As (almost) everyone in the Australian public relations industry knows, there are more women than men. On average, the numbers in Perth (and nationally) favour women by slightly more than three to one. However, the figures are alarmingly high, and, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, make PR one of the most female-intensive industries in Australia. This growing imbalance may have long-term effects which have yet to be identified. This thesis, however, seeks to consider the reasons for this situation. The research aims to: 1. Examine the reasons for the growth in numbers of women and numerical decline of men within public relations in Perth, Western Australia, by considering the development of public relations and how it has impacted on the composition of the profession. 2. Examine future trends within the profession for both women and men and what an imbalance may mean. Patterns in the data clearly show that women outnumber men by almost 3:1, with statistics consistent across all groups surveyed. For example, in government PR practitioners are 71 per cent female, while in private practice (both nationally and in WA) it is 74 per cent. In WA charities the figure is 75 per cent. At the universities it varies between 72 and 87 per cent. This study examines the reason for the imbalance and whether an imbalance is good. Whether the industry (professional bodies, educators, students and practitioners) is concerned is up to it. This work provides the first study of the gender composition of the industry in Australia. As such, it should be a valuable tool in a number of areas. Like many initial studies, it raises just as many questions as answers, and it provides pathways for future study. It should lead to a wider examination of further issues. For example: does the predominance of women in PR in university courses cause concern among male students, perhaps leading them to question their continued participation? Do male students wonder whether the female dominance of PR courses will lessen their chances of employment. And what do practitioners think of an industry that is feminine?

This thesis looks at the relationships Board of Trustees need to balance between themselves and their Maori communities. Their researcher was a sole Maori representative on a South Island Board of Trustees and explored the minority position of his role. The research was restricted to one Primary School and one board of Trustees. This research examined the strengths, weaknesses, attitudes and perceptions of Boards of Trustees governance when dealing with issues around their Maori communities. The role of the researcher as both writer and Board of Trustees Member, created ethical issues around objectivity and subjectivity, and sought to show how a researcher is able to remain impartial, in their own study. The research found that relationships between mainstream Boards of Trustees and their Maori communities are better developed by including local iwi or hapu, therefore making a three way relationship.

This thesis explores how an adherence to professional principles can be reconciled with a commitment to inclusive participatory planning processes in urban governance. Two themes are drawn together. First, the study concerns recent shifts in thinking about public participation that have resulted in innovative approaches to engaging citizens in urban governance processes through deliberative, interactive workshops and forums. Second, the study focuses on power relations that are inherent in such forums, particularly when a variety of different knowledges (expert and lay) interact. The two themes are brought together by focusing on the participatory practices of the urbanist movement - an urban form movement that draws specific principles from the urbanism of traditional towns and cities in order to create socially and environmentally sustainable places. Within urbanist participation, professional principles for the built environment and a commitment to a form of deliberative democracy are combined. In this study, the crucial question asked is: what is the nature and effect of the power relations on the democratic character of public involvement in participatory planning processes? To explore this issue, two urbanist Enquiry by Design processes were selected as retrospective case studies. One case involved a regeneration project for an inner urban area of a north England industrial town, while the other case involved a greenfield urban extension in the south west of England. The empirical research, undertaken in mid 2005, comprised 52 semi-structured interviews, analysis of extensive background material, and site visits. Research participants were selected to capture a range of perspectives and experiences of each process. To understand the power relations in the cases a two pronged approach was taken. The study was informed by literature from communicative planning theory and deliberative democracy. From this literature, an Ethic for Communicative Participation was developed as a heuristic device to evaluate urbanist participation. Concomitantly, to understand the nature of the power relations involved in the deliberative forum, the study employed a discourse theory perspective after Laclau and Mouffe (2001). Thus, power was understood as relational and imbricated within all social relations, while conflict was conceived of as an indicator of power. The study found that the urbanist discourse, as a hegemonic project, had a significant effect on the nature of the participatory processes. In disseminating and instituting a particular vision for urban sustainability, the urbanist participatory process was found to be instrumental to realising the urbanist vision in each locality. As such, the cases studied displayed a thin commitment to democracy. Moreover, the discursive constructions of concepts of community, representation, consensus and participation evident in the cases, exposed a unified and homogeneous understanding of social groups. Consequently, the complexity of power relations and conflict inherent in the processes were bracketed, resulting in the exclusion of certain perspectives. Nevertheless, the study illustrated the value in understanding the inherently antagonistic nature of the public sphere for both research and practice. The study supported emerging claims for a democratic politics in which antagonism is transformed into agonism - a space of reciprocity and mutual respect in which contestations over meanings can be articulated. In the cases, the participatory space allowed participants to challenge the hegemonic nature of the dominant discourses. Therefore, the thesis argues for two important ways to rethink power in both theory and in practice. First, there must be a willingness to engage with conflict and power. Second, there must be an interrogation of claims to unity or collectivity. Understanding the public sphere as inherently antagonistic, heterogeneous, and criss-crossed with complex power relations potentially provides conditions in which hegemonic forces can be contested. An agonistic politics has the potential to facilitate the open contestation of different knowledges and transform the dominant power relations such that an enhanced democracy can ensue.

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Thesis (M.S.)--Kutztown University. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2702. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-65).

