Abby’s Blog

What is Public Relations?

At the end of my sophomore year in college I decided that my lifelong dream of being a vet was not for me so I decided to make the switch to an Ad and PR major (a huge change, I know). Going from mainly chemistry and biology classes to advertising and public relations classes was a huge adjustment for me to say the least. Before beginning my new advertising and public relations courses I didn’t know exactly what public relations was and to be honest, I still really don’t. There are so many different definitions of public relations and I think everyone has a different idea in their mind of what it is. When I first thought of public relations, I thought it was how companies and businesses get their name and their purpose out into the world. As this is not entirely wrong, it turns out it is way deeper than that and I knew I needed to do more research on what I am studying.

After researching a bit, I found some articles and journals that helped me break down what public relations is, one of them being from the PRSA website. This article included the different disciplines within PR, the goals, and how PR works towards meeting these goals. One thing that I found very useful was a quote that said public relations is “A strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

I think that one of the most important things for a company nowadays is being able to maintain a good reputation. With the growing online world it can be hard to keep up that reputation as we all know. In the article Public Relations Litigations this idea of reputation is discussed further in the place of lawsuits. One question asked is, “So why do corporations and other businesses litigate even when they will likely lose in the court of law and the court of public opinion? One explanation is settlement: some parties file lawsuits not to win but to force the defendant to pay out. But some business litigants defy even this explanation; they do not expect to win the lawsuit or to benefit financially from settlement. What explains their behavior? The answer is reputation” (Kishanthi 2019). If a business is in a crisis like this, public relations plays a big role here to keep the business afloat. For example, if things do not go as planned in the courtroom and a business loses the lawsuit, having good public relations can save that business from completely spiraling out. If people trust that business and it had a good reputation before the lawsuit, it will most likely continue that if it has a strong backbone, like public relations to support it.

I believe that public relations is so important for a company to succeed in the future and it can make or break a company. Peter Drucker says that “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Public relations can create such a positive future for a company if done correctly, and that is why I am excited to work in this industry.

Parella, K. (2019). Public relations litigation. Vanderbilt Law Review, 72(4), 1285-1333. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.gvsu.edu/docview/2296581427?accountid=39473