Тема №2

History of PR

Early specialists in public relations specialized in promoting circuses, performances, and other public shows. Later, most PR practitioners were recruited from journalism. Highly paid PR positions are a popular career choice for many journalists. PR historians say the first PR firm, the Publicity Bureau, was established in 1900 by former newspaperman. Their first client was Harvard University.

The First World War also helped to stimulate the development of public relations as a profession. Many of the first PR professionals, including Ivy Lee, Edward Bernays and Carl Byoir started their careers with the Committee for Public Information, which organized publicity on behalf of US during World War I.

Ivy Lee was a man who developed the modern news release (also called “a press release”). He introduced a philosophy of the “two-way street” public relations, in which PR consists of helping clients listen as well as communicate massages to their publics.

Bernays was the profession’s first theorist. A nephew of Sigmund Freud, Bernays took many of his ideas about irrational, unconscious motives of human behavior. He wrote several books, including Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), Propaganda (1928), and The Engineering of Consent (1947). Bernays saw public relations as an “applied social science” that uses psychology, sociology, and other disciplines to scientifically manipulate the irrational public.

One of Bernays’ early clients was the tobacco industry. In 1929, he managed a legendary publicity event aimed at persuading women to start smoking cigarettes as a form of protest against the norms of society, to equate smoking with women’s rights.

Exercises

I. Find the equivalents of the following Russian expressions in the text

первые специалисты; реклама цирка, представлений и иных публичных показов; были наняты из числа журналистов; высокооплачиваемые должности; популярный выбор профессии; историки; было основано бывшими газетчиками; первый клиент; помогла стимулировать развитие; организовала рекламу со стороны США; создал современное «официальное заявление для печати»; ввёл философию «улицы с двусторонним движением»; состоит в помощи клиентам слушать, а также передавать сообщения своей общественности; первый теоретик профессии PR; племянник Фрейда; взял многие из его идей об иррациональных, бессознательных мотивах; человеческое поведение; прикладная социальная наука; чтобы научно управлять нерациональной общественностью; «Конструирование согласия»; табачная промышленность; организовал легендарное общественное событие; направленное на убеждение женщин; протест против общественных норм; приравнивать к правам женщин

II. Answer the questions

1) What did the early specialists in public relations specialize in?

2) Where were the most later PR specialists recruited from?

3) What was the first PR firm? When and who was it established by?

4) Who was their first client?

5) How did the First World War help to stimulate the development of PR profession?

6) Who were the first PR professionals?

7) What is Ivy Lee famous for?

8) What did Edward Bernays as the profession’s first theorist do?

9) How did he see public relations?

10) What publicity event did he manage in 1929?

11) What is your attitude to this event?