The main goal of a public relations department is to enhance a company's reputation. They are able to present an organisation or an individual to the world in its best way. The role of a public relation department can be seen as a reputation protector.
The business world today is extremely competitive with more and more of companies coming. In today's competitive market companies need to have an edge that makes them stand out from the crowd, something that makes them visible in the public as well as the media. To sum up what public relations means to me is that the public are the buyers of the product and the media are responsible for selling it.