Brittany’s Blog!

1. There has been a consistent search for the definition of public relations. After Harlow defined PR with a long definition, Hunt and Gruing finally developed a shorter definition as a “management of communication between an organization and its publics.”

2. Not every one in PR agrees with one definition of the profession. Therefore, it is better to agree over various elements of the profession itself rather than a definition itself. These include PR is a management function, PR involves two-way communication, PR relations is a planned activity, PR is a research based social science, and PR is socially responsible.

3. Although PR practitioners have their own individual role within their organizational structures, all PR people follow a four step model. First, they conduct research where informal or formal methods are used to discover the problem and the environment. Next, the planning period uses information gathered during the research period to create a strategy. Third, the communication process allows the execution of the process through direct messages to the public. Evaluation comes last to measure the efficiency of the process. For the most part this four step method is always used. However, PR is a dynamic process because the strategies need to be adjusted for each environment and organization and technology is constantly evolving.