Public Relations History Research Articles

Guest editorial: History of public relations

Guest editorial: History of public relations

Editorial 29.1: History (and professionalization) of public relations

Editorial 29.1: History (and professionalization) of public relations

Writing the history of public relations

Writing the history of public relations

Rethinking the start date for media relations and press releases: The peace movement of the 1800s

Public relations histories have frequently credited Ivy Lee as providing the first press release. This research uses primary and secondary historical sources to demonstrate that the American branch of the international peace movement was using press releases decades before Lee’s birth. Starting at least as early as 1819, the movement disseminated press releases to newspapers. This program of sending out press releases increased in size until it was reaching as many as 1,000 separate newspapers in the 1840s. At that time, a young advocate named Elihu Burritt took over the operation. Using a newspaper loophole in postage laws, Burritt was able to regularly disseminate messages to as many as 1,500 separate newspapers, averaging over 200 article placements per message and reaching hundreds of thousands of newspaper readers. This research discusses implications for public relations history.

Public Relations History in Public Relations Education in Türkiye: Meeting the Past in the Present

In this study, the status of the courses of history of public relations in public relations education at undergraduate (B.A.) and graduate (M.A./M.Sc. and PhD) levels in Türkiye, the position and scope of these courses in the curricula, and the way in which these courses are structured are examined within the framework of a two-phase quantitative and qualitative research design. In the quantitative research, which constitutes the first stage, the courses of history of public relations offered in undergraduate and graduate public relations programs in Türkiye were identified, and the structures of the courses were examined through content analysis. In the qualitative research, which constitutes the second stage, based on the data obtained in the first stage, structured written interviews were held with the academics instructing the courses. In this regard, evaluations and suggestions were presented from a holistic perspective for different levels of the related courses. The study revealed that these courses are very limited in public relations education curricula. The opinions and suggestions of the academics leading the courses shed light on how to ensure interest in and support for the related courses.

The State Railway of Siam and the origin of tourism public relations in Thailand (1917–1941)

PurposeThis research aims to explore the origin of tourism public relations (PR) in Thailand as practiced by the State Railway of Siam (SRS) prior to the Second World War when rail travel was still a new form of transportation in the country.Design/methodology/approachThe study approach is documentary research involving an in-depth examination of both published and unpublished documents of a special collection of the SRS archives conducted in a fact-based and descriptive manner.FindingsIn the first half of the 20th century, a period of global economic uncertainty, the SRS performed the role of the government's PR division, with one of its important tasks being to promote travel and tourism in the country among both Thais and foreigners. The SRS incorporated the use of PR materials including advertisements, films, guidebooks, speeches, events, pre-arranged press activities and sales promotions in its activities. The current study explores the SRS's strategies employed in the creation of integrated and place communication campaigns to promote its train service and tourism throughout Thailand via its railway network.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of the study reveal the PR efforts carried out by the SRS, which utilized a variety of communication tools in tourism promotion. This can lead to a better understanding of global tourism PR history and more specifically the development of tourism PR in Thailand and throughout South-East Asia.Practical implicationsThe results add to the body of knowledge of how integrated marketing communication, place branding and professional PR activities evolved in Thailand.Originality/valueThe research fills a gap in the history of tourism PR and its relation to broader social and economic structures in Siam prior to the 21st century. It also reveals the little explored topic of how the railway engaged in historical path of PR practices and how they relate to a country's specific PR development outside of the highly researched U.S. context.

