Week 2 readings

I think the two key points to remember from this week's readings are the definition of Public Relations and that PR has many different theories.

Public Relations has usually been confused with marketing and advertising. It is essential to understand that while both PR and marketing have overlapping areas, they are still separate entities. PR however can be used to compliment certain aspects for marketing like for example in media strategy and promotions. It is also important to study the various key roles of a Public Relations practitioner. It is not just restricted to press agentry and publicity, but also includes other more diverse roles like events management, crisis management and fund raising.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory in that the theory is very diverse and covers a wide range of perspectives, which allows students a more complete view of PR and helps us understand PR better. One theory I find particularly interesting is Grunig's four models, which describes four different approaches that PR can take. In my opinion, I agree with Grunig and Hunt that the two-way symmetric is probably the ideal for PR. However, I also agree with the criticism that the two-way symmetric model is too idealistic for it to be fully applied in real life. The purpose for any organisation would be to get as much profit as possible and they are more likely to promote their own views than give the publics' views the same importance as theirs.