C. Kay Weaver

A Discourse Perspective for Critical Public Relations Research: Life Sciences Network and the Battle for Truth

Critical public relations scholarship is increasingly required to justify the contribution that is made to theory and practice. Within this article, an integrated political economy and discourse analysis is deployed to examine a progenetic engineering advocacy campaign conducted by the Life Sciences Network in New Zealand. The analysis demonstrates the value of examining the sociopolitical contexts in which public relations operates and the discourses that it seeks to produce or influence and thus provides a constructive foundation for further critical research.

‘Getting on’: older New Zealanders’ perceptions of computing

This article explores older New Zealanders’ perceptions of the barriers to, benefits and negative consequences of computer-based information and communication technologies (ICTs) through the analysis of focus group discussions involving 98 respondents. Older people engage with computers in a context constituted by discourses positioning them as declining in the ability to learn skills such as computing, but creating a burden on society if they do not. In this paradoxical context, participants identified emotional and material barriers, as well as benefits and negative consequences to computer use that are shaped by age and gender. Significant gaps between the New Zealand Government’s identification of the benefits of computing for older people and the benefits identified by older people themselves are highlighted. The article argues for the need for a more balanced approach acknowledging potential negative consequences, promoting the ‘people-centred’ benefits of computer use over and above the national economic benefits emphasized in the government’s drive to encourage older people’s uptake of computer-based ICTs.

Sabotage and subterfuge: public relations, democracy and genetic engineering in New Zealand

This article examines the public relations management of communication about genetic engineering in New Zealand. The theme is explored through an analysis of work developed by the consultancy Communication Trumps for, on the one hand, a private company involved in genetic research on fish, and, on the other hand, a government-supported public information campaign about genetic engineering. In relation to the issues management strategies employed by Communication Trumps, the article exemplifies how, by deploying tactics more commonly associated with propaganda and the engineering of consent, public relations can purposively attempt to undermine democratic processes. The article argues that through the attempted sabotage and silencing of the genetic engineering debate in New Zealand, the government, corporations, and the public relations industry combined in an effort to develop genetic engineering technologies while stifling public understanding of the implication of these technologies.

Focus Groups as Sites of Influential Interaction: Building Communicative Self-Efficacy and Effecting Attitudinal Change in Discussing Controversial Topics

Although most focus group theorists consider interaction to be a defining feature of focus groups, the influence that occurs through this interaction has been under-theorized. We argue that two important forms of influence may occur: influence on peoples beliefs about the substantive issues under discussion and influence on self-efficacy beliefs. As a result of such influence, focus groups provide a learning context that may facilitate empowerment of participants through the development of communicative self-efficacy as they struggle over constructing and sharing understandings of controversial issues. As part of a larger research project on dialogues about science, we present a case study that puts qualitatively analyzed transcripts of interaction and quantitative self-report measures into empirical conversation. The case study demonstrated that focus group participants were influenced in two important ways: participation and interaction led to increased participant confidence and motivation towards participating in public dialogues and to the construction, modification, and contestation of attitudes toward science, scientists, and biotechnology. Findings suggest that scholars should rethink their rationales for and use of the focus group as just a method of data collection and reconsider and explore alternative ways of presenting focus group results.

The epistemic struggle for credibility: Rethinking media relations

The challenges of attracting positive media attention are likened to a contest in which various organisations attempt to promote and circulate their version of events; however, this is particularly difficult when attempting to circulate less established, unpopular or critical knowledge. Although complying with, and managing, news values is an important starting point, the need to move beyond news values to consider the commercial values and realities of media organisations is highlighted. In this paper, a case study is undertaken of the Greenpeace media relations in New Zealand when a proposed controversial expiry of a moratorium to release genetically modified organisms into the environment. The predicament for Greenpeace is that in attracting media attention through dramatic protests it risks jeopardising its reputation as a credible news source that can influence the framing of news stories. Insights are offered into the need for organisations to understand and manage the story or knowledge to be circulated and comply with contradictory news values.

