Abstract

This review article offers an exhaustive epistemological work on the evolution of the concept of public relations during the last half century (1970-2020). For this purpose, the most referred definitions from the academy, manuals, books and scientific articles focused on public relations have been explored and summarized. The objective is to verify how the concept of public relations has evolved and how it has been modeled with the successive definitions set forth by experts, academics and researchers. Thus, as in the decade of the seventies of the 20th century, despite the clear dissent on the conception of public relations, which goes from organized effort to art or social science, there is already a common recognition of its nature persuasive and its foundation in the social sciences. In the 1980s, public relations, influenced by business management, are identified as a managerial and directive function of communication. And, starting in the 1990s, socially responsible public relations are moving towards goals of mutual understanding with the public. The latest definitions that reaffirm the managerial nature, coexist with others that conceive them as a strategic communication process. The study confirms its managerial nature, in its objectives of mutual benefit and mutual understanding between the organization and its public, along with its socially responsible nature. It is therefore finally a concept away from the commercial and economic objectives of marketing, with which it is sometimes mistakenly confused. Finally, in the conclusions, this article considers the defining elements of current public relations.