The standads of public relations professionalization in Turkey: A comporative analysis on the academics and practitioners

In contemporary industrial societies, ?profession? lies at the heart of al economic system. While contributing to the perpetuation of the social order by fulfilling certain functions, profession also positions its holder with a status in the society. Thus, profession is an important social fact in modern societies. Behind the profession as a social fact lies the concept of work. Work does not automatically transform into profession but passes through certain social gelitimization processes.Public relations as a profession has cmpleted these processes quite recently in the Western societies. Consequently, the academic literature on the professionalization of public realtions is rather new. Academics who associate public realtions with manipulation and thus holding a critical position reejct the profesionalization of it. However, with respect to the sociologically defined professionalization criteria, public relations is a profession. This research consists of a literature review on the professionalization of public relations and a reaseach on the public relations academics and practitioners attitudes on professionalization standards. The research showed that in Turkey there are still missing standards in professionalization and public relations as a profession has not yet completed the necessary processes of trasformation.