Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its public

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FIELD RESEARCH REPORT

By Wang Yufei

  • PUBLIC RELATIONS
  • DEFINITION

Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics.1 PR aims to gain an organization or individual positive exposure to their key stakeholders, while downplaying any negative exposures and dealing with complaints skillfully. Common activities include speaking at conferences, winning industry awards, working with the press and employee communications. According to the PRSA, the essential functions of public relations include research, planning, communications dialogue and evaluation.

  • GOAL & MISSION

Today, "Public Relations is a set of management, supervisory, and technical functions that foster an organization's ability to strategically listen to, appreciate, and respond to those persons whose mutually beneficial relationships with the organization are necessary if it is to achieve its missions and values." (Robert L. Heath, Encyclopedia of Public Relations).

  • PR AND RELATED FIELDS

Because PR is just a quite specific field under communication, there’s no exactly any sub-field of PR. But for PR applicants like me, there are several related fields to PR we should know and consider applying for the similar program of these fields. Some programs in these related fields actually have the same goal as the programs in PR though they have different titles.

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  •  (Strategic) Public Relations

Public Relations as major of MS program is developed to recognize that in today's society, public relations professionals are employed in a wide variety of settings in business, government, and nonprofit organizations. The goal of the curriculum is to educate students for careers in communication-based activities in such organizations. Students are prepared not just for entry-level positions, but for advancement in their selected fields.

The statement of SPR in USC says as follows. Success in contemporary public relations requires a sophisticated understanding of the communication processes and ethical standards that govern interactions between institutions and ...

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