- Email: [email protected]
Public Relations Cases
236
Book reviews
That’s just a minor misstep. Lordan more than compensates by seeding throughout the book 35 sidebar passages that add a best-practices dimension to his own practicum. The sidebars are largely drawn from Public Relations Tactics, and to have such a collection of excerpts from the publication’s past notable articles is a bonus for the reader of Essentials. How inspiring, for example, to be exposed anew to Jean Farinelli’s September 1996 article, “Tips for Agency-Client Relations,” which includes this gem (p. 9): Be Unique: Develop a PR operating style that gets your clients excited to see you when you arrive at their office. Boggle their minds with ideas. Stimulate their thinking. Set yourself and your work apart from their everyday routine. Lordan also demonstrates good judgment and service to the reader by including as the penultimate sidebar the “PRSA Code of Ethics and Ethics Pledge” (p. 148). In this day of ethically challenged organizational leadership, any would-be manager should have the PRSA Code for ready reading on his or her bookshelf. He scoffs at the notion that “public relations is not perceived to have sufficient gravitas to justify a management position” (p. x). Scoffing is one thing; showing the talented doers of PR how to move into a management role is another. Lordan shows how it can be done. Essentials is a book that I have drawn upon for class instruction in a PR course that I teach, and one that deserves consideration as a new tool to elevate the level of talent within the public relations profession. James Kristie Directors & Boards, 1845 Walnut Street Suite 900, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Kristie) 7 January 2004 doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2004.02.007
Public Relations Cases Jerry A. Hendrix, Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, Belmont, CA, 2004, 446 pp., paper, $ 66.95 Although occasional cases appear in the pages of undergraduate public relations textbooks, few (with the exception of Fearn-Bank’s Crisis Communication) take a casebook approach to the subject. Recently released in its sixth edition, Public Relations Cases continues to demonstrate Hendrix’s long-held philosophy that effective public relations consists of interactive participation between organizations and their audiences. In Part I, Hendrix offers a short introduction to his organization/audience interplay perspective; he also briefly dips into ethical considerations (including the latest Public Relations Society of America Code of Ethics as an appendix), which deserves far more attention than the mere two and one-half pages he devotes to the topic. Hendrix then launches his process model (Research, Objectives, Programming, Evaluation—ROPE), providing a framework for the text’s remaining chapters. Although the model contains similar elements to those developed by other practitioners and scholars, ROPE displays both useful and questionable emphases. Laudable is the acronym’s clear underscoring of objec-
Book reviews
237
tives, which practitioners—and their CEO’s—will find important. However, Hendrix lumps public relations planning under programming (which also includes implementation), understating planning’s need for clear connection to objectives. Planning’s critical role may get lost in Hendrix’s clever mnemonic device. The eight chapters contained in Part II cover public relations applications to specific audiences, ranging from media relations to internal communications, community relations, public affairs, investor relations, consumer relations, international PR, and “special” publics; Parts III and IV cover “emergency” or crisis PR as well as integrated marketing communications. Chock full of relevant cases from a vast array of organizational types, sizes, and issues, these chapters’ examples of public relations in practice will certainly enhance classroom discussions. The problem is, they all start to sound the same. Every chapter fits within a template, using Hendrix’s ROPE acronym as the guide. Professors placing themselves in their students’ shoes—as text readers—could view this as a help or a hindrance. On one hand, familiar set-ups may help students understand PR applications thoroughly from a process-centered point of view. On the other hand, students may begin thinking of PR as a cookie-cutter approach, to be applied uniformly to any type of dough. This borders on dangerous territory. Another caution lies in Hendrix’s prescriptive writing. Although each chapter is highly organized and contains specific examples of research approaches, sample objectives, programming ideas, and a short (in some cases only a brief paragraph) word about evaluation for the PR application in question, relatively little in this textbook prompts students to engage in critical thinking. On what theoretical bases are the suggested practices founded? What research has been conducted—other than interviews for descriptive case studies—to explain outcomes? How can an organization understand its multiple publics—at varying levels of involvement—well enough to engage in participative public relations? How does public relations as a function fit into organizational structure, and