Relating To The Public': The Evolving Role Of Public Relations In The Age Of Social Media

The late science-fiction author perhaps best described what dominates society and certainly communications today: continuous change. Within the communication landscape, social media - blogs, wikis, podcasts, social-networking sites and the like - have sparked profound change in the media, publishing and marketing industries. Public relations, with its focus on building dialogue and "Relationships," can and must play a critical role in helping today's organizations succeed in this new world of communication. In this paper, the authors explore and examine how social media have introduced and encouraged change in internal public relations departments and public relations agencies in the United States, with a special focus on member agencies at the Council of Public Relations Firms (Council), the sponsor of this project.