If you have been following the spirited discussion generated by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) about how public relations should be defined, you might like to read a recent New York Times column that details the modern definition of public relations that emerged from the initiative.  Based on a public vote held last month of three candidate definitions, the US profession's choice for the modern definition of PR was decided as: "Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organisations and their publics". Listed as definition number two in the public vote, it received 671 votes, or 46.4 per cent, of 1,447 total votes. Further analysis of the winning definition and info on what will become of the initiative can be found in this PRSA blog post.