The following from Prof. Pavitra Shrivastava
Book Review:
Public Relations: Concepts, Practices and Applications
Editors: CK Sardana & K. John Babu
Publisher: Dominant Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi
Year: 2018
Pages: 182
Price: INR 950
ISBN: 978-93-84207-95-3
Public Relations is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world today. As the organisations across sectors are in need of building and maintaining positive image among its various stakeholders to succeed in attaining their goals, public relations has a huge role to play. The public relations department which are also in some cases known as corporate communication and public affairs (although there are slight differences among the three) are responsible for communicating with internal as well as external stakeholders like employees, the general public, media, government authorities, public representatives and many others make sure that a favorable image of the organisation is created and maintained amongst them. In this context, the book, Public Relations: Concepts, Practices and Applications is of great significance to all those associated with the field in some way or the other. The book offers a lot of food for mind for public relations practitioners, teachers, researchers as well as students.
The book, with its 14 chapters and three case studies on crisis management, sheds light on several aspects of public relations ranging from its historical and sociological account to how it is playing a role in attaining sustainability. The chapter titled, PR in India: A Historical and Sociological Perspective written by JV Vilanilam takes the readers through an interesting journey of public relations’ evolution in India right from the times of the Great Ashoka’s rule during which the emperor had created rock edicts and pillar inscriptions aimed at establishing communication with the subjects of his empire spread across a vast region to that of Gandhi who used PR, press and publicity for political Conscientization and rural development. The chapter also traces the recent developments in the field of public relations in Indian as well as the global context by discussing the formation of institutions like Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) and how government machineries including the prime ministers’ offices gave special emphasis on the public relations functions. However, the chapter does not very clearly discuss the sociological perspective of the public relations even as it claims to do so in the title.
The chapter titled, Government Public Relations: In the world’s largest democracy provides very rich content in a very systematic way about the goals, needs justifications for government public relations functions. Contributed by Dr. CV Narasimha Reddi, this chapter of the book can be very useful for the teachers as well as students of the public relations wanting to understand the public relations functions of the government sector in India. It offers a very detailed outline of public relations functions at both central as well as state government level and the different organisations and agencies established for the job.
The chapters like Communication Challenges in Public Sector Undertakings written by Jitender Bhargava and Tools of Public Relations in a Challenging Environment by B. Balaswamy underlines the modern day challenges of the field where the work of public relations departments is extremely fast-paced. While the former brings to the fore the emerging challenges in the field especially in terms of the PSUs, the latter provides a comprehensive description of the different tools which could used to meet those challenges in different circumstances.
Considering the changing landscape of the public relations as a field, any book which tends to provide a useful insight to its readers would not be complete until it throws some light on the news kind of public relations through new and the social media in the age of internet. In this context, the two chapters of the book titled, Digital Communication for PR and PR in the Internet Age: The Increasing Role of Social Media expose the readers to the new-age challenges posed by the internet practices and new practices like social media campaigns, PR through social media, blogs, emails etc.
Besides, the book also discusses how public relations sections are helpful in leveraging marketing benefits in different ways since PR activities are also considered as important tools. The book argues that since public relations helps the organisations win trust of the customers and other stakeholders, it eventually leads to increasing the sale of the products and services of the organisations. These arguments are backed by the success stories of companies like – Dabur, Apollo and others.
The book also touches upon the aspect of PR and sustainability through the chapter titled, Public Relations, CSR and Sustainable Development contributed Ram Awtar Yadav wherein it points out how CSR activities as effective PR tools are helping the organisations in attaining their sustainability goals. Besides, it also has a comprehensive chapter on public relations research contributed by K. Stevenson which could be of great significance to the researchers of the field as well as the academicians and the students. It provides a detailed account of need, approaches and types of the research being carried out in the field and their functions.
However, the book apparently misses out on some of the key concepts like corporate communication, public affairs, media relations etc. which are very closely linked to the subject of public relations. Although these terms emerge on a few occasions in some chapters of the book but it fails to delve deeper into these concepts which are vital to those trying to develop a substantive understanding of the field. Nevertheless, the book is worth reading if one takes into account the insightful readings that it provides through different chapters on various dimensions of the public relations practices in the present world.
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Reviewed By: Prof. Pavitra Shrivastava
Dean-Academic
Professor & Head, Department of Advertising and Public Relations
Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication, Bhopal
