Modern Public Relations Research Articles

Winnebago Nation: The RV in American CultureJames B.Twitchell. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.

Winnebago Nation: The RV in American Culture James B. Twitchell. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.This book is an enjoyable yet serious exploration of the RV culture in the United States. It combines a snapshot history of the culture and industry of the recreation vehicle and its precursors (including those in Britain), insights from anthropological field studies of the life world of various categories of RV users, and the author's own experiences in traveling with his wife in their RV across parts of the country. Twitchell, a retired professor of English and advertising at the University of Florida, also looks at the reflection of the RV ways of life in American popular culture (especially popular literature, movies, advertising, and toys for children) and gives his thoughts on the future of RV communities and the possibility of mobile cities in American society.Twitchell outlines the English origins of camping out for fun. Wealthy Victorians turned the decorated into a moveable bedroom. On many country estates, spending the weekend in a gaudy gypsy wagon was considered a healthy antidote against the stresses of city life. In addition, the hunting could be made suitable for overnight camping. The author emphasizes that the further development of auto camping was hindered by narrow roads and expensive fuel. He fails to notice that with the rise of prosperity among the broader population in Western European countries in the 1960s and after, and the building of large stretches of highway across Europe, the use of campers for vacationing became popular there too. The introduction by the Germans of the Volkswagen type 2 (also called Volkswagen bus or camper) was a major driving force in all of this. But Twitchell does recognize that one of the many permutations of the original Volkswagen bus, the Westfalia, was a motor vehicle type from which the smaller (Class C) RV in America evolved.The railroads were important in opening the American West, but rail travel was uncomfortable, as Twitchell points out. Rail travel was disliked by many travelers, especially women. The hotels, owned and controlled by oligopolies, catered primarily to a new kind of traveler: the drummer, the male salesman. These men were often impolite and noisome, while the people who served these travelers-clerks, bellhops, chamber maids-were often also off-putting in the eyes of train travelers, as they expected to receive a new form of payment, the tip. In comparison, auto camping, which let you play around, was attractive, and it was female-friendly. An important aspect of this new form of travel was that many women felt safe sleeping incars.Until the mid-1930s, these RVers avant la lettre were decidedly upper class. Decisive in the further popularization of auto camping was the impact of advertising and modern public relations on the rise of American tourism. Railroads and the cities they served paid newspapers and magazine to run see See America First campaigns. Moreover, the car companies encouraged customers to use their cars to go vacationing by turning their newfangled automobiles into RVs. Here the so-called Vagabonds (Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and poet/naturalist John Burroughs) played a crucial role. They hit the road and showed these people how to do auto camping. They were even lobbying the federal government to create what would become the National Park Service so that there would be places for people to park their cars. Ironically, today much effort is dedicated to the opposite: keeping motorized rigs out of places like Yellowstone.There are various lines of influence on the current RV and the culture of RVing which are mentioned in this book. These include innovations such as, in the 1930s, the trailer that was like an airplane and the towing vehicle which was designed to fit it; in the late 1940s, cars like the Nash Rambler and the Studebaker Slumber Coupe that had the option to turn into sleepers by providing fold-down front seats; and the highly popular, multi-purpose station of the 1950s and 1960s. …

The Strange Case of the Goddess Peitho: Classical Antecedents of Public Relations’ Ambivalence Toward Persuasion

ABSTRACTPublic relations scholars continue to debate “whether persuasion is a legitimate public relations function” (Edgett, 2002, p. 1). Their ambivalence toward persuasion has deep roots in the tangled lineage of Peitho, the Greek goddess of persuasion. The purpose of this article is to chart the goddess Peitho's contradictory history in classical Greek literature and art; and to study how the Greeks resolved that ambiguity. Ultimately, the Greeks determined that Peitho, at her best, was honest, respectful of others, and mindful of community wellbeing. The Greeks’ resolution of Peitho's nature ideally holds lessons for the troubled status of persuasion within modern public relations.

Bismarck, propaganda and public relations

Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898), the “Iron Chancellor” and master-statesman of Victorian Europe, has been viewed as one who took an appropriately rigid view of public communication activities and most especially media management. Does he have a partial claim to the title deeds of what later became public relations? This paper examines Bismarck's approach to managed public communication and the extent of its application as propaganda. We conclude that Bismarck's techniques are a part of the legacy of modern public relations as practiced by Governments.

