دانلود رایگان ترجمه مقاله نظریه پردازی تاریخ روابط عمومی (نشریه الزویر 2016)

نظریه پردازی تاریخ روابط عمومی: نقش هدف راهبردی و عامل انسانی

Theorizing public relations history: The roles of strategic intent and human agency

Abstract

This historiographical essay argues for a set of standards that can be applied across time and place to determine whether a historical initiative is part of public relations history. After analyzing the concept of function in relation to public relations, we argue for an alternative focus on both the strategic intent of the practitioner and the role of human agency. We thus propose a way to identify what public relations is and, to borrow from Ivy Lee (1925), what it is not.

1 Introduction

Public relations historians “come to historical texts with different philosophies of history, different social, political, and moral philosophies, and even different assumptions about epistemology and ontology,” Ron Pearson has written (1990, p. 28). As a result, he said, “there is no single, privileged interpretation of public relations’ past” (Pearson, 1992, p. 113). More recently Vos (2011) argued that public relations historians make even more basic decisions about historical explanation, which he classifies as functionalist, institutional, and cultural logics of explanation, frequently without questioning or even realizing they are making a decision. In this essay we address another layer of decision-making that we believe must be excavated: choosing what qualifies to be part of public relations history.

2. Materials and methods

This essay is based on recent efforts to theorize the rise of public relations, particularly Bentele (2013), Lamme and Russell (2010), Raaz and Wehmeier (2011), and Salcedo (2008). Building upon the literature examined by Lamme and Russell (2010), the authors identify key characteristics of public relations that can help scholars determine what should or should not be included in public relations history.