The never changing story: Eight decades of the government public relations department of Thailand

The Government Public Relations Department (GPRD) of Thailand has existed in various forms since the country’s governing system changed from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one in 1932. This study reflects on how the GPRD’s practices have been affected by the country’s governing and political environments over time. It has periodized the eighty-four-years of development of the GPRD into sequential phases based on a continuum approach. The GPRD’s roles and duties are detailed based on four periods: Beginning Period, Growth Period, Full Expansion Period, and Weak Period. The GPRD was firstly positioned to be the primary government tool for introducing the concept of democracy to the Thai populace and disseminating information about government policies, activities and propagandistic campaigns. Through Thailand’s periods of political instability, World War II, the Cold War and rise of communism in Indochina, globalization, and the current digital age, the GPRD has expanded in its role within the government as the center of communication for a wide variety of governmental organizations. However, even as it has expanded and undergone re-organization, it has been criticized for being a government mouthpiece rather that a reliable source of factual information. Working under the direct oversight of the various governments led by the military, as well as both appointed and elected politicians, the GPRD has struggled to maintain a balanced public relations role at the juncture of Thai politics and public interest.     

A case study of Congressional hostility to agency public relations: The Federal Reserve and Senator Heflin, 1922

This is an historical case study of one US Senator's effort to reduce the public information activities of a federal agency. In 1922, Senator Thomas Heflin, an opponent of the policies of the Federal Reserve Bank, took especial umbrage at the Bank's use of public relations to reply to his own attacks on it. This is an example of a politician trying to muzzle government public relations regardless of fairness or reciprocity.     

The syntax of ‘tactic(s)’ in public relations research

Strategies and tactics are foundational to the teaching of public relations, yet little scholarly reflection on the term ‘tactic(s)’ itself exists in our research. We content analyzed 30 years of research in Public Relations Review for references to the term ‘tactic(s).’ Our research reveals that of the 174 studies reviewed, 13% elaborated on the term, but none defined it. Moreover, the term ‘tactic(s)’ appeared more frequently with ‘strategies’ (31.5%) than in conjunction with ‘ethics’ (2%). We conclude our research note with a call for greater reflection on core concepts related to our public relations teaching and research.     

The rise and fall of the Institute for Government Public Information Research, 1978–1981

This historical case study recounts the short life of the Institute for Government Public Information Research at American University in Washington, DC. It was established in 1978 and was largely defunct by 1981. The significance of this brief event is that it helps illuminate the status of the subject of the Institute's attentions, namely the practice and study of government public relations. The somewhat shaky status of public information officers in the federal executive branch partly explains the fate of the Institute. It could not thrive in a field that itself was not thriving. The case study serves as an historical documentation of this (failed) effort to elevate the practice and study of public relations in the American national government in face of the second class status that Congress has relegated the profession to.     

Communicating during times of crises: An analysis of news releases from the federal government before,during, and after hurricanes Katrina and Rita

This paper examines the framing of crisis communication strategies before, during, and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by analyzing news releases from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security, and U.S. Senators and Governors from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. A qualitative content analysis found that all entities analyzed did not acknowledge their parts in the crises, placed blame on others, and tried to distance themselves from the crises. State leadership also used a unifying approach where they included themselves in the hardships affected residents were experiencing.     

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.     

Medieval propaganda, longue durée and New History: Towards a nonlinear approach to the history of public relations

This article offers a new perspective on the historical approach to public relations by drawing from the work of French medievalist Jacques Le Goff, who was the principal representative of the Nouvelle Histoire (New History) French historiographical movement. Based on the notions of mentality and longue durée, which Le Goff inherited from the Annales movement, we propose that a nonlinear approach to the history of public relations will help to extend its time scale back to the beginnings of civilization. This seeks to overcome the historical boundaries usually established between the prehistory (or proto-history) and the history of public relations as a profession.     

Sociology,the public sphere,and modern government: a challenge to the dominance of Habermas

There is an unfortunate tendency within some branches of sociology – particularly those usually called ‘critical’, that is, those associated with ‘critical social theory’– to treat with disdain the understanding of the public sphere that many modern governments use daily in making and implementing public policy. The majority of sociologists in those branches seem to prefer, as part and parcel of their normative commitments, Jürgen Habermas's Kantian understanding of the public sphere, which focuses primarily on reason and morality and insists that these two forces are of a higher order than politics and law. This paper offers a set of criticisms of the Habermas–Kant understanding, arguing that its focus on reason and morality, were it to become more widespread, would steer sociology into public policy irrelevance. The paper goes on to describe a very different understanding of the public sphere, a politico‐legal or civil‐peace understanding which operates as the public policy focus of those governments that have relegated questions of salvation (whether religious or ideological) to the private sphere. This understanding emerged from early modern attempts to carve out a domain of relative freedom and security against the deadly violence of religious disputation sweeping across Europe. The paper readily acknowledges that some ‘non‐critical’ branches of sociology already employ a version of this understanding.     

