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Dozier, David M.; Lauzen, Martha M.
2000 Journal of Public Relations Research
doi: 10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1201_2
Unlike practitioners, public relations scholars must consider unintended consequences of public relations practices at the societal and individual levels. By extending the domain in this way, logical paradoxes involving activism and nomothetic models of public relations may be resolved through the introduction of critical theory. Use of critical theory illuminates the role of invisible clients in setting the public relations research agenda and in truncating our intellectual vision. Critical theory suggests ways to study activism from a new perspective that would enhance practices and further the evolution of the intellectual domain.
2000 Journal of Public Relations Research
doi: 10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1201_3
Public relations must achieve professional status before its social role will be broadly accepted as valuable to society and organizational clients will accept readily the advice of public relations counselors. Professions are based on core values and a body of knowledge that provides expertise on how to implement those values. Professionalism empowers public relations managers to negotiate with clients to change organizational behavior-helping organizations to rise above the "wrangle in the marketplace" to consider the interests of publics as well as their own interests. The core value of public relations is the value of collaboration, which also can be found in the concepts of societal corporatism, collectivism, and communal relationships. Activist groups benefit from professional public relations counsel just as much as other organizations, and the same generic principles of public relations apply to activist communication. Activist groups must use specific applications of these principles, however, when they need to overcome a lack of power.
Grunig, Larissa A.; Toth, Elizabeth L.; Hon, Linda Childers
2000 Journal of Public Relations Research
doi: 10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1201_4
This article explores the parallels between feminist values and the effective, ethical practice of public relations. It begins by establishing a link between feminine gender and feminist values, which include cooperation, respect, caring, nurturance, interconnection, justice, equity, honesty, sensitivity, perceptiveness, intuition, altruism, fairness, morality, and commitment. The article provides conceptual definitions for such central terms as gender, sex and sex roles, femininity and masculinity, feminists and feminism, and women. Throughout, the values associated with the feminine gender are juxtaposed with the norms of public relations practice. The goal is to help establish the field as a vital and ethical organizational function. The article concludes with the suggestion that teaching values is a critical precursor to teaching ethics along the way to incorporating feminist values into professional practice.
2000 Journal of Public Relations Research
doi: 10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1201_5
A rhetorical perspective on public relations draws on the rich rhetorical heritage of Western civilization that originated with the writings of ancient Greeks and Romans. This heritage offers rationale for the ethical practice of public relations. It explains how public relations participates in the creation and implementation of value perspectives that shape society. It supports the practice of public relations in the marketplace and public policy arena, where values are brought to bear on economic and sociopolitical matters. The rhetorical heritage of public relations features the role of public discourse through which ideas are contested, issues are examined, and decisions are made collaboratively. In this way, concurrence is achieved to guide personal and societal decisions.
2000 Journal of Public Relations Research
doi: 10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1201_6
A postmodern analysis of public relations offers a new critical approach to public relations theory and practice and suggests that public relations should be freed from its narrow definition as organizational communication management. Public relations can contribute to grassroots democracy through activism and radical politics. Postmodern public relations practitioners will be activists within organizations. Postmodernism further proposes that dissensus and dissymmetry offer more appropriate approaches to current public relations practices than seeking consensus and symmetry. Multidimensional research approaches will contribute to the liberatory possibilities of public relations and will help create a postmodern condition in the field.
2000 Journal of Public Relations Research
doi: 10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1201_7
Each of the articles in this special issue merit attention based solely on the authors' contributions to alternative ways of doing and understanding public relations. More important, as a body of work, the authors expand on Schudson's (1997) provocative article about the role of conversation in a democratic society. In this review, I summarize the strengths of each article, discuss the focus on activist publics, highlight concepts new to the study of public relations, and suggest avenues for further thought based on the ideas presented in this issue. I conclude with the proposal that in a democratic society, public relations should facilitate making profoundly uncomfortable conversations more comfortable.
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