Question: What exactly is the practice of public relations? That's a question that still perplexes many, including those in the field, who can never seem to agree on precisely what it is they do. In fact in 2012, when the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) tried to reach a common definition of the practice by asking the 200,000-plus people in the United States and the thousands of others overseas who practice public relations, the effort was greeted, as The New York Times put it, with "widespread interest, along with not a small amount of sniping, snide commentary and second-guessing. "Like beauty, the definition of ‘public relations' is in the eye of the beholder."