Thursday, December 18, 2008

Defining Public Relations


Over the summer, a group of us (Fran Gregory -- Conestoga College and Jean Valin -- Government of Canada) reviewed nearly 20 definitions of public relations published in various text books, by national/international associations or journals. We determined that a series of constructs were present in all or some of the defintions. The constructs included: relationship management, reputation management, serving the public interest, strategic and tactical, managed function, and two-way symmetrical.

We used a wiki to revise and refine a proposed definition that could be used by the Canadian Public Relations Society (and perhaps others).

Here is our definition (September 2008):

"Public relations is the strategic management of priority relationships, through two-way communication, between an organization and its publics to achieve mutual understanding, realize organizational goals, and serve the public interest."

What are your thoughts about this definition? Do you think that it could be used globally? Here's a link to our wiki discussion http://definingpublicrelations.wikispaces.com/

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