Power Over, Power With, and Power to Relations: Critical Reflections on Public Relations, the Dominant Coalition, and Activism

Berger, Bruce K.

doi:10.1207/s1532754xjprr1701_3

Cited by 199 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…As has been found in the UK parliament at Westminster (HL Paper 7, 2009), civil service GIOs are often viewed and feel themselves to be increasingly de-valued and undermined in their efforts to effectively communicate their department's policy decisions to the general public. It is clear from our findings, that the pre-devolution 'dominant coalition' (Berger, 2009) recovering from a violent conflict. Moreover, while some journalists may benefit from better 24 access to government in this new political context they may find themselves pressurised to limit their scrutinising role in order to maintain their privileged access, again a situation which is not conducive to transparent governance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Power-sharing and political public relations: Government-press relationships in Northern Ireland's developing democratic institutions

Rice

Somerville

2013

Public Relations Review

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1 Power-sharing and political public relations: Government-Press relationships in NorthernIreland's developing democratic institutions. AbstractNorthern Ireland's democratic governance is consociational (i.e. power-sharing is mandatory) and therefore substantially different from the majoritarian electoral system which characterises most Western democratic societies. Consociationalism has been advocated as a form of democracy which can reconcile post-conflict societies fragmented along ethnic, religious or linguistic lines. Political public relations within mandatory coalitions has received little attention from scholars to date. Drawing on data from elite interviews with Government Information Officers (GIOs), Ministerial Special Advisers (SpAds) and journalists in Northern Ireland, this paper analyses their perspectives on political public relations in Northern Ireland's evolving democratic institutions. Our findings suggest Northern Ireland's public sphere is characterised not just by the usual contest between government communicators and journalists over political stories, but also by competition across government departments and within departments between GIOs and SpAds. Our research investigates the role of public relations in Northern Ireland's developing democratic institutions and more generally identifies important issues surrounding government communication in post-conflict power-sharing democracies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Power-sharing and political public relations: Government-press relationships in Northern Ireland's developing democratic institutions

Rice

Somerville

2013

Public Relations Review

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“…Whistleblowing has been studied most extensively in public relations as one of several "dissent" tactics that, along with leaking information, public relations practitioners may use to influence their organizations (Berger, 2005;Berger & Reber, 2006;Kang & Berger, 2010;Kang, Berger, & Shin, 2012). In the Berger and Reber (2006) studies, only 4% said they would blow the whistle on an illegal activity, and only 1% said they would use hot lines or audit committees to report illegal activity.…”

Section: Whistleblowing and Dissentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whistleblowing in the Fortune 1000: What practitioners told us about wrongdoing in corporations in a pilot study

Greenwood

2015

Public Relations Review

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“…Communication managers, hence, should be involved in decision making at the highest possible level, often by the top executives who are in control of management and thus referred to as the dominant coalition. The whole process is termed ''empowerment'' (Holtzhausen and Voto 2002;Berger 2005;Grunig 2006). Although communication managers nominally vote in policy decisions made by the dominant coalition, their specialized role in the decision making is practically no more than that of a communicator, who communicates the views of publics as well as the likely consequences of policy decisions to other senior managers after communicating with various publics potentially affected by the policy.…”

Section: Research Questions and A Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Branding Macau’s External Image Through Strategic Communication: A Descriptive Study

Zhang

Huang

Chen

et al. 2015

Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci.

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Many national governments have employed strategic communication in promoting their external images. Though somewhat a sub-nation since its handover to China in 1999, the Macau Special Administrative Region Government (MSARG) finds it imperative to apply strategic communication to its place branding in its regional and international communities. Taking on the former Portuguese colony for an in-depth analysis, this study describes the perception of, knowledge about, and practice on strategic communication by the MSARG communication officials. The findings, though limited, seem reconcilable with the analytical assumptions of strategic communication studies in the west.

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Power Over, Power With, and Power to Relations: Critical Reflections on Public Relations, the Dominant Coalition, and Activism

Cited by 199 publications

References 19 publications

Power-sharing and political public relations: Government-press relationships in Northern Ireland's developing democratic institutions

Power-sharing and political public relations: Government-press relationships in Northern Ireland's developing democratic institutions

Whistleblowing in the Fortune 1000: What practitioners told us about wrongdoing in corporations in a pilot study

Branding Macau’s External Image Through Strategic Communication: A Descriptive Study

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