D. Translate the following text from Russian into English

D. Translate the following text from Russian into English.

Вирусный маркетинг  ‒ маркетинговая техника, использующая самих людей для повышения осведомлённости о бренде, товаре либо услуге. В настоящее время, самым распространённым средством вирусного маркетинга является Интернет. Распространение информации идет «вирусным путём»: пользователь (член социальной сети или первоначальный получатель информации) распространяет сообщение через свой круг общения, а те, кто входит в эту группу, распространяют его дальше. При этом информация воспринимается не как реклама, а, скорее, как досуг и развлечение. Аналогия с вирусом проста ‒ человек «заражает» тех, с кем вступает в контакт, те транслируют вирус дальше, только теперь вместо 1 распространителя их становится 10-15. Вирусный маркетинг использует древнейшую привычку людей делиться информацией с окружающими. Суть вирусного маркетинга в том, что пользователи транслируют сообщение, содержащее нужную информацию, добровольно ‒ за счёт того, что она им интересна. Продвижение при помощи вирусного контента может принимать самые различные формы — видео, фото, флеш-игры, даже просто текст (например, анекдоты).

Вирусный маркетинг ‒ это стратегия, при которой товар, услуга или их реклама, так влияют на человека, что он «заражается» идеей распространения определенного контента и сам становится активным ретранслятором.

Термин вирусный маркетинг, как и многое в коммуникационной сфере, появился в США в 1996. Первым это словосочетание в конце 1996 употребил Джеффри Рэйпорт в своей статье The Virus of marketing. Почти все сходятся во мнении, что первым удачным примером использования вирусного маркетинга в Интернете является акция Hotmail, когда к каждому письму, написанному пользователем, присоединялось сообщение компании, призывающее получателей e-mail заводить бесплатную почту на Hotmail’e.

2. Notes

681. 
     I. Multiple Choice
     
682. 
     
     
683. 
     Choose the alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.
     

684. 
     1. _____, otherwise known as Buffalo Bill, employed nine publicity agents.
     

685. 
     a. William F. Cody b. Phineas Taylor Barnum c. Ivy Ledbetter Lee d. Sigmund Freud
     

686. 
     2. How did Ivy Ledbetter Lee help the reputation of the Rockefellers?
     

687. 
     a. he contained the damaging publicity fallout from the violent strike at the Ludlow coal mine b. he urged the family to publicize their many charitable works c. he helped the company improve conditions for workers and kept the union out of the Ludlow mines d. all of the above
     

688. 
     3. Who helped design a campaign for the American Tobacco Company to make smoking more publicly acceptable for women?
     

689. a. Ivy Ledbetter Lee b. Edward Bernays c. P. T. Barnum d. John Burke

     
     
690. 
     
     
691. 
     4. Why was PR one of the few professions accessible to women?
     

692. 
     a. it was a new profession not claimed entirely by men b. women had more respect as lobbyists c. PR was developed during the war, when most men were employed as soldiers d. none of the above
     

693. 
     5. A(n) _______ is any circumstance created for the purpose of gaining coverage in the media.
     

694. 
     a. press agent b. deadhead c. engineering of consent d. pseudo-event
     

695. 
     6. Today there are _______ PR firms in the United States.
     

696. 
     a. 3,000 b. 2,200 c. 100,000 d. 1,500
     

697. 
     7. Burson-Marsteller and Hill and Knowlton are subsidiaries of which multinational ad agency?
     

698. 
     a. WPP b. Ogilvy & Mather c. Weiden & Kennedy d. Time Warner
     

699. 
     8. Which is NOT a specific duty of a PR practitioner?
     
700. 
     
     
701. 
     a. managing client trade shows and conferences b. appearing on news programs c. manufacturing products for clients d. analyzing complex issues and trends that may affect a client's future
     

702. 
     9. _____ are thirty- to ninety-second visual PR stories packaged to mimic the style of a broadcast news report.
     

703. 
     a. Video news releases b. Press releases c. propaganda pieces d. none of the above
     

704. 
     10. An example of a PR special event is _______.
     

