Josh White – COM-CLASS.WLC.EDU

Public relations is a communication process that is strategic. The strategy can help companies reach its target audiences; however, there are some legal issues that can arise through some of the strategies or tactics. Companies sell products to their publics through services, speeches and photos. There are ethical and legal standards that a PR professional should know when using these tactics and strategies. In the field of PR, one must know the laws and regulations to prevent potential lawsuits to the company. There are a lot of legal and ethical issues in the workforce; however, we will be discussing a couple in this blog.

First Amendment

Knowledge of the First Amendment is important for any business, politician, athlete or citizen. The First Amendment provides the freedom of speech, press, religion, the right to general assembly and petition. The First Amendment allows professionals in PR the ability to communicate with the public openly without the need to go to the government for approval. There are boundaries to the Amendment and should be viewed as a responsibility as much as it is a right.

Copyright law

Since the field of PR is revolved around content, it is important to have knowledge of copyright laws. Professional artists, writers, and photographers copyright their material to protect it. Copyright is different from plagiarism. Plagiarism allows people to use the works of others correctly while copyright deals with unauthorized sharing and copying of materials. In the Constitution, copyright can be found in Article I, Section 8, which gives Congress the ability to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Creativity and Innovative ideas can thrive under copyright protections because it causes people to come up with new ideas.

Works that are copyrighted can still be used by those who do not own the material; however, permission must be granted by the owners of the material or work.

Defamation

Defamation is an act or statement that is made to intentionally harm another person and their reputation. This should be avoided by any business, politician, or public figure because it can lead to lawsuits. Once you get sued for defamation, your name and company will be the one that is ruined. If a person or company is liable for defamation, it can be detrimental especially if it is a private citizen filling the lawsuit because private citizens have a lower bar to hurdle to prove. They only need to prove that the statement(s) published are factually wrong, that it damaged them, that the statements referred to them and that someone is responsible for the statements. Finally, they would need to prove that the individual who made/published the statements were negligent.

Next week we will be delving into crisis communication case studies to show how to deal with a crisis in the field of PR!

An Introduction to Public Relations

“Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics” PR definition according to the Public Relations Society of America. The field of public relations (PR) is a broad area of work which is inviting to both communication and business majors alike. In this post, we are going to delve into the field of public relations and give a summary of the field.

The purpose of public relations (PR) is to help companies and organizations build their relationships to shape the way the public perceives them. Perception is key in the field of business because it builds a company’s credibility and reputation. Without both credibility and reputation, cannot be successful.

Reputation

Let’s start with reputation. For a company to know how to create a good reputation, they must first know who their publics are. A company’s publics can be a variety of investors, employees, partners, and other kinds of stakeholders. These publics need to see a company’s/brands positive image whether that is success, honest, ethical, or relevant. Once it is known who the public is, a company can cater the communication to them in a specific way.

Credibility

Credibility, as mentioned before is important for a company, organization, and brand. People tend to trust messages that come from a third party who is trustworthy. If a company builds its credibility to the point that a third party spreads the word about its credibility, this will be more effective than their own advertised content. Here is an example, let’s say that there is a donut shop trying to grow as a business. It would be more appealing to new customers for a third party (like a reviewer or customer) post or spread the positive words about the shop than them seeing the shop selling itself alone.

What the field of PR is like

Now that we have established the fundamentals of a company regarding public relations, here is what is it like to work the field of PR. There is a lot of writing in PR for things like: speeches, news/press releases, scripts, social media content, and fact sheets and much more. PR involves a lot of research which could contain sharing data, identifying trends and calculating numbers.

Next, one would have to be creative. Creativity is an important skill to possess because it helps a company create new ways to advertise their products or brand. The creative mind can also build new ways to grow a company, its messages, and ways in researching.

Finally, for you to be a PR professional, they need to know and use business practices. They must know the practices of marketing, finance, accounting, and business laws. This knowledge helps those in the field of PR to be able to work with others in related fields.

Overall, we can see how broad the field of public relations are by seeing all the knowledge, skills, and experiences. Public relations is best summarized like an engine, it may seem like one big piece of metal but once you open it up, you will see that there are a lot of parts to make it an engine.

Next week, we will delve into some bad examples of public relations. This is not only to show you that these examples are bad but to show you why there are bad.