In communication science and public relations, "public" mostly means people. The meaning of this is different than other ideas, such as gatherings in social life to talk about people (public sphere). The meaning of this is also talked about in the learning of government (political science), the learning of how humans think (psychology), and the learning of giving things to people (marketing). This word's meaning is very hard to make, as people think that public has different meanings.
How the word is created
The word "public" comes from the Latin publicus, or "of the people".
Different meanings
In the learning of government (politics), "public" means a group of people who are related to government (leader group). In psychology and public relations, public has even more different meanings.
Meaning in psychology
In the year of 1929, John Dewey had the meaning of "public" as a group of people who answer the same problem. This means that this meaning is about problems (situational). This definition of "public" with "problem" is so misunderstood that people made a whole new learning place, called as "the idea of the public being about problems" (situational theory of publics) created by James E Gruning, who was so into "the idea of the public being about problems” that he also thought of “the idea of the public not being about problems", and so made sets that put the ideas of the meaning of public in order. This includes "the idea of a public without a problem" (nonpublics), "the idea of public with a problem" (latent publics), and "the idea of public who know they have a problem" (active publics).
Meaning in public relations
In this meaning, the meaning of “public” is not someone who likes business (stakeholder) or a system of getting and giving things for money (market). This meaning of "public" here is that it is a part of a group of multiple people who like business (stakeholder) who all need to solve a problem. This is not a market because it does not have any money moving system (exchange system), and that a "public" is created by itself (self-forming) and puts itself in order by itself (self-organizing). The people who are in public relations do things for the "public". People who are needed to make a group's dreams come true are named as "target publics", and people that help the target publics are named as "influentials". Influentials are important, because they give answers to the target public's problems. The "target publics" are also important, because their answers to the government problems (like electoral votes) are very important.
The public also has rules of being in the public ("social norms"), that play a major role in how information is moved.
Situational or non-situational meaning
Public relations theory shows that the meaning of publics is situational, according to John Dewey and James E. Gruning, and is simply a group of people. According to Gabriel M. Vasquez, a public has people that all know about their common problem and all try to solve that problem (“homo narrans” [Latin for "storytelling human"]), and create a list of problems to be solved (agenda-building). For example, Schools are commonly talked about for their agenda-building, on whether they should teach about religion or not (secular). Some people think publics are about the government (political) and last forever.
But, other people think that the meaning of public is non-situational. Kirk Hallahan, professor at Colorado State University, thinks that the meaning of public is about another organization, and has public as that it is people who are about (relate) to an organization, who show different amounts of activity—passivity (getting information without giving it), and who might (or might not) talk with others about their relationship with the group.
Types of "public"
Social publics
Social publics are people who like the same ideas or hobbies.
Networked publics
Networked publics are social publics who are organized by the new technology. Because of this, networked publics are the result of technologies that connect people (networked technologies, like social media), and the whole result from a combination of the people in the networked public, their technologies, and their ideas.