earticle

영어

This study explores the origin of the word, public relations in Korea. ‘Public Relations’ and its activities were introduced to Korea after the Korean independence in August 1945 and subsequent three-year American military government. Name of the organization was Office of Civil Information (OCI) headed by James L. Stewart, a former newspaper journalist. Although he had no experience as a public relations practitioner, what OCI did was identical to the PR agency business. When OCI was established in May 1947 it had a staff of 113 comprised of 20% American civilians, around 10% military personnel and 70% Korean employees. Clearly, the mission of OCI was to persuade Koreans to understand American policy and favorably respond to it, Korean employees of OCI would have known Americans activities in OCI. In addition, many more Koreans must have learned of the public relations activities through their exposure to many OCI-sponsored events. However, records on public relations agency activities or studies on public relations in Korea are yet to be found after the dissolution of OCI in 1949 except a couple of isolated cases. The term, public relations, was gradually replaced by a Korean-language equivalent of Hongbo and the expression; the PR era was coined in 1970s developing to an earnest public relations business in late 1980s. This study presents, therefore, an issue for further research on why development of public relations in Korea was so delayed in spite of the excellent OCI precedence.

한국어

이 연구에서는해방 후 한국에진주한 미군의 민간공보처(OCI: Office of Civil Information) 가 우리나라에서 전개한 PR활동에 대해 분석하였다. 1947년 5월 말에 발족한 민간공보처의 책임자는 스튜어트(James L. Stuwart)였으며, 직원 113명 가운데 20%는 미국 민간인이었고 10%의 미국 군인과 70%의 한국인이었다. 연구 결과, 민간공보처의 주요 임무, 조직 체계, 업무 성과를 분석하고, 민간공보처의 활동을 통해 PR에 관한 지식이 한국에 전파되었음을 논의했다.