PR History: Grunig and Hunt’s Four Models Four

Transcript:PR History: Grunig and Hunt’s Four Models Four:
PR History: Grunig and Hunt’s Four Models Four categories of communication relationship with publics, placed in a historical context. Press Agentry / Publicity Model Public Information Model Two-Way Asymmetrical Model Two-Way Symmetrical Model PR History: Grunig and Hunt’s Four Models Press Agentry/ Publicity Model The earliest PR model emerged in the late 19th century and was characterized as one-way, source-to-receiver communication. Its purpose was largely propagandistic and the truth was not an absolute requirement. Press agents did little research aside from monitoring the media in which they sought to place favorable articles about their clients. PR History: Press Agentry/ Publicity Model The prototype practitioner of this model was the American circus owner P. T. Barnum who in the 1850s obtained massive coverage for his ‘Greatest Show on Earth’. He coined the phrase ‘there is no such thing as bad publicity’ and used stunts such as the marriage of circus stars to gain media coverage. The model continues to be a component of contemporary PR and is used in sports, entertainment with the name of Celebrity PR. A current example is publicity activity surrounding Victoria and David Beckham. http://video.nytimes.com/video/2007/11/08/arts/1194817116620/p-t-barnum-s-city-of-humbug.html PR History: Public Information Model By the early 1920s the press agentry model lost credibility with journalists, largely because they had been deceived by press agents too many times. Ivy Ledbetter Lee, a former journalist turned PR practitioner, recognized this problem and sought to address it by sending his Declaration of Principles to journalists. He stated that they could expect no less than factual and accurate information from his PR agency. This practice gave rise to the public information model. PR History: Public Information Model It continues to characterize communication as one-way, source-to-receiver, but now accuracy is important, indeed essential. The purpose of this model is dissemination of information like an in-house journalist, and it is depends on the idea that if the public has sufficient information and that information is truthful, then the public will believe and behave in ways that are helpful to the client. Today, the public information model can be found in government agencies, NGOs and in some businesses. Ivy Lee He became ill-famed for doing damage control for the Rockefellers following the 1914 Ludlow massacre, in which striking miners and their families were shot and killed on behalf of Rockefeller mine interests in Colorado. Ivy Lee worked for Hitler and Nazi Germany in general in the 1930s.