Off The Record

He seems to be suggesting that the term PR was coined to distract attention from the negative connotations associated with the word propaganda.  Put simply, those in charge of American propaganda needed a more palatable label for what they did and they found it - public relations.

I’m going to start by looking at propaganda because I think it is perhaps a less elusive term, one that can be more easily pinned down, and then discuss the cavernous and collective “public relations”.

The dictionary says propaganda is

The just mentioned Edward Bernays said it was

All of these definitions have one thing in common and that is the notion of taking an idea and willing or coercing a public into accepting it.  Importantly, the transfer of information, the movement of ideas is unidirectional.  From those who possess power or knowledge to those who do not.  Propaganda can therefore best be thought of as a one way conversation, a lecture where the public sits in the bleachers, mute, instructed from above.

Throughout history propaganda has been a major tool in the dissemination of ideas, and coercion of publics.  Propaganda can come in many forms - a book, a picture, a song, a speech.  But, to be effective propaganda requires the existence or creation of a public that is little more than a reactive sponge absorbing ideas as they are dictated.  Whatever mechanism is used - be it pictures, words, music - the public is simply a receiver of ideas, the transfer of information is in one direction.

Perhaps the most obvious and, some might argue, most successful examples of propaganda can be found in Nazi Germany during the 30s and 40s - led by the infamous Josef Goebbels who said a lie that is big enough and told often enough will in time be believed.  Without wanting to be too simplistic about things, convincing a public to accept and adopt a violent, xenophobic fascism is surely a demonstration of the power of propaganda at its best. Demonstrating that propaganda can take many forms, the Nazis used a wide range of tools to coerce their public - children’s books, movies, songs, youth groups, powerful oratory to name a few.

However, following from my definition other, less sinister, examples of propaganda abound.  Any press release that is simply copied into a newspaper is propaganda; all advertising is propaganda even if it is creatively deployed.  Anytime information or ideas are simply thrown at the public to be apathetically consumed, you’ve got propaganda.

Therefore, it’s important to note, that propaganda is not an intrinsically evil thing, as it is often assumed to be.  Propaganda is a means for the dissemination of ideas, it has no relation to the ideas themselves be they good, bad, or just plain ugly. Whether the idea is the superiority of the Aryan race or that NIKE makes the best sneakers money can buy, propaganda is simply a means to gain the idea’s acceptance by the public - uni-directionally.

What then of public relations?

First, what public relations isn’t - it isn’t marketing and advertising, it isn’t cocktail parties and product launches, it isn’t publicity, news releases and press conferences. All these things and many more can form part of a successful PR programme perhaps, but none of them individually defines what PR is.  Nonetheless, if you asked someone on the street what comes to mind when they hear the term PR they would very likely say one of the things just listed.  So what is PR then?

According to Bernays, PR is

The Public Relations Society of America says “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.”

Franz Jefkins in his book PR Techniques says the “purpose of PR is to create understanding”

Winter Wright, writing on public relations in China, that “PR is simply about gaining influence”.

Influence, understanding, mutual adaptation and engineering.

Public Relations is the conversations that occur between organizations, institutions and so on and a public. The practice of Public Relations, therefore, is the creation and management of those conversations.

It is through conversations that we gain understanding, that we influence, achieve adaptation or even the engineering of the public.

These conversations can come in many forms and styles, some are more effective than others.  Some are more appropriate than others. And this is where the art and/or science of the practice of public relations sits.  The ability to determine the most appropriate conversation, and then creating it.

These conversations at one extreme are nothing more than propaganda.  However, at the other extreme they are something quite different, the genuine two-way exchange of ideas and thoughts.

So propaganda in all its forms (advertising, press releases and so on), blogs, market research, surveys, complaint hotlines, public debates, podcasts.  These are tools in the creation of the conversations that are public relations.

Despite this most public relations professionals would squirm or at least feel uncomfortable about being connected with the term propaganda.  This feeling, if its exists, is unjustified, as propaganda has been and probably, in some contexts will continue to be, an effective way of conversing with the public.

However, the public is constantly changing and therefore so too are the conversations that effectively lead to the acceptance of ideas.

Common to all successful, all positive, relationships is trust.  With trust can come understanding, and with understanding comes a genuine and fulfilling relationship.  Public relationships can be and should be no different to private relationships and hence good PR is about trust, and therefore it’s about understanding.  Following from this, good PR is that which creates the conversations in which trust and understanding can emerge.  These have to be two way conversations, a conversation where it is possible for all parties to talk and all parties to listen so that eventually we all end up somewhere we want to be, together.

One way conversations are unsustainable. There’s a reason why the obnoxious bore who loves the sound of their own voice tends to end up by themselves at the party.  No one likes to be talked at, we like to participate in a conversation, to share ideas, not be spoon fed them.

The CEO of global PR firm Edelman, Richard Edelman, once said on his blog,

I would say PR has always been about conversations, just not always very good or very interesting ones.

So back to the original question, the differences between propaganda and PR?  Public relations is the conversations an organisation has with its various stakeholders and most probably tailored for each stakeholder.  Propaganda is one such conversation, but it is only a one way conversation, we talk, you listen and accept.  While public relations is sometimes propaganda - and it certainly was only that in its early days following WWII - it isn’t always just propaganda.

As time goes on, less and less of public relations will be propagandistic.  Increasingly, public relations will be about creating the spaces in which genuine two-way conversations between the public and an organisation, that lead to mutual trust and understanding, can occur.

People are too aware of propaganda, people are less willing to be dragged along on a leash, regardless of how beautifully presented today’s advertising firms can make that leash; people are less willing to be spoon-fed dogma; there is an increasing desire to be accurately informed or at least people are increasingly dismissing the information that is available to them; there is a lack of trust in large organizations because of the numerous instances where people, accepting their leash, have been misled - but what is more, and most importantly, there is a willingness on the part of the public to participate in conversations, to speak as well as listen. Look at the thousands of NGOs and activist groups, the emergence of the blogosphere.  These are the signs that the conversations between the public and the organizations that feed off it, the conversations that PR professionals create and manage, are changing.

All propaganda is PR, but not all PR is propaganda.