Relationship Between Public Relations Practitioners And The Media

: 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.

Public Relations (PR) can sometimes be grouped in with the advertising and marketing industry, but the industry has continued to expand with the increasing digital media platforms and the need to relay information to targeted audiences. The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) defines public relations as “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics” (“About Public Relations”). The annual revenue of the global relations industry generated more than $14 billion with the U.S. accounting for $12 billion with experts believing it will keep expanding (“Public Relation Services” 2).

Public relations is a management function, a PR professional uses public relations as a way to manage their relationship with different publics on behalf of an organization. For our team’s proposal on Chick-fil-A we are managing and focusing on improving Chick-fil-A’s relationship with vegans and vegetarians.

Media contact and use of social media: A PR person is designated to deal with the media. The whole company will direct all media related questions to this person.

Harlow (1976) defines public relations (PR) practice as “the distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communications, understanding, acceptance and cooperation between an organisation and its publics”. PR plays an important role in organisations because they are representing a broader group of activities, even encompassing all communication activities of an organisation (Lee, 2011). To put in a laymen term, public relations practitioners (PR) work to build long-term relationships among individuals and institutions through planned promotions of goods, services, and images of a company to create a good will for a person, place, and event and also to helps management to be informed and responsive to public opinion to further improve the organisation.

I do not know much about public relations (PR), but if I can attempt to put it in a single definition it would be the communication or process in connecting to the mass media. The mass media is any consumer, voter or supporter of that particular company or person. When I envision what a person might do in a career in public relations I immediately think of Olivia Pope from ABC’s popular show Scandal. Public relations is involved with creating press releases, curating charities and essentially anything that will helps improve that business’ brand or that party’s’ image significantly. Unlike a management position, public relations comes in and consults during a crisis or scandal that affects the public and leaves when the situation is resolved.

The majority journalists, on the one hand, believe they are initiative in this relationship because PR seems constantly to search for coverage and publicity, thus it seems no need to acknowledge PR officers’ working tactics. On the other hand, some journalists think that their works are always obstructed by some unqualified PR practitioners, who always offer limited and incomplete information without sincerity (ibid, 1989). When asked why keep negative attitude to PR people, the journalists who are interviewed by Coman (2009), explain that firstly the practitioners in the PR world are not censored and selected well so that the reputation of this occupation is impacted by some “rotten apples” (pp, 156). Secondly, the majority journalists recognize that PR industry is full of vigor and vitality, which has great opportunities of development. In regard to present stage, however, Coman (2009) also points out the ill-experienced practitioner who graduated from collages as a freshman, acknowledge a few about the reporters’ needs and the skills of communication. What is more, the information they offer is not clear and less values. Some famous journalists

2. Advocacy: Since a public relations professional works as an advocate for the public, it is important to provide the public with pertinent information so that people can make informed decisions. For instance, when presenting information to the public, it's important to provide views from different sides and/or people, as well as all of the relevant facts.

Not only will they be seen as a communication specialist, but a mentor to other employees on current and future organizational demands. With this, relationships are developed within the company, finalizing the PR practitioner’s responsibility in building relationship with the public, stakeholders, and finally the

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

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

Public relation is a management function that helps achieve organizational objectives, define philosophy, and facilitate organizational change. Public relations practitioners communicate with all relevant internal and external publics to develop positive relationships and to create consistency between organizational goals and societal expectations.

Because they have a large degree of understanding of the public relations is an image of the establishment of business or put more persuasion efforts for business. The reporter general agree PR is in a public image, propaganda, persuasion activities, as well as marketing efforts, and promote the organization 's position. As the role of public relations become more diverse and important, public relations progress toward becoming the subject of strategy management, it is essential for public relations to the strategy. And to a wide range of business functions integration marketing communication (IMC) concept of the functions of public relations as a commitment to development a of an organization and its product, the image and the impact of the public or the consumer in the campaign of behavior(Ha, JH, & Ferguson, MA 2015）.

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.