The Islamic roots of modern public relations and corporate social responsibility

Public relations in Islam is conceived of as a vehicle of creating a healthy environment and atmosphere for both the individual and the organisation to set up and establish the Islamic Umma which should be characterised by harmony, mutual understanding, mutual respect and mutual interest governed by the Islamic principles and values. The final objective is to reinforce social solidarity and a strong community in terms of faith and welfare. The principle of freedom of expression in Islam, shouraa - democracy, transparency, accountability, social responsibility, reinforcing social solidarity 'takaful', fostering a sense of affiliation and loyalty to the community, sincerity and truthfulness, are key principles of human, social and institutional communication and relations in Islam and fundamentals of modern public relations. All actions undertaken by organisations toward their general publics in the community are motivated by an ultimate conviction in the betterment and empowerment of the community to help establish the perfect Umma of believers. Ethics, transparency, mutual understanding, authenticity and accountability are the pillars of Islamic conduct and communication as they are today the basics of successful corporate social responsibility, corporate communication and stakeholder governance.

Agile public relations planning: The Reflective Communication Scrum

In this paper a new, agile, method will be introduced for public relations planning. Existing planning methods all suggest that research and analysis should be the first phase, followed by strategy, smart goals and a detailed action plan, and ending with an evaluation of the results. These models provide an undesirable illusion of control. That is why this approach is no longer suitable in a digitalized society in which organizations must function in a public arena of ongoing constructions of meanings done by (self-invented) stakeholders. Consequently, the context of modern public relations is much more complex than the rusted notion of two-way communication with relevant publics implicates. That is why preference should be given to the view that communication is not so much communication between two or more actors but is a multi-way diachronic process of ongoing constructions of meanings in which one cannot foresee who is – or will be – involved, in what way, and what the results will be. To be successful, a more flexible planning method is needed in which change is a defining part during the process. Scrum is such a method. To make it applicable in public relations, this agile method, well-known in IT, needed to be expanded by supplementing theory on communication, change and reflectivity, and by enrichment of the common notion of evaluation.

The Great Sidetrack War: In Which Downtown Merchants and thePhiladelphia North AmericanDefeat the Pennsylvania Railroad, 1903–1904

On November 21, 1903, the Pennsylvania Railroad announced that its north-south through trains would no longer enter Broad Street Station in downtown Philadelphia and would stop instead at West Philadelphia. Nor would the company sell tickets from that station to downtown. These schedule changes, which seemed minor to the company and were intended to reduce congestion in the central city, threatened downtown merchants and manufacturers who worried that buyers would shift to more accessible cities. Philadelphia had been sidetracked, theNorth Americanreported. The result was an eruption of boycotts, protests, and petitions that pitted nearly every local trade association against the railroad. Encouraged by theNorth American's editorials, partisan reporting, and stinging cartoons, the protesters forced the Pennsylvania to back down, and in March 1904, through trains returned to Broad Street. The newspaper cloaked this local business dispute in the language of antimonopoly, linking the fears of small businessmen to national anti-railroad concerns. The sidetrack episode also helped launch modern corporate public relations, as the Pennsylvania—stung by this threat to corporate autonomy—soon hired Ivy Lee as its first publicity agent.

