Public Relations Practitioners : An Interview I Conducted With The Senior Producer Of The Today Show

The goal for a good journalist is to be able to report headlining news truthfully. On the other hand the goal of someone in the public relations field is to make someone or something sound as close to perfect as they can, even if that means sometime stretching the truth. In the article "How P.R. is killing journalism and why thats a problem even if you're not a journalist" the author discusses the issue of journalists leaving what they love to switch to public relations. The author states "based on 2013 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data analyzed by Pew, journalists now earn, on average, just 65 percent of the median income in the PR business". With numbers like that it isn't hard to understand why it is that many journalists are switching careers, even if they do despise the work. After all, money talks.

Ever since Bernany’s work, public relations have continued to become a vital part to businesses success, as the field continues to grow. While this progression has occurred, different public relations functions also have developed. Specifically,

Nowadays journalists have the responsibility to report facts as accurately, objectively, and disinterestedly as is humanly possible. ‘’The, honest, self-disciplined, well-trained reporter seeks to be a propagandist for nothing but the truth’’ (Casey, 1944b).

Many people view the role of a public relations professional within an organization as one that involves “making the company look good” among other image enhancing functions. Whether they are called PR professionals, PR people, media relations folks, they are the ones typically called on to inform the public of updates or improvements, they are called to help change the perception of the public, help with rebranding efforts and in the event of negative press or other crises, public relations professionals are often called on to “fix things,” to wield that magic wand of words and press releases to make the bad stuff all go away in an effort to preserve or salvage a positive identity. Many would be surprised to learn that the role of a

The purpose of this interview is to see first hand how different people view public relations. Participants were chosen based on their major in order to avoid having only PR majors answering the questions. These interviews were conducted one-on-one in order to avoid biasing the participants’ opinions and views.

According to McNamara, journalists commonly take a dismissive and moralising position on public relations (McNamara, 2012). When asked her opinion on PR as ‘spin’ Eleanor explained that it depended on the type of PR. She went on to say “as a rule I’ve often found the ‘agency’ PR people calls come with rapid pitches – puffy corporate claptrap – without giving much thought to who they are speaking to or what those people might be interested in,” (Whitehead, 2016). Journalists have generally been vocal on their opinions on this topic, for instance, in 2001 the Good Weekend magazine published and article which stated that PR is “the invisible hand behind much of the

Crisis’ can occur on national levels and local levels and a publicist must confront the pressures of bending the truth to protect their client, whom is employing them. A publicist must come into a job ready to put out fires, but they must decide how far they are willing to put protecting someone’s image over their own morals.

Scholars all around the world are debating about the question, what public relations is. The term itself provides a really broad definition. It suggests that public relations is about relationships between the public and someone else. The question that follows is what kind of relationship and with whom. Since it is about relationship and relationships are influenced and defined by many different factors, such as culture, politics, religion and economics, it is not surprising that there have been a wide range of public relations definitions, theories and practices.

Public relations is a term used to describe the act of building relationships between organizations and the public. These relationships are mainly for the benefit of the organization. Public relations practitioners often find ways to help the organizations that hired them in making said organizations appeal to the public in a way that makes the public trust them. The public relations sector of any business has become a vital part in both the general wellbeing and reputation of the organization. Mutually beneficial relationships are built between corporations (or organizations) and those public relations practitioners in order to increase profits and awareness of the organization. Public relations practitioners also have the responsibility of analyzing and interpreting any issues – such as public opinion and trends of the society – that might have both a negative and/or a positive effect on the organization in order to find ways to encompass those situations and make the best out of them.

Over the last four years I have accepted, volunteered, or been assigned to contribute as an intern for more than 240 hours across five organizations in four industries: legal, nonprofit, retail, and business-to-business sales and marketing. I have been able to gain an exceptional amount of experience while working with each one, but the most interesting pattern I came across was that each of these organizations had their own preconceived notion on the definition (or application) of public relations. Some of these differences were simply minor details in strategy; others were based on completely different viewpoints altogether. With different industries came different points of emphasis, which inevitably led to different responsibilities at each. No matter the difference between each organization 's views, I was always able to see my employer 's objectives using the foundation provided by the Gonzaga University Public Relations program. It has become apparent that the ability to adapt and apply public relations knowledge to any given position is equally as important as learning the trade itself. The unique foundation of Jesuit/Ignatian values and the professional preparation provided by Gonzaga University’s Public Relations program has guided my journey for the past four years.

Public relations campaigns and research reach out to everyone in society. Women face different treatment within public relations, whether they are forming the campaign or they are the target audience for the campaign. Women who work in public relations have different expect ions to meet have certain roles and attributes. Women should be hardworking, determined, and independent, all positive qualities. The media portrays women to be cold and serious. Women are targeted to as the homebody, always looking to please their man, and caretaker. 70% of the people in public relations are women (Hampson, 2001). They have begun to take on higher roles within companies and working their way towards corporate equality. However, this is not always

In an effort to further support the claim that employing a public relations practitioner would be beneficial to J. Gregory Salon, I’ve compiled two examples of PR success. This includes two types of technological PR strategies, blogging and Photosharing. I chose these examples because of their relevance to the salon’s previous types of social media relations with customers and the PR firm’s extensive research processes.

By virtue of this myth or rationale, media companies are respected as patrons of the institution of news. Knut Helland describes the network of institutional linkages surrounding news media, as follows: “It is in the tension between performing idealized societal functions and serving up attractive products on the market that news reporting evolves as productional practices, as texts and as objects of interpretation“ (Helland 1999:189). In an institutional perspective journalism cannot be considered a uniform or monolithic force or collective player. Institutions are complex and allow room for conflicting interpretations, priorities and solutions. How news companies and news desks perform their ‘custodial’ role in practice depends on numerous factors, e.g., the economic resources at their disposal and their relations to multiple markets: the stock market, advertising, the information market and users.

The profession of public relations as we know it today has been the result of years of scholarly research surrounding human communication (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). There is a vast range of activity that is considered public relations, thus concepts, theories, and models have been developed to allow for better understanding of the practice. This essay will break down the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand’s (PRINZ) definition of public relations in to three sections. The first will use systems theory to discuss “deliberate, planned and sustained effort”. The second section of this essay will use relationship management theory to address the part of the PRINZ definition that states, “to establish and maintain mutual understanding”. The final section of this essay will focus on the part of the PRINZ definition that states “between an organisation and its target audience” using excellence theory. The critical analysis of these theories, supported by contemporary examples, will help us to further understand how public relations is practiced in New Zealand.

The public relations tactics in relation to the corporate context will now be examined. Customer relations can be associated with the monitoring of attitudes of key publics and stakeholders especially in regards to any negative incidents that have the potential to effect the organisation’s reputation and consumer trust (Wilcox, 2013, p.312). For Malaysian Airlines, this is evident given the potential for consumer boycotts with the missing aircraft’s (Crossman Communications, 2015, p2). Having over 12, 000 employees, employee relations are important for the organisation. Employee relations consist of monitoring employees’ attitudes and beliefs towards the organisation (Wilcox, 2013, p316) as there is potential for negative word of mouth by employees essentially damaging the company’s reputation. This is evident as according to Malaysian Airlines, they offer a “dynamic exciting environment that nurtures a diverse talented team that work to make great things happen” (2017). Finally, media relations are vital in a corporate context as “negative coverage can cause a corporation’s reputation to plummet” (Wilcox, 2013, p. 310). Having said that, it is important as public relations professionals to establish positive relationships with those who operate in the media industry. Kimberly Blessing argues the two fields (public relations and journalism) have an important working interrelationship with “60% of PR