This paper will address how Public Relation (PR) has come to impact society and my opinion on how feel PR has impacted society.
Public relation (PR) is an activity that uses communication to increase understanding between an organization/individual and one or more groups called publics. The term is also applied to the profession responsible for handling such activities. For example: corporations, educational institutions, entertainers, government agencies, labor unions, politicians, and religious groups are among those who use public relations. Their publics vary from employees and stockholders to entire communities and members of the media. Many organizations use public relations to gain the understanding of both their internal public (employees) and external public (customers) (World book Encyclopedia, 2003).
Communication strategies range from simple news releases and fact sheets to sophisticated public relations campaigns featuring films, advertisements, speeches, and television appearances. Such communication is aimed at gaining the good will of the community. The basis of any effective public relations campaign is public benefit. If an organization does not serve the needs of its publics, they will not support it. Public relations experts help organizations and individuals learn what their publics want and establish communication policies that reflect concern for those publics' interests (World book Encyclopedia, 2003).
Public relation is generally practiced through (1) corporate public relations departments, (2) public relations firms or agencies, and (3) public information departments. In a corporate PR department, specialists handle PR activities only for that company. In PR firms, public relations practitioners carry out activities for several organizations or individuals, also called clients or accounts. Nonprofit organizations, such as colleges and government agencies, have public information departments that work to strengthen the organization's image and credibility (World book Encyclopedia, 2003).