Understanding Public Relations Theory - Literature review Example

Public relations are an important aspect for all business, community and areas which require that proper models and theories are adopted through which better relation can be developed. This has an important aspect for the long term standards and highlights the manner in which the changes has to be made to be able to improve relationship. South Australia highlights a case where the aspect of public relation was ignored and it resulted in creating gaps between the community and the government and created differences between their opinions. This paper looks towards analyzing the public relation model and aspect related with South Australia and helps to highlight the manner in which the situation could have been better controlled and would thereby help to improve the overall relation and standards through which better results can be achieved. The case of South Australia where the government hasn’t been able to develop the required policies through which the black spots which are present on the roads can be taken care of. The lack of proper communication process from the government to the society has resulted in widening the gap and has made the government inefficient in dealing with the black spots. The South Australian government lacks funds which will be required to cover up the black spots due to which accidents are on a rise (Kemp & Higgins, 2013). The lack of funds and the inability of the government to be able to explain the community about the manner and the phase in which their roads will be covered has resulted in creating a gap between the community and the government. This has made the community feel that they are being ignored and the government hasn’t laid any importance towards developing the public relation. The aspect highlights that the South Australian government looked towards following the Press Agentry Model. This model looks towards stating that the communication is a one way process and looks towards passing on the message and feedback is not given relevance. This method could also result in false and incorrect information to be passed on (Botan, 2003). The fact that the actual scenario cannot be verified or checked it results in misleading information which thereby has an impact on the level of relationship which exists. This was clearly witnessed between the government and the community as the government due to paucity of funds wasn’t able to work on all the black spots. This doesn’t mean that the government wasn’t ready for the work to be done but was only a matter of time when the government would look towards working on those. This message was not properly communicated and thereby made the community perceive that the government was ignoring and was not paying the required attention which would have otherwise led towards improving the overall situation. The fact that the government looked towards working on the same formula but wasn’t able to provide proper communication resulted in the entire process to be wrong. This aspect could have been improved if the government had looked towards working on a process which ensured that the community were answered with all the questions that they had. This aspect could have been achieved by using the Two Way Symmetric Model. This model would look towards ensuring that proper dialogues were established and the entire message were communicated and discussed in a manner through which the differences which existed in the opinion and process of thinking would be solved (Fawkes, 2008). The Two Way Symmetric Model would have ensured that the government could have entered into a dialogue with the community or selected people from the community. This would have helped the community to understand the manner in which the government was looking towards their difficulties and the policies and steps that the government had to address those. This would have reduced the gap which existed in the communication process (Gregory, 2008). This would also have helped to ensure that the government understands the actual problem that the society is facing and would have thereby had a positive impact on the dialogue. This would have also ensured that all the questions that the society had were answered and would have thereby created a positive impact as the understanding on the part of both the parties would have improved (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2005). The situation which is being present in South Australia also highlights the manner in which the entire process showed different issues and crisis in the communication process. The fact that the model can also be assumed to have been used is the Public Information Model where only the message is passed on from one body to the other. The fact that the entire process didn’t focus on getting feedback it resulted in crisis in the entire process of communication (Grunig, Grunig and Dozier, 2002). This model helped to ensure that the correct message was passed on and showed that the government didn’t have the required funds to work on all the black spots but didn’t highlight that the government was taking steps and developing a process through which this aspect will be looked into the future. This resulted in crisis in communication as the process of communication wasn’t clear. It is imperative that in the process of communication when a message is being passed the receiver of the message is able to encode the message correctly and in the same manner that the sender has looked towards sending. This will ensure that the receiver of the message is able to understand the message correctly and act in the correct manner. This was completely lacking in this regard which had thereby reflected in differences in opinion and will require that better policies and strategies are developed through which the crisis which is present in the communication process is achieved. This would have ensured that the gaps which existed is removed and the entire process facilitates the communication process. This aspect could have been improved if the entire process of communication was