705. 
     a. Ralph Nader's book, Unsafe at Any Speed b. Milwaukee's Summerfest c. the Persian Gulf War d. none of the above
     

706. 
     11. Many editors say that more than _____ of their story ideas each day originate with PR people.
     

707. 
     a. one-third b. half c. two-thirds d. none of the above
     

708. 
     12. PR agents sometimes manipulate journalists by _____.
     

709. 
     a. blocking press access to key leaders b. giving information first to journalists who are likely to cast a story in a favorable light c. cutting off a reporter's access to key sources if that journalist has written unfavorably about a client d. all of the above
     

710. 
     13. Which of the following is not a publication about the PR community?
     

711. 
     a. PRSA b. PR Tactics c. PR Week d. PR Watch
     

712. 
     14. _____ publishes investigative reports on the PR industry.
     

713. 
     a. PR Tactics b. Vanity Fair c. PR Watch d. PRSA
     

714. 
     15. What did Exxon do to change its image after the Alaskan oil spill?
     

715. 
     a. tracked public opinion through telephone surveys b. changed the name of its tanker from Valdez to Mediterranean c. immediately responded to the crisis d. none of the above
     

716. 
     16. Examples of pseudo-events are _____.
     
717. 
     
     
718. 
     a. during the 1960s, when antiwar and civil rights protesters began events only once the news media were assembled b. presidential press conferences c. interviews with celebrities d. all of the above
     

719. 
     17. John Burke, who promoted the Buffalo Bill show, was one of the first PR agents _____.
     

720. 
     a. to use a variety of media channels b. to stage events to secure newspaper coverage c. to employ women at a PR firm d. none of the above
     

721. 
     18. _____ was one of the first companies to use government lobbyists.
     

722. 
     a. Chicago Edison b. Illinois Central c. Standard Oil d. American Tobacco Company
     

723. 
     19. _____ taught the first PR class.
     

724. 
     a. Edward Bernays b. John Burke c. P.T. Barnum d. William F. Cody
     

725. 
     20. Today, there are _____ as many women as men in the field of PR.
     
726. 
     
     
727. 
     a. three times b. half c. twice d. one-third
     

728. 
     21. Which of the following is a result of the growth of PR as a course of study in colleges and universities?
     

729. 
     a. many companies now hire their own in-house staffs to handle routine PR tasks b. the PR industry now relies less on the ranks of reporters for its workforce c. PR practitioners feel no need to make an effort to be ethical or responsible d. all of the above
     

730. 
     22. The major duty of the writing and editing division of a PR department or agency is ______.
     

731. 
     a. composing press releases b. conducting focus groups c. speaking on behalf of the client d. cultivating associations with journalists
     
     
732. 
     23. A media-relations specialist _____.
     
733. 
     
     
734. 
     a. speaks on behalf of an organization b. directs reporters to experts who can provide the best or official sources of information c. performs damage control d. all of the above
     
735. 
     24. What is one of the ways PR practitioners try to build relationships between companies and communities?
     

736. 
     a. through activities like plant tours b. by encouraging clients to make charitable donations c. through participation in town parades
     d. all of the above
     

737. 
     25. What was one result of the consumerism movement?
     

738. 
     a. corporations would no longer talk to journalists b. firms paid more attention to customers c. firms cancelled all product and service guarantees d. none of the above
     

739. 
     26. What is one hiring trend between PR and news reporting?
     

740. 
     a. reporters often move into PR b. PR professionals often become reporters c. the news industry is happy to accept reporters back into the fold once they have left for PR d. all of the above
     

741. 
     27. What is one element of economic friction between the news media and PR?
     

742. 
     a. PR firms routinely raid the ranks of reporting for new talent b. PR flacks block press access to key leaders c. PR agents help companies promote as news what otherwise would have been purchased as advertising d. all of the above
     

743. 
     28. What did Johnson & Johnson do to combat negative publicity after someone laced Chicago-area Tylenol bottles with poison, causing seven deaths?
     