Talking ‘facts’: identity and rationality in industry perspectives on genetic modification

Despite the potential political impact of industry attempts to influence public policy about genetic modification, little research has focused on critical understanding of industry perspectives. This article explores the rhetorical and discursive construction of public messages about this controversial issue by two major New Zealand export industries. The kiwifruit industry advocates a very cautious public policy position, while the dairy industry has been a strong advocate for the commercial development of genetic modification. We demonstrate that these industries draw on multiple identities and rationalities to negotiate, express, and elaborate their positions on genetic modification, informed variously by discourses of risk, science, the political economy of the marketplace, and images of the ‘natural’ environment. We suggest that exploring how organizations seek to influence controversial socio-political issues through the management of multiple identities may facilitate greater understanding of viewpoints often represented in the media as two distinct polarities; that is as either ‘for’ or ‘against’ the issues.

Influence in science dialogue: Individual attitude changes as a result of dialogue between laypersons and scientists

Dialogue as a science communication process has been idealized in both practitioner and scholarly literature. However, there is inconsistency in what is meant by dialogue, the forms it should take, and its purported consequences. Empirical research on the experienced benefits of dialogue is limited. The present study addresses this gap by examining attitudinal changes among laypeople and scientists in dialogue on the topic of human biotechnology (HBT). We found that, as a result of participation in dialogue, laypeople’s attitudes toward scientists were more positive and scientists’ and laypeople’s attitudes toward HBT tended to converge. Additionally, laypeople reported increased communicative self-efficacy after the dialogue experience. However, effects in some cases differed by dialogue format. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

The Role of Employee Identification and Organizational Identity in Strategic Communication and Organizational Issues Management about Genetic Modification

This article examines the organizational identities and strategic communication of two New Zealand primary export organizations as they managed intense public debate surrounding the potential impacts of genetic modification. We examine the similarities and differences in identifications at multiple levels in these organizations, illustrating the value and, by implication, policy positions held simultaneously by individual organizational members, groups, and the organizations as collective entities. These positions also serve as points of reference in public discourse about genetic modification. Our empirically grounded, critical interpretive analysis reveals the roles played by employee identification and organizational identity formation in strategic communication and organizational issues management about controversial public policies. In these ways, the analysis makes important connections between “the organizational voice” typically represented in issues management and individual members’ identifications, and offers evidence for how the latter might be taken into account in the development of strategic communication.

Discursive manoeuvres and hegemonic recuperations in New Zealand documentary representations of domestic violence

This paper examines three television documentaries--entitled Not Just a Domestic (1994), Not Just a Domestic: The Update (1994), and Picking Up the Pieces (1996)--that together formed part of the New Zealand police ‘Family Violence’ media campaign. Through a Foucauldian, feminist poststructuralist discourse analysis, the paper examines how these texts assert and privilege particular understandings of domestic violence, its causes, effects and possible solutions. The analysis illustrates the way in which five discursive explanations of domestic violence--those of medical pathology, romantic expressive tension, liberal humanist instrumentalism, tabula rasa learning and socio-systematic discourse--are articulated and hierarchically organised within these documentaries, and considers the potential hegemonic effects of each text’s discursive negotiations. It is argued that the centrality of personal ‘case studies’ and the testimonies of both battered women and formerly violent men work to privilege individualistic rather than sociopolitical explanations of domestic violence. Additionally, the inclusion of extensive ‘survivor speech’ means that women are frequently asked to explain and rationalize their actions as ‘victims’ of domestic violence, while fewer demands are placed on male perpetrators to account for their violent behaviour. Consequently, the documentaries leave the issue of male abuse of power largely unchallenged, and in this way ultimately affirm patriarchal hegemonic interests.

Chinese advertising practitioners’ conceptualisation of gender representation

This paper identifies how Chinese advertising practitioners’ cultural perceptions of gender influence their creation of advertising representations. The research is based on interviews with creative directors, copywriters, art directors and strategic planners working in China’s advertising industry. The findings shed light on the decision-making processes and cultural, professional and social imperatives, as well as perceptions of audiences that support particular approaches to the encoding of gender in Chinese advertising. The study also provides insight into how advertising practitioners’ representation of gender is guided by global (western) and local (Chinese) influences that inform their stereotypical conceptualization of gender differences in terms of shopping behaviours, purchasing power and use of products.