Week 3

The reading in Zawawi gave a really great outline of what theoritcal approaches and particular approaches relavant to Public Relations. I usually find theories really confusing and actually had no prior knowledge of theories behind Public Relations apart from Semiotics. My key learnings from this chapter were the theories we use and how we use them. Of particular interest to me were the following:

Agenda Setting:
-a critique about the way in which news is selected and arranged
-suggests the news media influence what we think about e.g. currently it’s the U.S. presidential campaign

How we use it:
-PR practitioners would use this theory to get prominent positive attention for an organisation
-encourages us to think carefully about the publication we are aiming for and what sort of stories they run so we can shape our information to suit it

General Systems Theory
-Suggests organisations can be operating within either an open system or closed system
Open system: takes into account the fact that organisations need to communicate internally and with its publics in order to be successful
Closed system: an organisation is sealed off from any external influences e.g. publics

How we use it:
-Open system allows PR practitioners to clearly understand an organisations communications within itself and externally. This is particularly useful to us as PR practitioners are generally the ones controlling outgoing communications
-Closed system closely examines internal communications.

Grunig’s models of the Symmetrical debate
-this uses a four model approach and is the most important of all theories.

The models are:
Model 1: Press agentry: people who do anything for attention e.g. publicists pulling stunts
Model 2: Public Information: Involves accurate one-way information about an organisation being produced
Model 3: Two-way asymmetric: two-way but biased towards an organistation
Model 4: Two-way symmetric: two-way where publics views respected as much as organisation. Everyone benefits. Ideal model

Other theories such as Habermas Critical Theory of notion of public sphere I found a little confusing.

The second reading by Gower was really overwhelming but key learnings were these:
-Public relations theory is at a crossroads: old theories are being challenged and new ones developed
-By challenging what we already know about Public Relations we can develop existing theories or create new ones
-an “excellent model” is the model seen to be the model that is most likely to work for a particular theory
-values implied by the “excellence model” that is two-way symmetry are: collaboration, negotiation and compromise
-lack of definition of Public Relations means its role is continually changing. In order to keep up with this we need to continue developing new theories.
-The two-way symmetrical theory is the most desired but as in the Zawawi model it is often the two-way asymmetrical model that is used in modern PR practice.

These readings built on my prior knowledge that it is essential we explore theories from many different disciplines in order to better understand what PR is and what it does. We need to continue to explore these different theories and challenge them. It has also become apparent in these readings that one theory will never “fit” everything. This is why it is particularly important to understand a range of theories as there will always be arguments for and against them!

References: Chapter 3 of Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed

Gower, K (2006) Public Relations Research at the Crossroads in Journal of Public Relations Research. 18 (2), 177-190.