You’ve just enrolled in your public relations degree and your family and friends are asking what PR actually is and whether you can get a real job at the end of your studies.
Well, there are plenty of sources that will give you a definition and so I don’t intend to add to the list. But does a definition really help? Like any good research, you need to assess the credibility of the information before you use it. Academic sources from the public relations field will give you a very broad perspective of public relations and include issues of planning, management and ethics. Other definitions will be limited to media relations or publicity, often with a fairly sceptical view of the ethics of the practitioners.
In reality, you will find many ‘forms’ of public relations practiced, with some more dubious than others. As an unregulated field of work, anyone is able to say they work in public relations and unfortunately the images of the many professionals in the discipline are often tarnished by a minority of rogue operators.
Throughout your studies however, you will soon learn the differences and start to develop insights into the depth and breadth of professional, ethical public relations. Public relations can be such a positive force in the world, helping organisations but also helping communities, governments and worthwhile causes.
You will develop your own way of explaining what public relations is, and you will see the breadth of opportunities that are about to open up to you for future careers. It will not always be easy to explain, but take up the challenge. What have your experiences been so far?
In my career I have often been asked,’what does a PR person do?’ While a text book definition may help, Leanne is correct in that you will, in time, find you own means of defining what this profession does.
If I started a list of what my career in public relations has allowed me to achieve, you would fall asleep before you got to the end of it.
I have yet to come across an organisation or business that either does not have public relations in its management, or would benefit from having well considered public relations functions to assist it in its core business.
As a simple example, through Facebook I recently re-established contact with a young woman who did an internship with me when I was working in Perth Western Australia. Libby still has WA ties but now runs her own consultancy in Brighton UK. She specialises in promoting arts based organisations to the business community.
For me, my profession has taken me from the devastation of major bush fires here in South Australia to drinking tea with ZZ Top (who are they?) in their bus in Cleveland Ohio, USA.
Where will public relations take you?