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.