Journal of Public Relations Research

Miller, Karen S.

1999 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1207/s1532754xjprr1101_01

Poor Dave Randall. "He had ended up in what he privately considered a dump heap—public relations. Basically, Randall did not believe in public relations, although he tried hard to do so. There really was no need for it. ... " Such is the life of an information manager for a fictitious company portrayed in The Empire (p. 19). written in 1956. In a novel written 35 years later, former reporter Joe Winder also discovers what it is like to work in public relations (PR). Winder's job at a Florida amusement park could not match his old career in significance or purpose; rather, it "took absolutely nothing out of him, except his pride" (p. 28). Even the woman who spends steamy summer afternoons in a Robbie the Raccoon suit recognizes Joe's sorry situation. "My job's crummy," she tells him, "but you know what? I think your job is worse" (Native Tongue, p. 30).

Pasadeos, Yorgo; Renfro, R. Bruce; Hanily, Mary Lynn

1999 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1207/s1532754xjprr1101_02

A bibliometric study of the public relations scholarly literature revealed the most cited authors and most cited published works for 1990-1995. Unlike other disciplines, public relations is typified by a concentration of scholars, institutions, and topics. J. E. Grunig is by far the most cited scholar, J. E. Grunig and Hunt (1984) is the most cited work, and public relations roles is the most co-cited category of works. Findings indicate that public relations is a young, but growing, social science discipline that might benefit from a certain amount of paradigmatic or topical diversity in the future.

Curtin, Patricia A.

1999 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1207/s1532754xjprr1101_03

Public relations practitioners provide information subsidies to the media on behalf of their clients to influence the media agenda and potentially affect public opinion. McManus (1994) stated that news media are using more public relations information subsidies to contain costs and increase profits. Through in-depth interviews and a nationwide survey, this study of editors' perceptions of the phenomenon suggests that increasing economic constraints have led to an increased use of public relations materials only in specific instances that often do not support the agenda-building goals of the sponsoring organizations.

Berkowitz, Dan; Hristodoulakis, Ilias

1999 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1207/s1532754xjprr1101_04

This study builds on the body of literature about public relations practitioner roles by examining the relationship of workplace socialization and formal public relations education to idealized practitioner roles. Data come from an exploratory survey of public relations students and practitioners. As in several previous studies, two main practitioner roles were identified, corresponding to the communication manager and communication technician roles. Formal public relations education was associated with the manager role type, but professional socialization in the workplace was not.