Public Relations Communication Theories - Essay Example

? To What Extent Can Communications Theory Illuminate Areas of Professional Communications Practice? Communication theory plays a pivotal role in thein professional communication practice. In order to understand the relationship between communication theory in terms of theory of message and the professional communication, we first need to understand the concepts of underlying terminologies. Theory of Message: The communication theory is the process of sending and receiving messages in an understandable way. The perception regarding the communication has significant importance because the scholarly views are different from the general public views. According to general public or business group, communication refers to the transferring the information from one source to another source. In other words, in the general public context the communication and information are used interchangeably. Communication is considered as the small part of the big picture, which includes organizing, planning, controlling and managing ( Dainton & Zelley, 2005, p. 2). Contrariwise, the views of scholars are different regarding the concept and perception of communication. Marianne Dainton & Elaine D. Zelley, in their book on “Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life” (2005, p 2-3) described that scholars believe that the communication is believed to be the process instead of information. The kind of process, which is elaborated in the book, is referred to as the one in which people interact with each other to create the meanings and then develop the sustainability of the messages, which may lead them to organize and manage the meanings of the messages. In other words, the communication process begins with the creation and ends with the management of the meanings of messages. The concept of communication theory seems to be highly emphasized on information transmission. Claude Shanon, gave the theory of communication. His theory of communication discussed message transmission instead of information transmission (1948, pp. 379-423,623-656). Shanon used the term message instead of information. The reason to use the message as the key term to describe the communication was that he wanted to elaborate the concept of knowledge communication. Therefore, the Shanon’s theory of communication is also believed to be the theory of message. The message also includes the signs and symbols as the way to communicate. Most of the times the message and information are used interchangeably for the purpose of communications; they are similar but not identical. According to Rafael Capurro’s work on “Angeletice, A Message Theory” (2003), the similarities that exist between message and information are as follows. Sender Dependent A message is believed to be sender dependent. The sender dependency refers to the asymmetric structure of communication, which may still require the receiver to ask for more information. For example, the sender may only send the indication to communicate through message and once the communication started, the receiver may need to ask for information to have detail knowledge for communication. Message/ Information Brings Something New This may refer to the similarity between the message and the information. The message and information are supposed to bring something new to the receiver. The receiver expects the communication may bring something relevant and new. Therefore, message and information both strike the mind of the receiver, if they are understandable. Coded/ Transmitted The message and information both are transmitted through coded forms. For example in the cellular systems the message is coded in accordance with the transmission systems used. Therefore, the coded system for communication purpose exists for both message and information transmission. Expression A message and information are believed to be utterance that gives receiver selection through the mechanism, by which the message or information is released, but information may most of the time lack expression and communicate with unbiased or rationale approach. A message can be described as a concept, information or communication that is sent in visual, nonverbal or verbal or in written forms. According to the theory of message by Rafael Capurre, the messages are of following three types a) Imperative Messages b) Indicative Messages c) Optional Messages A brief description of each of these is as follows Imperative Messages The Imperative messages are those, which are believed to be of vital importance or are considered as crucial messages that must be communicated quickly or in time, otherwise the importance of the message may be reduced. Indicative Messages The message that gives hint based on the subject of the message. The subject or encoded words normally include some expressions that may help the receiver to understand the nature of message. The brief message with utterance may be considered as the indicative message. Optional Messages The optional messages may have the expression that gives the receiver the option whether to be communicated or not. A human sender every time sends a message through his tongue, gesture, eyes, movements, or through written materials. In other words, the sender has the message for everyone at every single point of time for the person who can receive the message by any way of communication. Therefore, the interaction between the sender and the receiver is important so both the parties can understand the actual meanings of the message. Moreover, as per scholars in order to maintain interactively create, sustain along with managing the meanings of the communication, the receiver and sender must be communicated in a way so they can understand