The definition of public relations was last updated in 1982. We can all agree that since 1982 public relations has changed with the emergence of social media and mobile communications. With this in mind, the Public Relations Society of America is making an effort to redefine “public relations”. According to “Redefining Public Relations in the Age of Social Media” by Stuart Elliott of NYtimes.com the current definition is “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other”.
The problems with the definition are it’s vague; and today, PR is a conversation rather than adaption. The article explains that PR communication is “a process that for decades went one way – from the top down, usually as a monologue – now goes two ways…” Adaption implies being forced to accept a given image or message. Social media has allowed consumers to respond quickly and publicly en masse to a given PR situation. Consumers no longer have to adapt, they can respond in various forms throughout cyberspace, and in turn, companies can change to please the consumers. An example given in the article and that was very public: Netflix attempted to spin-off their DVD services. Their subscribers took to the internet to air their grievances about the attempt and to a previous price hike. Netflix responded by abandoning the spin-off and they lost 800,000 members as a consequence of the attempt.
The definition campaign is dubbed Public Relations Defined and its goal is “A modern definition for the new era of public relations.” Public Relations Defined started on Sept 30 with a meeting of many representatives from professional PR organizations and will continue as an “open forum” as the website prdefinition.prsa.org will allow anyone to submit a definition (within a given template). With an outdated definition, the Public Relations Society of America could also look outdated. This new campaign should result in a new definition and updated image for the organization.
No comments:
Post a Comment