Summary of Public Relations Article - Assignment #2

A potential career that I am looking into is Public Relations.  The role of the public relations man is to act as a liaison between management and its publics,” (Sussmann, 1949, 706).  In simpler terms, a person in Public Relations could almost be equated to a middleman in terms of the duties they perform.  A Public Relations job yields a larger salary than one of a journalist, which is a big reason why many journalists are switching over (Sussmann, 1949).  Many people who go into Public Relations majored in English or liberal arts while in college. 

“The first group to give attention to Public Relations was the big business,” (Sussmann, 1949, 703).  Businesses employed Public Relations as a way to defend themselves against verbal attacks, particularly political.  “A good deal of the publicist’s value to his client lies in his sensitivity to the outlook of many social groups and strata,” (Sussmann, 1949, 701).  It is important to be exposed to a variety of people to be able to understand the way they feel.  People in this profession tend to be more liberal thinkers. 

Sussmann, L. (1948). The Personnel and Ideology of Public Relations. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 12(4), 697-708. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2745404

~L.L.S.