A practical-critical approach to communication contends that critical analysis should have practical consequences, specifically to extend participation and to introduce innovative forms of communication. Planning and action process models in public relations illustrate the approach. The practical-critical position develops out of a reconstructive revision of existing, instrumental models. The emphases are (a) variabilities and contingencies in communication, (b) temporal sequencing of cooperative activity, (c) conditions of uncertainty that are part of pursuing a shared focus through joint activity, and (d) the interdependent relations among material, symbolic, and relational dimensions of process planning and action. The practical-critical framework provides for continuous, dialectical analysis of a central focus of activity, while deriving benefits from the sequencing of cooperative effort.
Communication Theory
Volume ThirteenCommunication Theory 412 lated contributions fall short of bridging divisions between critique and the theorizing of practical methodologies. Successful synthesis requires a practical-critical approach to public relations. This perspective supports progressive possibilities inherent to a social, economic, political, and cultural environment in which public relations activities play an increasingly central role in public life and discourse (Davis, 2002). Craig (1989) pointed toward the practical-critical concept when he described the purpose of communication as a practical discipline "to cultivate communicative praxis, or practical art, through critical study" (p. 98). He considered this approach to be an extension of empirical, hermeneutic, and critical traditions (p. 107). This article presents parallel models: instrumental, reconstructive, and practical-critical.The discussion proposes a revised framework for designing and carrying out four-stage planning and action sequences in public relations. The analytical focus is temporal sequencing (Couch, 1990, pp. 20-28) of communicative activities. Temporal sequencing, especially "interpersonal timing" of cooperative activity, "underlies all social activity" (p. 23). A practical-critical perspective is required to explicate this processual aspect of public relations planning and action.These observations support a focus on process planning and action models:1. Process models are underdeveloped in the public relations literature when compared with typological models (J. Grunig & Hunt, 1984, pp. 21-43). Typological models risk becoming static descriptions of structural features unless categorical descriptions are supplemented by emphasis on dynamic "micro interactive processes" (Turner, 1988, pp. 10-11) that contribute to the derivation of structures. Established typological models are now being revised to emphasize dimensions of process (J. Grunig, 2001), and further contributions are necessary.2. Existing process models tend to be mainly outlines of standard steps based on "professional axioms" (Van Leuven, 1989). These do not provide an ad...