Book Review: Edelman and the Rise of Public Relations, by Franz Wisner

Franz Wisner Edelman and the Rise of Public Relations. Chicago, IL: Daniel J. Edelman, Inc., 2012. 170 pp.The simplest way to describe a program of public relations is the following. Do good. Tell other People about it. That is what Daniel J. Edelman wrote in his first sixty-page public relations (PR) plan as the PR manager for the Toni Company in 1948. And as Wisner told the fascinating story of the industry pioneer and icon whose name is synonymous with modern PR, readers will realize that, for the next sixty years, Edelman would hold firmly to that philosophy. He transformed and elevated PR practice into the digital age and led his company to be the world's largest PR agency.Wisner, a former Edelman executive who headed the firm's Sacramento office in 1994, takes an in-depth look of the sixty-year history of Edelman and leads readers into the agency founder's family life, his early upbringing, his work ethic, his creativity, and his endearing but firm characteristics as a son, husband, father, businessman, and CEO.As described in the book's flap, it:follows the fascinating tale of Dan Edelman and his unprecedented impact on 21st-century public relations, from his creation of the media tour and marketing public relations to his celebrated creative campaigns featuring such legendary figures as Colonel Sanders and Morris the Cat; and from his pioneering efforts in environmental and litigation PR to his quest to spread modern public relations around the world.After hundreds of interviews with Dan Edelman, his family, and Edelman staff, the author presented the book in thirteen chapters with the introduction by his eldest son and current president and CEO, Richard Edelman. The book started with Edelman's childhood life in New York; his dear relationship with his little sister, Harriett; his academic excellence in high school; and his early career as a reporter at a small newspaper in Poughkeepsie, New York. The next few chapters chronicle his life as a U.S. Army public information specialist during the World War II, his brief stint at MusicraftRecords after the war, and the birth of Daniel J. Edelman and Associates in October 1952. In later chapters, PR students and PR professionals can learn how Edelman managed campaign strategies and tactics for dozens of high-profile clients such as Toni Twins, Real Lemon, Sara Lee, Orville Redenbacher, Morris the Cat of 9lives, World Wildlife Fund, Fuji Film, 1984 Summer Olympics, KFC, Advil, Nestle, Apple, Benetton, and Walmart.But, Wisner, a New York Times best-selling author, told more than just the behindthe- scenes stories of career achievements and setbacks of the agency's founder, who passed away on January 15, 2013, at the age of 92. The book recounts how PR has evolved from press agentry, gimmicks, and stunts to two-way communication, transparency, authenticity, and trust, and the roles Edelman and his firm have played in the industry's transformations.Wisner tells the story of Edelman as he began his business, using imaginative approaches to expand the boundaries of PR practice; he was one of the first to stage national media tours and tapped into the emerging practice of public affairs and international PR. …

Stakeholder Relations Management as a Public Relations Tool for Socio-Economic Development in Nigeria

No proper organization can function independent of its environment. Each is made up of an internal structure, and exists within a framework of interrelated system of relationships with key stakeholders such as competitors, donors, consumers, regulators, the media, and so on. Therefore, there is the need to depart from the traditional approach of influencing public opinion to a more modern and strategic approach of guarding public moods, disposition and judgement before even attempting to satisfy expectations. The objective of this study was to ascertain whether Stakeholder Relations Management can be used as a Public Relations tool for socio-economic development in Nigeria. The aim was to establish the veracity of the statement that stakeholder relations management is a public relations tool and if it could be used for socio-economic development of Nigeria. Data was collected from available literature on stakeholder relations management and public relations. Also the professional observations of the authors were also used. Good stakeholder relationship management which is one of the tools of modern public relations that foster a sense of joint ownership, prevents undue bureaucracy or industrial disputes, makes resources available, keeps information/knowledge and feedback flowing and enhances cooperation to achieve the desired outcome of socio-economic development. The study proposed that organizations have to evaluate the possibility of adapting and/or integrating the benefit of the emerging stakeholder management trends into their institutional framework. The management of organizations must realize that for their organizations to be competitive in the global economy, they have to leverage on these collaborative relationships with both internal and external systems in their networks to achieve results. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n10p21

Worlds apart or a part of the world? Public relations issues and challenges in India

This study examines modern public relations in India investigating current issues, trends and leadership in communication management. Using a survey of Indian practitioners, it compares public relations in India with global trends. Findings suggest that practice in India is interdependent and changing dynamically with global influences, though a global–local dialectic is clearly present. Country-level differences are evident with development of human capital seen as the top issue in the region. At the same time, similar to other countries, the industry in India is also dealing with issues of digitization and information flow, struggling with measurement concerns, and trying to stay on top of crisis management preparedness.

How China-based foreign reporters' aggressiveness changed: The honeymoon effect of the Chinese government's media relations strategies

This study analyzes how the aggressiveness of China-based foreign reporters when questioning Chinese officials changed as a function of the macrolevel international media relations strategies of the Chinese government. Over the past decade, the Chinese government has increasingly relaxed regulatory policies for foreign reporters and gained knowledge of modern public relations, particularly media relations. This study found that the level of foreign reporters' aggressiveness did not decrease in a linear fashion but rather displayed a ‘V’ shape. Implications for future initiatives by the Chinese government regarding foreign reporters are also discussed.

