Publicity; some of the things it is and is not,
"Publicity and Propaganda, " the first section of this three-part work by the publicist Ivy Lee, is an address delivered before the American Association of Teachers of Journalism at Chicago on December 30, 1924, and before the Advertising Club of New York on January 20, 1925. Examining principles and methods for publicity, it maintains that publicity is "everything involved in the expression of an idea" or a policy of an institution. Lee contends that advertising, a phase of publicity, differs from front-page news in that news is what people are willing to pay to have brought to their attention whereas advertising is what the advertiser must pay to get to people's attention. The goal of publicity, Lee claims, is to make people aware of the events that most affect their well-being even when the facts do not interest them. He urges those involved in publicity to provide sources for every piece of information published, because such an approach establishes credibility and distinguishes publicity from propaganda. The second section of the book presents answers to questions about this speech. The third section, "Publicity as Applied to Public Service Corporations," reproduces an address Lee delivered before the Annual Convention of the American Electric Railway Association on October 16, 1916. He argues that publicity should be "an antiseptic" to cleanse the source of a problem rather than a "bandage" to conceal it. He declares that the fundamental purpose underlying any publicity is to win public confidence in the sincerity and honesty of a company's management. To accomplish this end, corporate representatives must speak the language of the common people and companies must take newspapers into their confidence and use all the advertising space they can afford.