United Kingdom, Practice of Public Relations In

The emergence of professional public relations in the United Kingdom is the outcome of a centuries-old process engaged in previously by the monarchy, the Church, and the state, encompassing propaganda, intelligence, and censorship. Pageantry, special events, pronouncements, and the publication of tracts and pamphlets were the weaponry of those past days.

Following the Reformation, the powers to persuade previously held by the Crown and the Church shifted to the Parliament. The Post Office, which in earlier times had been employed to spy, became the means of circulation, externally of official policies and internally of reporting on public sentiment and response.

Concerned over the years primarily with domestic matters, governmental action was also influenced by international affairs. An early instance of crisis management, for instance, occurred when the establishment took steps to counter the propaganda promulgated in England by the Revolutionaries during the American Revolution in an attempt to harness public opinion. Later, the establishment acted to counter the philosophical and theoretical basis of the French Revolution, fearing its effect on the British populace. During the American Civil War, [Page 874]when both of the warring parties undertook propaganda programs in Britain and in Europe in an attempt to gain popular support, the British government of the day moved to circulate its views.

In the years prior to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, there was in evidence a number of campaigns mounted by various movements of a social or political nature—for example, the suffragettes and the pro-temperance interests.

On an international level, the authorities were forced to take propagandist action to counter antagonistic programs. Witness the anti-British campaign mounted in Europe as a result of the inhumane treatment of the old, infirm, women, and children, and the burning of homesteads and invention of concentration camps.

During the late 1800s, the British Civil Service underwent an extensive process of reform that resulted in the strengthening of its nonpartisan nature. At the same time, it had also undergone considerable expansion to take account of developing social programs such as health, education, and benefits. A number of departments created embryonic information units that adhered to the principle of political impartiality. They were staffed invariably by public servants, and as early as 1906, a central committee was formed to oversee and coordinate the publication and distribution of official reports and the like.

But, as later occurred in the United States, the outbreak of World War I brought about significant changes in this area. A Home Office Press Bureau and a Foreign Office News Department were created, followed shortly by a Neutral Press Committee and a secret unit targeting foreign opinion. Meanwhile, various departments of government were strengthening their in-house information and publicity teams, increasingly employing outsiders from the fields of journalism and advertising to augment the efforts of the career officials.

In 1917, three years into the war, Prime Minister Lloyd George ordered the foundation of the Department of Information, which was promoted to a full ministry a year later. At the same time, a separate Department of Enemy Propaganda was also created. (It is worth noting that when the Americans entered the war in 1917, they set up their propaganda organization, the Committee of Public Information, under the leadership of George Creel, a journalist. He described his activities as “a plain publicity proposition… the world's greatest adventure in advertising” [Creel, 1920, p. 4]).

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