CORPORATE COMMUNICATION

● 3 seminars, last tuesdays of the semester to present the final project. Groups.
‘‘Communication is the lifeblood of all organizations: it is the medium through which
companies -large and small- access the vital resources they need in order to operate.’’
-Van Riel and Fombrun.

Class Information
‘‘Tricks of this ​trade​’’
Think → Respect → Analyze → Discuss → Educate

Identity Capital:​ Capital which you build up over time with everything you do.
● It grows when you do interesting and inspiring things
● It decreases when you lay in bed all day watching television...

Turn off devices. Those who can’t comply, the next class you will prepare a 10 minute
discussion. And provide a recent example, or else you lose 1 point.

Grading procedure:
60% Final Exam (May 14th)
30% Final Project (March 23rd and seminars)
10% In-class participation (written assignments)

Classes:​ 13 days, 26 hours

Seminars:​ 3 days, April 10, 17 and 24th. (12 to 13 pm)

Course contents:
I. Introduction and professional context
Lesson 1. Introduction to Corporate Communication (Cx2). What is it?
Some examples.
Why does it matter? The changing environment of business.

II. The practice of Corporate Communication

Lesson 2. The importance of strategy in Communication
Communication programs and plans.
The industry of Corporate Communication and Public Relations.

III. The theory of Corporate Communication: related concepts and elements.

Lesson 3: Propaganda
Lesson 4: Public Relations
Lesson 5: Corporate Communication

Propaganda has nothing to do with advertising. Propaganda talks about politics,

ideologies, but not about products.
Communications need to ensure that image and identity keep a balance.
Ruedas de preferencia o en conferencias de prensa; the journalists should be able to ask
questions. The difference is that conferencia de prensa is given by the head of the state.
The rest of the people give press conferences, (ruedas de prensa).
PART I. INTRODUCTION AND PROFESSIONAL CONTEXT
LESSON 1
INTRODUCTION TO CORPORATE COMMUNICATION (Cx2)

Ideas of the meaning:

It is…
● A way to create a relationship with those related in the organization.
● Media relations
● Creating and maintaining relationships with stakeholder. Not only clients; we are
not only selling products but also keeping the company’s reputation.
● It helps to show an identity; your mission, your values… Image as a consequence
to identity.
● The big word in corporate communications is REPUTATION. The greatest goal in
corporate communications is to establish and maintain a good reputation. It
takes a long time to create a good a reputations but it might take seconds to be
destroyed.
● Crisis management is an essential part for keeping the corporation reputation.
● Trust. When you gain trust, you get a good reputation
● Integration of communication activities inside the company.

It is not...
● About selling one product. It can help in a marketing strategy but it doesn't sell
directly one product.
● It is not propaganda.

WHAT IS CORPORATE COMMUNICATION ABOUT?

Some examples…
1. H&M: Two hoodies - One black kid with a sweater that says “Coolest Monkey in the
Jungle”. Bad reactions from people - The Weekend and Karamo Brown tweeting
against it. People thought it was inappropriate, offensive, racist… ​What to do?
According to an expert you should put the message or apology in the platform or
social media in which the reactions were generated. You should not export it to
the platforms in which the noise didn’t exist. They made a public apology and
removed both the image and product from the companies offering. It was a good
answer because first, they showed empathy, second they said they were sorry,
thirdly the actions takes, and fourthly they said they would investigate and said
that this would not happen again. The mom of the little kid was not annoyed and
defended H&M.
2. Policía Foral: Imagen de la cantante Amaya para la Policía Foral. They had to take
it back because 2 politicians said that it was a machista comment.

Community manager
It can be defined as an ambassador of our company or corporations on the web. His or
her goal is to ​build ​and maintain and also ​monitoring online communities: blogs, social
networks… They are the authorized voice of a company online.
The requirements to become a community manager:
1. Complete knowledge of the rules of the web. Netic web?
 2. Common sense. This means having a right attitude and aptitude and also ability
to know or to consider, or to make decisions to protect a company’s reputation
online.

Examples…
3. Burger King and the lettuce: A worker standing on the lettuce. BK included the
picture and people found out where it was taken.

Legitimacy gap
It represents the perceived difference between an institution’s performance and a
society’s expectations for right and proper performance. ​This occurs when there is a
difference in what people expect from the company and what the company actually
does.
You can think that what you are doing is not offensive, but people or customers might. It
is a matter of perception.

Public information and awareness campaigns

Purpose attempts to ​inform or influence behaviours ​in large audiences within a ​specified
time period using an organized set of communication activities and featuring an array
of mediated messages in multiple channels generally to produce noncommercial
benefits #to ​individuals and society.
This campaigns are important in a social perspective because if they did not exist, we
would not be aware of many social problems that are going on. They can be related to
different topics such as health, safety, environmental issues.
Main characteristics:
1) Large audiences ​of people. It is important to set out a strategy but in this case
you face the entire society.
2) They are only used within a ​short time​ period.
3) They tries to grab ​people’s attention ​using striking ideas.
4) They also use this striking actions to grab ​media attention.
5) Its main goal is either to ​promote a positive change ​or behavior; for ex: eat more
fruit, use seatbelt, drink more water… or we can also public information
campaigns to ​prevent problematic behavior.

Examples...
1. Keep Britain Tidy: They had a big issue. They decided to organize a campaign.
You could walk in the London streets and find giant cigarettes. They performed
this every single year.
2. National Health Service Uk, The Missing Type: number of blood donors had
dropped so they started this awareness campaign to make people conscious and
aware of their blood type. It was really effective.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Communication is an intangible asset; which is the most difficult thing to understand in
corporate communication. Brands and reputation are intangibles.

UNDERSTAND:
1. What ​Storytelling​ can do for CC
2. What ​Media Relations​ involve
3. What ​Activism​ is
 4. Define #Public Affairs" and​ Lobbying.
5. The relationship between ​Publicity​ (not advertising) and ​Events

Examples Continuation:
H&M - It became more than an issue in South Africa, their stores are closing.

Public information and awareness campaigns

Purposive attempts to inform or influence behaviors in large audiences within specified
time periods using and organized set of communication activities and featuring an array
of mediated messages in multiple channels generally to produce noncommercial
benefits to individuals and society.
● Keep Britain Tidy
● Centro Cuesta Nacional, Dominican Republic - There is a shortage of a kind of
fish, this idea was selling the trade without the fish.
● Ministry of Interior (Spain). Bicycle day (April 19th, 2017). - 58 soul riders. There was
an increase of accidents when people were riding bikes. Una bicicleta sin
conductor que recorre calles donde ciclistas han perdido la vida… Para
concienciar a los conductores de respetar a las bicicletas.

Storytelling:
● Skoda and “70 guardians of winter” - they were trying to tell beautiful stories.
Reminds people of Games of Thrones. They did it with the citizens of the town.
They made it so people could learn about Valdelinares. 25% increase in brand
recognition… The first objective was to keep the school in the small town open.
Why are stories successful in engaging audiences?
Entertainment, they connect with emotions. It is not easy to connect with people because
you need to appeal to emotions, and storytelling is a way of achieving it.

Def. The art in which a teller ​conveys a message (truths, information, knowledge, or
wisdom) ​to an audience - often subliminally - ​in an entertaining way​, using whatever skills
(musical, artistic, creative…) ​to enhance the audience’s enjoyment, retention and/or
understanding​ of the message conveyed. -Berice Dudley, 1997.

Why does it work?

Because:
● It is the art of​ telling stories in a beautiful way
● It is a means for sharing and interpreting ​experiences​.
● Stories are universal: they can ​bridge cultural, linguistic and age-related
differences.
In the last 10 years advertising has focused in telling stories, trying to tell why people
should relate with brands.
Christian Salmon (2010) explains that:
● We prefer engaging with ​narratives ​to wrestling with raw data
● We are inclined to ​accept​ those claims that fit our narratives
● It is ​easier for people to sell us a story than it is for them to convince us of
isolated facts
● Anyone that can persuade you is aware of these. ​Advertisers, politicians and
communicators ​are ​aware o​f these tendencies.
Therefore:
● Narratives become a new way to mobilise the audience
 ● Stories become “weapons of mass distraction” to make you feel part of the story
and when you feel identified you forget you are being persuaded.
As a communicator when you achieve manipulation you should stop, because there is a
big difference between manipulation and persuasion.

Examples:
Campofrío: Bringing together couples with different thinkings at the table.
Understanding as something that brings us together, not apart. “The campaign that
politicians should have made.” Amodio: This year's campaign.

Media Relations
Press offices.
● New appointments to lead Vatican Press Office. Internationalization - ​an
institution that changed their press office.
When we talk about media relations we talk about public relations, but there are many
other forms of public relations. They have to sustain positive relations with ​media
gatekeepers - people who are responsible for releasing messages to the public.
Influencers, bloggers, youtubers are new gatekeepers, 10 years ago there were less. The
main objective of a media relations program is to transmit messages from the company
to the media and then to the public opinion. Those messages have to be newsworthy if it
isn’t it won’t move forward; because it has to be relevant to their audiences. Media
relations has been considered by journalists as something bad, because they feel it
bothers them (public relations), this has happened because PR people called journalists
all the time and they got tired of that. The main activities of a media relations program
are two: press releases and press conferences.
Conferencia de prensa is for the head of state and prime ministers and the rest of the
people do rueda de prensa. ​Press conferences can be defined as meetings organized by
celebrities, politician, or any kind of institution with the purpose of 1. distributing
information to the media: and 2. very important answering questions from reporters.
Journalists get annoyed when they go to a press conference and they cannot ask
questions, if there are no questions it should be called public statement. If you organize
a press conference make sure it is news worthy and that you have time to answer
questions. Media relations shouldn’t have a negative connotation from the journalist
point of view because they need information sources; you can develop a good
relationship and be a reliable source; there is room from creating a professional
relationship. You have to keep in mind that journalists want to do their job and that is
why they are so picky.

Media relations and press conferences:​ ​they can be held in moment of crisis.
● Ryanair - they had to cancel many flights and the media relations wasn’t very
professional. If you’re trying to apologize you shouldn’t have the logo saying
“GETTING BETTER EVERY DAY”
● Donald Trump kicks Jorge Ramos out of news conference - he is not making
friends with the press. “Go back to Univision”.
● Lidl Surprises (Supermarket). They wanted to become a supermarket with a higher
quality, they decided to invite many journalists to a full course dinner only with
lidl products. When the dinner finished they showed the bill in which they spent
9,96 pounds per person. The dinner looked very elegant so they were surprised
when they found out how much they spent. It created a positive reaction.
Brand reputation and perception management:
● Lidl started also a campaign in which they reminded that most of their products
where from England. They took people who talked badly about their quality to
meet their producers.

Employee communications:

There has to be a two way communication. It is not very easy to see examples of these
unless you work inside a corporation and you see it..
● Campofrio - one of the factories burned in 16/11/2014. Many of employees didn’t
know if they were going to lose their jobs. They gave a brick to each one of the
employees that were in the factory that day and they invited them to put their
brick all together the day the new factory began to been built. They gave them
certainty and answered to them instead of staying quiet.