744. 
     a. they immediately recalled all capsules b. they set up emergency consumer and health-care professional phone lines c. they organized satellite press conferences to debrief the news media d. all of the above
     
745. 
     29. During the special recall election for governor in California in 2003, ______ steered clear of political journalists and only granted interviews to friendly entertainment media.
     

746. 
     a. Arnold Schwarzenegger b. Gray Davis c. Cruz Bustamente d. Arianna Huffington
     

747. 
     30. John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton are the editors of ______.
     

748. 
     a. PR Week b. PR Watch c. Vanity Fair d. PR Tactics
     

749. 
     II. Summary
     
750. 
     
     
751. 
     Summary 1 Read the summary of the section of Chapter 12 titled "Early developments in public relations" and answer the multiple choice questions that follow.
     
752. 
     
     
753. 
     Early developments in public relations
     
754. 
     During the gradual transformation of society from farm to factory at the beginning of the twentieth century, PR emerged as a profession. This occurred in part because businesses needed to fend off increased scrutiny from muckraking journalists and emerging labor unions. Prior to this time, press agents, or those who sought to advance a client's image through media exposure, were primarily theatrical and were used by people like Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and other individuals who wanted to repair or reshape their reputations.
     
     P.T. Barnum, Buffalo Bill, and the railroads
     
755. 
     Phineas Taylor (P. T.) Barnum was probably the most notorious theatrical agent of the 1800s. He used gross exaggeration, fraudulent stories, and staged events to secure newspaper coverage for his clients, his American Museum, and later, his circus. His best-known acts, including the "midget" General Tom Thumb, Jumbo the Elephant, and Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, became some of the earliest nationally known celebrities because of Barnum's skill in using the media for promotion.
     
756. 
     
     
757. 
     William F. Cody, a former army scout who once killed buffalo for the railroads, promoted himself in his "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders" traveling show. His troupe featured bedouins, cossacks, gauchos, and "cowboys and Indians," recreating gunfights, the Civil War, and battles of the Old West. Cody employed nine publicity agents, led by John Burke. Burke, who promoted this show for its thirty-four-year run, was one of the first PR agents to use a variety of media channels, including promotional newspaper stories, magazine articles and ads, theater marquees, and poster art. Burke and Buffalo Bill shaped many of the lasting myths about rugged American individualism and frontier expansion.

     During the 1800s, railroads employed press agents to win favor in the court of public opinion. Initially, government involvement in railroad development was minimal; however, around 1850, railroads began pushing for federal subsidies. Illinois Central was one of the first companies to use government lobbyists, who argued that railroad service between the North and the South could help prevent a war. The railroads developed some of the earliest publicity tactics to campaign for government support. Their first strategy was to buy favorable news stories through direct bribes. In addition, the railroads engaged in deadheading, or giving reporters free rail passes with the understanding that they would write glowing reports about rail travel. Once the railroads received federal subsidies, they turned their attention to lobbying the government to control rates and reduce competition. Railroad lobbyists argued that federal support would lead to improved service and quality, and these lobbying efforts led to the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act in 1881, which allowed railroads to raise rates and eliminate fare reduction.

     
     
     The modern public relations agent
     
758. 
     Utility companies like Chicago Edison and AT&T also used PR strategies in the late 1800s. In fact, AT&T's PR and lobbying efforts were so effective that they eliminated all telephone competition — with the government's blessing ‒ until the 1980s. However, as PR struggled to become a respected profession, the shady tactics of these late 1800s PR practitioners would haunt the industry. In addition to buying the votes of lawmakers, the utilities hired third-party editorial services, which would send favorable articles to newspapers, and assigned company managers to become leaders in community groups. The utilities also tried to influence textbook authors to write favorable histories. By the early 1900s, muckraking journalists began to investigate these practices, and it became more difficult for large firms to fool the press and mislead the public.
     
759. 
     
