Some ongoing critiques of PR “professionals” methods, some recent discussion about how we define ourselves and and constant battle to explain what I do to my parents (they’ll tell you I am a teacher) has meant I’m thinking a lot about what we do as public relations professionals and what it means to practice PR.

We can always cite the “bible” of public relations, Cutlip, Center and Broom’s definition which goes a little something like this:

“Public relations is a management function that seeks to identify, build, and maintain mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and all of the publics on whom its success or failure depends”

That’s great, but what do public relations professionals DO? In a final-chapter manifesto from Berger and Reber’s book “Gaining Influence in Public Relations,” they give us a list of things that we DON’T do.

“HEAR THIS: I am not a flack, a shill, a barker, a hustler, or a spinner. I do not stonewall, distort language, construct false images, or blindly follow directions in the interests of my organization or its leaders” (p. 247).

(Thanks to Tiffany Derville for making me more familiar with this work.)

The “doing” part is still unclear. Let’s keep looking.

When I was an undergrad, I’d spend time looking through the used-to-be-free Holmes Report knowledge base to answer this question. If I go into public relations, what would I be doing?

I’d click on something like “community relations” and the database would spit out a dozen or so case studies that fell under that theme. Each case study would provide the activities of that campaign – thus, giving me a sense of what came under the umbrella of “community relations.”

Thanks to the Internet, you can still get access to lots of good case studies:

• Council of Public Relations Firms – selected case studies provided by member organizations.
• The Arthur W. Page Society – award-winning case studies from 2001 – 2008
• PRSA’s PR Resource Center – it’s part of a PRSA membership, but if you don’t have one, someone on your faculty will. Ask them to help you download past Silver and Bronze Anvil winners.

Great… so you have to read a ton of case studies to decide if PR is for you? Or what to expect from your career? Not necessarily.

• Join your local PRSSA or PRSA chapter (or the equivalent where you are). Our PRSSA chapter at the University of Oregon focuses on professional development and bringing in speakers from many facets of public relations to talk about their work.
• Get involved in your student-run agency.
• Do informational interviews.

Public relations is such a multi-faceted field that you need to take responsibility to explore and to figure out how the textbook definitions translate in the real world. But take the textbook definitions with you. They are important and help create a common foundation from which all ethical PR professionals operate.

What do you think?