September 24, 2015                                        Contact Information:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           Ella Gair

                                                                        Phone: (905)-648-4746

                                                                        E-mail: gair@mcmaster.ca

 

 

Hamilton, ON. – What do students really know about public relations? According to short interviews conducted in September 2015 on two McMaster students, Daven Bigelow and Eileen Shoreman, and former public relations professional Bill Gair, students have a good understanding of public relations, despite having no direct exposure to the profession. These students were chosen deliberately because they did not have any prior experience in the field of public relations or through courses on the subject in University.

The interviews were conducted by Ella Gair, a student in her third year of the Communications Studies and Multimedia program at McMaster University, and currently enrolled in the Communication Studies Public Relations course at the McMaster. The questions asked during the interviews included: when you hear the term public relations what comes to mind, how would you define public relations, and what do people who are employed in public relations do?

The first participant, Bill Gair, stated that public relations involves “developing strategies around issues that might involve response or pushing news stories [and] looking for opportunities to proactively develop stories in [the client’s] favour. It means always being prepared to respond to questions and issues from the public and the media with favourable messaging.” He also stated that it is the job of public relations professionals to use media such as print, broadcast, and internet media to promote a favourable image of the company or person that they represent to the public.

This interpretation from Mr. Gair is similar to the definition from the Public Relations Society of America which states that public relations is defined as “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics” (Seitel, 2014, p. 1). Mr. Gair’s definition included similar ideas such as mutual benefit for the public and client being represented, and the development of strategies to achieve this outcome, showing a clear understanding for public relations. These two similar definitions were used to compare the interpretations of the McMaster students to see whether they have a good understanding of the profession.

The first student, Daven Bigelow, is in his third year of Multimedia at McMaster and states that public relations professionals are “the people who stand between the public and corporations and control and mediate information between them.”

This interpretations of public relations is similar to both the official definition and the interpretation provided by Mr. Gair. However, he believes that public relations is a particular person not “a process” as the Public Relations Society of America defines. He does mention that public relations professionals “mediate information” between a corporation and the public which is consistent with the definition. Despite some slight differences in his interpretation and the definition from the Public Relations Society of America, it seems that Mr. Bigelow has a good understanding of what public relations is. 

The last person interviewed, Eileen Shoreman, is a third year Communication Studies and Multimedia student and states that a public relations professional to her means someone who “deals with celebrities”. She believes that public relations professionals decide what a celebrity should say to get out of trouble and also helps to create a persona for them which will be represented to the public. She also states that public relations professionals “say things so that the public will react in a positive way.” This definition is less accurate to the one provided by Mr. Gair and the Public Relations Society of America, however, it shows a decent understanding of the field because she believes it involves mutually beneficial communication between the client that the public relations professional represents, like celebrities, and the public. She also implicitly states that public relations involves a kind of crisis management for clients, which is an important part of what public relations involves.

These results seem to show that, despite having no formal education in public relations and what it means, students seem to have a good grasp of what it involves when compared to the official definition and the interpretation provided by a public relations professional. Both of the students’ interpretations also tend to consider public relations a beneficial process to both the public and the person or corporation the professional represents. These are very promising results to see that students have a positive attitude towards public relations and also have a good understanding of the field.

 

 

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Interviewees included:

Bill Gair

Daven Bigelow

Eileen Shoreman

 

References

 

Seitel, F. (2014). The practice of public relations (Twelfth ed., p. 1). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.