Showing papers in "Public Relations Inquiry in 2012"

Defining the ‘object’ of public relations research: A new starting point:

Abstract: In this article I consider the importance of paradigmatic variety in the scholarly field of public relations. I reflect on the role that both conflict and cooperation between different paradigms play in the development of academic fields, and review definitions of public relations to examine the extent to which both are present in public relations scholarship. Based on this discussion, I consider the assumptions that underpin existing approaches to public relations in order to reveal the ways in which they are connected, as well as differentiated, along a series of continua. I conclude by proposing a new definition of public relations, as flow rather than organizational function, that can accommodate the range of research encompassed by these continua, thereby facilitating greater unity, inclusivity and, I would hope, dialogue in the field.

Environmental risk, sustainability discourses, and public relations:

Abstract: As modern societies become increasingly aware of the social and environmental costs of industrialization we are seeing significant shifts in the ways in which businesses, governments and societies think about a viable future. Traditional discourses of economic growth are meeting ascendant discourses of sustainability. This article explores the resulting struggle through analysis of discursive influences in the development of environmental policy in New Zealand at potential critical turning points over a 10-year period. The role of public relations professionals in such discursive struggles, and the implications for organizations and public relations in the long term are discussed.

Transparency Matters: The Concept of Organizational Transparency in the Academic Discourse

Abstract: Although transparency is currently a buzzword in the public discourse, public relations (PR) theory has not yet produced a theory of transparency. Instead, its body of knowledge lacks theoretical depth and critical perspectives. Taking this as a point of departure, the article searches for alternative accounts on transparency, which could stimulate PR discourse and help to overcome the theoretical and normative deficits. Therefore it aims to discern whether or not the discourse in related disciplines such as business studies is more reflective and complex than in the PR domain. To determine this, we analysed 105 articles taken from Business Source Premier, one of the leading databases in the business field. Relying on a combined qualitative and quantitative analysis, our main findings are: (1) more than half of the articles set transparency in a positive frame; (2) a definition of transparency was given in only 13 articles; and (3) like in the public relations discourse, a theory-driven analysis of transp...

A public relations identity for the 2010s

Abstract: New voices are being heard and new questions are being asked within the field of public relations. However, in its present multifaceted state, public relations research is still struggling with rec...

Public relations and philosophy: Parsing paradigms

Abstract: This philosophical article examines how public relations researchers have engaged with Kuhn’s concept of a paradigm and have used it to set a research agenda for the field. I argue that Kuhn believed the social sciences to be inherently multi-paradigmatic, making the quest for a single, overarching paradigm for public relations research misguided. Instead, I lay out a four-paradigm schematic for the field, examining issues of semantic and cultural incommensurability and consequences for language use and research method and values. The article questions the definition of a mature discipline as often found in public relations literature and proposes that we might be more mature than we think if we are willing to accept a diversity of perspectives and their concomitant research values.

The global shadow of functionalism and Excellence Theory: An analysis of Australasian PR

Abstract: There are increasing claims and, in some quarters, celebration of a ‘sociocultural turn’ in public relations that has allegedly shifted the locus of scholarship and practice from US-originating fun...

Interpreting ethics: public relations and strong hermeneutics

Abstract: This article suggests that public relations’ inadequate engagement with the complexities of ethical theory has contributed to public loss of trust in its activities. Instead of blaming this on publ...

Public relations in a postmodern world

Abstract: This article uses Holtzhausen’s dichotomy of public relation’s modernist principles and the public’s postmodern expectations as a means of framing a discussion of public relations in a postmodern world. The following questions are addressed: What does it mean to say that public relations is modernist and its public is postmodern? What are the implications of this dichotomy for the ways in which public relations practice and scholarship are spoken about and understood? Drawing upon the work of Jean-Francois Lyotard, Michel Foucault and Umberto Eco, it is argued that a postmodern perspective allows one to consider public relations as a narrative; that is, a way of talking about the world, the people in that world and public relations’ relationship with those people. The use of postmodernism here is intended to foreground the ways in which pubic relations is talked about, and the implications of these ways of talking.

