Public interest communication

Abstract

This chapter begins by examining the concept of public interest and considers its role in contemporary public discourse. As such, public interest is conveyed through communication, which allows ideas relating to interests to circulate and to be challenged and argued in seeking answers and resolution. Communication in the public interest (or public interest communication [PIC]) opens up mechanisms for public debate, as inquiry driven, acted out in discourse arenas which unfold around problematic or contested situations. These arenas take form in public meetings, media, or via deliberative action such as rallies and protests, each providing opportunities for public problems to be aired and for publics to work individually or collectively to argue interests and ideas. The chapter develops and explores the concept of “public interest communication in action”, using a gay rights festival to illustrate how public interest parallels social change. In using a pragmatic theory lens, it draws on scholarship from Dewey, Peters, Flathman, Habermas and others to identify how PIC may be used to develop workable solutions for public problems with a particular focus on its application to civil society and the nonprofit sector.