During my time at Tennessee, I have been exposed to various perspectives from different scholars and researchers on how they view the Public Relations discipline and profession. Some think that it is the organization that is in charge of controlling the message towards specific publics, while others feel that the focus is on the meaning and dialogue between the public relations professional and its stakeholders, and that the best arguement wins in the debate. On the other hand, there are some scholars that feel that Public relations is all about relationships built on trust, committment, and transparency to name a few.
However, there are some that feel that storytelling is at the heart of what we do in Public Relations. We do present our client’s perspective in our messages when we communicate to our audiences, and we do the same for our stakeholders to our organization. These stories frame our perceptions and view of the world from our perspective.
While I agree that we do communicate and frame these perceptions in our messages to our audiences and it contributes to the overall foundation of the profession, I believe that public relations professionals do more than just tell stories. We need to look at other aspects besides the message that we are communicating – like who is communicating this message, the overall atmosphere and environment that our client is involved in, and other contributing factors.
With social media for example – yes, there is a lot of discussion that is emerging among key stakeholders and people have the opportunity to present themselves and share their views and thoughts on given issues. However, we need to look at what are the factors that are contributing to these discussions. Future research needs to be conducted to explore this phenomenon further by using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
These are just a few of my thoughts on the subject. Hope you all are having a great day.
Best Wishes,
Karen
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