ABSTRACT
Increasingly, public relations scholars are writing about activism, civil society protest, and culture jamming activities as public relations, or forms of public relations. Public relations theorists even argue that public relations and activism can be viewed as one and the same thing: the strategic use of communication for political and/or organisational gain. But does the use of similar public communication strategies and tactics in efforts to attract media, public and/or government attention to causes or organisations mean that we can, or should, conflate public relations and activism? In this chapter I explore how different theoretical paradigms speak of activism in relation to public relations, and argue for a need to better understand how we are constructing notions of democracy in theorising activism, protest, and dissent as forms of public relations, or alternatively, as threats to public relations. In considering these issues this chapter also acknowledges the voices of activist peoples themselves who seek to maintain strict divisions between the forms of strategic communication that they engage and those of the public relations industry. Ultimately, this chapter poses questions of whose interests are being served when we conflate public relations work and the activities of activists, and whose interests are being maintained in separating these “world views”?
