The Origins of Public Relations
Chapter 1: The Origins of Public Relations
2. Public Relations in Action – a case study
In late 2019, news emerged of the breakout of a serious respiratory disease in China. The disease became commonly known as the Coronavirus and eventually as COVID-19 as it spread from east to west throughout the world. In the months that followed, the words
‘unprecedented’ and ‘challenging’ were used frequently to describe the pandemic era. For communications students however, the response of the World Health Organisation and the individual responses from countries to the pandemic present an ideal opportunity to study a real international communications crisis as it unfolded (and continues to unfold) in real time.
As COVID-19 began to establish itself as a pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released communications guidelines for countries advising them on their communications strategy. The document offered guidelines for countries in how to proactively engage in two-way dialogue with their citizens. It recommended that communications should happen through multiple channels to inform the public of the public health measures they needed to take. The plan clearly highlights the important role that effective communications is required to play in a health crisis to enable governments and public health officials to engage with the public, with healthcare providers and with other stakeholders in order to inform, educate and reduce stigma and ultimately as the plan states to ‘protect individuals, families and the public’s health (WHO, 2020).
In every country throughout the world since the outbreak began, communications has played a major role in the response to the COVID-19 crisis. In some countries, chief medical officers and public health teams became household names and faces as they presented daily press conferences to the media to inform the public of the prevalence of the disease in the
Chapter 1: The Origins of Public Relations
community and instruct them as to how to stay safe. Clear and transparent public
information campaigns were rolled out across the world using various slogans and words that have now become part of the common vernacular such as ‘Stay Safe’, ‘Stay Home’,
‘Lockdown’, ‘Social Distancing’ and ‘Quarantine’.
In other countries, the pandemic was politicised by leaders. For example, in the weeks following the first diagnosis in the UK, British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson undermined the advice of the scientists and medical professionals by stating that he had recently met and shook hands with many COVID patients while taking no precautions to reduce transmission.
Within weeks, Boris Johnson himself was admitted to hospital after contracting the virus.
Although his initial approval ratings appeared not to be affected by this performance, by June 2020, in a report in The Guardian newspaper, less than a third of the UK public
reported as approving of the Government’s handling of the pandemic (Savage, 2020). In the US, the then President, Donald Trump initially described the virus as merely like a flu and used his initial press conferences as opportunities for blame and speculation. As is common in his rhetoric, he used racist language throughout instilling hatred and racism in those who followed him. In one now infamous utterance, he speculated at a live press conference, if there was any merit in people consuming household disinfectant to treat the virus.
Immediately manufacturers of such products were active on social media cautioning the public against ingesting their products. A poll by Reuters/Ipsos quoted in Forbes in June 2020 reveals that 58% of American’s disapproved of Trump’s handling of the pandemic. The article states that this was Trump’s lowest rating since public opinion was first sought on his handling of the crisis in March 2020 (Porterfield, 2020). In Brazil, President Bolsonaro repeatedly flouted the advice from the health experts contradicting recommendations on social distancing and attending mass events. Brazil then over-took the UK as the second country to have lost the most lives by June 2020. The political responses from world leaders to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate political public relations in action and we will
discuss this further in chapter x.
Lobbying played a huge role in the pandemic. In Ireland for example at the outset of the pandemic, organisations responded and adhered to the restrictions and closures imposed upon them by the Government. However, by the time the first wave of the disease and lockdown had passed, the public and organisations had grown weary. As Christmas approached businesses began to lobby hard to re-open in an attempt to recoup some revenues lost during the busy Christmas period. Leaders of organisations from the aviation industry to the Irish Hotels Federation, the Licensed Vintners Association and so on,
appeared in the media to advocate for their industry. Behind the scenes, government leaders
Chapter 1: The Origins of Public Relations
were receiving regular communications from the same leaders lobbying for their industries.
