ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to answer some of the questions raised by Kim and Sriramesh (2009) aimed at explaining the relationship between activists and PR. Specifically, I propose to analyze the Romanian #rezist protests from a theoretical standpoint of the stakeholders’ theory, considering the activists as part of the NGOs communities and civic networks, rather than PR practitioners. In doing so, this chapter focuses on the Romanian #rezist protests taking place in Romania’s capital – Bucharest, in the main cities across Romania and in the cities of the world where Romanian diaspora lives at the beginning of 2017 when more than 600,000 people opposed the Government’s passing of an emergency ordinance perceived to be an invitation to corruption. I argue that the motivation, behavior and self-identification of some of the initiators and participants in the Romanian protests, including those who work within the public relations field, is little connected to the idea of PR activists, as it has been illustrated in other cases or by other researchers of the Romanian protests. Moreover, the views expressed by the protesters and activists interviewed for this chapter show that, in their opinion, there is a clear difference between how they identify an activist and a PR practitioner, while they all admit that in the pursuit of their goals they engage PR tools.
