This is a question of almost 150 years.

Everybody understands the job of Police, Doctor, Advocate, Journalist, Engineer, Farmer, Teacher, Manager, Actor etc but WHO IS A PR GUY ?

Can he be termed as Propagandist, Spin Doctor, Publicist, Press Agent, Press Secretary, Strategic Communicator, Information Leader, Advertiser, Abettor, Ambassador, Advisor, Analyst, Mediator, Relationship Manager, Reputation Manager, Marketeer, Consultant, Consent Engineer, Campaigner, Gogetter, Influencer, Facilitator, Troubleshooter, Multitasker, Manyhanded, anything else ?

Different authorities defined Public Relations differently and still doing it. Here are some prominent definitions from out of several scores.

"PR is a management function, which tabulates public attitudes, defines the policies, procedures and interests of an organisation followed by executing a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance" - Ivy Ledbetter Lee

"PR is the attempt by information, persuasion and adjustment to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement or institution" - Edward Louis Bernays

"PR is the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counselling organisational leaders and implementing planned programs of action, which will serve both the organisation and the public interest" - World Assembly of Public Relations Associations

"PR is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organisations and their publics" - Public Relations Society of America

"PR is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics" - Chartered Institute of Public Relations

"PR is a planned effort to influence public opinion through acceptable performance and two-way communication" - Scott M Cutlip & Allen H Center

"PR is the practice of managing communication between an organisation and its publics" - James E Grunig & Todd Hunt

"PR helps an organisation and its publics adapt mutually to each other" - National Assembly of Public Relations Society of India

The phrase "public relations" was first used by an American lawyer, legal writer & editor, Dorman Bridgeman Eaton in 1882 while he was addressing Yale Law School on 'the public relations and duties of the legal profession' referring to an organization's role in servicing the public welfare.

BTW, Is there any single term or phrase to describe the present day PR Practitioner ?

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