Institutional statements:
News, weekly addresses…
Weekly statements are part of the communication efforts, if you work in the
communication department you are going to write their speeches. These people many
times are called ghost writers, because many times they are people you don’t know.

Protocol and “diplomacy” (Spain as a brand):

The visit of King Felipe VI to Obama.

Activism
Activists in social change.
● Greenpeace vs. Lego, Save the Artich. “Lego salva el ártico, deja de jugar con
Shell” - What greenpeace did was use the Lego’s song and created an ad in which
petrol covered everything “Shell is polluting our kids mind”. ​We’re determined to
leave a positive impact on our society and children. We’re saddened when the
Lego brand is used as a tool in any dispute…
● Holograms for freedom: you can have a group of citizens been activists for your
companies. It was very effective because it expanded all over the world.

‘‘The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the
heart’’. Communication must be felt with the heart; specially strategic communication.

Public affairs, lobbying and Crisis Communication

● Ex: “Two guys go to the cinema” - everytime you go to the cinema you pay 21% in
taxes. A little cinema in Catalunya tried to turn the cinema into a theatre, because
they have a 10% taxes. They are trying to lower down those taxes charged. This is a
Public Affairs example. Cinema protesting against the taxes. They refunded the
 money because the customers were actually in the theatre. Usually is not very
easy to see examples of Public Affair so clear.
Public affairs is a specialized function and at the same time Lobbying is a specialized
part of Public Affairs. ​Public Affairs: ​a specialized part of Public Relations that ​builds and
maintains organizational or corporation relationships with governmental agencies; and
also with community stakeholders, to influence public policies. If you want to change
something that governmental agencies are working on you need to use public affairs.
Lobbying: ​a specialized part of Public Affairs and Public Relations that build and
maintains relations with government; primarily or mainly to influence legislation and
regulation. This means that stakeholders of lobbying strategies should be members of
the government; like congressmen and senate men. Public Affairs is wider than Lobbying.
Sometimes, people voting, needs information coming from different parts. The first
interested in regulating Lobbying are the Lobbyists themselves; they really want this
issue to be regulated because they want them to work. Lobbying is not necessarily
negative.
Crisis Communication: Crisis is not fun but it is really exciting for organizations. We can
define it as the effort taken by a corporation to communicate with stakeholders when an
unexpected event occurs, that of course can affect the reputation or image. There is a
difference between crisis management and crisis communication.
● Example: Germanwings. The pilot deliberately crashed the plane. It was a low cost
airline and belongs to Lufthansa. 150 people died. While one pilot went to the
toilet, the other one decided to crash the plane. It was in part the company's fault.
Lufthansa CEO message: They had less than 24 hours; it is the face of a man that
had not slept in more than 24hrs. This wasn’t at all a message for the relatives of
the victims rather for the general public and you can tell that they are in shock.
Crisis communication experts did like the video, they even changed their logo
immediately to a black and white, they were very active trying to answer the
questions of the media. They were telling what they knew, when they found out the
condition of the pilot they did communicate it.
Fundraising: ​especially for development issues. We are talking about intangible assets
and it can help you raise a lot of money.
● Ice Bucket Challenge:
● Médicos Sin Fronteras: tenemos muchas razones para quedarnos en países en
guerra…

The relationship between Publicity (not Advertising) and events

Event Planning: ​Stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public’s attention to an
organiser or his cause. A stunt or an event generates what we call Publicity. It helps to
attract public attention and also media attention. Publicity: ​unpaid dissemination of
facts, ideas, products, news about one specific brand, person or organization. Publicity is
not advertising because you are not paying for it; you generate it because you are
attracting media’s attention. Do not translate publicity into publicidad, they are
completely opposite. Characteristics of Publicity: it is an uncontrolled method of placing
messages in the media. Also, it is generally short focused, you attract attention but for a
very brief time. Lastly, publicity can be positive or negative (you can receive negative
publicity), you have to be careful. Advantages of Publicity: first of all, it can be more
credible than advertising because if you do not pay for something and appears in the
media, it means that people who works in the media are endorsing that information; the
second big advantage that can also be a challenge is that is has high news value that
means that if journalist don´t consider your information or vent is relevant they won’t talk
about it. Finally, for example you can get publicity through press releases that are a
traditional and not very effective nowadays, because journalists are bored. Also news
conferences, events, stunts, featured articles, caption photos; all of these generate
publicity.
● Example of an event: Ghostbusters en el metro, people talked about it in social
media and that generated publicity.
Communication for Nonprofits and Nongovernmental Organizations: ​Important to
communicate what they do, what they need. They need donors, volunteers. Corporate
communication and Nonprofits also use Advertising. You can use Advertising for …
reasons and also for advocacy reasons.
● Example: “More than a sign”, To remember that in the parking lots the sign in the
floor is not just a pictura, people who are disabled actually exists and have the
need of those parking lots.
● Acción contra el hambre: It was a fundraising campaign against hunger. The main
goals was fundraising. It was kind of a public awareness campaign. It was based
on two kids that shared food.
You can do many things with corporate communications, this examples should open our
minds.

WHY DOES IT MATTER? THE CHANGING ENVIRONMENT OF BUSINESS.

● Why does it matter?
Theoretical context for the practice of corporate communication
There was a widespread view of mass media and in these theory of mass media there was
an assumption that was accepted until last century: “Mass Media shaped public
opinion’’. This meant that they were the only ones capable of being mediators between
corporations and public opinion, at the same time since we are talking about being
mediators they were also spokespeople for corporations and institutions. To some extent,
it was taken for granted that they were the only ones who could do that.
There was another assumption: Institutions communicate only for commercial interests;
in a sense at the end of the 20th century, mass media became vehicles for any kind of
communications from corporations; people thought that media were instruments of
power ​and ​dominance. ​But social media, internet and technology changed this.
● Origins and changing environment
The origins were in the USA, at the beginning of the 20th century. Why the US? First of all,
they had the right of freedom of speech and expression, something that they consider
very important. Also, the right to be informed (to access information). So if I have the
right to access information and I have the right to say what I want then information
should not be the exclusive domain of the media, but rather ​people and institutions are
entitled to send out information. ​Information should be an organized activity in
organizations as well, and that is the reason why corporate communication is something
that institutions need in a democratic environment.
“Error of opinion may be tolerated when reason is left free to combat it.” -Thomas
Jefferson (1743-1826). You might be wrong but if you have access to all the information
you can accept that you are wrong.

Theoretical context for the practice of Corporate Communication

Communication is an strategy for:
1. Survival… But must remember its social role. you should never forget about
its social impact; we live in a very sensitive society.
2. Differentiation/Competitiveness
Democracy has helped communication
You have a political context but you can contribute to the information markets. That has
generated what we call Omnipresence of speech as a tool to legitimate institutions. It is
not a matter of being or not being there, the difference between high or low profile as a
corporation is that a high profile company is one that tries to appear in media, who
disseminates information and wants to be there all the time. A low profile company is the
opposite.
● A working definition
Why “Corporate”?
❖ Until the 1970’s “Public Relations” was used to describe relationships with
publics/stakeholders
❖ It focuses on the perspective of an organization as a whole and on the important
task of h​ow and organization presents itself to all its key ​stakeholders (internal
and external) it integrates everything, it focuses in a corporation as a whole. From
the latin word ​corpus.
Stakeholder
❖ Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the
organization’s objectives.
❖ Do not use the term consumer as a synonym of stakeholder because they are just
one type of stakeholders, not all of them.
❖ People can mobilize themselves against -or for- the organization on the basis of
some common issue or concern to them.
❖ We need to be attentive to all of the organizations that can work against or in
favor of our institution.
Examples: employees, governmental agencies, community leaders, customers, the media,
shareholders, working unions, activists, providers. Also depending on the circumstances
they can be more diverse. There can be primary stakeholders and secondary
stakeholders based on how close they are to our business.

“​Public relations​ is more than a set of tactics and tools. It is a ​mindset​.” -Richard Edelman.
This man leads the biggest consultancy agency in public relations.

1. What corporate communication is and why it matters (a formal definition)

Provisional definition: a management function that offers a framework for the ​effective
coordination ​of all ​internal and external communication with the overall purpose of
establishing ​and ​maintaining favourable ​reputations with ​stakeholder groups upon
which the organization is ​dependent.

Corporate communications has demonstrated that institutions should not communicate

in a specific time rather in a long-term perspective, not thinking only about tomorrow.
What this means is that we need to have a conversation with our stakeholders in a
constant basis, and with a regular effort. Also, corporate communication is a big
challenge; its foundations are reputation (achieved by corporate communications effort),
another key word is trust, credibility and knowledge. All of these 4 words should lead to
transparency as an institution. In a sense, if you are to work as a corporate
communicator you are going to perform an information analyst, because you have to
find legitimacy gaps. There is a difference between a corporation communication and
people’s expectations, and as a company and communicator you have to be aware of
these gaps.
Theoretical context for the practice of corporate communication:
The 4P’s of​ Public Relations ​(Gregory, 2014)
1. Purpose: helping to build functional societies.
2. Principles: you need to have principles and values in order to communicate.
3. People: we are always dealing with people not consumers, people have specific
needs and they worry about things.
4. Processes: communication is a process, if you want to prepare a communication
plan you need to see it as a process. Important to keep in mind, everything you do
has a consequence, and then another one. In every way you behave, there will be
a consequence.

Summary:
➔ Corporate communication is about relationship building and reputation
management.
➔ It must create value for the organization. Reputation is a long-term indicator of
communication’s value creation.
➔ It includes deliberate efforts to formally communicate (you have to plan and
manage communication)
➔ It is the voice that corporations and institutions use to interact with the outside
world and includes many activities.
➔ It happens when an organization needs to communicate a message to inform
and/or persuade public opinion, consumers, media, investors, and other
stakeholders.

Lesson 1 - Practice of Public Relations:

● What happened to el Pozo’s reputation yesterday
Salvados is a TV show that will be about meat consumption.
‘‘Escándalo en granja proveedora de El Pozo’’.
What would you do?
● Platform: Video and Press Release.
● We would begin by saying we are sorry and recognizing the fact that they did
wrong. Also we would tell consumers that they will revise quality standards in all of
the farms with which they work and take necessary measures to assure the health
of their clients and satisfaction with “El Pozo’s” products.
Issues related to health and baby are important, they make crisis too sensitive.

Comunicado:
● Garantizamos la seguridad alimentaria
● Aseguramos el bienestar animal
● Importancia del sector porcino en España

PART 2. THE PRACTICE OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATION

LESSON 2.
THE IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGY IN COMMUNICATION
COMMUNICATION PROGRAMS AND PLANS
THE INDUSTRY OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

What is a communication plan?

