From Chapter 9
Public opinion is one of the most difficult aspects of society to gauge, due to how few there are of issues that the entirety of the public can unanimously agree on. Tackling any level of public interest will involve engaging said public's idea of how the issue will affect their own self-interest.
A prime factor in forming public opinion comes in the form of public discussion, which can be started by people knowledgeable in certain issues: formal opinion leaders, aka power leaders, and informal, or role models. Mostly via mass media, opinion then travels from the leader to the public. Mass media plays such a large role in setting the atmosphere for letting public discourse emerge, though it can be complicated by the idea of the media-dependency theory, where people who know little-to-nothing of a certain issue rely mostly on mass media for giving them information and shaping their opinions. Another theory, the framing theory, fits into the field based on the idea that agents of mass media in the form of journalists and PR personnel promote a fraction of an issue/controversy to bring people in--whereas journalists focus on the conflict in a story, PR specialists look for resolution of a conflict.
On the subject of where PR fits into this, the prominent view--or fittingly, the public opinion--of PR is that it is a means of persuasive communication on behalf of certain parties or clients. Such forms of persuasion temper hostilities, solidify views and feelings, and preserve the more favorable of them. There are some basic factors in communicating persuasively:
- Audience analysis
- Credibility of source(s)
- Appeal to self-interest(s)
- Clarity of message(s)
- Timing/context
- Audience participation
- Active suggestions
- Message content and structure
- Speaking persuasively
From Chapter 18
Among the biggest businesses in the United States, sports, entertainment and tourism reign supreme. Movies, sports games, concerts, travel--all contribute heavily to the public relations bottom line, all because people have many options to spend their income on. In return, these industries do everything in their power to both attract customers and outdo each other by spending large amounts of money on marketing, advertising, and PR.
One of the biggest parts of this climate is the idea of the cult of personality, where mass media glorifies all kinds of celebrities, be they athlete, entertainer, even crooks and politicians--or even crooked politicians. The overall idea is that fame (and sometimes greed) motivates the celebrity for good or ill, and their public is in turn sees in them as fonts of wish fulfillment, belonging, and sometimes entertainment (even when the celebrity in question isn't even trying). In this field, PR people are known as publicists due to their duty of generating buzz and excitement based around a celebrity or something in their line of work, be it a game, a film, a concert, or a benefit. They also act as 'damage control' in the event that said celebrity manages to make a fool of him or herself in public (or make a brush with law enforcement).
In preparing a publicity campaign for the client, a publicist needs to interview him or her, put together a biography that can be accepted by the masses, draft a plan to market the client, and then pull off a campaign involving public appearances, photography shoots, and news releases picked up by multiple media outlets. For something on a larger scale such as an event, drumming up ticket sales, among other things, may require some good publicity campaigns. One greatly-utilized technique may include the 'drip-drip-drip' method of disseminating information to the 'target audience' (a term coined by the film industry). For sporting events, college and professional teams are greatly promoted via buildup of 'star player' images, corporate sponsorship, and these days social media.
With tourism, the idea is selling people on a PLACE. In the United States, home to notable tourist destinations such as Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, and the Empire State Building, tourism generates 10% of gross national product. To ensure that flow of GNP, travel PR involves giving the public good reason to visit a place, making arrangements for them to reach it, gauging their enjoyment of the trip, and keeping track of their safety. One of the biggest audiences for this industry is retirees, but despite that steady stream of people, tourism is a business with a fluctuating state of being, due to threats such as economic downturn, political instability, and other disasters that can harm tourists.
From Chapter 19
PR in political and governmental settings tend to be a more trickier area than in entertainment, sports, and tourism; then again, government has been playing the PR game for centuries, as they seek to inform and persuade the public on many different issues regarding the state of their nation. In the United States, however, Congress puts limits on federal agencies that seek to 'persuade' the people, so they emphasize 'public information'.
On the federal level, the U.S. government is the largest information dissemination entity in the world, with the centerpiece being the White House (where every action the President takes is observed by mass media). The Presidents past and present have used this to their advantage to guide the nation in certain directions (while also making themselves 're-electable'). All agencies within the government use public affairs officers and public information specialists to present policies in ways their constituencies can easily digest.
On the state level, public information officers inform the people of the moves the state government makes; some agencies even conduct campaigns to promote health and safety issues or tourism. Locally, public information specialists are utilized to spread the word about city services and encourage economic development within.
To better communicate with entities on the federal, state and local levels of government (national and international), most corporate communication involves a public affairs division, which builds relationships between civil servants/elected officials and the client in question. They also keep track of any government actions that could affect said client. An example of this can be found in the activities of trade groups in Washington D.C., where specialists in PA give a government entity and the public it serves the primary viewpoint of the client. Lobbyists tend to be more politically active, participating in attempts to pass, defeat, or amend legislation--something that, as of late, has begun to generate public concern. U.S. business, education, religion, and international groups have their proverbial foot in the door of government via lobbyists.
In a corporate sense, government relations serve to find ways of working with government for a mutual benefit, while getting employees to be more politically active; Washington D.C. and other state-based trade associations are a prominent example.
Come election season, whole armies of specialists in PR and other public opinion fields are brought on (or event retained) by candidates to raise money for, and organize, their campaigns. In this information technology-tinted age, the internet has come in very handy for these efforts.
(Long night drafting this, believe it or not. I nearly forgot to click 'publish' on this until today.)
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