Public Relations and Community: A Reconstructed Theory

by Dean Kruckeberg, Kenneth Starck

Overview

This slim volume hits hard at one major point: public relations practitoners need to abandon their dominant attitude of narrowly serving the needs of their clients and instead attempt to engender a broad-based sense of community. By approaching public relations from this broader perspective both the needs of the client and the community are served. Implicit in this theory is that a closer-knit community will retain more traditional family-based values and therefore comprise a more stable and appreciative economic unit for one's client. Canadian Jourbanal of Communication

Public relations is commonly viewed as using persuasive communications to achieve a client's vested goal. Kruckeberg and Starck challenge this oversimplified approach, asserting that public relations is a complex, multi-flow process that should—and can—affect society as a whole. In Part I, they examine critically the historical definition and practice of public relations, outlining the shortcomings of this narrow approach. Part II explores how the community itself has changed. Such issues as the shift from rural to urban life and the attempt to regain a sense of community are discussed. Part III attempts to reconcile the authors' new notion of public relations and community through an in-depth case-study. The results lead the authors to conclude that only if public relations is practiced as an active attempt to build a sense of community can it become a full partner in the communications milieu.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275929114
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/23/1988
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	156
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

DEAN KRUCKEBERG is Coordinator of the Public Relations degree program in the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts at the University of Northern Iowa.

KENNETH STARCK is a Professor in the University of Iowa's School of Jourbanalism and Mass Communication.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
The Quandary of Public Relations
The Historical Foundation in Question
The Problem of a Definition of Public Relations
Conclusions about an Inconclusive Vocation
A Framework of Community Relations
A Theoretical Framework: The Chicago School of Social Thought
A Sense of Community
Sense of Community No Longer Common
The Shift from Rural to Urban Life
The Chicago School and the Search for Community
Attempts to Regain Community
The Chicago School's Application to Community Relations
A Case Study Reconciling Public Relations and Community
A Review of the Main Theory
Sugar Creek as a Theory Test Site
Public and Community Relations in Sugar Creek
Lessons from the Chicago School and Sugar Creek
Bibliography
Index