The nature of conflict in firm-client relations: A content analysis of public relations journal 1980–89

Determing the sources of conflict in public relations firm-client relations is the first step toward managing such conflict productively. A content analysis of firm-related articles in Public Relations Journal from 1980–1989 yielded a total of 45 conflict issues. The key issues recurring whether the conflict was attributed to the firm or the client were concerns over knowing each other's businesses, contributing to a consistent communication flow, finances, and “chemistry.”For the most part, conflict issues for public relations firms paralleled those for advertising firms as reported in the advertising agency literature. Exceptions were top ranking public relations firm issues related to research and billing and for clients, prompt payment. Advertising issues not directly found in the public relations literature included defensiveness, blame placing and the number of approval levels.     

Anhedonia: Gender and the Decline of Emotions in American Film, 1930–

An interpretive study of Hollywood films from 1930 to 1988 suggests a hypothesis about gender relations. Employing the mythopoetic conception of male-female relationships that is found in the legends of Ariadne and Theseus, the study proposes a diachronic unfolding of the dialectic of love and freedom. In the process, a disenchantment sets in revealing anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure. This dysdaemonic picture provides an illustration and commentary on American norms of achievement, marital fidelity, conjugal relations, and child rearing. The rise and fall of the Ariadneac mystique offers one way to read Hollywood films in terms of the sociology of the emotions. Future research is suggested to test the hypothesis and to explore the relationship between its thematic and socio-cultural life in America.     

Benthamism in the Countryside: The Architecture of Rural Space, 1900–1930

Historians of state formation have increasingly recognized what Foucault has described as the 'dark side' of the enlightenment institutional principles of representation, transparency and accountability and explored the parallel principles of legitimation, surveillance and discipline. In this paper, I pursue these themes in a neglected area, the institutional architecture of rural space. I do so by examining ideologies for rural planning in western Canada and the American midwest in the early twentieth century. These ideologies were linked to state projects, and found institutional expression in Canada in the 'town planning movement' attached to municipal and provincial planning offices, and in the United States in agricultural extension services and the 'county agent' system—the local 'inspectorate' of the Federal Department of Agriculture. The aim was a restructuring of rural space in the interests of rationalizing agricultural production and controlling large populations of settlers, recently displaced, and disturbingly 'isolated' and inaccessible in the vast spaces of the great plains. Despite common aims, American and Canadian reformers adopted fundamentally different principles of spatial design. Town planners inherited the European assumption that community networks and class relations were embedded in particular spatial arrangements, so that rural reform required re-drawing the boundaries of fields and settlements. As early as 1915, American reformers developed the idea that networks of sociability and domination were defined first by abstract structures, formal organizations and the cash nexus, and could, using modern media of communication, be 'disembedded' from particular locales and distributed spatially.     

Strategic role of public relations in enterprise strategy,governance and sustainability—A normative framework

The purpose of the study was to suggest a normative framework for the development of an organization's enterprise (societal role/stakeholder) strategy, indicating its relationship with governance, sustainability, and CSR. The normative framework contains two dimensions: Enterprise strategy is developed within the context of enterprise governance as well as social and environmental sustainability and responsibility, to achieve the organization's strategic non-financial goals (the sustainability dimension). Corporate strategy is developed within the context of corporate governance as well as economic sustainability and responsibility, to achieve strategic financial/economic goals (the business dimension). PR/communication management plays a strategic role in enterprise strategy development but a support role in corporate strategy development. The development of enterprise strategy necessitates a Triple Bottom Line approach to strategic management.     

Soccer, civil religion, and public relations: Devotional–promotional communication and Barcelona Football Club

The aim of this article is to provide a public relations perspective on the civil religion phenomenon through a study of Barcelona Football Club (BFC) as an institution and its public relations efforts. We believe that BFC can be seen as a form of civil religion that uses a devotional–promotional communication model which sets forth, upholds and reinforces relations with “faithful supporters”. The paper links to three main contributions: the work of [Salvador, J. (2004). Futbol, metàfora d’una guerra freda: Un estudi antropològic del Barça. Barcelona: Proa.] on anthropological approach to BFC, [Giner, S. (2003). Carisma y razón. Madrid: Alianza] on civil religion and its communicative dimension, and [Tilson, D. J. (2006). Devotional–promotional communicationa and Santiago: A thousand-year public relations campaign for Saint James and Spain. In J. L’Etang & M. Pieczka (Eds.), Public relations: Critical debates and contemporary practice (pp. 167–184). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.] on devotional–promotional communication. Thus, this article advances a public relations approach to civil religion.     

Breaking the taboo: a history of monetary financing in Canada, 1930–1975

Monetary financing – the funding of state expenditure via the creation of new money rather than through taxation or borrowing – has become a taboo policy instrument in advanced economies. It is generally associated with dangerously high inflation and/or war. Relatedly, a key institutional feature of modern independent central banks is that they are not obligated to support government expenditure via money creation. Since the financial crisis of 2007–2008, however, unorthodox monetary policies, in particular quantitative easing, coupled with stagnant growth and high levels of public and private debt have led to questions over the monetary financing taboo. Debates on the topic have so far been mainly theoretical with little attention to the social and political dynamics of historical instances of monetary financing. This paper analyses one of the most significant twentieth‐century cases: Canada from the period after the Great Depression up until the monetarist revolution of the 1970s. The period was a successful one for the Canadian economy, with high growth and employment and manageable inflation. It offers some interesting insights into the relationship between states and central banks and present‐day discussions around the governance of money creation.     

