Reading Questions
PR! By Stuart Ewen

Chapters 7, 8. 9 &10

Chap. 7

  1. In this chapter, Ewen returns to Le Bon, but from a different perspective than in Chapter 4. In Chapter 4, it was noted that Le Bon contrasted the irrationality of the crowd or the masses with the rationality of the middle class individual, and by extension, the public the masses were eclipsing. In chapter 7, Ewen notes that a number of other social scientists/intellectuals, including Robert Ezra Park, Graham Wallas, Wilfred Trotter, Sigmund Freud and others, were influenced by, but also critiqued Le Bon. Tracing Le Bon's influence, Ewen picks out an "inner core of Le Bon's" thought which can be contrasted with the view earlier noted. What is the nature of this inner core?
  2. What was Trotter's key concept in explaining social psychology?
  3. What was the basis of Freud's critique of Le Bon?
  4. Summarize the two major points Ewen makes at the end of this chapter.

Chap. 8

  1. Ewen cites a historian, Robert B. Westbrook, for his characterization of Lippmann's later views as "democratic realism" (p. 147-7). How do the views of democratic realism contrast with the ideals of the public sphere we have discussed throughout the term?
  2. Explain Lippmann's concepts of "pictures in our heads" and "pseudo-environments."
  3. What, according to Lippman, is the relationship between experiencing and defining reality?
  4. What is the "contrast between customary thinking and scientific analysis" (p.150) according to Lippmann? Why is this contrast significant in Lippmann's thought?
  5. Lippmann devoted considerable thought to the importance of images/symbols in general, and to cinema as a symbolic medium in particular. Key in these theorizations are the concepts of identification and of mediation between fantasy and "what is possible" (p. 154). Explain these concepts. How cinema can be used to accomplish identification and mediation?
  6. How, according to Lippmann, could symbols be employed to foster unified public thinking (note: his concept of a symbol as being "'like a strategic reailroad center'" (p. 155) is relevant here)?
  7. What was Bernays' major criticism of Lippmann, according to Ewen?
  8. What was "Damaged Goods" (p. 159 and throughout)? How and why is it significant to Bernays' career and to the study of PR generally?
  9. According to Ewen, Bernays distinguished a modern approach to publicity as one which turns on an "appeal to the attributes of available consumers" rather than "the product's own attributes" (p. 165). What specific attributes of consumers did Bernays have in mind? Can you think of examples of current PR/advertising that appeal to the type of consumer attributes Bernays had in mind, or to other types of attributes?
  10. Cite three examples of ways Bernays appears to have been influenced by the social theorists discussed in Chapter 7.
  11. According to Ewen, Bernays set about "delineat[ing] a pragmatic outline for how a public relations specialist might be trained" (p. 167). He argued that such a specialist should be a student in three areas. Identify the three and explain the significance of each.
  12. Comment on Ewen's summary at the end of the chapter.

Chapters 9:

  1. Who were Harold Lasswell and John Dewey? What insights do they offer about propaganda/mass persuasion?
  2. What was happening in the American media industry (newspapers & radio) in the '20s & '30s, and what were its implications for PR? For the Public Sphere?
  3. Ewen cites a political scientist, William Hard, as explaining how radio could affect public opinion (p. 180-181). What were his views?
  4. Ewen notes that during this period, survey research/polling emerged as an important aspect of PR & marketing. How was this diffferent from previous approaches to PR, etc?
  5. What is meant when referring to the PR profession as a "two-way street?" What, according to Ewen, is the ideal and the reality of this?
  6. How does public opinion as measured by pollss differ from the classical formulation of public opinion we have previously discussed?
  7. Do polls themselves serve as tools for shaping/manipulating public opinion, or do they just measure it? Explain.

 

Chapter 10

1. How had AT&T management's view of the public changed by the 20s? How had their emphasis on "educating the public" changed?

2. What do you think of Overstreet's classifications of imitative vs. selective pictures, and photography and art?

3. Who were Riis and Hine?

3. What was Hine's belief about the proper relationship of photographs and captions? Photographs and reality?

4. Did photography and cinema change "the ways that people saw and understood their world" (p. 209). If so, how?

5. Why do you think Ewen discusses "modern art" (p. 209-210)?