Public relations and the Northern Ireland peace process: Dissemination, reconciliation and the ‘Good Friday Agreement’ referendum campaign:

Abstract: This study analyses the public relations strategies employed by the mainstream political parties during the ‘Good Friday Agreement’ referendum campaign in Northern Ireland in April/May 1998. Using data from elite interviews, triangulated with content analysis from campaign literature, we assess the communication strategies of the pro- and anti-Agreement parties who were attempting to persuade the people of Northern Ireland to vote Yes or No to the Agreement. Key findings of the research include: first, in comparison to the ‘normal’ political culture in Northern Ireland, there was a significant increase in the deployment of public relations expertise in the referendum campaign; indeed, for many of the political parties it represented their first major investment in political public relations. A second key finding pertains to the communicative model adopted by the key actors. All parties, in different ways, adopted a ‘dissemination’ model rather than a ‘dialogic’ one to communicate with allies, rivals and t...

Epistemological modesty: Critical reflections on public relations thought

Abstract: This article is a critical thinking inquiry into a number of epistemologically related problems with the scholarly conceptions and real-world practices of public relations. Resonating with the epistemological modesty of the Scottish Enlightenment, and approaching public relations from the perspectives of such marginal directions as phenomenology, microsociology and literary theory, the article examines 10 problems with modern public relations thought as it has been articulated from the early public relations ‘pioneers’ to its popular conceptualization, in recent decades, as systems-based symmetry-excellence.

Each one, reach one: An autobiographic account of a Black PR professor’s mentor–mentee relationships with Black graduate students:

Abstract: In this study by explicitly positioning race and mentoring at the center of this work, via autobiography, I uncover different discourses and practices in mentor–mentee relationships in public relations (PR) than have been highlighted by other scholars and then extend findings to confront the issues that Black PR faculty and Black PR graduate students encounter in the way that they view and enact mentor–mentee relationships. This study introduces autobiographic analysis to public relations research and inquiry and makes the case for its potential scholarly contributions to the discipline.

Minding their business: Discourses of colonialism and neoliberalism in the commercial guide for US companies in China

Abstract: In recent years, China has emerged as a major economic and trade partner of the USA. In the light of the increasing ‘neoliberalization’ of the Chinese economy – as exemplified by privatization, deregulation and globalization, China has come to be situated in the economic and political imagination within mainstream managerial US discourses of commerce and trade. As a strategic economic partner for US-based businesses, much academic, policy-based, and commercial literature has focused on ‘relationship management’ issues to guide US-based business management practices directed toward China. In this article, we focus on the discourses of ‘relationship management’ in the 2009 through 2011 versions of one such document: Doing Business in China: Country Commercial Guide for US Companies, a publication of the US and Foreign Commercial Service and the US Department of State. Using an entry point for putting the postcolonial and ‘political economy’ theoretical frameworks in conversation, as exemplified by the works...

The mutable identities of women in public relations

Abstract: The notion that contemporary society as a knowledge economy is undergoing profound transformation has implications for the occupation of public relations, as well as the professional and personal identities of public relations practitioners. With the increasing erosion of once clear demarcations between people, time, space and communication technologies, public relations practitioners experience increasing tensions in their encounters between self and other, private and public, economic and cultural factors. We are interested in how women in public relations undertake identity work as a way of responding to these pressures, notably at the point where their home and work lives intersect. In interviews and focus groups conducted in Perth, Western Australia, women of different ages and career backgrounds related their experiences of juggling multiple roles including worker, mother, partner, friend, parent or grandparent. The findings reveal a set of complex identity constructions that indicate that some women are successful in separating professional and personal identities, while others are unable to resist work as an all-encompassing activity and as the marker of a meaningful identity. To develop as a public relations practitioner involves not only the social expectations of what it means to be a professional coupled with an individual’s presentation of themselves in public relations. It also involves a changeable relationship that expands over the whole life situation, including career trajectories and family life stages. A recognition of this set of circumstances prompts further research questions in relation to public relations and its specific influence on gendered, identity and relationship practices, and has significant implications for the profession more broadly.

From yearly to daily press meetings: The development of the government press relations in Sweden:

Abstract: Emerging with the Second World War, and taking its modern form in the 1970s with Olof Palme, the government press conference has today become an almost daily event in Sweden with frequent informal and impromptu meetings between the assembled press and the prime minister. The history of this phenomenon reveals a development from respectful off-the-record sessions to direct webcasted conferences with PR-minded, policy-selling politicians as well as, at least sometimes, journalists eager to inquire into problematic issues. The initial stage, during the war, was very intense, as Stockholm became a gathering point for international war correspondents. This study, grounded in multidisciplinary relational conceptualizations and using a multidimensional methodology, aims to tell the story of the development of governmental press conferences in Sweden.

