Evolution of PR

836 Words2 Pages

As people had the urge to communicate there was a power of public opinions to move people’s thoughts, choices and actions. Public relations had gone through four different traditions before evolving. These include rhetoricians, press agents, journalistic traditions, and to the two-way communication that now faces a few professional challenges. Rhetoricians were speechmakers which provided communication services. The very first rhetoricians were seen in Greece. They would use persuasive skills to determine whether an argument could be considered true or false. Rhetoricians’ goal was to influence the public through what was being said, rather than what was being done. Since voice mattered a lot during the early ages, they would use their persuasive skills and messages to influence the public. For example, during the American Revolutionary War Samuel Adams was a public relations campaign. He would communicate what George Washington would say to the military during the war. He also began using phrases and messages like “taxation without representation is tyranny” to persuade people towards his side during the Boston Massacre. Adams also used events such as The Boston Tea Party to influence public opinion. Phineas T. Barnum was a master of press agentry; he was a man who would promote to ends meet. Barnum promoted a Joice Heath, a woman who had claimed to have been 161 years old; however, after she passed away an autopsy report proved that she was only around 70-80 years old. Press agentry was meant to use deception and ‘dirty politics’ to gain attention. Press agentry would often use creative events to attract people without having an exact strategy or any plans. They were extremely manipulative in what they actually planned to do; m... ... middle of paper ... ...with the use of Social Media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube it has become another tool to spread the word. But one of the challenges they face is ensuring that there advertisement that appear on a social media website aren’t ignored and dismissed. Public Relations face the challenges of crafting their messages in a way users will welcome. But with the use of cookies on websites such as Yahoo and Facebook it has been easier to format advertisements to the user’s taste and past Internet history. Although there are multiple channels to spread the information making it fast paced, this could also be a challenge. Sometimes when messages are sent out they aren’t true and are over exaggerated hurting the credibility of the company. As we can see, public relations has gone a long way from where it once was but, it still has some challenges it faces today.

Open Document