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Public Relations and Contemporary Theory Public Relations and Contemporary Theory Steve Mackey Submission for Philosophy Doctorate, 2001 Swinburne University, Australia Statement that this work has not been previously submitted for another award This work – PhD Thesis: Public Relations and Contemporary Theory – has not been previously submitted for another award ……………………… (Steve Mackey) 29/3/01 CONTENTS Abstract page iv Chapter One Rationale For The Thesis: Introduction page 1 Conclusion page 9 Chapter Two Epistemological Introduction Introduction page 13 Conclusion page 28 Chapter Three Public Relations Defined As: “Privatised Rhetoric For Privatised Governance” Introduction page 30 Public relations and the rhetorical turn page 31 Contemporary definitions and critiques page 39 Concepts of persuasion and propaganda page 51 Privatised rhetoric for privatised governance page 66 Conclusion page 72 Chapter Four Public Relations and US Political-Cultural History Introduction page 74 Cultural Crisis and the Progressives page 76 Public relations flourishes, individualism dies page 83 In the old world and its colonies page 86 Conclusion page 88 Chapter Five Early Theory in Public Relations Introduction page 89 Gustave Le Bon page 96 Walter Lippmann page 99 Ivy Lee page 101 Edward Bernays page 104 Conclusion page 105 Chapter Six Ken Livingstone’s London – Case Study One page 108 An application of theory to this case study page 126 Chapter Seven Attitudes Towards “Biosolids” – Case Study Two page 129 The public relations theoretical context page 147 Conclusion page 155 Chapter Eight Association For The Public University – Case Study Three page 157 Strategy pre-requisites page 158 The campaign in a nutshell page 159 Business studies of all sorts page 160 Education studies page 161 Other fields of study page 162 APU strategy as public relations plan page 168 Applying cultural and critical theory page 177 Conclusion page 184 Supplementary conclusion page 186 Chapter Nine Contemporary Use Of Theory in Textbooks Introduction page 189 Persuasion, motivation, behaviour page 197 Theories of communication page 202 Organisations and organisational communication page 208 Specialist theories of public relations page 209 Theories which are not taken up in textbooks page 212 Conclusion page 224 Chapter Ten New Suggestions For Theory – More Habermas Introduction page 225 Fragmentation and social structure page 248 Conclusion page 257 Chapter Eleven Critique of Current University Teaching And Research Introduction page 259 (1) Education page 267 (2) Research (Writings on public relations theory) page 273 Increasing criticism of Public Relations page 287 Conclusion page 290 Bibliography page 293 […] = my clarifying comments inserted in quoted text ABSTRACT In the postmodern era, as authoritative discourses are being undermined, there is an increased vulnerability of thoughts to the influence of the deliberate promotion of viewpoints. In this environment, public relations is becoming increasingly important. In this thesis I use the term ‘public relations’ both in the sense of an extensive, specific industry, as well as in the sense of the general processes increasingly being used by all sorts of groups and organisations to get their voices heard, their effects felt, their interests defended and their aims achieved. Concomitant with this growth in public relations activity, public relations has emerged as a rapidly growing field of study within universities. This thesis critically assesses the state of this emerging university ‘discipline’. A claim of this thesis is that the mainstream public relations industry is dominated by a corporatist ideology stemming from a particular US business tradition. This ideology produces a problem for university teachers, researchers and ethicists of public relations because it pervades and dominates the textbooks, teaching, research and academic-industry liaison committees. I suggest that this permeation has helped to shape the conceptual tools which public relations people use to examine their own activities. The thesis warns that this interference in academic freedom results in a situation where a genuine ‘professional’ status for graduates with degrees in public relations is rarely achieved. I suggest than many of these graduates may not have the intellectual equipage necessary for the level of detached understanding of their field which would be necessary for them to be true ‘professionals’. This thesis attempts to explain these inadequacies. It points to the presumption of political pluralism and an unproblematic consensual society which is implicit in the approaches of the orthodox exponents of public relations since the second world war. A contrast with the candidness of public relations theory in the more elitist and authoritarian period of the 1920s and 30s helps to make this point. In order to improve public relations theory, the more recent work of “New Rhetoric” theorists is employed. These theorists point to the inevitability and in fact the necessity of the persuasive activities which construct reality in all human cultural spheres. I opposed the negative critiques of some critical theorists for whom public relations is an abomination. Instead I argue that everyone now needs to be provided with an understanding of, and access to, their own means of generating public relations-like activity. I suggest that we all need to have some sort of control over the public relations which affects us because this activity is becoming the currency used in the maintenance of all of our postmodern identities. But in grasping the nettle of participating in public relations activity, I suggest that it is also necessary to foreground the oppositional aspects of society and draw on neo-Marxist critical and cultural theories. I employ Habermas and Beck in particular in order to expose the mainstream public relations industry’s historically rooted cultural mission to maintain the pretense that we live in a consensual capitalist culture based on conservatism and corporate American values. A reformulation of public relation theory along critical theory lines is necessary in order to provide the reflexive knowledge required by teachers and students of public relations if public relations is to justify itself as a university discipline. Public Relations and Contemporary Theory Rationale for the Thesis Copyright Steve Mackey 2001 – all rights reserved PUBLIC RELATIONS AND CONTEMPORARY THEORY Chapter One Rationale For The Thesis Introduction This thesis reviews the present intellectual basis of the university subject of public relations and finds it wanting. It sides with critics who say that at present this is NOT a bona fide area of university study. However the thesis argues that public relations SHOULD be a recognised university discipline and shows how this can be achieved. In arguing for this recognition, the thesis reviews and critiques present intellectual efforts which are working towards this end and makes its own theoretical contributions. The subject of public relations has been taught in universities for more than 70 years (IPRA. 1990. p2). In Public Relations, originally copyrighted in 1952 a “founding father” of public relations - Edward Bernays wrote: In 1937, we surveyed public relations training in American colleges and universities and…found that institutions of higher learning now offered a wide variety of courses on public relations and allied subjects (Bernays. 1970. p108). The first university degree in the world in public relations - a Master of Science - is claimed by Boston University where the first cohort of students graduated in 19491. By 1952 there were “a number” of such degrees in the United States (Bernays. 1970. p135). There are now more than 200 university courses in public relations in the US2. The subject 1 E.mail from former departmental head at Boston University: Dr. John J. Schulz, 21/12/00. 2 Donald. K Wright. (1991). Institute for Public Relations (Conference paper to IPRA World Congress, Toronto). Also: “The Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), the college-student arm of PRSA [Public Relations Society of America], is active on over 200 college and university campuses in the USA, and has some 6,000 student members.” (e.mail, 2/2/01,from Michael McDermott, APR, Fellow PRSA. Also the 1999 report of the US non-profit publication: Where shall I go to study advertising and public 1 Public Relations and Contemporary Theory Rationale for the Thesis is more recent to UK and Australian universities. The first public relations degrees in the UK started in 1988 at Stirling University and 1989 at what is now Bournemouth University. (I was tangentially involved with both of these UK start-ups). By 2000 there were still less than a dozen public relations degrees in the UK. The first degrees in public relations in Australia started in 1969 at what is now Charles Sturt University (Zawawi. 2000. p19) and at what is now Queensland University of Technology in 1977 (QUT departmental e.mail). There are currently 20 degree courses approved by the Public Relations Institute of Australia. Despite this very recent history, and the general view that public relations is a “vocational subject”, one of the implications of the argument of this thesis is that public relations has the potential to become far more important to academia than is presently the case. The argument is as follows: Postmodernism has problematised objectivism and positivism. This intellectual changing of the guard can be said to involve all arts subjects, as well as
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