Reflection Paper On Public Relations

The aim of this paper is to discuss and elaborate on the experience, insights, value, and practical training gained throughout my internship as a Public Relations Assistant at Louisiana Delta Community College with the Director of Public Relations Mrs. Darian Atkins. As the director, she develops and executes strategies that create and uphold a positive public image for the college and Chancellor Dennis Epps by working and forming relationships with various members of the media, government, and public. As the assistant, I acted as the support for Mrs. Atkins by researching to construct stories and press releases, completing administrative tasks, and photographing events.

: The Public Relations game is fast changing. The industry has been found to be intimidating in its approach, especially for those who do not practice it. PR is no more cut and dry it used to be in the past. In the current scenario, the domain is all about maintaining focus on the art and science of creating and promoting favourable relationship with the public.

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,

Public relations, also referred to a PR, represent an essential component of business, in which the business interacts through various modes such as promotions, initiatives, and so forth with its customer base, as well as, the potential new customers. Subsequently, according to Davis (2009), this interaction permits the business, as well as, the public to intermingle in such a way to disseminate information to the public, which possesses a newsworthy nature via media sources such as a trade magazine or journal, the traditional radio or television networks, the newspaper, or the internet. Hence, an effectual public relations program has the potential to not only maximize, as well as increase sales, but also, enhance profitability by establishing a competitive advantage with relation to business contenders. Therefore, an effective PR campaign accomplishes this goal by creating greater visibility for the business, its products, and augmenting the credibility of the business, while, attempting to neutralize potential crises, as they arise. Thus, public relation programs represent an invaluable tool utilized by businesses such as the Olive Garden Restaurant.

College for many young adults is a place to learn from our mistakes, create connections in our field, and build knowledge about the world around us. As a transfer student at Seton Hall, it has been my dream to learn about the many facets of my major, Public Relations. With my previous studies and six years of experience in the pre-dental field, I questioned myself when transferring if public relations is the right career choice for me. Of course, this decision was not an easy one, but with the help of my mentor, I realized that anything is possible.

3. Expertise: In order to communicate accurate information, public relations professionals must do their homework. This means doing research and using critical thinking in order to maintain credibility as an expert and a trusting relationship between the company and the public.

Public Relations in New Zealand is widely useful, practised and builds up an organisation’s relationships with its publics. PR in short, is essentially about communication and relationship building. PRINZ [Public Relations Institute of New Zealand] (2009) defines PR as “The deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.” This essay will deconstruct and critically examine this definition of public relations in relation to PR theories. These theories being Systems Theory, Relationship Management and Excellence Theory will be examined and applied to campaign examples. This will give a comprehensive understanding of the theory’s meanings as well as relationships with aspects of the PRINZ definition of PR. To understand PR theories however, the term publics must first be addressed.

When the term public relations are heard, there is not an immediate understanding of the career, let alone its writings. The lines of the responsibilities of a public relations professional are often blurred and confused. However, the Public Relations Society of America composed a specific definition to help with the confusion: “public relations are a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics” (“About Public Relations”). Breaking down the definition a bit shows exactly what public relations is about – “mutually beneficial relationships” (“About Public Relations”). Professionals work to create and maintain various relationships, whether it be with journalists or clients, that will yield positive results for all parties involved. In an interview, Vallerie, who works in public relations, revealed she interacts “with upwards of 20 different people” daily (Mackillop). Publics are generally thought of as the general public population; this is true to an extent for public relations. A public is “anyone who ever has or ever will form an opinion about the client” (Roost). This means that it is possible to have more than one public that a professional is dealing with for their work.

The most recent definition of public relations, according to the Public Relations Society of America (2012), states that “Public Relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” Through the rapid advancement of modern media and technology, there have never been more outlets and opportunities available for accomplishing the goals of public relations. Believing the development of social media has not created serious changes in the way public relations practitioners go about their duties would be foolish and a fast track to falling behind in this rapid world of communication. The main goals of public relations are “to

Over the past two and a half weeks as a class we have been assigned to talk to a variety of different public relations departments in companies of our interest. Through the struggles of being hung up on immediately or put on hold for 20 plus minutes, this assignment not only allowed me to learn how the PR field works via telephone and email, but what type of field would I be interested in working for. Through all the ups and downs, I have found three businesses that have interested me and would possibly interest me in the future.

For most Public Relation college students and grads, be an intern at J Public Relation (JPR) is a dream comes true. However, earning a spot at their mentorship program is so competitive. JPR is one the top hospitality, luxury lifestyle and social media firms in the USA based in San Diego, Los Angeles, New York City, and London. This boutique agency is made up entirely of hardworking women who have helped the agency to grow and gather countless industry awards including “Power 50” PR Agency List by New York Observer, Top Places to Work by PR News and San Diego Magazine’s list of Coolest Companies. Lauren Knox, who oversees the hiring of interns at JPR, says that they receive over 400 applications per month at each location and only five have

The success of a company depends on relationships with the public such as consumers, suppliers, investors, employees, government and media. Since public relation practitioners are the once who do the actual communication between their organization and its public it is obvious that public relation is a management function.

The theory explains that the value of public relations in organization and society lies in socially responsible managerial decisions and quality organization to public relations. Organisations must behave in ways that solve the problems and satisfy the goals of the stakeholders as well as the management in order to be effective. Good relationship with organisation’s strategic publics is helpful in developing and achieving goals desired by both the organization and its publics, reducing costs of negative publicity, and increasing revenue by providing products and services needed by stakeholders. Practitioners identify publics who are affected by or affect organizational decisions and communicate symmetrically with them to build high quality long term relations.

Human relations refers to everything we do with, for, and to each other as citizens and as human beings (Dempsey, 2014, pg. 330). An example is officers integrating ongoing training initiatives for departments to establish respect within communities, regardless of color, ethnicity, economic status or sexual orientation. Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds strong relationships between the public and organizations. The public relations approach reflects efforts to improve the public’s perception of the police, by informing the public why departments and officers do what they do and enhancing their public image as first responders and community helpers. Community relations really ties both human relations and public relations together. “Communities rely on police departments to "protect and serve" and the police, in turn, rely on community support and cooperation, but the relationship is not always harmonious” (RAND, 2017). They could be either negative or positive, depending on the type of interaction. An example of this is by taking active interests in the community problems, participating in local government, or simply going to youth activities such as middle/high school events. Involvement in community programs and neighborhood projects can bring the citizens together with police by creating a purpose to build unity and show a more personable side of the police.

As the name of the discipline implies, public relations is how an organization builds beneficial relationships with its key stakeholders. With effective communication as the practices’ primary tool, modern day organizations have taken advantage of proficient practitioners to boost exposure of their company and its message across to international audiences.