Public Relations and Public Affairs from a European Perspective

1. Public Relations and Public Affairs from a European Perspective Instructor: Richard Bailey

2. Bled Manifesto • ‘Most academics on public relations believe that public relations is a cultural construct. Although it is impossible to see Europe as one cultural and political system, it can clearly be differentiated from USA.’ (p1) • ‘In 1998,we started the debate to answer the question whether public relations is just an Anglo-American concept or whether there is (also) a European authenticity of public relations.’ (p1)

3. Bled Manifesto • The German term for “public relations” is “Öffentlichkeitsarbeit”, which literally means “public work” and is explained as “working in public, with the public and for the public.” (Nessmann, 2000). • This denomination contradicts the mainstream (U.S.) understanding of public relations as management of relationships between an organization and its publics. (p4) • “Öffentlichkeit” does not mean “public” - it means “public sphere” and by equating “public” with “öffentlichkeit”, “an analytic dimension is lost, namely that an essential aspect of public relations is that it is concerned with issues and values that are considered publicly relevant which means relating to the public sphere” as Jensen (2000) from Denmark argues.

4. Bled Manifesto • Their [European academics’] reasoning is that public relations is not only about relations with the public, but it is relations in the public (sphere) and for the public (sphere). (p4) • Here public relations serves the same kind of democratic function as journalism does and they are both contributing to a free flow of information and to the development of the public sphere both in size (“How many people are involved in public life?”) and in level (“What is the level at which we are discussing public matters?”). (p5)

5. Bled Manifesto • We, therefore, believe that we must globalize the discussion on the fundamentals of public relations and start a true dialogue between continents in order to learn from each other. We therefore need to introduce alternative ways of thinking of public relations into our international handbooks, related to cultural differences and different theoretical approaches. But we also need to discuss used terms and theoretical approaches to the different terms in order to develop a global language. (p5)

6. Bled Manifesto • However, it is obvious that in European countries neither practice nor science is very interested in theory development in public relations. We believe that this is partly due to the fact that the concept of public relations is reduced to a professional function in and for organizations. (p12) • It is taught in a variety of faculties from business to agriculture. It usually goes under the name of corporate communication, integrated communication (often in relation to advertising), communication management or information studies, but also under other names. (p12)

7. Bled Manifesto • We assume that the deans of European universities do not see public relations as an interesting theoretical field, not at a management level nor at an organizational/societal level. (p12) • It is obvious that public relations is not (yet) developed into a research field or a teaching field at high level. We believe that this has to do with a lack of identity of public relations. It used to be studied as a phenomenon in society but practice and education are more interested in public relations as an instrument for the benefit of an organization. (p13)

8. Towards a definition • “PR is the (maintenance of) relationships (with) publics (by) communication (in order to) establish mutual understanding”. (p13) • This is a very common, Anglo-American grounded, definition of public relations, found in many textbooks and delivered by many national associations. (p13) • According to statements from several European countries, like Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, it seems to be questionable whether public relations is seen just as maintaining relationships with certain public groups or is (also) seen in Europe as the public relationship any organization has with “society” and the “license to operate” any organization needs (see Jensen, 2000; Ronneberger& Rühl, 1992). (p15)

9. Bled Manifesto • ...Public relations is not just a phenomenon to be described and defined. It is first of all a strategic process of viewing an organization from an “outside” view. Its primary concerns are organization’s inclusiveness and its preservation of the “license to operate”. As marketing is viewing organization from a market view, public relations is viewing [the] organization from a public view (meant as “public sphere”). We, therefore, like to broaden the relational and communicative approaches to public relations with or into a public or reflective approach of which the relational and communicative approaches of public relations can be seen as parts. (p16)