PReklam? : En kvantitativ studie som undersöker vad gymnasieelever i årskurs 3 förknippar med begreppet PR

Background and aim: Media development and digitalization has expanded the PR industry's working area. More participants are on the media market and it is becoming more and more difficult to define what PR really is and what the PR agencies/departments really do. Is PR marketing, information, event marketing or maybe propaganda? We believe that the complexity to define the term PR can lead to a loss of critical approach to the business, especially among young people. Has the PR industry managed to eliminate their negative image among students in upper secondary school and what do they associate with PR today? The aim of this essay is to examine what a selection of students associate with the term PR and if they are critical to the PR industry or not. Method/Material: The method is a quantitative survey. The target group is senior students in upper secondary public school in central Stockholm. Theory: Social construction, PR-theory, framing and former studies about the students and general public opinion about the PR business. PR background, PR expansion in Sweden, Definition of PR, Social media and PR, PR’s relationship with propaganda, democracy, marketing Main Results: Our target group associates PR with advertisements, commercials and ads. The majority is neither critical nor uncritical to the PR industry