 When you're thinking about entering we're beginning to think about learning about any particular field I think it's important to think about Where does this information come from? How do we know what works? What doesn't work in this and in this field and? What is that knowledge that collective knowledge over the years and really all of that comes from? Theory that the idea of putting ideas together and and saying you know This is what we think to be true We and we've tested this and we've had some success and and seeing this work in reality But so it's not fact, but it's theory So I want to talk a little bit in this video about communication theories and basic communication theories and public relations how these Intersect with public relations so first to be very clear about what a theory is theory is a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena up or Could also be defined as a hypothesis Assumed for the sake of argument or investigation. So let's differentiate first of all between theory and fact Fact is something we know to be true. It's it's concrete It's it's objectively true no matter what theories not quite there theory is something that we've studied We think is is generally true and leads us to different conclusions But isn't necessarily gonna work the same in every every situation and won't always work out in general so So there is something we can say look we think based on our experience and knowledge This is going to a worker. This is what happens in this situation, but it's not a fact yet. It's a theory, right? So so we think that's what's gonna happen. We can't always guarantee that's what's gonna happen So with that mind, let's take a look at some basic communication theories Some some generally accepted communication theories that often intersect with public relations the area of public relations So the first one is agenda setting theory. This is a huge one for public relations in terms of understanding the principles of how we communicate with an audience and how they attain information and what impact we have and And processing that information I think so Gena setting theory was put forth by McCombs and Shaw famously by McCombs and Shaw who basically said then that There's reality, right? There's what happens in a given situation and and then there's the person's perception of that reality Which is going to be different for each individual. So that's an important distinction first of all that there's what actually happened There's objectively what happened and then there's what that person perceives as reality based on their own frame of reference based on their own values and beliefs and education and understanding and Experiences in the world and so forth all of that goes into shaping their perception of that reality So first of all everybody's gonna have their own slightly different perception of that reality But then you also throw in oftentimes. We don't actually see the things that happen. We're not actually experiencing them firsthand We depend on others to tell us about them So when that happens the other person then or organization has the opportunity to set the agenda What we would call the agenda and so we're not perceiving that reality based on what our own first-hand experiences are But what we're receiving through these different outlets and that outlet could be another person. It could be the TV news It could be social media. It could be Just any way that we gather information But here we're gonna focus mostly on the role of the media as we as we perceive it here an agenda setting theory So McCombs and Shaw said there are basically two levels of agenda setting the first level of agenda setting Says the media kind of determines and whatever agenda, you know, whatever Agency you're using to gather that information whether it's whether it's a news organization whether it's a social media account or whatever That person or that organization has the opportunity to decide what stories get told in the first place What stories make it on the news and which ones don't which stories make it on to somebody's social media feed and which ones don't That's highly cultivated, right? It's highly it's highly controlled and cultivated by the organization Or the individual that's making that decision So for the first level of gym setting that identifies, okay, what stories get told which ones get left out that's important to our perception of reality right to what actually is happening in the world because If we don't know as much about an issue or about about a circumstance Then we're not likely to have as deep a perception of that or an accurate perception of that So what stories are getting cold told in the first place? Then there's also the second level of agenda setting after we determine which stories are getting told Then that person or that organization is able to identify. Okay. How is the story going to be shaped? How are we going to tell the story? What details are we going to provide? What language are we going to use in describing that story and and and that that situation? And so the organization or the individual in shapes the story through the second level of agenda setting by Identifying those things and making those choices All of that then impacts how that person perceives that reality First of all what they know about that, you know, what they're knowing what they're hearing about what they're not And then how they're hearing about it. How is it being shaped informed as they receive that information? So that's really the basic idea behind agenda setting is this idea that not only first of all Do we not always experience things firsthand? So it goes through some other some third party, right? But but then that third party has a role in agenda setting that determines first of all What stories you're getting told and then how they're being framed how they're being told? Speaking of that speaking of that second level of agenda setting it really leads into our next Area, which is what we call framing theory Framing theories put forth by Irving Gothman Okay, I'm framing theory basically says okay in any time somebody's communicating something. There's the frame There's the frame. That's how it's being told how it's being explained how it's being expressed What language is being used what images are being used and so forth? How is that person of that organization framing that story? How are they? Explaining and how are they describing it? What spin are they putting on it? How are they shaping it? So one one little example we can look at here is we could take a look at this picture That's in the frame right this picture that's the frames a little grainy Sorry, but this picture is in the frame and what do we see is happening here? We see Based on the what I'm showing you hear what's in the frame That one person is stabbing another the person on the left seems to be stabbing the person on the right But if we zoomed out okay, this is one one potential way to frame it But if we zoomed out and we saw what's actually happening here We would see that the opposite is true, but we're just not seeing what's out of the frame I'm framing my My video here by by shaping this this I have a green screen behind me You know, I love books and I have a bookshelf actually behind of it This is a this is a green screen bookshelf behind me right now