Critical Evaluation Essay: Edward Barneys and Modern Public Relations

This essay provides a comprehensive critical evaluation of Edward Bernays, often hailed as the "Father of Public Relations," and his significant contributions to the development of modern public relations. The essay explores Bernays' pioneering work in applying social science principles, psychology, and scientific research to shape public opinion, analyzing his innovative techniques such as endorsements from experts and celebrities, and the use of various media outlets. It discusses his seminal books, including "Crystallizing Public Opinion" and "Propaganda," and highlights his role in transforming press agentry into a sophisticated, science-based practice. The essay examines the evolution of public relations strategies, the impact of the industrial revolution, and the importance of ethical considerations in the field. It also delves into Bernays' influence on various PR models, including symmetrical and asymmetrical approaches, and his understanding of public relations as a vital component of environment and culture. The essay concludes by emphasizing the lasting impact of Bernays' ideas on modern public relations, including his emphasis on building relationships, managing communication, and the importance of ethics and credibility in the profession. The essay highlights the importance of PR for business and overall growth.

Critical Evaluation Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Discussion and critical evaluation of Barneys' role in history as well as development of
modern public relation along with veracity of claims.................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Public relation is a planned as well as sustained effort for establishing along with
maintaining mutual understanding within individual, organisation and public (Alaimo, 2016). It
is required for communicating essential information in all sectors related to academics, business,
not for profit, government and many more. It is an art to mention details to person, company as
well as other organisations by using media, newspapers, television and so on. This report
includes brief discussion about Edward Barneys and public relation. It further includes
evaluation of Barneys' role in the history and development of modern public relation and veracity
of claims.
MAIN BODY
Discussion and critical evaluation of Barneys' role in history as well as development of modern
public relation along with veracity of claims.
Edward Barneys known as “Father of public Relations” was pioneer American-Australian
publicist born on November 22, 1891 at Vienna, Austria. He was named among the top 100
American influential (Barneys, 1945). He helped in the transformation of crafting press agentry
with sophisticated social science. Edward played important role in arranging publication for
United State and wrote seminal book on the topic public relation which is known by
“Crystallizing Public opinion”. During professional lifetime of such person, public relation
became multibillion-dollar business. By using surveys, psychology, scientific research and
skilled practitioners helped in increasing, moulding as well as shaping public opinion. He
adopted various methods which were uncomplicated and helped distinct people to learn the ways
related to what to wear, how to great clients, how to behave by creating various circumstances
which later resulted in application of science. The public relation consultant once organised
campaign related to letter writing for the purpose of persuading state literature for authorizing
sale at grocery stores and within the time period legislatures achieved the objectives. The famous
books written by him are “Propaganda" (1928), "Public Relations - A Growing Profession"
(1945), "Biography of an Idea: Memoirs of Public Relations Counsel Edward L. Barneys"
(1965), “Public Relation” (1952) and so on. After World War I, he along with his wife opened
their own public relation office. He was famous for public relation pioneer and his influences
have changed persuasion tactics which were used in campaigns related to political campaigns as
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well as campaign advertising. He successfully developed various techniques in order to influence
public opinions. Barneys have helped in shaping public relation by sup[porting usage of
endorsements from doctors, leaders, experts and celebrities for strengthening clients arguments.
Various changes espoused by him left long lasting effects. According to the article, various s
technologies such as steam engine, multiple press as well as public schools have provided
powers to general public (Greene, 2015). Bernays had understood the importance of such
technologies and noted destabilizing impacts which were due to adopting of new technologies.
They disrupted old orders and lead to put in grave by implementing similar ones. Steam engine
was one of the technology which had great impact on industrial revolution. It was used at various
places to connect with people. Multiple press was another medium which involved multiple
people to share information. Public relation programmes targets various audiences and uses such
technique to share information with audiences. Various media outlets are adopted and covers
relevant story rather than engaging stakeholders or public. Public schools are secondary schools
which are supported by public funds.
Edward Barneys has played important role in history as well as development of modern
public relation. He had grander vision who tried to put such profession on scientific footing by
applying various lessons learnt from Sigmund Freud. Propaganda was used during first world
war in order to rally domestic support as well as demonizing enemies (The Age of Utopia, 2019).
