In October, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) launched a long-overdue campaign to “modernize the definition of public relations.” The organization has received more than 1,000 submissions since, and is now in the process of combining them into three draft definitions for a final vote to take place before the end of the month (December 2011).

At JPA, we were surprised to hear that the PRSA definition hasn’t been updated since 1982! And, with all of the changes the industry has undergone during the past several decades - particularly with the advent of online content and social media - it’s certainly not an easy task to define the industry’s role in a single, concise sentence. In addition, given the ever-evolving climate, PR’s partner industries, including marketing and public affairs, have converged and adapted to these changes.

The grumbles on the PRSA PR Definition Blog echoed this sentiment, but it seems everyone agrees that this initiative is worthwhile. Those who engaged in the online forum used buzz words to inform the discussion such as relationship building, influence, persuasion, endorsement, and strategic dialogue.

JPA’s own, Ken Deutsch, also weighed in, discussing the importance of focusing the definition on the long-term nature of the relationship between an organization and its publics, which helps to differentiate PR from the short-term goals of marketing.

With all of this considered, as an agency that practices “public affairs” rather than “public relations,” what’s the JPA definition of PR? And how is it different from public affairs?

Carrie Jones, Principal and Managing Director at JPA, explains it best in a former blog post, “Why JPA, Not JPR?” where she says, “PR is the profession of working with reporters to earn free media, while public affairs is the practice of addressing those issues involving the interrelationship between the public and influencers.”

At the end of the day, we’d like to see that the final definition of PR adequately answers the question: “what is a reporter?” Because, while PR, PA and marketing certainly overlap to an extent, the updated definition of PR should avoid further confusing the definitions of these partner industries.