Defining Public Relations
University of Phoenix
Defining Public Relations
The concept or idea of specifically defining the term public relations (PR), can be
a seemingly impossible task that is by no mean concise. Public relations mean many different things to many different people. PR is quite subjective depending on what your intent or overall goal is for communicating or promoting certain information to groups of people. In this paper I would like to discuss what my own personal definition is and contrast this by also evaluating definitions derived from three different groups. Overall, the vast difference in definitions is a reminder of just how vast the topic of PR is in the public and private sectors of the business world. Some history regarding one form of the definition comes from the author Seitel (2004),
Today, although a generally accepted definition of public relations still eludes practitioners, there is a clearer understanding of the field. One of the most ambitious searches for a universal definition was commissioned in 1975 by the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education. Sixty-five public relations leaders participated in the study, which analyzed 472 different definitions and offered the following 88-word sentence: Public relations is a distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communications, understanding, acceptance, and cooperation between an organization and its publics; involves the management of problems or issues; helps management to keep informed on and responsive to public opinion; defines and emphasizes the responsibility of management to serve the public interest; helps management keep abreast of and effectively util ...