Public Relations Research: Books

To be a successful public relations professional, it's no longer enough to be great at writing press releases and establishing media contacts. You must also expertly navigate the digital world and be prepared to dovetail your skills with those of other professionals. The Public Relations Handbook is a comprehensive and invaluable guide for public relations practitioners in the 2020s and beyond, covering the multitude of skills needed in the current environment, including:   Supporting a company's marketing and sales  Leveraging social media  Managing government relations  Working with the media effectively  Communicating with the investment community  Supporting top management in the event of a crisis or scandal  Positively positioning the company's commitment to environmental, social, and governance issues   The Public Relations Handbook has been an indispensable guide for public relations professionals since the first edition was published in 1967. This new fifth edition explains how to navigate a far more complex and constantly changing digital world while facing new challenges in financial, economic, political, public health, and societal issues. Editor Robert L. Dilenschneider is a communications executive who has called on leading practitioners in the field to address the specific skill sets, strategies, and execution that public relations practitioners need today.    The scope of public relations is always expanding. Today's professionals must be prepared to deal with a wide variety of people, issues, and topics. The Public Relations Handbook will help all practitioners in the field advance their personal growth, success and careers.

This inaugural edited collection for the Communicating Responsible Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion series presents new critical discourse alongside cutting-edge practical work at the crossroads of PR, CSR, and DEI. The collection explores the active promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion as a public relations responsibility and provides new avenues for critiquing the ways in which power operates through public relations work and theory building. Featuring contributions from leading scholars from across the PR, CSR, and DEI fields, Public Relations for Social Responsibilityexplores key issues including the legal and economic frameworks thwarting authentic social responsibility and DEI, the unique social responsibility style of women and people of color managing organizations, and expanding the social responsibility critique to include non-human stakeholders and the environment. Chapters illuminate international and industrial contexts at the intersection of PR, CSR and DEI, including historical perspective on DEI roadblocks in the U.S., PR in the time of COVID-19 crises, organizational bullying, DEI, AI and PR ethics, animals as stakeholders, inclusion as CSR component, CEO activism on the African continent, and PR's responsibility in transforming society. The collection will introduce new conceptual and practical approaches highly relevant to scholars of Communication, Management and Corporate Social Responsibility in a global context.

The sixth edition of Strategic Planning for Public Relations offers an innovative and clear approach for students wanting to learn how to develop public relations campaigns.   Ron Smith shows how to implement research-driven strategic campaigns, drawing on his experience as a professional in the industry and his teaching in the classroom. He turns complex problem-solving and decision-making processes in strategic communication and public relations into easy-to-follow steps, flexible enough to apply to various situations and organizations in the real world. This new edition includes real-world, diverse examples of cases and current events, along with classic cases that stand the test of time. It includes new research on opinions and practices, covers award-winning public relations campaigns, and significantly increases information on social media, with a reformatting of the Tactics section to highlight social media within the PESO framework of paid, earned, shared, and owned media. 　 As a leader in teaching public relations strategy, this text is ideal for students in upper division undergraduate and graduate courses in public relations strategy and campaigns.   Complementing the book are online resources for both students and instructors. For students: chapter overviews, useful links to professional organizations and resources, and an overview of careers in public relations. For instructors: an instructors' manual, lecture slides, and sample course materials. Please visit www.routledge.com/cw/smith.

With more time to communicate than ever before, we find ourselves in a dystopian world where platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are disintermediating traditional media channels, resulting in the loss of jobs in newsrooms, and creating an era where truth is now in the eye of the beholder. At the same time we are embracing the power of big data and analytics to tell us what business leaders should say and do. Is that the right approach or are we just taking the easy way out?  Aimed primarily at communications management professionals, Our Future in Public Relations explores whether the profession of public relations still matters today. Is PR just a new form of marketing or is it more alive and important than ever before, especially as a driver of purpose-driven organizations? In an era of fake news and diminishing trust, it's time to ask exactly what our future in public relations will be.

