As some of you may know, I am currently writing my dissertation about social media’s impact on PR (any PR pros reading this, how about you help me with my survey?).
For the past few weeks I’ve been ‘diving’ into a number of books and other sources to learn more about the profession and see how it has evolved over the years. Accidentally I even found a recent video, which highlights the history of Public Relations. I may not agree very much with the facts shown in the beginning, telling us that PR began way back in 49 BC. Maybe so, but rather unconsciously and not as a planned strategic tool; it wasn’t until the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century and the emergence of the media when PR came along as an ‘official’ discipline.
Anyway, have a look at the video; it does represent some interesting facts and figures about the industry.
Just to add a few things:
Many consider Ivy Lee to be the founder of public relations, however Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, is referred to as ‘the father of public relations’. From what I've read, Ivy Lee was looking at PR as a short-term activity to attract publicity, whereas Edward Bernays was much more interested in the psychological perspective aiming to develop a theoretical basis for PR in order to understand how to control and influence audiences. Speaking of theory, the video hasn't included James Grunig and his four models of public relations, that historically represent the stages of development of the practice (more details about this will follow in a future post).
Even now history is still being written - for example, a few days ago the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) adopted a new PR definition:
"Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics."
Today, a new era has began that currently represents the biggest challenge for the industry, namely the Internet and social media. Traditional PR became online PR, PR 2.0, ePR, New PR, digital PR... Confusing, right? Yes, and stressful apparently – the profession is one of the most caffeinated (at least in the U.S., but I think that's representative for the whole world); it is certainly hard to keep up with the 24/7 demand for content and engagement.
After seeing what has happened over the centuries, how do you think the industry will evolve next? What are your predictions for the future of the profession?
Image by PRSSA