Blog 2

I asked my three roommates what they thought public relations was and all three of their answers were different with some more accurate than others. One of my roommates said that PR was advertising for a company as opposed to a product. Another roommate suggested that it was basically making your company look good and keeping a good reputation. My third roommate said that PR wasn't something she had heard of until I decided on my major. When I told my granparents I wanted to be a publicist, they thought I was going to be publishing books. This just goes to show that many people are not very educated about the PR industry.

None of them could name any person in the PR industry.

Once I explained to them what PR really was and gave them a textbook definition, they were stunned. They had no idea that comanpies such as American Airlines had PR practitioners handling the 9/11 attacks by speaking to the media and sending press releases. They had no idea that PR is all about communicating and getting publics to believe in the company. One of my roommates said she couldn't believe I wanted to get into this field and said she could never do anything like it. She said it was too much responsibility. Another roommate had a really negative viewpoint on the PR industry, calling PR practitioners Spin Doctors.

After hearing my roommates discussion on PR, my eyes were opened and I realized that PR practitioners had huge responsibilities. Their ideas are put to good use throughout organizations and their opinions really mattered. Knowing this, I became nervous and almost scared. My roommates made me realize that I am going to have a key hand in the survival of a company some day. It also made me excited to know that my ideas will some day be considered.