Public relations

UNIT I

TEXT 1

PUBLIC RELATIONS

I. Read and translate the text.

Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) and the public. Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. This differentiates it from advertising as a form of marketing communications. The aim of public relations is to inform the public, prospective customers, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders and ultimately persuade them maintain a certain view about the organization, its leadership, products, or of political decisions. Public relations professionals typically work for PR firms, businesses and companies, government, government agencies, and public officials as PIOs, and nongovernmental organizations and nonprofit organizations.

Public relations specialists establish and maintain relationships with an organization's target audience, the media, and other opinion leaders. Common activities include designing communications campaigns, writing news releases and other content for news and feature articles, working with the press, arranging interviews for company spokespeople, writing speeches for company leaders, acting as an organization’s spokesperson by speaking in public and public officials, preparing clients for press conferences, media interviews, and speeches, writing website and social media content, and facilitating internal/employee communication. Success in the field of public relations requires a deep understanding of the interests and concerns of each the client's many publics. The public relations professional must know how to effectively address those concerns using the most powerful tool of the public relations trade, which is publicity.

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of the country. We are governed, our minds are moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.

Unit I Public Relations

NOTE

PIO: (Public Information Officer) - чиновник по связям с прессой; представитель по связям с прессой.

II. Read and memorize the following words:

advertising - рекламирование

conduct – поведение

conscious - сознательный

differentiate v. – различать, дифференцировать

employee - служащий

exposure – подвергание; выставление

include v.- содержать в себе; включать

mould v. – формировать, создавать

a nonprofit organization – некоммерческая организация

prospective – будущий; ожидаемый

public mind – общественное мнение

public relations – общественная информация; связи с общественностью

spokespeople - ораторы

spread - распространение

suggest v. – наводить на мысль, предлагать