Chapter 1 – The Public Relations profession: an introduction
1.1. Differences between Public Relations and advertising
1.2. Differences between Public Relations and journalism
1.3. What exactly do Public Relations professionals do?
1.4. Definition of Public Relations
1.5. Who can use Public Relations?
Chapter 1 Summary
Chapter 1 References
Synopsis
PR professionals are sometimes mistaken for journalists or advertising professionals, but each one engages in specific activities which makes them different.
Journalists and PR professionals have more in common. However, there must be a strictly professional relationship between the two and for ethical and credibility reasons, a marked separation between what each one does, so that they represent themselves positively in the current climate of public mistrust with regard to media.
PR professionals have many specific ways of helping organizations communicate sucessfully with all of their audiences.
One of the challenges of PR is to find a globally accepted definition so that the profession be understood completely in all sectors, identified as an executive-level post within organizations and recognized in communications as the proper way to directly reach diverse audiences.
Given the flexibility of PR, organizations of all shapes and sizes can get the most out of PR. However, it’s always advisable to use professionals to reach goals with greater efficacy.
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2 comments
2/28/2007 at 1:15 am
Hayley
Octavio,
Constantly I am nagged on for my major - public relations. So many people do not even understand public relations; much less know the course work or what pr professionals do. I understand and have the biggest passion for public relations, but have had a hard time validating myself and pr to others. PR is much more than successfully communicating and relating concepts to the public, it is the backbone of communication for any organization, corporation, industry, or government. I strongly agree that pr practitioners are commonly associated with journalists, communication majors and advertising/marketing pros. Many of our tactics and goals are common, but we work for and achieve completely different things.
Your post on this excerpt is what I have been looking for all day - pretty strange.
PR professionals communicate with audiences through many specific means, such as: press releases, media kits, broadcast news releases, video news releases, word-of-mouth, campaigns, advertising, research, websites, social media, and on and on. All of these tactics require different skills that mix together and form the strong list of abilities that pr practitioners possess. Not only do we need to successfully communicate to audiences, we have to perform research to find the target audience and develop the proper steps to reach the audience, be able to write, be creative and design the materials needed to successfully reach audience.
I agree that no matter the organization, they can get the most out of pr. Thanks for sharing this information. Finally some honor and praise for the pr practitioners!!
3/31/2007 at 2:54 pm
Emily Anne
Octavio-
I appreciate the post. As a senior, I’m on the hunt for my own spot in the PR community. I seem to be too broad. I write well for the journalism route, I have creativity for the marketing, I have drive for management,etc. I have it all but a job. So I’ve been wandering the offices of “adults” asking their experiences and advice.
What PR are you involved in? Was there any particular field you didn’t like? I think I would do well in a corporate PR agency, but it seems everyone I talk to found it to be overly competitive and unsatisfying.
What is your advice for a newbie pr gal trying to find her niche?