What’s the need to do Masters in PR?

Public Relations is a still an evolving industry in India. This is the reason why there’re not many specialized courses in it. If we look at the people who’re in the industry we’ll find that majority of them come from varied academic backgrounds. Industry people believe that to enter Public Relations and to grow in the industry, all one needs is good communication skills and should know how to handle people. These are some of the reasons why not many have heard of the Masters in Public Relations (MAPR) course offered by the University of Mumbai in its Kalina campus.

Industry wallahs understand if someone tells them that he/she is doing a one year diploma in Public Relations. The moment they hear that someone is doing a two years full time Masters in Public Relations (MAPR), they say,” Two years Masters? In PR it’s not needed. Are you sure you want to spend two years doing a Masters in PR?” Well you can’t blame the industry people to think that way because the trend in the industry has been such. For them it’s always been how well you’re able to talk to the media and get the news story out. It has always been an instinctive and natural thing for them, which is why they think that a proper education in it is not needed.

Though there’s a different school of people in the industry as well. People who actually think that always going on the instinct is not the best thing and the industry needs a well structured thought process to achieve the standards set by the counterparts in countries like US, UK, etc. This is the reason why they’re glad that University of Mumbai is offering a proper full time Masters in Public Relations (MAPR). A course which just doesn’t teach the students to write press releases also makes sure that they develop a lateral thinking.

As it’s often said that ‘Change is the only constant thing’, change in the way the PR industry functions is also inevitable. It is going to take some time for everyone to lap up to it but it’s surely going to happen one day.