Returning mistletoe to an urban forest: a restoration success story

Mistletoes have a fraught public relations history. Vilified as toxic tree-killing weeds, they have long been targeted for removal by arborists and forest managers concerned with tree health. Research on mistletoe ecology has revealed their positive influence on diversity and community structure via complex networks of interactions. In areas where mistletoe has traditionally been removed, managers are now asking whether these parasitic plants can return on their own or whether they should be reintroduced. To evaluate the practicalities of mistletoe restoration, we inoculated 28 London plane trees Platanus × acerfolia (Aiton) Willd. in inner Melbourne with creeping mistletoe Muellerina eucalyptoides (DC.) Barlow, a locally rare species. Branch dimensions and aspect had no discernible effect on germination or seedling emergence, but trees where access to possums ( Trichosurus vulpecula (Kerr, 1792) and Pseudocheirus peregrinus (Boddaert, 1785)) was restricted were 30% more likely to host seedlings. Five years after inoculation, seven mistletoes successfully established on five trees, with two mistletoes bearing fruit. Communications with residents and city users elicited positive feedback, catalysing four additional inoculation trials in urban and forest settings elsewhere. In addition to representing a cost-effective means of enhancing habitat values, mistletoe restoration is useful for addressing open questions about mistletoe ecology and educating the community about the functional roles these parasitic plants play.

Book Review: Public relations history: Theory, practice, and profession

Book Review: Public relations history: Theory, practice, and profession

Shaping Public Perception: The Evolution of Government Public Relations in the Digital Age

This research examines the historical development of public relations and its role in promoting effective governance, democracy, and communication in diverse states. It highlights the Islamic perspective on mass communication and its influence on contemporary public relations practices. The study also explores the evolution of public relations in the digital age, with a focus on social media and its impact on democracy. Additionally, it examines the historical foundations of public relations in Pakistan, which have been shaped by the country's ethnic and religious diversity. Beyond these key areas, the research further explores the ethical considerations of public relations practices in the digital age, particularly regarding data privacy, fake news, and misinformation. It also analyzes the challenges and opportunities presented by the evolving media landscape for public relations professionals and organizations. By providing a comprehensive overview of the field, the research aims to contribute valuable insights for academics, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to understand and navigate the complexities of public relations in the contemporary world. The study provides a comparative analysis of public relations history in the United States, Russia, China, and India, offering international insights into the commonalities and differences that impact communication strategies. Overall, the research provides important insights for academics and practitioners alike, highlighting the crucial role that public relations plays in promoting efficient governance, democracy, and societal advancement.

It’s about (damn) time: Community, temporality, and feminist values in activist public relations history

Community activism provides a useful lens for reexamining core concepts of public relations theory and history: community, temporality, and feminist values. This project foregrounds the work of two transformative community activists and prolific authors, Grace Lee Boggs and bell hooks—women whose decades-long efforts balanced urgency and sustained commitment to issues, as well as the people in the neighborhoods and physical communities they were a part of. While temporal concerns have found a place in crisis communication scholarship (e.g., Bean & Madden, 2019; Bean et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2017), they have yet to be presented as a central part of theories of activism in public relations. Adding their voices and perspectives to the broader story of public relations history helps to (1) center non-corporate histories as public relations, (2) showcase stories and strategies of women of color as effective advocates and transformative community leaders, and (3) present temporally informed theoretical development in activist public relations, including the creation of a new framework: ongoing community activism.

Salvador Dalí’s legacy in the history of public relations: A psychoanalytic and surrealist connection with Edward Bernays

Salvador Dalí’s legacy in the history of public relations: A psychoanalytic and surrealist connection with Edward Bernays

Quintus Cicero’s Commentariolum petitionis: The importance of personal relationships and clientship in the history of public relations

This paper is about the importance of personal relationships in the history of public relations. It suggests that clientship and exchange of favors were at the core of the history of public relations from its beginnings. Modern reviewer Richard Beard (2012) is “struck by its modernity,” particularly the book’s extensive advice regarding the usea of personal relationships to gain political influence and power. Quintus Cicero should be included in the proto-history of public relations, and his approaches reveal commonalities with non-Western approaches to public relations such as India’s personal influence model or China’s guanxi.

Sejarah Public Relations di Indonesia: dari 'Penipu' Menjadi Penasihat Tepercaya

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in the history of public relations, as well as a growing body of academic research into the study of public relations. Public relations initially became an agenda for the dissemination of deceptive information. Furthermore, developing into efforts to provide correct information. This study uses historical analysis to determine the development of public relations in Indonesia. Data was collected through literature and document reviews. This research found that the stages of developing public relations through a complicated and long process. Not only that, public relations develops with other multidisciplinary disciplines, including marketing. In Indonesia, the history of public relations practices has been going on for a long time, as long as Indonesia. However, formally, it started when Bakohumas was founded.

