Place and image of public relations in mass communication texts in India

For a profession to be so considered, it has to satisfy some basic minimum expectations, chief of them being availability of specialized higher education and opportunities for continued education. Drawing up the educational context in India where public relations is practically absent in B-school curricula and is being offered as only a preparatory course in Journalism schools, this paper takes a close look at the place and image of public relations in 12 mass communication texts written by Indian authors. The findings are disturbing with more than half the books making no mention of public relations. The redeeming finding however is that three of the remaining books that do deal with public relations, present it as a two-way symmetrical activity with only one book presenting the press agentry perspective. The author calls for a concerted effort by public relations academicians to improve the positioning and image of public relations in mass communication texts in India in order for public relations to be able to achieve its true position in the discipline of mass communication.