With this, my modest role in the PR history is secured, and I can get back to work :)

Karen, please let me know if you have any project I can help with. All I’m asking :) is a follow-up to your article, “Public Relations in Film and Fiction: 1930 to 1995.” (Anyone who was shocked, shocked to see/read CBS’s Andrew Cohen’s take on the PR industry should read this article, available online -see the link below- via a USC Annenberg’s project, The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture.)

If you are a PR student or practitioner, do yourself a favor: download both articles, and read them; they’re well worth your time.

Karen S. Miller (2000)
U.S. Public Relations History: Knowledge and Limitations (PDF)
In Michael E. Roloff (Ed.), Communication Yearbook, vol. 23 (pp. 381-420), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication

This analysis of the literature on public relations history indicates that the field has been dominated by a business history approach. Most scholars have studied public relations in its corporate context, and most have utilized business history’s dominant paradigm, which calls for a general theory of PR history based on the review of a large number of case histories. But the business history frame is both flawed and inadequate for a complete understanding of public relations history. Political and social histories show that public relations was emerging and apparently would have emerged even if big business had not. In reality, these histories are intertwined. No single strand of PR history can be understood except in relation to the others, and none should be given a privileged position in public relations historiography.

Karen S. Miller (1999)
Public relations in film and fiction, 1930 to 1995 (PDF)
Journal of Public Relations Research 11 (1), 3-28

In this article, I examine depictions of PR and its practitioners in film and fiction in the United States from 1930 to 1995. The analysis indicates the representations of PR are woefully inadequate in terms of explaining who practitioners are and what they do, and it shows that writers dislike PR’s apparent effectiveness. Perhaps most significant is the extent to which the portrayals have remained the same over many decades. This study reveals misconceptions about and stereotypes of PR that are relayed to the public through the media, setting the stage for scholarship on what members of the general public think, for the enduring quality of representations suggests that the media may well have cultivated negative attitudes toward PR and its practitioners.

The Case: Wal-Mart Public Relations in the Blogosphere - David A. Craig (Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Oklahoma)

Abstract: This article presents a case study in media ethics that experts will analyze in additional article within this issue. This case concerns bloggers on a site called Wal-Marting Across America, which featured a couple who were traveling around the country and parking in Wal-Mart parking lots. The blogs were generally positive, upbeat stories of the Wal-Mart employees they met along the way. However, Working Families for Wal-Mart was created by Edelman, the public relations firm for Wal-Mart. Laura and Jim were professional journalists paid by Wal-Mart. Moreover, Richard Edelman had been a leading advocate of transparency and honesty in public relations work.

Commentary 1: This PR Firm Should Have Known Better - Lois A. Boynton (School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

Abstract: This article presents the author’s perspective on an ethical situation regarding the public relations firm Edelman and their involvement in a pro-Wal-Mart blog that pretended to be impartial. The author is particularly critical of Edelman’s involvement in the controversy given their participation in crafting a public relations code of ethics, which explicitly forebids the type of deceit they practiced. However, he credits Edelman executives for their rapid response and admission of guilt and responsibility.

Commentary 2: A Case of Covert Persuasion - Sherry Baker (Brigham Young University, Tanabe, Japan)

Abstract: The author makes the distinction between information and covert persuasion, which she defines as advocacy disguised as information or as independent opinion. She feels the episode clearly violated the ethical tenents of both public relations and journalism.

Commentary 3: We Have All Been Here Before - John J. Pauly, William R. Burleigh, E. W. Scripps (J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University)

Abstract: The author discusses how the ethical code that was supposed to offer guidance for this situation was bypassed or ignored. She also raises ethical questions about the nature of blogging and of corporate information campaigns. She suggests corporations be made more responsible for arguments they create and issue.

The articles are behind a paid firewall, but you can always contact the authors and ask - nicely :) - for a reprint.

Related entries:

• Edelman, Wal-Mart, and WOMMA’s Code of Ethics, October 13, 2006

L.V. Porter, K.D. Sweetser Trammell, D. Chung and E. Kim, Blog power: Examining the effects of practitioner blog use on power in public relations, Public Relations Review 33 (2007), pp. 92-95.

Abstract

While blogs are not yet a standard public relations tool, practitioners use blogs to enhance their power within their organizations. Using an online survey of public relations practitioners, this pilot test examined the relationship between power and blog use. Three factored categorizations of blog use among practitioners emerged: routine information and research, interactive blog communication, and issues identification. Results showed differences based on power, between blog users and non-users, owner-practitioners and non-owners, among others.

Keywords: Power; Blogs; Weblogs; Public relations practitioners; Web; Internet