1 Can political public relations be used as a tool for social integration, with particular reference to the Muslim community in the UK? Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Chester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Sarah A. M. Okour December 2019 2 Acknowledgements For his guidance and support, Dr Simon Gwyn Roberts. For his comments and editing remarks, Dr Mark Duffett. For the brilliant three months of supervision, Prof Alec Charles. For always being there, my parents. For my best friends, my four late grandparents. 3 Declaration The material being presented for examination is my own work and has not been submitted for an award of this or another HEI except in minor particulars which are explicitly noted in the body of the thesis. Where research pertaining to the thesis was undertaken collaboratively, the nature and extent of my individual contribution has been made explicit. 4 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ..........................................................................................................................2 Abstract ...........................................................................................................................................5 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................6 Chapter 2: Literature Review ...................................................................................................31 Political PR & PR: Activism and beyond .............................................................................61 Spin ...........................................................................................................................................67 PR practitioners as national integrationists ........................................................................73 Current approaches .............................................................................................................103 Future suggestions ............................................................................................................. 119 Conceptual framework ........................................................................................................126 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................143 Chapter 3 –Methodology ...........................................................................................................148 Chapter 4 – Quantitative Section .............................................................................................175 Chapter 5 – Qualitative Section ................................................................................................205 Chapter 6 – Thesis Conclusion .................................................................................................259 Appendix .....................................................................................................................................276 References ...................................................................................................................................290 5 Sarah Okour, Can political public relations be used as a tool for social integration, with particular reference to the Muslim community in the UK? Abstract Political, social and demographic change has resulted in a search for new techniques for building public trust and reconciling relationships between the Muslim community and others in society. In this study, extremism and social cohesion have been chosen as potential new aims for the PR industry. This study assesses whether political PR can be diverted from its role in spin doctoring towards new cultural and social functions. My argument is that political public relations can be used as a tool for social integration with particular reference to the Muslim community in the UK. This research distinguishes between two issues. The first connects with political PR within a political communication background, which relates to politicians, election campaigns, news management, and their relationship with the media. The second issue is that political PR can be reconsidered from a corporate perspective, one that endorses the use of PR in challenging political environments. My study places emphasis on the second issue. It applies a triangulating methodology based on using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to answer the research questions. A sample of seven UK public relations academics evaluated the current communication policies for their effectiveness, explained how political PR could help, and gave their recommendations. In addition, seven NGOs in Britain described their work, the problems they encountered, and their concerns. A lack of social integration and the continuing rise of extremism were repeatedly explained in terms of stereotyping, marginalisation, and counter-productive techniques. The results suggest that a change in political PR is possible and should be encouraged to intervene in fighting against radicalisation, extremism, and enhancing social cohesion. They also show a lack of PR support for NGOs. More broadly, my findings move the field of inclusivity forward by working on a bottom-up approach instead of a top-down model of communication. The best answer for sustaining long-term community relationships was improved communication and engagement, inclusive messages and campaigns, and the Muslim community remaining open to others in society. 6 Chapter 1 Introduction Current ideologies of authoritarianism and nationalism are arguably separating people and creating a communication chasm. This predicament will shape the implementation of new communication. For this reason, reconsidering communication strategies becomes necessary as people are growing confused whilst engaging in the free marketplace of ideas, which will be the main focus of this thesis. In this sense, political public relations will be proposed as an alternative communication strategy to support social integration and fight against extremism. The main thrust of the argument is that the UK government and political players could do the heavy lifting when it comes to community-based political PR. The literature highlights that there is a proven danger of extremism and social segregation in Britain. Calls for change being made, concerns explained, and figures relating to these issues have confirmed that there is a communication crisis in existence at this time. This can only make us more vigilant about the negative consequences of this crisis on society. More importantly, it motivates action in terms of designing the best strategies to address this issue as early as possible. For example, Gordon Brown believes “[t]here needed to be a more effective counter-argument to the rise of nationalism, protectionism and populism” (as cited in Sherwood, 2019, para. 11). Accordingly, engineering strategic models of communication and engagement is being looked for here. It all revolves around the science of public relations. Therefore, the central question for this doctoral research project is: Can political PR be used as a tool for social integration, with particular reference to the Muslim community in the UK? This academic enquiry comes while “the broader roles and responsibilities of public relations in government are relatively under-examined….[and] it remains unclear what public relations can do to develop the community and how public relations can engage the public in this process” (Kim 7 & Cho, 2019, pp. 297 - 299). Furthermore, the thesis applies a methodology based on a triangulation research design employing a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to formulate an answer. The original contribution to knowledge is to identify whether political PR techniques can be redirected to enhance social integration in the UK. An evaluation of the communicative efforts of some NGOs working in the fields of inclusivity and extremism should also add to the existing knowledge and our understanding of the problem under discussion. Far-right populists’ standpoints are dangerous because they encourage social division. They can put our belief in social co-existence and common sense at risk. Some far-right movements, namely, Alternative fur Deutschland (AFD) in Germany, is a good example here. According to Berg (2019), this group’s ideas: …centred around the heterosexual family to save the ‘pure people.’….[therefore] a more direct scenario of violence and fear is named: [for instance] people who are being labelled as migrant or non-German as perpetrators, and ‘German’ women as victims. The constant repetition of these old narratives on the AfD’s social media channels is followed by interviews and talk show appearances by individual politicians supposedly legitimizing the scare claim. (pp. 83 - 84) On the basis of this “racism, in particular anti-Muslim racism[,]…[t]he aggressively conducted far-right culture war, with its new and old strategies and networks, presents democratic societies with a range of challenges” (Berg, 2019, p. 89). Such demagogues can influence the audience to adopt their agenda. It is significant to state that one of the challenges in this thesis is to maintain the clarity of structure given the themes of the work and their rapidly evolving nature. Summarising and relating to the work, therefore, are being attempted as best as possible. While the literature primarily discusses right-wing populism