The trail of tension between public relations and journalism: The unfinished business about using propaganda to move crowds

This study examines key events that led to the tension between journalism and public relations regarding the issue of propaganda being used to move crowds. It explores how that tension persists in the current debate about the press reform movement known as "public journalism" and establishes that press engagement with the citizenry is problematic until this tension is addressed.;Primary source documents from the collections of Ray Stannard Baker, Ivy Ledbetter Lee and Edward L. Bernays were consulted for this study, along with an extensive review of literature by experts in the fields of railroad and World War I propaganda. The current debate about propaganda and public journalism was researched in journalism books and trade journalism publications.;Chapter one looks at the late 19th century rise of American industrialism and the resulting alienation of the public from big business. It examines the railroads' extensive use of publicity and propaganda to move crowds. This chapter also establishes the growing public concern about the interests of big business often conflicting with the public interest.;Chapter two shows that, even though the railroads engaged in abusive tactics, the mainstream press did not attempt to expose railroad manipulations. With the rise of magazines however, the muckraking movement developed and Ray Stannard Baker exposed railroad propaganda practices in McClure's magazine.;Chapter three details how the railroads used publicist Ivy Lee to successfully lobby for a rate increase in 1914. In 1917, George Creel implemented several propaganda approaches to successfully support America in World War I.;Chapter four shows that, as a result of Creel's propaganda successes, significant debate ensued in the 1920s about the appropriateness of propaganda among Walter Lippmann, Edward Bernays and Harold Lasswell.;Chapter five details that the long-term fallout of press wariness of propaganda contributed to criticism of a 1990s civic engagement movement called "public journalism." Many detractors within the press labeled public journalism as a new form of propaganda, accusing it of attempting to move crowds. This chapter asks questions about how the lingering concern regarding propaganda affects journalism's ability to engage the citizenry.