     
760. 
     Ivy Ledbetter Lee, considered one of the founders of modern PR, understood these undercurrents of social change and counseled his clients that honesty and directness were better PR devices than the deceptive practices of the 1800s. Lee, a minister's son, opened one of the first New York PR firms. Called "Poison Ivy" by newspaper critics and corporate foes, Lee realized (better than most journalists of his day) that facts were open to various interpretations. He quit his firm in 1906 to work for Pennsylvania Railroad, which wanted him to help downplay unfavorable publicity after a rail accident. Lee suggested (and Penn Railroad followed his advice) that the railroad admit its mistake, vow to do better, and let newspapers in on the story, arguing that an open relationship between the press and business would lead to a more favorable public image. Lee also worked for the Rockefeller family, containing the damaging publicity fallout when fifty-three workers and their family members died during a violent strike at a fuel and iron company in Ludlow, Colorado. Lee helped the company improve conditions for workers, and the publicity campaign kept the union out of the Ludlow coal mines, probably the first use of a PR campaign in a labor-management dispute. Over the years, Lee also helped completely transform the Rockefeller image, urging the family to publicize their many charitable works.
     
761. 
     
     
762. 
     Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, inherited the PR mantle from Ivy Lee. He was the first person to apply the findings of psychology and sociology to the business of public relations, referring to himself as a "public relations counselor." Over the years, he represented such companies as General Electric, the American Tobacco Company, General Motors, and RCA. In addition, he served as an adviser to President Coolidge, helping the president revamp his stiff, formal image. Bernays taught the first PR class (at New York University in 1923) and wrote the field's first textbook, Crystallizing Public Opinion. Both Lee and Bernays thought that public opinion was pliant and not always rational: In the hands of the right experts, leaders, and PR counselors, public opinion was ready for shaping. Bernays termed the shaping of public opinion the "engineering of consent."
     

763. 
     After World War I, Bernays was hired by the American Tobacco Company to design a campaign to make smoking more publicly acceptable for women. Bernays accomplished this by placing women smokers in the New York Easter Parade in 1929, and by labeling cigarettes "torches of freedom" and encouraging women to smoke as a symbol of their newly acquired suffrage and independence from men. Within five weeks of the parade, men-only smoking rooms in New York theaters began opening up to women. Bernays had an active business partner, Doris Fleischman, who later became his wife. She was one of the first women to work in advertising and PR. Because it was a new profession not claimed entirely by men, PR was one of the few professions accessible to women who chose to work outside the home. By 2002, women outnumbered men by more than three to one in the profession.
     
764. 
     
     
765. 
     Pseudo-events and manufacturing news
     
766. 
     Historian Daniel Boorstin, in his influential book The Image, coined the term pseudo-event to describe one of the key contributions of PR and advertising in the twentieth century. A psuedo-event is any circumstance created for the purpose of gaining coverage in the media. If no news media show up, there is no event. Typical pseudo-events include interviews, press conferences, TV and radio talk shows, or any other staged activity aimed at drawing public attention and media coverage. In politics, Theodore Roosevelt's administration held the first presidential press conferences, and in the 1990s, Vice President Al Gore championed White House Internet sites so larger audiences could interact with reporters and leaders during electronic press conferences. Another example of the staging pseudo-events occurred during the 1960s, when antiwar and civil rights protesters began their events only once news media were assembled.

     1. Which of the following strategies did P. T. Barnum use to secure newspaper coverage for his clients?

     
     
767. 
     
     
768. 
     a. gross exaggeration b. fraudulent stories c. staged events d. all of the above
     
769. 
     
     
770. 
     2. Those who seek to advance a client's image through media exposure are also known as _____.
     
771. 
     
     
772. 
     a. press agents b. utility companies c. lobbyists d. none of the above

     3. In hopes of receiving favorable publicity, railroads engaged in _____, or giving reporters free rail passes.

     
     

773. 
     a. pseudo-events b. deadheading c. image-making d. all of the above
     

774. 
     4. _____, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, referred to himself as a "public relations counselor."
     

775. 
     a. "Poison Ivy" Lee b. Doris Fleischman c. Edward Bernays d. Daniel Boorstin
     

776. 
     5. Edward Bernays wrote the first public relations textbook, _____.
     

777. a. Crystallizing Public Opinion b. The Image c. Deadheading d. none of the above

     
     
778. 
     
     
779. 
     Summary 2 Read the summary of the section of Chapter 12 titled "The practice of public relations" and answer the multiple choice questions that follow.
     

