ABSTRACT
What is public relations? What role does it play in society? What role should it play or how should it serve society? When does it not serve society or when does it discredit itself by doing disservice to society? How are young people inspired to study for entry into the profession? What motivates them to go to work with enthusiasm during their career? Does it rely on supplying information? Does it use persuasion? Does it both inform and persuade? Does it motivate? Does it collaborate, negotiate, and resolve conflict? Does it use misinformation, disinformation, and engage in propaganda? Can it help make society more fully functional? If so, how can it help accomplish that end? Can it make society less functional? If so, how does it accomplish that end? Do activist groups and governmental agencies engage in public relations, or is it only a discipline that is unique to companies, the private sector? How is the social impact of public relations (and the organizations that engage in it) affected by what practitioners do (processes) and by what they say and write (meaning)?