Due to rising unemployment levels, researchers have begun to investigate how corporations handle layoffs and how they could manage them better in the future. Public relations practitioners can use this type of research to help organizations learn how to best maintain their images, reputations and productivity amid mass layoffs. When an organization conducts mass layoffs, its actions become both a current event and a public issue that is frequently discussed in newspaper articles. In order for downsizing organizations to be aware of the public?s perceptions of their layoff procedures, they should be aware of how the news media represents them. This study used a content analysis of different newspaper articles to determine how three downsizing organizations (General Motors, Caterpillar, and Boeing) were portrayed in the midst of mass layoffs. This study examined a sample of newspaper articles from two nationally-distributed daily newspapers (The New York Times and The Washington Post). It also included articles from daily newspaper that were located in the cities where the layoffs took place (The Detroit News, The Chicago Tribune, and The Seattle Times). The findings did not show that the newspapers? articles about the layoffs tended to be more prominent in the regional publications than in the national publications. While the articles were often prominently placed in the newspapers, the layoffs were not typically the primary focus of the articles. The reporters frequently included details of the layoffs, such as the number of layoff victims, in their articles. They also frequently included attributions of blame for the layoff decisions. The articles, however, rarely discussed socially responsible actions made on behalf of the downsizing companies.

This dissertation looks at U.S. public diplomacy practices in a country that until twenty years ago was controlled by a hard-line Communist regime: Romania. The study investigates the relationship management approach to public diplomacy employed by U.S. diplomats in Romania and it is the first to empirically test the application of relationship management theory of public relations to public diplomacy. Through in-depth interviews with six former U.S. diplomats who served in Romania during 2001-2009, we learn how diplomats must find various ways to build and maintain relationships with the civil society to which they are assigned. The findings reveal that U.S. diplomats’ main role in Romania was to engage in direct relationships with members of the civil society and facilitate bilateral relationships between members of the two countries. In addition, this study found a new role of diplomats abroad, that of building communities of like-minded people in the society in which they operate. This study expands the theoretical framework in public diplomacy by proposing two new models for public diplomacy practice. First, under the relational paradigm, this study establishes the goal of public diplomacy as the management of long-lasting relationships between members of two countries, with the aim to create hubs of networks in the countries of interest. Under the relational paradigm, the newly proposed model for the relationship management process provides an in-depth understanding of how U.S. diplomats engage with members of the Romanian civil society in order to accomplish the public diplomacy goal. Second, to better understand the uniqueness of the relationship management process between any two countries in the world, this dissertation proposes a framework of public diplomacy built on seven relational dimensions identified here as image, reputation, trust, credibility, communication, dialogue, and relationships. Testing the relationships management theory in public diplomacy is an important undertaking, which could broaden the scope of public diplomacy and can provide a framework for a comparative line of research between public diplomacy and public relations.

Every passing year is witness to increases in Internet use among younger populations. The amount of time spent online among children ages two to 11 is increasing at a faster rate than that of the entire online population. The rise in Internet use among children has resulted in marketing and advertising efforts aimed at increasing brand awareness, involvement and immersion. The use of branded entertainment and advergames is a popular practice when attempting to increase brand awareness and loyalty among children. Advergames offer a combination of entertainment and advertising that are designed to appeal to younger populations that have difficulty distinguishing persuasive messages from entertainment content. Past research on parental attitudes towards children’s television advertising indicates parenting style influences subsequent attitudes towards advertisements. The purpose of this study, utilizing parental socialization theory, examines parenting style and how it affects attitudes towards children’s advergaming. This study analyzes results from a nationwide online survey (N=214) and examines differences between authoritarian, authoritative, neglecting, and indulgent parents in their attitudes towards children’s advergaming. Findings indicate that differences in attitudes towards advergaming do exist among the four parenting styles in the hypothesized direction yet these differences were not significant.

Abstract The reality of today is that companies are spending more and more money on commercial spots. The “highlight” of the year is Super Bowl, where a 30-second ad costs more than $2 million to run. Advertising agencies are using their role as communicators by competing with each other with no interest in the product. The marketing guru Al Ries released a controversial book called “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR” (2002) together with his daughter Laura Ries. In this book they are at-tacking the traditional advertising industry and claim that it has lost its credibility and above all, public relations is a more effective tool in brand building. The Rieses also favors PR in the in-troduction phase of a new brand. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate agencies’ view of public relations role relative to traditional advertising in the intro-duction phase of a new brand. The authors have used a qualitative study where the purpose will be achieved by performing in-depth face to face interviews with three respondents, which has a deep knowledge within the PR and the traditional advertising industry. Whether PR as a promotional tool is viewed as more effective relative to traditional advertising in the introduction of a new brand one has to consider different variables. PR is more effec-tive when it comes to credibility, cost, and clutter. However, a major drawback is the control. Also, one has to consider the at-tributes of the brand since there are brands that are more PR “friendly” than others.

In recent decades, public relations and news management have become increasingly important in organizations’ communication efforts. This thesis aims to show how the Kalmar municipality works with this type of strategic communication to build the Kalmar brand and how their communication efforts can be improved. The thesis is mainly based on theories concerning Public relations and News Management but also the medias impact on forming opinion. An important issue throughout the thesis is that all theories must be related to the fact that the study concerns an organization in the public sector and the obligations that comes with that fact. To get insight into how the Kalmar municipality works, a number of qualitative interviews have been used. The interviews were conducted with representatives from both Kalmar municipality, and from the local press in order to create a comprehensive picture of the problem area. The results have shown that there are flaws in the way Kalmar municipality work with PR and News Management. Changes that would improve their situation are such as a closer relations to the press, focus more energy on understanding how the media organization work and how they value news and a more structured internal communication in order to give a common outward picture of the city of Kalmar.