Professionalizing Public Relations

Abstract

This article talks about the origin of public relations. It was during the second world war that something approaching a professional attitude towards public relations began to emerge, but it was confined almost entirely to the civil service and the armed forces. The 1945 government-the first labor government for fifteen years-mindful of the post war stresses on community relations, and not unmindful, perhaps, of the next election, encouraged the growth of professional public relations in government departments and municipal authorities. At the same time industry began looking towards its own image and suddenly a whole lot of people, only a few with real experience behind them, a lot of them journalists and some with no better equipment than a well cut suit and a glib tongue, were calling themselves public relations men. The Institute of Public Relations was formed in 1948 and quickly became aware of the difficulty of sorting out its applicants solely on the basis of self-appraisal, few of them were sufficiently well known to be judged on reputation. The Institute was also concerned about training facilities which were non-existent.