AN EVALUATION OF THE USE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
BY CORPORATE ORGANIZATIONS IN OWERRI, IMO STATE
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Public relations (PR)
is a promotional tool for information, communication and persuasion. It deals
with reputation management. The First World Assembly of Public Relations
Associations in Mexico defined public relations as “the art and social science
of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organizational
leaders, and implementing planned programmes of action which will serve both
the organization and the public interest” (Newsom, Turk & Scott, 2000, p.
2).
In a document entitled
“What is Public Relations?” quoted in Tench and Yeomans (2006) the Chartered
Institute of Public Relations, London, defined PR as “the deliberate, planned
and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual
understanding between an organization and its publics” (p. 6).
Defining PR in terms of
its effects on society, Maloney (2000) refers to it as “a category of
persuasive communications done through the mass media or through private
lobbying by groups to advance their material or ideological interest” (p. 65).
Commenting
on the use of PR, Seitel (1987) says that “public relations may be used in the
marketing plan to realize a number of objectives such as publicizing a company and
its products, introducing new or improved products” (p. 242).