The Presentation of Mobile Exhibition Black Sea Ferry (1926) in Newspapers of The Period and Examination of The Promotional Tour in Terms of Public Relations

Çalışma, 1926 yılında, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin kuruluşundan hemen sonra yaptığı değişimleri uluslararası camiada tanıtmak ve ekonomik ilişkiler kurmak gayesiyle Karadeniz Vapuruyla gerçekleştirdiği Seyyar Sergi’yi, halkla ilişkiler tarihi ile halkla ilişkiler uygulama alanları açısından değerlendirmeyi ve serginin başlangıç evresinde Türk kamuoyuna gazeteler üzerinden nasıl yansıtıldığını gözlemlemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Çalışma, uluslararası düzeyde tertip edilen serginin halkla ilişkiler tarihindeki yerini ve halkla ilişkiler uygulama alanları ile bağlantılarını sunma noktasında bütüncül anlayıştan, ilk seyahate başladığı dönemde kamuoyuna yansıtılışını sunma noktasında ise çerçeveleme modelinden hareket etmektedir. Sonuçta Seyyar Sergi girişimi, halkla ilişkiler tarihinde, halkla ilişkiler tabiri kullanılmadan yapılmış planlı bir halkla ilişkiler uygulama örneği olarak değerlendirilmektedir. Ayrıca serginin basınla ilişkiler, destinasyon tanıtımı, kamu diplomasisi, imaj yönetimi ve etkinlik yönetimi uygulama alanlarının fonksiyonlarını karşılar özellikler barındırdığı anlaşılmaktadır.

Our Forgotten Mother: Daisy Bates and Her School Integration Campaign

ABSTRACT This manuscript seeks to recover and properly recognize the public relations efforts of social justice crusader Daisy Gatson Bates (1914–99), the co-owner of the Arkansas State Press and a state-level NAACP organizer, during the early years of the civil rights movement. The purpose of this study is to intervene in the “Great (White) Man’s” account of public relations history by documenting the public relations tactics that Daisy Bates implemented in her advocacy campaign for school integration, analyzing the motivations behind her deployment of the tactics, and evaluating the successes and failures of her strategies. To engage in that endeavor, we analyzed available archival sources, including correspondence between Bates and the NAACP housed at the University of Arkansas and the Library of Congress. We also examined other primary sources, such as official records of the Associated Press, published memoirs of Bates and Melba Pattillo Beals, published editorials in the local Arkansas State Press, and newspaper coverage in White mainstream national news outlets and the Black press, including circulation leaders such as the New York Times and Chicago Defender.

Integrating Power and Gradual Institutional Change in Public Relations History: The Case of the People’s University in North Carolina After the Civil War

Drawing on the theory of gradual institutional change, this study analyzed the post-Civil War college reform efforts in North Carolina, integrating power with public relations history. Reformers worked under harsh institutional circumstances where resident elites held high veto power, while reformers had a low level of discretion for interpreting college education. Notwithstanding, reformers adopted layering tactics, introducing new rules of education for all alongside existing ones of education as legacy, for gradual institutional change. Specifically, reformers maintained a calm and objective tone, focusing on the universal value of education, both publicly and through anonymous publications in hostile press venues.

