Prl Research Paper

!1 Katherine Quinn Professor Maria Russell PRL 206 19 February 2019 Public Relations in Arts and Entertainment The hype surrounding an album release, the buzz about a gallery opening, or the breaking news of a celebrity engagement are all the product of public relations hard at work in entertainment. Generally, public relations is a massive field with a plethora of job descriptions inside it, including arts and entertainment. Found in every nook and cranny of any field, PR plays a crucial role in ensuring the success and perpetuity of these industries, whether that be organizing music festivals, contacting museums for showcases, confirming airtime, or things of that nature. These sectors are globally relevant as well, since entertainment is an international sensation, and are a growing force in today’s ever-connected world. Roughly, arts and entertainment public relations concerns the PR practices found and utilized in both creative and commercialized industries. Artists and entertainers must have their creative content translated in a way they are comfortable with. Audiences are usually diverse and hold varying opinions, so the creator’s idea has to be explicitly rendered to the masses in order for nothing to be mistaken. Meaning, the correct message needs to be insinuated through their work and on to their audience, explaining the need for PR professionals (Treadwell 348). Specifically, television, film, music, museums and the art world, celebrity management, and the performing arts all operate successfully thanks to public relations. The marketing of movies and TV shows play a huge part in its financial achievements. How can a film produce a big turnout if

!2 no one is aware it’s being released? It’s just not possible. Therefore, advertisements, often times displayed on TV and in the form of trailers, are incredibly important. The same goes for Broadway shows or live performances; awareness must be spread, but this might be through posters or good reviews instead (Treadwell 358). Additionally, the music industry has a unique way to manage the distribution of music. Record labels must uphold a reputation for producing brilliant artists, while artists need to brand themselves in order to stand out among the competition. For celebrities, the process is slightly different. Social media interactions can shape the public’s perceptions of a figure, so real life appearances are vital to maintain an accessible image (Smith 203). An online presence is necessary to consistently interact with the public. Lastly, the refined world of art is one that seems unreachable to some. It might be a struggle to keep people coming, but interest is piqued when foreign artists come to visit, or a limited time exhibition is opened. It’s hard to see at first, but public relations is intertwined into every field in some way, shape or form. It’s difficult to fully understand public relations, much less arts and entertainment PR, without learning the history behind it first. As long as film, music, and arts were around, public relations also existed, although it may not have had an official name. Still, as the arts became commercialized, PR truly came into play. For film, this begins in 1927, when the first television was invented by Philo Taylor Farnsworth. To be fair, this was an extremely early model, which makes sense when one considers the Golden Age of cinema was from the 1930s to the 1940s. The television became wildly popular in the early 1950s, after sets became easier to manage and less clunkier. TV knocked the film industry completely out of the park with its ease and convenience, and filmmakers were caught off guard (Wild). In retaliation, film producers had to

!3 alter the way people viewed the movies, a PR strategy. Movies began coming out with special effects and on significantly larger screens. It turned into a cultural phenomenon to go to the movies on dates, or as a fun family event, or a rainy day activity. Then, the concept of trailers was introduced, and changed the way films were advertised forever. By catering to their audience and employing public relations tactics, movies were able to stay relevant (Media Museum). To look at another industry, the music scene also has a long history. Again, music has been around for as long as humans have been able to hum, but the recording business is relatively new, with the first record label being established in 1888, the famed Columbia Records. The concept of selling music to be enjoyed by the masses was revolutionary as well, and created a whole new market and way for public relations to be involved. At first, records and eventually CDs were sold and mass distributed. But, the birth of the Internet brought about the digitalization of music and with that, the need for extensive PR strategies. Artists mainly make money off of live performances like tours and concerts, or the selling of their music, whether that be physically (past) or digitally (present). There’s a small niche of endorsement and royalty money that comes through, but usually not enough to sustain a living (Gamal 18). Public relations is crucial to hype an album drop, or connect a town with a local performer, or even communicate with an international crowd base. Piracy was a controversial issue; it’s the viral theft of online music which soiled the artists’ source of income. To raise attention to this criminal matter, public relations was also required. Musically, PR helped to promote musicians while exposing thieves. As with everything, arts and entertainment public relations has disadvantages and advantages. However, they are not so easily distinguished. Firstly, entertainment and arts depend entirely on the will of the consumers. In no way is it essential to the survival of the human race;

!4 rather, it is there for leisure and pleasure. In some societies, public relations isn’t as highly developed, because the industries aren’t as advanced just yet. Not to mention it’s a constantly fluctuating field. A PR practitioner working with an up and coming artist might think they’re going to make it big, until the public digs up something in their past, decides they’re “cancelled” and refuses to even listen to their music. Working in different genres as well equals overcoming certain stigmas, like the ones that surround rap and country music. The entire profession is subject to the will of the public, and that can be extremely frustrating to deal with at times (Tench 606). On the other, positive hand, working in arts and entertainment will open lots of doors. Meeting new, interesting, diverse people will become the norm, and it’s certainly not a boring nine-to-five cubicle job. There is a plethora of artists that need help, celebrities that need managing, and films that require promoting, so it’s not like there’s a lack of jobs. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always equal great pay, though. It’s definitely a different type of PR, howeverdealing with various problems and solving them in a multitude of ways. Underneath it all, it’s still wholly image based. That being said, the same core beliefs can be found in arts and entertainment PR as well as others. Communication between the publics and a person or organization must be kept flowing both ways, and just like in corporate or healthcare PR, press releases are utilized, whether in paper or digital form, media outlets updated, venues rented, and the audience persuaded. What’s different about public relations is that the practitioner is managing the artist’s creative content, passions and dreams. It’s up to the PR person to guarantee those ideas are communicated precisely and correctly, which is no easy feat. Artists have to be particular about their work and the message it is trying to send; this all affects how PR people publicize the work

