Can we please stop asking, ‘What is PR?’
Here are three questions that people should stop asking:
1. Is PR a profession?
Of course it is a profession. The only people who wonder whether it’s a profession are the people actually in the profession. Calm down. Yes, people take you seriously—except when you ask this question!
2. What is PR?
Edward Bernays, a colorful bloke we generally accept as the founder of public relations, defined PR in the early 1900s as:
“… a management function that tabulates public attitudes, defines the policies, procedures, and interests of an organization followed by executing a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.”
Since Bernays made that statement 100 years ago, the PR business has continued to struggle with its chronic identity crisis. The agenda of the first World Assembly of Public Relations Association in 1978 was to figure out the industry. The delegates issued a definition of their craft:
“the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organizational leaders, and implementing planned programs of action, which will serve both the organization and the public interest.”
Please read on after the jump from www.ragan.com