780. 
     The practice of public relations
     
781. 
     Today there are twenty-two hundred companies offering PR services in the United States. The study of PR has experienced significant growth in colleges and universities, especially since the 1980s. Because of this growth, the PR industry has relied less on the ranks of reporters for its workforce. The growth of PR education has also spawned new courses in professional ethics and issues management, training future practitioners to be more responsible.
     
782. 
     
     
783. 
     Approaches to organized PR
     
784. 
     In 1998, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) offered this definition of PR: "Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other." To carry out this process, PR follows two main approaches. First, many agencies function as independent companies whose sole job is to provide various clients with PR services. Second, most companies, which may or may not buy the services of independent PR firms, maintain their own in-house staffs to handle routine PR tasks.
     
785. 
     About twenty-two hundred American companies identify themselves exclusively as public relations counseling firms. Two of the biggest are Burson-Marsteller and Hill and Knowlton, both subsidiaries of the WPP Group, a global ad agency. By the late 1990s, most of the largest PR firms were owned by or affiliated with multinational ad agencies. Burson-Marsteller has about 89 offices operating in 35 countries. Among its major clients are Boeing and McDonald's. Hill and Knowlton has 170 offices in 36 countries. Its major clients include Microsoft, Nintendo, and Pepsi. In contrast to these independent agencies, the most common type of PR is done in-house by individual companies and organizations ‒ almost every company involved in a manufacturing or service industry has an in-house department.
     
786. 
     
     

Like advertising, PR pays careful attention to various audiences and clients, including not only consumers and the general public, but company employees, shareholders, media organizations, government agencies, and community and industry leaders. Public relations involves a number of practices and techniques that include publicity, communication, public affairs, issues managements, government relations, financial PR, community relations, media relations, and propaganda. Propaganda is communication strategically placed to gain public support for a special issue, program, or policy, such as a nation's war effort. Some of the specific duties of PR personnel might include producing employee newsletters, managing client trade shows and conferences, conducting historical tours, appearing on news programs, organizing damage control after negative publicity, and analyzing complex issues and trends that may affect a client's future. However, the most basic duties of a PR professional are writing and editing, media relations, special events, research, and community and government relations. PR technicians handle daily short-term activities, and PR managers manage activities over the long term.

787. Chief among the writing and editing duties of a PR professional is composing news releases, or press releases: announcements, written in the style of news reports, that give new information about an individual, company, or organization, and pitch a story idea to the news media. News editors and broadcasters sort through hundreds of these releases, often called handouts, every day to determine which ones will be the most relevant and current for their readers and viewers. The more closely a press release resembles actual news copy, the more likely it is to be used. Since the 1970s, PR agencies have been using video news releases (VNRs), which are thirty- to ninety-second visual PR stories packaged to mimic the style of a broadcast news report. Stations in small TV markets regularly use VNRs from PR agencies; larger stations may use the story idea, but they prefer to assemble their own reports to maintain their independence. Public-service announcements (PSAs) are fifteen- to sixty-second reports or announcements used by nonprofit groups to promote government programs, educational projects, volunteer agencies, or social reform. Broadcasters historically have been encouraged to carry free PSAs. In addition to these types of releases and announcements, the writing and editing part of PR involves creating brochures and catalogues, company newsletters, and annual reports for shareholders.

     
     
788. 
     
     
789. 
     A media-relations specialist speaks on behalf of an organization or directs reporters to experts who can provide the best, or at least official, sources of information. These specialists also perform damage control or crisis management when negative publicity occurs and cultivate associations with editors, reporters, freelance writers, and broadcast news directors to ensure that press releases or VNRs are favorably received. Occasionally, in times of crisis, a PR spokesperson might be designated as the only source of information available to news media. This frustrates journalists, who might try to circumvent the spokesperson and induce a knowledgeable insider to talk off the record, providing details without being named directly as a source.

     Another public relations specialty involves coordinating special events. The Summerfest, a ten-day music and food festival in Milwaukee that attracts nearly a million people each year, is an example of a special event that companies seek to sponsor. More typical of special-events publicity is a corporate sponsor that tries to align its company image with a cause, or an organization that has positive stature among the general public. For example, Mobil Oil has underwritten special PBS programming for more than thirty years.

