"Informing people, persuading people, or integrating people with people": these are, according to Edward L. Bernays, in his book "Public Relations," the three essential elements of public relations. And again, "We could achieve three objectives: 1. change these opinions and attitudes, 2. reinforce them, or 3. create opinions and attitudes where none existed" wrote Harold Burson in his book "The Business of Persuasion," again referring to the world of PR.
We are not dealing with an exact science. There is no absolute definition.
But certainly, when we talk about public relations, and specifically if we refer to media relations, we are in the field of a strong responsibility.
Of the awareness that we play a role in which we are, in part, responsible for what is communicated to a large segment of the public, in influential media, which carry weight from the standpoint of influencing opinion.
Care, detail, attention, precision, observation: accountability also means activating these ingredients, making sure that they all carry equal weight. And in this work, which puts PR and Media Relations at the center, this approach is not only important, it is vital.
"We need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that sometimes big changes follow from small events, and that sometimes these changes can happen very quickly" writes Malcolm Gladwell in "The Tipping Point", without tying precisely to PR, but we can also find a solid connection with the media relations sphere, because yes, nothing should be underestimated in this profession.
From a simple press release, from a simple communication given to the press even through an email, mechanisms can be triggered that bring that news to the most visible media, going so far as to lay the groundwork for a "media cascade" (positive or negative, sure).
Responsibilities.
Communicating with the media requires a firm and steadfast sense of responsibility.
Improvisation, approximation, the "everyone can do it" are concepts and attitudes that are extremely far removed from this profession (if one aspires to achieve a form of excellence, without remaining anchored in a layer of mediocrity).
Some may say, "but it is simple".
Yes, for a true professional, it is true, it can be simple. But simple does not mean easy. Simplicity, often, is the child of a complex, tortuous path, of an ever-exploring depth.
Those who make this work "simple," on the surface, without falling into a cheap, inelegant and not at all effective/useful method, are because they have come to master it so well that they have no need to complicate it unnecessarily.
Awareness and sense of responsibility are two indispensable links in PR and Media Relations.
They need to be trained, cultivated, nurtured, continuously.
And they must be reflected in every line of a press release, in every subject line of every email sent to a journalist, in every quotation mark, in every headline.
Having the opportunity to communicate with the media, including telling business stories, putting them in the spotlight, is a privilege. There is journalism, there is storytelling and listening, there is analysis, there is writing and insight: a craft with an inopinable fascination, which is able to blend incredibly diverse skills, approaches and attitudes.
