Media helps but does not solve the problem

J.E.Gruning in the book ‘Excellence in Public Relations and communication management’ wrote: ‘Excellent public relations needs the media less than poor public relations does’. Further in book author describes that the public uses mass media mainly to get attention when making issues out of a problem. In order to get attention they stage protests, marches and strikes. 

He is not the only one claiming that media strategy is not the most important and essential element in leading a successful Public Relations campaign. Gruning quoted Steven L. Vibbert from the meeting of International Communication Association, who said that the media plays an active role only in two of the four stages through which issues progress. The media polarizes two sides of the issue and forces people to identify with one of the sides. The first two stages ‘definition’ and ‘legitimating’ generally take place without media engagement. 

When thinking about media usage in any NGOs campaign, public relations practitioners have to remember that media do not play the most important role. Sean Kidney during his lecture at the University of Westminster pointed out that the media helps to build the climate and atmosphere around the issue, but very rarely they help to combat the problem. He admits that  according to his experience and knowledge very few people change their behaviour because of media. Media coverage aims to get people’s attention and build solid foundation under the behaviour change, but the overall strategy has to be focused on something more than just getting media coverage.

Sociologist, Dr Reiner Grundmann, talks about his research into the media's reporting of climate change:

What we are fighting for

According to the book ‘Public Relations Cases’ by Hendrix and Hayes, there are two types of objectives that are used in Public Relations programmes. The first of them are called ‘output objectives’, which include the work that was produced and distributed, for example the number of press releases that have been sent or presentations that took place. The second is ‘impact objectives’, which can be further divided into three groups, informational, attitudinal, and behavioural.

All of them are significant from a public relations point of view, but it does depend on what the aim of the campaign is, making some of them more important than the others. Sean Kidney, chairman and co-founder of the Climate Bonds Initiative pointed out during his lecture at the University of Westminster, that when Public Relations officers communicate about climate change issues or any other NGO’s cases the attitudinal objectives, which aim to modify the way the audience feels about the issue are not sufficient. In these cases the most desired outcome is behaviour change. 

Public relations practitioners when fighting for a better environment should not only aim to make people think that recycling is good and necessary, they have to try and convince the public to start recycling. It is not good enough that society knows that they should not waste food, the campaign has to stop people from throwing food away and teach them how to use leftovers. This is one of the crucial things that public relations officers working for NGO’s and charities have to remember. Of course, every case and issue is different, but by making people think about something, we’re not necessarily changing the world.