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[[File:EAhuja.jpg|alt=A black and white photo of a group of people.|thumb|A public mostly means a group people.]]
In communication science and '''public''' relations, "public" mostly means people.<ref name="Brito 2005">{{Cite book |last1=Brito |first1=R. |last2=Bumiller |first2=G. |last3=Yeqiong Song |chapter=Modelling and simulation of a SFN based PLC network |date=2005 |title=International Symposium on Power Line Communications and Its Applications, 2005 |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/isplc.2005.1430525 |pages=331–335 |publisher=IEEE |doi=10.1109/isplc.2005.1430525 |isbn=0-7803-8844-5|s2cid=43152655 |url=https://hal.inria.fr/inria-00000793/file/isplc05_brito_bumiller_song.pdf }}</ref><ref name="Bowen">{{Cite book |title=An Overview of the Public Relations Function |url=https://archive.org/details/overviewofpublic0000bowe |last1=Bowen |first1=Shannon |last2=Rawlins |first2=Brad |last3=Martin |first3=Thomas |date=2010-04-19 |publisher=Business Expert Press |doi=10.4128/9781606490990 |isbn=978-1-60649-099-0}}</ref> The meaning of this is different than other ideas, such as gatherings in social life to talk about people (public sphere).<ref name="Brito 2005"/> The meaning of this is also talked about in the learning of government (political science), the learning of how humans think ([[psychology]]), and the learning of giving things to people (marketing). This word's meaning is very hard to make, as people think that public has different meanings.<ref name=HPR>{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452220727.n10 |title=Handbook of Public Relations |last1=Vasquez |first1=Gabriel M. |last2=Taylor |first2=Maureen |publisher=SAGE Publications, Inc. |isbn=978-1-4129-0954-9 |location=Thousand Oaks, California |pages=139–154|doi=10.4135/9781452220727.n10 }}</ref>

== How the word is created ==
The word "public" comes from the [[Latin]] ''[[wikt:publicus#Latin|publicus]]'', or "of the people".

== Different meanings ==
In the learning of government (politics), "public" means a group of people who are related to government (leader group). In psychology and public relations, public has even more different meanings.

=== Meaning in psychology ===
[[File:John Dewey in 1902.jpg|alt=A black and white photo of John Dewey.|thumb|John Dewey created the first real meaning of “public”.]]
In the year of 1929, [[John Dewey]] had<ref name="Wood 2000">{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0900891 |title=Dewey, Alice Chipman (1858-1927), educator and feminist |last=Wood |first=JoAnn |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |series=American National Biography Online|doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0900891 }}</ref> the meaning of "public" as a group of people who answer the same problem. This means that this meaning is about problems (situational).<ref name=HPR/> This definition of "public" with "problem" is so misunderstood that people made a whole new learning place, called as "the idea of the public being about problems" (situational theory of publics) created by James E Gruning,<ref name="Grunig 1983">{{Cite journal |last=Grunig |first=James E. |date=1983 |title=Washington Reporter Publics of Corporate Public Affairs Programs |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/107769908306000404 |journal=Journalism Quarterly |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=603–614 |doi=10.1177/107769908306000404 |s2cid=144103541 |issn=0022-5533}}</ref> who was so into "the idea of the public being about problems” that he also thought of “the idea of the public ''not'' being about problems", and so made sets that put the ideas of the meaning of public in order. This includes "the idea of a public without a problem" (nonpublics), "the idea of public with a problem" (latent publics), and "the idea of public who know they have a problem" (active publics).<ref name="Winter 2005">{{Cite journal |last=Winter |first=Richard |date=2005 |title=Toelichting op de preventiemedewerker |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf03072630 |journal=TandartsPraktijk |volume=26 |issue=9 |pages=720–721 |doi=10.1007/bf03072630 |s2cid=72261405 |issn=0167-1685}}</ref>

=== Meaning in public relations ===
In this meaning, the meaning of “public” is not someone who likes business (stakeholder) or a system of getting and giving things for money (market). This meaning of "public" here is that it is a part of a group of multiple people who like business (stakeholder) who all need to solve a problem. This is not a market because it does not have any money moving system (exchange system), and that a "public" is created by itself (self-forming) and puts itself in order by itself (self-organizing).<ref name="Bowen"/> The people who are in public relations do things for the "public". People who are needed to make a group's dreams come true are named as "target publics", and people that help the target publics are named as "influentials". Influentials are important, because they give answers to the target public's problems. The "target publics" are also important, because their answers to the government problems (like electoral votes) are very important.<ref name="Rawlins">{{cite encyclopaedia |date=2005 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of public relations |volume=2 |editor1-first=Robert Lawrence |editor1-last=Heath |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-0-7619-2733-4 |article=Publics |first1=Brad L. |last1=Rawlins |first2=Shannon A. |last2=Bowen |pages=720–721}}</ref>

The public also has rules of being in the public ("social norms"), that play a major role in how information is moved.

