"Starting today, PRSA is embarking on an international effort, in collaboration with multiple industry partners, to modernize the definition of public relations. In a small way, we seek to rebrand the profession." (Click here for the full blog post.)
This initiative is long overdue. It's impossible to create a profession out of a field that cannot be defined. Our field has struggled for decades with this identity crisis. We teach our public relations students that they are preparing for employment in a field that has over 500 definitions (see the latest edition of the classic Effective Public Relations text by Cutlip, Center, and Broom). The PRSA also admitted its official definition of public relations, “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other,” was last updated in 1982.
My preferred definition of public relations comes from Jim Grunig and Todd Hunt's 1984 text Managing Public Relations, "The management of communication between an organization and its publics" (p. 6). Granted, this is but one of 500 +/- definitions of public relaitons, but it seems to resonate the most closely with what I have practiced and taught for decades. I must admit, however, I think this definition should include management of relationships as well as communication, since the outcome of excellent public relations should be to establish and maintain long-term, mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and key publics (see the excellence theory in public relations).
So, I have updated my personal definition of public relations and posted it on the PRSA's "Public Relations Defined" web site. I encourage others to do the same. This is a unique opportunity to join public relations scholars and practitioners around the world in an effort to define our profession.
Help us answer the question, "What is PR?"
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