Letter to Cousin

Dear Cousin Egg,

Well Egg, I am now in Utah. I've been here over three years now. Oh how time flies! I am attending Utah State University and I would love to show you around campus if you ever come down. I've discovered this thing called public relations and it's pretty cool. I'm sure you've heard of it. You probably think public relations is all about covering up problems for rich people or lying to the public to so those rich people look good. The fact of the matter is that couldn't be farther than the truth. One of the most important attributes of a good public relations person is being ethical. The media is sometimes referred to as a "gatekeeper" for the public, well I think a public relations representative can be the same. Executives and presidents of organizations are not trained in public relations and can make bad choices, but if you have a good PR rep to step in stop the bad choices a crisis could be averted. Being ethical is just one of the many positive attributes of a good PR agaent.
Public relations could be defined as the analysis of situations, and implementing and carrying out plans that will benefit an organization and it's stakeholders. There are so many aspects of PR that to go into the profession one would really need to be a jack of all trades. Some of the other important skills of the profession are working well with other people, being confident, being a quick learner, being articulate, being a good researcher, being a good listener and being a good writer.
I've been told being a good writer is key to being a good PR person because of the need to convey messages through press releases and speeches. I'm hoping my journalism training will help me in this aspect.
Understanding situations and relating to the your different publics are also traits that one must have to be a a good PR person. Depending on where an agent works, there are endless amounts of people to relate to, be it poor people to rich investors. Getting to know these peoples' situations and showing that the organization is truely invested in the stakeholders is key.
I said publics earlier. Publics is term that refers to all the audiences or stakeholders that I talked about earlier. I wanted to clarify in case you were confused by that word.
If I go into the PR field I hope I can catch on with a professional sports team or a good firm and become a publicist in Hollywood. I think PR could help me create connections that will benefit my writing career in the future too. I'm excited by my new found career opportunity and hope you understand more about the profession.

Nick