INTRODUCTION TO
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Definitions, Roles, and Functions of Public
Relations
Definitions of Public Relations
 Public = (all) society ?
Internal:
The staff & their families, the
management (CEO, managers,
stockholders)
Public
External:
Customers/consummers, NGOs,
government, banks, mass media,
etc
What is Public Relations?
 Rex Harlow (PR educator) collected some definitions:
 PR = good performance, respected by public
 PR = Performance & Recognition
 PR = work well; hence, get a compliment.
 PR = actions taken to support beneficial relationship
with general public.
 PR = efforts of an organization to gain a cooperation
from a group of people.
 John E. Marston:
 Public relations is planned, persuasive communication designed
to influence significant public.
 Frank Jefkins:
 Public relations is a system of communication to create a
goodwill.
 Tony Greener:
 Public relations is a positive presentation of an organization
towards its overall public.
 Grunig & Hunt:
 Public relations is communication management between an
organization and its public.
 The First World Forum of PR:
 Public relations practice is the art and knowledge about
process of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences,
giving counseling to organizations leaders, and
implementing planned programs in order to serve the
organization and public interest.
 Cutlip, Center & Broom:
 Public relations is the management functions that build and
maintain good and beneficial relationship between an
organization and public which influence the success or the
loss of the organization.
Important concepts in PR definitions
PUBLIC
RELATIONS
PR GOALS
FUNCTIONS
PR
WORKING
AREAS
PR MEDIA
(PR TOOLS)
PR WRITING
PR GOALS
 Creating a mutual understanding between a
corporate and its publics
 Building the corporate image
 Building a favourable public opinion
 Building goodwill and cooperation
Creating a mutual understanding
between a corporate and its public
 Well-informed information between both sides  to avoid
misperception
 A corporate must realize the real condition of its public:
 Who are my public?; Do they know me?; How are their
perceptions about me?
 What do I do?; Why I do it?
 How am I different fom my competitor?
 Public must be well-informed about:
 What has the company done or will do?
 What are its products?
 Is it committed to support public’s interest?
Example: info about a company’s future plan
 Source: SURYA, 13 February 2012
Example: info about a company’s future plan
 Source: SURYA, 11 February 2012
 Well-informed information will be reached if there are
open communication and two-way reciprocal
communication.
 How to create it?  employee relations
 Openly give info about the corporate’s vision, mision,
management and recent condition, employees’ rights, etc.
 Become the facilitator/ mediator of communication between
the corporate and its public, e.g: employees’ motivation,
productivity, complaints, suggest opinon box, etc.
 Getting information by fact-gathering, formal and informal,
such as regular meeting, managing by walking around, holding
informal events, and making a bulletin.
Building the corporate image
 Image is a description that appears in public’s mind about the
corporate  its service, products quality, culture,
individuals, etc.
 To change public’s behavior:
Hostility
Sympathy
Prejudice
Acceptance
Apathy
Interest
Ignorance
Knowledge
 Positive image  good credibility
 Good credibility:
 Expertise
 Trustworthy
 Corporate image is the whole image built from the
corporate’s components (product quality, export success,
financial health, employees attitude, social responsibility of
the environment, etc.)
 Corporate image is begun from its identity: name/ company
logo, employee uniform, company profile, and non-physical
identity such as the corporate’s philosophy as well as work
and communication style.
Example of negative attitude to positive (surat pembaca)
 Source: SURYA, 13 & 27 February 2012
 Notebook Asus Baru atau Bekas?
 The relation between corporate identity and corporate image
(according to Smith):
CORPORATE IDENTITY:
-Products & Services (customer care, product
quality)
- Social responsibility, ethical behavior, and
community affairs
-Environments (office, showrooms, factories)
- Communications (advertisements, brochures, etc)
CORPORATE IMAGE
 PR activities can be considered as:
 Method of communication  PR division with various planned
programmes led by PR manager.
 Technique of communications  “everybody is a PR” ; “You are
PR on yourself ”.
 Corporate image through CSR programs:
 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is PR program to involve
the corporate in solving social problems around its
environment.
 CSR is a long-term commitment of a corporate to strengthen
its product’s brand.
