Public Relations

Paper Summary:

The field of public relations is often plagued with confusion about what these professionals really do. For this reason, investigating the definition of public relations is helpful to determine what it is and what it is not. This paper discusses four different definitions of public relations. The first is the official definition from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). The second is the definition provided by seasoned PR professional, Stacey Cohen, given in her article about public relations in the Westchester County Business Journal. The third definition is the one provided by the Institute of Public Relations (IPR). The fourth is the authors personal definition of what public relations is.

From the Paper:

"New facets were added to the idea of what public relations encompassed. These included: conducting research before taking actions and then evaluating and measuring the results of these actions, employing continuous processes rather than just a one-time activity, reaching out to multiple audiences, public relations as an essential function of management, and long-term commitment to PR activities. However, these definitions didn't really describe what public relations was, but more what it did. In 1988, the PRSA adopted a more concise definition that they believe captures the essence of what public relations is: "Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other" ("Official PRSA", n.d.). This definition, they feel, encompasses, by default, the essential functions of public relations, such as: research, planning, communicating, and evaluating, while also broadening the definition to include all organizations, not just businesses, and the multiple "publics" they serve."

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