Blog 6: Chapter Three

Chapter Three discusses America’s history and transformation of public relations over the years. In a way, I do not really think the concept of public relations has changed since Bernays established it. It seems only how public relations caters to our society has transformed as our nation has grown and changed over time; the basic concept and fundamentals are the same we are just applying them differently. In particular, I found the case studies in the back of chapter three (about the Red Cross during 9/11 and Oklahoma City Bombing) interesting because they prompted me to think about the role public relations plays during our nation’s tragedies.

I found the study on the memorial for the Oklahoma City Bombing particularly interesting. I live right  outside Washington, D.C. and could not tell you how many times I have visited the various memorials in the city. But, I never thought about the public relations work that is necessary to make each memorial successful. I looked at the website for the memorial (http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/) and found a lot of information about the behind the scenes work with the several publics–the government, local communities, and organizations like the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation. Public relations was necessary for raising money, gaining federal recognition, conducting the international design competition, and many more things.

Washington, D.C. recently constructed a new memorial in 2004 that honors those who fought in World War II, and I decided to do some research into what went into building it (http://www.wwiimemorial.com/default.asp?page=home.asp). Similar to the construction of the Oklahoma City memorial, the WWII memorial had to be accepted by the President. I am interested to know how a public relations practitioner would communicate with such an important figure because I am sure s/he has to go through several different people. However, I think the WWII memorial’s web site makes it clear how each aspect of the memorial (dedication, design, funding, etc.) has different publics to communicate with and manage. In order to get the overall goal complete, I think the WWII memorial and Oklahoma City memorial would need a public relations practitioner to lead each aspect because it seems to me that within each task there are several smaller things to do and people to build relationships with.

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