1929 BEAUTY CONTEST IN THE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC RELATIONS HISTORY

Even though the beauty phenomenon always includes a subjective judgement, it is alwaysan important crossroads because it includes conceptualizations such as Westernizationand modernization in the institutionalization of beauty contests.Especially when we start to discuss over Turkey, external appearance -orientedexplanations in which the Westernization and modernization can easily be observed andwhich are our reference points drag us up to the beauty contests.The beauty contests, which can be examined as a symbol of social reconversion after thewar of Independence, were ignored in social sciences studies, in particular the habit ofreading through the window of History of Public Relations could not be established.These competitions are labeled with different disintegrations and different readings thatappear or do not appear since the publication of the Republic of Turkey. Beauty contestsand the reactions to them are an example of how even beauty might become politicizedand might become a political space where the views of the country are transmitted by themedia frames.In this study, the first official beauty contest organized by the Cumhuriyet Newspaper inyear 1929 is discussed within the scope of the history of Public Relations. In the study,articles, theses and various books were used regarding the subject. In addition, newspublished about the beauty contests at the Cumhuriyet and Hâkimiyeti Milliye 1(Domination of the Nation) (Ulus) newspapers during 1929, which constitute the basis ofthis study, were examined day by day and discussed within this context of the PublicRelations History

Sadece Bernays’ın Eşi Mi? Halkla İlişkilerin Kadın Öncüllerinden Doris E. Fleischman

The history of professional public relations begins in the 1900s and is usually conveyed through the precursors in the United States. The Ignorance of precursors in this historical narrative, expressed over Ivy Lee and Edward L. Bernays, is the motivational point of the study. The main aim of this study is to make Doris Elsa Fleischman's contribution to the field visible. Although her significant works in public relations, she is almost unnamed in the Turkish public relations literature. In this context, firstly a literature rewiev is made on pr books published in Turkey. Afterwards, Fleischman's contributions to the field of public relations, which has an essential place in the history of public relations in the United States, were analyzed by a negative case study method. As a result, it has been identified that Doris E. Fleischman, who is the co-partner of Bernays' company, has been active in many fields from the naming of the field to her contributions in applications and made academic publications.

Problematising history in the public relations curriculum

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to begin a conversation about historicising the public relations (PR) curriculum in universities.Design/methodology/approachThe paper discusses PR history and historiography to identify the underlying ideological and methodological influences. It considers scholarship on PR education, and the inclusion or, more often, the exclusion of history except where it serves to reinforce a narrative of steady, and apparently unproblematic, professional development. The paper reviews the presentation of history in textbooks and discusses the authors' experiences of teaching PR history. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the inclusion of history in the PR curriculum offers an important critical intervention in PR education.FindingsThe PR curriculum tends to meet industry expectations around practice and skills in order to develop students as future practitioners. But this paper argues that a more historical and historiographical understanding of PR can develop in students important skills in research, analysis and interpretation. It can also introduce students to working with ambiguity and alternate perspectives. Foregrounding new histories and challenging existing histories introduce students to richer and more complex understandings of PR. It also introduces students to epistemology and ethics, and therefore offers a way to introduce critical thinking into the curriculum.Originality/valueA more historical understanding of PR develops student skills in research, analysis and interpretation as well as critical thinking.

The propaganda of universal fascism: peace, empire and international co-operation in British Union of Fascists' publicity from 1932 to 1939

PurposeThis article presents a historical investigation into the foreign policy messages of the British Union of Fascists' (BUF) publicity and propaganda from its foundation in 1932 until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, along with a discussion of the methods and institutional arrangements used to propagate its ideas of peace, empire and transnational co-operation.Design/methodology/approachThe historical investigation is based upon scrutiny of original BUF documents relating to the period 1932–1939 from various archives. After cataloguing of the relevant publicity and propaganda materials in time sequence and thematically, analysis was organised using a historical institutionalism approach.FindingsThe article explains the different phases of the BUF's message development and how publications, meetings and media were used to project its ideas. It also discussed the impact of support from Viscount Rothermere's newspapers and financial support from Benito Mussolini. Consideration of publicity materials alongside files from BUF headquarters enabled identification and investigation into the communicative actors who did the publicity work, including Director of Publicity, John Beckett.Social implicationsThe article reflects upon how the British Union of Fascists' publicity and propaganda relates to modern manifestations of the communication of authoritarian and nationalistic political propositions and the historical continuities that endure therein.Originality/valueThe project makes an original contribution to the history of British political propaganda and public relations through an inquiry based upon scrutiny of historical documents in UK archives relating to BUF publicity related to foreign policy.