An Introduction to Public Opinion.

^^1&>K isfeS'-i^rlJli** ''yi^nh^'*^,' relations goes much deeper than many current treatises on profes- sional and corporate etiquette would suggest.In my opinion the ^Superior numbers refer to numbered notes beginning on page 143. 1 An Introduction to Public Opinion prevailing interest in public relations will continue and increase, for it epitomizes one of the fundamental problems of our times.Public relations may be defined as_those_ aspects of our personal and corporate behavior which have a social rather than a purely private and personal significance.The increasing importance of public relations is due primarily to the increasing number of personal and corporate activities which do have this social and public signifi- cance.Personal freedom is rapidly assuming a new meaning in the face of widespread technological and cultural transformations.To define public relations is to define private relations, to draw a line between personal freedom and social responsibility.Such a line can never be static.It is a moving line that must be redrawn continually as conditions change.All that we can reasonably attempt to do is to draw the line as of today.We cannot see far into the future.In order to draw the line today, however, it will be useful to take stock of the immediate past to find out why this problem of public relations has become such an important, vital phase of our social, political, and economic life.In defining public relations as "tliose^aspectspf_piir personal and corporate behavior which have a social rather than a purely private and personal significance" I am aware that I may be taking liberties with a concept that has different meanings for many students of the subject.The origin of the term is shrouded in mystery.It certainly was employed in somewhat its current connotation during the early years of the present century.I have in my possession an address de- livered by an executive of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1906 on the subject "The Public Relations Problem of the Railroads."And it is worthy of note that public utilities were among the first, ap- parendy, to give attention to the problem.Frequent references are made, for example, to the early efforts of the Bell Telephone System in the public-relations field.^Andthis is not surprising, because the Bell Telephone System, as well as railroads and other economic units "affected with the public interest," were among the first to feel the necessity of redefining economic freedom in terms of growing social responsibilities.The officials of the Bell Telephone System realized, even at a time when some prominent officials in steel and other manufacturing industries were pursuing a policy of "the public be damned," that the social effects of their business operations made it What Are Public Relations? 3 impossible for them to define their own personal freedom in such language.Before reviewing the important developments of the recent past that have given rise to current interest in the subject of public rela- tions I shall comment on a few definitions of the term in order to underscore the nature of the problem as I see it.One writer has defined public relations as "the planned presentation of your point of view in terms that will create public understanding and win public acceptance."^Ofa similar character are these definitions: "By public relations is meant the art of tempering the mental attitude of humanity in general towards a company, so that its position with the public shall be impregnable,"^or again "the development of cordial, equitable and, therefore, mutually profitable relations between a business, industry, or organization and the public it serves."""Each of these definitions misses, I believe, an essential point.Public relations as such is not the presentation of a point of view, not the art of tempering mental attitudes, nor the development of cordial and profitable relations.It is not the label for a new technique of propaganda that will necessarily bring fame and fortune to those who use it.J[t,is-simply a name for activities which have a social significance.Our problem in each corporation or industry is to find "^oilt wliarthese activities are, what social effects they have, and, if they are contrary to the public interest, to find ways and means for modifying them so that they will serve the public interest.The public-relations executive is not primarily a press agent or a propa- gandist.He is a student of the social effects of personal and cor- porate conduct who undertakes to use his knowledge so as to mini- mize the harmful consequences of such conduct and to maximize the beneficial effects.Another author has defined public relations as "the name business gives to its recognition of itself as a political entity,"*^and still an- other as "a fundamental attitude of mind-a philosophy of manage- ment-which deliberately and with enlightened selfishness places the broad interest of the customer first in every decision affecting the operation of the business."^Thesedefinitions display a broader and deeper philosophical insight.But public relations is more than a new philosophy of management, a new ism that will serve as an antidote to Communism or Fascism.Public relations simply refers to thoseAn Introduction to Public Opinion For many years the subway system of New York has operated shuttle trains between Times Square and the Grand Central Station.These trains operate today much as they operated when the system was built.At times the congestion at both terminals is indescribable.The foul air, the dust, the poorly constructed platforms, the clangor, noise, and jamming are almost unbelievable.Guards shout, as they have done for decades, "Watch your step," as you leap from plat- form to train.You hold your breath and squeeze into the train on the general theory that there is always room for one more.Only the pressure of steam or forced air could possibly close the doors.No doubt when the shuttle was constructed people using this mode of transportation were more or less satisfied.At any rate, from the operating company's point of view passengers could take it or leave it.The subway was a purely private undertaking, and the company need assume no responsibility for social