     
     
     Just as advertising is driven today by demographic and psychographic research, PR uses similar strategies to project a client's image to the appropriate audience. Also like advertising, PR research targets specific audiences, making use of mail and telephone surveys to get a fix on an audience's perceptions of a client's reputation. PR also utilizes focus groups. Though focus groups are often unreliable because of small sample size, they are fairly easy to set up and do not require elaborate statistical designs.
     
790. 
     Companies have learned that sustaining close ties with their neighbors not only enhances their image but promotes the idea that the companies are good citizens. The community and consumer relations activities in PR focus on building relationships between companies and communities through such activities as plant tours, open houses, participation in town parades, and other special events. Many PR firms encourage their clients to make charitable donations to build local bonds. Some companies offer their work sites to local groups for meetings, and others donate equipment and workers to urban revitalization projects such as Habitat for Humanity. PR has become more sophisticated in terms of customer relations since the publication in the 1960s of Ralph Nader's book Unsafe at Any Speed, which revealed safety problems of the Chevrolet Corvair. The book spawned a consumerism movement in which consumers became more sophisticated and unwilling to readily accept the claims of corporate leaders and others in power. The consumerism movement drew the attention of the press, who tracked down the sources of customer complaints and embarrassed the offending companies by putting them in the media spotlight. Firms responded by paying more attention to customers, establishing product and service guarantees, and ensuring that all calls and mail from customers were answered promptly.
     
791. 
     
     
792. 
     Public relations also entails maintaining connections with government agencies that have some say in how companies operate in a particular community, state, or nation. Specialists in this area monitor new and existing legislation, create opportunities to ensure favorable publicity, write press releases and direct-mail letters to inform the public of new regulations, and develop self-regulatory practices that either keep the government at some distance or draw on them for subsidies. Government relations has developed into lobbying at many firms. Lobbying is the process of attempting to influence the voting of lawmakers to support a client's or an organization's best interests. Most major corporations, trade associations, labor unions, consumer groups, professional organizations, religious groups, and foreign governments employ lobbyists. For example, prior to the Persian Gulf War, the Kuwaiti royal family hired Hill and Knowlton to help rally public support for U.S. military intervention. The Chinese government also retained Hill and Knowlton to repair its image after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre that left more than 150 unarmed civilian protesters dead.
     
793. 
     
     
794. 
     1. Two of the biggest public relations agencies are _____ and _____.
     

795. 
     a. General Electric/Kodak b. WPP/AOL c. Burson-Marsteller/Hill and Knowlton d. none of the above
     

796. 
     2. Communication strategically placed to gain public support for a special issue, policy, or program is _____.
     

797. 
     a. propaganda b. a press release c. a public-service announcement (PSA) d. all of the above
     

798. 
     3. Another word for a press release is _____.
     

799. 
     a. public-service announcement b. handout c. damage control d. lobbying

     4. Which of the following does a PR research department do?

     
     
800. 
     
     
801. 
     a. uses mail and telephone surveys to read an audience b. writes press releases c. lobbies to influence lawmakers d. none of the above
     
802. 
     
     
803. 
     5. Why did the Chinese government hire the PR firm Hill and Knowlton?
     

804. 
     a. to lobby the U.S. government b. to combat Ralph Nader's book Unsafe at Any Speed c. to repair its image after the Tiananmen Square massacre d. to help rally public support for U.S. military intervention in the Persian Gulf War
     

805. 
     Summary 3 Read the summaries of the section of Chapter 12 titled "Tensions between public relations and the press" and "Public relations, social responsibility, and democracy" and retell them.
     
806. 
     