In 1900s, publicity bureau was established which acted as the start of profession related to
modern public relation. In historical times, there were many forms to influence public as well as
managing communication. He invented the profession of public relations in 1920s. In the year
1923, “Crystallizing Public Opinion” was published which includes several principles related to
public relations. Public relations were traced back in United States to less illustrious starting then
there was creation of new democratic republic. Activities related to public relations became
established in United States by Edward Barneys which were later spread internationally. He
defined the functions of modern public relations as to promote the clients and to operate tasks of
business in such manner which results in gaining public approval. His ideas were related to
social responsibility and refusal to accept conditions of unethical clients. He clearly defined the
concept which says that there are various public which needs to appeal individually. Public
relations professionals were advised by him to seek group leaders along with key communicators
or opinion leaders which have ability to pass ideas to other public members. Some other concepts
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which he developed includes public relation as public services, public relations should be able to
promote as well as progress new ideas, public relations should have the ability to build public
conscience (Dühring, 2017). The ideas were put into practice his clients were selected and
produced radio commercials which was one of the offensive for African Americans. He took
steps related to changing commercials, offered various significant job to African-Americans and
invited them for plant tour as well as featured them in organisational newsletters. Further, he
produced a program which was related to feature union as well as management penalists and
encouraged the firm to bargain with unions by tour of plant as well as convincing business to
sponsor vocational programs. Various American companies which were having PR Departments
helped in spreading its practices to European successful in creating European subsidiaries which
was result of Barneys plan. By such influences and encouragement, Barneys have implemented
the concept of modern public relations and truly known as Father of public relations.
With the change in time, various activities of public relations have also changed after
industrial revolution. Various strategies and tactics were developed in order to rank priorities for
maintaining public relations. Earlier, perception related to public relation was not positive but
with the implementation of various principles it was developed in many ways. Edward Barneys
have provided various publicity methods for reducing the criticism of such profession. He said
that the information must not be used as communication purpose only but it should be used as
weapon for gaining support of publics ( Ferguson, 2018). He provided various media relations
which helped in dealing with communicating relevant organisational messages with selected
reporters as well as editors and later provided some of the follow up plans to check whether
message was accurately reported. In order top develop traditional public relations into modern
public relations some of the evaluation criteria were made important to overlook the procedures.
Public affairs helps in developing involvements in relation to public policies to help
organisations for adopting public expectations. Modern public relation includes industrial
relations where firms has to deal with other entities, trade associations in the same industry by
utilising marketing communication. It includes distinct activities to sell products, services, ideas
by using advertising, publicity, collateral material, promotions, trade shows, packaging, special
events and so on. In the development of modern public relations, he said that developing and
maintaining relationships with communities where organisation has keen interest ins very
important. Community relations are planned, continuously performed with active participation
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by preparing various plans. But before formulating public relation plans, the customers must be
informed related to their appearances in the market with the help of communication audit. Th end
result of such report developed communication process along with development of modern
public relations (Grunig, 2017). He described various major practices in the profession of public
relation which involves various areas of expertise such as Corporate public relations, Technology
public relations, Entertainment public relations, Sports public relations, Finance public relations
and many more. Each areas are self explanatory and are not limited to one practice. The media
relation is the only are where all major practice areas are applicable.
For development of modern public relations, Edward Barneys had provided various
meanings of ethics which were applied in public relations as well as individuals who are working
within the profession. Earlier, terms related to “Cover up” as well as “spin” had played a role in
building negative image of public relation and this implied underhanded or unethical public
relation work. But with the change in time, meaning of ethics was also changed. With application
of principles of ethics as provided by Barneys many entities are covering their deals by using
deception along with half truth which results in shaking institutional credibility. In addition,
positive qualities related to honesty, sharing news and so on with public helps some businesses to
stress the needs to deal in ethical manner at marketplace. Thus, ethics as well as credibility acts
as re emerging in development of modern public relation which results in changing attitudes. In
order to develop the public relations into modern public relations, various models are provided
such as symmetrical model, asymmetrical model, public information, press agentry and many
more. Symmetrical model is a two way communication model which balances the terms related
to creating mutual understanding and moving equilibrium. Asymmetrical model defines the
imbalance in favour to encourage publics for the purpose of supporting interest of company.