 Example: PT Sampoerna, PT Carrefour Indonesia, PT Lapindo
(low crediblity)
Example of a corporate’s new program & CSR
 Source: SURYA, 24 February 2012
Building favourable public opinion
 There are 3 kinds of opinions:
 Positive opinion (favourable/ supportive)
 Negative opinion
 Neutral opinion
 Persuasive communication done by PR:
 To maintain favourable opinion
 To create opinion where none exist or where it is
latent
 To neutralize hostile opinion
 (qtd from Public Relatins: the Profession and the Practice by Otis Baskin et al)
Building goodwill and cooperation
 On this level, PR goal is already on the real action, e.g: supporting
the safety-riding program, being loyal to a certain product, etc.
 Goodwill and cooperation can be achieved because of the
continuous initiative by a corporate’s PR to build trust and
understanding between the corporate and its publics, followed by
real action commitment.
 PR is an activity to communicate 5 W + 1 H :
 WHO are we?
 WHAT do we do?
 WHY do we do it?
 WHEN do we do it?
 WHERE can public get information about us?
 HOW are we different from our competitor?
PR FUNCTIONS
 In general PR functions are as follow:
 To maintain good communication
 To serve publics’s interest
 To maintain good morals and manners
 According to Cutlip and Center:
 To support management activities and reach organization’s goals.
 To create two-way reciprocal communication by spreading
information from the company to public and to channel public
opinion into the company.
 To serve public and give suggestions to the corporate leaders.
 to maintain good relationship between the corporate and its publics,
internally as well as externally.
 According to PR practitioners in Foundation for PR Research
and Education, PR is management function which roles are:
 To establish and maintain mutual lines of communications,
understanding, acceptance, and cooperation between an
organization and its publics.
 To involve the management of problem and issues.
 To help management to keep informed on and responsive to
public opinion.
 To define and emphasize the responsibility of management to
serve public interest.
 To help management to keep abreast of and utilize change.
 To serve an eraly warning system to help anticipate trends.
 To use research and ethical communication techniques as its
principal tools.
PR WORKING AREAS
 Simply, PR working areas can be abbreviated into
PENCILS (Kriyantono, Public RelationsWriting, 2011):
 Publication & Publicity
 Events
 News
 Community involvement
 Identity-Media
 Lobbying
 Social investment
 Cutlip, Center & Broom categorize PR working areas as follow:
 Writing & editing  compose news release, features, annual report,
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message on website and other online media.
Media relation & media placement  contact the media
(newspapers, magazines, freelance writers) to publish the news of the
organization.
Research  collect public opinions, trends, and issues, and also
design a research program, survey, and hire research company.
Management and administration
Counselling
Special events
Speech
Production
Training
Contact
PR TOOLS
 To conduct its work, PR has some tools:
 Publicity and media relations: press release, press conference,
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press tours, press party, media gathering.
Special events: open house/ company visit, fund-raising, tradeshows, award ceremonies, contests, seminars.
Corporate advertising: ads to support marketing.
Newsletters: means of two-way communication with the publics.
Speaker bureau (one door system of information)
Lobbying: negotiation with government and NGOs.
Charitable contributions
Thank you notes and letters
Audio-visual instrument
Sponsorships
Letters of denial
PROFESSIONAL PR
 PR is a profession that demands integration between expertise,
skill, and ethics.
 PR demands 3B: beauty, brain, behavior.
 According to theory of interpersonal communication, physical
attractiveness determines people’s attention towards the message
delivered  the more attractive the communicator is, the more
persuasive he/she is to the public.
 Skills that PR must have:
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Writing
Organization communication
Management of crisis & issue
Research
Theoretical concept and applications of the fields above.
 Eventually, all PR activities are focused on the
“harmonization” of the organization’s daily operations:
 Honest communication for credibility
 Openness and consistency of actions for confidence
 Fairness of action for reciprocity and goodwill
 Continuous two-way communication to prevent alienation
and to build relationships
 Environmental research and evaluation to determine the
actions or adjustments needed for social harmony
SUMMARY
 PR practices include:
 Everything to develop mutual understanding between an
organization and publics, internal and external.
 Covering and eliminating the sources of any misunderstanding.
 Expanding influence of an organization through publicity,
advertisemnet, exhibition, film, etc.
 PR is NOT:
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Resistor between truth and public
Propaganda
Publicity directed to selling
Only press-relations activities
Free advertisements
Tricky efforts.
Topic for discussion
 Mention 10 words that characterize the main elements of PR.
 Mention 10 activities/events that often involve PR
practitioners.
 Among so many definitions of Public Relations, choose one
that you think is the most comprehensive/ satisfying one, and
discuss your reason.
 Discuss the difference between PR and advertising.