Appendix b what is public relations. Definitions and aims

1. Organizations, like people, must communicate with others because they do not exist alone in the world.

2. Rex Harlow, a pio­neer public relations educator, once compiled more than 500 definitions from almost as many sources. We define public relations as the management of communication between an organization and its publics. We define communication as a be­havior—of people, groups, or organizations—that consists of moving symbols to and from other people, groups, or organizations. Thus, we can say that public relations is the managed communication behavior of an or­ganization with its publics.

3. The idea is that public relations is more than a technique. Public rela­tions is also a theory: of why organizations must communicate with pub­lics, of the nature of publics, of the effects of the techniques employed, and of the ethics of using the techniques.

4. Public relations practitioners occupy two major roles—technicians and man­agers. Communication managers plan and direct public relations pro­grams. Communication technicians provide technical services such as writing, editing, photography, media contacts, or production of publi­cations.

5. The study of PR is connected with many other fields of study and is usually confused with two of them such as journalism and marketing, though they are quite different in its essence.