Pro-nuclear European discourses: Socio-semiotic Observations

Abstract: This article is focused on some recent examples of ‘nuclear discourse’, with a specific reference to the civil use of nuclear power in order to produce energy. The basic aim of this article is dual-fold. From a methodological point of view, I want to show an example of the application of a specific form of semiotic analysis (linked to the ‘continental’ tradition of structural analysis) to contemporary communication forms and supports. In this way, semiotics appears as a specific form of qualitative analysis, aimed at the understanding of meaning production by social actors on the basis of ‘signs’ (significant objects such as paper and electronic texts) that are produced and exchanged. From the point of view of the subject under analysis, I want to present some observations on recent pro-nuclear rhetorical forms, which have emerged in Europe in the last two years, before and after the tragedy of Fukushima. I analyse different types of texts, in particular videos and websites. The analysis of the ‘internal’ organization of texts is combined with attention to the context of their production.

Public relations and organizational justice: More fairness or just more cooperation?

Abstract: This article brings together two established fields of organizational study, organizational justice (OJ) and public relations (PR), in a search for potential benefits. The ‘fair process effect’ says that people tend to behave more cooperatively and prosocially when they perceive fairness in a situation, and less cooperatively when they perceive unfairness. Scholars have stressed the potential benefits of understanding perceptions of fairness in a range of contexts including policing, sport refereeing, management and teaching. Some have also challenged OJ scholars to use that field’s understanding of what people find to be fair to better help the victims of injustice.The article reports that PR and OJ have developed bodies of knowledge that enhance organizations’ capacity to influence change for greater fairness, but both fields have been criticized because their knowledge has more often been applied to increasing the perception of fairness (resulting in greater stakeholder cooperation with organizations a...

Converging on harmony: Idealism, evolution, and the theory of mutual aid

Abstract: A growing number of frameworks for envisioning and enacting public relations posit social harmony as a core goal of the discipline. Such frameworks include two-way symmetry, communitarianism, fully functioning society theory, Isocratean rhetoric, and aspects of the reflective paradigm. A goal of social harmony, however, has been challenged as being overly idealistic, utopian, and incongruous with the competitive nature of human beings and organizations. This article examines the evolutionary biological theories of Charles Darwin and Peter Kropotkin – in particular, Kropotkin’s theory of mutual aid – and details their conclusion that the processes of natural selection favor communities built upon cooperation rather than competition. The processes of evolution and natural selection thus provide a scientific foundation for a goal of social harmony within public relations frameworks.

Ethics, identities and discursive formations

Abstract: As editors we value diverse perspectives and research approaches, and in this issue we include contributions that elucidate public relations using concepts and theories from outside the mainstream, in order to generate new insights and research agendas. We have also included articles that are written around empirical work, and those that focus solely on the development of argument to unpack and problematize concepts. As it happens, there is some consonance among the articles; for example: shared concerns in relation to ethical praxis at the individual, organizational, societal and global levels; an interest in occupational identities; and a commitment to reflexivity. We open our second issue with an article that argues for a hermeneutic approach to public relations ethics with a view to increasing reflexivity in the field. Hermeneutics, according to Fawkes, is central to public relations practice: ‘given the centrality of interpretation ... the practitioner is constantly interpreting various internal and external publics to the organization and vice versa, and is prized for skill in understanding the nuances and navigating the pitfalls of interpretation’. Her article proposes a new approach to considerations of professional ethics in public relations. She presents a taxonomy of public relations theory linked to ethical theory, highlighting a number of problematics. She questions the way in which discussions about the loss of public trust focus on their lack of trust rather than on the lack of trustworthiness and her article re-orientates the burden of analysis about public relations ethics onto public relations actors and agents, rather than their critics. She highlights the value of a human-centred approach and understanding through interpretation within a relational context, indicating along the way that there are important, but relatively unexplored components within public relations ethics such as spirituality, thus leading towards a more holistic conception of public relations.