Public Relations Definition

Public relations in its simplest form is the ability to display any interest to the public in the most favorable of lights. Put another way, public relations is the ability to influence the public's opinion of an interest in a positive direction. This applies for companies, organizations, individuals, products, or even religious ideals and politics. Conceivably, anything that can receive the public's opinion is fodder for public relations.

Modern public relations is differentiated from advertising and propaganda in that it does not attempt to sell a product nor should it contain falsified information to sway the public. It is also differentiated from marketing due to the fact that the research involved is not necessarily geared toward any single instance of a product or company but is rather geared towards larger groups of the population with similar opinions. Whereas marketing and advertising seek similar social and economic backgrounds, social and economic factors aren't necessarily enough to cement any single opinion within a population. Thus, public relations attempts to understand this variation and develop publicity campaigns accordingly.

Within the space of a minute, people can be swayed from one opinion to the opposing opinion, should the evidence for such a change be adequate. It is this adequacy threshold that public relations seeks to find. It is that point in the person's mental reasoning when an opinion can be changed that most interests public relations specialists. Further, the amount of work required to change opinion and the degree to which an opinion can be deviated is also of great interest. After all, if an opinion cannot remain changed for an extended period of time, the purpose of the public relations campaign could fall apart.

In order to change public opinion, public relations employs several techniques, from the venerable press release and press conference to exhibitions and tradeshows. Since the 1960s, a greater importance has also been placed on what is known as the "circuit"-- interviews on the various talk shows and radio stations available to the general public. Within the last 10 years, public relations has also moved onto the Internet, due in part to the explosion of high-speed internet connections and interactive company websites. It has become faster and simpler for the general public to interact with public relations specialists as a result of this, and the World Wide Web has become just as powerful an outlet as any other employed in public relations.