Week 2

I think the key points to remember from this week's readings were:

That the term "Public Relations" encompasses a whole variety of roles and positions.

The definition of PR tasks as defined by Burson (1987) are:
-Acting as a sensor of social change- helping mangement prepare for the impact of social issues
-Acting as a corporate conscience
- Acting as a communicator
-Acting as a corporate monitor ie making corporate policies and programs match public expectations.

Communications can be divided into two primary roles, being that of technician and problem solver.

Public Relations in Australia can be seen to have developed from more of a publicity role, as far back as the 19th century, but found its current form in the mid 20th century.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that Johnston and Zawawi cite the use of ethics as the beginning point in their definition of Public Relations. The readings aimed to dispel the myth of PR solely being based on the idea of spin doctoring. The readings made me think about the idea of PR acting between parties, not exploiting one for the profit of the other.