ABSTRACT
The simple word, “Strategy,” can be added to anything to make it sound more planned and thought-out: strategic thinking, a strategic communications plan (redundant), strategic cycling (a spin class), strategic relationship building. Any strategic challenge requires contending with limits and obstacles: scarce resources, structural constraints, devoted enemies and fickle allies, chance, and luck. Communication Strategy encompasses many aspects and fields, public relations being but one subset. Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, set up the first public relations shop in 1919 following his time at the CPI and was the first to use the term. Bernays was an optimist who believed that techniques for influencing public opinion could be used to better society. Public affairs normally occur at the intersection of public policy, business, and government. The affairs are the external issues facing an organization that have the potential to impact them in some form or fashion.
