Friendfinder Club

Fangyin Chiang asked:




I. Define Public Relations

i. Definition development

When the terminology “public relations” is discussed, various images come to minds of different people. For example, public relations practitioners who never have professional training in colleges may think public relations is a marketing tactic. In some countries where the concept of public relations is not well developed, the works of public relations are even seen as party planners or tour guides.

For a public relations beginner, in my opinion, the ROPE process addressed by Jerry A. Hendrix is a helpful model, which indicates that the public relations process is a method for solving problems. It has four phases: research, objectives, programming, and evaluation.
In the research phase, the public relations process involves identifying and learning the backgrounds of organizations, what problems need to be solved, and the target groups to be reached. In the phase of objectives, public relations practitioners have to set the substantial outcomes to be achieved. There are two key elements involved: 1) Impact objectives are the influences that organizations want to exert with target groups. 2) Output objectives are the components that public relations programs apply strategically. The phase of programming consists of the program being executed to achieve objectives. A central theme and various forms of communication are included in public relations programs. Lastly, in the phase of evaluation, public relations practitioners have to refer back to the objectives that were set in the second phase and determine the effectiveness of public relations programs.

In the evaluation phase, Hendrix addressed an important concept of public relations: evaluation means an ongoing procedure to monitor and adjust public relations programs. The public relations process should be examined on a long-term basis. In order to understand the major publics important to organizations, public relations practitioners can not rely solely on the knowledge gathered in the research phase. Otherwise, the public relations program has to be executed to obtain mutual understanding. Afterwards, further problems or opportunities can be addressed.
In my opinion, the ROPE process can be seen as a basic context of public relations. It explains technically the procedure by which public relations practitioners offer the consulting service. However, in my opinion, the core value of public relations lies in some organic elements in the relationship itself. As I was reading the theories in “Public Relations As Relationship Management” by John A. Ledingham and Stephen D. Brunig, I was wondering why we had to define the concept of relationships. In my previous knowledge about public relations, it seemed to be a technical process conveying messages to target audiences and gathering information of specific industries for clients. Nevertheless, reviewing the literature on the concept of organizational effectiveness made it clearer to me how theoretical frameworks work in practical public relations area (L.A. Grunig et al., 1992). Public relations makes organizations more effective by building relationships with strategic publics. The identification of strategic publics has to be completed in the research phase to determine which publics are influential to the organization, and make segmentation based on demographics or psychographic indicators.

In the public relations process, it is difficult to achieve multi-objectives in a period of time. In my opinion, as the relationship is first initiated, the participants have to pursue a state of balance to maintain this relationship. According to the notion of control mutuality addressed by Stafford and Canary (1991), participants in the relationship have to come to an agreement about which of them should decide relational goals and behavioral routines. In all kinds of relationships, there are distribution and dynamics of power. According to the journal addressed by James E. Grunig and Yi-Hui Huang, power asymmetry exists in the following four circumstances. First, one party is completely powerless, and the absolute power of the other party may lead to great animosity in the relationship (Pruitt & Carnevale, 1993, p. 150). Second, the power difference is only slight and neither party possesses an outweighing advantage. Third, the power asymmetry is reasonably large, and a trustful third party in favor of the weaker party is needed to provide a balance of power distribution. Fourth, power asymmetry originates from the situation in which one party possesses more information or experiences than the other party does.

For example, in the case study overviewed by Roter & Hall (1992), the survey was conducted to assess different attitudes of patients, physicians and providers towards patient-held health record (PHHR). The results of the study presented contrasting opinions between physicians and patients in the aspects of information exchange. Patients reacted very positively toward the idea of having their own portable medical records. Physicians concerned that records would be used by patients inappropriately. In the physician-patient relationship, it is usually the physician who dominates the progress of the relationship, and the patient needs to trust the physician to maintain a positive interaction with them. This relational model can be applied to the fourth circumstance of power asymmetry: Physicians possess more information and experiences that are key factors in the relationships with patients.

Sometimes, the participants in relationships seek power equity. However, power distribution is mostly unequal. Participants in relationships need to agree on who makes decisions and who dominates the situation. Otherwise, the quality of relationships may be eroded by struggles (Ross, 1970).
After the state of control mutuality has been achieved, some positive elements needed in a long-tern relationship such as trust, commitment, and liking can be attained. Reviewing public relations literature discussed previously, the element of trust is generally accepted and seen as critical both in interpersonal relationships and in organizational relationships (Canary & Cupach, 1988). Many scholars defined trust as a willingness to believe in partner’s integrity and reliability, and trust also works as the fundamental element that leads to relational satisfaction and commitment. In sum, control mutuality, trust, satisfaction and commitment are four focal characteristics in the quality of organization-public relationships. These four factors are also perceived to be interrelated (Stafford and Canary, 1991).

In conclusion, the concept of public relations can be seen as constructed by a technical ongoing process that includes the phases of research, objectives, programming and evaluation. Throughout the public relations process, practitioners should take some organic elements into consideration because successful public relations outcomes can’t be achieved only based on technical process. Public relations programs should be aimed at building relational trust, satisfaction and commitment both by agenda setting and by interpersonal communication.

ii. Roles of public relations practitioners

In the field of public relations, practitioners are always seeking cost-effective ways to reach target audiences and disseminate positive messages about the clients. In the face of various interests of all kinds of stakeholders, public relations practitioners have to be cautious about managing relationships with different audiences. Jerry A. Hendrix once stated that a public relations practitioner acts as a counselor to management, and as a mediator, helping to translate private aims into reasonable, publicly acceptable policy and action.
The roles played by public relations practitioners are varied depending on the relational circumstances between organizations and publics. This is the reason why some clients may view public relations agencies as problem solvers, especially when the awareness or reputation of the organization is weak.

There is one area in which public relations efforts are especially encouraged: media relations. It can be assumed that public relations practitioners and media professionals rely on each other and get benefits from each other. Sometimes, public relations practitioners offer some incentives for reporters and editors during campaigns. However, except for those additional incentives such as free trips or product samples, what an editor or a reporter really wants is a news-worthy story.
In the scenarios of internal communication, community relationships management, and relationships with special publics, the major task of practitioners is to communicate openly and honestly to build goodwill between organizations and publics. Public relations practitioners should provide consistent messages to diverse publics, obtaining not only awareness but continuing trust from them. The information produced in the public relations process needs not only to be persuasive, but also emotionally infective. Besides, another task for public relations practitioners will be convincing their clients to invest in a long-term relationship with publics, especially when clients have no idea how public relations functions and pay attention only to increasing visible financial outcomes.

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