Coorientation theory in international relations: The case of Slovenia and Croatia

In this paper, we question the possibility of applying the coorientational theory in researching the communication behavior between the ‘general’ publics of two nations, Slovenia and Croatia. We use these findings to offer practical advice on solving the potential communication problems.     

Public relations tactics and methods in early 1800s America: An examination of an American anti-slavery movement

Traditional public relations histories begin in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This study expands public relations history to the early 1800s by analyzing the use of public relations methods and tactics in an American anti-slavery movement, The American Colonization Society. In focusing on the American Colonization Society and backlash against it from abolitionist groups, this paper finds the use of newspapers to promote a cause, promotion of high profile endorsements, attempts to persuade a key public, creation of publications, efforts to lobby legislatures, and hired agents to found auxiliaries, all beginning in the early 1800s.     

Corporate lobbying: Role perceptions and perceived influence on political decisions of public affairs professionals

This study aims to provide insight into public affairs professionals’ role conceptions and perceived influence on political decision making. We conducted a quantitative online survey with 238 corporate public affairs professionals in Germany who worked either “in-house” at a corporation, for an industry association, or in a public affairs consultancy firm. Based on their main stakeholder orientation (clients, political actors, or society) and primary objectives (mediator, expert, or advocate), a cluster analysis categorized the professionals into four main roles: persuaders, advisors, coordinators, and mediators. Although acting in line with ethical norms and being transparent about their practices were deemed important for all roles, there were differences regarding the balancing of positions and loyalty toward the client. Finally, a regression analysis showed that financial resources, information sovereignty, and ethical considerations were the strongest predictors of public affairs professionals’ perceived influence on political decisions. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed.     

Public relations in Ghana: Work-related cultural values and public relations models

This study explores cultural influences on public relations practices in Ghana. This survey research brief reports data collected from Ghanaian public relations practitioners (n = 64) and describes work-related cultural values as well as the practices of public relations models in Ghana. The result reveals that Ghanaian public professionals tend to utilize international public relations and two-way communication models. The study extends knowledge of international public relations in African cultures.     

Public relations and health diplomacy

Authors have noted the convergence of public relations and public diplomacy, yet public relations scholars have ignored an important aspect of public diplomacy–health diplomacy. Health diplomacy involves activities that improve global health while strengthening relationships between the United States and peoples abroad. This article encourages greater public relations involvement in health diplomacy.     

A use of second-order co-orientation model in international public relations

This paper is an extension of a line of research that questions the possibility of applying the co-orientation theory in researching the communication behavior between “general” publics of nations. Here we included three nations, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia and questioned publics’ opinions on investment policies between mentioned nations. We extended the notion of co-orientation in international relations to include not only evaluations of two countries’ attitudes towards a third country, but also evaluations of opinions the two countries have between themselves (and to which the first is only an observer). We called it the second-order co-orientation. So far accuracy has been seen as the right objective for public relations using co-orientation. Our results question centrality of accuracy as the key performance indicator of effectiveness of public relations programs in the context of co-orientation model.     

Public relations supervisors and Millennial entry-level practitioners rate entry-level job skills and professional characteristics

An online survey was administered to 109 Millennial entry-level public relations employees and 56 supervisors regarding entry-level job skills and professional characteristics. The Millennial entry-level workers rated their job performance in the above average and average ranges. The supervisors rated six of the eight job skills and all 16 professional characteristics as significantly poorer than the Millennials rated themselves. The job skills of computer and social media skills were the only two items that did not generate a significant difference. The researcher outlines ways in which faculty, students, employers, and Millennial-aged employees can build learning communities that will help undergraduate students and Millennial workers develop proficient job performance and keep faculty up-to-date regarding current industry trends.     

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.     

Public relations and tourism: Fighting for the role of public relations in tourism

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of public relations work in the tourism industry and to defend its role for its practical application. The study is empirically based and adopts a case-study approach through qualitative methods. It reveals the development of public relations activities and the great need that exists for public relations theoretical framework within the tourism industry.     