Freemasonry and the Press in Twentieth-century Britain

The following article—based upon a doctoral thesis that was approved by the University of London in 2011—represents a study of British media coverage of freemasonry in the twentieth-century. It considers how and why the public image of freemasonry changed from that of a highly respected élite organization, at the centre of public life in 1900, to a position on the fringes in the 1990s, regarded with suspicion and disapproval by many. It focuses exclusively on national newspapers. This article describes how the press projected a positive message of the organization for almost 40 years, based on a mass of news, which the author believes—and shows—emanated from the organization itself (making it an unexpected pioneer in modern public relations practice). It concludes that the change of image and public regard, which occurred during the twentieth-century, was due, mainly—but not solely—to masonic withdrawal from the public sphere. It considers—and finds wanting—the suggestion that this withdrawal was a response to fascist persecution and it offers a number of additional explanations. Freemasonry’s reluctance to engage with the media after 1936 powerfully assisted its critics, who grew in strength as a result of developments within the media and the churches. In the second-half of the century, greater competition spawned a more challenging form of journalism and accelerated the decline of deference. Concurrently, the rise of secularism and religious pluralism in Britain provided Christianity with increased competition and led some adherents to re-define freemasonry and to treat it as a rival. Throughout the period, ‘Conspiracy culture’ remained strong, rendering the secrecy of freemasonry a major handicap to public understanding. The history of freemasonry in twentieth-century Britain is largely an unexplored field and, in examining the fraternity’s media profile, this study also illuminates the organization’s collisions with nationalism, communism and state welfare provision.

Epistemological modesty: Critical reflections on public relations thought

This article is a critical thinking inquiry into a number of epistemologically related problems with the scholarly conceptions and real-world practices of public relations. Resonating with the epistemological modesty of the Scottish Enlightenment, and approaching public relations from the perspectives of such marginal directions as phenomenology, microsociology and literary theory, the article examines 10 problems with modern public relations thought as it has been articulated from the early public relations ‘pioneers’ to its popular conceptualization, in recent decades, as systems-based symmetry-excellence.

Precepts of Reflective Public Relations: An Isocratean Model

The reflective paradigm, an emerging philosophy of public relations, involves an organization's “production of self-understanding in relation to the environment,” (Holmström, 2004, p. 126). An instructive antecedent of reflection may lie in the works of Isocrates (436–338 BCE), who has gained increasing scholarly recognition as a progenitor of modern public relations. As Isocrates sought to strengthen Athens via a unified Greece, he promoted panhellenism over the narrower interests of individual Greek city-states. In highly self-analytical addresses to Greek leaders, he advocated, in words and deeds, specific precepts of nascent reflection, including conducting thorough research on a diverse society and the encouragement of dissent.

Breaking the Taboo: Architects and Advertising in Depression and War

Breaking the Taboo: Architects and Advertising in Depression and War chronicles the fall of a professional interdiction in architecture, precipitated by the Second World War. For much of the history of their profession in the United States, architects—unlike builders and engineers, their main competition—faced censure from the American Institute of Architects if they advertised their services. Architects established models of professional behavior intended to hold them apart from the commercial realm. Andrew M. Shanken explores how the Great Depression and the Second World War strained this outdated model of practice, placing architects within consumer culture in more conspicuous ways, redefining the architect's role in society and making public relations an essential part of presenting the profession to the public. Only with the unification of the AIA after the war would architects conduct a modern public relations campaign, but the taboo had begun to erode in the 1930s and early 1940s, setting the stage for the emergence of the modern profession.

Framing diversity: A qualitative content analysis of public relations industry publications

This qualitative content analysis used framing theory to examine how gender and diversity have been framed over the past decade in modern public relations industry publications. Findings revealed that diversity is most often set aside in its own issue or column and not integrated throughout the whole of the publications. Most articles about diverse populations mentioned primarily Hispanic or Latino populations and Blacks or African Americans. Diversity is framed as different, a journey or process, a language problem, a responsibility, inclusion, transforming workplace culture, enhancing the profession, resource intensive, power driven, needing to be justified, and impacting the bottom line. Disparities in public relations still exist among gender, racial, and ethnic groups with less power and must be addressed more fully in public relations professional publications.