Rescuing from oblivion: social characteristics and career destinations of early British ‘sociology’ graduates, 1907–39

Those students who were among the first sociology graduates in the UK barely feature in standard histories of the discipline, which all have an intellectual and institutional focus. This article remedies this neglect by researching the social backgrounds and later careers of sociology graduates from the London School of Economics and Political Science [LSE] and Bedford College for Women from the first such graduate in 1907 until those graduating in the 1930s. Data for this exercise were compiled from a variety of sources. The more important are: UK censuses, especially that of 1911; various civil registration records; archived student files; and, for the graduates who entered university teaching, issues of the Yearbook of the Universities of the Empire [later the Commonwealth Universities' Yearbook]. The dataset includes all identified graduates in the BSc(Econ), Special Subject Sociology, degree from 1907 to 1935 and all in the BA (Honours) in Sociology degree from 1925 to 1939. LSE sociology graduates tended to be older and to have more cosmopolitan backgrounds, with fathers more likely than for Bedford College graduates to come from commercial rather than professional backgrounds. Both institutions' graduates' careers tended to the Civil Service and local government. LSE graduates gravitated to education, especially to higher education if male, whilst those of Bedford College went into welfare work, countering a stereotype from some previous literature that especially women graduates were heavily constrained to follow careers in schoolteaching. The article also gives comparisons with the social‐class profile and career destinations of several cohorts of postwar sociology graduates, noting a number of similarities.     

Arabs, the west and public relations: A critical/cultural study of Arab cultural values

Using a critical/cultural perspective to examine Arab culture, this study tests the cultural-economic model of international public relations to identify cultural value orientations that influence Arab culture. These orientations include commitment to religion, devotion to the group, resistance to change/attachment to history and recognition of hierarchal order. Based on an initial review of these orientations, the study identifies guiding principles exhorting practitioners to carefully consider the nature, function and purpose of public relations practice in the Arab world and the relationship among cultural value orientations. The study concludes with useful implications and guidelines sensitive to Arab culture for public relations professionals and scholars.     

‘We took a bath with the chickens’: memories of childhood visits to the homeland by second‐generation Greek and Greek Cypriot ‘returnees’

Drawing on a wider study of 90 second‐generation Greeks and Greek Cypriots who have relocated to their ancestral homeland, in this article we focus on the significance of childhood visits to the homeland. Freedom – how children were allowed to roam free and stay up late – is the key trope of such memories, in contrast with the strict spatio‐temporal parenting they received in the host country. Different, sometimes less pleasant memories, however, emerge when the visits took place during later, teenage years. We explore the connections between childhood visits and adult relocation. Adult returnees find that settlement in the homeland produces a new set of challenges and reactions that differ markedly from childhood experiences and memories. They engage a second narrative trope, nostalgia, reflecting on the loss of the ‘authentic’ nature of the homeland and its customs and values. Instead, they highlight the materialism and xenophobia of Greek and Cypriot society nowadays. However, they see the ‘homeland’ as a safer place in which to raise their own children.     

‘Vorkuta is the capital of the world’: people,place and the everyday production of the local

This article considers the relationship between people and place in the everyday production of the local. Based on empirical research with young people in Russia's far north it offers an empirically substantiated argument that processes of deterritorialization do not necessarily imply the disembedding of people from either the national or the local. Drawing on discursive psychological approaches to the construction of nationhood, the article demonstrates how national and local patriotisms are produced through a post‐Soviet project of nationalism and an active programme of flagging the city by the city administration. Through an exploration of the everyday manifestation and articulation of ties between people and place, however, it also suggests some of the limitations to theories of the everyday discursive production of nationhood. Connections to place, it is argued, are not only unconscious or linguistic expressions of discursively produced subjects, but emotional and sensual responses to the material (urban space, nature, climate) and symbolic (hymns, flags, historical narratives) environment. This suggests the need to conceptualize place as a site of the active production and enactment of subjectivity, which is itself not only the product of language and discourse but of experience, affect and ‘matter’.     

‘I’m a migrant,but I’m the right sort of migrant’: Hegemonic masculinity,whiteness, and intersectional privilege and (dis)advantage in migratory academic careers

Comparatively little attention has been paid to the international careers of many academics, with gender and ethnicity frequently ignored in discussions of migrant academics. Through the lenses of intersectionality, hegemonic masculinity and whiteness, this study explores experiences of migrant academics in Australia and New Zealand, understanding how gender and ethnicity intersect to shape experiences of relative privilege and disadvantage. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 academics at various stages of their careers in both Australia and New Zealand. The data reveals the complex patterns of (dis)advantage which characterize the experiences of migrant academics. While some migrant academics may experience disadvantage, for Anglo white male senior academics, considerable privilege is (re)produced through the migration experience. As such, this article suggests migratory experiences can be better understood through the intersectionality of hegemonic masculinity and whiteness to reveal how privilege is maintained.     