the coded messages. ( Dainton & Zelley, 2005, pp. 2-3). Message Design Logics Barbara O’Keefe worked on the thought process behind the messages. She described that the people perceive differently regarding the similar messages. The sender and the receiver use different ways to deliver messages. The reason behind such inconsistent ways to deliver messages is that how the thinking process of the sender works at that point of time. Three types of message designs logics were explained by Keefe (Littlejhon & Foss, 2005, pp. 124-126). A brief description of each type of message design logics are as follows Expressive Logic The logic is used to communicate the expressions, feelings and thoughts. The expressive logic also refers to the self-expressive message. The messages are believed to be more reactive in nature. The expression of feelings is open and do not consider the desires and needs of others (Canary, Cody & Manusov, 2008, p. 45). The best example of expressive logic is the angry or harsh response of a boss to his assistant, who may not be able to do his work on time. Conventional Logic The conventional logic considers the rights, responsibilities, desires and needs of others. It is also referred to as self-expression. The logic is moved in accordance with the rules, regulations along with the accepted norms. The logic includes the messages that are polite and appropriate. Moreover, the message design is based on the rules and regulation that everyone should know (Holmon & Thorpe, 2003, p. 107). For example, repeating the example of expressive logic but the boss, instead of being harsh on the assistant, he may ask other assistant to complete work with the first assistant, so it can be completed as soon as possible. Rhetoric Logic The messages designed under this logic are flexible and more importantly, are person centered. The logic describes the messages through which the rules can be changed. For example, if the assistant forgot to do the work on time, the boss should suggest the solution to the problem (Forrest, 2008, pp. 23-32). Public Relation & Professional Communication: In order to develop understanding regarding the relationship between “Public Relation” and “Professional Communication”, we first need to develop cognizant regarding the underlying concepts of the terms used. The public relation is often considered as the term, which may be hard to describe or define. The reason is that the public relation covers the vast area of expertise and the number of job titles used to define the public relations is large. Some common titles that are used to perform public relation jobs include Corporate Affair Manager, Public Affairs Executives and Meter Maids etc. The reason behind not using the direct job title of public relation is that it requires expertise and specialisation in particular areas. Therefore, specialized fields require specialized job titles (Jhonston & Zawawi, 2009, pp. 4-5). The major purpose of public relation officer is to maintain the relationship between organization and its various stakeholders or public. The stakeholders or public include those people who are considered important for the organization. The public relation builds a liaison for professional communication for any organization. The public relations activities can be described as the counsellor or consultant. The major benefit of public relation job is to enjoy the opportunity to interact with different kind of people (Baines, Egan & Jefkins, 2004, pp. 3-4). Moreover, the public relation officer can develop in-depth understanding about the organization’s activities. The professional communication is the concrete or more directional way of communication with all stakeholders or the relevant receivers of the messages or information. The professional communication helps the sender to select the words more rationally and reasonably while transferring messages but may lack expressions or utterance. The professional communication may include verbal, non-verbal or visual communication within the organization. The professional communication has significant importance for any kind of organization. The reason is that the professional communication generates the standardized way to communicate at the workplace. Understanding the methods and formats of professional communication are helpful for the entire workforce to communicate properly in any organization. The standardized format of particular messages or ways of communications can help the stakeholders to effectively and quickly understand the meanings of the messages from the receiver. Moreover, the receivers may be able to respond properly after understanding the sender’s standardized messages (Tyagi, 2011,pp-4). Public relation practitioner or professionals use the different tools to disseminate information. The primary job or public relation practitioners is to transmit the information or messages from the organization to the general public i.e. to the relevant stakeholder. For example in Australia, journalists use the Diary notes/ Media Alerts & Media Release provided by the public relation practitioners (Hart & Gilman, 2008, pp. 144-152). A good public relation practitioner communicates messages with all the recipients more efficiently, effectively and instantly. The diary notes are separate from the media release. It is helpful for the journalist and news editors to determine the upcoming events. Examples of effective and ineffective diary notes or media alerts are as follows Example of Effective Diary Note Journalists are invited to attend the media conference featuring Andrew Steven, CEO IBM Australia. Andrew will announce launching of new product. The media conference will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, 17th August,2013 at the