title: It's Not Just PR: Public Relations in Society
author:  W. Timothy Coombs 
description: "Coombs and Holladay have provided a powerful and refreshing perspective on the 'good' and 'bad' in public relations practice. By showing us an alternative to a corporate-centric approach, they shine a light on the possibilities for ethical and effective public relations."<br /> --Debra Worley, Department of Communication, Indiana State University<br />
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  My aim is to try to isolate some of the basic frameworks of understanding
  available in our society for making sense our of events … I start with the
  fact that from an individual’s particular point of view, while one thing may
  momentarily appear to be what is really going on, in fact what is actually
  happening is a plainly a joke, or a dream, or an accident, or a mistake, or a
  misunderstanding or a deception, or a theatrical performance.
  
  
  Erving Goffman. Frame Analysis.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # [1  
  The principles of the public relations of everything](content.xhtml#bck_Ch01)
  
  
  
  
  
  Authors are actors, books are theaters.
  
  
  Wallace Stevens, Adagia
  
  
  
  
  
  Almost everyone has an idea of what public relations (PR) is – and almost
  everyone is half right. But there’s another half. This book seeks to explain
  it.
  
  
  The conventional wisdom about PR by its scholars, textbook writers and
  practitioners isn’t incorrect. But neither is it sufficient. The conventional
  wisdom about PR is that it exists as some