What is PR?

Recently we were given this as an essay title and at first I thought this was simple, then I thought harder. PR is definitely not an easy thing to define. There are so many different views floating around from practionners and academics alike. Some list various tasks undertaken byPR officers, others try and pin point where it lies on the manger vs technican debate.

I looked at a number of different views fro a number of well rspected books:

Trench, R and Yeomans, L (2006) Exploring Public relations, Palgrave Macmillan
Theaker, A (2nd ed 2004) The Public Relations Handbook, Routledge
Harrison, S (2nd ed 2000) Public Relations, An Introduction, Thomson
Morris and Goldsworthy (2008) PR- A Persuasive Industry? Palgrave Macmillan

I found it fascinating that one job title could come under so many different definitions. It's hugely varied in it's activites obviously, but this still shocked me.

The CIPR states that:

‘Public relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.’(CIPR)

Reputations can make or break companies, so the PR is of extreme importance. Bill Gates famously said "If I only had one dollar, I'd spend it on PR". If this is not endorsement enough that even the giants need to build on their reputations I don't know what could be.

I, as a first year student, am still feeling my way through exactly what PR is through assessments and work experience. I am always learnign new aspects of the profession and I think from the initial research to the final press relaease, it is all as imporant. I think I will find itvery hard to ever be able to clearly define "what is PR" because it is such a leadin question.