clear and the message was effectively communicated. This would have required that the context of the message was clearly understood. This would have required special work on the part of both the receiver and the sender where they will have to look towards ensuring that the process of communication uses different emotions like body language, voice modulation as so on (Cutlip, Center and Broom, 2000). This will help the process of communication to gain effectiveness and will ensure that the message is correctly interpreted. This will also have a positive impact and will help to reduce the differences and ensure that the receiver of the message is able to understand what the government intends to speak and will thereby have a positive relationship being developed. The situation also highlights issues related to media relation. The fact that it could have been a situation where the media hasn’t been able to highlight the complete and true story in the correct manner would have thereby impacted the relationship between the society and the government. The lack of initiatives from the government to work on an aspect which looks towards ensuring that the media plays a positive role in improving the image clearly highlights the case where the aspect of public relation was ignored (Harrison, 2000). This situation also fosters the fact that the government wasn’t able to handle the manner in which public relation could have been fostered through the use of public media. This aspect requires that the government looks towards using the Agenda Setting Theory which is a part of Media Related Theory which looks towards ensuring that the media looks towards using their rights and set their priorities through which the actual situation is highlighted. This will result in ensuring that by using the theory the media is able to highlight the correct issue and ensure that a positive relation is established (Cornelissen, 2008). The role the media can play here is to ensure that they look towards highlighting the actual thing and the manner the government looks towards working on the black spots so that the actual steps that the government looks towards taking in the future is highlighted. This will thereby ensure that public relation is developed and the society will be able to have the required belief on the government. This will thereby ensure that a positive impact is created and the government is able to ensure that the society is provided with the correct aspect and looks towards strengthening the manner in which the society gains from the positive impact that the society has on the overall performance of the government (Gregory, 2003). The other aspect which has been highlighted is the manner in which corporate identify and reputation has been ignored. The fact that the government has spent millions of money and has looked towards improving the facilities for the society but hasn’t been highlighted by the government as it should have been has thereby been resulted in diluting the brand image and reputation of the government. This has made the community perceive that the government doesn’t look towards working for the society and hasn’t taken any steps which could have improved the actual brand image of the company. This was primarily due to the fact that the brand and corporate image was diluted due to the fact that the aspect of developing the brand image was not stressed. This aspect could have been improved if the government would have laid emphasis on propaganda and persuasion by making the society comes to know the manner in which their contribution was ignored. This could have been improved only when the process of communication was improved. This would have helped to bring out the actual and true story and would have highlighted the manner in which the government has worked already and the steps that the government looks to take in the future (Cheney & Christensen, 2006). This would have helped to improve the relationship and ensured that the correct and true situation was brought forward. This will thereby create a positive impact and will thereby ensure that better public relation could have been developed. This paper thereby looks towards highlighting the different issues that the South Australian government is facing and the different areas which they need to lay stress on. This will help the government to develop positive relation and the use of different theories and models will ensure that the actual situation is highlighted and the government is able to build long term positive relations. This will thereby have a positive impact on the overall relationship and will ensure that the government and the society is able to benefit through it. References Botan, C. 2003. Introduction to the paradigm struggle in public relations. Public Relations Review, 19 (2), 107-110 Cheney, G. & Christensen, L. 2006. What should public relations theory do, practically speaking? Journal of Communication Management, 10 (1), 100-102 Cornelissen, J. 2008. Corporate Communication: A guide to theory and practice, London, Sage Cutlip, S., Center, A., and Broom, G. 2000. Effective Public Relations, London, Prentice-Hall Fawkes, J. 2008. Public relations and communications, in Theaker, A. (ed). The Public Relations Handbook, London, Routledge Gregory, A. 2003. The ethics of engagement in the UK public sector: A case in point. Journal of Communication Management, 8 (1), 83-94 Gregory, A., 2008. Public Relations and Management, in Theaker, A. (ed). The Public Relations Handbook, London, Routledge Grunig, J., Grunig L., and Dozier, D. 2002. Excellent Public Relations and Effective Organisations, New Jersey, Erlbaum Harrison, S. 2000. Public Relations: An Introduction, London, Thompson Johnson, G., Scholes, K, & Whittington, R. 2005. Exploring Corporate Strategy, Harlow, Financial Times Prentice Hall Kemp, M. & Higgins, A. 2013. South Australia doesn’t have $30 million to fix 50 black spots. Retrieved on February 23, 2013 from http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/south-australia-doesnt-have-30m-to-fix-50-black-spots/story-e6frea83-1226559608273 Read More