Chapter 5 PUBLIC RELATION

1. Define and identify strategic publics for an
organization.
2. Define public opinion, explain the formation of public
opinion, understand the public relations function in
public opinion, methods to monitor public opinion and
factors influencing the public opinion.
3. Define persuasion and explain the persuasion process,
uses of persuasion, principles in persuasion and ethics
of persuasion.
4. Describe the role of media in forming public opinion.

 Who are public relations public?
Publics in public relations differ from the “general public”.
 According to Blummer, 1966, Public are group of people
who are :-
• Confronted by an issue
• Divided in their ideas as how to meet the issue , and
• Engage in discussion over the issue.

 Public according to John Dewey are group of people who
:
• Face similar problem
• Recognized that the problem exist
• Organized to do something about the problem.

 Public is a group of people internally or externally with
whom an organization interacts.
 Public is any group or possibly individual that has some
involvement with an organization.
 Public are any group of people who are tied together,
however loosely, by some common bonds of interest or
concern and who have consequences for an
organization.

There are 4 reasons for PR to identify their
organizations public:
1) To determine relevant public relations
programmes.
2) To determine priorities and work within the budget
and resources provided.
3) To reduce media cost.
4) To prepare message in a form that is acceptable
and effective.

There are two categories of public :
1. Internal Publics
Internal publics are groups of people who are
already part of the organization.
2. External Public
External publics are group of people who are not
necessarily part of a particular organization.

There are 8 most important publics that are common to
most organizations:
1. Employees/The staff (Internal)
2. Local community (External)
3. Prospective staff and potential employee (External)
4. Suppliers and services (External)
5. Distributors (External)
6. Consumers and Users (External)
7. Opinion Leaders (External)
8. The media/ The Press (External)

1. Customers : Existing, potential and past.
2. Members of the public in general.
3. Trade and community distributors.
4. Financial public.
5. Opinion Leaders.
6. Pressure groups.
7. The media : electronic and print media.
8. Overseas Government and International.
9. Central and local government bodies.
10. Research bodies and policy forming unit.
11. Local trade unions.
12. Employees.

 Opinion leaders can be anyone who has an
influence on society. Eg: parents, teachers.
 Whatever they say is taken seriously by society
therefore largely influencing society’s opinions.

 Crucial distinction for segmenting a population into
publics:
• Extent to which they passively or actively
communicate about an issue.
• Extent to which they actively behave in a way that
support or constraints the organization’s pursuit of its
mission.

 Publics are more likely to be active when:
1. They perceived that what organization does involves
them. (level of involvement)
2. Consequences of what organization does is a
problem to them. (problem recognition)
3. They are not constraint from doing something about
the problem. (constraint recognition)

 Definitions
 Public Opinion is what most people in a particular
area think. It is a collective opinion
(Dough Newson, Allan Scott and Judy VanSlyke,1993)
 Public opinion is the complex of preference
expressed by significant number of persons on an
issue of general importance.
(Bernard Hennessy)

1. Focused on an issue, contemporary situation with
likelihood of disagreement.
2. Must consist of recognizable group of persons
concerned with the issue.
3. Complex of preference.
4. Expression of opinion involved printed, spoken
words, symbols or even gasp of a crowd.
5. The impact is a measurable effect.

Vincent Lowe defined public opinion by first defining what
is Public, Opinion and Attitude.
• Public - A group of people who share
common interest in specific subject.
• Opinion - The expression of an attitude on a
particular issue or subject.
• Attitude - A predisposition to respond in a
given way to an issue or situation.

Vincent Lowe conclude that:
 Public opinion is a collection of views held by persons
with interest on an issue.
 Public opinion is the aggregate of many individual
opinions on a particular issue that affects a group of
people.
 Public opinion represent a consensus that derived
from many individual opinions that starts from people’s
attitude toward the issue in question.

1. Public Opinion should be publicly expressed. It should
not be held in private.
2. Should be a matter of public interest.
3. Should not be held by insignificant minority, but by the
general public.

Understanding Public Opinion help PR practitioner to:
• Effectively monitor shifts in Public Opinion
• Pinpoint formal and informal opinion leaders who
should be reach with specific messages.
• Use persuasion to change or neutralized hostile
opinion, crystallize latent opinions and positive
attitudes, and conserve favorable opinions.

