Handbook of Public Relations

Citation

Heath Contributing Editor: Gabriel Vasquez, R.L. (2001), "Handbook of Public Relations", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 107-109. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccij.2001.6.2.107.1

This textbook follows in the tradition of the Dartnell Public Relations Handbook edited by Darrow, Forrestall and Cookman in the late 1960s and the Handbook of Organisational Communication edited by Jablin, Putnam, Roberts and Porter some 20 years later.

It is a major achievement to have co‐ordinated the work of 89 contributors and 78 pages of references. The index is well organised and comprehensive although it was startling not to see the words corporate communication under the word corporate or communication. Indeed the issue of semantics is not seriously addressed by any single contributor but, to be fair, the editor states that the handbook is not a finished product in an academic sense and is not a definitive statement.

Indeed, he says, “It is a step in a long pathway that eventually will lead to an even stronger era in public relations scholarship and pedagogy”. The semantic issue is being driven by e‐commerce and the editor says that “even the casual reader can sense a revolution or an evolution in thought, so that the handbook, short of being perfect, distinguishes itself by clearly marked themes prudently discussed”.

The book is divided into five sections, each with introductory chapters by the editor:

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  Section 1 defines the discipline with its shifting foundations as public relations based on relationship building.

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  Section 2 defines the practice by focussing on the dynamics of change.

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  Section 3 goes in search of best practice by learning from experience and empirical research.

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  Section 4 addresses public relations in cyberspace and the frontier of new communication technologies.

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  Section 5 speaks to the concerns of globalisation and the impact on theory and practice of multinationalism and cultural diversity.

It is difficult and probably unfair to pick on any individual chapter for particular emphasis but a comment by one author chimed with something I wrote in 1997 about research paradigm shifts. David McKie, Associate Professor of Management Communication at the University of Waikato, in a chapter “Updating Public Relations: new science, research paradigms and uneven developments”, writes:

without catching up on comparable research paradigm shifts, public relations is unlikely to find answers for either academic or activist critics. By updating public relations with new science supplemented by its cultural and management interpreters, theorists in the field would extend the existing body of knowledge and during an age of expanding interdisciplinary, would usefully shed elements of debilitating insularity (p. 91).

Such moves also would foster a culture of intellectual flexibility and research diversity better suited to emerging business, environmental, social and technological challenges.

There are theories and models a‐plenty but also explanations of what Cropp and Pincus call “the mystery of public relations: unravelling its past, unmasking its future” (p. 189). In an age of communication convergence but professional divergence, they call for a discipline which “puts aside its differences to close ranks and galvanises its factions to address compelling common concerns – starting with role, definition, terminology and education which they believe are inextricably linked” (p. 202). Dialogue replacing monologue – that is the emerging paradigm of effective public relations, argues Heath (p. 627), as markets and public policy decisions reshape the globe, whether the organisation is small or large. There is an international feel to sections of the book with debate about the development of public relations as a profession in China, Russia, the Middle East, USA, UK and elsewhere from both internal and external perspectives. An interesting chapter on accreditation by Neff suggests, “the college programmes decision to go through accreditation is not always an easy one”. The accreditation process is a lengthy and a time‐consuming documentation process and it sometimes can undermine the supposedly positive benefits of having a public relations programme accredited. Future change, she argues, will depend on the degree of co‐operation among public relations professionals, both academics and practitioners. While case studies help us to “name in order to claim” they do not a science‐based discipline make, even though organisational communication is a field in which the case study is an “invaluable research tool” (Pauly and Hutchison, p. 388).

This review barely touches upon the breadth of interest and knowledge contained in the 62 chapters offered. It is a compendium for every library shelf.