Careers
Public Relations is a deliberate, planned and sustained effort to develop,
establish and maintain two-way communication between an organisation
and the public. It could be also described as a management communication
resource which uses communication techniques and tools to create the right
environment for a product, business or service.
Public image is important to all organisations and prominent personalities.
PR workers put together information that keeps the public aware of the
organisation's accomplishments and keeps management aware of public
attitudes.
The PR function is carried out by Corporate communication/PR division of
business firms, corporate sector, governmental and non governmental
organisations .
Study Routes
Public relations as a subject can be pursued at the graduate level as a full
time 3 year degree course .One also has the option of taking it up as a post
graduate (graduation in any stream) diploma course. The duration of these
courses is one year and selection is generally through a written test on
communication skills.
One can get placement with a PR firm for a short duration, as a trainee. This is
part of the course.
Class XII, preferred streams are humanities/commerce, graduation in social
science/ commerce / public relations.
Graduation in psychology/communication/management/sociology/any related
subject, followed by a diploma in public relations or diploma/degree in
management/advertising
Job prospects
There are several options for a PR professional. The first one is that he/she
joins some company or an organisation in the PR departments and rise to the
level of Public Relations Officer (PRO). Another option is to join professional
PR firms who work as PROs for their client companies. Such agencies work on
contractual basis.
Many advertising agencies have also started sister PR firms. Apart from that
certain individuals, who have contacts with the Press, have started their own
small set ups, using their contacts to get press releases published. Another
option is to set up one's own consultancy, provided that one is pushing
enough and has some contacts with media persons.
The importance of PR is expected to grow,more so because of globalisation
that has made a lot of difference to the business environment.As advertising is
becoming expensive, companies understand that their campaign must have an
element of direct contact.
Since direct contact is the only way to know how the customers perceive the
company or its products. The future of public relations is bright and will often
be done in conjunction with other media.
