Public Relations

Public relations is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization, such as a business, a government agency or a nonprofit, to the public in order to shape how that individual or organization is perceived. It is generally distinguished from advertising because public relations activity is usually unpaid, working instead through what is called earned media, coverage a practitioner secures by drawing journalists and the public toward a topic of genuine interest, rather than by purchasing space or airtime outright. Public relations is also distinguished from journalism, since its purpose is to present information that supports an organization own interests and reputation rather than to report independently and objectively. Public relations practitioners work across every media channel, writing press releases, arranging interviews and public events, and managing an organization response during a crisis, and the field grew into a distinct profession over the course of the twentieth century alongside the growth of mass media itself.