ABSTRACT
Since its inception, public relations scholars and practitioners have struggled with defining what public relations is, what it does, and what it should be doing. As the field evolved, the practice of public relations expanded from mere press agentry to also include publicity, advertising, public affairs, issues management, lobbying, investor relations, and development (Cutlip, Center, & Broom, 1994). At the theoretical level, simplistic dissemination models gave way to the normative two-way symmetrical model that envisions public relations functioning in such a way as to generate m utual benefit for organizations and for their key publics. Today, public relations increasingly is seen as a m anagement function, practiced within the four-step process of analysis, strategic planning, implementation, and evaluation. Moreover, Botan (1993) has
observed that “public relations is in an ongoing state of change ... branching out from a single applied focus driven by the knowledge needs of practitioners into two major branches ...(the) applied branch (and) a new theory-based research and scholarship branch” (p. 107). According to Botan, these include “symmetrical/systems, (the) rhetorical/critical, (the) feminist, and (the) social scientific” and “a dominant applied model, based ...on a journalistic heritage and business orientation” (p. 108).
