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Journal Article 16.1: Bourne, C. (2013). Reframing trust, power, and public relations in global financial discourses: Experts and the production of mistrust in life insurance. Public Relations Inquiry, 2(1), 51-77.

Abstract: This study challenges the validity of a role for public relations (PR) as “trust strategist” in global financial markets, by reframing trust, power, and PR. The reframing takes place in three stages: first, by shifting the trajectory of PR research to focus on Giddens’s system trust theory, which, until now, has received little prominence in PR scholarship. Second, by drawing on Foucauldian perspectives to link system trust relations and power relations through discourse; revealing the strategies and practices used to produce trust in global discourses. Third, by locating PR activity within discursive moments of trust/mistrust production, repositioning PR as a “trust intermediary” in global discourses.

Journal Article 16.2: Edwards, L. (2017). Public relations, voice and recognition: A case study. Media, Culture & Society, 1-16.

Abstract: Public relations’ role in democracy is most often conceptualized as a distortion of public debate through the intrusion of vested interests in the public sphere. In this article, an alternative view of public relations is proposed, grounded in the work of Silverstone, Couldry and Honneth, as a tool through which spaces of appearance may be constructed for individuals within deliberative systems. The results of a pilot study conducted with one UK charity are presented, to explore how the use of public relations by marginalized young people allowed them to express voice, receive recognition, and engage with others as citizens. The article concludes with a consideration of the limitations of the study and its implications for the role of public relations in democracy.

Journal Article 16.3: L’Etang, J. (2009). Public relations and diplomacy in a globalized world: An issue of public communication. American Behavioral Scientist, 53(4), 607-626.

Abstract: This article builds on earlier conceptual analyses that have contrasted public relations with diplomacy and public diplomacy at conceptual and applied levels, to consider further the theoretical and global issues of public relations’ diplomatic work for states and organizations in the context of globalization. A key feature of such work is its intercultural nature, at the organizational, ethnic, and state levels. The discussion draws inspiration from a range of disciplines including public relations, international relations, strategic studies, media studies, peace studies, management studies, cultural studies, and anthropology. Linking public diplomacy to public relations usefully reconnects public relations to power, which has largely been ignored by dominant organizational–management approaches to the subject.