Both Trotter, Martin and the other writers we have quoted confirm what the actual experience of the public relations counsel shows—that the cause he represents must have some group reaction and tradition in common with the public he is trying to reach. This must exist before they can react sympathetically upon one another. Given these common fundamentals, much can be done to capitalize or destroy them. It is as untrue to contend that public opinion is manufactured as it is to contend that public opinion governs the agencies which mould it.
The public relations counsel must continually realize that there are always these limitations to his effectiveness.
The very “leaders,” men who have been selected from the mass to “lead the nation,” live with their ears to the ground for every slight rumbling1 of public sentiment. Preachers, acknowledged to be the ethical2 leaders of their flocks, express obedience3 to public opinion.
The critics who hold these extreme points of
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view about public opinion have too easily confused cause and effect. The sympathy between the orator4 and his audience is not one which the orator can create. He can intensify5 it, or by tactless speaking he can dissipate it, but he cannot manufacture it from thin air.
Margaret Sanger, a leader in the fight for education on birth control, will evoke6 enthusiasm when she addresses an audience that approves of her sentiments. When, however, she injects her point of view into groups that have a preconceived aversion to them, she is in danger of abuse, if not of actual physical violence. Likewise, a man who would talk of prison reform at a time when the public is aroused by an unwonted crime wave will find little response. On the other hand, when Madam Curie, co-discoverer of radium, came to America, she found a country that was prepared to meet her because of intensive effort on the part of a large radium corporation and a committee of women formed by Marie B. Meloney, to apprise7 the public of the importance of her visit. Had she come two years sooner, she might have been ignored save by a few scientists.
A historic incident illustrative of the interaction between a leader and a public is that of the sudden turn in the affairs of Rear Admiral Dewey. The idol8 of the Spanish American War,
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he nevertheless alienated9 popular affection by giving to his wife a house which had been presented to him by an admiring public. For some reason the public failed to sympathize with Admiral Dewey’s own undoubtedly10 sound and worthy11 reasons.
To say, therefore, as some persons have said at great length and with considerable vehemence12, that the public relations counsel is responsible for public opinion, is not true. The public relations counsel is not needed to persuade people to standardize13 their points of view or to persist in their established beliefs. The established point of view becomes established by satisfying some real or assumed human need.
In common with the scenario14 writer, the preacher, the statesman, the dramatist, the public relations counsel, has his share in making up the mind of the public. The public quite as truly makes up the mind of the journalist, the pamphleteer, the scenario writer, the preacher and the statesman. The main direction of the public mind is often irrevocably set for its leaders.
Hendrik Van Loon15, in his “Story of Mankind,” paints a picture of the action and interaction between Napoleon the Great and his public in a way that might well have been made to illustrate16 our point. When Napoleon led the public truly in the direction towards which it
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was headed, that is, towards democracy and equality, he was its successful leader and its idol, says Van Loon. When in the latter part of his career he turned back to a goal which the public had discarded and was eager to forget, that is, Bourbonism, Napoleon met with irresistible17 defeat.
“Damaged Goods” was able to make the American public accept the word “syphilis” because the counsel on public relations projected the doctrine18 of sex hygiene19 through those groups and sections of the public which were prepared to work with him.
Public opinion is the resultant of the interaction between two forces.
This may help us to see with greater clarity the position the public relations counsel holds in relation to the world at large, and what the factors are with which he is concerned and by which he accomplishes his work.
We have gone somewhat elaborately into the fundamental equipment of the individual mind and its relation to the group mind because the public relations counsel in his work in these fields must constantly call upon his knowledge of individual and group psychology20. The public relations counsel can come forward, first, as the representative of established things when their security is shaken, or when they desire greater
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power; and second, as the representative of the group which is struggling to establish itself.
Mr. Lippmann says propaganda is dependent upon censorship. From my point of view the precise reverse is more nearly true. Propaganda is a purposeful, directed effort to overcome censorship—the censorship of the group mind and the herd22 reaction.
The average citizen is the world’s most efficient censor21. His own mind is the greatest barrier between him and the facts. His own “logic-proof compartments,” his own absolutism are the obstacles which prevent him from seeing in terms of experience and thought rather than in terms of group reaction.
The training of the public relations counsel permits him to step out of his own group to look at a particular problem with the eyes of an impartial23 observer and to utilize24 his knowledge of the individual and the group mind to project his clients’ point of view.
点击收听单词发音
1 rumbling | |
n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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2 ethical | |
adj.伦理的,道德的,合乎道德的 | |
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3 obedience | |
n.服从,顺从 | |
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4 orator | |
n.演说者,演讲者,雄辩家 | |
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5 intensify | |
vt.加强;变强;加剧 | |
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6 evoke | |
vt.唤起,引起,使人想起 | |
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7 apprise | |
vt.通知,告知 | |
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8 idol | |
n.偶像,红人,宠儿 | |
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9 alienated | |
adj.感到孤独的,不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 );使不友好;转让;让渡(财产等) | |
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10 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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11 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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12 vehemence | |
n.热切;激烈;愤怒 | |
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13 standardize | |
v.使符合标准,使标准化 | |
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14 scenario | |
n.剧本,脚本;概要 | |
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15 loon | |
n.狂人 | |
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16 illustrate | |
v.举例说明,阐明;图解,加插图 | |
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17 irresistible | |
adj.非常诱人的,无法拒绝的,无法抗拒的 | |
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18 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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19 hygiene | |
n.健康法,卫生学 (a.hygienic) | |
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20 psychology | |
n.心理,心理学,心理状态 | |
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21 censor | |
n./vt.审查,审查员;删改 | |
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22 herd | |
n.兽群,牧群;vt.使集中,把…赶在一起 | |
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23 impartial | |
adj.(in,to)公正的,无偏见的 | |
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24 utilize | |
vt.使用,利用 | |
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