Public Relations vs. Media Relations

Media relations and Public relations are two terms that are often considered synonyms, but only a few know that both the terms are completely different from one other with different goals to accomplish. Here is a detailed description of both the terms to better understand the difference between the two:

Public Relations
This is the act of handling and communicating through all the relationships that a business or an organization has build up with its various publics. The public would include the employees, customers, investors, co-partners, government entities, suppliers and the media. The freshers entering the PR industry through the various job opportunities provided to them by the PR firms in Delhi, NCR and around the world should understand that the PR practice is more of relationship building and maintaining. A good PR strategy thus evolved not only helps the company understand its customer’s behaviour and refer actions accordingly but also track results and forecast future reactions. With their ability to research, write and speak PR professionals to reach out the traditional as well as new or digital media with the client’s message and get it shared with the targeted masses adequately. Considered as earned media, a Public relations is affecting the nature of targeted audience much more effectively than its counterpart, advertising that is also known as the paid media.

Media Relations
Media Relations on the other hand is a part of Public Relations function and is described as company’s interactions only with media personnel like editors, reporters and journalists. Talking about the media covered, it includes all print, broadcasting and online mediums. The aim of Media Relations as a function is to communicate the client’s newsworthy information and idea with the media professionals and get it published on the desired mediums accordingly. Media Relation experts generally connect with the people from the media world on the daily basis and get the work done accordingly. These expert people are accorded with the job of developing and designing media plans that would form the basis of what the company wants to portray as its image at the local, national or international levels.

Advisory Note:
Whether one is working for a public relations company or for the media relations firms they need to understand the thin line difference between both the terms and gain expertise in mass communication to be successful in their respective forums they serve. Keeping a tab on the trending topics and anticipating well what is coming in future is another great factor that will benefit them hugely.