What is public relations?

What do you think public relations is? You may think it is about getting coverage in newspapers and magazines, on radio and television. It is, but not only that. You may think it is holding conferences, having a stand at an exhibition, making a video. Indeed, they may be part of it. You may think that public relations is about how organisations work out ways of causing the least offence to the environment and society, while still managing to stay in business. Or you may realise that all organisations depend to some degree upon other groups: suppliers, employees, government, civil servants, pressure groups, local authorities, customers, the media, the general public, even upon individuals.

These are some of the ‘publics’ that are the concern of anyone practising public relations. Every organisation enjoys, or suffers, relationships with its publics that continually affect the well-being of both parties. These relationships are not necessarily chosen. They exist whether you like it or not. Locate a new factory and it will have a surrounding community that may object to noise, smell, emissions, working hours, trucks. Politicians need to know about it; the local authority will have to give permission; environmental pressure groups may not like the product. Nowadays these publics cannot be ignored. Public relations is everything to do with an organisation's relationships and therefore with its reputation.   
 
Public relations works at two levels. First, at the general level, everyone reads, watches or listens to the media. That forms the basis for their perception of what an organisation seems to be like. Clearly PR needs the media, but it is wary of it, mainly because of the fear that messages will be twisted.

The second level is people’s own direct experience of an organisation. If you are an employee you will almost certainly know what the company you work for is really like and it may not be how their reputation is projected in the media. One of the reasons for the efforts companies make to improve internal relations is to avoid a contradiction between its public relations stance and what its employees say about it.

All organisations, whether commercial or not, have competing objectives. Companies try to increase their sales. A non-commercial organisation stands up for what it believes in – whether or not fighting heart disease is a better purpose than selling shoes or working for a greener future. Both types of organisation deploy their public relations resources to help them in the fight.

It is this partiality which lowers public relations practitioners in the esteem of journalists, business leaders and, to a lesser extent, the general public. The general public tends to follow the pattern that when you are familiar with a business sector, you are likely to think about it favourably. If you are unfamiliar with it, you think about it unfavourably. Within the media and even business, public relations is not always regarded very highly.

The feeling within the PR business is that neither journalists nor business leaders really understand what public relations is. This stems from the multiple nature of public relations.

As a strategic force it is often unseen. The part it plays in deciding the essence of a firm or product, in planning, and in the conscience of industry, is out of the public eye. The presentational aspects of public relations, especially the hype, the sound bites and the photo opportunities, are seen all the time and taken to be all that there is. Accusations of superficiality also arise when instead of tackling root causes, public relations experts are called on to cover up, distract attention, neutralise criticism. These are the notorious ‘public relations exercises’.

The profession therefore has the task of demonstrating that good public relations is not shallow or cosmetic, but is fundamental to the well-being of organisations.