The public is a group of people who find themselves in a particular situation, are clearly aware of the problematicity and ambiguity of this situation, and react in a certain way to it. Rallying citizens of the country, starving prisoners, striking workers, deceived shareholders, successful and prosperous businessmen - all these categories of people are representatives of various social sectors of our population.
Public Relations Specialists. Their tasks and functions
Specialists in working with the public (PR specialists) should be able to establish two-way contact with her, coordinate their actions in managing the public in such a way as to form public opinion or change it in their favor. Most prosperous companies organize public relations campaigns aimed at coordinating and forming people's opinions regarding their goods and services, their quality, and strengthening public opinion about the positive qualities of a given product or service.
Views of the public. Conditional classification
Conventionally, the public is divided into open and closed.
An open public is a group of people representing a wide mass of the population, united by one common criterion: consumers of specific goods and services, media audience, demonstrators, political activists, members of parties, factions, public organizations and movements.
A closed public is a group of people representing some kind of closed society or social community: employees of a company or organization who are subject to official discipline and united by working relationships, traditions, and responsibility.
Organization and the public
The public companies are divided into internal and external.
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Internal |
External |
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groups of people who are part of this company or organization |
groups of people not associated with this company or organization |
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company staff, department heads shareholders, board of directors |
suppliers of raw materials, the press, infrastructure enterprises, customers and consumers of products, state bodies and state control bodies, education workers |
For more successful communicative work of the organization, in addition to the external and internal public, it is customary to distinguish the following groups:
- employees of the organization;
- media workers;
- government agencies at all levels of government;
- investors, statistical and insurance organizations;
- local residents, leaders of local religious, political, cultural, public organizations;
- consumers.
Depending on the degree of public importance for the organization, the following groups are distinguished:
- main (provides significant assistance or may cause significant damage to the organization);
- minor (has some value for the organization);
- marginal (does not matter for this organization).
Some categories of the public may move from one group to another.
The nature of public relations with the organization can be divided into categories:
- friendly groups are employees of the company, heads of its departments, shareholders, suppliers, creditors, etc.;
- neutral;
- hostile - these are competitors of the company, dissatisfied consumers of the company's products, financial organizations that have discovered violations on the part of the company, the local population, dissatisfied due to non-compliance by the company with environmental and communal standards, etc.
Public opinion
The division of the public into certain groups and types is relatively arbitrary. The composition of the groups, their numbers and possible reactions are determined by the situation. The aim of the work of PR specialists with the public is to influence the formation of public opinion in such a way that it becomes useful for the organization, company and other interested parties. The task of a PR specialist is to clearly group the public, that is, he needs to identify groups of people whose opinion affects the organization and its image.
Public opinion is a set of individual opinions on a specific issue affecting this group of people.
In PR, the public is identified with the concept of "audience". For PR specialists, an active audience is the public. In this case, the public is a group of people that, under specific conditions, has organized itself around common problems or interests. We continue to consider this issue.
In order for the passive public to become active, James Grunig considers the presence of 3 factors necessary:
1. Awareness of their limitations, that is, to what extent people feel their limitations and infringement and are actively looking for ways out of the problem.
2. Awareness of the essence of the problem, that is, to what extent people understand the essence of the situation, while sensing the need for additional information.
3. The level of involvement, that is, to what extent people feel drawn into the problem and feel its impact on themselves.
The following types of public are distinguished in form and degree of activity:
1. An active community - a group of people responding to all problems, active and enterprising on any issue. In turn, the active public is divided into 2 types:
- the first type - is formed around one specific problem (the demolition of dilapidated housing in the area, the construction of a parking lot on the site of the playground);
- the second type of active public - is formed around the problems advertised by the media (global warming, deforestation in the Amazon and so on).
2. Indifferent or passive public - a group of people who are not active.
Public relations
Public relations is a professional activity of PR specialists in the interests of organizations, corporations, public and private institutions, charitable foundations, aimed at creating a positive image of the organization, a specific person, product or service in the eyes of the public. This activity is most often carried out by providing the media with the necessary information. Thus, the concept of "Public Relations" is closely related to such concepts as campaigning, advertising, marketing, propaganda, journalism and management.
History of public relations in Russia
The authorities of Ancient Russia used two channels to convey information to the public (public): state (heralds) and church. The heralds informed the population in the crowded central squares of the city about the appearance of new princely decrees.
Later, when writing appeared, decrees were posted in the central squares for public viewing. Through church channels, information was transmitted to priests, who transmitted it to the flock. From the people to power, requests were transmitted through “petitions”, which could be submitted to both the state body and the sovereign.
A common way of connecting the people with the authorities was “conspiracy and osprey”, having gathered in large numbers, the people went to the sovereign with demands or threats. Such a mass of people was a kind of public organ of ancient times.
In modern conditions, for the interaction of the population and public authorities, the Public Chamber has been created - this is a public body at the state level that is responsible for monitoring the observance of the rights and interests of ordinary citizens of the country.
