Public relations is the discipline that studies the communication established by an organization with society.
The science that is responsible for managing communication between an organization and society , with the aim of building, managing and maintaining its positive image, is known as public relations or PR. Its origins are said to date back to ancient times, when tribal societies attempted to promote respect for the authority of the chief.
However, we cannot ignore the existence of negative public relations either. As their name indicates, they are those actions that are carried out in a manner that is totally contrary to what we have stated previously. In their case, their function is to discredit the opposing company, the direct rival.
To achieve this purpose, negative public relations carry out what is the spread of unpositive rumors that discredit their “enemy” , the use of real data that serves as a comparison with their own and that is detrimental to that or through lies.
Characteristics of public relations
It is a planned discipline that is developed strategically and that appeals to two-way communication , since it addresses an audience (internal and external) but also listens to and attends to its needs.
Among the main tasks of public relations are the management of internal communications (to get to know the organization's human resources and ensure that they understand the institutional policies), the management of external communications (to make itself known) , the humanistic functions (try to gain the public's trust) and the analysis and understanding of public opinion (and then act on it).
Public relations works in conjunction with other disciplines and areas, such as psychology , sociology and marketing .
Public relations can help improve a company's image.
Its importance today
Such is the value that public relations currently have in our society and specifically in the business field that there is already the corresponding university degree on it. Specifically, in Spain , there are various schools and university centers that offer the Degree in Advertising and Public Relations . This career is part of the so-called “communication” career, which also includes Journalism and Audiovisual Communication .
The importance of public relations lies in working with intangible resources such as identity (what characterizes the organization and differentiates it from the rest), philosophy (the organization's overall objective), culture (its way of acting), the image (its representation) and the reputation (the mental representation it generates in the public).
Public relations and corporate image
One of the pillars and fundamental jobs that every person who is dedicated to the aforementioned public relations has is the management of the corporate image. And this identity is vital for the population to identify with the specific company. To achieve this, in this sense the professionals in this area will dedicate themselves to studying in depth and developing all types of work such as interviews or surveys.
Currently, public relations are often subordinated to marketing, since the functioning of organizations is usually considered only based on commercial logic .