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quality. At present, the issue of quality in
public relations is being researched by the
International Institute for Quality in Public
Relations (IQPR) and their findings have
helped to develop ISO 9000 standards in
public relations. The demands of this quality
standard are high. Briefly, they will cover four
key aspects: the responsibility of PR management,
the needs of clients, the necessary
resources needed to maintain these standards
and the structure of the quality system.
Education in PR and use of social
science research
This topic ranked highly among academics
engaged in research and/or pedagogy.
Research into PR education increases professionalism
and forms the basis for good educational
programmes. Fundamentally, all
subjects that have appeared on the last list
and this update, are in context, useful for
public relations education in a large extent.
Research in this area could concentrate on
analysing the different methods of teaching
and training for public relations in the different
countries. An academic suggested that
research should look into forming ‘possible
guidelines for public relations education at
different levels, i.e. undergraduate, postgraduate,
postdoctoral’. Presumably, this would
entail examining the curricula or syllabuses of
PR/PR-related courses in individual countries,
or in comparison between different countries,
or between different universities that teach
public relations. Research in education has
already been conducted in media studies and
mass communication, done by organizations
like the National Communication Association
based in Washington, DC, and the Association
for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication, Colorado State University, in
the United States.
A practitioner suggested that ‘the basics
need to be attended to first – all theses for
which advanced degrees are awarded in
public relations by universities should be
logged and subject to scrutiny by a practitioner
panel (from a national PR organisation,
such as the PRSA or IPR) of the highest calibre
and used as the basis for further and better
research that is libraried and made available
to all business and management schools’.
In terms of professional skills in public relations,
there is the need ‘to fine-tune the educational
programmes in line with vocational
needs’.
The scope of PR theory and practice
This subject would examine public relations
from different perspectives. For instance, public
relations as a subject is taught mostly in
schools of journalism in the United States,
while in the United Kingdom, it normally
belongs to faculties of business in universities.
Is the subject of public relations a communication
or management discipline Is it
marketing led, or has it a strategic role By
examining this topic closely, one of the results
would be the definition of what PR practice is,
in different circumstances. This being the case,
there will be an eventual widening of the skills
base of a PR practitioner through knowing
what is required of public relations in different
contexts.
General comments included: ‘There seems
to be a lot of disagreement over the scope
and meaning of PR. I think that the term
is becoming too closely related to media
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors