ABSTRACT

This important book chronicles, responds to, and advances the leading theories in the public relations discipline.

Taking up the work begun by the books Public Relations Theory and Public Relations Theory II, this volume offers completely original material reflecting public relations as practiced today. It features contributions by leading public relations researchers from around the world who write about new developments in the field. Important subjects include: a turn to more humanistic, social, dialogic, and cocreational perspectives on public relations; changes in the capacity and use of new information technologies; a greater emphasis on non-Western international and intercultural public relations that considers an increasingly politically polarized culture; and issues of ethics that look beyond how clients and the traditional mass media are treated and into much broader questions of voice, agency, race, identity, and the economic and political status of publics.

This book is a touchstone for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in public relations theory and a key reference for researchers.

chapter 1|8 pages

Introduction

section Section 1|121 pages

Publics Take Center Stage

chapter 2|12 pages

In the Age of Publics

Evolving Understandings of Theory and Publics

chapter 3|15 pages

A “Public” by Any Other Name

Reclaiming Publics Theory, and Liberating Publics From “OPR”

chapter 5|19 pages

Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS)

A Foundational Theory of Publics and Its Behavioral Nature in Problem Solving

chapter 8|16 pages

Agenda Building Through Community Building

Theorizing Place and Digital Space in Grassroots Activist Public Relations

section Section 2|135 pages

New and Revised Theories

chapter 10|22 pages

Capturing the Complexity and Dynamism of Decision Making in PR

The Contingency Theory of Strategic Conflict Management

chapter 11|18 pages

Crisis Communication Theory

Emergence of a Vibrant Sub-field of Public Relations Theory

chapter 12|22 pages

Digital Crisis Communication Theory

Current Landscape and Future Trajectories

chapter 13|15 pages

Social Theory in Public Relations

Insights and Directions

chapter 14|19 pages

The IDEA Model Theoretical Framework

An Explication of Risk Communication as Engaged Public Relations

chapter 15|19 pages

Public Relations in a Postdisciplinary World

On the Impossibility of Establishing a Constitutive PR Theory Within the Tribal Struggles of Applied Communication Disciplines

section Section 3|126 pages

Race, Gender, and Culture Interact With Theories

chapter 18|18 pages

Public Relations Theory Development in China

In the Areas of Dialogic Communication, Crisis Communication, and CSR Communication

chapter 19|17 pages

Culture and Dialogic Theory in Public Relations

The Middle Eastern Context

chapter 20|19 pages

The European School of Public Relations

Origins, Main Traits, and Theoretical Contributions

section Section 4|127 pages

Applications of Theory

chapter 24|20 pages

Relationship Management Theory

Its Past, Present, and Future

chapter 25|20 pages

Media Relations

Research, Theory, and the Digital Age

chapter 27|17 pages

Strategic Issues Management

A Rhetorical Theoretical Perspective on Contestable Questions of Place

section |17 pages

Conclusion