Women’s activism as public relations in a patriarchal society: The case of Kuwait

This paper addresses an important era of women’s activism in Kuwait. In the 1950s, when the government recognized women’s rights for education, the wave to obtain other civil rights clashed with culture, tradition and religion which became serious obstacles facing women in their struggle for basic rights. This historical study focuses on the establishment of two women’s organizations -- the Arab Women’s Development Society in December 1962 and the Kuwait Women's Cultural and Social Society in February 1963. To sway the negative image of women in a patriarchal society, women used activism as a public relations tool to achieve their social, civil and political rights. The study uses cultural-economic model (CEM) to illustrate how activism and public relations were articulated as synonymous to foster women’s rights in Kuwait. Archived documents and content analysis of media content published in the 1960s reveal that activism played a vital role as a public relations strategy and that social activism was more effective than political activism. The study highlights the implications of culture within the context of both public relations and activism.     

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.     

Dutch public relations practitioners and journalists: Antagonists no more

The increasing interdependence of public relations and journalism and the demands they make on each other raise the question how they perceive and evaluate each other. How do they view their roles, methods, relationship, and quality of media reporting on organizations? How do government and business public relations differ in this respect? Our survey of a representative sample of Dutch journalists and public relations practitioners in both government and business (n = 791) showed that while there were differences of opinion between the two professions, these were neither predominantly negative nor fundamental. Our results, therefore, do not confirm the difficult relationship between the press and public relations that was identified in research carried out in the United States between 1970 and 1990. Given the Dutch tradition that the government practitioner be a neutral servant of the public interest rather than a spokesperson for the organization, the general absence of differences between government and business public relations was striking. Our findings indicate that government public relations professionals have adopted the same norms and standards as their colleagues in business organizations.     

The White House and public relations: Examining the linkages between presidential communications and public opinion

This study investigates the linkages between presidential public relations activities—speeches and press conferences—and public opinion towards the presidency from 1961 to 1997. The results show that there is a positive linkage between presidential news conferences and foreign policy job approval, and between presidential speeches and general as well as foreign policy job approval. Overall, the findings reveal stronger linkages between presidential news conferences and job approval than between presidential speeches and job approval, but also that the topic of the information subsidies and the specific type of job approval matters.     

Operation Iraqi Freedom: Mediated Public Sphere as a Public Relations Tool

The ideal of a free press informs theoretical and pragmatic constructions of media, civil society, and the public sphere in U.S. development efforts. The role of the free press in fostering civil society is held as an ideal for judging the rest of the world and for the justification of U.S. interventions elsewhere in the world sponsored by organizations such as United States Agency for International Development. Using a grounded theory analysis of the coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom, this article demonstrates the frames that were presented in U.S. war coverage as justifications of the war. The grounded theory analysis is followed up by a content analysis to document the frequencies of occurrence of the frames. The frames suggest that media organizations worked more as the public relations agents of the U.S. government and actively engaged in demonization of the enemy to justify U.S. foreign policy during the early days of the war. Drawing on a postcolonial perspective, this article argues that the lapses in rationality reflected in the frames of war coverage pose critical questions for further interrogation about the nature of the media in Western civil societies.     

Gender and the Civil Rights Movement

This study outlines how gender relations and gender differences come into play in the civil rights movement – the national movement to transform American race relations in the 1950s and 1960s. Social movement scholarship on the civil rights movement emphasizes dramatic mass mobilizations and charismatic leadership, both distinctively masculine enterprises. This emphasis overlooks the subtle and underappreciated dynamics of gender in shaping cultures of protest and resistance. Consideration of gender and gender roles in the private and public spheres provides a more nuanced understanding of protest strategies and the formulation of resistance in direct action. Gendered patterns related to movement participation, mobilization, leadership, strategies and ideologies also bring into focus how local issues shaped regional variations in civil rights initiatives. Finally, gender symbolism and culture deepen our understanding of non‐violent direct action as a moral, emancipatory performance, serving to blur the physical boundaries enacted by civil restraint.     

Understanding Ivy Lee's declaration of principles: U.S. newspaper and magazine coverage of publicity and press agentry, 1865–1904

Ivy Lee's 1905 “Declaration of Principles” has been called the “starting point of modern public relations,” but what did it mean in the context of his time? Analysis of press discussion finds that, while press agentry was connected to the circus and theater, “corporate publicity” was linked to Theodore Roosevelt's call for the release of financial information in the public interest. The paper confirms that scholars do not have a clear understanding of public relations history and identifies areas for further research.     

