Many people don't know what public relations is and how to relate it to journalism. There are many differences that make public relations agents unique. I am included in this group as I am just starting off my new school year exploring my options with public relations. It has been an eye-opening experience, to say the least. There are a lot more differences between advertising and public relations than you think. You will also learn from this article how they are related and different in their own way. Public relations is the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends. They create narratives to advance their agenda.
PR can be used to protect, enhance or build reputations through the media, social media, or self-produced communications. Anyone can get a story. Public Relations is securing the story you want, with the right audience at the right time. The advertising industry relates more to the business side. A key difference between the two is that advertising is paid while public relations is earned through credibility and believability. Public relations builds trust through storytelling abilities while advertising builds exposure of products and companies. PR agents make pitches to news outlets on ideas to tell their clients story. This is not the case for advertising as they have complete control of their creativity. Advertising doesn't need approval from others when it comes to producing their content. Lastly, advertisement is more visual than public relations. Commercials are a perfect way to show that advertisements are quite visual.
Public relations uses language to tell the story of others. An example of this is through press releases from a company or organization. However, they do have a similarity in that both professions persuade an audience to take action. They just do it through different forms of communication. There's a big misconception about what public relations does in comparison to advertising and marketing methods.