So I'm framing what you see you don't see what else is going on in the house You don't see what's going on below here below like, you know shoulder level, you know You don't know what I'm where I could be where my pajamas. I don't eat this the shirt So but that's what I'm framing what I'm allowing you to see and that's true for every circumstance right with the in life that we have this this frame and a frame can be Used and created using any rhetorical device Any rhetorical device that we can use to influence meaning could be part of that framing so Our words the imagery that we use the sound the motion all of this goes into Framing and shaping how we view a particular situation or particular instance So again very much connected to that agenda setting things but agenda setting theory, especially the second level of agenda setting is Essentially framing but you know really important to remember that that we Have a role to play in that on both sides as a as a practitioner We have a role to play in how we shape this and how we frame this and also on the flip side as a receiver of this information We have to be aware that somebody is framing this and it's coming from somewhere and somebody else's perspective The next area I'd like to look at is called two-step flow brought to us by Lazarus Felden cats two-step flow has to do with how information is Not only communicated, but the steps that it goes through and again kind of how we How we receive this information and how it's spread and and that there are there essentially as according this Three by Lazarus Felden cats are two steps, right? So if we think of this like a like a like a pyramid or like almost like a funnel really Except in this instance, it's upside down It's more like a megaphone coming from the top down So the air the information is flowing from that top down Lazarus Felden cats said in this two-step flow that the first of all we have the media The media and they have a message that they want to convey and a story that they want to get out and Potentially, you know, somebody else like like a PR practitioner doing that They might communicate and focus their efforts on what we would call key influencers people who? Really can reach a lot of people and this term has taken on almost a whole new meaning now in the era of social media where we actually have influencers where Organizations are reaching out to these these few people with these massive followings, right? And they say well, we don't need to reach necessarily every person in the world We need to reach these couple people and have them speak on our behalf and then that message will spread Through them right and we'll spread out and we'll eventually get to the general public with the message that we want to convey So so we don't have to convey this message to every single person and sell it to every single person We just need to identify who are the key? Influencers that can reach that audience for us to reach that public for us and then they can help us spread that message to the general public Now it also works in reverse in what we call upward flow. We still have the same kind of you know Triangle except this time we're going to go up the ladder So this is how you get you know an impact through an action group or or Or through a group that wants to To really sell Some powerful people on something you would have this the going the opposite direction you would have this directed group so a specific community action group or or industry Industry representatives that are that are trying to sell This idea or protect something about that industry whatever some some committed really focused directed group for a particular issue or concern Then the would would do the opposite they would contact key influencers who could then reach these these specific decision makers Right, so you see this a lot in the lobbying effort for example in the government So you'll have a group that'll that'll say okay You know we want to this is take gun control or a gun regulation as an example on either side Both sides have lobbyists, you know, so take your pick whether you you're For gun control or you're you're against, you know gun regulation and so forth doesn't matter pick your side Either one of those would be a directed group and they would contact key influencers people who have the ear of specific People in government who can have an impact on regulating that and they would you know either hire or convince those Lobbyists to work on their behalf and those key influencers to work on their behalf to then Communicate with and and sort of lobby and and persuade those specific decision makers people who can actually have an impact on the the specific Legislation or whatever that you're trying to to to protect or to enact or to Reject or whatever it is you're trying to do so works in the opposite than way in upward flow using but you know again in the Middle of that that's really that key influencers You're not trying to convince everybody. You're trying to convince the people who can convince the people who need to be convinced And next one we can look at a spiral of sire silence a spiral of silence developed by Elizabeth Noel Newman and this the spiral of silence has to do with the hesitation To voice opinions or ideas contrary to those in media right in the media So when you've got the media or or any group that's really whether they're the majority or minority That's that's really vocal and really loud and has the public ear for this There's a hesitation for people to say no, I disagree with that because you don't really want to be out on your own There's a sphere of isolation and rejection So it causes people to remain silent and to continue to become silent and to grow even more silent over time So for example, you know just as a graphic representation with this idea of popular popular opinion right this level of popular opinion and Then there's a spiral below it that that continues to become more and more silent as it as it goes down and So your your willingness to speak out goes down as public Popular opinion grows and becomes louder and louder and louder as people begin shouting it whether again Even if it's a small percentage of the population if they feel passionate about it They've reached that ability to and the willingness to speak out. You've got to be right up there with popular opinion You've got to really have this this This sort of Movement behind you where you feel like you're supported and you've got people but when you're down here somewhere when you're just an Individual with a contrary opinion or idea you begin that that's pyrrole down into silence, right? And eventually you get to that point where you just remain silent. It's this easier It's safer to remain silent in these situations, right? so When you're when you're contrary to popular opinion and that popular opinion is being expressed loudly again Not even necessarily the majority opinions could be a very vocal minority But if you don't if you don't sense or have an idea that there's a Different majority behind you then you are more likely to remain silent and to continue down in that spiral of silence If you don't feel like there's you know, if you be most people aren't willing to go it on their own so So you develop the spiral of silence So it's only called diffusion of innovation You can see