Public Relations
According to Kitchen (1997) there are 500 different definitions of public relations. This reflects the broad scope of the function and equally may reflect the evolution of public relations as a profession. However a number of common themes can be derived from a wider set of ideas. It is a profession with varying definitions because of its many functions and the differentiating perceptions held by its practitioners and the public. This profession that includes the functions of communication, community relations, crisis management, customer relations, employee relations, government affairs, industry relations, investor relations, media relations, mediation, publicity, speech-writing, and visitor relations(Kitchen,1997).
The first World Assembly of Public Relations Associations, held in Mexico City in August 1978, defined the practice of public relations as "the art and social science of analysing trends, predicting their consequences, counselling organisational leaders, and implementing planned programs of action, which will serve both the organisation and the public interest." The 1982 assembly definition is “Public Relations helps an organisation and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” “Organisation” is denoted in this context, as opposed to the more limiting “company” or “business,” to stress public relations’ use by businesses, trade unions, government agencies, voluntary associations, foundations, hospitals, schools, colleges, religious groups and other societal institutions. “Publics” recognises the need to understand the attitudes and values of — and to develop effective relationships with — many different stakeholders, such as employees, members, customers, local communities, shareholders and other institutions, and with society at large.
Public relations can be defined as the practice of managing communication between an organisation and its publics. Public relations, provides an organisation or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that provide a third-party endorsement. Common activities include speaking at conferences, working with the media, crisis communications, social media engagement and employee communication. According to the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), “Public Relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you”. It is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics (CIPR, 2005)
The absence of a definition that is generally accepted is a problem for the public relations field for quite a number of reasons. Looking at the wide range of settings in which it is practised, if there is no generally accepted definition, it is not surprising that this leads to different expectations of what it can achieve. This lack of clarity around the function and purpose of PR is evidenced in the huge variety of job titles in trade and national newspapers: PR manager, communications officer, PR & Communications Co-ordinator, Head of PR & Corporate Communications (PR Week, 5 October 2007). The implication for its evolution as a profession is that because of the diverse range of activities that fall within the remit of public relations practice, this has had a negative influence on attempts to classify the behaviour of practioners in any meaningful way(Kitchen, 1997, p8).