Summary Public Relations
***
| Lecture 1: Introduction to Public Relations
What is public relations?
• Managing of Communication of an organization, e.g., negotiation of points of views and bridging
interests (Grunig)
• The development of relationships to help communicate about an organization, an issue, a person or
a product (Gordon)
• Management of a mutual understanding between an organization and its publics (Cutlip)
Lobbying: a person that tries to convey the interest of a certain organization to a certain group of
stakeholders (e.g., environmental organizations who lobby at a political party). There are lobbyists for
every sector. It’s stakeholder management, it is not visible for the masses.
Organizations
• ‘Organizations’ is a term that we will use a lot.
• Organizations complies a broader range of institutions than ‘firm’ or ‘company’
o When we talk of companies, we discuss commercial entities
o Organization implies several other institutions that don’t necessarily sell something but that
might still be involved in Public Relations, it’s broader. They all do public relations.
o E.g., Vrije Universiteit.
License to operate
• Social acceptance or approval an organization needs from the public and stakeholders to function
effectively.
• It’s not a legal license, but a social contract (mutual understanding) based on trust, legitimacy, and
responsibility.
• Public relations helps build and maintain this (license to operate) legitimacy through transparent
communication and ethical behavior.
o Think of it as like a mining site (Shell). They can have the legal permits, but if they don’t
have the local community with them, they might be in big trouble. The local community will
complain or write to the media.
Relationship Management Theory (Ledingham, 2003)
• Whereas earlier practitioners saw communication as the central function of public relations, today's
public relations managers recognize the management of key relationships as the core function of
public relations.
• Core idea: The quality of these relationships directly affects organizational success and public
support.
• Shift in perspective: Moves PR from image or persuasion to mutual understanding and long-term
relationship maintenance.
Reflections on quotes from text
• “Ihlen (2004), for example, combines the rhetorical approach with a sociological approach and shows
how public relations is an actors’ struggle in a public battlefield of meanings, thereby contributing to
“the” public meaning, e.g. to social reality.”
• “Hence, constructing social reality is a shared process of meanings construction (Bentele & Rühl, 1993).
In this view, reflective interpretation and conceptualization of meanings are at the forefront in a
1
, constant process of de- and re-construction (Nistelrooij, 2000); they are a “reflection.” You don’t
create meaning of a situation once, you must keep working on it over time.
| 📄 Article 1: Ihlen, Ø., & van Ruler, B. (2007). How public relations works: Theoretical roots and
public relations perspectives. Public Relations Review, 33(3), 243-248
Public relations (PR) has traditionally been studied from managerial and psychological perspectives,
focusing on organizational goals, behavioral outcomes, and communication management. However, to fully
understand PR’s role in building or eroding trust and in shaping an organization’s license to operate, it must
also be examined as a social phenomenon.
This special issue of Public Relations Review aims to broaden the theoretical scope of PR research by
applying the work of major social theorists—Habermas, Luhmann, Foucault, Bourdieu, Goffman, Weber,
and Giddens. The central questions are how PR fits within their theoretical frameworks and what this reveals
about PR’s broader societal function. The editors argue for a pluralistic approach that integrates
sociological, managerial, and psychological perspectives.
A sociological approach differs from conventional ones by focusing not on management problems, but on
the relationship between PR and the societies in which it operates. It explores how PR co-produces social
systems and contributes to the construction of social reality through meaning-making and framing processes
in the public sphere (Öffentlichkeit)—a communicative space open to all where public debates take place.
Current PR theories are criticized for being too narrow, as they mainly analyze the relationship between
organizations and stakeholders while neglecting the societal level. In a sociological view, legitimacy is
understood empirically—as the extent to which an organization is perceived as sensible and morally
justifiable by the public at a given time and place—rather than as a purely ethical or normative concept.
The special issue’s articles illustrate how different sociological theories enrich PR research:
• Habermas: PR and communicative understanding.
• Luhmann: PR as a system aiding organizational self-reflection.
• Foucault: PR as a discourse practice with power effects.
• Bourdieu: PR as a field of symbolic power struggles.
• Goffman: The role of interpersonal communication in PR.
• Weber: PR and processes of legitimacy and legitimation.
• Giddens: PR as a mechanism for managing change in late modernity and a driver of disembedding
processes.
Overall, the sociological approach offers a macro-level perspective, complementing the meso
(managerial) and micro (individual/psychological) levels. Together, these perspectives deepen our
understanding of how PR functions within and shapes broader social structures.
Public relations (PR) has often been examined through managerial or psychological lenses, focusing on
organizational control, persuasion, and stakeholder management. Yet, to truly understand PR’s influence in
building or destroying trust and its role in shaping an organization’s license to operate, it must also be
studied as a social phenomenon.
This special issue of Public Relations Review seeks to expand PR theory by engaging with key social
theorists—Habermas, Luhmann, Foucault, Bourdieu, Goffman, Weber, and Giddens. It asks whether and
how PR fits within their frameworks and advocates a pluralistic approach to studying PR’s impact on
organizations, publics, and society.
