Public relations was based on the principles and theories purposed by pioneering psychologist, Sigmund Freud – He is best known for his theories for the unconscious mind and the psychoanalysis of the unconscious desires. His nephew Edward Bernays is the denoted as the ‘father of public relations’, after incorporating the concept of mass psychology towards political, corporate and domestic spheres.
As the founder of public relations his infamous quote came from his 1928 book called ‘Propaganda’ where he announced that Public relations was about engineering social responses to organisational needs.
So in relevance to todays society, public relations in about constructing communications between organizations and the public.
There is many ways in which public relations affects the social sphere as every organisation in some way uses public relations to generate interest, attention and credibility.
As the demise of the traditional media publications inevitably occurs during the new media ‘take-over’ , newspapers and television articles have been replaced with individual blogs and comments – un sanctioned and un edited, a complete contrast to what traditional communication channels offered its audiences. Public relations is generated from social media, word of mouth has replaced the archetype dictator that is still used within the media, however, the question is…. does this social media deter collective thinking or does it create a popular way of thinking as many blogs are directed to audiences in the same fashion.
My proposal towards blogging is that it is an individual statement, commenting on a variety of issues offering individual views and engages other participants into conversations about the discussed issue. This is a term called participatory journalism as active members of society take part.
Traditional public relations, in my eyes, has negative connotations linked towards it as many people think of public relations they think of politics.
Politics is renowned on its deception towards the public, spin, and creating a domesticated representative of values apparently constructed towards the public. In many cases the new ‘Blogging’ era has become a liability due to defamation, Political parties and organisations have actually sued individuals for the post they write.
This is where my argument came from… what is the difference between public relations and propaganda! due to the nature of the world today, individual statements can be restricted and even punished if they touch on certain political – internal matters – in my eyes this is in a certain degree ‘propaganda’, as it allows individuals to have their own opinion – as long as it dont conflict with the state view.
