PR and It's Impact on Society

PR and It's Impact on Society

Wikipedia, an internet encyclopedia source, defines Public Relations as "the practice of conveying messages to the public through the media on behalf of a client, with the intention of changing the public's actions by influencing their opinions (Wikipedia.com, 2004)." It can be argued that this definition offers a narrow, one-sided view of the profession, as the Public Relations profession deals with more than just using the media to influence how people think about a subject. According to the Public Relations Society of America website, "Public relations help an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other (PRSA.org, 2004)."

For businesses, the public does not just consist of the community in which the business is located or operates. In the public relations profession, the public could consist of employees, the people in and out of your community, as well as current and prospective customers.

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Aurora Medical Center in Two Rivers

The public is really anyone that could have an interest in your organization and how it operates. The goal of public relations is to help to develop the relationships between the organization and all of its publics.

While the goal may be to develop relationships, the function of public relations is to promote the organization's products or services to the organizations public. In this regards, the correlation between marketing and public relations is demonstrated. Both functions involve promoting the organization in some fashion so that people are aware of the product or service being offered by the organization. Additionally, both seek the same final result, sales for the organization.

Marketing and Public relations differ in that marketing focuses on setting pricing, distribution, and placement strategies that will affect sales and profitability. Public relations efforts focus on developing a positive image and rapport with customers. Public relations set out to tell...