Public Relations In Shakespeare's War And The Gallic War

Public relations have been a prominent aspect of society for millennia, dating back to 50 B.C. with Julius Caesar and referred by the Ancient Greeks as “semantikos”, which is the practice of persuading people into a belief or action (Witman, 2000). Public relations is still been influenced by the contributions of key historical and contemporary figures including Benjamin Franklin and Ivy Lee.

In the early years of 50 B.C., the idea of persuading people to vote for a particular person was conceived. Julius Caesar released the first campaign biography titled The Gallic Wars (Gallic Wars). The texts depict the history of his military campaign from 58 B.C. to 51 B.C. and were used to convince the Roman Empire of his capabilities to be the head

Being one of the first people involved in Public Relations, he pioneered the modern press secretary. His job entailed delivering regular eulogies to the Emperor and was similar to a minister of propaganda for the imperial court (Sheehan, 2007).

In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote The Crisis - a pamphlet aimed at encouraging the soldiers of Washington’s army to remain in the dreary conditions and fight. A number of the soldiers were preparing to desert and escape from the cold and hardships of the winter campaign. However, Paine was a supposed master of political propaganda whose writing could persuade people to act and believe in what he preached (Dewar, 2013).

After Benjamin Franklin became a prominent figure in society, it was found that he made it a rule to forbear all contradiction to others and all positive assertions of his own (Witman, 2000). Commonly, he would say, “I perceive,” or, “I apprehend,” or, “it appears to be so,” before making any contradictory statements. He created the rules for personal relations in an era before mass media had created public

Seward became the innovator of media relations when he told Jefferson Davis, “I speak to the newspapers – they have a large audience and can repeat a thousand times what I want to impress on the public,” (Smith, 2013). However, public relations did not become a profession until 1903 when Ivy Lee began to advise John Rockefeller in his relations with the public. Rockefeller owned coal mines and the Pennsylvania Railroad, his miners were on strike, and the issues occurring on the railroads were silenced. Lee encouraged Rockefeller to communicate with the miners by visiting the mines (Hiebert, 1966). He spent time listening to the troubles facing the miners and took measures to improve their conditions. The strike relented and Rockefeller’s mine was back on track. Lee also took the initiative and invited reporters to inspect a train wreck after a railroad accident. In consequence, the Pennsylvania Railroad received its first favorable press