Challenges in framing women's rights as human rights at the domestic level: A case study of NGOs in the post-Soviet countries

This case study examines framing as an essential communication strategy used by women's rights NGOs at international and domestic levels. The article uses a theoretical framework of transnational advocacy networks, originally developed by political scientists Keck and Sikkink (1998), to demonstrate the importance of public relations’ efforts in political communication campaigns of women's rights NGOs around the world. Supported by the United Nations, these NGOs play an important role in democracy building and contribute to women's empowerment efforts. However, an examination of communication strategies used by these NGOs to help implement the Platform for Action—the UN-promoted agenda for women's empowerment—showed that the existing frame of women's rights as human rights may not be successful in all contexts. This study argues that at the domestic level the issue of women's rights needs to be presented in greater detail than the current human rights frame allows it to be.     

The Work of the Russian Liberation Committee in London, 1919–1924

Abstract

The Russian Liberation Committee was one of the most active of the Russian émigré organizations operating in London in the period following the Russian Revolution. It acted as a clearing house for news on the Russian civil war, receiving telegrams from each of the fronts and distributing them to the British press. It also produced a variety of publications of its own, for distribution to the public, government officials and to soldiers in Russia. In this article, the Committee's work and publications are examined for the light they shed on anti-Bolshevik propaganda in Britain, and on the sources of information on the civil war available to the British press. While the Committee's efforts could not alter the pragmatic policy of the British government or the already anti-Bolshevik attitude of the British press, their presence made an important difference to the amount and kind of information that was available in Britain during the course of the Russian civil war.     

Protocol journalism as a framework for understanding public relations–media relationships in Kosovo

There is growing interest about the ways in which the public relations field can contribute to democratization and civil society initiatives. Some scholars see enormous potential for public relations by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to help get important social issues on the public agenda in transitional nations while other scholars have critiqued the practice of public relations in newly formed nations as a form of hegemony that privileges Western ideas, values, and standards of practice. One thing is certain: more scholarly attention is required if the field of public relations is to truly understand its evolving role in civil society. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the public relations–media relationship contributes to civil society development in Kosovo. The researcher interviewed media professionals, public relations/organizational spokespersons, and civil society experts about the opportunities and challenges of the public relations function in building civil society in Kosovo. The findings suggest that “protocol journalism” is the guiding metaphor for explaining and critiquing the public relations–media relationship in Kosovo. The implications of protocol journalism for media development and public relations credibility are discussed.     

The role of leadership in shared value creation from the public’s perspective: A multi-continental study

Porter and Kramer’s concept of creating shared value (CSV) has been welcomed as an approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) among corporations that also provides a practical opportunity for dialogue in public relations, but it has been little examined from the general population’s (i.e., the public’s) perspective. Such scrutiny is important because its findings enable public relations to contribute to the debate and development of CSV from both the public’s and the organization’s viewpoints. Additionally, if public relations professionals understand how the public perceives CSV, they can give a strategic perspective to top management for maximizing moral capabilities of the business and formulate effective communication to promote CSV initiatives. This study investigates whether the public prefers corporations to practice CSV as opposed to intrinsic CSR as a separate pursuit from business interests. It also explores the role of leadership as an influential and ethical construct in implementing effective CSV as perceived by the public. The public’s preference for CSV over intrinsic CSR was revealed in a survey of 1784 participants in the United States (US), Germany, and China. Factor analysis results further suggested that effective CSV competencies of CEOs were construed as a unidimensional concept in the US, but German and Chinese participants viewed it as two-dimensional. The public perceived that leaders’ moral character played a more important, core role in effective CSV than did altruistic and behavioral attributes, across nations. Network analysis of the perceived effective CSV-characteristics provides further implications for CSV communication.     

Public relations in public administration: a disappearing act in public administration education

How is public relations viewed when it is considered a sub-field of another discipline? In the profession of public administration, from its first textbook in 1924 through the end of the 1950's, public administration training—as mirrored in the most widely cited texts of the era—included teaching about the uses, importance and benefits of public relations to the public administrator-in-training. However, as measured by the most widely cited textbooks of the 1980's and 1990's, the subject of communications in general, and public relations in particular, largely disappeared from the agenda of public administration education.This article documents the rise and fall of public relations in public administration education, notes some early signs of renewed attention and suggests re-establishing public relations as a valuable part of contemporary public administration education.     

