African-American students’ perceptions of public relations education and practice: Implications for minority recruitment

In-depth interviews were conducted with African-American public relations students to explore their perceptions of public relations and the role race may play in their career success. The motivations for pursuing public relations and perceptions of the field are not different than those of other groups of students found in previous studies. However, the findings provide insights that are helpful in recruiting African-American students, and also in retaining them in the major. Central themes that emerged from the data are that it is important to have African-American role models, and that students’ view race as a fact of life that can be both a barrier and an asset.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Public relations and strategic issues management challenges in Venezuela: A discourse analysis of Crystallex International Corporation in Las Cristinas

This investigation, using critical discourse analysis (CDA), seeks to develop an understanding of strategic issues management through Crystallex International Corporation’s discursive construction and management of legitimacy in the Las Cristinas mine in Venezuela. This analysis of the Las Cristinas case unearths elements that could provide useful insights about the Latin American environment in general and public relations efforts in that region specifically. Additionally, this analysis contributes to ongoing efforts of finding the most effective public relations practices for this particular part of the world, as well as help to highlight what constitutes a “fully functioning society” [Heath, R. (2006). A rhetorical theory approach to issues management. In C. Botan & V. Hazelton (Eds.), Public relations theory II (pp. 63–99). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ] in developing countries.     

Is the universe of democracy,rhetoric, and public relations whole cloth or three separate galaxies?

Discussions of democracy, rhetoric, and public relations can conclude that these aspects of society and professional practice are contradictory paradoxes or partners for achieving harmony of collective interests. To that end, this paper briefly explores the rhetorical heritage as inseparable from democracy. It next examines, through the challenges of the public arena, ways that deliberative democracy can bring the three into partnership for the greater good. On this foundation, it features four premises of public relations and democracy based on power, infrastructure, private and public sphere, collective voices, language that co-manages meaning as social construction, and stewardship. As stewards of democracy, organizations can play a pivotal role in fostering environments, the infrastructures and collaborative processes, that allow and even facilitate collective decision making as well as blend the private sphere (individualism) and the public sphere (collectivism) so that self-interest can be satisfied and enjoyed by organizations and myriad publics as collective interests. By blending individual voices into collective voices and understanding the limits and pitfalls of language as culture, public relations can actually serve private interests by the co-management of meaning to make society better.