     
807. 
     Tensions between public relations and the press
     
808. 
     Public relations, social responsibility, and democracy
     
809. 
     Historically, there has been a great deal of antagonism directed at PR from the journalism profession. Reporters consider themselves part of an older public-service profession, whereas many regard PR as a pseudo-profession created to distort the facts that reporters work to gather. Journalists have even developed a derogatory term for a PR agent ‒ flack ‒ which derives from the military word flak, or the antiaircraft artillery shells fired to deflect aerial attack, and from the related flak jacket, the protective attire worn to ward off enemy fire. The word flack has come to mean PR people who insert themselves between their employers/clients and members of the press. However, though they may deride the PR profession, many editors admit that more than half their story ideas each day originate with PR people.
     
810. 
     
     
811. 
     Elements of professional friction
     
812. 
     Journalism has become increasingly reliant on PR because of the increasing amount of information now available, because of staff cutbacks at many papers, and because of television's need for local newscast events. PR firms routinely raid the ranks of reporting for new talent, since most press releases are written in a style that imitates news reports. It is interesting that while reporters frequently move into PR, public relations practitioners rarely move into journalism, and the news industry does not often accept people back into the fold once they have left reporting for PR.
     
813. 
     
     
814. 
     One element of friction between journalism and PR is the simple notion of facts. PR professionals demonstrated that the same set of facts can be spun a number of ways. Ivy Lee showed that facts and news can be manipulated, and the journalist's role as a custodian of accurate information became more difficult for having to monitor information from PR people. A 2000 survey of PR professionals indicated that 25 percent lie on the job, 39 percent exaggerate the truth, and 44 percent were uncertain of the ethics of the task they were required to perform.
     
815. 
     
     
816. 
     A second element of friction is that sometimes PR people will block press access to key leaders. At one time, reporters could talk to leaders directly to obtain quotes and information for news stories; now, PR people insert themselves between the press and the powerful. If PR agents want to manipulate reporters, they may give information to journalists who are likely to cast a story in a favorable light in return for getting the information first, or (on rare occasions) they may cut off a reporter's access to key sources if that journalist has written unfavorably about a client.
     

817. 
     Yet another element of friction is simple economics. PR agents help companies "promote as news what otherwise would have been purchased as advertising." If PR can secure news stories for their clients, these clients benefit from the added status that a journalistic context confers. Critics worry that PR is taking media space and time away from those who do not have the financial resources or the sophistication to become readily visible in the public eye. However, much of journalism actually functions in the same way ‒ politicians, celebrities, and PR firms with many resources are clearly afforded more coverage by the news media than are their lesser-known counterparts. One example is that most newspapers now have business sections that focus on the work of various managers, but few have labor, worker, or employee sections, and most large papers have eliminated the labor-reporting beat.
     
818. 
     
     
819. 
     Managing the press
     
820. 
     Public relations, by making reporters' jobs easier, has often helped reporters become lazy. Many journalists are content to wait for a PR handout or tip before following up on a story, leaving small community groups, social activists, and nonprofit organizations that cannot afford elaborate publicity out in the cold. In addition, some members of the news media, grateful for the reduced workload that occurs when they are provided with handouts, may be hesitant to criticize a particular PR firm's clients.
     
821. 
     
     
822. 
     To deal with both a tainted past and hostility from journalists, PR has developed several image-enhancing strategies, including the institution of an internal watchdog group, the PRSA. In addition, several independent agencies devoted to uncovering shady or unethical PR activities publish their findings in publications like PR Tactics, PR Week, or PR Watch.
     
823. 
     
     
824. 
     Alternative voices
     
825. 
     Because PR professionals work so closely with the press, their practices are not often the subject of media reports or investigations. However, two investigative reporters who work for the Center for Media and Democracy in Washington, D.C., have sought to expose the hidden activities of large PR firms. John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, editors of PR Watch, publish investigative reports on the PR industry. Stauber and Rampton have also written books targeting PR practices having to do with industrial waste, mad cow disease, and PR uses of scientific research.
     
826. 
     
     
827. 
     Summary 4 Read the summary of the section of Chapter 12 titled "Public relations, social responsibility, and democracy" and answer the multiple choice questions that follow.
     
828. 
     
