Media′s Influence on Public Relations

Delia Cristina^*
*Correspondence: Delia Cristina, Department of Applied Economics, University of Malaga, Malaga, Spain, Email:

Keywords

Media's influence • Public relations • Communication

Introduction

There are numerous definitions for the applied communication field of public relations. Public relations are concerned with maintaining and managing the internal and external communication relationships of individuals with key stakeholders and organizations. Influencing people's perceptions of organizations, individuals, and public issues is the focus of public relations. Because of its proximity to marketing, advertising, and other forms of persuasive communication and its roots in propaganda, public relations are a contested field from a normative perspective. Deliberateness is a trait shared by these disciplines of communication: Every effort to communicate aims to achieve a specific result. Information, attracting attention, persuasion, engagement, and behavioral shifts are some of the desired outcomes of public relations. The various stakeholders that are the focus of public relations efforts include customers, employers, voters, activists, and local communities. Public relations initiatives have a significant stakeholder in the news media; As a result, efforts in public relations have a significant impact on the media [1,2].

Description

Media relations emerged as a fundamental activity within the field of public relations. Media relations is a particularly fundamental movement in advertising on the grounds that the news media are one of numerous partner bunches as well as carry out remarkable roles during the time spent public correspondence. They provide background information, report on current events, and are utilized by political and economic decision-makers as well as the general public. For associations, the news media go about as guardian, disseminator, translator, and enhancer of advertising messages. The news media are a tool for achieving a goal from a public relations perspective. Public relations efforts focus on getting access to the general news media precisely because they are thought to be more impartial. This effort is connected to the expectation that by being covered by the media, particular public relations issues will garner public attention or even be viewed as general issues [3,4].

Researchers and practitioners in the field of public relations came up with a number of formal and informal methods for evaluating the media impact of their efforts. In the early long periods of advertising, impacts of advertising endeavors on the media and on people in general were essentially underestimated. The methods for measuring the effects of public relations were gradually refined. These methods have become increasingly diverse and sophisticated in light of the ongoing transformation of the media.

Researchers and practitioners in the field of public relations came up with a number of formal and informal methods for evaluating the media impact of their efforts. In the early long periods of advertising, impacts of advertising endeavors on the media and on people in general were essentially underestimated. The methods for measuring the effects of public relations were gradually refined. These methods have become increasingly diverse and sophisticated in light of the ongoing transformation of the media.

The term "public information," which refers to another early form of public relations, was used primarily by federal government agencies. Public attention generation is seen as the primary goal of public relations efforts, just as it was in the case of press agentry. The fact that public information prioritizes the dissemination of factually correct information, in contrast to press agentry, is the primary distinction between these two early forms. An element normal to both is the expected viability of broad communications. Early publicists, press agents, and information officers also assumed that the press and other mass media would directly influence the mass audience in line with the thenprevailing beliefs regarding direct media effects. However, the pioneers of public relations adopted early insights and findings from the emerging fields of communications, psychology, and sociology. One of the so-called "fathers of public relations," Edward Bernays, referred to the "principles of mass psychology" of the French sociologist Gustave Le Bon and the Vienna school of psychoanalysis established by Bernays's uncle Sigmund Freud in his 1928 publication Propaganda (Bernays, 1928/2005). Bernays explicitly rejected the idea that there was a mechanistic effect. Instead, he suggested that public relations consultants use concepts like "group mind" or "opinion leaders" to influence public opinion. In a society marked by open competition, Bernays thought it was inevitable that such an influence would need to be used [7,8].

The development of public relations as a distinct strategic communication function accompanied the development of the professional field of public relations. Practitioners and academics developed a variety of strategies for the planning of public relations activities due to the fact that public relations were considered a managerial function. In general, each of those methods required the following steps: They began with an investigation of the underlying issue, which was trailed by the meaning of objectives and goals, the ID of publics or key partners, the message plan, the selection of channels and specialized apparatuses, the execution of the program, lastly its assessment. The recommended strategy for planning public relations is also used to plan all kinds of campaigns and is very similar to general management principles. Effects research is a fundamental component of every strategy for planning public relations. In strategic PR strategies, applied research and effect measurement became standard formulas. Measuring and Evaluating Public Relations Activities, which included seven articles on methods for measuring results in public relations, was published in 1968 by the American Management Association (Watson). Since then, experts in public relations have talked about different ways to study and evaluate the effects of public relations. In the professional field of public relations, measurement and effects research were hotly debated topics by the 1990s. Despite the fact that rigorous effects research is not always used in public relations practice, measuring media effects and other public relations effects became recognized as a fundamental aspect of the field [9].

The relationship between journalists and public relations professionals can be better understood by studying professional attitudes. Journalists' perceptions of and attitudes toward public relations have consistently been found to be negative in surveys and interviews, whereas public relations practitioners' perceptions of and attitudes toward journalists have been found to be more cooperative. The mutual dependence of these two professional fields, in addition to the distinct goals and objectives of each, could account for this disparity. Journalists and public relations professionals need each other and work well together, but their respective fields have different goals. Journalism strives for independence and objectivity because these principles underpin the media's credibility. On the other hand, public relations are naturally partisan. Helping organizations become more visible in the media and presenting these organizations' points of view is one of public relations' primary responsibilities. Public relations professionals frequently anticipate the news decisions made by journalists in order to achieve this goal; in fact, before entering the field of public relations, many practitioners who are in charge of media relations, such as press officers and spokespeople, were journalists. Professionals in political public relations, in particular, are aware of ”media logic" and contribute to the mediatization of politics through their communication efforts. Selfmediatization, or "self-initiated stage management of politics by means of strategic communication," is how academics refer to this process [10].

Conclusion

The capacity of public relations to establish agendas is the focus of the second area of research. Public relations might set the media's agenda by subsidizing the news. In the practice of public relations, the effects of these efforts were first evaluated informally by collecting press clippings to get an idea of the organization's media visibility. Although collecting clippings may provide a rough idea, it is not a suitable method for measuring the impact of public relations on establishing agendas. The application of formal methods of measurement-methods that are based on social scientific premises-is referred to as "evaluation research" in public relations to distinguish effects research from the unsystematic monitoring of media coverage and the collection of press clippings. Researchers used a variety of content analysis techniques to investigate the impact of public relations on media coverage. Different public relations effects on media coverage have been identified based on the research topic, the type of content analysis used, and the data interpretation: effects on the media's coverage of organizations and issues, as well as on their reputations and the tone of the coverage.

Acknowledgement

None.

Conflict of Interest

None.

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