2300: What exactly is Public Relations?

On the PR Newswire, they have a blog that is updated regularly by a member of their staff. She wrote an article about a site she encountered that wanted people to give 2009 the “pink slip” because of the economic difficulties. She said this caused her to think about what a great public relations year it had been, and encouraged all professionals to submit their success stories.

This story reminded me of how confused I was when I entered this major. I kept hearing about how many great public relations career opportunities existed. I thought that PR, marketing, and advertising, were all synonymous. Therefore, I could not understand how advertising based careers were in demand with the current state of the economy. After studying the field of public relations I have realized why it can always be successful. PR professionals don’t rely on gimmicks or clever ideas, they base their campaigns in research and data. They create successful campaigns because they follow the ROPE process, conduct several SWOT analysis, and use research to effectively communicate to the involved publics. There will always be a need for effective communication across people, so good PR people will always have a job.