AN EXAMINATION OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
Copyright 2002
Lorenzo Kaufman
You know his face from somewhere. You cannot even follow the movie you are watching anymore because it is driving you completely insane. “Was he in that episode of Friends I saw last night?” You think to yourself. “No, maybe he was the teacher that Harry Potter movie I saw last week.” By this time enough time has passed where you have missed major plot points in the movie that you were watching. You rush to your computer where you log into Hollywood.com, IMDB.com, or a million other web sites that can pin-point every movie that the actor has appeared. “Ah, he’s Dennis Haskins, the principal from that show Saved by the Bell I used to watch six years ago.” And now, you are happy. It took a total of ten minutes to bring up Dennis Haskins’ career resume.
Though
it is a minor role in which entertainment-related public relations has
appeared on the internet, the above example shows one small difference
that it has made. Movies, actors, bands, television shows, movie release
schedules, movie information, and mostly anything you want to know about
the entertainment industry can be found online. Since the dawn of the
internet, the entertainment industry has kept inventing ways to be noticed.
Sometimes this leads to less work, for example, when fans construct web
sites promoting movies, bands, or celebrities. Sometimes, however, the
public relations professional incurs more work dissolving rumors, monitoring
the internet for bad press, and keeping up with the latest technology
in press releases, press kits, and campaigns.