“The formulation and implementation of an organization’s communication ​strategy in
several​ steps.”
We talk about strategy because the communication plan is going to be managed in a
very specific way, it is ​scientifically managed it is going to be measured and planned. It is
not something spontaneous, you are going to have several steps to be followed. Also, it
includes both goals and objectives. Thirdly, it is strategic because it depends on the
overall strategy of the company. This means that the communication plan must be
related to the mission, the vision and the values of the organization; our communication
plan is not going to be independent. The mission is the organization’s main focus and
remains unchanged over time, it defines what the company really does. Usually mission
are easy to memorize, they should be simple to understand. The difference between
mission and vision is what you want to achieve in the future. Many times people in the
communication departments forget about the values, and you have to live based on
your value because that is the safe card for your reputation. They guide your
relationships with stakeholders. Values are the operating philosophy or principles that
guide the corporation.

1. Research and problem statement​: ​What’s happening? After what you research,
you need to formulate the problem you will address.
2. Planning and programming: ​What should we change? What are going to be your
goals and objective based on your research and problem.
3. Implementation or communication: ​What should we do and say? Who? When?
Where? How? Once you talked about what should we change, you need to
implement your strategy; it is about what message you will give, what kind of
media and when. Who is about the spokespeople or spokesperson.
4. Evaluation: ​How are we doing or how did we do? Sometimes your communication
strategy will be quite complex depending on your situation; when you have one of
these, you need to evaluate how you are conducting the plan and if you don't get
it right you need to start again; this is more common in long-term plans.

He named this 4 steps as (ROPE): He stated that the communication plan is a process
and with all of the information you start all over again.
Research
Objective
Planning
and Evaluation

STEP 1: RESEARCH AND PROBLEM STATEMENT

➔ Situation analysis: ​collection of all that is known about the situation. It contains
all the ​background information needed to illustrate in detail the meaning of a
problem statement. If you don’t analyse the situation it is hard to give proper
meaning of what is going on. This is an intelligent function for the corporation,
and because it is an intelligent function, everything depends on it. It is essential
to analyse the research and situation. If you don’t analyse it well, it is impossible
to get to your real problem.
➔ Problem Statement: concise ​description of the situation​, often written in a
sentence. A paragraph at most. It should describe what is happening. Sometimes
you don't have a problem but rather an opportunity; most of cases are problems.
Why is research so important?
Poem. Blind Men and the Elephant by John Godfrey Saxe.
We have 6 blind men approaching one same reality: an elephant. The first one touches
the elephant and feels like it is a wall. The second one believes it is a spear. The third one
believes that it is a snake. The fourth describes it as a tree. The fifth compares it to a fan.
The sixth compares it to a rope.
Without researching a problem situation, practitioners run the risk of acting like the six
blind men from Indostan. You can have one reality but if you take different perspectives,
you can have different ideas.

‘‘Public Relations is more than a set of tactics and tools. It is a mindset’’. -Richard
Edelman
“Error of opinion may be tolerated when reason is left free to combat it.” -Thomas
Jefferson

● What a communication plan is and learn how to develop it in 4 steps

What is research in PR?
Research is the systematic gathering ​of information to ​describe and ​understand
situations an to​ check out assumptions​ about ​publics ​and PR ​consequences.
In reality, what happens with research? Sometimes when you go to a consultancy you
might not have enough budget and you give up some research. The risk is that you
might be approaching an issue that is not the most relevant one.

When do professional carry out research?

Types of research, depending on two purposes:
1. Formative:​ to lay a foundation or to inform a plan (prior to the plan).
2. Evaluative: to determine/evaluate whether tactic meet (or met) objectives (during
or/ and after the plan).
If the budget of your communication plan is low, people tend to sacrifice one of those
kind of research. Typically, not because it is the correct answer, but they tend to do it, the
first: the formative research. Because they have to be accountable to the CEO and need
to show that they met their goals. This is not the correct way to doing it, because
formative research is essential for the plan.
Methods for conducting research: We can have more formal or informal.
● Surveys
● In-depth interviews
● Focus groups: 8-12 people, representatives of different perspectives and a
moderator asks open questions, the idea is explaining things.
● Observation
● Content analysis
After research and analysing the situation, you have to write shortly what the problem is.

STEP 2: PLANNING AND PROGRAMMING

Practitioners must determine ​what goal is desired, either to mitigate the problem or to
capitalize on the opportunity, and then ​devise a strategy ​for achieving that goal.
Differences between strategy and tactics, people tend to confuse these terms but they
are not the same. Strategy is like the overall approach that will be taken. The ladder is
your strategy and your tactics are the steps.
Elements​:
1. Goal(s) setting.
2. Strategy planning: strategies, key publics and tactics.

STEP 3: TAKING ACTION AND COMMUNICATING

It is the implementation, is the​ coordinated execution​ of both strategies and their tactics.
Message content, you need to think about what you will say to your stakeholders.
Selection of delivery channels and dissemination, this is the when and how basically.
The advantages of nowadays is that we have many options. For example, we have the
following tools and tactics:
● Press releases and press conferences; in which you create ​media relations (also at
the moment bloggers and influencers).
Media training: involves helping people working at your corporation to understand the
media, to understand journalists and their needs as communication professionals and
also the corporations need to be in the media. You focus in a media training program in
3 things: 1. You have to explain to the CEO and board of directors what is the importance
of media for the company. In this first element you have to explain the schedule of a
journalists, make them understand how they are not enemies rather someone who can
be asset and a friend. 2. Appart from understanding the media you have to implement
real world practices, take you CEO or directors and record them. So that they can
subjects to a real life experience when they are facing an interview, this helps discovers
strengths and weaknesses. 3. After they have acted as a spokesperson of the company,
try to analyze the interviews with them to develop reviews. It is very effective to see
yourself in camera in order to improve.
● Brochures and other printed material: nowadays many industries still use printed
material.
● Websites and blogs (social media), “community manager”: you have to be careful
and aware of what you post in a blog.
● Advocacy advertising and issues management: help prevent crisis in a
corporation, because their position is stated.
● Event planning: formal launches, dinners, auctions, raffles, ceremonies, ribbon
cutting, ​fundraising rather than an event another tactic​, open days, marathons,
protests. If you need money you can set up an event.
● Activism
● Conferences
● Public information and awareness campaigns
● Lobbying
● Fundraising…
But remember, ​the important thing we need to remind always that communication and
actions are not the ends, but only the means to ends. You need an strategy that requires
to choose any of the above specifically.

STEP 4: EVALUATION
When you finalize your plan you need to see what happened, if you achieved your
objectives or not.
Evaluation is not simply a postmortem exercise but an ongoing process and a means for
managing continual improvement in PR. We are talking about a cyclical process,
evaluation is not always to say “wow, we met our goals”; sometimes knowing that you
didn’t achieve your objectives can be really useful for your next communication plan.

TO SELL A WAR - The Fifth Estate, by CBC (december 1992)

Sometimes the press is called the fourth estate, because we have the executive branch,
the judicial brand and the legislative branch. Saying that the press has so much power
that they’re the 4th branch of government.
“The 20th century was the century of propaganda.” -Jürgen Wilke
The Persian Gulf War(1990-1991) was unique in American history. This invasion was
important not only for political reasons but for economic reasons. It was called the
propaganda war. this invasion was important because it was the first real time war​, for
the very first time you had the media shooting in real time. It wasn’t an American war​.
This war was unique because it was ​motivated by economic and political interests, ​but
not by military threat against the US​. There are ​unevenly matched contenders, nobody
thought that the Iraqis were going to be in the war. ​A unique rhetorical challenge to
Bush and his administration, american politicians and the military after Vietnam.

Provide a critical analysis. Try to answer the following questions:

1. Do you think this was in fact a communication plan?
2. What were the main goals of the plan deployed by Hill & Knowlton?
3. What was the strategy (messages, key publics and tactics)?
4. Do you think this was an effective communication plan?

Iraq occupied Kuwait

This war had to be literally sold to the Americans.
The soldiers turned off the oxygen of the incubators of premature babies and took them
out. 312 babies died (the number is far to great, according to analysts that took pictures
and analyzed the scene).
First witness of this: a 15 year old girl, everyone was devastated when listening to her. The
story did not only have an impact on US but also the United Nations which wasled by the
US. The House approved a resolution and was sent to the Senate, where it passed only 5
votes above.
Officials of the Middle East who worked for Human Rights…
Pepsi used the situation to create advertising.
The government paid to an agency in order to create a campaign to emotionally
motivate people to support actions, in support to Kuwait. Nayiraa was part of the video
with her speech. She was from a royal family in Kuwait

1. Describe and follow the four steps of a communication plan

The Persian Gulf War (1991-1992) was unique in American history. Why?
● First “real-time” war.
● Not an American war.
● Motivated by economic and political interests, but not by military threat against
the US.
● Unevenly matched contenders.
● A unique rhetorical challenge for Busch and his Administration.
Do you think this was in fact a communication plan?
We all agreed that it was in fact a successful communication plan because they achieved
their goal. On the other hand, most of the people agreed this was a communication plan
except for 7 people. And the truth is that is wasn’t a communication plan, it was
propaganda. When you are manipulating people it is not communication.

Critical analysis
RESEARCH AND PROBLEM STATEMENT.
They conducted formative research (prior to the plan to lay a foundation), ​*focus groups*
- conducted by the Whirling group… Focus groups are qualitative and are good for:
identifying attitudes towards behaviors and also finding motivations. You need to have a
good moderator, who creates between 6-10 open questions. Those focus groups cost a lot
of money (2,6 million dollars). We can guess that people knew that lack of publics support
leads to losing the war (Vietnam precedent) and the public “ignorance” about Kuwait. The
problem was: ​negative public opinion of the prospect of a war​. If you have the problem
statement you move towards the second step.

PLANNING.
Goal: ​altering public opinion perception of a military invasion, raising ​awareness and
popular support​ for a hypothetical American military intervention.
Strategies: informative which was to provide information about Kuwait (put the country in
the map), they thought about a second strategy that was to use emotion: patriotism,
Saddam as an unscrupulous dictator. From an emotional side, you tend to sell the image
of this person as a bad person. Using patriotism as a vehicle to have that. When we use
emotions, we need to be careful because you start to get into manipulation.
Publics: ​media, politicians and citizens.
Tactics:
● Fundraising stands, events.
● Information material for the media (daily newscasts with everything that was
going on in Kuwait, video releases and soundbites). Usually when you work for
radio and television, you tend to record what is soundbites, they need them no
longer than 30 seconds.
● Also Media training and image improvement (Kuwait’s ambassador).
● Meetings with politicians in order to know what was going on the world.
● Sometimes when you meet politicians is to explain the situation and make them
think twice about the intervention.
● Third Party endorsement**: they organized a situation that was called Citizens for
a free Kuwait. It was intentionally created so it was not an spontaneous movement.
Third party endorsement: ​Creation of an association that ​apparently has nothing to do
with the parties involved in a conflict. It is the third party who asks for involvement or else
defends a position without ​apparently​ not being involved.
Not of them could ask directly as the government so they had to create this party in
order to fundraise a lot of money. The truth is that this 3rd party was created by the 2
parties involved. The effect you get when you use third party endorsement is that you
don't have the bias anymore so you get more credibility. You also get empathy.
Results: more credibility and(+) empathy.
Related terms:
2. Explain the differences between gassroots and astroturfing

Grassroots: ​A grassroots movement is one driven by the

politics of a community (operating at the grass roots). It
involves recruiting, training and mobilizing people to raise
awareness and advocate for positive change. Most of the
time they don´t have a lot of resources and they are
spontaneous movement. Not a lot of powerful people take
in part, rather people from the roots, ordinary people.
Spontaneous movement coming from roots of society.
Result: the term implies that the creation of the
movement and the group supporting it are neutral and spontaneous. Scarce
resources.
Another concept that has the appearance of being a
Grassroots movement but it is rather a third party
endorsement:
Plataforma de afectados por la hipoteca. she organized a
movement in which she fought for the rights of those that
were affected by mortgages, she became mayor of Barcelona. It was a grassroot
movement.

