Lee Edwards

Defining the ‘object’ of public relations research: A new starting point:

In this article I consider the importance of paradigmatic variety in the scholarly field of public relations. I reflect on the role that both conflict and cooperation between different paradigms play in the development of academic fields, and review definitions of public relations to examine the extent to which both are present in public relations scholarship. Based on this discussion, I consider the assumptions that underpin existing approaches to public relations in order to reveal the ways in which they are connected, as well as differentiated, along a series of continua. I conclude by proposing a new definition of public relations, as flow rather than organizational function, that can accommodate the range of research encompassed by these continua, thereby facilitating greater unity, inclusivity and, I would hope, dialogue in the field.

Symbolic Power and Public Relations Practice: Locating Individual Practitioners in Their Social Context

This article applies Pierre Bourdieus understandings of capital and symbolic power to the public relations environment, to establish a link between the practice of public relations and the social effects of the profession. A three-month case study in the corporate affairs team of a UK passenger transport operator revealed the manner in which the pursuit and maintenance of power is potentially present in all public relations activities. Bourdieus framework connects individual practice with the social effects of public relations and gives practitioners and academics a new starting point for understanding the nature of power in public relations practice.

Authenticity in organisational context: fragmentation, contradiction and loss of control

Purpose – Dialogue and debate in todays public sphere increasingly engage with audiences that are sophisticated in their assessments of both the intent and the quality of formal communication. In this promotional culture, increased scepticism about the degree to which organisations and political parties can be trusted to be genuine has resulted in a renewed focus on authenticity in communication. However, being “authentic” is easier said than done. The notion of authenticity is complex; research has defined it as an individual attribute, an organisational attribute, and a source of organisational capital in the quest for a market. This paper aims to review the understandings of authenticity as an individual attribute and draw on them to understand the problematic of authenticity as an organisational or brand characteristic, marketed to generate compliance from audiences.Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes the form of a conceptual analysis of literature on authenticity.Findings – The analysis re...

Exploring the Role of Public Relations as a Cultural Intermediary Occupation

This article sets out an argument for paying greater sociological attention to the public relations industry as an important mechanism through which society and culture are formed. It offers a theoretical and empirical exploration of public relations practice which begins to address this lacuna, using a Bourdieuian framework. After introducing the public relations industry and cultural intermediation, arguments are made for the centrality of discursive struggle in Bourdieu’s work, drawing on other theorists as necessary to make explicit the logic that puts language and discourse at the centre of the struggle for symbolic power. This clarifies the importance of public relations as an object of sociological analysis. Bourdieu’s conception of practice is then reflected on and applied to public relations, before the findings from an exploratory case study are considered. The article concludes by reviewing implications for future theoretical and empirical work in this area.

Framing the consumer Copyright regulation and the public

With illegal downloading at the centre of debates about the creative economy, various policy initiatives and regulatory attempts have tried (and largely failed) to control, persuade and punish users into adhering to copyright law. Rights holders, policymakers, intermediaries and users each circulate and maintain particular attitudes about appropriate uses of digital media. This article maps the failure of regulation to control user behaviour, considers various policy and academic research approaches to understanding users, and introduces an analytical framework that re-evaluates user resistance as expressions of legitimate justifications. A democratic copyright policymaking process must accommodate the modes of justification offered by users to allow copyright law to reconnect with the public interest goals at its foundation.

Discourse, credentialism and occupational closure in the communications industries: The case of public relations in the UK

This article addresses the problem of stubbornly low levels of diversity in the communications industries, using the case of public relations to illustrate the points made. The author explores how disciplinary discourses of occupational practice and identity combine with representations of normative embodiment to construct and communicate a system of informal credentialism in the field that marginalises certain identities. Through a critical discourse analysis of formal texts that circulate across the industry, the author illustrates how apparently value-neutral presentations of PR work and workers exclude BME and working-class practitioners who cannot easily demonstrate a natural ‘fit’ with client, consultancy or colleague. The findings illustrate how the construction of informal credentialism through discourse may be acting as a powerful source of closure across the communications industries.

Public relations and ‘its’ media: Exploring the role of trade media in the enactment of public relations’ professional project

This article explores the relationship between trade media and the construction of occupational legitimacy in the context of professional projects, using the example of public relations. We suggest that the practices of trade journalism result in such media playing the role of an institutional sub-system within occupational fields such as public relations, helping to construct occupational archetypes that have disciplinary effects on practitioners and provide the basis for public claims to legitimacy. We illustrate our argument by presenting the results of a critical discourse analysis of PRWeek, the main trade publication for public relations in the UK, to demonstrate how jurisdiction, practice and practitioners are constructed through media discourses in ways that serve the professional project articulated by the powerful actors in the field.

Producing trust, knowledge and expertise in financial markets: The global hedge fund industry ‘re-presents’ itself

The global financial crisis increased critique towards hedge funds, raising the possibility of unprecedented global regulation which threatened to put some hedge funds out of business. In the face of threats to operational freedom and market advantage, hedge funds responded by engaging in a debate about their future. This study explores discursive strategies employed by the Alternative Investment Management Association, the global hedge fund trade body, to produce trust in the hedge fund industry and its institutions. A set of defined and overlapping trust practices are introduced as a means of analysing power and trust production in the ongoing discursive shifts of global systems.

Understanding copyright: intellectual property in the digital age

Chapter 1: Introduction: Understanding Copyright in the Digital Age Chapter 2: A Brief History of Copyright: Where We Are and How We Got Here Chapter 3: Copyright and the Creative Economy: How the Cultural Industries Exert Influence Chapter 4: Technologies and Corporations in the Middle: How Internet Intermediaries are Drawn into the Debate Chapter 5: Creative Workers and Copyright: How Current and Future Creators Benefit from Cultural Labour Chapter 6: Consumers, Criminals, Patrons, Pirates: How Users Connect to Copyright Chapter 7: Copyright Policy: How Policy Represents (or Fails to Represent) Different Groups Chapter 8: The Future of Copyright: How We Can Learn from the Debate

‘Isn’t it just a way to protect Walt Disney’s rights?’: Media user perspectives on copyright:

With digitization allowing for faster and easier sharing and copying of media, the behaviour and attitudes of everyday users of copyrighted material have become an increasing focus of policy, industry and academic attention. This article connects historical characterizations of copyright infringement and the role of the public interest in the development of copyright law and policy with the complex experience of modern, ordinary users of digital media. Users are proposed not as transgressors to be educated, regulated or scared straight, nor as a hazy and largely silent public, but as sources of legitimate perspectives that could contribute to conversations about media, creativity and regulation.