Public Relations Definition

Looking for the pub­lic rela­tions definition?

Defining pub­lic rela­tions (PR) is no easy task.

We are a pro­fes­sion with powers to help brands com­mu­nic­ate bet­ter, but we struggle with defin­ing ourselves — the irony isn’t lost on anyone.

Still, after many years of the­or­et­ic­al and prac­tic­al tri­al-and-error, I’ve cre­ated a help­ful defin­i­tion for my daily PR life.

Here we go:

Public Relations Definition

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The Public Relations Definition

Someone once tried to count the num­ber of actu­al defin­i­tions of pub­lic rela­tions (PR), but they allegedly gave up after find­ing over 500+ dif­fer­ent ver­sions. ¹From the early 1900s to 1976, Rex F. Harlow, a well-respec­ted expert on pub­lic rela­tions, gathered around 500 dif­fer­ent defin­i­tions of pub­lic rela­tions (Cutlip et al. 2006). ²Morris, T., & Goldsworthy, S. (2008). From PR to pro­pa­ganda. 97 – 111. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​0​7​/​978 – 0‑230 – 59485-2_7

Amongst so many defin­i­tions of pub­lic rela­tions, here’s the defin­i­tion that I find to be most useful:

Public Relations Definition

Public Relations (PR) = the stra­tegic and tac­tic­al use of com­mu­nic­a­tion to devel­op and main­tain pro­duct­ive rela­tion­ships with stake­hold­ers, influ­en­cers, and publics.

Please note:

Stakeholders in PR = incentiv­ised rep­res­ent­at­ives with vari­ous interests in the organisation.

Influencers in PR = inde­pend­ent gate­keep­ers with audi­ences of import­ance to the organisation.

Publics in PR = situ­ation­al groups with sim­il­ar com­mu­nic­at­ive beha­viours affect­ing the organisation.

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Alternative Public Relations Definitions

Here are a few addi­tion­al definitions:

“Public rela­tions is the stra­tegic prac­tice of influ­en­cing atti­tudes and beha­vi­or through com­mu­nic­a­tion, which seeks to cre­ate and main­tain mutu­ally bene­fi­cial rela­tion­ships between an organ­iz­a­tion and its pub­lics.”
— Public Relations Society of America

“Public rela­tions is the art and social sci­ence of ana­lyz­ing trends, pre­dict­ing their con­sequences, coun­sel­ing organ­iz­a­tion­al lead­ers, and imple­ment­ing planned pro­grams of action, which will serve both the organ­iz­a­tion and the pub­lic interest.”
— IPR Commission on PR Education

“Public rela­tions is the pro­cess of cre­at­ing, build­ing, and main­tain­ing rela­tion­ships with key stake­hold­ers in order to achieve organ­iz­a­tion­al goals and object­ives.”
— Chartered Institute of Public Relations

“Public rela­tions is an organ­iz­a­tion­al func­tion and a set of pro­cesses for man­aging com­mu­nic­a­tion between an organ­iz­a­tion and its pub­lics.”
— International Association of Business Communicators

“Public rela­tions is the man­age­ment func­tion which eval­u­ates pub­lic atti­tudes, iden­ti­fies the policies and pro­ced­ures of an organ­iz­a­tion with the pub­lic interest, and plans and executes a pro­gram of action to earn pub­lic under­stand­ing and accept­ance.”
— Institute for Public Relations

“Public rela­tions is the man­age­ment of com­mu­nic­a­tion between an organ­iz­a­tion and its pub­lics, through the use of tech­no­logy, social media, and oth­er forms of com­mu­nic­a­tion to achieve mutu­al under­stand­ing, real­ize organ­iz­a­tion­al goals, and serve the pub­lic interest.”
— The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management

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Get star­ted with this free Introduction PR Course and learn essen­tial pub­lic rela­tions skills and con­cepts for future suc­cess in the PR industry.

• Public Relations Meaning (What Is PR?)
• Public Relations Definition
• The Stakeholders in Public Relations
• The Influencers in Public Relations
• The Publics in Public Relations
• What Public Relations Does for an Organisation
• Kirk Hallahan’s Five Types of Publics
• PR Approaches: Excellence, Rhetorical, and Critical
• The Four Models of Public Relations
• The PESO Model: Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned Media

Comparing Public Relations

• Public Relations vs Marketing
• Public Relations vs Journalism
• Public Relations vs Media Relations
• Public Relations vs Publicity
• Public Relations vs Advertising (to be published)
• Public Relations vs Public Affairs (to be published)
• Public Relations vs Human Resources (to be published)

“Be so good they can­’t ignore you.”
— Steve Martin

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