The Evolution of Public Relations Concepts
Public relations has undergone several transformational stages, evolving from initially sporadic and unorganized public relations activities to planned and systematic public relations operations; from one-way reporting to two-way communication; from deceptive propaganda to factual reporting. In this evolutionary process, on one hand, the times create heroes—social environmental needs have driven the continuous development of public relations; on the other hand, heroes also shape the times—scholars and practitioners such as Ivy Lee, Bernays, Grunig, and Kruckeberg have combined theory with practice, thereby forming the discipline of public relations.
The Evolution of Strategic Communication in Modern Society
I. The Transformation of Public Relations Concepts
The evolution of public relations concepts has gone through three stages: self-interest, mutual interest, and public interest.
The Self-Interest Stage
This stage was primarily characterized by persuasive reporting that "attempted to influence and manipulate others," emphasizing only one-sided interests, often resorting to fooling and deceiving the public to achieve one party's interests. From the U.S. government's propaganda during World War I to Phineas T. Barnum's circus promotion, all were products of this self-interest concept.
During World War I, the U.S. government used public relations to persuade citizens to join the military and accept increased taxation. At that time, the United States established the "Committee on Public Information" responsible for nationwide propaganda campaigns, with the purpose of unifying public opinion to support the war.
Historical Context: The Role of Communication in Shaping Public Opinion
At that time, Bernays, due to his birth in the enemy country—Austria, was unable to participate in propaganda. After arduous self-promotion and multiple efforts, he finally obtained the opportunity to serve the United States. Thus, Bernays utilized Ford Motor Company, International Harvester, and 650 overseas branches of dozens of other American companies as channels to inform overseas audiences about America's entry into the war; he also created discontent behind German lines. To counter German propaganda offensives, he printed American propaganda materials in Spanish and Portuguese, inserted them in exported newspapers, and delivered them throughout Latin America. He helped America win what was originally an unpopular propaganda war.
In short, the public relations theory and practice of the self-interest stage was based on the fundamental assumption of "persuasion and manipulation." This concept defined public relations as: manipulating public behavior to achieve the sponsoring organization's interests, often resorting to any means to achieve objectives.
Especially during World War I and World War II, Germany turned the word "propaganda" into a "negative, dirty" term that disregarded public interests while doing everything possible to propagandize, and public relations became almost synonymous with "propaganda."
The self-interest stage of public relations lasted the longest, and most practices during this period were asymmetric propaganda involving persuasion and manipulation. To this day, there are still people who believe that public relations is simply a one-way persuasive reporting activity.
The Mutual Interest Stage
After World War II, public relations began to transition from one-way reporting activities to two-way organized communication. In definitions, words like "mutual" and "both parties" began to appear between organizations and the public. Webster's Dictionary defined public relations as "a science and art of mutual understanding and mutual trust." In 1952, Cutlip and Center expressed this mutual interest concept in very clear language in the first edition of their book "Effective Public Relations": Public relations is communicating and interpreting the organization's thoughts and information to the public, while also feeding back the public's views and opinions on this information to the organization, striving to maintain both in a harmonious adaptive state. From the history of modern public relations, the mutual interest concept has always been prevalent.
Two-Way Communication: The Foundation of Modern Public Relations
Additionally, in the book "Crystallizing Public Opinion," Bernays pointed out that the public relations consultant's responsibilities are twofold: both introducing clients to the public and introducing the public to clients. While shaping client behavior, public relations consultants also influence public opinion. The essential function of a public relations consultant is to play the role of the organization's listener.
The fundamental assumption of the mutual interest concept is: organizational interests and public interests are consistent; the more public interests can be satisfied, the more likely they are to gain public recognition, and the more beneficial it is to the organization's growth and development.
The evolution of public relations from one-way reporting to two-way communication was a major breakthrough in public relations concepts and functions. Organizations not only needed to consider their own interests and engage in one-way persuasion but also needed to consider public needs and engage in two-way exchange.
The Public Interest Stage
Although public relations concepts have been constantly changing, the special emphasis on public interest and social responsibility in public relations has never ceased. Even in the early days of public relations, those consultants understood very well the importance of virtue and responsible action. Ivy Lee, known as the father of modern public relations, believed that good publicity comes from an organization's good performance and work. Similarly, Bernays also called for private enterprises and organizations to identify changes in their social environment and respond to them, so as to meet common needs. In 1988, Kruckeberg and Starck proposed the view that "public relations is building a sense of community," further reinforcing the concept of "public interest."
The fundamental assumption of the public interest concept is: a healthy organization and a sick society are incompatible. When mutual benefit between an organization and its related publics is insufficient, this mutual benefit outcome may bring about some social contradictions and conflicts, thereby harming public interests; only when organizational interests, public interests, and social interests are mutually unified and coordinated can a truly win-win situation be achieved.