Press agentry model is known as one way dissemination whose major focus is on publicity to
gain attention. Public information model is one way dissemination to provide accurate
information to public. Various provisions were provided in order to shape public relations with
the use of endorsement by opinions of celebrities, doctors, leaders and identifying as well as
strengthening clients arguments by favouring surveys, experiments, polls for making better case
for positions or products of clients (McKnight and Hobbs, 2017). Many societal changes which
were espoused by selected personality for customers had various long lasting effects. He
regarded himself as opinion maker and provided precise principles for producing required
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attitudes in changes. As per his principles, it was evaluated that public relations was effectively
used with the help of underlying principles such as competition of ideas or things in market. He
defined public relations as the information provided to public or which persuade directions at
public in order to modify attitudes as well as actions and integrate attitudes of institutions with
publics along with institutional members. It was provided that modern public relation was set of
coordinated activities which were designed for the purpose of creating as well as maintaining
relationships between public and company. He said that it has been important part of
environment and culture (St. John and Pearson, 2016). Evolution of modern public relations have
gained acceptance as well as it has affected various sectors also. It played important role by
communicating all important information to clients and no organisation can sustain without
effective public relation. Just as a fabric can not be removed by cloth, public relation can not be
removed by companies whether large or small. Modern public relation has some similar
characteristics like traditional public relation but is also different in some areas. Various
networks and communications are built in modern public relation with the help of internet and
also helps in communicating about product, quality, morality, integrity to public in order to
understand their perspectives. Edward Barneys in the procedure of developing modern public
relations has also defined some of its importances such as it helps in increasing
credibility,profits, business leads, saving money by increasing use of online marketing channels,
enhances online presences, attracts maximum clients and many more. It helps in converting big
data or information in small one and at the same time many provisions are made to analyse them
and scrutinise them as per the requirements. These informations can be used any time whenever
required and increases dependence on modern public relations. These are no longer controlled by
any media agency and leaves various changing impacts by influencing customers. Various
historical phases were evaluated in the development of modern public relations such as public
information approach, strategic management approach, mixed motive approach and so on. In
public information approach, an organisation has to appoint a formal journalist as a writer which
can represent clients, news release issuing to media by providing outlets (Kunczik, 2016). As
per mixed motive approach, it is based on contingencies related to real world which impacts
decisions in public relations along with facilitating communications on various issues for entity
and for publics. Development of modern public relations was done with the application of
various public persuasion campaigns and provided various practices along with principles and
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resulted in freedom to suggest or persuade actions, attitudes, values between organisation and
public. As per the video, propaganda was considered as a bad word and was used in wars as well
as certainly for peace. Public relation counsel were set up and in 19 century, due to mass people
revolution ways were found to manage long with alteration in thinking of public. Various
experiments were carried out in order to change mind of population. With the use of multiple
press as well as public schools, thoughts were changed related to selling product like cigarettes.