Cases in Public Relations Strategy, by Burton St. John III, Diana K. Martinelli, Robert S. Pritchard, and Cylor Spaulding, draws on original, real-world case studies to provide you with a strategic approach to meeting the needs of a client before, during, and beyond a campaign. Using the RACE (Research, Action Planning, Communication, and Evaluation) model, you will explore successful contemporary campaigns and evaluate best practices in all major areas of public relations activity. This practical, client-oriented text shows you how to systematically evaluate and adapt to the needs of a particular client--whether big or small, global or local, for-profit or nonprofit--in order to launch the most effective campaign. Each case includes a brief introduction focused on fundamentals and core competencies, and all cases have been carefully selected to present a wide range of client types. In addition to the lessons from professionals in the case studies, a section on PR consulting and an appendix on advancing your PR career give you the knowledge and skills you need for success in the field.  

This second edition of An Overview of the Public Relations Function examines current thought to help busy managers and students master the most important concepts of management in communication quickly, accessibly, and with an eye to helping an organization achieve excellence through cutting-edge, research-based strategic public relations management. This book acquaints the manager with the lexicon of the field and provides research on the theory of public relations, its sub-functions, such as research or public affairs, and the ethical guideline CERT formula: Credibility, Ethics, Relationships, Trust. It also examines the role of the chief communications officer (CCO) and leadership, organizational culture, structure, effectiveness, managing stakeholders and publics, using research to create strategy, and the four-step process of public relations management ("RACE"). Finally, the authors discuss the advanced management concepts of issues management, specialization in the sectors of public relations, managing values, deontological ethics, conducting moral analyses, and counseling management. They review what research found in regard to the most excellent ways to manage public relations and relationships: both beginning and ending with ethics.

This book brings together a broad and diverse range of new and radical approaches to public relations focussing on the increasingly vital role that visual, sensory and physical elements factors play in shaping communication. Engaging with recent developments in critical and cultural theories, it outlines how non-textual and non-representational forces play a central role in the efficacy and reception of public relations. Challenging the dominant accounts of public relations which center on the purely representational uses of text and imagery, the book critiques the suitability of accepted definitions of the field and highlights future directions for conceptualizing strategic communication within a multi-sensory environment. Drawing on the work of global researchers in public relations, visual culture and communication, design and cultural theory, it brings a welcome inter-disciplinary approach which pushes the boundaries of public relations scholarship in a global cultural context. This exciting analysis will be of great interest to public relations scholars, advanced students of strategic communication, as well as communication researchers from cultural, media and critical studies exploring PR as a socio-cultural phenomenon.

This book argues that public relations is not merely an organizational tool, but a powerful influence on social and political life. From carefully considered communication by multinational corporations, to government campaigns that manage public opinion, to the self-promotion of celebrities via social media, public relations is central to our individual and collective lives. Understanding Public Relations introduces a socio-cultural approach to public relations as a way of analysing the growing importance of public relations in its social, cultural and political contexts. Encouraging a deeper and more critical understanding of its influence on society, Lee Edwards: Explores public relations in relation to contemporary debates around promotional culture, discourse, globalisation, democracy and power Considers how public relations frames vital discussions of race, gender, class and ethics Brings theory to life with a range of case studies, including YouTube vlogging, the global fair trade movement and the 2016 EU referendum in the UK Both accessible and provocative, this is an invaluable resource for students and researchers exploring public relations theory, critical public relations, strategic communication and promotional culture.

Nowhere is the study of workplace ethics more relevant today than in the context of empowering organizations to meet their goals in corporate social responsibility and sustainability (CSR/S). Aimed at helping organizations uphold their commitments to people and the planet as well as profit, these are core goals towards which both PR and HR departments now work.  However one major stumbling block is the fact that while internal departments may regularly work closely when managing and communicating with employees, the communication flow tends to be top down. In order to create more socially responsible, sustainable, and ethical organizations, the communication flow must be more organic and bilateral. The question of how both teams could work together on a more even playing field has escaped scholarly inquiry for years.  Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, & Ethical Public Relations: Strengthening Synergies with Human Resourcesexamines ways to make CSR/S an integrated ingredient and ethical hallmark for an organization's culture. Here authors from around the globe use a variety of research methods to offer practical, empirical findings, exploring opportunities for employees to serve as a conduit for organizations' CSR/S goals. This book shows how HR-PR department cooperation can fulfil the role of organizational conscience, helping for-profits and non-profits to navigate toward greater CSR/S.