Pioneer public relations in Spain. Some precedents in the first half of the twentieth century and preliminary steps of the new profession

Abstract

This article presents the results of research carried out to identify some antecedents in Spain of the activity we know as PR, in the period between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This is the least known stage in the development of this discipline, when the term Public Relations was not yet coined. However, new cases identified show the practice of the profession under other headings, and we discover how some of its early practitioners come by historical circumstances in the field of political propaganda. Also, it describes the first steps of a profession with blurry borders between propaganda, journalism and public relations.