Lee Edwards - Understanding Public Relations

Lee Edwards 2018

First published 2018

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017955724

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

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

ISBN 978-1-4739-1309-7

ISBN 978-1-4739-1310-3 (pbk)

Editor: Michael Ainsley

Assistant editor: John Nightingale

Production editor: Imogen Roome

Marketing manager: Lucia Sweet

Cover design: Jen Crisp

Typeset by: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India

Printed in the UK

In the course of the past century, public relations has become a normal part of the promotional environment that surrounds us on a day-to-day basis. It has been integrated into the activities of all kinds of organisations; taken up by individuals to promote narratives of themselves and the world they know through online and digital media; used by high-profile celebrities to manage their public profile; and deployed by governments and terrorist organisations alike to manage public opinion and build alliances. In contrast to the hidden persuaders of the past, public relations work is often very visible: new technologies mean that campaigns make use of private as well as public spaces, engage us in conversation, promote relationships with organisations and co-opt our loyalty to maximise their persuasive power. The ubiquity of public relations means that it now has an inescapable influence on us, as part of the resources we draw on both individually and collectively, when we navigate our way through life.

In this book, I argue that understanding the importance and influence of public relations in the contemporary world is best achieved by examining its effects on society and culture. I consciously depart from the functional approach to studying public relations, which tends to focus on its role within organisations. Very little of that approach is reflected in the following pages. Instead, the discussions in each chapter have their roots in the edited collection Public Relations, Society and Culture (Edwards and Hodges, 2011), in which we argued that the body of work adopting a socio-cultural approach in public relations was both burgeoning and important. Then, as now, the point was made that organisational analyses of public relations are essential to understanding what practitioners do, how their work fits within organisational structures and how they contribute to organisational survival. However, organisations are not the only places where public relations techniques have been used, nor do organisational boundaries constitute the limits of public relations effects. While contemporary forms of public relations have developed in the context of modernity, the growth of capitalism, the spread of democracy, globalisation and networked societies, they have their roots in a much longer and more variable history of persuasive communication. Institutions and individuals, from churches, emperors and kings to scientists, politicians, army generals, merchants and slaves, have long used public relations-style tactics, even if they were not formally labelled as such. These histories of public relations remind us that it can take many forms and is used for a wide range of purposes, by formally and informally constituted groups as well as individuals. It may be institutionalised and formalised in modern organisations, but its tools and techniques are much more widespread (LEtang and Pieczka, 1996).

Given the scale and reach of public relations work, there remains a need for more comprehensive analyses of the occupation as a social and cultural practice in its own right. This is not to say that organisations are unimportant. On the contrary, organisations of all kinds play an enormously significant role as an institutional force that influences our lives. Yet, studies of public relations focused on its role within organisations do not generally acknowledge this dimension of their existence. Instead, they tend to examine organisations in isolation from their social, cultural and political contexts, and organisational objectives as unproblematic ends. Public relations is understood as a tool to support organisational survival and the environment is a factor that must be managed along the way.