Celtic Manor Resort, South Wales Australia. For Further Information please contact: Ms Julie Bloggs-Corporate Affairs Executive Ph: 06-5781 0091 Mob: 0419 666 888 Email: Julie.bloggs@Ibm.com.au Example of Ineffective Diary Notes Mr. Andrew Steven, CEO IBM Australia will announce the launching of new product at Celtic Masor resort in the coming week. For further information please contact our Corporate Affairs Executive Ms Julie Bloggs (Note: The explanation and the facts are just an example to illustrate the effective diary note) Analysis of examples with “Theory of Message” In the above examples, two types of diary notes were used to describe the quality of message delivered. The first type of message is in accordance to the professional standards because it concretely identifies the venue, date, time along with the contact details of the coordinator or the public relation officer. According to theory of message this type of message, the sender directly communicates with the relevant receiver by interactively create, sustain and manage the meanings of the message. The message can be received by any recipient but by addressing directly to the journalists the interaction between the organization and the media journalists become stronger. Identifying the main purpose of the upcoming conference, the journalists can understand and forecast the upcoming events. In addition to this, providing the details of the co-ordinator can help the receivers of the message to get detailed information regarding the message. The example identifies clearly the difference between the message and information. The diary note is clearly an example of message, which may be an indication of further information. Therefore, it is considered as the responsibility of the public service practitioner to effectively communicate the message to all the relevant stakeholders. The first example mentioned clearly identifies the approximately all the attributes, which the theory of message requires for effective message. In second example, the diary note is an ineffective message. The reason is that the diary note in the second example does not clearly addresses the relevant receivers of the message. Moreover, the time and date is not mentioned clearly. In addition to these, the exact details of the co-ordinator are not given. This may lead to the ineffective message delivery from the sender to the receiver. The receiver may not be able to understand the exact message and the message mislead all of the recipients because the relevant receivers are not directly addressed. The public relation officer could not interactively create, sustain and manage the meanings of the message. Moreover, the message does not have the structure, which is required during the professional communication. The diary notes are also believed to be summarized and more relevant form of the upcoming detailed information. Therefore, the public relation practitioners must consider its importance along with its quality of structure. Example of Meter Maids as Public Relation Practitioners in Australia As already discussed above the public relation practitioners are given different kinds of titles depending upon the organization and also the kind of expertise require for performing the public relation job. In Australia, the Surfer Paradise Meter Maids concept was inculcated in 1965. The meter maids are the young ladies in Australia, walk around the streets of Surfer Paradise. Their job is to put coins into those parking meters, which are about to expire. After putting the coins into parking meters, they left their cards in the windscreen wipers. The purpose is to avoid a fine and giving the people good impression as holiday city. These meter maids describe the job they perform as public relation (Jhonston & Zawawi, 2009, pp. 3-4) . Analysis of “Theory of Message” The meter maids deliver the message of holiday city. The concept was introduced by Bernie Elsey to beat the negative image by the installation of the parking meters on the tourist strips. Such kind of public relation officers are controversial in nature because of their dressings but the message the Bernie Elsey wanted to bring the people, particularly tourists, back to the Gold Coast after the cyclonic seas that smashed into the Australian Coastlines. Despite of the controversies, the message that was communicated to the meter maid was successful. It was also believed to be the successful delivery of the message because of relevant and successful results of the campaign by Bernie Elsey (Jhonston & Zawawi, 2009, pp. 3-4). The message was communicated to all the tourists and the visitors to start visiting the Gold Coast again. Example of John Douglas Pringle Editor of Australian Newspaper John Douglas Pringle was an English editor and wrote and edited about the Australian independence. He was brought to Australia as the editor of the oldest newspaper of Australia ‘Sydney Morning Herald’. Along with John many of the English writers were invited to Australia to write about the Australian cultures and history. It was ironically described but it was the fact. The history and the culture of the Australia is easy to understand because of the peace and political sustainability (Tunstall, 2001, pp. 253-254). Therefore, it was easy for the foreigners to write about the culture and history of Australia. Analysis of Example with ‘Theory of Message’ The example above represents that public relation affairs are effectively working in the organizations that the messages delivered to the general public regarding the culture and history of Australia can be easily understood. The written material available on the Australian culture use the clear, sustainable and maintained messages and information that can help the writers