Educating Future Public Relations Professionals: a Socially Oriented Approach

Abstract

The view that organizational goals and priorities in the field of public relations should be balanced with a social orientation is increasingly gaining ground in both professional practices and academic approaches and how the future of public relations should be structured within this framework is being discussed. The impacts, results, benefits, and values produced by public relations approaches and practices in the social context are important as the building blocks that shape the future. This study, which aims to question the future of public relations education with a socially oriented approach, examines the outputs of the international project titled "The Future of Public Relations/Communication and their Social Impact" on education, which is one of the three focal points of the project, with a particular focus on T & uuml;rkiye. This study, in which data was collected in four stages with the Delphi method, aimed to reveal expert opinions on the necessities, importance, and how a public relations education can be structured on the axis of social impact, benefit, and value; and to share the views of academics and practitioners in order to provide insights for the future of education in the field. While questioning the structure, context, and content required for an ideal public relations education to expand public relations practices with social functions, roles, and responsibilities as well as organisational ones in the future, the participants' evaluations on the current state of public relations education and training were also consulted.