Public opinion; Public relations; Publicity; Social psychology
Advertising controls the amount of physical space it occupies before
the public eye. Advertising’s dimensional qualities give it a facile
flexibility that can be extended or limited at will. In a sense, too,
this quality gives the special leader the opportunity to select his
audience and to give them his message directly.
The field of coöperative advertising by combinations of advertisers in
the same business or profession, by governments or their subdivisions,
for one reason or another, is open to future possibilities.
The stage offers an avenue of approach to the public which must be
regarded both from the standpoint of the numbers of individuals it
reaches as well as from the circles of influence it creates by word
of mouth and otherwise. To the public relations counsel therefore it
offers a wide field.
Through coöperation with playwrights or managers, ideas can be given
currency on the stage. When they can be translated to the action that
takes place upon a stage, they are given emphasis by the visual and
auditory presentation.
The motion picture falls into two fields for the purposes of the public
relations counsel. There is the field of the feature film. Here any
direct utilization of the public relations counsel’s ideas must come
indirectly and be taken by the producer of the film from some of the
other organs of thought communication. The producer may adopt for the
subject of a film some idea which the public relations counsel has
agitated. The film, for instance, dealing with the drug traffic came
very definitely as a result of the work carried on to help relieve the
drug evil.
The second field is one the public relations counsel can employ more
directly. Educational films are made to order to-day to illustrate
specific points for public consumption, from showing how a product is
made to showing the necessity for subway relief in a big city. These
films are usually shown before a special group audience arranged for
by the public relations counsel or before some other group interested
in the idea the particular film stands for. Thus a Chamber of
Commerce can further a film having to do with the need for better port
facilities.
One phase of this kind of film is the news reel which, controlled by a
private organization, films events and occasions which may have been
created by the public relations counsel, but which carries because of
its value in the competitive market of events.
Word of mouth is an important medium to be considered. Ideas and facts
can be given currency by word of mouth. Here group leaders are strong
factors in giving currency to ideas. The public relations counsel often
communicates the ideas he wishes to promulgate to group leaders whose
espousal of the idea he wishes to obtain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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