Public Relations

Public Relation is a term refers to the relationship with various publics to create public opinion and/or brand image. "Public Relation is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.

Concept of Public Relation:

Public Relation tells an organization’s story to its publics and also helps shape the organization and the way it performs. It is the spread of information between individual/organization and publics. It is the process of gaining exposure to their audience using topics of public interest and new ideas that don’t require direct payment. Since it doesn’t require the payment hence all such unpaid activities would be considered public relations and would be different from Marketing & Advertisement.

Historical Development of Public Relation:

The history of public relations evolved from Press Agentry to current Public-Relations. The revolution of Public Relation went through four stages which are explained in 4 different models below:

(i) Press Agentry Model.

(ii) Public Information Model.

(iii) The 2-Way Asymmetrical Model.

(iv) The 2-Way Symmetrical Model.

1. Press Agentry Model:

The press agentry was initiated in 19^th century when the press agents were hired to create news for their clients in order to influence public opinion. Such news was based on half truth and half fantasy since the prime motive of press agents was to influence the behavior of publics rather than providing true news. That’s the reason they didn’t bother to research and discuss the ethical aspects of news. This was a one way model of mass communication between press agents and publics.

2. Public Information Model:

In the early 20^th century the press agentry model turn into public information model where the agents were converted in, and known as, journalists. In this age the little accuracy was brought (but without formal research) and they focused to provide accurate news to the masses, however still the messages were half truth. The communication was still one-way in form of Press Release, Broachers and Static Web Content etc.

3. The 2-Way Asymmetric Model:

After the World War II the rise of consumer product raised the need of targeted and scientific marketing, in this the Public-Relation played a vital role. In this era the practitioners conducted researches to determine what the masses are needed and helped them buying the products of their respective clients. Grunig and Hunt called it “Scientific Persuasion” and this was a two-way communicational process.

4. The 2-Way Symmetric Model:

This two-way communicational process is bit upgraded and balanced than the previous one, in which the journalists use communication to negotiate with publics, resolve conflict, and promote mutual understanding and respect between the organization and its publics. Hence this proved to be the most ethical model out of all.

Factors Impacting Public Relations:	Audience of Public Relations:
· Technological Advancement. · Growing Middle Class. · Growth of Organizations. · Better Research Tools. · Professionalization.	· Employees. · Investment Communities. · Media. · Government. · Society. · Other Stakeholders.

Public Relation Activities:

· Community Relations.

· Counseling.

· Fund Raising & Development.

· Employee / Member Relation.

· Industry Relation.

· Issue/Crises Management.

· Media Relation.

· Marketing Communication.

· Minority Relations.

Public Relation in Pakistan:

If we look little back in history when the Mughals were the ruler of Subcontinent, we would find that the initiation of public relation was happened that time when they started spreading hand-written news papers in public. This spread of such information by hand written news paper helped them a lot ruling the subcontinent. Waqa-e-Nawees (Newsmen) were appointed throughout the state keep the rulers well informed about the problems of public. This communicational process by public relations helped rulers to resolve the problems and to do the needful.

In Pakistan government has recognized the importance of Public Relation. That’s the reason the operation/functions of Public-Relation have been gradually expanded. There are two broader aspects of PR in Pakistan, one is Official under the governance of state-government and the second is unofficial by private organizations.

Official PR:

This can be further divided into two categories, Internal and External PR.

Internal PR: Federal government conducts internal PR through organizations in order to spread the message, policies and vision to the masses.

External PR: The basic purpose of external PR is to project abroad a positive image of the country, its public and culture. The prime objectives are to attract direct foreign investment and tourism.

Unofficial Public Relation:

Private sector involved in the activities of PR is referred to Unofficial PR. Small and medium businesses, industries, companies are usually undergo Public-Relation programs which help them creating positive opinion of customer/consumers towards them.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting:

MOIB is the ministry chaired by governmental representative who is responsible for release of government information, media galleries, public domain and governmental unclassified non-scientific data to the public and international communities. It has jurisdiction for administrating the rules & regulations and laws relating to information, broadcasting and press media.

Press Information Department (PID):

Press Information Department (PID) was established in 1947. It’s been headed by principle information officer Rao Tahseen Ali Khan since Feb 2014. The mission of PID is to establish authentic and timely information for public through all the forms of media. It aims to publicize the government policies and appraise the government.

Inter-Services Public Relation (ISPR):

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) is in principle, an administrative military media brand of Pakistan Army to broadcast and coordinate military news and information to the country's civilian media and the civic society.

The ISPR directorate serves the purpose of aiming to strengthen public relations with the civic society, through interacting with the media. The directorate also works as the principle voice of the Pakistan's military, with its director-general serving as the official spokesperson of the armed forces.

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