Public Relations is an integral part of organization in order to highlight a positive aspect of a group of individual. It is very important to have a working public relations unit among government offices, businesses and private associations. On a personal note, public relations are defined as a form of philosophy that is equivalent to the approach of catching people’s attention by using good propaganda or advertising. The form of this advertising is not an actual form of media output but a complete thought of how to present the characteristics of an organization to the general public.
Regardless of the type of Public Relations, it is still the people who will decide whether the organization is credible enough to be trusted. Public Relations is the best tool to capture the trust of people towards mission implementations or business. PRSA defines Public Relations in a way that eliminates biasness. According to the association, Public Relations provide avenues for the pluralistic and complicated societies in order to reach decisions so that they could function according to the mutual beneficial approaches of institutions and groups (PRSA, 1982).
Public Relations also covers the following aspects: researching programs for extensive communication procedures, anticipating opinions whether good or bad, counseling with all the levels of a particular organization and managing all the resources to perform all of the mentioned tasks. The Wise Geek website defines Public Relations as more inclined towards principles of business strategies. Its main role is to enhance the appeal of the company’s reputation (Crystal, 2003).
Public Relations has concepts that provides much needed service delegation so that both the media and the public will gain knowledge on how business operates and what it can offer to the general consumers (Crystal, 2003). In order to get the perception of people regarding a certain company, Public Relations is also utilized. Usually, the PR department conducts research procedures with the help of IT services. When negative advertising or criticism is made against the company, PR ensures that the defense is strong enough to save the image and reputation of the organization.
Another definition of Public Relations according to Singh (2001) is that PR is something that could become an information basis for the media. The parameter of PR is expected to contain both entertainment and information (Singh, 2001). This makes Public Relation more people friendly because the public is more inclined to immerse themselves into something that thy practically enjoy. This definition of PR from the Wise Geek and the one from Singh is focus more on business perspectives.
Based on the three aforementioned definitions of Public Relations, it all comes down to one general philosophy- to improve the company’s image and maintain the positive outlook of the general public. The main contradictory aspects maybe realiz4ed when it comes to what or who is being protected by Public Relations’ principles. The personal outlook definition points out to a generic presentation of positive values about an entity. This perspective encompasses the meaning of advertising without looking into the consideration of how this approach can be developed.
Meanwhile, PRSA is more concerned on the harmony of the social structures to incorporate the good image of institutions. The organization’s definition is more technically structured in terms of how Public Relations actually modify each segment of the society. On the other hand, Wise Geek and Singh’s definition only concerns the capitalistic outlook of business strategies. This is probably the most widely perceived notion of Public Relations for a large number of people apparently denote PR to corporate advertising.
Not only one but many often ask “ Why there are so many Public Relations definitions? ” Basically, the answer can be based in who is going to adopt the principles of PR. The variation degree is affected by the reach of PR philosophies according to the different level of the social structure. For individuals, Public Relations can b as simple as the term itself because people usually interact with others or simply having acquaintances.
In this case, too much technicality of the term and PR principles is not much needed. Individual definition of Public Relations puts much concern on the personality being projected to other people. Meanwhile, organizations are always focused on promoting a definite mission. The role of Public Relations in the company’s mission is to attract other individuals to join their organization. This can be done by sending information, communicating with the target audiences and receiving feedback from them.
Lastly, if Public Relations will be used for productivity, then business owners will have to provide the most effective advertising procedures using all the media outlets available today just to build a favorable image for the company. Knowing the capacity of an institution to project an image of credibility can provide better public impressions. In order to achieve this, the principles of Public Relations are used to maintain a high level of public acceptance and correspondence. No matter what the intention may be, public relations will always be a significant part of social awareness structuring about organizations and businesses.
