RECOMMENDED BOOKS, ARTICLES
AND WEB SITES
Updated: 7-2012
Alphabetized List -- Public Relations Practitioners
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Ames, Carol, PR Goes to the Movies: The Image of Public Relations Improves from 1996 to 20080, Public Relations Review, Volume 36, Issue 2, June 2010, pp. 164-170. Ames, who is on the faculty of the department of communications at California State University at Fullerton, offers a qualitative analysis of public relations in popular Hollywood films from 1996 to 2008. She looks at three questions: first, how is the PR practitioner portrayed in recent films? Second, what kind of public relations activities and models of public relations are depicted? Third, how do other scholars' results in prior studies apply to the portrayal of public relations in current films? Results show that for major films from Mars Attacks! (1996) to Hancock (2008), public relations practitioners are more credible, respected and influential, and PR work is more varied and complex than found in studies of films through 1995. The article outline includes an introduction and literature review, the status and credibility of public relations, depictions of PR in print and broadcast news, depictions of PR practitioners in film, research, metodology, PR in the movies 1996-2008 sample, and then an analysis of Wag the Dog (1997), The Kid (2000), America's Sweethearts (2001), People I Know (2002), Phone Booth (2002), Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005), Jersey Girl (2006), For Your Consideration (2006), Sex and the City (2008), Hancock (2008), results, discussion and references.
Ames, Carol, Queer Eye for the PR Guy in American Films, 1937-2009, The IJPC Journal, Volume 2, Fall 2010, pp. 108-152. This qualitative study uses queer theory and scholarship about the image of journalist in popular culture and the image of the public relations practitioner in American films to study the changes in the presentation of the gay PR practitioner in films from the era of the Production Code (1930 to 1967) through the present. Comparing film depictions of gay and queer PR characters reveals the extent to which film plots cater to the heterosexual “norm.” At the same time, plot devices such as the “temporary transvestite” and image consulting to teach someone how to be “more like a girl” or “more like a guy” play with the audience’s often unconscious non-heterosexual (i.e., queer) desires and imaginings.
Choi, Youjin, University of Florida, "Effects of Entertainment Television Program Viewing on Student's Perceptions of Public Relations Functions," a paper presented at the 2006 AEJMC Convention in San Francisco. This study conducted a survey with students in an introductory public relations course to examine the effects of television viewing of entertainment programs with public relations characters on the perceptions about public relations functions. A factor analysis classified students;' perceptions into five categories: two-way communications, political communication, spokesperson , writing, and informal media relations.
Johnston, Jane, Bond University, Girls on Screen: How Film and Television Depict Women in Public Relations, PRism 7(4): http://www.prismjournal.org. 2010 This paper explores how women in public relations have been depicted in the popular culture forms of film and television. With some reference to early screen depictions, it focuses primarily on film and television from the past two decades, analysing women in a variety of public relations roles in the 1900s and 2000s. The study looks at nine leading television series and movies from the United States and United Kingdom to examine how women in public relations are portrayed, and also colates the data from previous studies to defvelop a profile of how depictions have changed since the 1930s. Primarily, it seeks to locate these depictions of women on screen within the spectrum of feminist and post feminist theory, both specific to public relations and from a wider perspective. It then draws on a range of thinking from popular memory, cultivation analysis and the public sphere to explain how these depictions become embedded within popualr (mis) understandings of the profession).
Kinsky, Emily, Texas Tech University, "The Portrayal of Public Relations Practitioners in The West Wing," a paper presented at the 2006 AEJMC Convention in San Francisco. An investigation of the portrayal of public relations practitioners was performed using content analysis of the 22 episodes in the debut season of The West Wing. The practitioners were coded based on demonstrated traits and work performed or discussed. Significant differences were found between male and female practitioners being included or disciplined, appearing as major characters, dealing with government officials and the media, discussing speech writing, and appearing silly.
Miller, Karen S., Public Relations in Film and Fiction, 1930 to 1995, Journal of Public Relations Research 11 (1):3-28, 1999. Miller was an associate professor of advertising and public relations in the College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.Youjin Choi, University of Florida, "Effects of Entertainment Television Program Viewing on Student's Perceptions of Public Relations Functions," a paper presented at the 2006 AEJMC Convention in San Francisco. This study conducted a survey with students in an introductory public relations course to examine the effects of television viewing of entertainment programs with public relations characters on the perceptions about public relations functions. A factor analysis classified students;' perceptions into five categories: two-way communications, political communication, spokesperson , writing, and informal media relations.
Penning, Timothy, First Impressions: US Media Portrayals of Public Relations in the 1920s, Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 12, No. 4, 2008, pp. 344-358. The paper, written by Penning, School of Communications, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan, traces negative and limiting media depictions of public relations (PR) to their origins in the 1920s in order to determine whether modern media characterizations of "public relations" are new or a legacy of the past.
Trammel, Kaye D., Trammell, University of Georgia and Lisa K. Lundy, Louisiana State University, "Perception of Public Relations: An Experiment Testing the Impact of Entertainment Portrayals of the Profession on Students and Practitioners," a paper presented at the 2006 AEJMC Convention in San Francisco. Researchers investigated the impact of entertainment portrayals of the public relations profession. Findings indicate that while all groups believe the portrayal of the profession in the stimulus was inaccurate, participants allowed the entertainment program to cloud their perception of public relations. Respondents experienced third-person effects but the phenomenon dissipated as one's connection to the profession decreased.
Youngmin, Yoon, professor, School of Media and Communication, Korea University, and Heath Black, Research Associate, Berrier Associates, Learning About Public Relations from Television: How is the Profession Portrayed? in Communication Science, Vol. 28, Issue 2, 2011, pp. 85-106 including one-page abstract in Korean language.This qualitative study examined how public relations is portrayed in prime time television programming in the United States. As a first look at public relations portrayals in television dramas and sit-coms, results confirm many of the conclusions from other studies of entertainment media: (1) public relations as a field is still portrayed negatively; (2) the field is not well-defined, mostly as publicity and party planning; and (3) the field looks “easy” and “glamorous.” New insights were gained into the portrayal of public relations on television including: (1) the association of the term “public relations” with negative and “silly” actions; (2) society’s expectation of immoral behaviors from PR practitioners; (3) the portrayal of gender barriers; and (4) a tendency to focus only on practice areas dealing with the rich and powerful elements of society.