FOCUS CHANGE IN THE PUBLIC RELATIONS AND THE MEDIA

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Traditionally, it was considered that those who work in public relations should have previous experience as journalists. Through this experience they were supposed to build their writing skills and learn about functioning of the media. In the past most people working in public relations had vast previous experience in the media. Today, working in the public relations sector involves a much wider range of activities than just those related to the mass media. PR today also involves writing for the controlled media.

PR AND THE MEDIA – AGENTS OR COMPANY TAILORS

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Problems in conceptualization and definition of public relations and development of the PR profession from the 1930s have continued to this date, through the practical and theoretical efforts to prevent identifying of this profession-discipline with the news agencies and propaganda or with some other professions and disciplines like journalism, sociology, research, economics, marketing, politicology. Different approaches to defining the PR profession and the PR activities are inevitable as there is no single definition that would encompass all aspects of activities, tasks, trends, objectives and areas contained in this profession. A particularly interesting approach to PR is observed in the industry of journalism and in the state, not only at the global level and in developed societies but also in the transition countries. What is the role of PR and the media as powerful agents of media manipulations, the role of lobbyists and other tailors of the PR and the media, the role of a society, changing trends of PR companies and lobbyists who act from behind the scene (like those of the Bilderberg group), having in mind that PR experts believe that the best PR leaves no obvious trace?

NATIONAL ART AND CULTURE PORTAL AS A PR TOOL

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The aim of this paper is to present an example of best practice of a Russian arts and culture portal as a PR tool – the Megaproject „KULTU.RU!“. This portal is an example of a socially significant endeavor to include the Internet into the development of arts and culture. Another goal of this paper is to present an idea for a Serbian national project for development of art and culture using IT and the Internet to form the mechanisms for stimulation and support to arts and culture, for promoting Serbian art and culture of the XX and XXI century, for building of the Serbian reputation globally and for forming of a positive image of the country, stimulating creation of new art projects, assisting in building theatre and cinema audiences by the Internet classes, forums, conferences etc. The paper considers in detail the perspectives of such a project in terms of all forms of arts and culture, starting from the theatre, cinema, literature, art etc. It also points to the possible self-sufficiency and profitability of such a project as a very significant element of its functioning.

ONLINE PUBLIC RELATIONS

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In this paper a research was conducted on the topic of public relations in the digital era, especially the online one. Characteristics and peculiarities of public relations, the potential of the world wide web for E-PR and challenges and advantages of the digital communication are the main topics of the thesis. A short review of well chosen theoretical works that define and deliberate online public relations from a critical point of view is also presented here. The paper analyzes the potential of the web in dialogues, public debates and interactions, as well as the potential of blogs and social networks concerning public relations in the digital XXI century. The conclusion contains a critical reflection of the position, role and the potential of the online PR.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE: STRATEGIC CHALLENGES OF CONCEPTUALIZING PUBLIC AND CULTURAL DIPLOMACY OF SERBIA

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The first section of this paper discusses a public diplomacy concept within the international relations paradigm shift that takes place in a radically changed global environment. Public diplomacy is analyzed primarily through cultural aspects in relation to other concepts such as propaganda and “nation branding”. The second part is dedicated to identification of the key problems that the Republic of Serbia is facing regarding conceptualization and implementation of public and cultural diplomacy. It analyzes the institutional framework and effects of international Serbian policies up to now. It points to the need for long-term synchronous involvement of different actors in the field of public and cultural diplomacy of the Republic of Serbia, in order to promote not only its political positioning and reputation in the world, but for the sake of strengthening its economic and other development resources. Recognition of public and cultural diplomacy as an effective long-term means of building the reputation and position of the Republic of Serbia in international relations is extremely important. It means to articulate the need to design a new cultural concept, which would be built into a system of values that traces the path of Serbian development. The basic question, therefore, in terms of conceptualization of public and cultural diplomacy, remains the question of the narrative. This is the new and the old question of all questions: “Who are we, where are we going and where do we want to go?”

INFLUENCE OF THE POLITICAL PR ON THE EDITORIAL POLICIES OF MONTENEGRO DAILIES

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PR services of state institutions, political parties and NGOs strive to reach the citizens through the media. The spokespersons and PR staff try to promote the ideas and goals they represent to the general public and use various methods and techniques to this end. Although the services dealing with PR and the relations with the media in Montenegro are rare, it is evident that the phenomenon of placing information had been an accepted practice even before these services were established. This paper will try to determine the extent to which the political PR affects the editorial policies of the dailies in Montenegro, as well as the consequences. We start from an assumption that the organizations with political activities do influence the media thus indirectly influencing wider public, too. A method of quantitative and qualitative analysis of the content of media releases and as well as a comparative method were used. The dailies published in Montenegro, namely Pobjeda, Dan, Vijesti and Dnevne novine are the subject of analysis, while the period of analysis is the period following announcement of electoral results in presidential elections of Montenegro i.e. April 20-26th, 2013. The study will determine to what extent the PR services are used sources of information and how much the journalists process or otherwise directly copy the information received, how many releases are sent to the media, if they are crosschecked at all and how much the media have reported on current events or independently searched for particular information.

