Thanks for taking a moment to participate in the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)’s “Public Relations Defined” initiative.

While PRSA is leading the charge in developing a modern definition of public relations, the eventual outcome will not be exclusively “ours.”

One of the reasons our profession struggles with the question, “What is PR?” is that existing definitions tend to reflect the nuances of the professional or academic niche from which they originate, while giving short-shrift to the commonalities that bind us all. You can read some of the other challenges of achieving consensus on a “de-facto” definition here, and get a sense for the many different definitions that currently exist here.

Our goal is that the modern definition developed through this process will be owned by you and by countless other public relations professionals. And by our partners in allied associations, who participated in our “Definition Summit” in September. And by academics and text book authors. And by the media.

If you’d like to own part of the modern definition of public relations (and we hope you do), here’s how you can get involved.

Modernizing the Definition of Public Relations

You will find a submission form on this website, the idea for which originated at our summit meeting. Some of the “standard” definitions of marketing and advertising the group collectively liked had the following basic elements: they [DO WHAT] with/for [WHOM] to [DO WHAT] for [WHAT PURPOSE]. The group thought it best to adopt a similar approach for a modern definition of public relations.

Submit Your Definition of Public Relations Here