Public relations and community: A persistent covenant

In the 21st Century global public relations professional community, the need for a postmodern reformation is compellingly evident. Most theorizing begins with basic assumptions about the three main social actors for which public relations has been practiced: (1) corporations, (2) nongovernmental and civil society organizations (NGOs and CSOs), and (3) governments. Questions about society itself are rarely examined, but when they do come up, scholars and practitioners tend to assume generally accepted values and mores. Neglected has been a robust criticism of the concepts upon which such paradigms have been built.     

Smart friendly liars: Public perception of public relations practitioners over time

Two national surveys of the U.S. public in 2003 and 2012 asked participants to list words describing public relations practitioners. Analyses reveal that the majority of the words related to practitioner personality and intellectual traits were positive, while the ethical terms used to portray practitioners remained predominately negative over the last decade.     

Myth of symmetry: Public relations as cultural styles

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Public relations in the United Arab Emirates: The emergence of a profession

This paper discusses the development of public relations in a fast growing emerging country, United Arab Emirates. The making of the public relations profession in UAE has been affected tremendously by the socio-economic, educational and cultural development of the country. Ministries and government administrations established their in-house public relations departments and sections to respond to the growing demands of their various publics. Journalism and Mass Communication departments launched PR programs to meet the growing needs of the job market with qualified practitioners. International public relations agencies chose Dubai as a base for their activities in the UAE and the region. The future of public relations in the UAE is very promising. Although it is facing some problems, public relations is the job of the future.     

Improving government communication and empowering rural communities: Combining public relations and development communication approaches

This article proposes combining public relations and development communication insights so that organizations, particularly in the public sector, can engage and empower rural communities to adopt and exploit infrastructure developments for mutual benefit. Applying appreciative inquiry to explore the communication process involved in the development of micro-hydro power plants in Kulon Progo Regency, Indonesia, this article offers a view from those who are regarded as the target of communication, as the opposed to those take an organizational standpoint. The study proposes a new development project communication model which seeks to initiate, secure and sustain positive community outcomes and meet the project initiators’ requirements. This is achieved through collaboration and the gradual relinquishment of power and decision-making from the latter to the former. The model emphasizes the importance of the processes of communication as well as outcomes, and considers rural communities as having agency, rather than as objects of or for development. By embracing community assets such as local knowledge and contextual wisdom and the characteristics of collective communities in non-Western countries such as togetherness, reciprocity, a strong sense of shared destiny, locality, and fraternity, the model offers a community centric approach which encourages progressive community empowerment and ownership. The evidence points to the impacts for both communities and governments being more beneficial and sustainable than current communication practices.     

Public relations,indigeneity and colonization: Indigenous resistance as dialogic anchor

Cultural communication has been put forth in the context of globalization and the emergence of Indigenous movements as a framework for dialogue to be carried out by organizations (Love & Tilley, 2014). Concepts of Māori communication for instance have been foregrounded in the public relations literature to anchor strategies of effective engagement through dialogue, leading to the building of trust in Indigenous communities (Love & Tilley, 2014). Similarly, Indigenous engagement has been foregrounded as a key resource in achieving global sustainable development (Dutta, 2013, 2019). This turn to Indigenous cultural communication is broadly situated in the framing of indigeneity as a category to be developed within frameworks of dialogue and engagement, constituted within the structures of transnational capitalism (Dutta, 2019).Drawing from Dutta’s (2008) theorizing of the cultural sensitivity and culture-centered approaches to communication, we critically interrogate the hegemony of Indigenous dialogue as a strategy deployed by dominant organizations. Whereas cultural sensitivity incorporates cultural characteristics to serve organizational goals, cultural-centering serves as an anchor for collaborating with cultural communities at the margins in building “communicative infrastructures” for voice. Arguing that superficial markers of culture incorporated into engagement is a communicative inversion that serves the colonizing tools of transnational capital, we attend to culturally centered communication strategies of engagement that are grounded in resistance and emerge from within the voices of Indigenous movements that are increasingly threatened by ever-expanding colonial missions of globalization.Comparing across two case studies, one about the struggle of the Dongria Kondh in the Odisha state of Eastern India against mining capitalism, and the other a critical review of the use of Māori cultural knowledge in the public relations literature, we articulate indigeneity as a site of resistance within the meta-theoretical framework of the culture-centered approach (Dutta, 2008, 2011). In conceptualizing Indigenous resistance as an agonistic anchor to communication, we attend to the impossibilities of dialogue, and simultaneously to the role of communicative infrastructures in inverting neoliberal hegemony. Dialogue is radically transformed, not in generating consensus but rather in its capacity to disrupt the neoliberal status quo through the presence of Indigenous voices. Indigenous resistance “renders impure” the ontological category of dialogue, on one hand, attending to the limits of dialogue, and on the other hand, turns dialogic tools into the hands of Indigenous social movements. Dialogue as a communication infrastructure located materially within Indigenous resistance movements turns the power of communication into the hands of Indigenous communities.     

