Interpersonal Communication Theory

Historically, public relations has been closely associated with mass communication, in part because until only recently, public relations practitioners usually were educated and worked as journalists before entering public relations. Also, public relations frequently targets mass media as a popular channel to carry its messages, placing great emphasis on publicity-gaining activities and media relations. However, public relations also commonly employs interpersonal communication in carrying out its research and planning functions and executing its strategies, tactics, and evaluation processes. Public relations practitioners might well study interpersonal communication theory and master interpersonal communication techniques to enhance their probabilities of engaging in best practices.

Mass media functions to provide glimpses of socially constructed reality, projecting “pictures in our heads” synthesized from the real world, in Walter Lippmann's (1965) terms. Gaye Tuchman (1978) noted the news media acts as the public's window on the world. Mass communication influences the way people relate to one another interpersonally and vice versa. The assessment applies just as well to public relations: In many instances, public relations influences the way people relate to one another interpersonally, and there is a growing recognition of the importance of interpersonal communication in public relations.

As early as 1955, Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld described interpersonal communication as an intervening variable between mass communication and behavior change. Katz and Lazarsfeld introduced the two-step model of mass media effects, depicting interpersonal interactions as channels of mass media information in which individuals engage in interpersonal communication about mass media content, exchanging information and influencing each other's opinions. Public relations campaigns frequently work to facilitate application of the two-step model and depend on word-of-mouth amplifications of public relations' mass media publicity placements.

Traditionally, interpersonal communication contexts have included theories dealing with individuals in relationships or the relationships themselves, especially—but not limited to—dyads. Public relations might well serve as a bridge between interpersonal and mass communications, since public relations contexts often include communication between dyads as well as broader societal interactions.

Weighing similarities as well as differences between interpersonal communication and mass communication, Jennings Bryant and R. L. Street, Jr., (1988) suggested that interpersonal and mass communication differ in (a) theoretical focus, with mass communication being preoccupied with receiver-oriented, and interpersonal with both receiverand source-oriented, with an emphasis on the latter; (b) nature of the communication process, with mass and interpersonal communication each having varying active, recursive (involving feedback), interactive, and transactional patterns, depending on respective theoretical perspectives; and (c) outcomes of message perception in relation [Page 443]to receiver cognitions and attitudes: Interpersonal research assumes cognitions and attitudes to be comparatively stable, whereas mass communication assumes they are dynamic and subject to influence by the mediated message. Bryant and Street concluded that studying each other's models and sharing findings can only enrich both interpersonal and mass communication domains. The same assumption likely applies equally to interpersonal communication and public relations.