Astroturfing: ​(from AstroTurf); A type of initiative that seeks to gain entry into popular
culture under the guise of appearing to be a spontaneous movement.
Result: In the absence of widespread support for a position, come unseen entity
manufactures the appearance of it.

IMPLEMENTATION.
1st stage: the information campaign (citizens for a free Kuwait). For ​citizens​,
socio-cultural messages (conferences, events, fundraising stands, rallies…). For the
media​, background information (press releases, daily newscast, tempting sound bites…)
For ​politicians (PUBLIC AFFAIRS): media training and improvement for Kuwait’s
ambassador image, speech writing, lobbying, institutional contacts...)
2nd stage: disinformation campaign. Hill and Knowlton makes up an emotional
(newsworthy) event that builds political and social consensus: Nayirah testimony.
RESULT:​ massive media coverage.

EVALUATION
Successful strategy and tactics: Americans in favour of American military intervention in
the Persian Gulf: from 37% (November) to 84% (January).
Type or research:
Evaluative (during and after the plan): daily tracking surveys (October/November) and
biweekly surveys (until mid December) to check to objective of the overall campaign

Propaganda and persuasion -Jowett & O’Donnell (2012). It was in 1992, they did not have
the amount of information and social media. Now there’s a global movement against the
abuses made by different governments.

The industry of Corporate Communication and Public Relations

3. Have an overview of the public relations industry
It is a growing and vibrant industry, even during the last recession of 2009 when other
areas such as advertising and media were suffering the PR industry proved remarkably
resilient. There are two primary types of public relations and corporate communications;
either in-house department or to hire and outside PR consultancy company.
An in-house department that means that they have at least 1 person in charge of the
communication, generally they tend to be small departments; they do not have a lot of
people. A PR unit that functions as a part of the organizations, meaning that they are not
independent from the company. They’re inside the business facilities. A department that
manages and creates communication for the company. The funny thing is the variety of
names companies give to that unit, there are many different names.
What is a ​Public Relations Consultancy? A company, on its own, that works as an
strategic partner for a number of clients or companies; often across different sectors.
They offer different communication services to build and protect the company’s
reputation. It can work for many different clients, they are different than PR units.
Advantages and disadvantages of PR in house units and PR consultancy:
Disadvantages of in-house PR departments​: we have less people so we cannot manage
as many communication activities. Less time, less resources and less creativity. Another
is that we have less contact, especially in the media. A third disadvantage is that when
you have to face something negative for your company, you are biased so you lack
impartiality and you might need that extra view from the outside.
Advantages of in-house PR departments: ​You have very loyal people that really care
about their company because they work just for your company. Precisely, you have more
motivated people; high motivation of workers, they do not have to think about other
businesses or companies, they know your company very well. Because of that motivation
and how much they know about the company, when it comes to crises, they respond
faster. So you get to save time and you do not have to hire an outside company to which
you have to explain everything about your company. You can also have access to
historical and confidential information about your company.
Disadvantages about PR consultancies: ​they are more expensive, usually you have to pay
them per hour and the price is high. And secondly, they need more time to understand
the company and the problems the company is facing; sometimes you do not have that
amount of time.
Advantages about PR consultancies: ​there are big advantages. You maximize knowledge
and you minimize risk when you hire their services. A second big advantage, is that you
have a stronger list of contacts especially with the media (they know contacts in every
industry). Finally, one of the biggest advantages is that they have expertise, so their
knowledge is great and they’ve got a wider range of skills.
On a balance, nobody wins, they both have advantages and disadvantages. If you’re
lucky you can count on both of them.

4. Name the leading communication consultancies worldwide

PR consultancies Holding Nation Ranking Ranking Ranking Growth

group 2014 2015 2016 %

1 Edelman USA 1 1 1 2.4

2 Weber INTERPUB USA 2 2 2 6.5

Shandwick LIC

3 Fleishman Hillard OMNICOM USA 3 3 3 0.0

4 Ketchum OMNICOM USA 5 4 4 6.0

5 MSL Group PUBLICIS France 4 6 5 1.0

6 Burson Marsteller WPP USA 6 7 6 0.0

7 Hill & Knowlton Str. WPP USA 7 5 7 2.6

8 Ogilvy PR WPP USA 8 8 8 4.0

9 Blue Focus CHINA 14 9 17.2

10 Golin INTERPUB USA 12 9 10 7.9

LIC

Edelman: does not belong to a bigger company. *Know the name of at least 5.
A couple of ideas: ​there are other Spanish leading companies worldwide and they have a
lot of merit because they do not belong to a Holding Group. Important to note that all of
them have grown, this means than although there’s been a crises, not of them has lost
money. Take into account that the biggest American Consultants have been in the map
for a very long time.
“Thinking means connecting things.” -Gilbert K. Chesterton (Orthodoxy - 1908)

PART III. THE THEORY OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATION

LESSON 3.
PROPAGANDA
Identify and define Propaganda
The identity capital. ​Capital which you build up over time with everything you do. It goes
when you do interesting/inspiring things. It decreases when you lay in bed all day…

A propaganda example
“Help Catalonia.” ​-Omnium Cultural (October 17th, 2017).
Assignment: Provide a critical analysis. Try to answer the following questions: Who is/are
target audience(s)​? How did the video ​want to make you feel like? What is the ​main goal
of this viral video? Please identify ​two important messages​. What ​strategies are used
through the video? With what purpose?

Sender (official): Omnium Cultural (Released on October 17th, 2017). They’ve worked for
over 50 years as a civil society agency to promote the Catalan language and culture and
also to disseminate Catalonia’s will for freedom.
Goals: in recent years on of their aims has been to assist Catalonia in its quest to
become a new independent state.
Contents: Compelling narrative (the video tells a good and current story) and the video
takes you on an emotional roller-coaster. Mobilisation (to put a state of readiness for
active service, to motivate people to do something about something.
Publics: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY: opinion leader (european citizens, politicians, EU
officials, European media) and public opinion (mainly young people, willing to sign the
petition and put pressure on the Spanish government.)
The Hispanic Council made a video as an answer for the first one. The first one is
propaganda because it is trying to convince you and the second one explains the
situation.

INTRODUCTION:
It is an accepted part of all communication studies, so we can say it is in fact a part of
communication. There has been revival of interest in the important role of propaganda
nowadays we can see it everyday. However… there is an ​inappropriate abuse of the term:
it is not what we have in our mailboxes. Everytime you say Propaganda an advertising
man suffers, it is a term that is abused in the Spanish language. Propaganda is always a
controversial subject ​because it will create emotions in people, normally it is related to
politics. It is also controversial that propaganda in itself can be considered a neutral
technique: which only in its specific application becomes “good” or “bad”. It depends on
the aim and the purposes desired to be achieved. Not many people believe in this,
especially in countries in which Spanish is the main language.
The origins of the term: Pope Gregory established what we can consider the first
communication department: ‘Sacra congregatio de propaganda fide’’. It was made to
stop protestants from a communicative point of view. The origin is associated to catholic
countries, that is why spanish speaking countries do not have a negative connotation
for this term. Government tends to use it to manipulate people and this is when it
becomes negative, especially after 2nd WW and the Nazis. Sometimes when you can’t
​ im and Purpose
distinguish if it is propaganda, you have to think in terms of A
Aim: ​control (deliberate attempt to alter or maintain an established balance of power
that is advantageous to the propagandist).
Purpose: ​to achieve acceptance of the propagandist’s ideology by the people to
reinforce or modify attitudes, behaviors,​ or both.
It is not considered advertising because it works with intangible things.

Propaganda is the communication of ​a point of view with the ultimate goal of having the
recipient of the appeal come to ​‘‘voluntary’’ accept this position as if it was his or her
own. It is at least, always persuasive, but not always manipulative, this depends of the
means and the end. The difference between persuasion and manipulation is that when
you are persuaded you say: Oh, I had never seen it that way.

1. DEFINITION
What is propaganda?
● The ​deliberate​, ​systematic attempt to ​shape perception - sometimes ​manipulate
cognitions ​- and ​direct behavior to ​achieve a response ​that ​furthers the desired
intent of the propagandist. (Jowett & O’Donnell, 2012).
Deliberate: ​we say it is deliberate because it is intentional and premeditated. It can’t be
spontaneous. It is something that has been carefully planned, ahead of time.
Systematic: ​it is precise and methodical, it follows a method. And ​attempt because the
main goal is to create a estate in a specific audience, which means that you have an
objective.
Shape perceptions: to change the way you think about things, usually they use
languages and words but other times they use images and this sometimes are more
powerful, sometimes you do not have enough time to think. If you are not aware that you
are being persuaded you are being manipulated, and you are not aware of it.
Cognitions: ​can be manipulated through propaganda.
Direct behaviour:​ they want to make you behave in a specific way,
Achieve a response: ​they are trying to mobilize people, this means that there is
something more important than the behaviour there are ideals behind it. I want you to
make you change the way you think about ideals.

So, in summary, propaganda is:

Ideological and ​persuasive communication​, motivated by an ​individual or group, to
spread an ​ideology ​to win over ​followers/converts to the propagandist’s ideology. No
matter if the ideology is “good” or “bad”, “individual” or “collective”. As young audiences we
have to be aware of propaganda and to look for it in channels such as social media.

All definitions of propaganda agree on…

● It is a one-way communication model, from the sender to the receiver. When
looking for achieving a response, we cannot say this is a two-way communication
model because you will never be able to change the ideals of the sender.
● Contents: opinion, symbols, ideas, selected metaphors/images and emotions to
enlist public support for the propagandist’s opinion. Everything to get public
support for the senders opinion.
● Sometimes… we can find psychological manipulation. When we find manipulative
propaganda it is not a positive communication, if it persuasive you should have
to see if it is positive or not. Let’s remember we see this in as a neutral tool.
● The fields of operation normally are politics and religion.
 2. NATURE
Is propaganda a form of communication?
We can have dialogue as a first stage of communication, then education, then we have
persuasion, then manipulation and finally imposition. Dialogue is the best possible way
of communicating and in imposition communication doesn’t exist, throughout the
channel we are losing communication.