The manifestation of the public interest concept in public relations practice can be viewed from two aspects:
Organizational Conscience
On one hand, public relations is the organization's "conscience," and responsibility to society is more important than responsibility to employees or customers. Those factors that pose threats to society also threaten production and profit. Organizations must consider their social, political, and economic environments to identify the needs of organizational publics, evaluate the designed products and services to meet public needs, and make predictions about possible growth, decline, or changes in future demand.
Public Sphere Advocacy
On the other hand, public relations is a spokesperson for the public sphere and must contribute to "public openness," "public recognition," "public opinion," "public welfare," "public power," and "public life." The role of public relations in society is not only to serve a specific organization but also to serve society at large. From the perspective of the public sphere, public relations can be seen as a legitimate channel for social organizations to enter the public sphere. Public relations is the public display of private interests and the publicization of the private sphere, with the purpose of ensuring harmony among private interests, public interests, and the common good.
II. New Concepts in Public Relations
Public relations is an emerging discipline. In public relations, the following major concepts are primarily advocated: the relationship concept, the image concept, the credibility concept, the communication concept, the long-term concept, and the win-win concept.
Six Core Concepts Shaping Contemporary Public Relations Practice
The Relationship Concept
Public relations is a discipline of relationship management that builds trust among stakeholders. It does not refer to the so-called "tackling tough challenges" relationship concept popular in modern society, nor is it a promotion of the "vulgar relationship studies" that Chinese people are accustomed to, nor does it refer to the wisdom of pursuing "strong relationship" trust. The focus of public relations practice is the wisdom of building "weak relationship" trust.
Generally, the level of trust between strangers is considered to be relatively low. For example, the contemporary social phenomenon of "Should you help an elderly person who has fallen?"—this is a specific manifestation of the lack of trust between strangers, or in other words, an example of underdeveloped public relations.
Modern society is a "society of strangers." What maintains interactions and trust between strangers? Only institutions or contracts. Therefore, a "society of strangers" is also called a "rule of law society" or "contract society." It is an inevitable trend in the development from traditional to modern society, and an inevitable result of marketization, urbanization, and globalization.
One sacred mission of public relations in China is to break the inertial thinking that "personal connections are more useful than institutions," and strive to build trust relationships between organizations and their associated strangers and unfamiliar institutions, such as trust relationships between organizations and internal employees, external consumers, communities, distributors, government, and media.
This trust is not trust in a single individual, but a systemic trust, universal trust, and general trust. Therefore, the new concept of public relations is embodied in building, maintaining, and managing trust relationships with stakeholders (most of whom are strangers). Any relationship that is not properly handled will cause trouble for the organization. Public relations is about helping organizations coordinate all relationships and create an atmosphere of trust and harmony.
The Image Concept
With the arrival of the information society, image has become increasingly important in people's lives. People pursue famous brands and consume famous brands; in reality, they are pursuing image and consuming image. It can be said that in today's highly developed communication technology, people's conscious attention to image has greatly exceeded that of any previous era. The relationship between image and real life is so close that it has greatly enriched the connotation of image. Terms such as "corporate image," "employee image," "window image," and "leadership image" all carry a fresh contemporary flavor. Image issues have strongly penetrated into all areas of social life: the image of a political party or a government directly relates to its prestige among the people; the image of an enterprise or a product directly relates to its competitiveness in the market; the image of a city or a scenic spot directly relates to its position in the minds of tourists... From this, we can see that correctly understanding image, fully utilizing the functions of image, and developing the value of image have broad and far-reaching significance. A good personal image can bring the "star effect," and a good organizational image can bring the "brand effect"—they have a magical Matthew effect.
The image concept in public relations emphasizes: Public relations is an art of shaping image. Every person, every organization, even every government, and every country should have image awareness, should actively and proactively carry out organization-wide public relations activities, strive to improve visibility and reputation, and make unremitting efforts to establish a good image.
The Credibility Concept
The credibility concept refers to the ability and awareness of keeping promises established between people, between people and society, and among various economic units of society, based on honesty and trustworthiness. This is commonly expressed as "being trustworthy," "keeping one's reputation," and "keeping one's word as good as gold." The credibility concept not only requires parties to act according to agreements during the process of making and fulfilling contracts without damaging the other party's interests, but also must ensure that the interests of potential third parties—namely the public and even the entire society—are not violated.
The credibility concept emphasized in public relations has two levels of meaning:
Sincere Attitude
First is a sincere attitude, meaning words must come from the heart and one should not speak against one's conscience. In handling various organization-public-environment relationships, one must maintain unity between words and heart, winning trust through sincerity. Sincerity is a force that can move heaven and earth and bring ghosts and gods to tears. Only sincerity can win people's hearts and trust; only sincerity is the golden key to relationship management.
