The Greatest "Show" Man

Image result for the greatest showman

One of my favorite movies of 2017 was the film "The Greatest Showman." This movie follows the story of Phineas Taylor (or P.T.) Barnum and his "rags to riches" storyline. The movie follows the story of a man taking his own imaginations and turning that into his selling point. What I did not realize was that P.T. Barnum put into practice one of the 4 prominent PR models throughout time. The PR model that Barnum practiced is known as the Press Agentry Model. this model is centered around the propaganda or attention grabbing aspect of promotion. With this as the main idea, ethics is placed into question. 

This particular model, allows for the truth to be stretched as far as needed in order to gain the attention of the desired audience. Barnum was very good at selling fantasies as reality which heavily contributes to his success. I found it interesting the spin the Greatest Showman puts on the lack of transparency in this model. What the movie depicts as lighthearted little white lies to bring smiles to the faces of millions can also be described as manipulation or deception. Whatever the spin, this model is centered on the company or entity to bring the most attention to whatever it is you are trying to sell. In Barnum's time this tactic worked well, but is it right to compromise certain ethics in order to increase publicity? Ethics play a heavy role in PR because one slip up can have consequences not only for the individual but on the professional as a whole.

Until Next Time,
James

Comments

  1. Alyson_HoffmanSeptember 5, 2019 at 10:26 AM

    Hello,
    Thank you for sharing! The Greatest Show Man was such a great movie! In my intro into public relations class we are learning at PT Barnum and his tactis that he used. I learned a lot more about both the movie and PT in your blog.
    Thanks,
    Alyson

    ReplyDelete
  2. David HaymanSeptember 5, 2019 at 11:23 PM

    My girlfriend and I went to see this movie to which we were both amazed. It was paced really and full of excitement as well as great acting. Lowkey think my girlfriend just wanted to go for Zac Effron but that is okay because the movie had Zendaya too! I also love how you can view the movie differently now which reminds me of my media class last semester which makes me see so much more out of movies now for better or for worse.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Alexandra GeslerSeptember 11, 2019 at 3:36 PM

    I am in love with this movie. I had never heard this before! Thinking about now, I do see the Press Agentry model showing through! Of course they wanted to have lightheartedness shine through instead of the feeling of deception. I read an article about the original story of P.T. Barnum & it seems like it was more harsh than they depicted.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Numbers in PR

Image
If you're like me, then you were a fan of math until the alphabet was thrown into the mix. From algebra to calculus, I was able to do the work well, but I never truly enjoyed doing it. In chapter 10 of Social Media for Strategic Communication, it talks about measurements, evaluation, budget, and calendars in public relations. We have talked about calendars before, but what stood out to me was the measurements and evaluation. In our class discussion, it was brought up that a common misconception with people working in PR is that they do not use numbers or analytics. I was one who believed PR was more about working with people or social media and not the analytical side of things. I chose marketing and communications to study because I thought that was an opportunity to put my creativity and people skills to use. I love working with a team or interacting with new people when I'm on the job. Hearing that even in social media and public relation that analytics still fol...
Read more

Types of Listening

Image
How many of you would consider yourselves a good listener? What is the difference between hearing and listening? Do you think you practice any bad listening habits? These are all questions we were asking in my interpersonal communications class when we started a new second on listening. Hearing is simply the process of sound waves hitting your eardrum, but listening is receiving and responding to the messages. when talking about listening, there is mindful and mindless. Mindful listening is paying careless attention and mindless is focusing on something else or reacting with the "okay" or "yeah" but not really knowing what is being said. You can't stop yourself from hearing, but you can stop listening. Here are five poor listening habits that can happen when we stop listening. 1. Pseudo-listening. This is where you try to trick the speaker into think you are paying careful attention. this form of listening gives the appearance that you are paying careful...
Read more

End of the Road

Image
When I first signed up for the class, it was just to get more credits and work towards a minor. I thought the class would be a breeze. In my mind, social media was a good tool to use in my field of study, but I assumed my knowledge of social media was advanced enough to where I could make it through this class without any problems. While that was not the case, I learned more than I ever thought I would about social media and how much goes into using it. I have three takeaways that I want to share from my experiences in this class. First, I can't run from the numbers anymore. I have said this before, but I was never a huge fan of analytics when I first came to college. I did well in the classes I took, but it was never a joy of mine. However, from this class I learned that it is everywhere even in social media. The longer I try to get away from it the harder time I am going to have when I must use it; so why not embrace right? Second, find your voice and stay true to you....
Read more