INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC RELATIONS

1. DEFINITION :

2. SIMPLE DEFINTION : Public relations is the organization's effort to build & manage long-term relationships with its strategic publics & minimize conflicts with them (adapted from J. Grunig, 1992)

3. IPRM DEFINITION : Public relation is the deliberate, planned and structured effort to establish & maintain mutual understanding between an organization & its publics.

4. IPRA Definition : Public relations is the strategic management of relationships between an organization and its diverse publics, through the use of communication, to achieve understanding, realize organizational goals, and serve the public interest.

5. Skilled Required of PR Practitioners :

6. Research Skills : The practitioners should be able to identify important publics of the organization. Its also important to find out what these publics want or need from the organization & what the organization can do to meet these needs.

7. Writing & Editing Skills : The practitioners should be able to write & edit press releases, reports, speeches, feature articles, products & technical information, brochures & pamphlets. In Malaysia, its important that the practitioners can do this in both in English & Malay language.

8. Other Communication Skills : Arranging speeches for the Chief Executive Officer, either face-to-face to groups or for the mass media, coaching these executives how to present their speeches & being able to present the speech themselves are other communication skills the practitioners needs.

9. Production Skills : The practitioner needs to have knowledge on how to design & do lay-out of copy, choose appropriate typography, artwork & photographs for brochures, annual reports, other reports & design web pages for the internet. They also need multimedia knowledge & be able to prepare audio-visual materials for corporate videos & films.

10. Organization Skills : Skills & knowledge in organization & managing events, such as news conferences, open houses, launching, fund raisers, anniversary celebrations & other special events are also necessary.

11. Personal Qualities : Edward L. Bernays, a pioneer American PR practitioner, author & educator, listed 11 personal characteristics that the practitioner needs = (character & integrity , a sense of judgement & logic , the ability to think creatively & imaginatively , truthfulness & discretion , objectivity , a deep interest in the solution of problems , a broad cultural background , intellectual curiosity , effective powers of analysis & synthesis , intuition , training in the social sciences & in the mechanisms of PR)

12. UMBRELLA OF PR ACTIVITIES :

13. Media Relations

14. Customer Relations

15. Community Relations

16. Employee Relations

17. Financial Relations

18. Governmental Relations

19. Image-building

20. Issues Management

21. Crisis Management

22. PR Compared To Other Functions :

23. Advertising : Jefkins (1988, p.3) states advertising which emphasises attracting attention, PR information is judged according to the interest & value it accords to its publics. He also points out a chief difference is that advertising emphasises the selling in its message, compared to PR, which emphasises informing, educating and creating understanding through knowledge.

24. Marketing : Jefkins (p.5) said marketing is only one function of business compared to PR which is involved in several functions like financial & production. Marketing focused on building a relationship with primarily one public - the customer publics whereas PR is concerned with building relationship with all the organization's strategic publics like community, employee & media.

25. Propaganda : It means of gaining support for an opinion, creed, or belief, according to Jefkins (1988, p.7). He elaborates that propaganda is prejudiced in favor of its topic, like advertising. PR on the other hand, is more concerned with being factual & unbiased. Propaganda is aimed at keeping the gov. in power, but PR is aimed at getting its services understood & used properly.