Is stakeholder relations actually public relations?

I’ve been driven to distraction of late by yet another cunning, self-hating term that public relations has come up for itself to hide, no doubt, the distaste it feels, and it feels non-PR people similarly feel, for the term “public relations.” The term is “stakeholder relations.”

It is bone wearyingly ironic that the public relations discipline feels the need to cloak itself in names that differentiate it from a practice that many assume involves media relations alone or, worse, as a practice that is primarily characterized by spin and broadcast communication.

If you go to the Wikipedia definition of stakeholder relations (or engagement—same thing), you will find it defines the field with the following notions:

This is nothing more than a manifestation of the primary theory that underpins and shapes best practice public relations, that of two-way symmetrical communication.

Corporate social responsibility is public relations