Government public relations during Herbert Hoover's presidency

While historians generally credit President Franklin Roosevelt with the establishment of robust public information activities in the federal government, this case study reviews those activities during the administration of Roosevelt's predecessor, Herbert Hoover. During Hoover's term, agency PR was conducted extensively and openly enough to trigger media and partisan attacks. This suggests that public relations emerged gradually in federal departments and agencies during the 20th century, well before FDR's inauguration in 1933, and was already a natural element of the emerging profession of public administration.     

Public relations in Kenya: An exploration of models and cultural influences

This pioneer study explores the public relations models that inform the practice of public relations in Kenya, and the cultural values that influence this practice. Results show the personal influence model as the most used by practitioners in Kenya, while individualism is the most experienced cultural value. The strong correlation between personal influence model and Hofstede's cultural value of femininity points to the practitioners’ strong desire for good interpersonal relationships with colleagues, supervisors, clients and key publics.     

Renegotiating the terms of engagement: Public relations,marketing, and contemporary challenges

Territorial disputes between public relations and marketing are nothing new. At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Hutton (2010) refocused them as a matter of survival in the face of marketing attempts “to include or subsume much or all of public relations” (p. 509). In addition to aligning with his call to resist marketing imperialism, this article seeks to renegotiate traditional turf wars between the two fields through a review of recent significant marketing books. Advocating a complexity-based perspective, it argues that evolving disciplines, like evolving species, need to respond not only to each other but also to the wider environment and that requires cooperation as well as competition. It also draws on complexity thinking as a resource for improving disciplinary intersections and for adapting to the uncertain and turbulent conditions of the present.     

Public relations and business responses to the civil rights movement

During the 1950s and 1960s, U.S. civil rights protesters targeted businesses with demands for service, jobs, and equality. Employing historical method, this study considers the role of public relations by examining magazine, newspaper, and public relations trade press coverage of business responses to the civil rights movement. The analysis shows that, although all five motivations for the adoption of the formal public relations function—profit, legitimacy, recruitment, agitation, and advocacy—were present, business was slow to respond; that riots and concerns about corporate image drove business to take a public stand; and that professional public relations participation appeared to be minimal even as it was cited in press stories as a reason for the failure of many business initiatives. In addition, the analysis demonstrates the existence of a sixth motivation: fear.     

Public relations and sport in promotional culture

This paper argues that by examining a central feature of contemporary culture, new insights about public relations practice can be gained. Concepts of spectacle, ‘mega-events’, media events, celebrity, politics and lifestyle are highlighted. The paper blends various disciplinary sources and themes and links to the work of Curtin and Gaither, Hodges and Pieczka [Curtin, P.A. & Gaither, T.K. (2005) ’Privileging identity, difference and power: the circuit of culture as a basis for public relations theory’, Public relations review 17 (2), 91-115; Hodges, C. (2006). Relaciones humanas: The potential for public relations practitioners as cultural intermediaries in Mexico City. Unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Bournemouth; Pieczka, M. (2006). Promotional work: The case of PR consultancy in the UK 1995–2000. Unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Stirling] all of whom have explored Bourdieu's concept of ‘cultural intermediary’ in relation to the role of public relations.