Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

Journal Article 11.1: Wehmeier, S., & Winkler, Peter. (2013). Expanding the bridge, minimizing the gaps: Public relations, organizational communication, and the idea that communication constitutes organization. Management Communication Quarterly, 27(2), 280-290.

Abstract: Public relations (PR) and organizational communication (OC) are two related fields of research in the larger discipline of communication studies; nevertheless, they developed separately. Inspired by Christensen and Cornelissen (2011), who argue that the fields of corporate communication and organizational communication could cross-fertilize if they acknowledged their common ground, this article has a threefold aim: first, to explore the main gaps between PR and OC; second, to identify ways of bridging those gaps through a systematic comparison of the axioms underlying PR and OC, in contrast to Christensen and Cornelissen, who mainly focus on enriching corporate communication with ideas from OC; and third, to argue that the field of German-speaking communication research, which draws to a large extent on holistic social theories (e.g. Habermas, 1984, 1987; Luhmann, 1995; Schimank, 1996), offers the means of bridging PR and OC. We also argue that it is worth exploring potential bridges between PR and OC in German-speaking research precisely because in the respective literature these two terms are often used synonymously.

Journal Article 11.2: Logan, N. (2016). The starbucks race together initiative: Analyzing a public relations campaign with critical race theory. Public Relations Inquiry, 5(1), 93-113.

Abstract: In response to a series of race-related incidents in the United States in 2014, Starbucks launched the Race Together Initiative, a multifaceted public relations campaign designed to spark a national dialogue on race. The campaign generated a great deal of discussion in the public sphere including some praise and much criticism. This article uses critical race theory as a theoretical lens to analyze the Race Together campaign as well as reactions to it in the news media and on Twitter. The purpose of this article is to use critical race theory to enrich understandings of the Race Together campaign as well as to explore the implications of corporate public relations campaigns that attempt to address sensitive social issues such as race.

Journal Article 11.3: Moss, D., Newman, A., & DeSanto, B. (2005). What do communication managers do? Defining and refining the core elements of management in a public relations/corporate communication context.   Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 82(4), 873-890.

Abstract: This article presents the findings of the second stage of an international collaborative research program designed to map, explicate, and compare the main elements of the managerial role performed by communication/public relations practitioners working in a range of organizational settings and different cultural contexts. It builds on earlier qualitative research among U.K. and U.S. public relations practitioners designed to uncover the nature of the managerial roles they perform. In this study, a survey distributed to 900 U.K.-based communication practitioners was factor analyzed, revealing a five-factor interpretation, which suggests a more contemporary, empirically based conceptualization of key dimensions of the communication manager's role than currently offered by the traditional manager role typology advocated within the existing public relations roles literature.