What Is Public Relations

Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is to integrate what has been learned in the class and form an understanding of public relations practice. This will be done by first examining the question, "What is public relations?." The next step will be to explain a specific area of specialty that I would like to pursue for a future career. After the foundation has been laid there are explanations on women and diversity, role expectations, and ethics and professionalism.

What is Public Relations

There is no clear answer to the question, "What is Public Relations"? The answer that is received heavily depends on to whom the question is being asked. Opinions vary between scholars and everyday citizens, as well as there are differences of opinion between the media and website portrayals. By assessing the definition of public relations held by "everyday" persons, media portrayals and website analysis, and comparing these perceptions to those of a scholarly nature I have come up with a definition of public relations. To gather an idea of what "everyday" people think of PR and it's profession, I interviewed Adrian Owens (my boyfriend) and Natalie Dunmore (my mother). Although these two interviews provided an idea of PR from two different generations, or age groups, the main concepts were the same. For an example of a media portrayal I chose to discuss the 2003 movie "Head of State", starring Chris Rock. In this movie, Rock's character (Mays Gilliam ) is an African American alderman selected to run on the Democratic ticket for the American Presidency. As a professional website portrayal I used the home site for the International Association of Business Communicators (www.iabc.com). To gather a more scholarly definition, I consulted the Public Relations textbook, Effective Public Relations, by S.M. Cutlip et.al. I also used information from Cuclis Communication, a successful public relations firm located in San Francisco, California.

I. Interviews

Different people hold various ideas of what Public Relations is, and what the profession envelops. This is not surprising, because many scholars also have conflicting ideas of the PR arena and what it entails. According to Adrian Owens, a 22-year-old SAPD officer, "Public Relations is how an individual, association or corporation interacts with the community according to social standards." He came to this conclusion because this is what he was taught during college. On the other hand Natalie Dunmore, a 40-year-old Air force veteran, understood a different concept of PR from her college education. "How the community perceives a particular business or administration is Public Relations." Both definitions encompass a sense of interaction between a business or entity of some sort, and its publics; however when asked what comes to mind, both individuals had varying answers.

While Natalie perceived Public Relations activities as volunteer work, or charity contributions, Adrian saw PR solely as communication. After further discussion he said, "Public relations is really just communication; because you have to be able to communicate efficiently in order to have any type of relations with anybody." Although the responses were not the same, after further analysis, there seems to be similarities between the two. Even if a company shows good PR by participating in non-profit events and contributing monetarily these actions would go massely overlooked by the public if not communicated effectively. For example, many entities hold a ceremony, or separate publicity events to announce a charitable donation in order to inform the public of their contributions.

Both interviewees did agree that Marketing and Public Relations are not the same thing; both stating that while the goal of marketing is to sell a product, Public Relations is about what you give back to the community. Also both of them state that a business could not be successful in today's modern world without good public relations

Media Portrayal

In the movie "Head of State", Mays Gilliam has just been selected to run on the Democratic ticket for the American Presidency. The American President is not only the Commander and Chief of national relations, but also serves as a public relations practitioner due to the various speeches he makes to the general public. During the course of this film, Mays Gilliam gives several speeches to various types of audiences in order to gain support for his election; these public presentations are the basis of my critique. Mays Gilliam is about to be red-lined out of his job; but after the untimely death of the Democratic frontrunner, Gilliam is plucked from obscurity, and thrust into the limelight as his party's nominee for President of the United States. The players in Gilliams life include: Martin Geller, his campaign manager and Debra Lassiter, the woman who doesn't have faith in his candidacy, and is serving reluctantly as his adviser.

Throughout the film Mays Gilliam realizes that the Democratic Party, which nominated him for the candidacy, never expected or wanted him to win. At a turning point in the movie, Gilliam decides to take over his campaign in an effort to obtain the popular vot He then makes several appearances in order to convince the public that he is the right man for the job.

Debra consistently gives Gilliam warnings on his public behavior, and assures him that the public is not going to vote for him because they do like his appearance. Playing the public relations practitioner role in the film, she suggests to Gilliam that he must good communication to build their support. Gilliam does succeed in gaining more votes, despite some controversial tactic used he manages to win the Presidency

II. Website Analysis

For a website portrayal of Public Relations I chose to use the International Association of Business Communicators website www.iabc.com. The purpose of this website is a membership association. Their mission statement is "to be a global network that provides the content, the credibility and the community to help communication professionals succeed in their careers

The IABC website has a general concentration in all areas of public relations. It has members from various arenas of the public relations field. Because only 5% of their members are from governmental or military agencies, there is less of a concentration on lobbying. While on the other hand, 44% of their members are employed in corporation, which calls fora stronger emphasis on internal, development, investor,