Truthful Information
Second is truthful information, meaning words must be based on evidence. In various communication activities, one must maintain unity between words and actions, be guided by facts, and let facts speak.
The credibility concept in public relations emphasizes that credibility is not only a virtue but also a commodity. A market economy is a credibility economy and must be built on a moral foundation. Only when market competition behavior is based on the moral principle of "do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you" can the prisoner's dilemma be avoided and harmonious development between people and society be promoted.
The Communication Concept
In China, there have always been sayings such as "People fear fame as pigs fear being fattened" and "Peaches and plums do not speak, yet a path forms beneath them." However, the communication concept in public relations emphasizes: not only must you do well, but you must also speak well. Doing without speaking is not public relations, and speaking without doing is also not public relations. In today's fiercely competitive modern society, if you consider yourself a thousand-mile horse, you should take the initiative to find a Bole who appreciates you and whom you appreciate. This way, your life will be more positive and proactive, and you can seek greater room for development. Therefore, both individuals and enterprises should be good at using various communication techniques to promote themselves, consciously improving their visibility and reputation.
Strategic Communication: The Art of Building Visibility and Reputation
The Long-term Concept
Public relations is a low-cost, high-value activity. The return on investment in public relations is not as immediately visible as advertising. The value and effect of public relations is a long process of demonstration; under normal circumstances, it lacks visibility and measurability, and is even more difficult to calculate and measure. Therefore, public relations must have a long-term perspective.
The long-term concept emphasized in public relations is: the establishment and maintenance of any relationship, and the establishment of any organizational image, is not achieved overnight or accomplished in one fell swoop, but is accumulated through long-term effort. Relationship management and image building work require perseverance; one cannot "fish for three days and dry nets for two," or "put weapons in storage and release horses to the southern mountains" once a little achievement is seen. Even less can one be eager for quick success and instant benefits, pursuing only immediate results.
The Win-Win Concept
In general, people's thinking is "zero-sum thinking" rather than "win-win thinking." Zero-sum thinking believes that the entire world is a giant "zero-sum game field." In the game, it's either you lose and I win, or I lose and you win. Any gain by one party is a loss for the other, because resources are limited. There is a story: There was a village famous for brewing wine. When celebrating the grape harvest, everyone was supposed to bring a bottle of wine from home and pour it into a large vat for everyone to enjoy. One person poured a bottle of water, thinking, "If I pour one bottle of water, no one will be able to tell." The result? The large vat was filled with water, without a single drop of wine. Because everyone thought the same way. This thinking is "zero-sum thinking": everyone wants to exchange the smallest contribution for the greatest gain, achieving the goal of maximizing personal interests.
From Zero-Sum to Win-Win: A Paradigm Shift in Strategic Thinking
Win-win thinking, on the other hand, believes that zero-sum thinking is not the way for human society to survive. "Survival of the fittest" is just a simplified summary; it is not the full picture of survival competition, let alone the only law of nature. Zero-sum games must be replaced by win-win or even multi-win situations. People have come to realize that benefiting oneself does not necessarily have to be built on harming others; through effective cooperation, a happy situation for all parties is possible. "You pick my pocket, I pick your pocket" is far less desirable than "you scratch my back, I scratch your back."
The win-win concept in public relations emphasizes: Win-win is a mutual compromise and also a healthy competition that can help people maximize common interests. It not only enables people to get a larger share of the pie but also enables people to make the pie bigger together.
Modern business competition is not a sports match where you must determine a winner against your opponent, nor is it a war where you must build your victory on others' failure. That is to say, modern competition is no longer about "I win, you lose" or "I lose, you win," but a competition where everyone wins. Sometimes it's even about "you win first, then I win later": for example, first satisfy the customer, then the customer will satisfy you; first benefit the employees, then the enterprise will benefit. This is win-win. The work of public relations is to transform zero-sum thinking into win-win thinking.
In conclusion, the greatest contribution of public relations is: public relations has brought about a revolution in thinking and an update in concepts—this is of paramount importance.
Relationship
A discipline of relationship management that builds stakeholder trust, focusing on the wisdom of building "weak relationship" trust.
Image
The art of shaping image, improving visibility and reputation, creating brand effects.
Credibility
The ability to keep promises based on honesty and trustworthiness, with sincere attitude and truthful information.
Communication
Not only must you do well, but you must also speak well, skillfully using communication techniques to promote yourself.
Long-term
Relationship management and image building require perseverance, avoiding eagerness for quick success.
Win-Win
Transform zero-sum thinking into win-win thinking, maximizing common interests.