Category:Public Relations

From Eurêka

Public Relations

Publicity Publication of news about an organization or person for which time or space was not purchased.

1. Planned publicity Publicity that is the planned result of a conscious effort to attract attention to an issue, event or organization.
2. Propaganda of the deed Provocative actions designed solely to gain attention for ideas and grievances.
3. Self-investiture Process of establishing a corporate image such as that undertaken in the 1950s by General Electric’s “The United States Steel Hour” or General Electric’s “The General Electric Theater” television programs that gradually associates big business with public virtue rather than private moneymaking. Term coined by Roland Marchand.
4. Spontaneous publicity Publicity accompanying unplanned events.

Public relations (PR) Process by which public and private organizations and institutions seek to win and retain the favorable understanding, sympathy and support of their present and future interested publics, i.e. those groups with whom their future welfare may ultimately depend such as legislators, regulatory agencies, or communities.

Publics Specific target groups for PR campaigns.

1. Primary public Group of people an organization ultimately hopes to influence or gain approval from.
2. Influentials (Opinion leaders) Those individuals, relevant to a given campaign, whom a PR feels must be influenced before all others, given their ability to influence many others.
3. Target audience Primary group an organization is trying to influence.

Stakeholder analysis Method of characterizing publics according to their interest in an issue.

1. Active public People who are aware of a problem and will organize to do something about it.
2. Aware public People who know about a problem but do not act on it.
3. Latent public People who are not aware of an existing problem.

Government relations Forwarding of the interests of a specific group of professional lobbyists who try to influence politicians and public servants.

1. Public affairs That aspect of public relations dealing with the political environment of organizations.

Financial relations Specialist area of public relations dealing with the communication of financial information directly to interested audiences, including shareholders, brokers, and analysts.

Diffusion of information Way in which information spreads through a public.

Publicity

Publicity Information that attracts public notice to a person, product, company or event.

1. Paid advertising Advertising purchased from the media.
2. Publicity handout Free notice of attitudes, actions or products of a person or institution, obtained or induced for the benefit of the name so mentioned.
3. Song (slang) Company’s official response to a question or criticism that comes up repeatedly.
   1. Song and dance Presentation designed to be more entertaining than informative.
   2. Smoke and mirrors Illusory presentation, a form of bluffing.
   3. Smokescreen Something designed to obscure or hide.
   4. Massage v To fine tune a message for greater clarity.
4. Middle drawer statement Formalized by unused policy statement for responding to sensitive events and disasters.

Publicity agent (PR agent) Person employed to create a public image for a person and organization.

1. Hand-holding Relationship between the public relations person and his or her client.
2. Spin doctor (Spin master) Issues management specialist skilled at presenting a message or explaining events in the most favorable light.
   1. Spin v To give a slant to a message.
3. Flack (Flak) Journalist’s derogatory term for a public relations practitioners.

Public Information Officers (PIOs) (Public Affairs Officers) (PAOs) Public relations practitioners working for the government or other institutions along these lines.

Spokesperson Someone designated to speak on behalf of a company, usually an executive or public relations specialist.

1. Mouthpiece (slang) Corporate spokesperson, often a lawyer.

Press agent Person hired to contact the press and secure publicity. He or she issues press releases.

Servicing Making material available to the media in the hope they will use it.

1. Media event Any event that is staged primarily to attract media attention rather than for what it is about in the first place.
2. Press room (Newsroom) Room set aside with information available and other services and amenities for journalists covering a story.
3. Press release (News release) Prepared, representative statement, to announce, inform, or promote, given to the media concerning an organization, product, etc.

• See also Emulex blunder

1. Pressbook (Media kit; Press kit) Folder handed to journalists containing copies of news releases, pictures, articles, speeches and background material related to a specific event which is distributed to the press for free use.

Corporate campaign Organized program of advertising and public relations designed to make a company look good as opposed to selling its products or services.

Key book Any publication in which the PR’s client is keen to appear.

Industrial leadership program Campaign designed to place one’s client, either an individual or a corporation, at the head of their peers.

Attitude management Conception in public relations that an individual’s supposed “free choice” can actually be manipulated, and that there exists no hard and fast “reality,” but simply, as in the most persuasive propaganda, what people can be led to believe.

1. Issue management Preparation of the public for the reception of an issue in the way that those who have created that issue wish it to be received.
2. Perception management Creating a change in the way the public, or a section of it, perceives a company, organization, product or person.
3. Crisis communications management Type of public relations designed to relieve pressure on a corporation or public individual when a massive blunder has been made which cannot be covered up and which will ruin their image.

Interorganizational communication Structured communication among organizations linking them with their environments.

1. Boundary spanners Individuals within organizations assigned responsibility for communicating with other organizations.
2. Liaisons (Internal boundary spanners) Individuals who serve as linking pins connecting two or more groups within an organizational communication networks.
3. Key contacts People who can either influence the publics an organization is trying to reach or who have direct power to help the organization.

Commercial speech Public communication by business organizations through advertising or public relations to achieve sales or other organizational goals.

1. Free media Any media coverage for a product which does not have to be paid for.
2. Advertorial Advertising by large companies in which editorial copy used to present them in a self-justifying and favorable light when dealing with areas in which they are usually cast a villains, e.g. oil companies and the environment.

Clip sheet One-page press release which combines a number of pictures, short items and small features, all designed for easy use by subscribing newspapers.

Friday night drop Phrase used by financial journalists and by financial public relations specialists for getting into the Sunday newspapers, one of the best ways of getting maximum impact. The best time to ensure full coverage is to leak a story on Friday evening, after trading hours, but giving the journalist enough time to check and build on the leaked material.

Score (Hit) v To find a media outlet for a piece of information.

Audience coverage Whether, and how well, messages reached their intended audience, and who else heard them.

Media audit Analysis of the content of specific media in relation to a company or product.

Q rating Measure of a celebrity’s public name recognition, used by the advertising industry to determine who to employ for celebrity endorsements.

Long bomb Exceptional piece of PR work, the client getting exactly what had been asked for, or even better. The expression is derived from American football.

Success stories Appearance of publicity materials in the press.

Value billing Charging the customer on the basis of results achieved.