consequences or public atti- tudes.The management had no public-relations problem.Today the situation has changed, owing in part to the growth in population; to an increase in the number of people using this supposed "convenience"; to the fact that people in New York have become more articulate politically, perhaps, but owing especially to the fact that people have come to expect more from transportation agencies than simply a piece of rolling stock that rolls between two terminals.They have been educated to demand more.The situation has become a public-relations problem.This is only one instance which illustrates the interaction of forces bringing about a changing concept of personal freedom and public relations.The development and improvement of agencies of mass impres- sion may also be cited as a reason for the increasing significance of public relations.Although journalism in a crude state came to this country with the early colonists, it was not until after the close of the Revolution that a daily paper was published in this country.For many years thereafter circulation figures were extremely modest.In spite of improved methods of news-gathering, typesetting, printing, financing, and distribution, it was not until the last few decades of the nineteenth century that newspapers with a daily circulation of over a million copies were possible.The advent of motion pictures and radio broadcasting is largely the story of the last twenty years.Radio communication prior to the What Are Public Relations?9 World War was used chiefly for maritime and experimental pur- poses.The first real broadcast in this country did not occur until 1920.However, after the creation of the Radio Corporation of America in 1919 and subsequent improvements in sending and re- ceiving apparatus, the growth of radio was phenomenal.Today nearly three-fourths of the families in the United States own radio sets, and it is estimated that broadcasting stations have a daily audi- ence of more than thirty-seven millions.The tempo of technological changes in this field may even be accelerated now that television and facsimile transmission have become realities.And so with the motion picture, which really started its dramatic career during the last years of the nineteenth century.It was not until after the World War, however, that its possibilities as an agency of mass impression began to be realized.In fact these possibilities were definitely restricted until after the invention of sound-recording de- vices and the installation of talking pictures in theatres throughout the country, beginning in 1928.Technical improvements in means of communication have produced marked effects upon the scope of public relations.They have greatly enlarged the size of publics.They have increased the power and influence of those in a position to control and use these instru- ments and, at the same time, have weakened the relative influence of those who do not have access to them.We have to do not only with larger, better-informed, and more responsible publics.We also deal with publics whose opinions probably are changing at a rate more rapid than ever before.A mechanized world which enables individuals to establish contact with millions of people simultane- ously is a world in which opinion changes over wide areas are certain to occur more frequently and suddenly.Nationwide hook- ups, feature pictures displayed at the same time throughout the country and over the world, newspapers and magazines with circula- tions in the millions can produce opinion revolutions as different from the slow evolutionary changes of the past as TNT is different from gunpowder.New doctrines and ideologies which in the past could not be brought to the attention of the masses except by a slow process of infiltration can now be broadcast one minute with the expectation that they will take effect the next.A speech by the President, by an An Introduction to Public Opinion industrial or political leader, which formerly would have taken weeks and months to bring to the attention of the bulk of the American people, may now be heard simultaneously by millions and affect the result of an election or the course of international relations the next day.One consequence of this is that individuals are subjected to many more stimuli than formerly, are brought into closer touch with everybody's problems.To their own problems of family and occupa- tional life are added the worries and problems of central Europe, the Orient, Africa, and South America.But this is not all.Almost over night each of us may find himself living in a glass house.The doors of our skeleton closets are thrown wide open.Inquiring reporters and congressional investigating com- mittees stand ready to headline any or all of our activities for the entertainment of curious masses.The press, the radio, and the motion picture have upset traditional notions of privacy and exposed us to the gaze of the multitude.Probably nothing has so profoundly af- fected our traditional freedoms as these developments in the field of communications.In face-to-face communities and groups our friends generally knew us for what we really were and could evaluate our motives and activities in the light of this knowledge.Not so the masses who are incessantly peering at us through the magnified, but sometimes distorted, lenses of journalists, broadcasters, and motion-_picture producers.The concept of public relations in our times has been affected, therefore, by sociological, political, cultural, and technological changes of a fundamental nature.Our personal freedoms have been increasingly circumscribed.Our social responsibilities have expanded and, probably will expand, to what limits no one knows.No better evidence of this can be found than in the economic sphere, where economic forces have step by step vested our personal freedoms with greater and greater social responsibilities.Indications of this are nu- merous: the increasing size of undertakings, the concentration and integration of business units, specialization and division of labor, multiplication and refinement of products, standardization, trade unionism, mass production, and widening of markets.The activities of manufacturers affect directly the welfare of farmers, workers, and the consuming public.