what type of structure enables PR to perform with excellence? Students looking for answers to these and other crucial questions will come up dry in Hendrix’s text. Perhaps most interesting is Hendrix’s approach to public relations as “mostly persuasion.” Indeed, many organizations—though certainly not all—practice public relations from just this perspective. This often creates tensions between the practitioners doing the hiring and the recent graduates educated in the symmetrical relationship view of PR. Consider the current debate in academia: Although recent research by Grunig, Grunig, and Dozier suggests that the Excellence Theory of Public Relations, which promotes the practice of symmetrical public relations, does, in fact, exist in a number of organizations studied, critics who consider this theory to be merely normative and overly idealistic continue their arguments about its practicality. Hendrix takes the middle ground. Suggesting that audience involvement growing out of self-persuasion is crucial to successful public relations, he appears to be attempting a marriage—or at least a connection—between those in the more asymmetrical, persuasion camp and those in the more symmetrical, participative camp. Proponents of either view will find the text worth considering simply because it provides students with the opportunity to further explore this philosophical dichotomy. To his credit, Hendrix has used Public Relations Cases to focus much-needed attention on the importance of understanding (and teaching) public relations as an proactive, interactive process, not a reactive “spin” job. And he goes beyond the classic illustrations, featuring brand-new cases (including two illustrating public relations surrounding September 11) that allow students to see a variety of current public relations practices in a wide range of situations. The professor using only this text, however, will do his or her students a disservice. Public Relations Cases is a fine supplemental text, but if public relations as a
238
Book reviews
profession and an academic field is to gain further credibility and respect, classroom discussions must go far beyond cookie-cutter processes and their applications to cases. The theoretical knowledge and critical thinking found in other textbooks must also be part of the larger PR classroom picture. Nance McCown Department of Communication, Messiah College Boyer Hall, One College Avenue, Grantham, PA 17027, USA E-mail address: [email protected] (N. McCown) 5 January 2004 doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2004.02.008
News, Public Relations, and Power Simon Cottle (Ed.), Sage Publications, London, 2003, 181 pages, $29.95 Understanding the complex relationships between media, corporations, activist groups, and governments is an essential aspect of being an effective public relations practitioner. In News, Public Relations, and Power, the author focuses on these players as they struggle to dominate the media. Most examples depicted come from Great Britain where, according to the book, the government not only spent considerable resources directed at creating a positive image but found a way to exert some control over the media. Although activist groups have successfully gained the attention of the media with a few communication campaigns, in Great Britain corporations still dominate the media. The first chapter “maps the field,” laying out the context in which the material in each chapter is analyzed. Cottle defines public relations as “the deliberate management of public image and information in pursuit of organizational interests.” By using this definition, Cottle implies that public relations is almost exclusively press agentry and denies the strategic and managerial aspects of public relations. Cottle also overlooks the importance of public relations in building long-term, strategic relationships with publics and averting crises. In subsequent chapters, Cottle and other experts in the field analyze the relationship between power and public relations. For Cottle and his co-authors, public relations gains power through media coverage. Cottle further underscores the “promotional nature” of public relations by discussing how politicians have dominated the media and how corporations have kept their bad practices hidden. He also identifies four categories which influence an entity’s ability to use public relations effectively: economic capital, media capital, human resources, and media-source affinity. These four are seen as valuable if a corporation’s goal is to gain media exposure. The book also attempts to explore the unique characteristics of journalism. Journalists, according to the book, gain power during periods of war, political elections, or general instability when the public relies heavily on media to explain situations occurring beyond their local community. One of the authors, Wolsfsfeld, discusses the complex bond between the media and politics by developing a “political contest model.” He shows how groups could apply this model to gain credibility and increase media prominence. On activist groups, two other authors, Deacon and Anderson, describe how non-governmental groups such as trade unions or Greenpeace have successfully launched communication campaigns, showed the
