Public Relations: a Science or an Art?

After my public relations research class this morning, I had time to look around at some of the social media sites that I keep hearing about. While on www.PRblogger.com, I found a link to a blog all about the importance of research. I found this interesting since I just spent two hours learning about research. After reading it, everything from class and the blog started to piece together.

In class, we discussed whether PR is an art or a science and analyzed case studies. And even though the blog focused on research, it made me think. PR is both a science and an art. The researching part is much like science. Practitioners have to conduct surveys and find data to help them better understand their client, target audience, and even product. After all their research is complete, they have to analyze it, much like science. And if they don't research, their campaign may not reach it's true potential, or worse, the campaign may just fail.

But after all the research, PR takes art form. Practitioners must be creative and think outside of the box. They are constantly thinking of new ways to use their research to reach their audience and sell their product or client. Practitioners can't always just send out press releases and place magazine ads. With social media on the rise, there is always something new for a practitioner to use to reach their target. And this is an art. Not just anyone can think of innovative new ways to promote. It takes a trained professional who is skilled in the art of PR.

Here's the blog on the importance of research in public relations. I liked it so much, I even commented!

http://pohlmrl.prblogs.org/2008/06/17/the-importance-of-research-in-pr/#comment-53