What is Public Relations, Anyway?

Five trends are related to the evolution of Public Relation
Growth of institutions
Increasing incidence of change and conflict in society.
Sophistication of people worldwide as a result of technological innovations in communication
Growing power of Public Relation in the new century
Exponential grow of internet based COM tools including social software

Definition of Public Relation
PR is a planned process to influence public opinion, through sound character and proper performance based on mutually satisfactory two ways COM

The process by which PR may influence PO

John Marston identifies four ways
Research: attitudes about the issue at hand
Action: identify action of the client in the public interest
Communication: to gain understanding, acceptance, and support
Evaluation: to evaluate the COM to see if opinion has been influenced.

Public Relations as Management Interpreter
They interpret the philosophies, policies, programs, and practices of their management to the public. On the other hand, they must convey the attitudes of the public to their management

The Publics of Public Relations:
Practitioners have to communicate with different publics: the publics can be divided into the following categories:
· Internal and external the first in an organization can be managers, supervisors, and clerks. External ones are customers, and the community.
· Primary, secondary, and marginal
· Traditional and Future
· Proponents, opponents, and the uncommitted
The Functions of Public Relations
· Writing which is the fundamental PR skill
· Media relations
· Planning special events and media events
· Counseling deals with management and its interactions
· Researching of attitudes and opinions
· Publicity to generate positive attitude to the client
· Marketing communication for instance creating brochures.
· Community relations
· Consumer relations
· Employee relations
· Government affairs, deal with legislators and regulations
· Investor relations, communicate with stockholders.
· Special publics relations
· Publics affairs and issues management,
· Website development, the organization principle interface with the public

The Spin
Spin signifies the distinctive interpretation of an issue or action to sway public opinion.