Ana Adi (editor) - Protest Public Relations: Communicating dissent and activism

Global movements and protests from the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement have been attributed to growing access to social media, while without it, local causes like #bringbackourgirls and the ice bucket challenge may have otherwise remained unheard and unseen.

Regardless of their nature advocacy, activism, protest or dissent and beyond the technological ability of digital and social media to connect support, these major events have all been the results of excellent communication and public relations. But PR remains seen only as the defender of corporate and capitalist interests, and therefore resistant to outside voices such as activists, NGOs, union members, protesters and whistle-blowers.

Drawing on contributions from around the world to examine the concepts and practice of activist, protest and dissent public relations, this book challenges this view. Using a range of international examples, it explores the changing nature of protest and its relationship with PR and provides a radical analysis of the communication strategies and tactics of social movements and activist groups and their campaigns. This thought-provoking collection will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of public relations, strategic communication, political science, politics, journalism, marketing, and advertising, and also to PR professionals in think tanks and NGOs.

Ana Adi is a Professor of Public Relations/Corporate Communications at Quadriga University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. When not analysing public relations from a critical perspective, Dr Adis research, teaching and consultancy focuses on the strategic uses of digital and social media in a variety of communication fields. You can find more about her work on www.anaadi.net.

Routledge New Directions in Public Relations and Communication Research

Edited by Kevin Moloney

Current academic thinking about public relations (PR) and related communication is a lively, expanding marketplace of ideas and many scholars believe that its time for its radical approach to be deepened. Routledge New Directions in PR & Communication Research is the forum of choice for this new thinking. Its key strength is its remit, publishing critical and challenging responses to continuities and fractures in contemporary PR thinking and practice, tracking its spread into new geographies and political economies. It questions its contested role in market-orientated, capitalist, liberal democracies around the world, and examines its invasion of all media spaces, old, new, and as yet unenvisaged. We actively invite new contributions and offer academics a welcoming place for the publication of their analyses of a universal, persuasive mind-set that lives comfortably in old and new media around the world.

Books in this series will be of interest to academics and researchers involved in these expanding fields of study, as well as students undertaking advanced studies in this area.

Corporate Social Responsibility, Public Relations & Community Development

Emerging Perspectives from Southeast Asia

Marianne D. Sison and Zeny Sarabia-Panol

Social Media, Organizational Identity and Public Relations

The Challenge of Authenticity

Amy Thurlow

Protest Public Relations

Communicating Dissent and Activism

Edited by Ana Adi

For more information about the series, please visit www.routledge.com/Routledge-New-Directions-in-Public-RelationsCommunication-Research/book-series/RNDPRCR

Communicating Dissent and Activism

Edited by Ana Adi

First published 2019

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2019 selection and editorial matter, Ana Adi; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Ana Adi to be identified as the author of the editorial matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record has been requested for this book

ISBN: 978-0-8153-8699-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-351-17360-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon

by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear

Ana Adi (PhD, @ana_adi on Twitter; www.anaadi.net) is a Professor of Public Relations and Corporate Communications at Quadriga University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Chair of the Digital Communication Awards, and part of the core research team of the Asia-Pacific Communication Monitor. She is also part of the organizing committee of MediAsia. Prior to editing Protest Public Relations: Communicating dissent and activism (Taylor & Francis), Dr Adi co-edited #rezist Romanias 2017 anti-corruption protests: causes, development and implications (www.romanianprotests.info with Darren G. Lilleker) and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Age (2015, Emerald with Georgiana G. Grigore and Alin Stancu). Originally from Romania, Dr Adi obtained her PhD from the University of the West of Scotland. Her research, teaching and consultancy focus on issues related to digital communication, CSR and PR, looking in particular at storytelling and measurement.

Kara Andrade is a PhD candidate at American Universitys School of Communication. She is a researcher, journalist and entrepreneur who focuses on Latin America, media, technology and society. She is also the Innovation Specialist for Counterpart Internationals Innovation for Change Initiative, which supports and starts-up regional innovation hubs in six regions: Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, Africa, South Asia, Central Asia, and East Asia and Pacific. During her work as an Ashoka fellow and co-founder of HablaCentro Informatics NFP and LLC, she created a network of citizen journalism and information sharing hubs in Latin America that shared reliable and timely updates from the ground during crisis. Both her work through her social venture and at Counterpart focuses on the adoption and implementation of innovations to solve common democracy problems.

Nguyen Hoang Anh is currently in charge of communication and public relations, and branding at the Center for Communication and Public Relations at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, one of the leading technical universities in Vietnam. She is also a PhD candidate, visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, which is a member of Vietnam National University in Hanoi. She has eight years of experience in research and professional practice in the field of Journalism and Public Relations. In 2010, she graduated with a bachelors degree in journalism after four years of study at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, followed by a masters degree at the same institution per her excellent academic results. In 2011, she was the reporter as well as correspondent editor of channel VTC 14, which is a digital TV specialized in environmental problems in Vietnam. In 2012, she was among the first people who professionally in charge in branding for Hanoi University of Science and Technology. In 2013, she received a masters degree in Journalism from Hanoi University of Science and Technology, her research topic was entitled Communication campaign on food hygiene and safety in the national target program. The article on this topic was later published in Vietnams