Comments on: What Public Relations Is — and What It Is Not

By: Nikiforos Gkrestas

Nikiforos Gkrestas — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:33:36 +0000

Definitely, I agree first of all with the reciprocal character of PR function. And is not something that describes PR, we have to generalize a bit at that point. That reciprocity is precisely what defines human communication in a fundamental level. There’s no communication between us, unless we interact each other. There’s even NO message at all if that message is a part of an one-way communication attempt. Message -as the primary material of our communication- has to be interpreted by a receiver in order to exist. The message, in its entity, obtains its entire and real meaning after the contribution and involvement of both senders and receivers. That way, receivers become senders as well etc etc. In other words, the whole procedure requires feedback. Consequently, we could possibly reach a conclusion (as the first rhetoric speakers in the history of mankind, Sophists, would do in an hypothetical speech held in Athens’s Agora) that one-way communication is NO communication at all. Maybe it’s an aphorism, yes. But who could really resist an aphorism??!

After all, by the time Public Relations is indeed a kind of applied communication, it has to obey that basic rules to function properly (and morally i guess…)

Finally, i have 2 worries.. First, i’m not sure if it’s a good idea to include the term “Publicity” in the “NO” list. I still believe (without clear evidence and personal experience, i admit it) that Public Relations as a 2-way communication method could serve publicity as well. After all, a company has to communicate its existence at first…

Second, why the MPS curriculum perpetuates the confusion between PR and Marketing including a course called: “Integrated Marketing Communication”? I wonder…

Nikiforos

By: Claire C

Claire C — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:56:33 +0000

I definitely agree with the “reciprocity” point. In fact, I think nowadays in many fields, besides PR, are all begin to emphasize on mutual beneficial relationship and even rely on such relationship to thrive. From my point of view, it’s a crucial concept not only in PR (but especially important in PR) but also a trend that has been applied to several areas.
I used to work in TV news station being responsible of a lot of communication with PR professionals. We relied on PR practitioners to provide us interesting news pieces while they hoped to get their events published. The different management and approaches among those thousands of PR professionals definitely strongly affected our willingness of maintaining such relationship. The various level of consideration they had for our benefits also majorly influenced the length of our collaboration. With my actual experience, I can obviously experience that reciprocity is what good PR has to take into account.
By the way, I specifically like the Webster description of PR as as “art”. How PR professionals finish projects with a beautiful touch can help creating a IMC mix masterpiece which is composed with inter-related yet distinguishably amazing art pieces.

By: Paulina

Paulina — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:33:51 +0000

I would like to touch base on the definition given by PR News and Mark’s comments on PR as “reciprocal understanding and goodwill,” as he put it during class. I think that PR has a lot to do with listening, evaluating, monitoring, and re-implementing; a lot of trial and fail, and a lot of making mistakes to learn from them. I am not sure if the field is misunderstood or if we, PR professionals have made a point to not make ourselves understood. We don’t clarity on whether or not a press release should be just a like a press release on a particular product, because sometimes our products are ideas. In the document PR comes of age, there is a very interesting graphic on the Marketing Mix, and all its components. I couldn’t help but wonder how many times I have gotten some of these components mixed up. But beyond that, how is that PR is an integral part of a Marketing Communications Strategy? I am not quite sure how is that we are not supposed to shovel down our audience throats our product/idea. I would love to further discuss this idea during further…

By: Heather Lovett

Heather Lovett — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:58:07 +0000

I agree that as a good public relations practitioner we have to understand what we are doing and the differences between marketing, spinning, and the others Mark has listed as what pr is not. In my experience at an agency I have heard people claim that their job is “like marketing” to make it easier for those who don’t quite understand public relations. I wonder if they know the differences themselves.

By: Shilpika Das

Shilpika Das — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:11:45 +0000

Notes from the blurry eyed…

I have been looking up Public Relations and its definitions on the internet all week – and the results are mind boggling. Not only are there hundreds of them out there, most of them are conflicting as well. As one PR professional puts it: “the very people charged with shaping an organization’s reputation cannot project a unified picture of themselves.”

No wonder this profession is so misunderstood.

Reading the articles, I couldn’t help but wonder if terms like IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications), Marcom (read Marketing Communications for the uninitiated, like me!) or Corporate Affairs are thinly veiled terms for PR. Are they?

So, you’re probably thinking I missed the whole point of last week’s class… but in my defense – it does get a little blurry!!! Savvy communications (or is it marketing?) professionals, sometimes, make it very difficult for a PR newbie like me to make the distinction.

One thing I know PR is NOT, and that is spin. Here’s an interesting example of spin with the recent Calif. train wreck.

“On Friday, an LA commuter train slammed into a freight train, killing 25 people. On Saturday, the PR person for the Metrolink train system said publicly it appeared that the passenger train’s engineer was at fault for the crash. On Sunday, her bosses issued a statement saying her pronouncement was “premature.” On Monday, she resigned.”

Read the full story here: http://tinyurl.com/6xpuos

Hoping to get more clear-sighted…