Introduction to Public Relations

Lecturer: Božo Skoko PhD
Assistant: Hrvoje Jakopović, PhD

Course description

The aim of undergraduate studies within the Public Relations course is to prepare students to fundamentally understand this field and to provide them with a starting position in public relations. The target of the course is to familiarize students with the fundamental aspects of public relations as a whole, and to point out for them the developing trends of this profession in Croatia and the world. Public relations, as a specific function of management, establishes and maintains relations between entities (individuals, companies, political institutions, countries…) and the public that surrounds it, that is, on which it depends in its activities. These relations imply mutual communication, understanding, acceptance and diverse forms of cooperation, and include management of communications and image, that is, an understanding and adaptation of private and public interests. Public relations makes use of the achievements of communicology, psychology and sociology, and has been paving its own road of development for the past few decades already. Strengthening all forms of mutual dependence in modern society requires ever more complex social, political and economic interactions. Accordingly, the establishment and maintenance of relations at all levels of the social system has become an important area of professional activities and scientific research. Bearing witness to this is the fact that public relations is one of the activities that has, in the last decade, recorded permanent growth in the world and Croatia. The course program also encompasses defining the purpose of public relations activities, interdependence with related disciplines, understanding target audiences, getting to know fundamental types of public relations, as well as legal and ethical aspects of its activities.