¶ … global trends in public relations?
Recent years have seen a dramatic transformation in the nature and scope of public relations all over the world. This transformation has been affected by several key changes in the environment such as the growth of global trade, free markets and the Information Age. But perhaps the most significant change is the increasing concern over the impact of organizations on the social fabric of which they are a part. Thus, the changes in the functioning of societies and economies has led to public relations becoming one of senior management's dominant concerns, calling for practitioners to acquire new knowledge and skills. Indeed, this is evident in the shift of perspective in the field from information dissemination and organizational stakeholder relations to mediating relations between organizations and constituent groups over major social issues (Brody, 1987, p. 1-2).
The globalization of business has also led to widening the scope of public relations, with practitioners in the field being asked to counsel management on the integration of diverse political and sociocultural factors with organizational goals. In fact, organizational behavior theory and the social consciousness perspective of public relations has led to a growing view that public relations is best defined and practiced as the active attempt to restore and maintain a sense of community. This is, however, easier said than done since the explosion of communication technology globally has resulted in existing relationships being strained, and virtually everyone being forced into new relationships within social systems that are...
This implies that public relations practitioners must reconcile their organizations' ongoing relationships with a range of seemingly amorphous publics that are evolving within a multicultural and highly diverse, global society that shows little inclination towards becoming a global community (Kruckeberg, 2000, p. 145-146).
There are many global trends that are impacting the field of public relations. However, it is interesting to note that all these trends converge to demand one core function from public relations, and that is relationship management: "The relationship perspective holds that public relations is the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends." (Ledingham & Bruning, cited Cutlip, Center, & Broom, 2000, p. xiii)
b. What are the differences in publicity and advertising in terms of their impact on publics?
The fundamental difference between publicity and advertising is that while the former concerns itself with managing an organization's relationships with various publics, the latter's purpose is to primarily support the marketing function. Thus, the very definition of the two functions implies that the public will always pay far more attention to communication from an organization's public relations agency, whereas advertising messages have to work that much harder to even get noticed. True, that the focus of both disciplines is to build and manage a positive image of the corporation and its products.…