Propaganda uses informative communication, so it is a form of communication. ​But the

purpose exceeds the notion of mutual understanding, because there is a goal that has
to do with persuading it is more than communication. Also, the purpose of propaganda
is to promote a partisan or competitive cause in the best interest of the propagandist…
but not necessarily in the best interest of the recipient. Propaganda may appear to be
informative communication, to be indisputable and totally factual…. ​but the
propagandist will attempt to control information flow and manage a certain public’s
opinion by shaping perceptions. ​The sender wants to control the information flow, to
shape the way you think about something (an ideal).

The communication continuum (EXAM)

Discussed and explained by the authors Gibson and Sotelo.
Communication is a continuum that flows through different stages and between two
extremes. When you go down through those stages you’re losing communication. This
concept is useful because... First, allows for diverse communication practices. Secondly, it
emphasizes major concerns of communication, whether is ethical or not. Finally,
enhances responsible communication practice, it does not matter the type of
communication you work with.
5 STAGES OF COMMUNICATION CONTINUUM: It run between dialogue and imposition.
When you get to imposition, you don’t have communication anymore.
1. Dialogue: exchange of information. Two way communication. It is, indeed, a
balanced situation, you have a sender and a receiver. The content can be facts
but also opinion and judgments. You don’t have the sender above the receiver
but rather at the same level, they can exchange all kind of information. Content is
varied. The features are 1) activeness on both sides, there is also 2) balance. They
are both on the same level. And finally 3) there is an exchange of information,
opinion, etc. The main goals of dialogue are beauty, justice...
2. Education: ​As we go down the communication continuum we tend to lose balance.
The sender tries to remedy the ignorance of recipient on a very specific subject:
so there is a little unbalance. At least at the beginning but there is still rationality.
Which means that the recipient at the end of the process is supposed to build his
own criteria to judge reality. You are able to create and develop your own idea.
There is a little bit of unbalance because the sender normally knows more, but in
the end the receiver can develop his own criteria.
3. Persuasion: ​the sender works on the ignorance as it happened in education but
also works on the passiveness or neutrality of the recipient about one specific
topic. The difference between persuasion and education is that at the end of the
process, the sender tries to make the recipient share his own criteria to judge
reality. The result of persuasion is ‘‘I have never seen it that way’’. The idea here is
that the person persuaded is free to be persuaded; he is aware that he is being
persuaded. The idea of objectivity begins to fail a bit.
 Some features of persuasion skills to distinguish from manipulation(5):
● Persuasive speech distinguishes between premises and conclusions. A
premise is a proved argument, and they are accepted as truth. For
example; french people speak French. When people try to manipulate you,
they can use conclusions, they give you an idea and you tend to think they
are premises that have been proven before.
● Persuasive speech does not use emotional appeals. Or in other words,
persuasion does not use emotions as a persuasive strategy. If people use
emotions to convince, you have to be careful.
● Persuasive speech uses clear and specific language, with no ambiguities
or ambivalences.
● It uses several sources and identified, reliable sources.
● It does not use personal attacks to discredit other sources.
4. Manipulation: ​the problem comes here, between the difference of persuasion and
manipulation. In manipulation the information relationship is completely
unbalanced, the balance is tilted towards the sender. What happens is that at this
stage the sender pursues his own interest, because he is not going to respect the
intellectual freedom of the recipient. That means that at the end of the process
the recipient won’t be able to create his own criteria to judge reality, to decide
what is going on. And the worst thing here is that the recipient is not going to be
aware of the manipulation that is going on towards his opinion. When you
manipulate you can use all kinds of contents.
Some features of manipulative speech(6)
● It uses a lot of stereotypes, which are usually unfair and do not give you
the whole picture.
● When you change names and words to either achieve a stronger impact or
else to disguise the true nature of something; for instance, if you read
‘‘criminals or violent people usually…’’. It is not same to use criminals or
terrorism, so you con play with words. When you change words you can
generate stronger impact.
● When you choose facts to emphasize only the ones that are favourable to
the sender and you forget about other facts that are not favourable to you
and your intentions. Be careful because you could be biased
● Sometimes you make categorical claims from one specific point of view
and you forget about other points of view. The person receiving that
information is not aware that he is receiving a categorical claim.
● Repetition of clichés. This is very related to stereotypes. After repeating
one idea all the time, people think that idea is true and this is not
necessary.
● When you choose an enemy to blame for all the bad things happening to
the sender and even to the general population, be careful because you
tend to reduce reality.
Sometimes you can find examples of both persuasive and manipulative speech, you have
to be aware to see if there is manipulation.
5. Imposition: ​there is no communication anymore! It does not exist because the
message is imposed. There is not exchange of anything. The elementary rules of
communication are broken. We can say that there is no communicative
relationship between the sender and the receiver. The means that are used in
imposition are basically aggressiveness, blackmail.
Propaganda can be found between persuasion and manipulation. Corporate
communication can be found between dialogue, persuasion and education. For example,
Public Awareness campaigns are examples of education. In the origins from a
theoretical perspective you are trying to open a dialogue with your consumers.
● Explain the difference between persuasion and manipulation: Check features.
● Name different types of propaganda
‘‘Through ignorance of what is good and what is bad, the life of men is greatly perplexed’’
- CICERO
Today’s quote related to last week’s.
‘‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’’. John
Paul…
1. Classify and define different types of Propaganda
2. Understand what the 2015 scandal meant for Volkswagen

3. TYPOLOGIES
This is quite useful because media, books and in real life people talk about it. We can
think about 3 different criteria to classify propaganda, if you choose one, you will have
one typology of propaganda.
1. Source acknowledgement and accuracy (Jowett and O’Donnell): sometimes we
have to talk in terms of ‘‘apparently this message looks like…’’, but we are not sure.
According to this, we can have black propaganda, white propaganda, gray
propaganda and finally sub propaganda.
a. White Propaganda: we know the source of the information and the
message tends to be accurate so we tend to believe the message which is
credible like the source. ​DEF: Comes from an identified source and the
information in the message tends to be accurate. For example, the Pope,
whenever he writes a message and ties to convince people, we know the
source and the message tends to be accurate.
b. Black Propaganda: l​ike the other side of coin. DEFINITION: The source is
concealed or credited to a false authority and spreads lies, fabrications
and deception. Usually the problem is that you don’t realize it is black
propaganda until you want to do something. It is considered the big lie.
The good thing is that it only works in specific time periods. Nowadays, it is
difficult that it will succeed. An example, given the II World War, there was a
new english broadcasting station that was directed by British people who
did not agree with the government. They later found out that it was the
Nazis behind it.
c. Gray Propaganda: ​The source may be correctly identified and the
accuracy of information is un​certain OR else… The source may ​not be
correctly identified and the accuracy of the information is certain. In
between black and white. An example could be when stories are published
favorably for one country in another country. The source is international
paper and sometimes it is not, the information is accurate but source
uncertain.
d. Sub Propaganda: ​The propagandist’s task is to spread an unfamiliar
doctrine through ​different stimuli (others…) and eventually have it
accepted. Astroturfing and third party endorsement can be considered in
here.
2. ​Object (Sotelo): ​according to Carlos Sotelo we can find:
a. Political Propaganda: ​aimed at spreading information about those who
are in power or want to be in power. To gain or keep power.
b. Ideological Propaganda: planned to spread an ideology or win over
followers/converts to the propagandist's ideology. Today’s social media is
 also used for propaganda purposes; people with a lot of followers try to
spread certain ideologies.
c. War Propaganda: Also known and psychological warfare, it includes all the
informative actions made by the Estate to promote patriotism or hate (of
enemies) among soldiers and public opinion.
d. Commercial Propaganda: when the sender wants to promote the
acquisition or purchase of a good or service.
In a sense, we cannot use the word of Propaganda when we talk about tangible assets,
we cannot think in terms of products. Propaganda is used for intangible assets.
According to object, what type of Propaganda can we find in Disney shorts(#EXAM)!!!?
Political, Ideological and War Propaganda.
3.​ ​Purpose (Ellul):​ according to Purpose, Jacks Ellul talks that we can have 2 types:
a. Agitative Propaganda: it seeks to arouse people to participate in or support a
cause. It attempts to arouse people from apathy by giving them feasible actions
to carry out or ground-breaking ideas. It wants to change the way people think,
through ground breaking ideas. An example can be propaganda related to
Revolution.
b. Integrative Propaganda: attempts to maintain the legitimacy of the institution it
represents and thereby to ensure the legitimacy of its activities. It attracts
persuades to a common set of beliefs. They want people to be quite, calm and
peaceful.
EXAM - According to the Purpose Criteria, what about Disney shorts? It is integrative
because they are trying to attract Americans into a one integrated set of beliefs.
EXAM - Two Examples of Typologies, applied to something we already discussed in class.

4. CONCLUSION (PROPAGANDA)
❖ Origins and definition of the term, examples, nature and typologies.
❖ The important thing is not defining, but rather identifying Propaganda.
❖ Negative connotation. But propaganda becomes positive or negative in its
application. It depends on the use you give to Propaganda whether it is positive
or negative.
❖ Understand propaganda as a precedent of organizational communication.

❖ Characteristics:
➢ One-way communication model, the propagandist does not change the
way he thinks
➢ Aim: to maintain or alter the balance of power
➢ It exceeds the notion of mutual understanding: it mobilises/seeks a
response: changes, reinforces, or modifies attitudes and behaviors.
➢ Sometimes it relies a lot on partiality which is providing one side of the
story. This falls into the manipulation stage
➢ It disseminates biased ideas (ideologies) to further the desire intent of the
propagandist.
■ When there is ‘‘involuntary acceptance’’ (purpose to achieve
acceptance of an ideology in the best interest of the propagandist,
but not necessarily in the best interest of the recipient):
Manipulation
■ When there is ‘‘voluntary acceptance’’ (attempts to satisfy the needs
of both persuader and persuadee): ​Persuasion.
Propaganda can now be found in not expected places. Sometimes people are using
propaganda and we are not aware of it. You need to know the boundaries between
manipulation and persuasion. Example: The Lion King - One of the big hits of Disney. The
use of Crescent moon was criticized because they related it to the ideology of Islam.

VOLKSWAGEN - Diesel Scandal

September 2015
There was a cheating dive installed in a big number of vehicles of Volkswagen to pass the
emission tests. The crisis started in the US but it was a worldwide crisis. There were really
bad memes in social media. In terms of reputation for Volkswagen this was terrible.
“Trick. No Treat.” “Ditch Diesel.” “CO2 Das Problem.” -Greenpeace

About ​Crisis Communication:

1. What is a Crisis?
(Lerbinger, 2012) An event that bring, or has the potential of bringing, an organization
into ​disrepute​ and imperils its future ​profitability", ​growth​, and possible, its very s
​ urvival​.
The term crisis denotes something more serious than a “problem”... crisis interrupts the
normal flow of business.
From a communicative perspective…
A crisis occurs when an event (Penrose, 2000):
● ...increases ​in ​intensity.
● falls under close ​scrutiny of the news, media or/and government.
● ...interferes ​with normal ​business opportunities.
● ….devalues ​a positive ​public image (reputation ​in the long-term).
● ...and has an ​adverse effect on business's bottom line.