the graph here that the fugitive vision of innovation Ideas grow. This is brought to us by ever Roberts. This is this process of a to adoption of a product or idea So, you know, we can look at things like it's easy to see in technology. For example, we look back at the history of Facebook or Instagram or tiktok or whatever all of those things follow this really this We have these innovators these early people really early people who you know are developing it and people who are using it Very very early on those are your innovators, right? They strike out on their own even when nobody else, you know When there are five people using Twitter, they're out there using it But then you eventually have these early adopters some other people that come on board and say this is this is really kind of cool Again, we can look at those key influencers that we talked about in the two-step flow theory, right? Those key influencers are the same early adopters when you can get the right early adopters Then you can start to get people to say oh, this is cool So you start to get that early majority and your and your usage and your popularity grows then and grows as popular of this product Or idea or whatever it is So this is when you know in the development of technology you get a good number of people using it Oftentimes in that situation with technology, I remember with Facebook. It was mostly it would start with college students Obviously and even the early majority wouldn't explain it beyond college. We're still younger people Eventually you start catching everybody else eventually I remember when my mom started using Facebook when she was in her 70s and still doesn't know and she's in her 80s now Right, but so she would have been in that late majority She was a little later coming to Facebook and understanding what it is But eventually it caught up where everybody was kind of on there Then you get to laggards the people who are really far behind and may not even adopt it at all But if they do it's gonna be very very late and they'll be very late to the party but you know really most ideas and Of importance and products and things have this diffusion of innovation So you got to focus on what stage you're at and be realistic with your intentions And how can you get from one stage to the next again? Oftentimes it's early adopters. It's important to To find those key influencers people that can can reach others for you and really start to expand them But anyway, it's really interesting this diffusion of innovation There's also what we call uses and gratifications Siri. This is from Elihuacats Elihuacats said that media users take an active role through media choices and utilization So based on their User needs these users make choices then that will impact their their utilization And that's based on gratification in his estimation, right? so so really this starts with the user and And the user then is going to have a variety of media options as we know especially in today's day and age We have all kinds of ways that we can express ourselves and use the media and and choose which one Best meets our needs for that situation. So in between there cats said there are these different needs in these categories of needs Diversion personal relationships personal identity and surveillance Basically knowing what's going on surveillance is essentially knowing what's happening in the world So depending on which of these categories we're interested in satisfying and gratifying That will determine what option of media we're going to use if I'm if I'm just looking for a diversion maybe I just flip on the TV and I'm find something you know I start watching the office or parks and rec or I start watching some TV show That's you know, that's enjoy, but it's still kind of mindless. I'm just looking for something to divert me But if I'm looking for a developing a personal relationship, and that's my that's my intention That's my desire my tough find gratification and developing that personal relationship Maybe I try and get my wife and our kids there or whoever to Play some Mario Kart with me or play trivia game with me or you know watch TV that we can also a while watch together Or something, you know, we'll binge watch something if that's the whole point is to develop those relationships So depending on the user need What what category or what what specific, you know? Itch they're trying to scratch that will determine which Option of media that they'll use and so our media options or media choices are then according to Katz's theory here determined by an influence by our gratification What we're trying to gratify at that moment This is something called principles of influence by Robert Kildini Kildini said that people are more strongly influenced by particular cues when when we are We encounter a leader has particular particular cues particular Skills are particularly you know represents particular things that but we're We're drawn to and influenced by particular cues such as reciprocation Consistency and commitment social proof liking authority and scarcity These are all different cues that will influence more influence us more strongly than others So as public relations practitioners, it's good for us to be able to identify. Okay. What is the? The the principle that we can use maybe to reach and leverage that with the audience that we're dealing with An oculation series, you know when we're gonna look at here an oculation theory by William McGuire Basically says that an oculation builds resistance to persuasive messages, right? So and we we receive that an oculation like a like when we receive a vaccine for The flu or for whatever for COVID when you receive those vaccines Those small doses then build up a resistance to the larger sickness by by receiving the small doses of live virus, right? So so but so the same idea is true in an oculation theory McGuire says that a counter-opposition Arguments should be used in small doses when we when we when we counter those opposition arguments when we we take them in small bites Maybe even unexpectedly but along the way we we counter those opposition arguments in small doses Just in small ways and then that builds a natural resistance to later arguments even when we're not around and somebody hears a larger argument or Continuation that they've already got this built in. Oh, no, that's not correct because I know I've heard this before I've heard that counter argument before and it starts to build that even though it was a smaller dose Builds that larger resistance to the to the broader idea Okay, we've talked about a lot of different theories and there's certainly more that we could talk about here But the the idea is that there are a lot of a lot of ways that we can impact Things using these theory we can we can use these in our practice of public relations And so we need to identify what are some ways that we can use this theory to enhance our own practice If you have questions about any of these theories or about how theory might might prove useful in your Practitioning of public relations, please feel free to email me. I'd love to talk to you there and in the meantime. I hope that you will Really dig into these and other theories of communication that could impact public relations so that you can better utilize those in your own practice of public relations