PUBLIC RELATIONS, MEDIA AND PERSUASION

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Every day we are surrounded by numerous messages that public relations professionals create in order to achieve their goals. Whether the target group will get and understand the message the way it has been planned, depends on many factors among which the most important are knowing the audience, shaping the message and the credibility of the source that delivers the message. In communication with the target audiences, public relations professionals most often use media of mass communication since they allow larger numbers of people to receive the message. Since researchers show that as much as half of the media content is created by public relations professionals, it could be said that the professionals have a key role in creating public opinion.

COMMUNITY RADIO STATIONS: UNEXPLOITED PR OPPORTUNITIES ON LOCAL LEVEL

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In modern Hungary – since it joined the European Union – concepts like communication, modernity, identity and social dialogue have been re-valued. The change in publicity structure was an important transformation process in the system changeover. During democratic transition, the role of mass media also changed. Old tools got a new role, thus enabling the appearance of new actors as well. For many years, the local media (serving democracy better on local levels than their national counterparts) seem to have been re-valued as a local, self-defining forum trying to build local communities and support their participation. Following the system changeover, opportunity was provided in Hungary to establish local commercial and also local community radio stations. The range of the local media became increasingly colourful. Existing county newspapers, local papers, advertising brochures and the newly established local television stations easily attracted the firms and organisations operating in their area, offering advertising and PR opportunities. On the other side, it can be observed that the PR staffs of these companies and civil organisations scarcely exploit the opportunities provided by the local community radio stations. When they do consider the radio, they usually (nearly always) consider commercial radio. Within the frames of accessibility and pluralism, a determinant characteristic of the community radio is the manner in which people participate in the operation of the station. Volunteers consider this “work” a mission, are strongly devoted to the area and possess a serious opinion-forming force on the local level. Researches have proven that the popularity of these stations is higher among audience with higher education. I believe that the community radios – owing to their specific features – could be an appropriate and attractive area for the PR, offering success opportunity primarily on local levels. This study and presentation places special emphasis on the features of the community radios that could promote efficiency of the PR, thus encouraging organisations to become part of the local communities.

STRATEGIC POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN SERBIAN DAILY PRESS

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It was said for traditional journalism that it opened „windows into the world“ to the citizens. After introduction of the Internet and a vast number of convergent platforms one could argue that the gaze through these media windows is becoming more and more blurred, due to a continually increasing number and size of such windows, which gives raise to suspicion as to the depicted reality. Analyzing contents of the most investigated daily newspapers in Serbia, the author has investigated the realm of epistemic communication with special attention paid to its role in the process of forming political culture. In contemporary practice, the creators of public opinion are political figures (ranging from political parties to civil society organizations), those in power (members of Government and state administration), the media (from mass media to the social networks) and citizens (from individuals to the political public). Serbian press allow themselves to be gold dusted by PR agencies, presenting reality as patterns of success promoted by political establishment and spinned by manifestations of significance and power. In the aftermaths of the authoritarian pseudo-democratic regime, it is considered normal for political establishment members to use communication intermediaries to serve their interests, thus forcing the contents suitable for aggressive promotion of political clientelism. Unstable nature of the truth provided in various interpretations of recipients, among ideologicaly and culturally different readers, leads to abandoning of professional principles in journalism and their substitution with informative&entertaining contents. Within this context, news are losing their character as a public value and are becoming merchandise instead, possesed by the richest and most powerful individuals.

PR ON THE MEDIA AND MEDIA ON THE PR

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Public relations, as a planned two-way communication that can be managed are oriented towards communication channels among which the media are probably the most important channel through which recipients can recieve messages used by PR to influence public opinion. The media, as transmitters of such messages, increasingly rely on specialized PR company departments or agencies which, on behalf of these companies, manage their communications. Given that the media have, for some time now, been one of the essential target groups of companies, relations with the media have become one of the most important activities of their PR experts. Such a link of the economy and the media and their relying on each other, becomes even stronger in the transition period, because privatization of the media and the impact of advertisers on the editorial policy becomes greater than ever. In the transition and privatization of the Serbian media, where nearly all of the most important newspapers and TV channels went to the hands of foreign owners (or unknown owners) journalists are treated as expenditures and expenditure cuts are achieved by hiring underpaid freelance and economically dependant journalists. Such journalists and such media are easy targets for the advertisers who, through their PR experts, affect the editing processes in the media. Failing to recognize the significance of PR and journalism respectively, lack of education or poor education in training courses, low professional standards of PR experts and the media representatives, inadequate wages, job insecurity, distrust, lack of professionalism and ignorance of the work process are common denominators in both evaluations of PR experts on their own profession and cooperation with the media, and of the journalists on their own profession and cooperation with PR experts. This was demonstrated in two researches carried out at the end of 2012 and at the beginning of 2013 by the Public Relations Society of Serbia (DSOJ) in cooperation with the Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS), Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS), Independent Society of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV) and the Media Association of the Local Press.