and editors to further elaborate the information. Usefulness of the Application of Theory in the Context of Professional Communication Practice The application of theory of message involves the examples described above that the clear message in which the recipient is addressed directly in the diary notes or the use of meter maids convince the tourists to come to the Gold Coast or the written material by the Australian writers can help the foreign writers to write about the Australian culture. The Professional Communication, as already discussed above, is the written, verbal or nonverbal formal and standardized way of communication. The public relation officers or practitioners, who follow the standardized methods of professional communication, can effectively communicate their messages to the general public because the messages must also be delivered in accordance with the formal structure defined by the organizations. Moreover, the professional communication practice makes the use of Theory of Message more useful. The advantage of the theory of message is as follows The clear message with properly addressing the receiver like in the effective diary notes can help transmitting the message more clearly and easily to the relevant recipient. The method followed is the standardized way of professional communication as well. Therefore, adopting the professional communication practice make the message more useful and effective. The reason is that the formal structure of the message covers all the relevant areas that can help the sender and the receiver to interactively create, sustain and maintain the meanings of the message. Interactively creating the message means the sender and receivers are interacted directly to communicate. The sustainability of the message means the meaning of the message is the same for both the parties & maintaining the meaning of the message is referred to as the message is presented in a clear manner that it will remain in the same context forever. Delivering the message with formal activities and jobs is also useful in the context of professional communication practice. The meter maids perform their jobs as public relation officers and using the defined approach by the state they perform their duties to communicate effectively the message of the state i.e. to move towards the Gold Coast. The concept of happy holiday city was inculcated by such public relation officers with the help of saving the tourists from fines. Therefore, using the defined and clear procedure can help the PR practitioners to effectively implement the ‘Theory of Message’ with the help of professional communication practice The sustainable political system and the easy to understand writings can help the foreign editors or writers to clearly understand the messages and information regarding the Australian history and culture. The editors and writers are also perceived to be public relation practitioners to convey the clear messages and guidelines regarding the Australian culture and history. The news editors, which were brought from other western countries, follow the standardized format of the writing to deliver the same kind of clear message to the readers of the articles. Therefore, the addressing clearly the relevant audience along with maintaining the standardized formats can help the writers to maintain the professional communication practice. Now let’s discuss the relationship between the public relation and professional communication. The public relation always play key role in sending and receiving professional messages. The public relation is perceived as a liaison between the organization and the relevant stakeholders. As already described above the public relation maintains and organize relationships with the various public. As the required expertise may be different for the job of public relation in terms of different organizations, so the job titles may be different. The public relation and professional communication are directly linked. The public relation is hard to build without maintaining the standardized professional communication formats. Therefore, the quality of communication can be evaluated if the public relation and professional communications are firmly linked and the relationship between the sender and receiver of the message is strong. As already discussed above the ‘Theory of Message’ follows different rules or methods to communicate the message between the sender and the receiver, so the messages can be designed in any way. The message design logics start from the least person centric to most people centric. On the other hand, the professional communication practice is rational in nature and most of the time less emotional and work centric. The messages are normally designed with emotional perspectives, whereas the professional communication is designed from the rationale perspective. Different researches suggest that the most relevant method to transmit the message to large audience is to incorporate the messages into popular entertainment format so that it can be communicated easily. In order to build the liaison between the two, the standardized method of professional communication practice must be adopted in line with less emotional and more unbiased messages. This can make the Theory of Message useful in the context of professional communication. References Dainton, M., & Zelley E. D. (2005). Communication theory for professional life. London: Sage Publications, Inc. Shanon, C. (1948). Mathematical theory of communication. The Bell System Technical Journal, Volume 27. pp. 379-423, 623-656 Littlejhon, S. W. & Foss, K. A., (2005). Theories of human communication. 8th ed. Belmont: Cengage Learnings. Canary, D. 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