2
,A sociological perspective moves beyond managerial concerns to examine how PR interacts with and co-
produces social systems. It focuses on PR’s contribution to the public sphere (Öffentlichkeit)—the
communicative space where meaning is constructed and debated publicly.
Most current PR theories are criticized for limiting analysis to organization–public relationships while ignoring
societal dynamics. From a sociological viewpoint, legitimacy is not a moral ideal but an empirical measure
of whether the public perceives an organization as reasonable and morally acceptable. Core ideas include
publics, public sphere, and meaning creation.
The issue’s contributions demonstrate the value of applying diverse theories:
• Habermas – understanding and communicative action in PR.
• Luhmann – PR as part of a reflective social system.
• Foucault – PR as discourse and power practice.
• Bourdieu – PR within symbolic power struggles.
• Goffman – implications of interpersonal communication.
• Weber – legitimacy and legitimation processes.
• Giddens – PR as a response to change in late modernity and as a force of disembedding.
Altogether, the sociological view provides a macro-level complement to meso-level (managerial) and
micro-level (individual) perspectives, offering deeper insight into how PR shapes and is shaped by social
structures.
***
| Lecture 2: Current Challenges Social Media – theme session
Social media landscape is diversified, different platforms help to reach different stakeholders and target
audiences. The way we see social media in contact of public relations is that these are medium that help us
to communicate to different stakeholder groups and within the stakeholder groups we have different targets.
E.g., customers are stakeholders, but you target them differently. The way to effectively target them is social
media. Because of the diversity of the different platforms, brand might need different strategies for the
different platforms.
Pros and cons
For both organizations and individuals. And each platform has each own pros and cons. That’s because each
platform has its own characteristics and difficulties.
An important pro is that social media allows direct interaction with its stakeholders. However, you need to
know how to deal with the reactions toy get from your audience.
Considerations about social media from a PR perspective
It is a very useful tool for Social Listening, allowing to answer pertinent questions in a timely manner. You
know what people think about you organization.
• What is being said about my brand?
• What is the sentiment around my brand?
• How is my brand perceived compared to competitors?
• What are common complaints or praises about my products?
• Who are my most influential advocates or critics?
Two- pronged approach
1. Create brand generated content → More within the realm of advertising
• In the brand’s own page
• Through influencers
3
, 2. Managing conversations with consumers online → This is more about public relations (PR) — building trust,
reputation, and positive relationships with consumers rather than directly selling.
This means the brand also focuses on how it interacts with people online — responding to comments,
handling complaints, joining discussions, etc.
4
***
| Lecture 1: Introduction to Public Relations
What is public relations?
• Managing of Communication of an organization, e.g., negotiation of points of views and bridging
interests (Grunig)
• The development of relationships to help communicate about an organization, an issue, a person or
a product (Gordon)
• Management of a mutual understanding between an organization and its publics (Cutlip)
Lobbying: a person that tries to convey the interest of a certain organization to a certain group of
stakeholders (e.g., environmental organizations who lobby at a political party). There are lobbyists for
every sector. It’s stakeholder management, it is not visible for the masses.
Organizations
• ‘Organizations’ is a term that we will use a lot.
• Organizations complies a broader range of institutions than ‘firm’ or ‘company’
o When we talk of companies, we discuss commercial entities
o Organization implies several other institutions that don’t necessarily sell something but that
might still be involved in Public Relations, it’s broader. They all do public relations.
o E.g., Vrije Universiteit.
License to operate
• Social acceptance or approval an organization needs from the public and stakeholders to function
effectively.
• It’s not a legal license, but a social contract (mutual understanding) based on trust, legitimacy, and
responsibility.
• Public relations helps build and maintain this (license to operate) legitimacy through transparent
communication and ethical behavior.
o Think of it as like a mining site (Shell). They can have the legal permits, but if they don’t
have the local community with them, they might be in big trouble. The local community will
complain or write to the media.
Relationship Management Theory (Ledingham, 2003)
• Whereas earlier practitioners saw communication as the central function of public relations, today's
public relations managers recognize the management of key relationships as the core function of
public relations.
• Core idea: The quality of these relationships directly affects organizational success and public
support.
• Shift in perspective: Moves PR from image or persuasion to mutual understanding and long-term
relationship maintenance.
Reflections on quotes from text
• “Ihlen (2004), for example, combines the rhetorical approach with a sociological approach and shows
how public relations is an actors’ struggle in a public battlefield of meanings, thereby contributing to
“the” public meaning, e.g. to social reality.”
• “Hence, constructing social reality is a shared process of meanings construction (Bentele & Rühl, 1993).
In this view, reflective interpretation and conceptualization of meanings are at the forefront in a
1
, constant process of de- and re-construction (Nistelrooij, 2000); they are a “reflection.” You don’t
create meaning of a situation once, you must keep working on it over time.
| 📄 Article 1: Ihlen, Ø., & van Ruler, B. (2007). How public relations works: Theoretical roots and
public relations perspectives. Public Relations Review, 33(3), 243-248
Public relations (PR) has traditionally been studied from managerial and psychological perspectives,
focusing on organizational goals, behavioral outcomes, and communication management. However, to fully
understand PR’s role in building or eroding trust and in shaping an organization’s license to operate, it must
also be examined as a social phenomenon.
