ABSTRACT

Public relations practitioners and journalists may be said to share some of the same values while at the same time differing on others. More problematic is the parties lar relationship between the two groups of professional communicators. To some extent, public relations practitioners and journalists are dependent on each other. Although a good deal of interaction occurs between them, the precise nature of the relationship between those who practice public relations and those who practice journalism is vaguely defined. Specific aspects of the relationship appear to have been defined largely by the professions themselves. This relationship has raised a number of issues, including those of ethics and skills examined by Jeffers (1971). Our goal is to explore this relationship on the basis of public relations and jour­ nalism practitioners’ perceptions of their field as well as of the other field.