Analysis of "This is PR..." (part 11)

Theoretical Underpinnings of PR (part 3)

by:

Charles Lamson

Public Relations and Opinion-Making

What is true of news management by government is true of any group in business, science or education or elsewhere that possesses specialized information. Those in command of information control its destination. The public's only defense lies in being aware that someone is always trying to influence its opinion. A sophisticated person will ask, "What am I being asked to think? What am I being asked to do? By whom? Why?" 

In a democracy, these questions often are raised by members of some opposition, resulting in a struggle for favorable public opinion. This struggle is inherent in our concept of democracy. PR practitioners become involved in struggles because each side in a controversy employs them as professional advisers or spokespersons. Practitioners usually represent the side corresponding to their own beliefs although some ethical practitioners will, like lawyers, serve any client with loyalty whether or not they personally subscribe to the client's position. What differentiates the professional practitioner from the unprofessional news manager, who unfortunately is often mistaken for the PR person, is strict adherence to a code of ethics that upholds a strong sense of overall social responsibility. Professional public relations practitioners never lie to the news media although in the interests of a client they may sometimes have to say to the press, "I know but I cannot tell you." The success of those who control certain areas of information in affecting public opinion is only as strong as their credibility. Credibility is thus among the most important assets a public relations practitioner possesses (This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations 9th Edition by Doug Newsom, Judy VanSlyke Turk and Dean Kruckeberg, pg. 123-124).

Propaganda and Persuasion Appeals  People who want to sway opinions use a variety of persuasive appeals - not all of them honest. The following list identifies some propaganda devices commonly used to mislead publics.

1. Name calling: The characterization can be positive or negative. Someone can be called "wise and conscientious or a "liar and a cheat" (or the matter can be left open to interpretation as with "He's a character").
2. Glittering generalities: Many nebulous words can be used here - for example, "enthusiastic crowds" or "throngs of greeters."
3. Transfer: This occurs when a movie star or other celebrity campaigns for a politician or product with the result that some of the famous person's aura is transferred to the less well known person or product.
4. Testimonial: This is an actual endorsement as opposed to a transfer device. It is a common advertising technique. It involves having professional athletes and other celebrities encourage consumers to buy a product by saying that they use it.
5.  Plain folks: A favorite of politicians, this device involves using homey language of appeals to down-to-earth concerns to convince a public that despite their high office or aspirations, the politicians are still "one of us."
6. Bandwagon: This compelling device is used to sway undecided people to go with the majority however slight the majority might be. The band wagon device is considered so powerful that networks avoid telecasting projected results of election returns in the East until the poles close in the West. Some research evidence indicates however that such coverage has no impact on people who have not yet voted.
7. Card stacking:  Telling one side of the story involves selecting facts that represent one point of view while obscuring other facts. The result is distortion and misrepresentation.
8. Emotional stereotypes: These evoke all kinds of images and are so designed: "good American," "housewife," "foreigner," and so on.
9. Illicit silence: This device is a subtle form of propaganda like innuendo, suggestion and insinuation. It involves withholding information that would correct a false impression.
10. Subversive rhetoric: An offshoot of card stacking, a device of discrediting a person's motivation in order to discredit the idea which may be good and useful. For example, someone may discredit the mayor's plan to build a bridge on grounds that the mayor owns property on the other side of the river. In the meantime, viewed objectively, the bridge- building plan may still be a good one for opening up commerce, traffic or tourism (Newsom, VanSlyke Turk, Kruckeberg, pgs. 124-125).

Obvious forms of these propaganda devices are easily recognizable, but history offers numerous examples of skillful users wielding them with great subtlety and effectiveness. Anyone who communicates may employ propaganda devices: spoken, written, pictorial, whatever. Such devices may also take the form of synthetic events. Demonstrations are all propaganda devices (Newsom, VanSlyke Turk, Kruckeberg, pgs. 124-125). 

Although it encompasses some techniques that are used to mislead, the word propaganda should not be thought of as totally negative. There is nothing inherent in the nature of propaganda that prevents it from being used to change attitudes and behavior in a constructive way. Propagandists differ from educators in that educators try to teach people how to think and propagandists try to teach people what to think. (Newsom, VanSlyke Turk, Kruckeberg, pgs. 124-125).

End