This special issue of Public Relations Review aims to broaden the theoretical scope of PR research by
applying the work of major social theorists—Habermas, Luhmann, Foucault, Bourdieu, Goffman, Weber,
and Giddens. The central questions are how PR fits within their theoretical frameworks and what this reveals
about PR’s broader societal function. The editors argue for a pluralistic approach that integrates
sociological, managerial, and psychological perspectives.
A sociological approach differs from conventional ones by focusing not on management problems, but on
the relationship between PR and the societies in which it operates. It explores how PR co-produces social
systems and contributes to the construction of social reality through meaning-making and framing processes
in the public sphere (Öffentlichkeit)—a communicative space open to all where public debates take place.
Current PR theories are criticized for being too narrow, as they mainly analyze the relationship between
organizations and stakeholders while neglecting the societal level. In a sociological view, legitimacy is
understood empirically—as the extent to which an organization is perceived as sensible and morally
justifiable by the public at a given time and place—rather than as a purely ethical or normative concept.
The special issue’s articles illustrate how different sociological theories enrich PR research:
• Habermas: PR and communicative understanding.
• Luhmann: PR as a system aiding organizational self-reflection.
• Foucault: PR as a discourse practice with power effects.
• Bourdieu: PR as a field of symbolic power struggles.
• Goffman: The role of interpersonal communication in PR.
• Weber: PR and processes of legitimacy and legitimation.
• Giddens: PR as a mechanism for managing change in late modernity and a driver of disembedding
processes.
Overall, the sociological approach offers a macro-level perspective, complementing the meso
(managerial) and micro (individual/psychological) levels. Together, these perspectives deepen our
understanding of how PR functions within and shapes broader social structures.
Public relations (PR) has often been examined through managerial or psychological lenses, focusing on
organizational control, persuasion, and stakeholder management. Yet, to truly understand PR’s influence in
building or destroying trust and its role in shaping an organization’s license to operate, it must also be
studied as a social phenomenon.
This special issue of Public Relations Review seeks to expand PR theory by engaging with key social
theorists—Habermas, Luhmann, Foucault, Bourdieu, Goffman, Weber, and Giddens. It asks whether and
how PR fits within their frameworks and advocates a pluralistic approach to studying PR’s impact on
organizations, publics, and society.
2
,A sociological perspective moves beyond managerial concerns to examine how PR interacts with and co-
produces social systems. It focuses on PR’s contribution to the public sphere (Öffentlichkeit)—the
communicative space where meaning is constructed and debated publicly.
Most current PR theories are criticized for limiting analysis to organization–public relationships while ignoring
societal dynamics. From a sociological viewpoint, legitimacy is not a moral ideal but an empirical measure
of whether the public perceives an organization as reasonable and morally acceptable. Core ideas include
publics, public sphere, and meaning creation.
The issue’s contributions demonstrate the value of applying diverse theories:
• Habermas – understanding and communicative action in PR.
• Luhmann – PR as part of a reflective social system.
• Foucault – PR as discourse and power practice.
• Bourdieu – PR within symbolic power struggles.
• Goffman – implications of interpersonal communication.
• Weber – legitimacy and legitimation processes.
• Giddens – PR as a response to change in late modernity and as a force of disembedding.
Altogether, the sociological view provides a macro-level complement to meso-level (managerial) and
micro-level (individual) perspectives, offering deeper insight into how PR shapes and is shaped by social
structures.
***
| Lecture 2: Current Challenges Social Media – theme session
Social media landscape is diversified, different platforms help to reach different stakeholders and target
audiences. The way we see social media in contact of public relations is that these are medium that help us
to communicate to different stakeholder groups and within the stakeholder groups we have different targets.
E.g., customers are stakeholders, but you target them differently. The way to effectively target them is social
media. Because of the diversity of the different platforms, brand might need different strategies for the
different platforms.
Pros and cons
For both organizations and individuals. And each platform has each own pros and cons. That’s because each
platform has its own characteristics and difficulties.
An important pro is that social media allows direct interaction with its stakeholders. However, you need to
know how to deal with the reactions toy get from your audience.
Considerations about social media from a PR perspective
It is a very useful tool for Social Listening, allowing to answer pertinent questions in a timely manner. You
know what people think about you organization.
• What is being said about my brand?
• What is the sentiment around my brand?
• How is my brand perceived compared to competitors?
• What are common complaints or praises about my products?
• Who are my most influential advocates or critics?
Two- pronged approach
1. Create brand generated content → More within the realm of advertising
• In the brand’s own page
• Through influencers
3
, 2. Managing conversations with consumers online → This is more about public relations (PR) — building trust,
reputation, and positive relationships with consumers rather than directly selling.
This means the brand also focuses on how it interacts with people online — responding to comments,
handling complaints, joining discussions, etc.
4
