The Undefined Definition

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) recently announced its new definition for the practice of public relations. Thank God! I can finally tell my family what I do for a living and they’ll finally stop asking me why they never see my name in print.

Not so fast….

“Public Relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

Huh?

While I agree that this is what we do, at a really, really (really) high level, this definition is just as broad as saying a doctor “manages his/her patient’s health.”

Aside from the flashy buzzwords (strategic communication process, mutually beneficial relationships, publics(!)), here are the reasons I don’t fully embrace this definition:

1)     “Builds mutually beneficial relationships”: I’m not sure that we are always striving for a mutually beneficial relationship. Most of the time, probably…but always, probably not. I think “manages relationships” is more accurate.

2)     “Organizations”: This might be nit-picky, but we also work with individuals.

3)     It seems to be missing the ultimate objective of public relations: To manage the public perception of the organization/individual; more specifically, to create and maintain a positive public perception. Building mutually beneficial relationships (or “managing relationships”) is one way to achieve this.

All in all, it’s not a horrible definition, but unfortunately, I think it only makes sense to fellow PR professionals. It’s not going to help anyone outside the field understand what we do or validate the role of public relations in accomplishing larger goals.

What do you think?