=== Situational or non-situational meaning ===
[[File:Exposed terminal problem.svg|alt=An exposed terminal problem diagram.|thumb|Problems, such as the one above, are important in the situational meaning of “public”.]]
Public relations theory shows that the meaning of publics is situational, according to John Dewey and James E. Gruning, and is simply a group of people. According to Gabriel M. Vasquez, a public has people that all know about their common problem and all try to solve that problem (“homo narrans” [Latin for "storytelling human"]), and create a list of problems to be solved (agenda-building).<ref name="Borus 1993">{{Cite journal |last=Borus |first=Jonathan F. |date=1993 |title=Where Have All the Residents Gone?|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/10673229309017059 |journal=Harvard Review of Psychiatry |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=66–67 |doi=10.3109/10673229309017059 |pmid=9384830 |s2cid=34872470 |issn=1067-3229}}</ref> For example, Schools are commonly talked about for their agenda-building, on whether they should teach about religion or not (secular).<ref name="Shorto2010">{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html |title=How Christian Were the Founders? |last=Shorto |first=Russell |date=2010-02-11 |work=The New York Times Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171230005639/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html |archive-date=2017-12-30 |access-date=2018-05-06 |via=NYTimes.com |url-status=live}}</ref> Some people think publics are about the government (political) and last forever.

But, other people think that the meaning of public is non-situational. Kirk Hallahan, professor at [[Colorado State University]], thinks that the meaning of public is about another organization, and has public as that it is people who are about (relate) to an organization, who show different amounts of activity—passivity (getting information without giving it), and who might (or might not) talk with others about their relationship with the group.{{Fact|date=August 2020}}

== Types of "public" ==
=== Social publics ===
Social publics are people who like the same ideas or hobbies.

=== Networked publics ===
[[File:Social Media Marketing Strategy.jpg|alt=A keyboard with social media logos on the keys.|thumb|Social media is one of the things that create networked publics.]]
Networked publics are social publics who are organized by the new technology. Because of this, networked publics are the result of technologies that connect people (networked technologies, like social media), and the whole result from a combination of the people in the networked public, their technologies, and their ideas.<ref name=Varnelis 2008">{{cite web |url=http://networkedpublics.org/ |title=Networked Publics |last=Varnelis |first=Kazys |date=2008-10-31 |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170610172912/http://networkedpublics.org/ |archive-date=2017-06-10 |url-status=live}}</ref>

== Publics and problems  ==
The situational theory of publics, is about the idea that publics can be used and organized by how much they know (are aware of) their common [[problem]], and how much action the group has taken to resolve that problem.  This theory shows when people communicate ideas and when the ideas are about the people who are important in solving the common problem.  This theory is almost the same as John Dewey's theory of publics and Blumer's theory of publics.

=== Key concepts ===
The five key concepts in this theory are:

# how much the people know that have a problem (problem recognition)
# how much the people know their actions are limited (constraint recognition)
# amount of how much a problem affects someone (level of involvement)
# amount of new info gotten (information seeking)
# amount of new info processed (information processing)

=== History ===
This theory comes from James E. Grunig's writing, "The Role of Information in Economic Decision Making" in 1966. This writing was the beginning of the situational theory of publics, as it had the first key idea, problem recognition, in the writing. Then, when he wrote about the decisions of people who own land in Columbia to become a professor, he also wrote about the second key idea, constraint recognition. He then added Herbert Krugman's idea of the third key idea, level of involvement, to explain the difference between the fourth and fifth key ideas, information seeking and information processing. After that, he wrote a book in 1984 which was named "Managing Public Relations", which further made the situational theory of publics make more sense, based on John Dewey's book, which was named "The Public and Its Problems".

=== Development ===
[[File:First Equation Ever.svg|alt=An equation of absolute value and square roots.|thumb|Equations, such as the one shown above, helped make the situational theory of publics make more sense.]]
People who use the theory created equations which used the theory to organize the different types of publics, and the most real effects of communication for each public. Because these math rules were created, it made the theory more understandable and became used in a more common way in learning the theory (academic studies) and in some professional learning. This theory is like the learning of the actions of people buy things (consumer behavior), health communication, how media works (media exposure), and the communication of government related ideas (political communication), which are common in other parts of the learning of communication (communication research). But, this theory has more common key ideas and a more developed system of learning and analysis because of the equations. Because of this, it can become more common (popular) and include other smaller less common theories inside it (subsume).

=== Extension ===
[[File:Situational Theory of Problem Solving.png|alt=A diagram of the situational theory of problem solving.|thumb|The situational theory of publics was extended to the situational theory of problem solving in 2011.]]
Even though the theory is well developed, it develops even more common. The theory has been used to show why people join groups who really want things to happen (activist groups), to organize the external (real, actual) and internal (perceived) parts (dimensions) of problem recognition, and to learn whether information that is used in information processing (processed information) can create publics. Also, some more research was done on the internal and external dimensions of problem recognition, constraint recognition, and level of involvement (Grunig & Hon, 1988; Grunig, 1997). The research is about whether the ideas are internal or external. The research shows that if the concepts are internal, they can be changed by communication, and that if they are external, then the holdable things that are around the person need to be changed in order for the person's concept of the variables to change (Grunig, 1997, p.&nbsp;25). But, there is a small amount of research on the internal and external dimensions of the three key concepts, so there can be more studies on these concepts (Grunig, 1997). Then, in 2011, Jeong-Nam Kim and Grunig extended the theory to the [[situational theory of problem solving]].

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{wikiquote|The Public}}
{{Wiktionary|public|general public}}

* {{cite book |title=The public and Its Problems |last=Dewey |first=John |publisher=Swallow Press |year=1927 |location=Chicago |author-link=John Dewey}}
* {{cite book |title=Communications behaviours and attitudes of environmental publics: Two studies |last=Grunig |first=James E. |publisher=Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Publications |year=1983 |series=Journalism Monographs |volume=81 |author-link=James E. Grunig}}
* [[Alastair Hannay|Hannay, Alastair]] (2005) ''On the Public'' Routledge {{ISBN|0-415-32792-X}}
* {{cite encyclopaedia |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of public relations |volume=2 |editor1-first=Robert Lawrence |editor1-last=Heath |publisher=SAGE |date=2005 |isbn=978-0-7619-2733-4 |article=Public sphere (Öffentlichkeit)}}
* {{cite book |title=Public relations: critical debates and contemporary practice |editor1-first=Jacquie |editor1-last=L'Etang |editor2-first=Magda |editor2-last=Pieczka |publisher=Routledge |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8058-4618-8 |chapter=Relationships, Transparency, and Evaluation: The Implications for Public Relations |first=Julia |last=Jahanzsoozi}}
* [[Søren Kierkegaard|Kierkegaard, Søren]] (2002) ''A Literary Review''; Alastair Hannay (trans.) London: Penguin {{ISBN|0-14-044801-2}}
* [[Walter Lippmann|Lippmann, Walter]]. ''The Phantom Public'' (Library of Conservative Thought), Transaction Publishers; Reprint edition, January 1, 1993, {{ISBN|1-56000-677-3}}.
* Mayhew, Leon H. ''The New Public: Professional Communication and the Means of Social Influence'', (Cambridge Cultural Social Studies), Cambridge University Press, September 28, 1997, {{ISBN|0-521-48493-6}}.
* [[Richard Sennett|Sennett, Richard]]. ''The Fall of Public Man'' W. W. Norton & Company; Reissue edition, June 1992, {{ISBN|0-393-30879-0}}.
* {{cite book |chapter=Building Public Affairs Theory |first=Elizabeth L. |last=Toth |title=Public relations theory II |series=LEA's communication series |editor1-first=Carl H. |editor1-last=Botan |editor2-first=Vincent |editor2-last=Hazleton |publisher=Routledge |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8058-3384-3}}
* {{cite journal |last=Vasquez |first=Gabriel M. |year=1993 |title=A Homo Narrens Paradigm for Public Relations: Combining Bormann's Symbolic Convergence Theory and Grunig's Situational Theory of Publics |journal=Journal of Public Relations Research |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=201–216 |doi=10.1207/s1532754xjprr0503_03 }}

[[Category:Sociology]]
[[Category:Communication]]