     
829. 
     Public relations, social responsibility, and democracy
     
830. 
     Though PR may have a better reputation than advertising, a cynical view of the profession still exists beyond the field of journalism. Many citizens think that when a company or individual makes a mistake or misleads the public, too often a PR firm is hired to alter the image rather than admit the misdeed and correct the problem. One example of this is the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the Alaskan coast in 1989 ‒ one of the largest environmental disasters of the twentieth century. Eleven million gallons of crude oil spilled into Prince William Sound, contaminating fifteen hundred miles of coastline and killing countless birds and animals. Exxon was slow to react to the crisis, even though its PR advisers encouraged a quick response. They did not even send a corporate officer to the scene to assess the damage. Many people thought Exxon was trying to duck responsibility by blaming the whole incident on the captain of the tanker. To alter the image of the tanker, Exxon changed the name from Valdez to Mediterranean in the 1990s.
     
831. 
     
     
832. 
     Johnson & Johnson took a different approach after seven people died in the Chicago area when someone tampered with several bottles of Tylenol and laced them with poison. The company, advised by its PR agency, opted for full disclosure to the media and the immediate recall of the capsules nationally. After the capsule recall, Tylenol's market share was cut in half. To overcome the negative publicity, Burson-Marsteller, the PR agency handling the case, tracked public opinion through telephone surveys, organized satellite press conferences to debrief the news media, and set up emergency phone lines to take calls from consumers and health-care providers. The company reintroduced Tylenol three months later with a tamper-resistant bottle that was soon copied by almost every major drug manufacturer. Burson-Marsteller found that the public thought Johnson & Johnson had acted responsibly and did not hold Tylenol responsible for the deaths. In less than three years, Tylenol recaptured its former share of the market.
     

833. 
     In terms of its immediate impact on democracy, PR is at its height during national election campaigns. Organizations hire spin doctors to favorably shape or reshape a candidate's media image. Arnold Schwarzenegger used the media during the special recall election for California governor by avoiding tough interviews with political journalists and instead granting interviews with friendly entertainment media. By doing this, his advisers shielded him from the difficult policy questions of political reporters.
     

834. 
     Like other forms of commercial speech, there are many concerns regarding how PR affects democracy and the expression of ideas. Large PR agencies have money to invest to figure out how to obtain favorable publicity. The question is not how to prevent that but how to ensure that less well-financed voices receive an equal or adequate hearing. Journalists need to be less willing conduits in the distribution of publicity, and PR agencies need to show clients that participating in the democratic process as responsible citizens can serve them well and enhance their image.
     

835. 
     1. What is the derogatory term journalists use for a PR agent?
     

836. a. jacket b. flack c. enemy d. none of the above

     
     
837. 
     
     
838. 
     2. Why have journalists become increasingly reliant on PR?
     

839. 
     a. because of the increasing amount of information available b. because of staff cutbacks at many papers c. because of television's need for local newscast events d. all of the above
     

840. 
     3. A 2000 survey of PR professionals indicated that _____ percent lie on the job.
     

841. 
     a. 50 b. 5 c. 25 d. 15
     

842. 
     4. The internal watchdog group of PR is the _____.
     

843. 
     a. AEJMC b. PRSA c. PR Watch d. NRA
     

844. 
     5. What company opted for full disclosure to the media when facing negative publicity?
     

845. 
     a. Exxon b. General Electric c. Johnson & Johnson d. none of the above
     

846. 
     III. Text reviewing
     
847. 
     
     
848. 
     Review the sections "Early developments in public relations", "The practice of public relations", "Tensions between public relations and the press" and "Public relations, social responsibility, and democracy" in your textbook. When you are ready, write a brief paragraph-length response to each of the questions that follow.
     

1. 
   Describe some of the strategies used by railroads in the 1800s to garner publicity.
   Define and give examples of a pseudo-event.
   
2. 
   Describe the function of a media-relations specialist.
   
3. 
   Describe the consumerism movement and the ways in which firms and corporations responded.
   
4. 
   Describe at least two of the elements of friction between journalism and PR.
   Describe the impact of PR on democracy through politics.
   

2. How have public relations and news releases affected journalism?

1. What PR disaster does this photo represent?

1. Describe the Exxon Valdez oil spill and Exxon's response from a PR perspective.

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