The wide range of career opportunities for people working in public relations include such jobs as media relations specialist for an insurance company, newsletter editor for an urban renewal agency, special events coordinator for a hotel, sports information director for a university, writer-editor for a public relations agency, community relations coordinator for a hospital, fund-raiser for the American Red Cross, speechwriter for a U.S. senator, and freelancer specializing in the preparation of video news releases.

In few other fields of mass communication would one find the range of job positions one finds in the area of public relations. As the above examples show, the array of possibilities available to a recent college graduate is vast. First, there is the varied choice of setting: public relations agency, government, industry, educational institutions, or nonprofit organizations. Then there is the range of endeavors: writing...