Book reviews
That’s just a minor misstep. Lordan more than compensates by seeding throughout the book 35 sidebar passages that add a best-practices dimension to his own practicum. The sidebars are largely drawn from Public Relations Tactics, and to have such a collection of excerpts from the publication’s past notable articles is a bonus for the reader of Essentials. How inspiring, for example, to be exposed anew to Jean Farinelli’s September 1996 article, “Tips for Agency-Client Relations,” which includes this gem (p. 9): Be Unique: Develop a PR operating style that gets your clients excited to see you when you arrive at their office. Boggle their minds with ideas. Stimulate their thinking. Set yourself and your work apart from their everyday routine. Lordan also demonstrates good judgment and service to the reader by including as the penultimate sidebar the “PRSA Code of Ethics and Ethics Pledge” (p. 148). In this day of ethically challenged organizational leadership, any would-be manager should have the PRSA Code for ready reading on his or her bookshelf. He scoffs at the notion that “public relations is not perceived to have sufficient gravitas to justify a management position” (p. x). Scoffing is one thing; showing the talented doers of PR how to move into a management role is another. Lordan shows how it can be done. Essentials is a book that I have drawn upon for class instruction in a PR course that I teach, and one that deserves consideration as a new tool to elevate the level of talent within the public relations profession. James Kristie Directors & Boards, 1845 Walnut Street Suite 900, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Kristie) 7 January 2004 doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2004.02.007
Public Relations Cases Jerry A. Hendrix, Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, Belmont, CA, 2004, 446 pp., paper, $ 66.95 Although occasional cases appear in the pages of undergraduate public relations textbooks, few (with the exception of Fearn-Bank’s Crisis Communication) take a casebook approach to the subject. Recently released in its sixth edition, Public Relations Cases continues to demonstrate Hendrix’s long-held philosophy that effective public relations consists of interactive participation between organizations and their audiences. In Part I, Hendrix offers a short introduction to his organization/audience interplay perspective; he also briefly dips into ethical considerations (including the latest Public Relations Society of America Code of Ethics as an appendix), which deserves far more attention than the mere two and one-half pages he devotes to the topic. Hendrix then launches his process model (Research, Objectives, Programming, Evaluation—ROPE), providing a framework for the text’s remaining chapters. Although the model contains similar elements to those developed by other practitioners and scholars, ROPE displays both useful and questionable emphases. Laudable is the acronym’s clear underscoring of objec-
Book reviews
237
tives, which practitioners—and their CEO’s—will find important. However, Hendrix lumps public relations planning under programming (which also includes implementation), understating planning’s need for clear connection to objectives. Planning’s critical role may get lost in Hendrix’s clever mnemonic device. The eight chapters contained in Part II cover public relations applications to specific audiences, ranging from media relations to internal communications, community relations, public affairs, investor relations, consumer relations, international PR, and “special” publics; Parts III and IV cover “emergency” or crisis PR as well as integrated marketing communications. Chock full of relevant cases from a vast array of organizational types, sizes, and issues, these chapters’ examples of public relations in practice will certainly enhance classroom discussions. The problem is, they all start to sound the same. Every chapter fits within a template, using Hendrix’s ROPE acronym as the guide. Professors placing themselves in their students’ shoes—as text readers—could view this as a help or a hindrance. On one hand, familiar set-ups may help students understand PR applications thoroughly from a process-centered point of view. On the other hand, students may begin thinking of PR as a cookie-cutter approach, to be applied uniformly to any type of dough. This borders on dangerous territory. Another caution lies in Hendrix’s prescriptive writing. Although each chapter is highly organized and contains specific examples of research approaches, sample objectives, programming ideas, and a short (in some cases only a brief paragraph) word about evaluation for the PR application in question, relatively little in this textbook prompts students to engage in critical thinking. On what theoretical bases are the suggested practices founded? What research has been conducted—other than interviews for descriptive case studies—to explain outcomes? How can an organization understand its multiple publics—at varying levels of involvement—well enough to engage in participative public relations? How does public relations as a function fit into organizational structure, and what type of structure