by Robin Mayhall

Created on: February 11, 2009

Public relations is the art and science of forging public opinion. A public relations practitioner acts as a liaison of sorts between his organization and the publics it affects. He represents his company, bringing its messages to the public, while at the same time bringing the public's thoughts and feedback to his management.

Most medium-sized organizations and larger will have a public relations manager or director who sets overall PR strategy for the company. This person will usually have at least one if not more public relations specialists working under her. A larger company might have a full public relations department - sometimes called Corporate Communications or just Communications, or sometimes combined with Marketing. At a smaller organization, one person may have to perform the PR functions as well as some marketing and even sales activities.

A traditional public relations specialist, however, would be responsible for carrying out the strategies and communicating the PR messages developed by his manager or director. The specialist position can be entry-level or require up to three or four years of experience. Once four to five years of experience is reached, the specialist would likely receive a "promotion" in title to something like senior or lead public relations specialist.

This position would ideally require a bachelor's degree in a communications-related field from a four-year college or university. Fields of study that would help to prepare a student for a public relations specialist job include journalism, mass communications, advertising, marketing or marketing communications, or even English. Some colleges have separate, specific public relations degrees; at others, PR is a minor or a specialization under journalism or mass communications. The degree can be located in a journalism or communications school, the business school or the college of liberal arts. Many employers will consider a liberal arts degree such as English, history, anthropology, sociology or the like when looking for a PR specialist, especially for an entry-level position where they expect to give the employee some on-the-job training.

The most fundamental skill a PR specialist will need is writing. Basic grammar, spelling and punctuation are of course required. But the specialist should also know how to write a basic news story, a feature article and a press release formatted correctly for distribution to the media. These basic skills are taught in any public relations, journalism

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