Barneys had believed to control mass democracy by altering public desires by providing powers
to them in order to exercise decision making ( Barneys. 2007)
Edward Barneys, the author of public relations pioneer has provided the concept of public
relation as the information provided to public, persuade activities to modify actions, values as
well as attitudes, integrates actions or attitudes of institution with publics as well as actions of
publics with institution. Public relation is important for any company to understand the attitude,
values and actions of its targetted customers and integrate its activities to facilitate the perception
towards the organisational products. It helps in building credibility, boosting companies
credibilities as it is operated by many trusted intermediaries. Such intermediaries on certain basis
communicates with targeted audiences which helped in filtering out nonsense and accepting
important facts. Public relation was propounded in order to manage flowing information between
individuals, companies and public. Modern public relations provides business exposure with the
use on online methods of communication to the audiences. Fundamental concept behind
implementation of public relation concept was to identify target audience as well as tailoring
messages to appeal in front of audiences which has helped various organisations along with
individuals in many ways. Barneys have provided various public relation tools and techniques in
order to effectively communication and maintaining relationships with media, organisation,
customers and public. Some of the modern public relation tools are newsletters, special events,
audiovisual materials, media tours, public service activities, sponsorships and so on. All these
helps in concentrating to persuade attitudes of general public by providing them appropriate
information through different means of communication. Public relation involves set of activities
which helps in understanding customers opinions ( Plowman, 2017). It is very necessary for any
business to keep its clients happy as well as continually makes investments in products or
services by keeping in mind the customers perceptions. By adopting efforts related to marketing
along with advertising, entities conveys their purposes as well as missions to loyal customers to
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have a clear understanding of their existence. Public relation not only help in communicating to
external public but also keep the mission achievement with internal workforce. With the use of
public relation, organisations can keep their internal staff well informed as well as
communicating information to external public (Nothhaft, 2017). It helps in keeping
organisational operations on track to achieve their common goals. Modern public relations are
applicable in all sectors or areas as industries performs many terrible operations and with such
relations they can build effective relationships with publics, individuals and organisations and
can get mutual benefits. Thus, it can be said that modern public relation was an accurate or
veracity concept which is used by all individuals, businesses and public. Organisations uses it
for generating positive publicity as well as building reputation in the dynamic as well as
competitive marketplace.
CONCLUSION
As per the report it has been evaluated that public relation is an important concept which
benefits to individuals, organisations and general public to communicate informations as per the
interests. It is concerned with providing necessary informations to external public as well as
internal workforce at right time period along with right place by using various tools and
techniques. Such relation is all about communicating information, influencing people, receiving
news and responding as per the information. Public relation influences as well as shapes
organisational image, reputation, culture along with brand perception and connects with right
audiences via media techniques or online media. It has been evaluated that modern public
relation after the industrial revolution has taken the powers away from authoritative people and
given to public. It was successful in leaving a long lasting impact on individuals, business
entities and general public in order to understand each others actions, perceptions, values and
attitudes.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Alaimo, K. (2016). Pitch, tweet, or engage on the street: how to practice global public relations
and strategic communication. Routledge.
Barneys, E. (1945). Public Relations - A Growing Profession. Routhledge.
Browning, N. (2018). Ethics and the Profession: The Crystallizing of Public Relations Practice
from Association to Accreditation, 1936–1964. American Journalism. 35(2). 140-170.
Dühring, L. (2017). Reassessing the Relationship Between Marketing and Public Relations: New
Perspectives from the Philosophy of Science and History of Thought. Springer.
Ferguson, M. A. (2018). Building theory in public relations: Interorganizational relationships as
a public relations paradigm. Journal of Public Relations Research, 30(4), 164-178.
Grunig, J. E. (2017). Symmetrical presuppositions as a framework for public relations theory.
InPublic relations theory(pp. 17-44). Routledge.
Kunczik, M. (2016). Images of nations and international public relations. Routledge.
McKnight, D., & Hobbs, M. (2017). Fighting for Coal: Public Relations and the Campaigns
Against Lower Carbon Pollution Policies in Australia. In Carbon Capitalism and
Communication (pp. 115-129). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Nothhaft, H. (2017). Dealing in facts. In Experiencing Public Relations (pp. 26-38). Routledge.
Plowman, K. D. (2017). Big strategy to little strategy: a multiple case analysis of public affairs
planning. Journal of Public Affairs. 17(3). e1627.
St. John III, B., & Pearson, Y. E. (2016). Crisis management and ethics: Moving beyond the
public-relations-person-as-corporate-conscience construct. Journal of Media Ethics.
31(1). 18-34.
Thurlow, A. (2017). Canada—Development and Expansion of Public Relations. In North
American Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations (pp. 37-49). Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
Online:
Bernays. E. 2007. Propoganda and Public Relation. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0OrT-8gXMs>
Greene. D. 2015. Quotes from Edward Bernay's Propoganda. [Online]. Available through:
<https://iamlegionnaire.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/select-quotes-from-edward-
bernayss-propaganda/>
The Age of Utopia. 2019. [Online]. Available through: <https://ageofutopia.info/the-new-
propaganda-an-analysis-of-chapter-2-of-propaganda-by-edward-l-Barneys/>
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