In the end, the Government ignored public health advice and multiple industries including retail and hospitality were opened up for Christmas. Unfortunately this period coincided with the emergence of a new variant of the disease and this combined with the increased mixing and socialisation of the public led to a huge growth in the trajectory of the disease and one of the longest lockdowns in the world followed that took the Irish public that extended from Christmas Eve 2020 all the way through to April 2021.
In the business world, organisations went into crisis mode. Worldwide, organisations, including businesses, schools and universities were forced to shut down as countries
entered ‘lockdown’ to stop the spread of the disease. As a result, businesses were suddenly faced with individual mini-crises of their own. How were they going to operate? Should they continue to sell their products and services online? How would they communicate this with consumers? How would they communicate with their staff most of whom were now working remotely? How would they protect the staff who were still on site? Organisations were suddenly faced with multiple problems in unison with the imminent threat to their revenues and survival. Crisis communications was required and demand for online crisis
communications from PR practitioners grew. In March 2020, Provoke Media conducted a survey on public relations practitioners worldwide both in-house and in-agency. In the survey when asked what services their clients were seeking most frequently, 82% cited crisis communications as the most needed service. In 2021, corporate communications was the most in-demand service at 78% with crisis communications following suit at 65% (Sims 2021).
One of the most difficult responses to achieve in persuasion is a change in attitudes or behaviour and arguably the most significant communications challenge of the pandemic was the requirement to change attitudes and behaviours, from social distancing, to reducing travel, and to limiting interaction with friends and family. The communications around mask wearing became a huge challenge for public health teams in the Western world. At the beginning of the crisis, the communication on face masks in some parts of western Europe was not clear and in some cases the message was conflicting with some medical
professionals advocating for their regular use and others citing a lack of evidence as to their efficacy. In Ireland, a couple of months into the pandemic, the Department of Health found that only 41% of people were wearing face masks in public (O’Shea, 2020). Perhaps the lack of clarity played a part in this low uptake and maybe stigma had an impact also. In a study conducted by researchers from Middlesex University in London and the Mathematical Science Research Institute in Berkeley, USA, the researchers found that men and women
Chapter 1: The Origins of Public Relations
self-reported negative emotions when wearing a face covering such as shame, feeling uncool, feeling face coverings to be a sign of weakness and a stigma. In its communications guidelines, the WHO emphasises the need to reduce stigma in communications when trying to change attitudes or behaviours. It states that ‘regular and proactive communication with the public and at-risk populations can help to reduce stigma, build trust and increase social support and access to basic needs for affected people and their families.’
The mask wearing issue also provides us with another communication example from pandemic communications. Activism played and will continue to play a large role in the communications around the pandemic. In the later chapter on theory in this book, we will discuss communications theory and the role that noise from activist groups plays in communications. In the pandemic, various activist groups have been at play, commonly known as the ‘anti-maskers’ or the ‘anti-vaxers’. These groups have been established to refute official communications from government sources and to try to bring about change by encouraging people not to wear masks or not to get vaccinated for example. Activism is discussed later in this book.
The communications during the COVID-19 pandemic offers an insight into the vital role that communications plays in the world to disseminate important information, to persuade an audience to change behaviours and attitudes and to combat stigma. It also offers insight into how audiences can be manipulated and analysis of the communications during the
pandemic also offer an insight into the suite of tools and tactics that can be used by organisations to communicate with their publics, such as press conferences, influencer campaigns, repetition and use of key messages. The political response from various leaders offer lessons in public affairs and political communications and the responses from
businesses and organisations demonstrate internal communications and corporate crisis communications in action. The pandemic is a seminal event that has changed the world and its full impact on communications and public relations is yet to be fully experienced. The core functions of public relations is to understand public behaviour, to counsel organisation
leaders and to develop strategic two-way communications programmes that can resonate with an organisation’s public. Of particular interest for public relations will be the impact that the pandemic has had on human behaviour as well as on the consumption of news and trust of news sources.
Chapter 1: The Origins of Public Relations