1. PR, SOCIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY
Nevena Semova
“PR man not only needs to be smart and
intuitive, he needs to understand
psychology, sociology.” E. Burnays
2. CONTENTS
PR and Sociology
Public opinions
PR and Psychology
Consumer behaviour
4. DEFINITIONS
Sociology:the science of human
society and social relations,
organization, values, beliefs and
change
Psychology: the study of the human
mind and its functions, esp. those
affecting behavior
5. QUESTION 1
Your big launch is only 10 days away when you
learn that the CEO has to go abroad and your
biggest customer will no longer endorse you.
All press and broadcast media have been
invited. Do you:
A. Ring round every editor and cancel?
B. Try to find another tame customer?
C. Turn it into a "Thank You" party?
6. PR AND SOCIOLOGY
- Public opinions
-Silvio Berlusconi and the cucku PR
model
7. PUBLIC OPINIONS
The
complex collection of opinions of
many different people
Term first used in 1588 by Montaigne
Jacques Necker
The Overton Window
8. SOCIOLOGY AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
Closely related to each other
Society can form and receive the message
Public trust
Lobbyists
Video 1 (Sociology and Crisis Management)
Video 2 (Lobbying)
9. QUESTION 2
You’ve worked hard for weeks to get everyone
to sign off on a Press Release making a major
announcement and now you’re ready to
circulate it - but time is short. Do you:
A. Email it to everyone listed in the directory?
B. Spend the night on the phone asking each recipient
how they like to receive releases?
C. Pay an agency to distribute it for you?
10. SILVIO BERLUSCONI IN THE SOCIETY
Unprecedented media Vertical and propagandistic
influence communication
Consistent message Inability to adapt to the
Match the needs of the change in communication
public – “Football, reality (Internet buzz: The
shows and pretty girls” untouchable)
Asocial behaviour Control
Popularity: decreasing
30% now vs. 60 % last year
11. THE “CUCKU” MODEL OF PR
“Cucku policy - saving the country from the worst
impact of the recession” – B.
“Listening to others and playing with them” – B.
It is „cute‟ and that „it works’ – B.
Using people‟s motives to gain their support
Impersonating values, shared by the public
Italians love Berlusconi
The cucku policy is gaining consensus and
imitation and not only in Italy.
12. MESSAGE AND MEDIA
“Italians love me and I‟m right in everything I do”
Criticism towards centre-left opposition
Attack the magistrates: I‟m innocent; I‟m a victim of law
persecution.
Italian irony
TV dominance
Internet is a threat
13. OBAMA VS. BERLUSCONI
Obama’s message Berlusconi’s message
Advocate sacrifices on Have fun and sex, use
behalf of the public high heel shoes to
good appear taller, be rich,
play games, tell dirty
stories, play cuckoo to
international leaders
individualistic and self- collectivistic culture
concerned culture
Decreasing followers
Decreasing followers
14. QUESTION 3
You’ve sent out the Press Release you’ve been
working so hard on to your target media. How
do you follow up? Do you:
A. Phone editors personally to ask "Did you get our
release?"
B. Phone friendly journalists and ask them to make
discreet enquiries about whether your release is
being used?
C. Forget about it and start on your next release?
15. PR AND PSYCHOLOGY
-PR and Psychology – a long partnership
-Edward Bernays - Propaganda and PR
-Mc Donald’s
-PR and changes in consumer behaviour
16. PR AND PSYCHOLOGY – A LONG PARTNERSHIP
Understanding and influencing human psychology
Balance theory
Cognitive dissonance
Selectivity
Influence of Sigmund Freud
application of Freud's theories about the irrational,
unconscious motives that shape human behaviour
Repressed feelings and primitive forces drive us
Exploiting peoples‟ subconscious desires to manipulate
the mass opinion and behaviour
17. THE FATHER OF PR - EDWARD BURNAYS
Influence from Sigmund Freud
From NEED to WANT/DESIRE – changing the
consumer behaviour
Propaganda in War - 1st World War
Public Relations in Peace Torches of Freedom
18. QUESTION 4
A low-rent magazine that’s not even on your
target media list rips off some of your pictures
from the Internet and prints them. They are low
resolution and badly reproduced. To add insult
to injury, you are not even credited. Do you:
A. Phone the editor, give him a roasting about
breaching copyright laws?
B. Write a letter of complaint to the editor, asking him
not to do it again?
C. Put high resolution pictures on your website,
phone the editor to congratulate him and invite
him to help himself to pictures in future?
19. MCDONALDISATION
Fast Food Facts:
50,000,000 consumers per year (US)
$ 110,000,000,000 spent on fast food
Fast food leads to obesity and health complications
Fast food demand abolishes natural resources and is a
great threat to the environmental balance
» Supersize me
» Big Mac
20. PR AND CHANGES IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Before Now
One-way communication Participatory culture
Spin messages Consumers choose
Manipulating Two-way communication
Online societies
The all American Enlightening consumers
Breakfast Encouraging choice
Lays – Maak de smaak
21. QUESTION 5
You work for a company that makes/sells gold
watches. Your CEO conceives a PR plan – "Let’s
give everyone who comes to the press
conference a gold watch. Put it in the invitation -
- that’s not bribery, just a product sample!" Do
you:
A. Talk him/her out of it, losing Brownie points for
lacking audacity?
B. Go along with it, but omit the offer from the
invitation – leaving it to individual journalists on
the day whether they accept or not?
C. Ask if you can have one of the freebie watches for
your Mum?
22. DISCUSSION
Is society less susceptible to manipulation?
How much do we actually know?
How does globalization change Public Relations?
How does Social Media change the field of
Public Relations?
How can you show your added value as a PR
practitioner?