ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that PR is one of the defining phenomena of the cultural landscape in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Not only is PR institutionalised within the broader structures of business and government, its promotional techniques use emotion to influence consumer purchasing decisions, address stakeholder concerns about corporate social responsibility and reputation, and galvanise publics to donate money through emotional appeals. And yet the socio-emotional dimension of PR work is missing from PR scholarship. This book contributes to a knowledge gap on emotional labour, professionalism and professionalisation, emotional labour and the feminisation of PR and emotional labour, promotional culture, and identity. Finally, it reflects on a ‘new repertoire’ for managing professional relationships in PR in the digital age and outlines ideas for future research. The focus on emotional labour/emotion management in this book is but one micro-level aspect of the rich, emotional terrain of PR,a terrain which is deserving of far more critical attention by scholars.
