate communications.

In 1991, Dr. Robert L. Heath from the University of Houston said there was "steady progress" towards public relations achieving "true professional status,„  

while academic J. A. R. Pimlott said it had achieved "quasi-professionalism.„  According to "Today's Public Relations: An Introduction", despite the field's new found professionalism and ethics, its reputation was still plagued by a history of exploitive behavior.

In April 1999, four managers from IBM, Sun Microsystems, National Public Radio and Linux Journal  created "The Clue Train Manifesto."

The Manifesto established 95 theses about the way social media and internet technologies were going to change business. It concluded that markets had become "smarter and faster than most companies," because stakeholders were getting information from each other. The manifesto was considered ahead of its time.

Press releases, which were mostly unchanged for more than a century, began to integrate digital features. 

BusinessWire introduced the "Smart News Release," which incorporated audio, video and images, in 1997. This was followed by the MultiVu multimedia release from PR Newswire in 2001.

Incorporating digital and social features became a norm among wire services, as well as making company announcements on corporate blogs.

Social media sites like blogs, Facebook and Twitter changed public relations from a one-way broadcast-oriented field to conversational, two-way communications.

Many of the large PR agencies transitioned into integrated marketing firms.  According to The New York Times, new media also made it "easier for consumers to learn about the mix-ups and blunders" of public relations.

For example, after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, British Petroleum tried to deflect blame to other parties, claim the spill was not as significant as it was and focused on the science, while human interest stories related to the damage were emerging.

 In 2011, Facebook tried to covertly spread privacy concerns about competitor Google's Social Circles. 

Chapstick created a communications crisis after repeatedly deleting negative comments on its Facebook page.