I’m sure majority of students doing PR Internship have
at some point been asked “So what sort of internship are you doing?” followed
by a blank stare when you mention public relations (PR). Truth be told, most
people don’t know what PR is or what PR practitioners do. In fact I, myself,
didn’t quite understand the entire function of PR until completing my first
year of PR units.
So with the ‘what’s PR?’ question floating around my
life more than usual, and with my new found practical experiences, I’ve spent
the last week attempting to create a simple, yet accurate, definition of PR
that attempts to incorporate all the different areas within it. So go ahead,
ask me what PR is.
“PR is everything”.
I’m sure everyone else doing PR will agree. It feels
like…well everything from planning events, to lobbying, to writing, to making
sure your clients organisations are running smoothly. However, this definition
is still too complicated so I have simplified it further and come up with this definition :
“The internal and
external communications that helps organisations to not just function smoothly,
but to create a favourable reputation and image.” I like to think of PR as the
egg in a cake that binds it all together and gives it that golden glow when you
take out from the oven.
At the PR consultancy I’m doing my internship at, the
office has been broken up into four different section (corporate affairs,
government relations, investor relations and digital and media) to account for
all the different areas of PR, even through majority of the time they overlap. This is just one example of how vast PR
is.
Sadly, many still see it as merely just a form of
“spin”, whilst others have decided that PR is solely for making unethical
practises seem ethical in the light of stakeholder’s eyes. Of cause this is
just so far from its actual function. PR is not about glitz and glamour, it’s
not about looking attractive (that’s just a bonus), it’s not ALL about
publicity, and most importantly it’s not about lying or being deceptive.
PR is about helping business to effectively
communicate within their own organisation and to its publics. With PR
advocating for new concepts like stakeholder theory, CSR and sustainability,
it’s doing more good than anything else. In fact, take a look at any majorly
successful company, you’re sure to find a PR person somewhere, whether there
role is named communications officer, events planner or media
coordinator.
Despite PR working to manage perceptions for clients,
its seems to be ironic that PR itself has a perception issue. Surely it's time
society learnt more about PR and its real role in society.
