This book articulates how the practice of public relations can be informed by theory. It is intended to illustrate how public relations theories tested and verified in the scholarly literature are applied to solving the central problems of public relations practice. This book provides readers with models of how to carry out the critical process of applying public relations theories to practice decisions. It will find a place in upper-level and graduate courses in public relations campaigns, cases, and strategic management by providing context for the practice decisions that students are asked to make in classroom discussions and service-learning projects.
The book covers topics and sample theories that represent the standard concerns that public relations practitioners discuss in their meetings and trade publications. It also addresses newer issues of global public relations and public diplomacy and pushes an envelope with a discussion of conflict resolution and negotiation. The table of contents includes the four major communication perspectives: mass communication, interpersonal communication, "persuasion and social influence" and "negotiation and conflict resolution" as they have been applied to the practice of public relations
This is a textbook with a mission. It aims to educate students in new and integrated ways. It also has a larger mission to provide an applied theoretical framework for a field that often oscillates between all theory and all application. The book provides a body of theory that has utility based on scientific research about a communication management function that is maturing theoretically and seeking professional status. This status, for a field now almost 100 years old, can only achieved when public relations students expect to use theory and knowledge in their future careers.
