Reading Quiz #8

On Rhetoric - 3 modes of persuasion

Aristotle

Ethos

appeal to ethics, credibility of speaker

Pathos

appeal to the heart, emotional

Logos

appeal to reason, logical

Kairos

timeliness of an argument or message

The ethics of persuasion

aim for the Golden Mean

Public Relations

Ralph Hansen: "The management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends"

Press Agentry

Getting media attention for a client, often by creating outrageous stunts to attract journalists (P.T. Barnum)

Psuedo-Events

manufactured by individuals or organizations to capture the attention of the media and consequently the public i.e. protests, parades, press conferences

Ivy Lee 

• A modern practitioner of PR

• PR rep for Standard Oil and Rockefeller

• Shifted PR strategy with railroads from offering bribes to telling the truth and being transparent

• Declaration of Principles

• "Openly and honestly supply accurate and timely news to the press"

Edward L. Bernays 

• Considered the founder of modern PR

• Used social scientific research techniques to study PR

• Coined the term "engineering consent"

• Best way to influence the public is to use messages from credible sources

• Best PR practice should be 2-way communication (not the one-way comm practiced in press agentry)

Bernay's Three Major Functions of PR

1. Informing

2. Persuading

3. Integrating

Challenges for PR from the Internet 

• The Internet gives critics access to the world without the gatekeeper limits of journalism

• The Internet makes confidential leaks easy

• Rumors flourish on the internet

• Online crises can't be contained