Beyond clickbait and commerce

Recommendations

Info

Recognising the shadow elements of PR – persuasion and its even darker cousin propaganda – brings the issue of power to the foreground in Fawkes’ analysis, including economic, social, and cultural power, although interestingly she does not mention political power. Despite her strong criticisms of dominant theories of PR and shameful practices that are enacted (Stauber and Rampton 1995), Fawkes does not dismiss PR per se or stop at deconstruction. She uses Jung’s depth psychology to point out that, in the case of individuals, the ‘self’ is composed of multiple elements that often act in conflict or tension with each other, describing this as a ‘messy psyche’ (p. 141). So it is with organisations, Fawkes suggests. The point is to recognise the dark side, the power imbalances, the potentialities for harm as well as good, and deal with them rather than veneer them over with idealistic theories, self-serving managerial and functionalist models of practice, and aspirational and unenforceable codes of ethics. Fawkes also constructively calls for an end to the ‘slanging match’ that often occurs between critical scholars and proponents of the dominant paradigm, and sees hope in newly emerging sociocultural thinking about PR that seeks to integrate the interests of organisations and society. Fawkes also draws on a substantial body of literature beyond Jung, including the social theories of Durkheim and Weber, Habermas’s public sphere and its corrupting influences (Habermas 1989), and Bourdieu’s habitus (Bourdieu 1984), as well as complexity theory, chaos theory, postmodernism and concepts such as reflexivity. In contrast with triumphalist texts on PR, Fawkes refreshingly practises reflexivity, citing her own experiences as a PR practitioner before becoming an academic, and ‘owning up’ to her own doubts and uncertainties. She argues that ‘uncertainty is a healthy state to be in when reflecting on ethical situations’, rejecting the hubris of certainty and ‘idealised self-images’ (p. 1; p. 5). While this book is based on ‘conceptual research’ and a ‘hermeneutic approach’ (p. 5) involving critical interpretation rather than new empirical data, it presents new ideas for twenty-first century public relations. Given the increasing role of PR as ‘a social force … a producer of culture’ in contemporary societies (p. 226), the arguments presented in this book warrant close attention by scholars, professional bodies in the PR industry, and practitioners. References Bourdieu, Pierre (1984) Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press Copyright 2016-2/3. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics. All rights reserved. Vol 13, No 2/3 2016 111
Grunig, Larissa, Grunig, James and Dozier, David (2002) Excellent organizations and effective organizations: A study of communication management in three countries, Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Habermas, Jürgen (1989) The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press Stauber, John and Rampton, Sheldon (1995) Toxic sludge is good for you: Lies, damn lies and the public relations industry, Monroe, ME, Common Courage Press Jim Macnamara Professor University of Technology Sydney Researching creative writing Jen Webb Newmarket, Suffolk, Frontinus Ltd, 2015 pp 271 ISBN 978-1-907076-37-4 Early in this text, Webb draws on seminal thinker and philosopher Martin Heidegger (pp 1-2), calling his notion of knowledge – ‘seeing, apprehending, making sense’ – research. Her text makes a cogent argument for ethical creative writing as a discrete praxis of the creative arts. She writes: ‘Research practices can invigorate writing; creative practices can invigorate research’ (p. 2). And she adds: ‘Creative writing can operate as a mode of knowledge generation, a way of exploring problems and answering questions that matter in our current context’ (ibid). She claims that ‘every writer – every maker of any kind of creative work – is a person who is involved, at some level, in research’ (p. 2). If only it were as easy as this. Webb starts by defining research and examining its etymology– it being a French word dating from the late 16th century meaning ‘to look, intensively’ (p. 7). Webb cites the Frascati manual, a 1963 document, now in its sixth edition, providing guidelines on collecting and reporting data on research, where research is defined as ‘creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications’ (pp 7-8). Unpacking each phrase, Webb 112 Copyright 2016-2/3. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics. All rights reserved. Vol 13, No 2/3 2016
Page 1 and 2:
Beyond clickbait and commerce The e
Page 4 and 5:
Contents Editorial Looking beyond t
Page 6 and 7:
EDITORIAL Looking beyond the tradit
Page 8 and 9:
These questions of independence are
Page 10 and 11:
of the work produced by foundation-
Page 12 and 13:
Crisis Center, for example, has a g
Page 14 and 15:
library that spotlights progress in
Page 16 and 17:
journalists working on the developm
Page 18 and 19:
Note on the contributor Dr Mel Bunc
Page 20 and 21:
2014). One response has been to par
Page 22 and 23:
and/or distributed by ENGOs to mobi
Page 24 and 25:
democratic dissent’, while DeLuca
Page 26 and 27:
ecording the interviews, I engaged
Page 28 and 29:
spent two weeks collecting images a
Page 30 and 31:
Although photographs of spirit bear
Page 32 and 33:
up the article ‘Pipeline through
Page 34 and 35:
Alexandra Garcia, iLCP communicatio
Page 36 and 37:
killed/, accessed on 27 December 20
Page 38 and 39:
Dave Harte ‘Tell it like it is’
Page 40 and 41:
Veronica Coatham and Lisa Martinali
Page 42 and 43:
which content its audience is most
Page 44 and 45:
in the 1990s and early 2000s. Borge
Page 46 and 47:
in Leeds, he notes the valuable rol
Page 48 and 49:
Yet the nature of the journalism at
Page 50 and 51:
Foucault, Michel (1980) Power/Knowl
Page 52 and 53:
Unitec research colleagues; media p
Page 54 and 55:
voice in seven unique contexts was
Page 56 and 57:
therefore, challenging to strike th
Page 58 and 59:
7 The Pacifica Mamas, ‘matriarchs
Page 60 and 61:
sharing approach to collaboration,
Page 62 and 63:
programme, and they wanted the spot
Page 64 and 65: and that I was entrusting myself to
Page 66 and 67: ecosystem (Cooren 2015b). In a 2015
Page 68 and 69: Saifoloi, Malama, Stowers-Ama, Jarc
Page 70 and 71: informed citizenry. Most see journa
Page 72 and 73: While there is no universally accep
Page 74 and 75: news organisation are decisions to
Page 76 and 77: is largely seen as unethical to ask
Page 78 and 79: open to paying for content. Others
Page 80 and 81: Conclusions Overall, oppositional n
Page 82 and 83: Foster, Michelle (2012) Calling the
Page 84 and 85: Judith Townend ‘Charitable journa
Page 86 and 87: In the second category, where the r
Page 88 and 89: Among the issues is the Charity Com
Page 90 and 91: House of Lords (2012) House of Lord
Page 92 and 93: press in a democracy to campaign, l
Page 94 and 95: The tribunal’s decision For the p
Page 96 and 97: charitable journalism may be recogn
Page 98 and 99: Denis Muller Conflict of interest:
Page 100 and 101: Tanner et al. (2005: 187) identify
Page 102 and 103: to its audiences. To engage in jour
Page 104 and 105: creating a commercial climate in wh
Page 106 and 107: that a sponsor would have no role i
Page 108 and 109: Items about Dove not labelled as sp
Page 110 and 111: their public-interest responsibilit
Page 112 and 113: Murtha, Jack and Gourarie, Chava (2
Page 116 and 117: admits that ‘systematic’ may be
Page 118 and 119: Rather than ethics being an issue t
show all

Beyond clickbait and commerce

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?