American v. National Football League: Using public relations to “win” a war against a monopoly

No professional sports group ever achieved acceptance as widespread within a single decade's span as the American Football League (AFL). This study chronicles how the AFL used public relations strategies and tactics to garner public acceptance, which in turn helped convince the older National Football League (NFL) to merge with the upstart league. This study will further the understanding of how trade associations use public relations as an image-building device, as well as address a deficiency in the study of sports public relations.     

A Weak Embrace: Popular and Scholarly Depictions of Single‐Parent Families, 1900 – 1998

The growth of single‐parent families constitutes one of the most dramatic and most studied social changes of the 20th century. Evolving attitudes toward these families have received less attention. This paper explores depictions of these families in representative samples of popular magazine (N = 474) and social science journal (N = 202) articles. Critical depictions of divorce plummeted between 1900 and 1998, a trend stemming not from any increase in favorable depictions but from the virtual disappearance of normative debate. Such de facto acceptance did not extend to nonmarital childbearing, however, depictions of which were almost as likely to be critical at the century’s end as at its beginning. These trends illustrate Americans’ ambivalent embrace of single‐parent families as a reality but not an ideal.     

Writing in the public relations curriculum: practitioner perceptions versus pedagogy

Educators and practitioners seem to agree that writing is a public relations curriculum fundamental. An examination of the writing requirements of 152 ASJMC accredited public relations programs indicates that only a little more than half (57%) require a news writing course. Fewer require a public relations writing course (51%). Nearly 200 public relations practitioners were surveyed as to their perceptions of college public relations educators’ writing emphases. This exploratory study’s findings suggest that practitioners believe both news writing and public relations writing classes should be mandatory for public relations students; they offer slightly stronger support for news writing. Recommendations include requiring writing-intensive coursework, overall, and encouraging students to seek journalism experience through campus news outlets.     

Natality Estimates for the Canadian Indians by Stable Population Models, 1900–1969

Après avoir démontré que les données officielles sur les taux de naissance de la population indienne avant 1960 sont largement inadéquates, les auteurs utilisent deux méthodes indirectes pour obtenir des estimés fiables de ces taux. La première méthode se sert des donnees disponibles sur la distribution de la population par classe d'âge depuis 1900 tandis que la seconde utilise les données du recensement de 1961 sur l'ensemble des naissances selon l'âge de la mere. On analyse dans les deux cas, les données sous-jacentes et on déduit les estimés, à partir de modèles qui postulent une population stable. Les meilleurs estimés obtenus permettent de croire que le taux de natalité des Indiens est demeuré relativement stable dans le passé, au niveau de 50 naissances par 1,000 individus. On note cependant, un déclin constant de la fécondité depuis 1960. Ainsi le taux de natalité est passé de 46.0 pour 1000 en 1961 à 36.8 en 1969. Cette tendance peut être interpretee comme une evolution fondamentale dans la démographie de ce groupe ethnique. After having shown that official series of birth rates for the Indian population prior to 1960 suffer from considerable deficiencies, two indirect methods are applied to arrive at some trustworthy estimates of these rates. Use is made, in the one case, of the age distribution data available since 1900, and, in the other case, of 1961 census data on children ever-born to women by age. In both instances stable population models are used for analysing the underlying data and for deriving the estimates. According to the best obtained estimates, the birth-rate for the Indian population seems to have remained relatively stable in the past, at a level close to 50 per 1000 persons. A gradual decline in fertility has been taking place since about 1960. Thus the birth-rate has dropped from 46.0 in 1961 to 36.8 in 1969, the latest available figure. This trend may be regarded as a major development in the demography of this ethnic group which is, in many respects, unique in the Canadian context.     

BUILDING ENVIRONMENTALISM: The Founding of Environmental Movement Organizations in the United States, 1900–2000

Between the 19th and the mid‐20th century, the environmental movement transformed American culture, forcing a rethinking of the “Manifest Destiny” ideology that had long dominated political thinking toward an understanding of the need to protect and restore the balance between humans and nature. In 1900, there were only a few environmental movement organizations (EMOs), but by 2000, there were over 6,000 national and regional EMOs and over 20,000 local EMOs. What drove this phenomenal growth of EMOs? We examine a 100‐year time series of EMO founding, showing that, in addition to the “legitimation‐and‐competition” effects of organizational density, EMO founding is facilitated by the discourse‐creative activities of critical communities, objective threats in terms of air pollution, foundation giving, and powerful political allies in the presidency and Congress. Environmental discourses also legitimized and competed against one another, favoring “early risers” and preservationist discourse. Environmental mobilization needs to be understood in terms of the creation of new discursive frames that identify environmental problems, as well as objective environmental threats, resources, and political opportunities.     

Democracy and government public relations: Expanding the scope of “Relationship” in public relations research

The author argues that the unique nature of the US government poses significant barriers to democratic governmental public relations practiced in and by the US. By exploring challenges in relationship management that surface while analyzing a particular instance of government public relations, the author posits that relationship management research should take into account publics’ (non)desire for a relationship as well as different types of organization–public relationships (OPRs) including government–public relationships. The author analyzes the US Government's official apology, administered by President Clinton, to Tuskegee study survivors, introduces the communicative conception of distance to PR to broaden relationship management frameworks, and argues for broader understanding of what constitutes democratic public relations.     

HERBERT G. BLUMER (1900–1987): A LEGACY OF CONCEPTS,CRITICISMS, AND CONTRIBUTIONS

This article introduces a collection of articles written in honor of Herbert Blumer. It is noted what contributing authors identify as strengths and weaknesses of his theoretical and methodological analyses. Emphasized, however, is his view of reality as an ongoing emergent process. This view, coupled with his fundamental pragmatist stance, are the unifying and enduring themes in his life work. Blumer's impact on the social sciences will grow as more scholars become familiar with the full range of his ideas.