Public Relations does not equate to Propaganda

When the words "public relations" are typed into youtube's search option, the following video is the first link to appear:



The video presents an unfortunately popular and widespread opinion that many people have regarding public relations. Public relations as an entity is characterized as propaganda, which undermines the magnitude and reality of the practice.

Public relations is not propaganda. Propaganda aims to influence a public’s behavior and opinion through emotionally loaded messages, often filled with purposefully inaccurate or altered facts. According to the father of public relations, Edward Bernays, public relations is “a management function which tabulates public attitudes, defines the policies, procedures and interest of an organization followed by executing a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance." Public relations plans aim to educate, interest, and thus influence. Propaganda hides behind an agenda to influence.

The negative connotations associated with public relations not only lead the public to look down upon the practice, but they also lead businesses to overlook the importance of public relations. Some corporations, like Wal-Mart, do not seek out public relations until a major crisis erupts. The magnitude of public relations is so grand, however, that corporations should regard positive, constant public relations as part of corporate success.

To illustrate the significance and misinterpretation of public relations, a national survey of journalists by a New York public relations firm indicated that “two-thirds of the journalists surveyed said they don’t trust public relations people…” In truth, however, public relations serves as an unparalleled method of communicating with the public. In fact, 81 percent of the journalists surveyed above say “they need [public relations] people anyway.” The aforementioned information comes from Dennis L. Wilcox’s textbook entitled Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques.

The scope of public relations practitioners is broad. Just as journalists need public relations practitioners for story ideas, corporations need public relations even before a crisis hits the company. Continual corporate public relations can prevent crises from occurring and can perpetuate a positive company image. In the end, a corporation is only as successful as the public determines its image to be.