Don Harps On PR Importance In Societal Dev

A Professor of Public Relations and Media Strategy at the Rivers State University (RSU), Nkpolu Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt Prof Richard Nlemanya Amadi has identified Public Relations practice as fundamental to organisation and societal development, stressing that neglecting Public Relations practice in human endeavors means neglecting development in the society.
Prof Amadi made this assertion while delivering his inaugural lecture titled”Entropy and Negentropic Coactions in Humanistic Setting: The Public Relations Metier and its Dynamics, during the 103rd inaugural lecture series of the university held in port Harcourt.
The erudite Professor of Public Relations and Media Strategy opined that the reason for the choice of the topic of the inaugural lecture was to correct the negative conceptions the public holds against Public Relations practice that led to the societal rejection, adding that the lecture was designed to create the needed awareness in redirecting the public mindsets as efficient practice of Public Relations can contribute to family, organisation and societal development.
He defined public relations as the practice of managing communications between an organisation and its various public stakeholders, customers, employees,investors, government and the media, noting that the main goal of Public Relations is to establish and maintain mutually beneficial relationship with key stakeholders.
He said the practice of PR began since the dawn of recorded history and stressed that Public Relations evolved from the basic need of building awareness and improving human relationship which existed immediately God created Adam and Eve.
According to him, Adam and Eve were the first man and woman at the Garden of Eden, noting that God instructed them to eat every fruits except the fruit of knowledge of good and evil and warned against the consequences of disobedience.
“ Adam and Eve disobeyed and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and God discovered and invited them,they having realised they were nude, declined to appear before God in their naked state, ( Gen 3:7_8).This portends that in Public Relations practice, appearance, imaged, is a corner to garner public acceptability,” he stated.
He opined that man by inclination is a social being, stressing that communication and socializasion are key elements in human endeavors”. If you take away communication and socialisation from man,he becomes like fish out of water”, he said

Akujobi Amadi