ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the social environment for public relations communication. If communication is unethical or immoral, it instead should be called propaganda, which is communication that is self-serving, nonresponsive and manipulative. Observers of society and ways in which persuasion has been attempted have identified several categories of propaganda. Various research studies have found that the structure of a message can significantly affect the persuasion process. Some are persuasive tactics that can be used ethically in some circumstances; others have few if any ethical applications and rightly fall under the designation of propaganda tactics. In 1925, when public relations was in its infancy, Ivy Lee warned of the dangers of propaganda and helped set an ethical tone for the emerging profession. A communicator with credibility is one who has expertise to speak about a particular subject, recognized status or prestige and competence to communicate effectively, as well as apparent honesty, sincerity and lack of bias.