2. Special features of crises

● Sudden, unexpected ​and​ unwanted.
● Indiscriminate
● Create ​doubt ​and ​suspicion.
● Attract unwarranted outside attention ​and can become ​stressful.

3. Consequences
(Regester and Larking, 2005)
● Failure to manage ​stakeholder perceptions
● Products or services​ boycotted/abandoned
● Share price​ collapse.
● Loss of ​competitive advantage ​(unless the your crisis affects the entire market)
● Loss of ​reputation
● Imposition of new, restrictive ​regulation

4. Crisis management and crisis communication

Crisis management is a process designed to prevent and lessen the damage a crisis can
inflict on and organization and its stakeholders. It is a process that removes some of the
risk and uncertainty from the crisis and thereby allows the organization to be in greater
control of its destiny.
It can be divided into 3 phases: pre-crisis, crisis response, post-crisis.
Crisis communication is just one part of crisis management.
Crisis communication…
● Is the dialog between the organization and its public(s) prior to, during and after
the negative occurrence/crisis. (Fearn-Banks, 2012).
 ● Details strategies and tactics designed to minimise damage to the image of the
organization.
● Not only alleviates or eliminates the crisis but can also bring the organization a
more positive reputation that it had before.

Volkswagen's reputation drop This brings down the Auto Industry Average,
Apology and letter: ‘‘We are working to make things right’’, they published it on the press.
They did the same with a personal letter to the ones with their cars affected. In Europe,
people did not get any compensations at all. The newspaper ad is exactly the same as
the letter.
One day later, they remained silent for 24 hours which is a lot.

“It means, rather than ends, that provide the standard of morality. As the means, so the
end.” -Gandhi.
This quote summarizes the difference between propaganda and Public Relations. If you
want to consider your communication ethics, the means and also the end should be
good.

LESSON 4.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
After today’s class you will be able to understand:
1. The rationale of ​Public Relations
2. Understand the influence of# Edward L. Bernays ​in Public Relations

Public relations​: Fundamentals of PR theory

1. Introduction: what is PR?
2. PR and Public Opinion theory:
a. Edward L. Bernays
3. PR and Systemic Approach
a. Scott Cutlip and Allen Center: Ecology
b. James Grunig and Todd Hunt: PR Models

1. What is PR?
The following quotes are not necessary to study, but to understand what PR is.
● “The ​essence of PR is not the presentation of a point of view, not the art of
tempering mental attitudes, not the development of cordial and profitable
relations… but to ​reconcile or adjust in the public interest ​those aspects of our
personal and corporate ​behavior which have a ​social significance.#” -Adjust our
behavior to our publics, it is a modern quotes even though it was written in the
1930’s.
We are not talking about misleading people, or a one way communication model.
Thomas Jefferson (1807) - the first time the label PR was used. Dorman Eaton (1882) used it
with a legal connotation. Theodore Vail (1908), he prepared the annual report of his
company and called it PR; he started to think that everything related to public opinion
had something to do with PR. Daniel Willard (1914); he was the president of one important
railroad company, he organized a department called PR. ​Edward L. Bernays (1923); he
referred to a professional idea that had to do with corporate communication.
By the time he implemented the professional idea, there were similar terms that were
used and related to PR:
 1. Press agentry: it is the practice of attracting the attention of the press through
techniques that manufacture news, no matter how bizarre. This is one of the
biggest differences with PR concept. The methods that a press agentry employs
are: staged events or publicity stunts, faux rallies or gatherings, spinning and
hype. The main goal is attracting media. It was a common practice in the late
1800’s and early 1900’s (19th century). One important idea is that, even though it
can be considered close to PR. It cannot be considered Pr. Rather, is is a proactive
primarily associated today with major entertainment-related events, such as
Hollywood premieres and boxing events. The goal of press agentry is to attract
attention rather than gain understanding. ​This would be more of a one way
communication.
2. Publicity: it is the (unpaid) dissemination of facts, ideas, news about a product,
service, brand or person in various media. You want to generate publicity,
coverage. You can have positive and negative publicity. ​Characteristics: it is an
uncontrolled method of placing messages in the media, you don’t know what kind
of information will be placed on the media; generally short-term focused and it
can be negative as well as positive. ​Advantages: it is more credible than
advertising, the information is endorsed by the medium in which it appears, if a
newspaper decides to put one information and someone reads it, the reader sees
it as more credible since the journal in endorsing it; high news value. ​Vehicles: the
most traditional one is the news releases, captioned photos (nowadays also
videos), special events; when you organize an event you attract media attention,
press conferences and feature articles which you write and send them to
magazines.

Development of Public Relations

It was developed at the US first.
Context:
The right to freedom of speech and expression + The right to be informed (to access
information) + Political equality = Shared sovereignty. Everyone has the right to add their
own ideas to the development of society.
If we are in a democracy and we have freedom of speech and expression, and equality;
there is one abstract concept which is the ​public sphere​. You have institutions trying to
exchange information with citizens because of freedom of speech. We can define the
public sphere as: “An abstract area in social life where individuals come together to freely
discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political
actions”. (Hauser, 1988). What kind of conditions do we need in communication to ensure
that this works properly? To work properly and for it to be really democratic we need: a
wide spectrum of media (social or traditional media), this means that they represent
different ideologies and are representative of different people in societies. Secondly, the
need to have proper and trusted sources, to entitle corporations to have a voice and to
make their voices be heard. This is what Public Relations is about, opening those
channels of communication for any kind of institutions. PR is about a two way
communication model; first of all, we have a deliberate exchange of information
(short-term) but at the same time, secondly, we talk about a two way communication
process because in the long-term you want to establish a relationship and maintain that
relationship with your publics. It is a democratic communication and also a two way
communication channel.
 2. PR and Public Opinion theory: Edward L. Bernays (1891-1995)

2.1. Edward Bernays’ thought ​-

He is widely considered the father of PR. He believed that if PR does not exist, Public
Opinion cannot exist. If you have Public Opinion you must have PR, and vice versa; they
need each other.
1. Bernays coined the term “public relations counsel”, although he is being
considered the father of PR it is not modern term. He decided to use this term
because he thought that the 2 terms that were used were not sufficient; there was
something else into public relations. He did this in his book Crystallizing Public
Opinion.​ Check text on ADI.​ It is a two way communication concept.
2. Organizations have the right and duty to inform public opinion. He was not the
first to talk about public opinion, it was Walter Lippmann. Bernays explained that
it is not only a right but a duty to inform public opinion.
3. PR is a two way process. It means that we are trying to keep a social relation
between corporations or organizations and receivers. A long-term relationship
between sender and receiver.
4. We need PR as a form of social statesmanship. Because we need political skill
leadership, we need the art of governing people. He considers PR as the art of
governing people
5. Influences: Sigmund Freud, Gustave Le Bon, Wilfred Trotter, and Walter Lippmann.

BERNAYS’ THOUGHT
Talking about his ideas one most consider the people who influenced him. The main idea
of Freud was that there is a conscious part and unconscious part, for Bernays the role of
PR is structuring the ideas in the unconscious and use them in the benefit of the client
not the person. Freud was an atheist, and precisely because we do not have any God,
someone has to rule the world and give order into the chaos of our daily life and this was
the concept of PR; society is complex and they need someone to take decisions. His
concepts on average citizen are that we are not capable of organizing complex ideas
and we needed the help of someone who could organize the way we think. It is like PR
counsel organizes everything to give us an overview of reality and to simplify. Freud was
an atheist and had lack of trust in average citizen. Why he had this lack of trust in us?
CHAPTER 3 on ADI. ‘’Perhaps ​the chief contribution of the public relations counsel to the
public and to his client is his ability to understand and analyze obscure tendencies of
the public mind.’’ ​So first he talks about a 2 way communication model and then we see
this which seems kind of a contradiction; we’ve got very important influence

6. He was the first theorist of public relations. He wrote a lot about PR. His first book
was Crystallizing Public Opinion(1928) and then he wrote Propaganda. Another
 book was Public Relations in 1952. There is a fourth book called the Engineering of
Consent. For him, PR was a science, a science of study of human mind.

2.2. Perception of the individual (citizen) and public opinion

In the first chapter of the book Propaganda (1928) we can find the quote: ​“The conscious
and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an
important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism
of society constitute and ​invisible government which is the true ruling power of our
country.
We are government, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely
by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic
society is organized. Vast numbers of human being must cooperate in this manner if
they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.”
QUESTION FOR EXAM - DEFINITION OF INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT. The concept ​invisible
government ​is important: it is the ​relatively small number of persons - a trifling fraction
of our hundred and twenty million - ​who understand the mental processes and social
patterns of the masses. It is they who ​pull the wires which control the public mind​, who
herness old social forces​ and ​contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.
You don’t know who they are but there is someone who is trying to organize what we do.

ABOUT THE AVERAGE INDIVIDUAL… ​(according to Bernay’s)

➔ Ordinary citizens are not intelligent.
➔ He had an unabashedly hierarchical view of society:
○ ‘’While most people respond to their world instinctively, without thought,
there exist an ‘‘intelligent few’’ who have been charged with the
responsibility of contemplating and influencing the tide of history’#’
➔ Since citizens have limited intellect… the PR’s goal is to create “a compact, vivid
simplifications of complicated issues”. We live in a complicated society and the PR
will fix this.
➔ Individual cannot survive outside the mass or the herd. Why?

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INDIVIDUAL ​(Trotter, adopted by Bernays)

➔ He is tolerant and fearful of physical and mental solicitude
➔ He is more sensitive to the voice of the herd than to any other influence
➔ He is subject to the passions, violence and panics of the herd.
➔ His is reasonably susceptible to leadership
➔ His relations to his fellows are dependent upon the recognition of him as a
member of the herd.

“The future hasn’t been written yet. The question, ‘What is going to happen?’ is irrelevant.
What will happen will be determined by what you do, what you don’t do, and what you
allow to happen.” -Iñaki Gabilondo

After today’s class, you will be able to understand:

1. The influence of the #general system theory​ on public relations
2. What is ​ecology​ in PR, according to Cutlip and center
3. The four ​PR models ​(Grunig and Hunt)

Public opinion: ​It is the aggregate result of individual opinions - now uniform, now
conflicting- of the men and women who make up society or any group of society.
This is an ill-defined, mercurial and changeable group of individual judgements.
It is not a matter of understanding but rather manipulating the public.

2.3. PR counsel roles/functions

Roles of PR Counsel (Bernays)
1. To ​bring to the public facts and ideas of social utility which would not so readily
gain acceptance otherwise.
2. To maintain an intense scrutiny of the informative consequences of his clients
actions, ​avoiding the propagation of unsocial or harmful ideas (similar to a legal
pleader or attorney). ​The lawyer the legal consequences of his clients actions and
the PR counsel takes care of the informative consequences of his clients actions.
He gave this new profession the opportunity to be compared with an already
established profession.
3. To direct and supervise the activities of his clients wherever they impinge upon
the daily life of the public.
4. To ​articulate the four step PR process.
5. To ​integrate the public and the private interest. ​Since he was the one talking
about PR being a two way communication, he said that they should be integrated.
6. To ​match public interest and private interest.

