Public Relations Essays

Public Relations (PR) results from a convicted and thoughtful communication process that recognizes that favourable public opinion, attention and support is not achieved by accident. It recognizes a great deal of hard work since success depends on ensuring that nothing happens by chance. This is probably due to the inevitable growing complexity of the world and its communication channel and our Ghanaian society in particular.

Every organization either provides a service or direct sales of products to its publics. This is regardless of whether the organization is state owned or otherwise.

This presupposes that every organization has its own defined publics it deals with day to day basis. This is where PR comes in. According to the British Institute of Public Relations (IPR), PR is a deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its publics.

In 1999 the Institute added another version to the definition which is on reputation – Public Relations is about reputation, the results of what you do, what you say, what others say about you.

Public Relations practice is a discipline, which looks after reputation – the aim of earning understanding, support and influence public opinion. Edward Bernays, the grandfather of PR in the USA sees Public Relations practitioner as an applied sociologist who advises clients or employers on social attitudes and action to be taken to win the support of public upon which the viability of the employers and clients depend (Harrison, 2000).

Cutlip, Center and Broom (1985) are of the view that “Public Relations is a management function that establishes and maintains mutual beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on which its success or failure depends” Ruehl defines public relations as “Public Relations is what public relations does” “ PR practice is the art and social science of analyzing trends predicting their consequencies, counseling organizations leaders and implementing planned programmes of action which serve both the organization and the publics interest” (World Assembly of PR, Mexico City, 1978)

Canfield (1952) in different semester inner do, upholds this perception of Public Relations as “a social philosophy of management expressed in policies and practice which are communicated to the public to secure its understanding” Philip Kitchen (1977) in his book Public relations; Principles and Practices came out with a revelation that over 500 Public Relations definitions exist; however a number of common themes abound as follows; – Public Relations is essentially a communication function but the emphasis is on the two- way nature of the communication process.

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Public Relations is concerned with establishing and maintaining mutual understanding (goodwill) between an organization and its particular group of people (publics). – Public Relation serves as an intelligent function analyzing and interpreting trends and issues in the environment that may have potential consequences for an organization and its stakeholders. Running through these definitions is the fact that, the practice is essentially in promoting mutual understanding, rapport and goodwill between an organization and its publics.

Such a condition, needless to say is indispensable to the success of every establishment including higher education. It must be noted that this condition is premised on a two-way communication system with both inward and outward activities. An organization must be able to communicate its plans and actions to the public and at the same time, the public thinking and attitude must be communicated to the organization in order to evolve acceptable policies.

It is not enough that an organization should have good intentions; it is essential that such intentions be communicated to the publics and translated into concrete acts. It is only by making people know and see concrete deeds that one can build a good public image. The importance of Public Relations practice is underscored by the indispensability of communication in any human setup. However, in spite of this importance in our side of the world Public Relation practice has suffered certain abuses by those who profess to practice it as well as those who are supposed to benefit from its practice.

While management seems not to appreciate the importance and its relevance, the numerous publics do not appear to understand it and the practitioners themselves have for most part been woefully incapable of explaining to both management and the various publics what the practice entails. In short the Public Relations profession, its aims and objectives, guiding principles have largely not been understood and appreciated by the public. 2. 0 HISTORY OF PUBLIC RELATIONS “In truly democratic society everything depends upon the consent of the public” Thomas Jefferson.

Public Relations began when people started communicating and needed to motivate others. The idea of public relations as a profession is relatively young. Public Relations is a twentieth (20th) century phenomenon and Edward Bernays often accredited as the father of Public Relations. He played a major role in defining the industry’s philosophy and methods. The history of Public Relations is mostly confined to the early half of the twentieth century; however there is evidence of practices scattered through history.

A number of American precursors to the Public Relations are found in the form of publicists who specialized in promoting circuses, theatre performances and other public spectacles. In the United States of America where Public Relations’ has its origin, many early Public Relations practices were developed in support of rail roads. Many scholars believed that the first appearance of the term “Public Relations” appeared in 1897 year book of Railway Literature. Later, practitioners were recruited from the rank of journalism.

Some reporters concerned with ethnics criticize former colleagues for using their inside knowledge/understanding of news media to help clients receive fovourable media coverage. 2. 1 THE FIRST NAMES Some historians regard Ivy Lee as the first real practitioner of Public Relations but Edwards Bernays is generally regarded as the profession’s founder. In the United Kingdom, Sir Basil Clarke (1879-1947) was the pioneer Public Relations. The First World War helped stimulate the development of Public Relations as a profession.

Many of the first professionals get their start with the “Committee on Public Information” (also known as the Creel Committee) which organized publicity on behalf of the USA objectives during the World War II. In describing the origin of the term Public Relations, Bernays commented “when I came back to the United States of America (after the war) I decided that if you could use propaganda for war, you could certainly use it for peace. And propaganda get to be a bad word because of the German’s using it.

So what I did was to try to find some other words, so we found the words (counsel of “(Public Relation)” Bernays was the profession’s first theorist based on Sigmund Freud’s theories about the irrational, unconscious motives that shape behaviour. He authorized several books; Criticizing public opinion (1923), Propaganda (1928) and The engineering of consent (1937). Ivy Lee is credited with developing the modern news release (also called press release). He espoused a philosophy consistent with what has been called the “two – way street” to Public Relations.

It is reported that Kings College (Columbia University) sent out an announcement of its 1758 graduation ceremonies the first anywhere in the colonies – several newspapers printed it apparently the first instance of a NEWS RELEASE. 2. 2 PUBLIC RELATIONS IN GHANA The emergence of Public Relations in Ghana according to Gyan (1991) was characterized by scenario in which Public Relations Officers in such departments as administration, marketing, sales and personnel carried out Public Relations functions.