Dennis L. Wilcox, Warren K. Agee and Phillip Ault ( 1986 )
OPINION LEADERS ( MAKERS )
Obtain Information from mass media
THE EXPRESSION OF OPINION
OPINION LEADERS SHARE THE
INFORMATION WITH ATTENTIVE PUBLIC
INATTENTIVE PUBLIC . Some will
become interested or aware too.

• People’s root. People tend to inherit their parents
characteristic. e.g. tastes, biases, political partisanships.Familial
• A system of beliefs about god; thus influencing attitude.Religious
• Level of quality of person’s education.Educational
• Position within society. Attitude change as social status
change.Social Class
• Ethnic origin, helps shapes people’s attitude.Race
• Physical and emotional ingredients of an individual. E.g.
age, marital status, social status.Personal
• The environment and life-style of a particular group of
people.Cultural

There are seven methods to monitor shift in public opinion:-
• Friends, business associates, customers, and employees.Personal contacts.
• News stories or letters to the editors.Media reports
• Inquires, complain, suggestion and compliments by
salespeople and customers.Fields reports
• Complaints to customer service.
Letters and telephone
calls
• Citizen committees to provide feedback on proposed policies
and ideas.Advisory committees
• Staff giving feedback & input.Staff meetings
• Systematic research on public attitude and interest.Polling and sampling

Any communication to influence choices.
(Winston Brembeck and William Howell)
Any communication, intended or not that cause a change in a
receivers attitude, belief , or action.
A process that changes attitudes, beliefs, opinions, or
behaviors.
In persuasion, the critical factor in opinion change usually is
information and how this information is presented or withheld.
Information is power according to Herbert I. Schiller, a social
scientist.

Persuasion involves using communication to win people
over. There are essentially six steps in persuasion process:
Presenting
• A person must be in position to receive message both physically
and mentally.
Attending
• The receiver must pay attention.
Comprehending
• The receiver must understand the message. The message must
represent symbols that the receiver understand.
Yielding
• The receiver accept the message and agree with the point of
view.
Retaining
• Repetition of message to the receiver to retain the transmitted
information.

 Persuasion is used daily by Pr practitioner because job of
PR involve purposive communication.
 Persuasion involves using communication to win people
over.
 Persuasion is used to change or neutralize hostile
opinions, crystallize latent opinions and positive attitudes,
and conserve favorable opinion.
 The easiest form of persuasion is to reinforce favorable
opinion and the hardest part is to change hostile opinions
into favorable ones.

There are 8 factors that can help PR practitioner to be
successful in their persuasion effort.
1. Audience Analysis
Prior knowledge of group’s beliefs and attitude helps
the communicator to tailor message to the group’s
beliefs.
2. Source credibility
A message is more believable to the intended
audience if the source has credibility. People seek
authority in sources most of the time.

3. Appeal to self interest
People will react positively if the subject matter
involves them.
4. Clarity of message
message has to be clear in order to be persuasive.
5. Timing and context
Message is more persuasive if environmental factor
support the message and situation in which the
individual is familiar with.

6. Audience Participation
Change in attitude or reinforcement of beliefs is
enhanced by audience involvement and participation.
7. Suggestion for action
People will endorse ideas only if the ideas are
accompanied by proposed action.
8. Content and structure of message
Use number of techniques to make message more
persuasive including statistical data.

 Mass media serve the primary role of agenda-setting.
 When there’s no prior information regarding a subject,
mass media play a role in telling people what to think.
 Mass media are the most influential in making people
aware of an issue or topic.
 The influence of mass media is exaggerated.

1. Do not use false, fabricated, misrepresented, distorted
or irrelevant evidence to support the claim.
2. Do not use unsupported or illogical reasoning.
3. Do not use irrelevant appeals to divert attention from
the issue at hand. E.g. smear attacks on a person’s
character.
4. Do not ask audience to link your ideas to emotion
laden values, motives or goals to which is not related.

5. Do not deceive audience by concealing your real
purpose or your self-interest, the group you represent
or your position as an advocate of a view point.
6. Do not pretend to be an expert when you are not.
7. Do not hide, distort or misrepresent number, scope,
intensity or undesirable features of consequences.
8. Do not use emotional appeals that lack supporting
evidence or reasoning that would not be accepted if
audience have time to examine it properly.

9. Do not oversimplify complex situation into simplistic
two-valued, either or, polar views or choices.
10. Do not advocate something that you do not believe in
yourself.

Chapter 5 PUBLIC RELATION

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