!5 and reach their audiences (Gamal 22). Though arts and entertainment cover a broad range of activities, there are still certain skill sets that are necessary to succeed specific to each industry. For example, celebrity PR is often times working with an actual person, with a free will and strong opinions, not an organization. So, PR practitioners in this field need to be able to read and understand their clients intimately. In the music profession, having industry knowledge and perhaps a production background would be extremely helpful too. A practitioner needs to be aware of the various musical genres and groups, as well as the demographics that accompany them in order to better interact with them. Whatever quality that music or label has that makes it special and stand out, the PR person must know it inside and out to be able to fully reach the potential consumer base. In the future, arts and entertainment public relations is not going anywhere. However, the lines between the specific sectors are becoming increasingly blurred. Big time musical artists may be celebrities in their own right, like Beyonce. With that status change comes a shift in how they are managed; it’s no longer just about the music and convincing publics to listen to the pieces or radio stations to give it airtime. Now, many pairs of eyes are watching this music phenomenon, and suddenly the clothes they wear, the products they use, and their actions have countless consequences. Not only are the sectors overlapping more, but the field is expanding. In today’s connected world, films, music and fame aren’t just domestic (Tench 614). Music especially is considered the universal language, as it requires no words to understand and feel, which is why international phenomenons have reached such monumental success. Artists like the Canadian Justin Bieber, 5 Seconds of Summer of Australia, and currently, South Korea’s BTS are groups that demonstrate the global impact music can have. Just look at their influence and crazy

!6 fanbase. BTS in particular connects with their audience mainly through Twitter, and managed to build an incredibly loyal and dedicated audience of fourteen million followers while completing a world tour (@BTS_twt). So, public relations strategies must shift accordingly as well. These tactics can include promotional clothing, visual cues like billboards, and electronic ads. After much research and in depth readings, I’ve gotten to know much more about how arts and entertainment public relations really operates. Firstly, it’s much less glamorous than it seems on the outside, and clearly a lot of hard, dedicated work. Additionally, it’s difficult to relate the content to an uninterested audience; not everyone is into fine art, Broadway shows, or folk music. It can be discouraging when working with an obscure creative, and the masses turn a blind eye to their talent. On the flip side, there’s nothing better than forming a deep connection with a client and seeing them succeed, or personally organizing a movie campaign and watching it do well. People’s likes and dislikes are ever-changing, so these strategies can be hit or miss. I think it would be stressful to work in arts and entertainment, considering I would have entire careers in my hands. Still, the multitude of independently diverse people I would meet everyday would balance it out. And, there is a certain cool factor that comes with being in the arts and entertainment industry. As a PR professional, I would have to consider my own personal image as well. But, I think I would welcome the challenge and look forward to a genuinely interesting and surprising day, everyday. Arts and entertainment is a specific field that doesn’t have a concrete path. Rather, it plays a role in every single industry in small but significant ways. It might be difficult to spot, but don’t doubt its importance. To get into this position requires a lot of background experience and industry knowledge, as it is so niche. Music, film, TV, radio and celebrity management all

!7 rely heavily on this type of public relations to translate the creative idea accurately and raise awareness and interest.

!8 Bibliography -Smith, Ronald D. (2002). Strategic Planning for Public Relations. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. -Treadwell, Donald and Jill B. (2003). Public Relations Writing: Principles in Practice. London, England: SAGE Publications. -Gamal, Ashraf El. (2012 December 3). The Evolution of the Music Industry in the Post-Internet Era. Retrieved from https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https:// www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1501&context=cmc_theses -Wild, Larry. (2016, December 27). Television in the US: History and Production. Retrieved from http://www3.northern.edu/wild/th100/tv.htm -National Science and Media Museum. (2011 January 7). A Very Short History of Cinema. Retrieved from https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/very-short-history-of-cinema/ -The Museum of Public Relations. (2015). Public Relations Through the Ages: A Timeline of Social Movements, Technology Milestones and the Rise of the Profession. Retrieved from http:// www.prmuseum.org/pr-timeline -Tench, Ralph; Yeomans, Liz. (2006). Exploring Public Relations. F.T. Prentice Hall. Retrieved from https://nscpolteksby.ac.id/ebook/files/Ebook/Business%20Administration/ Exploring%20Public%20Relations%20(2006)/33.%20Chapter%2031%20-%20Artsleisure%20and%20entertainment%20public%20relations.pdf -@BTS_twt. (2019 February 18). Retrieved from https://twitter.com/BTS_twt? ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor