PR In Turkey

SERRA GORPE, Ph.D., APR
Istanbul University
TUHID Board Member

The growth of public relations continues to increase in Turkey and it is developing at a fast rate especially in the recent years. Turkey is more integrated to Europe and United States than in the past and this increases the need for public relations. There are many indications of  that growth,  but by looking at looking at two things; the evolution of national association of public relations in Turkey and public relations education, it is possible to understand briefly what public relations mean in our context.

Public relations in Turkey first emerged under the role of the government in 1960’s and with the multinational companies entrance to the Turkish market, public relations efforts shifted from the public sector to the private sector. First public relations practitioners were former journalists; now we see more public relations people trained in public relations occupying these posts. Public relations is not interpreted in a narrow context as media relations or dissemination of information any more and public relations practitonaers do belive that Advertising Value Equivalance does not mean anything where there are other ways of measurement.

The development of public relations in the private sector was faster than the public sector for quite some time, but it is not wrong to say that the public relations in the public sector is gaining importance recently. For example, in some public relations curriculums, courses on that specialized area are being offered and also national public relations entrees has now ‘public sector category’ added. That category is having a lot of popularity.

Public relations profession had its roots in the professional world, but by the 1990’s the growth is transfered to the the academic arena as well.  Public relations teaching first has started in 1966 in Journalism and Public Relations Vocational School that was part of Political Science Faculty of Ankara University. By 1992, the status of public relations teaching institutions turned into faculties. In Turkey there are now twenty seven communication faculties that offer degrees in public relations, including foundation (private) and public universities (14 universities).  In addition to that, there are some schools that are not communication schools, but offer public relations courses.  However, this recent growth is carrying with it two problems. One is that there are many public relations graduates.  People having other degrees may work in the field and there is a lot of competition in the market place. Also, it is difficult to offer practical courses with many students sitting in the classroom and this is the case for some schools of communications. Secondly, that recent growth in public relations programs bring along the necessity of establishing good public relations curriculum and having qualified lecturers/academics to offer these courses. This is not an easy task.

For a long time public relations is misunderstood, misused and had a very negative meaning. It is not still a profession; it is not regulated and anybody can call himself/herself  as a public relations specialist, but important steps have been taken to turn it into a profession. For example, the national association’s work about ethics and steps for initiating an Accreditation program can be cited. In short, due to  globalization, the increase of multinational firms and new partnerships of agencies with foreign public relations firms, recent changes in the public relations education, public relations practitioners and association’s efforts, public relations is portrayed more accurately.  Now the discussion is about the name of ‘public relations’ whether it encompasses what we really do and whether it is better to call it it ‘reputation management’ or ‘management consultancy’ or ‘communication management.’ Although, Turkey does not have a long history of public relations as either as profession or as academic field, Turkish public relations has been represented by practitioners at the international associations such as IPRA, Global Alliance and recently in CERP. There is now a growing interest as well in the specialized dimension of the public relations field. Marketing public relations, public relations in non-profit organizations are among those and also there are agencies with a specific specialization such as working on corporate responsibility, sponsorhips.

Turkey’s public relations association, Halkla Iliskiler Dernegi, (HID) has been founded in 1972 by thirteen practitioners. The mission of the association at that time was to introduce and develop the profession. This is followed later  by the establishment of Ankara, Izmir and Bursa public relations associations. Since February 2005, HID, public relations professional association, is representing Turkey and has got Turkey in its title, representing a national body of organization with its chapters.

For many years, the member numbers of HID were very few. By 2006, TUHID has 253 members of 175 of them are females and  78  males. Of those members, 35 of them are from the agency world, 67 members own public relations firms, 84 are from the corporations/NGO’s and only 14 are academicians.   

During the first period which we could say the period till 2000’s, former TUHID worked mostly for the acknowledgement of PR in the Turkish society. The second period is highlighted by revisions in the structure of the association including mission, vision and ethics revisions. Also, during that period close networking with international associations such as International Public Relations Association (IPRA), European Public Relations Confederation (CERP) and Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communications Management is achieved.

The second period also required more professionalism. Several committees are formed within the association to carry out programs. Of those, ‘Golden Compass Public Relations Awards’ Committee, TUHID Continuing Education Seminars Committee, Research Committee, Ethics Committee are the most active ones.

Very briefly; Golden Compass public relations awards is the only PR awards in Turkey honoring best practices and has been going on five years. TUHID continuing education seminars targeted mostly to beginners are carried out in cooperation with public relations academics and professionals. The program will be revised shortly there is also an increasing demand for continuing education by senior level public relations as well.

Finding data on the public relations in Turkey is not easy, for example, it is not easy to give an exact number of professionals or agencies.   However, with the public relations academics contributions and recently with the efforts of national association, TUHID, attempts have been made to gather data on the sector and current issues. TUHID is cooperating on this with Communications Consultancy Companies Association (IDA ICCO Turkey) and when the research is completed, there will be more to say statistically about the field.  

One of the recent important contributions of TUHID was to re-establish a Code of the Ethics. In conjuction with mission, vision revisions that have been made, revisons on professional codes has been done. An Ethics Board consisting of academics and opinion leaders has formed to deal with issues brought to TUHID.  

Also TUHID is working to be a meeting point for students of public relations and academics. The goal is to motivate the students to be members of the association, form students’ chapter, prepare them for future responsabilities and establish a ‘Young TUHID’ group.

In Turkey, in addition to the national association TUHID, there is Public Relations Consultancies Association (HDD) which is formed of Turkish IPRA members and recently, it had been active with TUHID for IPRA World Congress in June, 2005 in Istanbul. There is also Communications Consultancy Companies Association (IDA ICCO Turkey), founded by 16 communications consultancy firms that gathered to fulfill the targets of further developing and expanding public relations and communications consultancy sector, and raise the service standards. They are offically active since September, 2004.

Public relations is developing and going in hand with the the global economical changes. Turkish public relations practitoners are very closely following the trends and developments in the profession. The fact that Turkey has economic ties with Europe and USA affect the way of business and that is also reflected in the profession. It is an attractive and promising field and the future could be better if the coordination that has started recently between public relations academics and professionals increase. The graduate programs in public relations are offered in many schools of communication and the graduates from these schools will hopefully develop the theory of public relations. Perception of public relations is changing; compared to the past people from non- communication backgrounds are understanding the importance of public relations and the Turkish practitioners do also have a role of teaching what public relations is about. Crisis communications, corporate responsibility, health-PR, technology do have a lot of importance. Public relations practitioners want to show their contribution not only working in corporations, but also there is tendency to work for NGO’s. Also rapid growth of international business is helping the practice of public relations and international public relations is gaining importance recently.