It is an undeniable fact that public relations and media relations can be a bit confusing. In fact, a lot of PR professionals also get confused and use these terms interchangeably. But it is important for people and organizations to know about the blurred line that lies between public relations and media relations before embarking any PR campaign or hiring any PR professional.

 

What Is PR?

Public relations is the art of building beneficial relations between an organization and the public through strategic communication. This communication could be in the form of a best press release distribution service, paid ad, campaign, etc. A lot of people question about the public that who they are, and what role they play. Now, this is the one question that can never be answered with accuracy but in general terms any stakeholder in any business or industry is known to be the part of a public. Now, in case of media relations, this field is narrowed down.

 

What Is Media Relations?

According to Akshat Thapa, Founder/CEO of NewswireNEXT.com: “Media relations are all about the interaction of a company with their specific targeted audience who are mostly the individuals who face press and media etc. Now this is where the blurred line lies, people nowadays act as journalists and media reporters on the internet too, and they spreading the news on the social media platforms and blogs is known as citizen journalism. However, the collection and dissemination of news on the other hand through the general public under the category of “media” is known as media relations.”

 

What Makes PR and MR Different From One Another?

It’s pretty easy to understand that when we talk about the public relations, there are multiple sources involved in the dissemination of particular news. On the other hand, media relations use only one source to spread information and that source is the press. Public relations are used in order to build as much beneficial relations as possible between the stakeholders and organizations and for this purpose different channels and mediums are used. However, when we talk about the media relations, more authenticity and validity is involved because here only one key channel is used and that is the press, according to Franci Zavrl.

 

Another great way to explain the difference between both terms is that public relations are rectangle and the media relations are square. All media relations are public relations but not all public relations are media relations. In simpler words you can say that media relations are more of a subset to public relations and if as an organization you are looking for special media coverage for something very important that needs to be highlighted and disseminated at a upper level then you have to opt for the media relations.

 

 

We hope you now understand the whole concept behind media relations and public relations. So, the next time you are about to hire a press release distribution service or a PR pro, know what you are looking for. If you want the media to be more involved than the public then opt for media relations but if you want to interact and build relationships with the general stakeholders of your company then you need to go for the public relations.