(...) I believed then ‘‘PR is not a one-way street in which leadership manipulates the public
and public opinion. It is a two-way street in which leadership and the public find
integration to each other’’

“As a member of an intellectual elite which guides the destiny of society, the PR
professional aims his craft at a general public that is essentially reactive. Working behind
the scenes, out of public view, the public relations….

3. PR and Systematic Approach

3.1. Scott Cutlip and Allen center: Ecology (1952)
Systems perspective and Ecology
What general system theory is about? Was born in the 50’s in the field of biology and the
author of these theory was Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy. He described it as something
divided in three levels:
● System: a consistent totality (an organization).
● Suprasystem: the system’s environment/contect (society).
● Subsystem: a system’s component (department or unit of an organization).
When thinking about our body we have the circulatory system, the respiratory systems or
the digestive system. If one of those systems fails you get sick, because the behavior of
one system affects the others. In reality, it is considered to be the same. If one
organization changes something changes in the entire society.
According to the ​systems theory:
1. Living systems engage in ​exchanges with their environments producing changes
in both (the systems and their environments).
2. Systems can be …. (COPY FROM SLIDES)

What is a system? (NO NEED TO MEMORIZE)

A system is a set of interacting units (parts or subsystems) that endures through time
within and established boundary by responding and adjusting to changes pressures
from the environment to achieve and maintain goal states.
Each subsystem affects the other subsystems as well as the total organization.

Closed vs. Open systems

1. Closed systems have impermeable boundaries: they cannot exchange matter,
energy, or information with their environments.
2. Open systems exchange inputs and outputs through boundaries that are
permeable
a. They are responsive to environmental changes
b. Their survival and growth depend on interchange with its environment
c. They adjust and adapt to counteract or accommodate environmental
variations.
In a way we are saying that in PR an organization is always an open system.

Ecology of PR (Cutlip & Center) ​- possible exam question

To proper and endure, all organizations must:
1. Accept the ​public responsibility by an increasingly interdependent society,
(everything that a corporation or organization does affect the environment)
2. Communicate​, despite multiplying barriers with public that are often distant and
diverse and,
3. Achieve integration into the communities that they were created to serve (this is
the final goal of the theory of the systems applied to PR).

In a brief sentence ecology in PR is, PR’s essential role is to help organizations adjust and
adapt to changes in their environments.

PR activities
Effective public relations (book) - in the different editions they talk about public relations
activities and we are going to see what all of them have in common..

● Effective communication / internal relations

“Internal relations is the specialized part of ​corporate public relations ​that ​builds and
maintains a ​mutual beneficial relationship between ​managers and the employees on
whom an organization’s success depends.”
● Public affairs
“Public affairs is the ​specialized part of public relations that builds and maintains
organizational relationships with ​governmental agencies and community ​stakeholder
groups to i​nfluence public policy#.”
● Lobbying
“Lobbying is the ​specialized part of ​public relations that ​builds and maintains relations
with​ government and political actors​, primarily to ​influence legislation#”.
● Crisis management
“Crisis management is the ​public relations specialty that helps organizations
strategically respond to negative situations and to dialog ​with stakeholders affected by
perceived and actual consequences of crises.”
● Investor relations
“Investor relations is the specialized part of ​corporate public relations (for big
corporations) ​tha​t builds and maintains mutual beneficial relationships ​with
shareholders ​and other in the f​inancial community​ to maximize ​market value​.”
 ● Development / Non-profit PR
“​Development is the specialized part of public relations i​n nonprofit organizations that
builds and maintains relationships with ​donors, volunteers, and members to secure
financial and volunteer support.”

PR definition
“PR is the ​management function ​that establishes and maintain ​mutually beneficial
relationships ​between an organization and the public on whom its success or failure
depends.”
We are missing the word communication in this definition, it is quite odd to have a PR
definition without the word communication and information but they are relying on the
relationships.

3.2. James​ Grunig​ and Todd Hunt: PR models (1984)

“Public relations is about understanding the concerns of the public with whom
organization are interdependent.” -Larissa Grunig (2012)
General system theory applied to PR.
Public Relations definition
​“​Management​ of ​communication​ between and ​organization​ and its p
​ ublics​.”
Is it as simple as it look? It isn’t that simple. What is the real meaning or information
behind this definition? They want to explain that PR is a social science, related to
behaviors.
➔ For them, ​communication is understood as a ​behavior of individuals/groups/
organizations​. They are starting to explain something different than Bernays.
➔ It is very important to underline the fact that PR professionals do not
communicatie just for themselves​. We are not talking about closed systems rather
open systems.
➔ Of course, since the definition begins with the work management ​the ​focus is on
management: PR is a management subsystem. It is a subunit of the corporation
that must be there.
For them, there is a new concept that nobody had dealt with before. They started talking
about this models in 1994. Since communication is a behavior of individuals, groups and
organizations; they are all at the same level. They think that average citizens can
produce the same processes that a PR counsel practices everyday; they can also
produce information material to deliver to the organization. So it is a two way
communication model.

PR models
A model, theoretically, simplifies reality. We have 4 models: (​estudiar la tabla para
exámen, menos las últimas dos características). The two first are one way
communication, and the third and fourth are two way communication models. When
studying the models, we have different characteristics. They are different ways of
practicing PR. Some of them are related.
➔ Press Agentry (1850-1900): ​its purpose is propaganda but in a very negative way
because its main objective is persuading and convincing people but complete
truth is not essential. Interested in convincing people as a lie. If you use research
at some point, it will be just to see if your audience was reached correctly.
According to P.T. Barnum, people like to be persuaded.
➔ Public information (1900-1920): the main purpose of using communications is very
similar to the journalist’s role; you are like the journalist of the organization; you
will explain the true about your organization, but still it is one way
communication; no matter if you are taking the truth into consideration. Since the
main goal is to spread information; there is little research just to see if the
information can be understood by the recipient. Ivy Lee wrote several things that
had to do with the truth; they need for true in public relations. ‘‘Let the public be
informed’’. He believed people has this right. With him, PR was born but not with
that name. If you practice this model is like practicing media relations. The use of
research in scarce.
➔ Two-way asymmetrical (1920-1945): ​not really a two-way model. It is unbalanced in
favor of the organization. It is scientific persuasion. The main goal is going to be
persuading using all you can from behavioral sciences about psychology,
demographics. All you can use from sciences that talk about behaviors and
people to make their messages more effective; this is why it is called scientific
persuasion (you need to know everything about social sciences). You will persuade
but not in a very ethical way; because you have a two way model because you can
use feedback but it will only be for your own good, on the side of the organization.
After the communication process, the perspective of the corporation will not
change; they want to change people’s perspectives and ideas. It is an unbalanced
two-way model. It is asymmetrical because the sender is always controlling the
information; it only matters the company’s interest. Feedback is important
because it is a way to see if you changed their point of view. They use formative
research which is developed prior to a plan, to decide your objectives; they need
to know as much as they can about the audience, they need to know what they
think in order to change it. They also use evaluative research to find out if they
really achieved their goals and objectives. Due to his ideas about human beings
and the influence of Freud, the leading of this model is Edward L. Bernays.
➔ Two-way symmetrical (This model was developed in the 1960’s and 70’s): ​the
difference with the previous one is the type of persuasion. You also have
persuasion but you have the objective of mutual understanding. Many people say
this is just a utopian model, because it is impossible to get into this two-way
symmetrical model but it is important to try and achieve it as the final
destination. The main purpose is mutual understanding, that is to say that the
company has the same chances to change the way they think than consumers
do. You have to people negotiating and you have to build and maintain that
understanding; that means that at the end of the process of communication both
the publics and organizations have the same opportunity to change. That means
that we can no longer talk about sender and receiver rather groups that are
focused in exchanging information in a constant way. So, we have a balanced
situation. They use research for formative, to know the customers needs and
 opinions, because the main goal is mutual understanding. About leading
historical figures Grunig and Hunt believed that Bernays was the leading figure,
which is a big mistake because Bernays never changed the way he thought.
It is not 100% ideal to use the two-way models all the time

One more important thing related to the models is that if we are considering the last
one, they really thought that although organizations might have different goals;
everytime they act, they change something in the environment and at the same time
anything that happens in the environment may include a change in the organization.
This is related to the systems perspective.

The two way-symmetrical model and the practice of PR.

The ‘‘dominant coalition’​’ (Grunig & Hunt) - a group of people that rules your
corporation, the board of directors.
- Organizations have many goals and those goals change as the environment
changes (system theory)
- It is then important to know who determines the organization’s goals
- Organizations have several constituencies/interest groups both inside and
outside
- Those constituencies with the most power both inside and outside the
organization make up ‘‘the ​dominant coalition​’’ of the organization.
- PR people generally to not have the freedom to behave as professionals unless
they are part of the ​dominant coalition​.
PR people should be part of the dominant coalition. Why? due to the systems theory.

Situational theory of publics

For the first time after Bernays they try to explain why publics should be important for a
corporation. Since Edward Bernays no one else had explained anything about the
concept of publics

On the concept of “publics” ​Influences (Grunig and Hunt)

John Dewey (philosopher): ​has a direct influence on Grunig and Hunt theory of publics
Human beings are best understood in relation to their environment
“An active social unit consisting of all those affected who recognize a common
problem for which they can seek common solutions”
Herbert Blumer (sociologist)
Symbolic interactionism: meaning is central is human behaviour. What you do
should have specific meaning for you.
Individual actors regulate their behaviour based on the meaning they attribute to
objects and symbols in their relevant situation.
With these two ideas in mind, then they define what a public is in PR.

What is a public? ​(Grunig):

“Groups of people affected by organisational behaviour and groups of people who affect
organizational behaviour.”
These definition has a lot of connotations, because of how different it is from Bernays, it
is rather rational. People can change how they think and act towards a corporation,
which means you are giving them the same intellectual capacity as a PR expert. We have
4 models and 4 different types of publics.
First, of all this type of public is situational, meaning that depending on the situation a
public can change. For example, in Pamplona’s city hall, you can have different publics if
they decide to build a new parking in Plaza del Castillo, the public affected in Plaza del
Castillo are completely different that if they were to build it in Iturrama.

FOUR TYPES OF PUBLICS

1. Non public: a group of people who does not face a problem or is not affected by
an organization behaviour (or vice versa). The organization have no
consequences on the group or the group doesn’t have a consequence on the
organization.
They were trying to criticize organizations that spend a lot of money and human
resources on public that aren’t relevant and mean nothing for the corporation.
2. Latent public: when the members of a group face a similar problem created by
organizational consequences but do not detect the problem.
They are affected but still not aware of a problem.
They are relevant for organizations because, for example, in a crisis you have to take the
lead and reach them and provide the information for them. It is always better for you to
be the first one to reach them, instead than the media, the impression is different.
3. Aware public: ​when the members of a group face a similar problem created by
organizational consequences and they recognize they are somehow affected by a
problem situation shared by others… but have not communicated about it with
others.
4. Active public: they decide to do something. When the members of a group face a
similar problem created by organizational consequences, detect the problem and
they organize to discuss and do something about the problem.

Groups of people can become part of different categories. For example, latent publics
that become informed of the situation they become aware public and if this situation
changes through time and they organize themselves to do something the group
becomes an active public.
Is this theory of publics that important?
No, because it is not very pragmatic to organize them in this way. But it is important
because it is important to know they exist and communicate with them in different ways.
You communicate based and construct messages based on their feelings. And it is
important because we have something completely different than Bernays. The
differences are that, first of all, you cannot reach your audiences in the same way every
single time because people change. Also, Bernays had an irrational ideas of public in
this case the intellectual capacity is equaled, the PR person and public are equally
capable. People can go to their environment as well as the PR counsel and they can find
the information, analyze it, and act based on what they discover. That something that
nobody had explained until that moment.
Differences: Bernays people are an irrational mass and do not have the same rational
capacity because the world is to complex for them. For Grunig & Hunt the intellectual
capacity of the PR counsel and the public is equal; they are able to collect information,
analyze information, decide upon the information collected and organize themselves
with other people in order to act.

What are ‘‘stakeholders’’?​ (Freeman, 1984)

“Any ​group or individual ​who can ​affect or is affected by the achievement of the
organization’s objectives.”
It is exactly the same idea; this is the reason why you can interchange the term publics
and stakeholders.
By interacting with their stakeholders and societal context, organisations are able to establish
their ​(social) responsibility ​system, enforced in part through laws and regulations but also
increasingly voluntarily through company codes and business principles (​societal demands and
expectations​ from people affected by organization’s actions).

Nowadays PR and Marketing have become equal and the function organizing marketing
and PR is Corporate Communication.
As a conclusion of this lesson about PR, keep in mind that PR as we have explained it is
not a one-way communication process, it is a two-way communication process. Why?
because in the short-term you exchange information and in the short term PR looks for
active participation from the recipient, from the public. The thing here is that in that in
the long-term, PR seeks mutual understanding so this means that PR leaves intellectual
freedom to the recipients. When you persuade yo leave intellectual freedom so they can
adjust their own criteria, if you are manipulating people you are not practicing PR
anymore.

“You must live for another if your wish to live for yourself.” -Seneca (I a.C.) ​(Related to PR
and corporate communication).

LESSON 5
After today’s class you will be able to:
1. Define# Corporate Communication
2. Understand the differences between corporate i# dentity, image​ and​ reputation
3. Distinguish between ​corporate ​and ​advocacy ​advertising
Corporate communication
‘‘Buy the truth, and sell it not’’ Proverbs, 23:23
Once you have the truth, hold on to it and
do not let it go.
1. Definition
What is ​a corporation​/an ​institution​?
No need to study this definition: ‘‘A ​structured human organization (company, business,
public, or private firm) that is formed for a ​particular purpose within a given ​community
to which they provide ​cohesion​ and ​paradigm​.’’
An institution is a broader concept than a corporation. Every corporation has a social
role to play.
What is ​‘‘corporate’’/institutional communication?​ ​(Cornelissen, 2011)
“A management function that offers a framework for the effective ​coordination ​of all
internal and external communication with the overall purpose of ​establishing and
maintaining favourable reputations with ​stakeholder groups upon which the
organization is dependant.”
Corporate communication is complex in nature and you need a communication
integrated approach; you need to manage communication effectively and it also means
that communication is dependant on other areas of your organization, and also all of
the other areas are dependant on the communication.
A general principle for “corporate” / institutional communication:
➔ Corporate or institutional communication needs to link ​corporate identity (​what
the institution really is​) and its ​image (​picture of the institution that is presented
to external stakeholders​).
➔ FINAL RESULT: ​coherence between expressed identity and perceived image.
Ex: you have an image of the person sitting next to you but it might not be who they really are.
➔ But… ​Image is not identity​. The first is just a consequence of the latter and of how
it is communicated.
 2. Corporate identity
“It is the ​sum of all factors that define and project ​what an ​organization is and ​where ​it is
going.”
This is quite easy, imagine you proper identity; it shows who you are and where
you are going it is the same for corporations.
ELEMENTS OF INSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY (Institutional identity emerges from):
● The organization’s core​ mission​ and strategic ​vision
● The ​corporate culture
● The organization’s ​communication
1 and 2 usually don’t change overtime, but you can't do a lot in the third one. You can
change the way you express your identity.
a. Advocacy advertising
It is a communication tool. Let’s see an example:

The product that is banned in the US is the chocolate egg. The main goal of this add is
to raise awareness (public information campaigns); they use contrast to create a shock.
The second picture, the book ‘‘The little red riding hood’’ is banned because it contains
alcohol in her basket.
Advocacy ad by Philip Morris Europe S,A. (June 1996) - In a way, the main goals of this ad
is fostering debate.
Abengoa Bioenergía 2008 - they produce bioethanol, they changed this, they started to
get things published by the company.

Definition: “Advertisement or public communications that attempts to influence public

opinion on specific political, economic or social issues’’,
In a way, the corporation is exposing itself, they know that not everybody will agree with
them. But they decided that it is more interesting to let people know that their opinion is
on specific issues. It is very useful when you want to expose your identity as a company.
Especially, for nonprofits, it is a tool they use for good purposes; because for them is
advancing their communication agendas.
But it is not very common that a private company uses advocacy advertising because
they expose themselves. There are times when you have to use it.
The main difference with commercial advertising is that in here you do not have any
product or service emphasized. But rather, you are emphasizing a cause, what we call an
issue. An issue is something that is part of public discussion already in order to promote
debate.
Sometimes you expose those channels to expose what you think about those
controversial issues.
● There is no product or service in play but a cause/issue at the centre of the ad.
● It supports a particular cause, point of view or a matter of public importance or
interest.
The company decides it is much more important to give their particular opinion in a
particular topic. It isn’t that common on private companies. It lets them talk about their
opinion on particular legislation.
The difference with the Diesel, Global Warming Campaign, is that they are showing their
products.

3. Corporate image
Definition: #“It is the​ immediate mental picture ​that audiences have of an organization”.
You like it or you don’t like it; the image can be positive, negative or neutral. You cannot
have an image campaign because it is something that is made up in your stakeholders
mind.
INSTITUTIONAL IMAGE FORMATION PROCESS:
I. Institutional members decide an organization’s identity. - mission, vision and
values
II. Identity is speak through communication policies (or tools such as advocacy or
issues advertising).
III. As a result of communication impacts, an idea about the organization as a whole
exists in the minds of its audiences/publics.
Decide who you are, explain who you are and then with your actions and communication
your audiences decide their posture towards your company. It has to do with the way you
communicate but in the end is the public's who decide how they feel and perceive the
company, you cannot have an image campaign.
Are those stakeholders image important? YES. Images are important, we can see
this through the example of Don Quijote, he had the image that giants were their and he
decided to attack. So actions are decided based on images that people develop.
a. Corporate advertising
Examples
Roca spot Corp Adv 2008 - It was not easy to have a corporate ad for Roca, a company of
bathroom appliances.
BASF 2009 - A chemical company, that produces chemicals that we are not aware are
present in our lives. “We don’t create chemicals, we create chemistry” - we normally don’t
associate chemicals with emotions and experiences.
Elia Group Corporate Video - “Facing all forces of nature, at anytime and anywhere”. A
video with good and strong images, it tells a little storytelling for the company. Belgium
company that operate in Belgium and Germany.

Definition: “​Advertising by an organization ​where the ​company​, rather than its products
or services, is​ emphasized​.”
You can see their products but to emphasize the general view they want to portray. They
show what they want. QUESTION FOR EXAM: Distinguish if it is corporate or advocacy
advertising.
● It is an attempt to ​create a positive public awareness of an organization’s
decisions and/or corporate values, and to improve and ​distinguish it from
competitors​.
EXAM -​ The three important features of corporate advertising:
I. It takes advantages of advertising strengths: the use of persuasion, the control of
the content and the wide circulation. Something you don’t have, for example,
when doing a press release.
II. It is a one way communication process.
III. It disseminates a global perception of an organization; it talks about your
company as a whole it helps you to form you own image of the company. It give
one specific idea.

4. Corporate reputation
Definition: “An individual’s ​collective representation ​of ​past images ​of an organization
(induced through either communication or past experiences) established over time”.
Reputation is about image, but image over time; that is why it is so difficult to have a
positive reputation because it takes many time to build it and one second to break it.

STRONG REPUTATION IS CHARACTERISED BY HIGH LEVELS OF:

I. Visibility:​ issues and themes of the company in all communication actions.
II. Distinctiveness: what makes you different from your competition, your values and
corporate identity.
III. Authenticity: ​how are your values embedded in your company’s behavior
IV. Transparency: how open you are as a company, how much you show of what is
going on inside the company in good and bad moments.
V. Consistency: in a communication way, how much your messages are repeated
over time. A company, that changes a lot the messages and values it
communicates it is not consistent.
Take into consideration that these are features related with communication.
One final idea, is that the core task of corporate communication is therefore building,
maintaining and protecting your company’s reputation. Nowadays this is the core tasks
of corporate communication.

5. Conclusion
THANK YOU!

Group Presentations

Corporate Social Responsibility

1950 - the primary focus business’ responsibility to society
1960 - Events, people and ideas used to characterize the social changes ushered in
during this decade
1970 - traditional management functions when dealing with CSR issues…

CSR is the commitment the business has to behave ethically. One perfect example is the
ESI, a company that designs prototypes. The focus on their employees, customers, civil
society and environment.
Some related terms with CSR: social issue, social cause, sustainable development,
marketing communications, corporate social investment.
Why is it so important? because it gives public image, helps with media coverage,
employee engagement, to attain and retain investors…
81 percent of people want companies to make their CSR public.

Keys to Succeed with a good CSR program:

 ● Make it about your brand
● Give your client numbers
● Make it tangible and realistic

Estamos en un momento más integrado en donde no solo hacer dinero es lo importante.

Hay múltiples responsabilidades que se derivan de la multidimensionalidad de una
empresa. Al hacer un producto hay una cadena de suministros importante que no
podemos dejar a un lado. La empresa se gestiona no para hacer acción social o
marketing con causa, esto tiene que estar en el ADN de la empresa, debe estar presente
en todas las fases de esta cadena. El valor no es solo crearlo para el accionista sino
para todos los grupos de interés de la empresa.

Comunicación interna
Cuando hablamos de comunicación interna lo asemejamos con el sistema nervioso
porque es muy compleja. A partir de los años 70’s las empresas empiezan a crecer y en
los 80’s se vuelven internacionales por lo tanto se vuelven más complejas y la
comunicación interna se hace más necesaria. Un empleado podría tener un impacto en
la comunicación externa y también la comunicación externa puede influir en la interna.
Ascendente, descendente y horizontal que es entre departamentos