DISCUSS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PUBLIC OPINION AND THE SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS WHICH ARISE.

DISCUSS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PUBLIC OPINION AND THE SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS WHICH ARISE.


In order to understand any relationship between public relations and public opinion we must first look at public opinion in a deeper context. This means we must understand what constitutes public opinion and how it is formed. After this we can then look in more depth at the theories and techniques of public opinion and the public relations situations in which they arise.

By definition Public opinion is the shared opinions of large groups of people (sometimes called ‘publics’) who have particular characteristics in common, for example all adult female citizens within the city of Preston. However, there are certain aspects of this definition and others that have provoked debate between psychologists. The main reason for this is that research has found that most issues do not affect or interest the overall majority of people. Therefore, because most people are apathet...