When first starting this course I was sure I had a grasp of what was meant by public relations and what working in the public relations industry entailed. However after reading the provided texts I found my definitions to be quite insufficient. My learning builds upon previous learning about public relations in that I no longer believe that PR can simply be ruled off as an easy job or a job that is solely based around making relationships with publics. I now understand that working within the PR industry requires a lot more that “people skills” but also the ability to liaise, negotiate, write and speak efficiently, problem solve, meet deadlines, have a sense of what’s happening in the world, be organised and to be diplomatic just to name a few (James, 2006). Also I was also extremely surprised to see the amount of jobs on offer in the PR industry and how often that the job title rarely even mentioned the words public relations. These readings also gave me a greater understanding on how to diferentiate between advertising which I now understand is predominately about the buying of publicity and PR which is the attempt to get publicty for free.

I found that like most industries PR has dramatically changed throughout history. In summary the key points I learnt from this week's readings were that there has been major developments in PR since its emergence in the 1840s to the present day. I was interested to see how the education, technology and the counteracting of politicisation in the media had such a great effect on the industry of PR. The implementation of stunts in the media as a way of gaining attention and press coverage was also very interesting. In summation I have also learned that the PR sector which was once predominately obtained by rich men has now made a shift to being a dominantly female industry and the primarily subjective press of the early 1900s has now become a somewhat objective press. I believe it is also fundamental to mention the role of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) and its job in ensuring a socially responsible press (Johnson and Zawawi, 2004).

These readings have helped me understand the background of PR (the heavy influence of film and American PR) and they have also given me greater knowledge of what is meant by PR and what the PR industry involves.