Most textbooks date the establishment of the "Publicity Bureau" in 1900 as the start of the modern public relations (PR) profession. Of course, there were many early forms of public influence and communications management in history. Basil Clarke is considered the founder of the PR profession in Britain with his establishment of Editorial Services in 1924. Academic Noel Turnball points out that systematic PR was employed in Britain first by religious evangelicals and Victorian reformers, especially opponents of slavery. In each case the early promoters focused on their particular movement and were not for hire more generally.
Propaganda was used by both sides to rally domestic support and demonize enemies during the First World War. PR activists entered the private sector in the 1920s. Public relations became established first in the U.S. by Ivy Lee or Edward Bernays, then spread internationally. Many American companies with PR departments spread the practice to Europe after 1948 when they created European subsidiaries as a result of the Marshall Plan.
The second half of the twentieth century was the professional development building era of public relations. Trade associations, PR news magazines, international PR agencies, and academic principles for the profession were established. In the early 2000s, press release services began offering social media press releases. The Cluetrain Manifesto, which predicted the impact of social media in 1999, was controversial in its time, but by 2006, the effect of social media and new internet technologies became broadly accepted.
Ancient origins
Although the term "public relations" was not yet developed, academics like James E. Grunig and Scott Cutlip identified early forms of public influence and communications management in ancient civilizations. According to Edward Bernays, one of the pioneers of PR, "The three main elements of public relations are practically as old as society: informing people, persuading people, or integrating people with people." Scott Cutlip said historic events have been defined as PR retrospectively, "a decision with which many may quarrel."
A clay tablet found in ancient Iraq that promoted more advanced agricultural techniques is sometimes considered the first known example of public relations. Babylonian, Egyptian and Persian leaders created pyramids, obelisks and statues to promote their divine right to lead. Additionally, claims of magic or religious authority were used to persuade the public of a king or pharaoh's right to rule.
Ancient Greek cities produced sophisticated rhetoric, as analyzed by Isocrates, Plato and Aristotle. In Greece there were advocates for hire called "sophists". Plato and others said sophists were dishonest and misled the public, while the book "Public Relations as Communication Management" said they were "largely an ethical lot" that "used the principles of persuasive communication." In Egypt court advisers consulted pharaohs to speak honestly and scribes documented a pharaoh's deeds. In Rome, Julius Caesar wrote the first campaign biography promoting his military successes. He also commissioned newsletters and poems to support his political position. In medieval Europe, craftsmen organized into guilds that managed their collective reputation. In England, Lord Chancellors acted as mediators between rulers and subjects.
Pope Urban II's recruitment for the crusades is also sometimes referred to as a public relations effort. Pope Gregory XV founded the term "propaganda" when he created Congregatio de Propaganda ("congregation for propagating the faith"), which used trained missionaries to spread Christianity. The term did not carry negative connotations until it was associated with government publicity around World War II. In the early 1200s, Magna Carta was created as a result of Stephen Langton lobbying English barons to insist King John recognize the authority of the church.
Antecedents
Explorers like Magellan, Columbus used exaggerated claims of grandeur to entice settlers to come to the New World. For example, in 1598, a desolate swampy area of Virginia was described by Captain Arthur Barlowe as follows: "The soil is the most plentiful, sweet, fruitful and wholesome of all the world." When colonists wrote back to Europe about the hardships of colonizing Virginia, including the death toll caused by conflicts with Indians, pamphlets with anonymous authors were circulated to reassure potential settlers and rebuke criticisms.
The first newsletter and the first daily newspaper were founded in Germany in 1609 and 1615 respectively. Cardinal Richelieu of France had pamphlets made that supported his policies and attacked his political opposition. The government also created a publicity bureau called Information and Propaganda and a weekly newspaper originally controlled by the French government, The Gazette. In the mid-1600s both sides of the English Civil War conflict used pamphlets to attack or defend the monarchy respectively. Poet John Milton wrote anonymous pamphlets advocating for ideas such as liberalizing divorce, the establishment of a republic and the importance of free speech. A then-anonymous pamphlet in 1738 by Maria Theresa of the Austrian Empire was influential in criticizing the freemasons and advocating for an alliance between the British, Dutch and Austrian governments.
In 1641, Harvard University sent three preachers to England to raise money for missionary activities among the Indians. To support the fund-raising, the university produced one of the earliest fund-raising brochures, New England's First Fruits. An early version of the press release was used when King's College (now Columbia University), sent out an announcement of its 1758 graduation ceremonies and several newspapers printed the information. Princeton University was the first university to make it a routine practice of supplying newspapers with information about activities at the college.
According to Noel Turnbull, an adjunct professor from RMIT University, more systematic forms of PR began as the public started organizing for social and political movements. The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was established in England in 1787. It published books, posters and hosted public lectures in England advocating against slavery. Industries that relied on slavery attempted to persuade the middle-class that it was necessary and that slaves had humane living conditions. The Slave Trade was abolished in 1807. In the U.S., the movement to abolish slavery began in 1833 with the establishment of the American Anti-Slavery Society, using tactics adopted from the British abolitionist movement. According to Edward Bernays, the U.S. abolitionist movement used "every available device of communication, appeal and action," such as petitions, pamphlets, political lobbying, local societies, and boycotts. The South responded by defending slavery on the basis of economics, religion and the constitution. In some cases propaganda promoting the abolition of slavery was forbidden in The South and abolitionists were killed or jailed. Public relations also played a role in abolitionist movements in France, Australia and in Europe.
The Boston Tea Party has been called a "public relations event" or pseudo event, in that it was a staged event intended to influence the public. Pamphlets such as Common Sense (1775–76) and The American Crisis (1776 to 1783) were used to spread anti-British propaganda in the United States, as well as the slogan "taxation without representation is tyranny." After the revolution was won, disagreements broke out regarding the United States Constitution. Supporters of the constitution sent letters now called the Federalist Papers to major news outlets, which helped persuade the public to support the constitution. Exaggerated stories of Davy Crockett and the California Gold Rush were used to persuade the public to fight the Mexican–American War and to migrate west in the U.S. respectively.
Author Marvin Olasky said public relations in the 1800s was spontaneous and de-centralized. In the 1820s, Americans wanted to disprove the perspective of French aristocrats that the American democracy run by "the mob" had "no sense of history, no sense of gratitude to those who had served it, and no sense of the meaning of 'virtue'". To combat this perception, French aristocrat Marquis de Lafayette, who helped fund the American Revolution, was invited to a tour of the United States. Each community he visited created a committee to welcome him and promote his visit. In the mid-1800s P. T. Barnum founded the American Museum and the Barnum and Bailey Circus. He became well known for publicizing his circus using manipulative techniques. For example, he announced that his museum would exhibit a 161-year-old woman, who had been Washington's nurse, then produced an elderly woman and a forged birth certificate.
In the 1860s, the major railway companies building the Transcontinental Railroad (Central Pacific Railroad in Sacramento, California, and the Union Pacific Railroad in New York City) engaged in "sophisticated and systematic corporate public relations" in order to raise $125 million needed to construct the 1,776-mile-long railroad. To raise the money, the companies needed to maintain "an image attractive to potential bond buyers, [and maintain relationships] with members of Congress, the California state legislature, and federal regulators; with workers and potential workers; and with journalists."Leland K. Wood, "When the Locomotive Puffs: Corporate Public Relations of the First Transcontinental Railroad Builders" (PhD dissertation, Journalism, Ohio State U. 2009) online .
Early environmental campaigning groups like the Coal Abatement Society and the Congo Reform Association were formed in the late-1800s. In the late 1800s many of the now-standard practices of media relations, such as conducting interviews and press conferences emerged. Industrial firms began to promote their public image. The German steel and armaments company Krupp created the first corporate press department in 1870 to write articles, brochures and other communications advertising the firm. The first US corporate PR department was established in 1889 by Westinghouse Electric Corporation.Reddi (2010). Effective Public Relations And Media Strategy. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. pp. 53. Retrieved February 11, 2013. "The first public relations department was created by the inventor and industrialist George Westinghouse in 1889 when he hired two men to publicize his pet project, alternating current (AC) electricity." The first appearance of the term "public relations" was in the 1897 Year Book of Railway Literature."1897 American Journalism's Exceptional Year." 1897 American Journalism's Exceptional Year. N.p., n.d. Web. April 22, 2013.
Origins as a profession