The civility of social capital: Public relations in the public sphere,civil society,and democracy

Scholars have analyzed public relations’ role in democracy via proxy concepts like the public sphere and civil society. However, some have critiqued the public sphere on grounds of equal access and portrayed civil society as a guise for first-world imperialism. These critiques have implications for the role of public relations in the public sphere and civil society. This article suggests the normative role of public relations in democracy is best perceived as creating the social capital that facilitates access to spheres of public discussion and in maintaining relationships among those organizations that check state power. To that end, the paper argues that social capital does much to advance public relations theory and prescribe the role of public relations in democracy. Several implications for public relations from a social capital perspective are offered, including the creation of generalized societal trust, the building of cross-cutting or “weak” ties, the engagement of media on behalf of subaltern counterpublics, and the (re)creation of community or a fully functioning society.     

Niklas Luhmann: Contingency,risk, trust and reflection

The hurdle of Niklas Luhmann's extensive theories is their complexity and level of abstraction. These qualities are, however, exactly what constitute their empirical sensitivity to the interrelation between organization and society in today's hyper-complex society. Luhmann never theorized on public relations; yet his theories enable identification of frames for understanding public relations in interrelation to society's overall coordination processes. Contemporary society apparently tries to solve problems activated by the blind reflexivity of modernization by activating reflective forms of coordination. Correspondingly, practice ideals of public relations can be reconstructed as reflection—the specific worldview which facilitates self-insight in relation to the social context.     

Fostering social capital in an international multi-stakeholder issue network

Scholars have theorized that public relations contributes to societies and communities by bringing attention to pressing public issues and fostering social capital in civil society networks. However, the extant research has studied civil society networks of NGOs, donors, and the media in transitional countries. This study extends the public relations model of civil society in two ways. First, it broadens the scope to an international context. Second, it draws from the multi-stakeholder issue network perspective to conceptualize a civil society network as a space where stakeholders of an issue mix their interests as they collectively address a pressing public issue. The literature on international and multi-stakeholder networks suggest that the international scope and the mixing of interests across sectors may restrict the production of social capital. The results from the social network analysis suggests that the mixing of interests across sectoral and geopolitical boundaries did not restrict the production of social capital. Rather, the patterns of the relationships among those on the core and those on the periphery of the network restricted the production of social capital. Such finding demonstrates how public relations’ functions like relationship building can have profound influences on social capital and civil society networks. The implications for public relations theorizing and research are discussed.     

The portrayal of public relations in the era of Ivy Lee through the lens of the New York Times

Public relations has and, it appears, always has had an image problem. From public relations’ protohistory, through the rise of the publicist and press agent, the history of the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners remained rocky. Using the New York Times as a lens, this study seeks to examine, through a qualitative framing analysis (N = 106), how public relations was perceived and discussed by one of its most important audiences, the journalist, during the early years of the twentieth century. The study found that while the tasks and media used in the practice of public relations as framed by the Times may be accurate, the cultural context of the early 20th century called the very “doing” of public relations into question.     

Different Game,Different Frame?: Black Counterdiscourses and Depictions of Immigration in Atlanta's African‐American and Mainstream Press

This article compares the discourse on immigration found in Atlanta's African‐American press (Atlanta Daily World) to that found in Atlanta's mainstream press (Atlanta Journal‐Constitution). The Daily World's black counterdiscourse situates immigration within a racial frame, discussing Latinos and immigrants interchangeably and casting African Americans as deserving yet excluded citizens. Immigrants appear in the Daily World as either allies in the struggle for civil rights or as competitors for jobs. Although the Daily World crime frames focus on concerns about racial profiling, the Journal‐Constitution often depicts immigrants as criminals or discusses immigration in terms of legal status and policy.     

Another dimension to explicating relationships: measuring inter-organizational linkages

This paper introduces network analysis as a way to theorize about another dimension of relationships: inter-organizational relationships. Through a case study of inter-organizational relationships in the civil society movement in Croatia, this paper outlines the various ways public relations serves a relationship building function. Through the use of network analysis, we propose a model of how organizations should work together to successfully achieve their common goal to build and maintain civil society. The model proposes a public relations approach to understanding inter-organizational relationships in civil society.     

Democratic Governance and Actors’ Conceptualization of “Civil Society” in Africa: State–Civil Society Relations in Ghana from 1982–2000

Despite civil society’s ambiguity, many scholars tend to focus on the economic reasons for the apparent conflict between state and civil society, with little or no attention to the conceptual differences that may be influencing the behavior of public and civil society actors. Using Ghana under J. J. Rawlings as a backdrop, this article argues that state–civil society relations are partly shaped by the divergent conceptualizations of “civil society” held by state and civil society actors. It suggests that the issue is not just the African state’s limited understanding of the multiple roles that civil society organizations can legitimately play in the polity; it is also civil society’s lack of recognition and acknowledgment of the legitimate functions of the African state.