‘It's People's Whole Lives’: Gender,Class and the Emotion Work of User Involvement in Mental Health Services

The concept of emotion work has been widely applied to the study of service work. Yet its use in understanding the social dynamics of user involvement in public services remains under explored. Drawing on a study of user involvement in mental health service development, I show its utility for understanding this social and political realm. The article discusses findings from a critical discursive and contextual emotional labour perspective, taking into account organizational and institutional factors as well as social structural dimensions of gender and social class. It shows how discourses on emotion, constructed through articulation of personal experiences of service usage both reflected and constructed the ideological and structural positionings of women service users, while emotional discourse — displays of anger in user involvement forums — worked to constitute traditionally male and ideologically masculine elements of the field, as well as the working‐class identities of some participants. These forms of emotion work, and the ways in which they elicited further emotion management from service users and workers alike, are located in relation to the rules of engagement of user involvement and the bureaucratic institutional forms within which this took place. The article concludes that the emotion work of user involvement ultimately helped to reproduce the dominant institutional and social order, including its gender and class dimensions. Implications for policies and practices of user involvement in mental health services are provided.     

‘The distance between us’: a comparative examination of the technical,spatial and temporal dimensions of the transnational social relationships of highly skilled migrants

In this article, through comparing two highly skilled migrant groups in London, we explore how new types of information and communication technologies (ICTs) shape the form and content of transnational practices through time and space. In so doing, we aim to contribute to several debates in the field of migration studies. First, our findings highlight enduring practical constraints emanating from everyday routines and responsibilities, thus questioning the extent to which ICTs may be shrinking the globe and freeing people, even highly skilled ones, from spatial and temporal fixity. Second, we challenge assumptions about the ease of transnationalism by exploring the range and complexity of long‐distance interpersonal relationships and their dynamics over time. Third, by focusing on a comparison of relatively affluent, highly skilled migrants, we question the usefulness of the category of ‘middling migrants’. Our findings illustrate that, within this general and wide ranging category, there are diverse experiences, expectations and opportunities of maintaining contact with friends and family at home.     

The persistence of variation in individual grammars: Copula absence in ‘urban sojourners’ and their stay‐at‐home peers,Bequia (St Vincent and the Grenadines)1

Recent work on phonological variation largely supports the apparent‐time construct, though some change across an individual's lifespan is possible. But how much change is possible in an individual's grammar? How much is grammar affected by extended absence in a new, urban speech community? Social dialect surveys traditionally exclude individuals who have left their community for an extended period of time, under the assumption that dialect contact causes levelling or restructuring of the linguistic system. However, our ongoing work in a Caribbean speech community suggests that the kinds of changes that can affect grammatical variables are more constrained than we might think. Raw frequencies of vernacular variants may fluctuate, but language‐internal constraints persist. Drawing on recordings from Bequia we compare the group norms for absence of copula/auxiliary be in three villages. We show that ‘urban sojourners’– Bequians who have spent an extended period overseas – may sound very different from their stay‐at‐home peers, but close examination shows only superficial restructuring of their grammars. Overall frequencies of be absence may be dramatically reduced but the ranking of language‐internal constraints remains largely unchanged. These results reaffirm the validity of modelling variable rules in a community grammar, rather than as an aggregation of idiolectal norms.     

‘Tell Me and I Forget,Teach Me and I May Remember,Involve Me and I Learn. And That's What It's About.’ How a Co‐design Methodology is Used in the Delivery of Parents Building Solutions: A Qualitative Study

There are many parenting programs delivered in Australia and Parents Building Solutions (PBS) is one of these. Collaboratively designed by Parentzone staff of Anglicare Victoria, it has a twenty year history of building the evidence base. PBS stands apart from other programs because parents actively co‐design the sessions and content with skilled facilitators. Understanding the drivers, processes and practices that make the co‐design methodology work, is fundamental to the implementation science that underpins the program.This study aimed to examine the way co‐design was used in the delivery of PBS, specifically looking at program implementation and outcomes. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with Parentzone staff (team leaders and facilitators) and parents who had recently completed a program. Ethics approval was provided and analysis was conducted using NVivo software with co‐design as the unit of analysis. Three major themes about co‐design were present across team leaders, facilitators and parents: 1) responsiveness and flexibility are central to the functionality of co‐design within PBS; 2) facilitators implement the co‐design methodology using a suite of knowledge and skills; and 3) parents report tangible results from participating in a co‐designed parenting program. There was an overwhelming appreciation from both facilitators and parents about the co‐designed implementation style. Facilitators and team leaders highly valued the flexibility of the program which enabled their ability to respond to parent's needs. Furthermore, parents believed they achieved tangible outcomes derived from strategies and support delivered in the program. The co‐design methodology used in PBS was evident for all stakeholders and was a driver of program implementation and its outcomes. The methodology described in this has practice implications for family therapists and others who work directly parents and families.