Understanding Ivy Lee's declaration of principles: U.S. newspaper and magazine coverage of publicity and press agentry, 1865–1904

Ivy Lee's 1905 “Declaration of Principles” has been called the “starting point of modern public relations,” but what did it mean in the context of his time? Analysis of press discussion finds that, while press agentry was connected to the circus and theater, “corporate publicity” was linked to Theodore Roosevelt's call for the release of financial information in the public interest. The paper confirms that scholars do not have a clear understanding of public relations history and identifies areas for further research.

150 Years of Modern Public Relations Practices in Nigeria

150 Years of Modern Public Relations Practices in Nigeria

Ordinary People can Reason: A Rhetorical Case for Including Vernacular Voices in Ethical Public Relations Practice

Modern public relations practices have been dominated by appeals to impulses, desires, and images that affect publics defined predominantly in demographic terms. This paper argues that abandoning basic rhetorical assumptions about the ability of ordinary people to engage in practical reason has serious ethical implications for the marketplace as well as for society in general. The study applies recent rhetorical scholarship on issues of public discourse and rhetorical culture to public relations practices, considering how rhetoric can contribute to more effective and ethical public discourse in our dominant modes of marketplace communication.

In The Land Of The Smoke Drinkers

When European explorers set foot on the shores of the “new world” in the fifteenth century, they took great fascination in observing the natives igniting rolled-up dried leaves and then “drinking” the smoke.1 The explorers returned to Europe with tobacco plants, and the odd behavior rapidly took hold throughout the continent, although not without opposition or controversy.2 Indeed, with the exception of its origins in the Americas, controversy has always accompanied the use of tobacco. For example, in 1633, Turkish Sultan Murad IV implemented what is likely the world’s most draconian tobacco control policy, one that demonstrated conclusively that smoking was a health hazard: He declared the use of tobacco punishable by death and reportedly executed smokers daily.3 The fact that smoking persisted, and indeed flourished, in spite of such policies speaks volumes about the seductiveness and tenacity of the behavior. All species, save one, instinctively flee from smoke. Humans choose to suck it into their lungs, at the peril of death. Over the past century, the U.S. citizenry has done so with particular zeal. As Allan Brandt demonstrates, Americans have been aided and abetted by an equally zealous tobacco industry. Brandt, a professor of the history of medicine and science at Harvard University, devoted a fifth of the cigarette century to the evolution of this book. Although the book’s focus never wanders from the tobacco story per se, Brandt effectively guides the reader through the multiple impacts that this story has had on America writ large. For example, he explains how research on smoking and lung cancer helped define the field of epidemiology and, more broadly, redefine the nature of medical evidence. He elucidates the central role of tobacco in the development of the modern advertising and public relations industries and in the process shows us the myriad techniques an industry uses to manipulate the nation’s cultural life. He demonstrates the grip of special interests on Congress through the lens of one of the most powerful of those groups. And he critiques the use and intentional distortion of science to serve the ends of a greed-infested corporate interest. Brandt divides his thirteen chapters into five sections: culture, science, politics, law, and globalization. Each theme is covered in detail, and each is graced with a mellifluous writing style that makes the detail that much more accessible. The political story is perhaps too big to be relegated to a mere three chapters; fortunately, the interested reader can consult a wealth of writings on the subject, many referenced in the book. (The book’s prodigious referencing is itself a contribution, with seventytwo pages of small-font sources for the hopelessly addicted.) Brandt does justice to the still-emerging story on the globalization of the tobacco pandemic, but we will have to await future historians’ assessment of what is undoubtedly one of the most important public health stories of the twenty-first century. Ironically, while The Cigarette Century covers

Creating the cult of a saint: Communication strategies in 10th century England

In late 10th century England, a little-known and long-dead bishop named Swithun was canonised and became one of the most-widely culted saints in the country. Behind the creation of the cult of Saint Swithun were communication and political strategies with aspects of brand creation and extension, fund-raising, message creation and delivery, and stakeholder engagement using tactics such as word-of-mouth, the creation of special events and music, and use of specially commissioned publications. Using the prism of modern public relations practice and theory, the creation and maintenance of this important saintly cult is reviewed.