“Public Relations: A strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” -- PRSSA (Public Relations Society of America)
After three years of officially being a public relations major at my university, I’ve heard tons of ridiculous questions and accusations about PR. They tend to come from those who don’t fully understand what it is. For those of us who do, it causes eyes rolls, annoyed faces, and passionate responses. Today I’m here to help you understand what it is and is not so you can avoid offending any more PR majors when you complain about us not actually doing anything.
1. “Aren’t you just, like, glorified communications majors?"
No, we’re not. We take the same introduction classes, but then we move on to our own personalized route because we are not the same thing. People in these fields tend to overlap due to experience, not education.
2. “What an easy major!"
Yes, what an easy major. It’s certainly not a science to understand how to effectively communicate with people. I forgot that everyone can succeed at public speaking. Oh, and of course, absolutely everyone knows how to plan, implement, and evaluate a yearlong campaign for social media, events, and multiple organizations.
3. “You take a class on how to use social media?”
No, we take classes on how to effectively use social media. You posting eight selfies in a row is not the same thing as building an effective relationship with your key public through all forms of social media.
4. “Do you ever do any work?”
Oh no, we don’t believe in work -- only throwing parties and gossiping. This question can’t be real. Of course, we do work! We go to college, don’t we?
5. “Do you ever get tired of group projects?”
Absolutely not. I love spending 13 straight hours with that one slacker in the group.
6. “Why do you have to get a degree to learn how to lie to people?”
If that is what you think PR is, you’re not following the right companies. Lying to your public is the opposite of what the PR team should be doing. They are there to keep an open and honest relationship with their company’s public. They are there to fix mistakes that have been made in a positive manner. Lying would be a negative, don’t you think?
7. “You’re all extroverts, right?”
Once again, you’re wrong. While many people who end up working in PR are extroverts, you can't place everyone into one personality type. It wouldn’t be very effective if everyone was the same.
8. “Do you want to be a publicist?”
Listen, there is a reason publicists can make a good amount of money. They have to clean up the messes of many irrational celebrities. I do not believe that is the route for me, but I can’t answer for all of my fellow PR majors.
Moral of the story: think before you ask questions. You don’t like assumptions about your major, and we don’t like it about ours either.
