Abstract:
The approaching 50th anniversary of the Accreditation in Public Relations
(APR) credential highlights the debate over licensing for public relations
practitioners. As this thesis will show, the current system of credentialing fails to
effectively regulate the practice, and public relations lacks the exclusivity and
moral obligation needed to professionalize. While many critics of the current APR
credential are proponents of licensing, there is dispute as to whether or not public
relations could effectively become a licensed profession. The dispute, more
broadly defined, inherently lies in determining whether or not public relations is,
in fact, a profession.
A Profession is defined in the most classical sense of the term, and it should
not be confused with modern-day adaptations that complicate its use in the
vernacular. In the most general sense, a profession distinguishes itself from an
occupation by offering a technical skill, acquired by an exclusive group of
practitioners through extensive training, that provides an indisputable need to society. Examples of professions, in this sense, include law, medicine, and
engineering.
This thesis evaluates public relations as a profession and works to
determine whether or not licensing is a feasible alternative to the APR credential.
It defines the prerequisites of a profession, and it evaluates public relations
accordingly. It explores public relations’ early prophecies that romanticized an
autonomous profession intended to serve the public interest, and it traces the
decline of professionalization throughout the 20th century. Ultimately, this thesis
argues that the public relations fails to fulfill the requirements of a profession and
that licensing, consequently, is not an effective solution.
Description:
38 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Journalism and Communication and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Spring 2014.