The History of Public Relations

I learned a little bit about the history of public relations in college, but I wanted to dig deeper to gain a better understanding of where the industry came from. The names Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays are often considered to be the first public relations professionals, but as I'll explain the work of PR began long before he came along.
The history of public relations is mostly confined to the early half of the twentieth century; however there is evidence of the practices scattered through history.

lst Century B.C. -- Romans coined the phrase Vox populi; vox Dei, "the voice of the people is the voice of God." Underscored the emerging importance of public opinion.
18th Century -- Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, whose efforts on behalf of Charles James Fox included press relations, lobbying and, with her friends, celebrity campaigning
1623 -- Pope Gregory XV created the College for Propagating the Faith, the first large-scale use of public relations, created by the Roman Catholic Church to retain followers and solicit converts in the aftermath of the Reformation. Origin of the modern term propaganda.
1748 -- King's College (now Columbia University) used first news release to solicit press coverage.
1773 -- Colonists staged Boston Tea Party, a pseudo-event that helped crystallize public opinion against British rule.
1787 -- The Federalist Papers, a series of 85 pamphlets that were also reprinted as articles in newspapers, were produced to generate support for the formal creation of the United States and passage of its Constitution. 1850s -- American railroads used publicity, advertising and printed materials to attract tourists and settlers to the American West.
1889 -- First corporate public relations department established by Westinghouse, a year after Mutual Life Insurance Company created a "species of literary bureau" to coordinate advertising and publicity. Westinghouse ultimately prevailed in the ensuing "battle of the current" to promote the benefits of alternating current (AC), versus the direct current (DC) invented earlier by Thomas Edison and the General Electric Company.
1897 -- General Electric creates a publicity department.
1900 -- The Publicity Bureau was organized in Boston as the nation's first publicity firm -- and forerunner of today's public relations agency.
1906 -- Ivy Lee was hired to represent the industry in the anthracite coal strike. Lee issued his "Declaration of Principles," considered the birth of modern public relations counseling. (Lee later represented JD Rockefeller's interests in the Colorado Fuel and Iron strike in 1914, also known as the bloody "Ludlow Massacre."
1923 -- Edward Bernays published Crystallizing Public Opinion and popularized the term "public relations counsel." He also taught the first public relations course (at New York University).
1929 -- "The Golden Jubilee of Light" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the invention of the electric light bulb -- probably the greatest worldwide public relations event of the century, orchestrated by Edward Bernays.
1934 -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt used his famous "fireside chats" to instill confidence in the American people.
1934 -- Edward Bernays develops the very successful "Green Ball" campaign for Lucky Strike cigarettes to raise usage by women.
1945 -- US Government announces, in a carefully crafted press release, that an American plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
1948 -- The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is founded. The organizations primary objectives are to advance the standards of the public relations profession and to provide members with professional development opportunities through continuing education programs, information exchange forums and research projects conducted on the national and local levels.
1982 -- Six people in a Chicago suburb who took Tylenol capsules die of cyanide poisoning, causing a PR nightmare for McNeil Labs and Johnson & Johnson. Due to a very successful PR crisis plan Tylenol gained its strong public opinion back.

The public relations industry has changed a lot over its short lifetime into what it is today. This change is strongly influenced by the development of social media. Currently, the advertising dollars in media products from corporations like News Corp., Dow Jones, and CMP are under rapid decline in favor of direct advertising products offered by search engines and other tools. Traditional media publications are laying off journalists, consolidating beat reporters, shrinking their print editions, and many publications are shutting down entirely. Blogs have lower over-head costs than traditional media and are often said to provide better news coverage and analysis. Blogs are increasingly sprouting to replace traditional media with a more sustainable low-cost business model and are gaining more of a following. The advent of social media is the most pre-eminent trend in PR today. It's important to note, while social media is on the rise, traditional media is yet to be taken over by the trend as of January 29, 2009. Social media releases, search engine optimization, content publishing, and the introduction of podcasts and video are other burgeoning trends.