What I don't think most people realize, and what that PR industry spokesperson would probably prefer they didn't, is that PR is still very much propaganda, except now it also has the sort of distribution mechanism Bernays only dreamed of, compliments of social media. To even hope to combat it, we first have to understand what exactly we're dealing with here. At its most basic, PR is the management of a company or industry's relationship with various "publics." Those publics consist of a company's customers, broader cultural influencers, politicians, journalists, teachers, thought leaders, other industries, competitors, potential hires, employees, investors, shareholders, the list goes on and on. With each of these publics, the company or industry is trying to elicit a particular behavior—they want you to buy their thing, or vote for a particular policy or, if you're a politician, maybe they want you to advocate for or against regulatory changes of some kind.
PR firms help companies do all of that. They set up photo opps for their clients to be seen amongst particular crowds of people, arrange speaking engagements at the right conferences, set up meetings with diplomats and tech leaders, and advise on philanthropic strategies. So when, for example, Charles Koch began investing millions in MIT to fund research that would later underpin policies locking in support for natural gas and then carbon capture in the U.S., it's entirely possible that his foundation's PR firm, Edelman, was advising on that strategy. We've covered before how PR firms carefully crafted the persona of Al Jaber, and helped to successfully position the UAE to win its COP28 hosting bid. This is work that goes way beyond sending out press releases or occasionally meeting with journalists, these are information warfare tactics. And for good reason. The founders of most of today's top PR firms got their training in military intelligence and psychological warfare (for real!) then put that knowledge to work on behalf of corporations looking for an end-run around democracy.
The Many Forms of Fossil Fuel Propagandahttps://drilled.ghost.io/what-the-pr-industry-is-and-is-not/?ref=drilled-newsletter