Public Relations, Political Communication and Agenda Setting

Abstract

The salient political events of 2016 – the outcome of the British EU referendum (“Brexit”), and the election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States of America – are both historical and historic events, and yet they also remain current affairs topics. The public, the media, and academics continue to analyse and reflect on the drivers and implications of a populist uprising that was largely unexpected in its consequences. This chapter looks at the “rise of the micro-propaganda machine,” the global information disorder, and the role of public relations, first in historical perspective, then as a transformational shift in the relationship between politics, the media, and the public in modern Western societies. Public relations will address the challenges locally and globally as it evolves toward an integrated, interdisciplinary human science, linking the micro (behavioral) and the macro (social) perspectives of strategic communication.