The Values Of Public Relations —“Truthfulness”,“Virtues” And “Beauty”

With the speeding up pace of media convergence, the borders of Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing and other related disciplines are getting blurred. The "generalization" and "polarization" phenomenons in Public Relations are increasingly serious, to an extend that they lead to the appearance of the argument of Public Relations Extinction. Under this context, theoretically speaking, in order to establish the validity and legitimacy of public relations disciplines, the core values of public relations need further clarity. Practically speaking, to stimulate the development of the industry, the core characteristics of public relations practice need to be emphasized.In this research, we studied public relations from the perspective of the dimensions of value by the use of questionnaires, in-depth interviews and case study methods. This study aims to explore the essence and core value of public relations, and influence the perception of public relations from the theoretical and practical aspects. The concept used in this study refers to the generalized definition from the book Modern Public Relations Theories by Professor Xianhong Chen: "Public Relations is a science and a art that tells the truth, does good deeds and builds up good images." Focusing on the 3 value dimensions of Public Relations—”Truthfulness”, “Virtues” and “Beauty”, this paper analysis and studies from the perspectives of multidisciplinary concepts, historical developments, public attitudes, experts opinions, positive and negative cases, etc.. By this study, we have further clarified and highlighted the core values and characteristics of public relations, have provided valuable orientation for the healthy future development of both Public Relations discipline and industry.