The good organization communicating well: Teaching rhetoric in the public relations classroom

This essay refines public relations pedagogy by demonstrating further the ways in which rhetorical instruction can be a good means of teaching public relations students critical thinking skills needed to be thoughtful, ethical, and reflective practitioners. We argue that exposing students to classes and techniques rooted in the rhetorical tradition can (1) help to prepare students for practice; (2) address criticism of the curriculum's limited functionalistic scope; (3) prepare students to both understand and interrogate public discourse generally. We establish the foundations of rhetoric's role in public relations and provide three pedagogical examples and classroom exercises, thus demonstrating the benefits of further incorporating this perspective into the public relations classroom. The pragmatic implications of those exercises and other efforts in infusing the rhetorical tradition into public relations pedagogy are discussed.     

Ethical grounds for public relations as organizational rhetoric

Organizational rhetoric is critically questioned for ethics of its strategic processes and aspirational goal of persuasive, inescapably self-interested influence. Such critique pits strategic engagement needed for self-governance against self-interested framing (spin) and other dysfunctions. This theoretical essay takes stock of research literature to evaluate the ethics of organizational rhetoric, as rationale for public relations, and justify shifting from a strategic functional to an ontological, agonistic view of public relations. Relevant literature justifies the ethics of fairness (which features regard for others’ interests) to guide rhetorical processes and prefer outcomes as societally responsible. From classical Greece to postmodern theory of agonism, analysis of rhetoric centers on self-governance: achieved by stakeholders addressing rhetorical problems in rhetorical situations to deliberate strategic legitimatization. The discursive role of public relations intersects ethics of fairness and rhetorical citizenship, advocacy and dialogue, discourse and engagement at individual and societal levels. Public relations should be linked to an ontological ethics regarding strategic means of rhetorical influence toward ends accomplished collectively by agonistic pursuit.     

The public relations paradox of erasure: Damnatio memoriae as public relations strategy and tactic

Public relations scholars study how organizations co-create meaning with engaged stakeholders. Not well understood is how and why such co-creation modifies shared meaning, amplifies change, and even “erases” some piece of memory from the public record with the purpose of redirecting and redefining societal narratives. To help establish erasure as a concept for studying public relations, we draw from Freud’s theory of memory to establish a foundation upon which to critique strategic erasure. We adapt Freud’s theory of memory into the intersecting critique of visual rhetoric as public relations by analyzing, via narrative inquiry, remnants of Imperial Rome that have been modified, amplified, but even erased to present Rome’s modern identity. For centuries, even during Imperial Rome, leaders practiced damnatio memoriae —a modern Latin phrase that means “condemnation of memory.” We use this concept to interrogate the public relations identity process Rome’s leaders have used to modify for emphasis and even obliterate Roman elites’ names and images from the texts of public records by destroying, mutilating and modifying statues and monuments as a means for co-creating new public memory. Such analysis reveals how damnatio memoriae helps elites to redefine the “memory” of the Eternal City.     

Personal public relations: identity as a public relations commodity

Public relations for individuals is steadily emerging as a significant area of practice, yet little research and theoretical development is currently undertaken in this area. Within this article public relations for individuals, referred to in this study as personal public relations, is examined. The research identified two approaches deployed by public relations practitioners: a formative mode and an advisory mode. The formative mode is an active constitution of a public identity, whereas the advisory mode is a communication counseling approach. The paper argues that the formative role is more closely aligned to the marketing techniques of promotion and selling, whereas the advisory role fits more closely with the public relations roles of communication counseling and relationship building. Potential guidelines for ethical personal public relations work emerged from the discussion.Dr Judy Motion is a senior lecturer in the Department of Management Communication at the University of Waikato in New Zealand.     

How public relations works: Theoretical roots and public relations perspectives

Public relations is often studied from a managerial, instrumental perspective or a psychological, behavioral perspective. To understand the role of public relations in building trust or mistrust and to develop – or destroy – a license to operate, it needs also to be studied as a social phenomenon.     

Product placements as public relations: an exploratory study of the role of the public relations firm

This article reports the results of a survey of 106 public relations firms concerning their level of involvement with product placements as part of their public relations strategies. The findings of this research suggest that public relations practitioners are active players in choosing whether to use product placements to enhance a client’s product or service. Results also indicate that practitioners are more knowledgeable about product placements than previously believed and that they are more enthusiastic about the future of product placements than their advertising counterparts.Carol J. Pardun is an assistant professor of public relations and advertising at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Kathy Brittain McKee is an associate professor of journalism at Berry College in Rome, Georgia.     