enables PR to perform with excellence? Students looking for answers to these and other crucial questions will come up dry in Hendrix’s text. Perhaps most interesting is Hendrix’s approach to public relations as “mostly persuasion.” Indeed, many organizations—though certainly not all—practice public relations from just this perspective. This often creates tensions between the practitioners doing the hiring and the recent graduates educated in the symmetrical relationship view of PR. Consider the current debate in academia: Although recent research by Grunig, Grunig, and Dozier suggests that the Excellence Theory of Public Relations, which promotes the practice of symmetrical public relations, does, in fact, exist in a number of organizations studied, critics who consider this theory to be merely normative and overly idealistic continue their arguments about its practicality. Hendrix takes the middle ground. Suggesting that audience involvement growing out of self-persuasion is crucial to successful public relations, he appears to be attempting a marriage—or at least a connection—between those in the more asymmetrical, persuasion camp and those in the more symmetrical, participative camp. Proponents of either view will find the text worth considering simply because it provides students with the opportunity to further explore this philosophical dichotomy. To his credit, Hendrix has used Public Relations Cases to focus much-needed attention on the importance of understanding (and teaching) public relations as an proactive, interactive process, not a reactive “spin” job. And he goes beyond the classic illustrations, featuring brand-new cases (including two illustrating public relations surrounding September 11) that allow students to see a variety of current public relations practices in a wide range of situations. The professor using only this text, however, will do his or her students a disservice. Public Relations Cases is a fine supplemental text, but if public relations as a
238
Book reviews
profession and an academic field is to gain further credibility and respect, classroom discussions must go far beyond cookie-cutter processes and their applications to cases. The theoretical knowledge and critical thinking found in other textbooks must also be part of the larger PR classroom picture. Nance McCown Department of Communication, Messiah College Boyer Hall, One College Avenue, Grantham, PA 17027, USA E-mail address: [email protected] (N. McCown) 5 January 2004 doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2004.02.008
News, Public Relations, and Power Simon Cottle (Ed.), Sage Publications, London, 2003, 181 pages, $29.95 Understanding the complex relationships between media, corporations, activist groups, and governments is an essential aspect of being an effective public relations practitioner. In News, Public Relations, and Power, the author focuses on these players as they struggle to dominate the media. Most examples depicted come from Great Britain where, according to the book, the government not only spent considerable resources directed at creating a positive image but found a way to exert some control over the media. Although activist groups have successfully gained the attention of the media with a few communication campaigns, in Great Britain corporations still dominate the media. The first chapter “maps the field,” laying out the context in which the material in each chapter is analyzed. Cottle defines public relations as “the deliberate management of public image and information in pursuit of organizational interests.” By using this definition, Cottle implies that public relations is almost exclusively press agentry and denies the strategic and managerial aspects of public relations. Cottle also overlooks the importance of public relations in building long-term, strategic relationships with publics and averting crises. In subsequent chapters, Cottle and other experts in the field analyze the relationship between power and public relations. For Cottle and his co-authors, public relations gains power through media coverage. Cottle further underscores the “promotional nature” of public relations by discussing how politicians have dominated the media and how corporations have kept their bad practices hidden. He also identifies four categories which influence an entity’s ability to use public relations effectively: economic capital, media capital, human resources, and media-source affinity. These four are seen as valuable if a corporation’s goal is to gain media exposure. The book also attempts to explore the unique characteristics of journalism. Journalists, according to the book, gain power during periods of war, political elections, or general instability when the public relies heavily on media to explain situations occurring beyond their local community. One of the authors, Wolsfsfeld, discusses the complex bond between the media and politics by developing a “political contest model.” He shows how groups could apply this model to gain credibility and increase media prominence. On activist groups, two other authors, Deacon and Anderson, describe how non-governmental groups such as trade unions or Greenpeace have successfully launched communication campaigns, showed the