Gyan (1991) further notes that, where the need for Public Relations job offer arises, organizations usually opted for press or information officers usually from the Information Services Department (ISD) of the Ministry of Communication. This had the effect of reducing the Public Relations practice to publicity or press relations thus limiting the scope of the practice in Ghana. Shortly before and after independence, that is between the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the civil service started replacing expatriate principal secretaries with Ghanaians.

Multinationals like UAC, PTC, Shell and BP followed suit by appointing Ghanaian intermediaries between them and their various respective publics. Significantly, virtually all these Ghanaians who were given the Public Relations functions came from journalistic background and were therefore given the opportunity to learn some skills in PR practice. Some of these early PR practitioners took advantage of refresher courses to upgrade themselves and later became accomplished PR practitioners. Notably among them were Mrs. Veronica Addae-Mensah, Mrs.

Regina Agbozo, Moses Dorvlo Herman Alan, Kafui Asem and Carl Reindorf. They joined the PR profession from other fields. The stigma attached to the PR by the unprofessional approach of some untrained practitioners in the past still remains. Thus in his article entitled “Public Relations, African’s biggest problem” Santuah Niagia Affidiweh (1998) asserts that Public Relations in Ghana has been reduced to negotiating for canopies for meetings, organizing press coverage’s or receiving delegates for conferences. He summed up saying “Public Relations in our part of the world is still a serious joke”

However, Public Relations practitioners like honourable Kwadwo Yankah, Kafui Asem, honourable Ekow Spio-Garbah, J. E. Papoe Allotey and Ben Antwi have by their sterling performances in the field of Public Relations proved that PR practice has become recognized as a scientific professional and indispensable management tool in Ghana. In a recent study conducted by Wu, Ming-Yi, Baah-Boakye, Kwame,(2008) on “Profile of Public Relations Practice in Ghana, Practitioners role Most Important Skills” revealed that now most public relations practitioners perform managerial roles and take part in decision-making process.

However, public relations practitioners who perform communication technician role do not have decision-making powers in their respective organizations. This result is different from the results of the Gyan(1991) study. The results of her study suggested that PR practitioners’ positions were very low on the organizational chart. However, they are now performing managerial roles and have decision-making powers in the organizations. Comparing the results with Gyan (1991) study which was conducted 16 years ago, we can see improvement in professional status of PR in Ghana.

Today the long insulated position of higher education like other professions such as law and medicine is undergoing public scrutiny in all parts of its complex operations. Such change from enjoying reverend, unquestioned status to being pushed into high profile arena populated by media, special interest groups, empowered consumers and other vocal entities present new challenges to higher education public relations practitioners. (For example, Students’ reporters/journalists of the Part Time programme often scan the notice boards for news worthier items for publication. )

Because, the historical structure within higher education institutions evolved quietly, often without wide spread public attention, the new demand, by outside groups for accountability might seem like a threat for higher education. For example, it came as surprise to see an article published in the Ghanaian Times Newspaper in 2001, calling on the government to initiate action to investigate the financial impropriety and abuse of power leveled against the Finance Officer and Registrar of University of Education, Winneba. The number of rejoinders that were published after the University had stated its side of the story was overwhelming.

That was unprecedented in the history of universities in Ghana. The issue of examination malpractices involving the son of a Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Asenso Okyere took centre stage in the media circles. A court action was instituted by the University of Ghana against the Daily Graphic, Newspaper. This compelled the paper to withdraw an article published by the paper alleging that 30% of student’s population of the University is HIV positive. This is clear demonstration of media scrutiny of higher education, which had hitherto enjoyed uninterfered running of the universities.

The recent proliferation of the press and the electronic media (Radio stations broadcasting in local Ghanaian languages) may pose a serious challenge to the universities in Ghana on the best practices in media relations. Center, Cutlip and Broom (1985) description of closed and open system aptly illustrates higher education transitory state. The traditional close system promise of higher education institutions emphasized bringing internal and external stake holders in line with the organization with little regards for how the interaction of the components parts appeared to work together or conflict, hence the “ivory tower”.

By contrast, the open system promise view external and internal holders interactions as critical to adopting to and flourishing in today’s changing environment something higher education is realising it must do. In the 21st century, emphasis will continue to be on the individual’s responsibility and power of choice for selecting and questioning his or her own health care options, to demanding quality and relevance from higher education institutions.

One, the public perception of higher education must be more responsive to the needs of its constituents including being more accessible to different types of students more aware of and responsive to educational costs more concern with relevance of higher education to the market place. The internal structure of higher education is also chaotic, with many different factions balancing their goals with others while competing for resources and visibility, example, graduate education versus undergraduate education, finite and often diminishing resources versus increasing resources, administration versus faculty on issues such as academic freedom nd governance innovation versus traditional course and informal delivery system. In Ghana, for example, it took the University of Ghana, the oldest University, a considerable length of time and political pressures for it to change from the term system (3 terms) to semester system after all the other Universities in Ghana had adopted the semester system. The structure is often compared with multitude of fiefdoms squabbling under the nose of a king.

As higher education institutions grew and became more fragmented internally, functions became compartmentalized and seemed to operate without the knowledge of what other parts of the institutions were doing. Warner (1996) detailed the other disjointed developments of higher education as a separate office to deal with media relations, publications video services (most recently) website for external audiences. All of these coexist with internal faculty and staff audience resulting in a plethora of seemingly, unrelated and often contradictory external and internal messages.

Now more than ever, higher education institutions not only must become aware of public relations efforts going on in their respective Universities but also must step up and coordinate these efforts within the structures before going out to the external audiences. As Berube (1996) wrote “the most important thing is that we need to re-evaluate our priorities internally, if we are going to understand how we might be valued externally” page 17. Today, good public relations is vital to the successful functioning of any educational institution.