The image of the government flack: movie depictions of public relations in public administration

Notwithstanding the ubiquity of public relations in contemporary society, little attention has been devoted by researchers to its image in popular culture, especially the nearly-universal mass entertainment medium of film. This article reviews the screen image of the public relations professional in public administration.Of twenty flack flicks, several attributes were consistent in most of them. The characters were almost all men, they worked for the federal government and especially in the military, they primarily conducted media relations and were disproportionately present in movies made in the 1990s rather than earlier decades. Other characteristics showed greater bipolarity. In about half the movies, the government public relations officer was a comic figure, a serious character in the other half. Finally, he was as often the good guy to be cheered by the audience as a bad guy to be jeered.     

Building theory in public relations: Interorganizational relationships as a public relations paradigm

ABSTRACT

This article suggests that agreement on a paradigm focus for public relations scholarship would greatly enhance the probability of productive theory development. The author argues, influenced by Thomas Kuhn, that until those who call themselves public relations scholars come to agreement on the focus of public relations research and theory development, there may be much activity we call research in public relations, but there will not be much theory development.     

Sociology and the public understanding of science: from rationalization to rhetoric

This paper contributes to the reappraisal of sociological theories of modernity inspired by the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). As much as these theories rely on received ideas about the nature of science that SSK has called into doubt, so do they rely on ideas about the public understanding of science. Public understanding of science has been assumed to conform to the monolithic logic and perception of science associated with rationalization, leading to an impoverished view of the cognitive outlook of the modern individual. Rationalization has become the basis for the construction of theoretical critique of science divorced from any clear reference to public understanding, with the result that theory has encountered considerable problems in accounting for public scepticism towards science. However, rather than question rationalization, the more typical strategy has been to propose radical changes in the modernization process, such as postmodernism and the risk society. Against this, an alternative view of public understanding is advanced drawn from SSK and rhetorical psychology. The existence of the sociological critique of science, and SSK in particular, suggests that the meaning of science in modernity is not monolithic but multiple, arising out of a central dilemma over the universal form of knowledge-claims and their necessarily particular, human and social grounding. This dilemma plays out not only in intellectual discourses about science, but also in the public's understanding of science. This argument is used to call for further sociological research into public understanding and to encourage sociologists to recognize the central importance of the topic to a proper understanding of modernity.     

Postmodernism for modernist public relations: the cash value and application of critical research in public relations

This essay argues that postmodern theorists, while adding philosophical criticism of public relations practice, also must have a “cash value” for modern public relations professionals to use their ideas. The essay argues for a fuller domain definition of public relations than used by postmodernists. It defines modernism and postmodernism, using Mumby’s four categories. It suggests examples and criteria for how postmodernist thought could be added to practitioners’ theoretical checklists.     

Workplace adversity and resilience in public relations: Accounting for the lived experiences of public relations practitioners

Public relations practitioners face workplace challenges as they cultivate public relationships, resolve conflicts, and manage crises. Odds of adversities may be high in this role, requiring practitioners to be resilient. This qualitative study explores workplace adversities in public relations from a practitioners’ perspective, and examines how they enact resilience. By asking current practitioners about their lived experiences, we found workplace adversities occurred on multiple levels and ranged from mundane to life-altering events. Patterns of resilience were, metaphorically, bouncing forward, bouncing up, bouncing back, and bouncing around. This study contributes to public relations and resilience scholarship by (1) uncovering workplace adversities and resilience enactment in public relations, therefore connecting practice with scholarship, (2) extending the “bounce back” metaphor in the resilience literature, therefore making resilience more inclusive, and (3) exploring the connections of multi-level resilience, and suggesting the complex and negotiated nature of resilience among individuals embedded in collectives.     

The write stuff: teaching the introductory public relations writing course

This article provides guidance for an instructor looking to develop or to refine a basic or introductory public relations writing course. The objectives of the public relations writing course are presented along with assignments designed to meet these objectives. A sample grading rubric is provided along with an evaluation of the major public relations writing textbooks and how they cover the various communication tactics used in public relations.     

The original bailout of US corporations: The public relations bailout

More than a trillion of taxpayer dollars are currently being used to bail out the US banking, mortgage and car industries. This invokes an interesting connection to public relations the last time drastic US government involvement with corporations was contemplated. This pre-First World War crisis of the free enterprise system involved a deficit not of money but of favourable public opinion. The requirement was for vast amounts of public opinion and public policy work by a reported at least 1200 – what were at that time called – press agents. This was the period when public relations emerged as a fundamental plank of US and ultimately of global culture. The thesis of this article is that many aspects of the world we live in cannot be properly understood without a better analysis of the first bailout of US corporations—the public relations bailout.