{"title":"The secrecy−transparency dynamic: A sociological reframing of secrecy and transparency for public relations research","authors":"Anne M. Cronin","doi":"10.1177/2046147X20920800","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X20920800","url":null,"abstract":"This article offers a sociological account of how we might analyse the relationship between contemporary practices and discourses of secrecy on the one hand, and those of transparency on the other hand. While secrecy is often framed in popular and political discourses as the antithesis of transparency, in reality, their relationship is more complex and co-constitutive than may initially appear. The article argues that understanding the interface between secrecy and transparency as a socially embedded dynamic can offer public relations scholarship productive avenues for both theoretically oriented research and empirical studies. In its role in the management of the secrecy−transparency dynamic, PR plays a significant role in actively creating social relations. This article aims to provide resources for assessing the strength of this dynamic in acting to structure social, political and economic relations, and offers new perspectives on how techniques employed to manage the secrecy–transparency dynamic – including public relations – are both embedded in such relations and act to shape them.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2020-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147X20920800","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46702354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cardinal Mazarin’s Breviary of politics: Exploring parallelisms between the Baroque and public relations in a post-truth society","authors":"César García","doi":"10.1177/2046147x20920805","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147x20920805","url":null,"abstract":"This article suggests we live in a neo-Baroque era of communication between organizations and publics. The 17th and 18th centuries are particularly rich in literature about the importance of building a reputation to get and retain power. These authors consider communication management, a key factor in how monarchs, princes, and governments must relate to their constituencies to make their power sustainable. A chief minister to the French kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, Cardinal Mazarin’s Breviary of Politics offers a solid representation of Baroque thought on communication and power. A critical analysis of his book shows that many of the elements associated with Baroque art, a style born with a propagandistic purpose that appeals to irrationality and primary emotions through a combination of dramatic visual elements, could be found to have profound resemblances with the way public relations is practiced in our current post-truth era. This era shows how communication managers and leaders have been able to reach their objectives by being irrational, thanks to the echo chamber provided by both social media and mainstream media with their multiplicity of truths, where a community of like-minded individuals, sort of a correlate of the ‘believers’ in the Baroque period, are looking to confirm their preconceptions. The resemblances between Mazarin and Baroque’s simulation art, privileging appearances, the visual and emotional over facts, squares surprisingly well with how recent or current leaders such as Donald J. Trump, Boris Johnson or George W. Bush connect with the masses. Perhaps these political leaders are being irrational, but there is a rationality in using irrationality to their advantage.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2020-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147x20920805","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46715214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The man behind the woman: Publicity, celebrity public relations, and cultural intermediation","authors":"E. Ciszek","doi":"10.1177/2046147x20920821","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147x20920821","url":null,"abstract":"Since the early 20th century, public relations has been implicated in the production and sustainment of celebrity. Celebrities rely on the work of publicists to strategically cast, produce, and place discourses within spheres of popular culture. Through an extended interview with Alan Nierob, publicist of transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner, this article is an analysis of celebrity public relations as a site of cultural intermediation. Drawing on Bourdieu’s notions of habitus, capital, and fields, this article sheds light on the practice of celebrity public relations to understand how publicists leverage cultural and social capital to construct legitimacy for their clients. This study contributes to a broader sociological understanding of celebrity public relations and opens new avenues for research in considering how publicity might translate into broader socio-political impacts.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2020-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147x20920821","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41808986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"#sponsored: Consumer insights on social media influencer marketing","authors":"Savannah Lee Coco, Stine Eckert","doi":"10.1177/2046147X20920816","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X20920816","url":null,"abstract":"Through in-depth interviews with 15 women in the United States, this pilot study contributes to filling the gap in scholarship on consumer perceptions of sponsored content posted by social media influencers (SMI). We found women may follow social media influencers because of prior topic interests, perceived relatability, and authenticity. Social exchange and relationship management theories do not sufficiently account for purchasing decisions despite negative views of consumers. We argue for a new theory called Influencer-Follower Relationship Management Theory.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2020-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147X20920816","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43933263","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards a Latin American perspective in PR theory and practice","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/2046147x20933074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147x20933074","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2020-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147x20933074","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45870912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Voicing the organization on Instagram: Towards a performative understanding of employee voice","authors":"Cecilia Cassinger, Åsa Thelander","doi":"10.1177/2046147X20920820","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X20920820","url":null,"abstract":"Much is currently expected from what PR campaigns involving social media can accomplish with regard to strengthening employee voice. Previous research on voice as a specific approach to employee relations has primarily relied on the effects and mechanisms of voice. There is scant research dealing with the processes and practices of employee voice. This article outlines a performative approach to conceptualizing the practice of employee voice. It focuses on how employees perform voice in a PR campaign involving Instagram takeover. The campaign was launched by a complex organization in Scandinavia, aimed at countering negative attention in local news media and improving the reputation of the organization. This article analyses the conditions of voicing concerns in the campaign through the lens of a dramaturgical approach to social life. First, the findings indicate that voicing is a form of individual and collective performance through which the meaning of work and the campaign are negotiated in relation to both other participants and an imagined audience. Second, visual conventions and organizational culture were found to govern performances of voice on Instagram. Third, findings underscore the need to understand employee voice as a socially and culturally embedded practice.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2020-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147X20920820","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48597038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jochen Hoffmann, Karina Nyborg, Charlotte Averhoff, Simone Olesen
{"title":"The contingency of corporate political advocacy: Nike’s ‘dream crazy’ campaign with Colin Kaepernick","authors":"Jochen Hoffmann, Karina Nyborg, Charlotte Averhoff, Simone Olesen","doi":"10.1177/2046147X20920802","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X20920802","url":null,"abstract":"An emerging field of research views Corporate Political Advocacy (CPA) as a communication strategy that responds to the challenges of public relations in divided societies. CPA takes a political position in public and, by doing so, appears to deliberately alienate some of its stakeholders. This study challenges the assumption that CPA discards a unifying epideictic rhetoric in favour of agonistic politics. The investigated case is Nike’s Dream Crazy campaign starring American football player Colin Kaepernick, whose protest against race discrimination in the United States sparked a heated public debate. Although the critical analysis of the campaign and responses on Twitter reveal deep political cleavages, Nike is concurrently engaged in unchallenged communication praising the hyper-individualism of a market ideology. The epideictic contingency of Nike’s CPA undermines the social cause ostensibly at the heart of the campaign: the fight against racial discrimination.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2020-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147X20920802","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43413385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Simon Collister and Sarah Roberts-Bowman, Visual Public Relations: Strategic Communication beyond Text","authors":"T. Thomson","doi":"10.1177/2046147x19882552","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147x19882552","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147x19882552","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45869538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Critical and nonmainstream approaches to legitimacy, issues, and crisis","authors":"Damion Waymer","doi":"10.1177/2046147x19896408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147x19896408","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147x19896408","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45083782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}