What prompted you to write this book?
Two personal perspectives. With over twenty years of experience in the industry as a public relations practitioner, Margalit identified a significant gap in the way public relations was practiced and perceived in Israel compared to the developed countries she visited as a member of the international PR community. While studying and working in the US she became intrigued by those differences. Israel for example, had no academic program in public relations till 2011 while in the US it was a recognised discipline within many universities. She decided to respond to scholars such as Sriramesh and Vercic who in the late 1990s called for the discipline of public relations to research the profession within the context of specific cultural and political environments rather than follow the assumption that all public relations experiences follow the US model.
As a Scottish republican, David has been questioning national identity almost since birth and has been researching PR since 1997. Only recently, however, did he appreciate the formative role of public relations in personal and national narratives and the impact of national identities on the evolution of PR as a profession. Our joint trips to Israel helped us both to identify the interplay of nation building and PR as a distinctive way to understand both the uniqueness of the Israeli system and its possible relevance to other unique national experiences.
What makes Israel stand out from other countries, in terms of the use of PR to inform/build national identity?
Israel, at 65, is relatively a new state that was established by immigrants from around the world with about 70 different cultural identities and languages. The Zionist movement that established the state made a phenomenal effort to unite them into one society and to create a new Israeli identity. The first public relations practitioners were employed by Zionist institutions. They used PR to enlist the new immigrants to the challenging tasks involved in building a nation and a state. They also provided the enlisting narratives, symbols, and emotional messages that inspired the sacrifice of personal individual goals, and sometimes, lives, for the sake of building a state.
Does the definition of PR change when used in the context of nation building?
Current definitions of public relations emphasise the role of the practitioners as facilitators of dialogue between organisations and their constituents, and as builders of networks of relationships. We argue that in situations of nation building, the pressure to use propaganda-style communication is intense. The whole society, including the media, tends to cooperate and support the agendas set by the national leadership. Typically, there is no tolerance for dissident voices as happens during wars. Enlisted societies rarely offer the democratic environment that allows PR to flourish in line with contemporary definitions.
Do other techniques form national identities in Israel?
There is a special term in Hebrew called Hasbara which, literally, means “explanation.” It is used to describe the effort of government, or other organisations, to influence public opinion within Israel and abroad. A paternalistic approach to persuasive communication, Hasbara is based on the assumption that the receivers of the message are ignorant or lack the background knowledge to understand correctly without guidance. Hasbara, or the lack of it, is often blamed for the poor image of Israel abroad and the international criticism on its behaviour, especially in the context of its conflict with Palestinians. Hasbara is often used to describe public relations campaigns though it is closer to propaganda and does not recognise the need for interactive dialogue.
What is the difference between political propaganda and public relations, or is it that political propaganda is a tool of public relations?
Any type of propaganda, not just political propaganda, is one sided and involves half-truth or lies while ignoring or shutting down the voices of opponents. Public relations aims to be more dialogical and to present activists and other critical voices to the decision makers of their organisations. The profession aspires to ethical communication and to the building of relations of trust with stakeholders, the public, and the media. In reality, however, it can operate akin to many features of propaganda and only pay lip service to the attitudes and demands of internal and external publics.
Why do you think PR has not been examined before in terms of nation building and national identity?
There have been a few scholars who did examine this interaction and, more recently, there’s been increased research in the area. Nonetheless, most of the literature on public relations has been produced since the 1920s in the US. That literature assumed American leadership of the profession and the academic research. With the rise of globalisation, and less US-centric approaches, scholars have studied different professional experiences in different parts of the world. Jacquie L’Etang’s (2004) pioneering book on the history of public relations in Britain was a first of its kind. In a sense our book follows her steps by providing a different story from another political, economic, and socio-cultural environment.
What is the overall message of the book?
That unity should not ride roughshod over democracy and that dissenting voices need to be heard. We see an urgent need to make the future activities of public relations contribute positively and transparently to the growth of “fully functioning societies.” In a climate of nation building and nationalism, PR can be too easily pressed into the service of government propaganda. It needs to build a history of resistances to these pressures. By remembering that it functions best in a democratic environment, it can help to speak truth to power to preserve that environment. Israel’s success in providing narratives that enlist society to unite and to sacrifice for the state offers lessons that unity sometimes comes at the cost of democracy.
If you were pressed to name one lesson to be taken away from this research, what would it be?
We hope our narrative will encourage public relations practitioners and scholars from all over the world to make their histories visible, to learn from both their positive and negative aspects and to share both as widely as possible. Our deeper aspiration is that PR practitioners, activists, and media workers can jointly contribute to more democratic societies.
Who did you write this book for?
We have ongoing discussion with Margalit’s family and friends in Israel and Israelis, Jews and non-Jews outside of the country. While writing the book we were trying to clarify our position to them and work out how our experiences in our nations had shaped us. Our colleagues and friends from all over the world who research and study the role of public relations in society were a significant audience in our mind. We also tried to create a book that would help Israelis understand PR and the Israeli PR industry to acknowledge its professional roots and be inspired by the socially responsible aspirations of contemporary public relations practitioners across the world.
The need for this Sourcebook stems from recent innovations in political communication involving the use of advanced statistical techniques, innovative conceptual frameworks, the rise of digital media as both a means by which to disseminate and study political communication, and methods recently adapted from other disciplines, particularly psychology, sociology, and neuroscience. Chapters will have a social-scientific orientation and will explain new methodologies and measures applicable to questions regarding media, politics, and civic life. The Sourcebook covers the major analytical techniques used in political communication research, including surveys (both original data collections and secondary analyses), experiments, content analysis, discourse analysis (focus groups and textual analysis), network and deliberation analysis, comparative study designs, statistical analysis, and measurement issues. Order a copy or view inside this book to find out more.
The book contains eight sections:
• Historical Perspectives
• Political Economy
• Globalization
• Audiences as Labor, Consumers, Interpreters
• Identities
• Social Institutions
• Everyday Life
• The Environment.
With chapters written by leading international scholars working at the intersections of media studies and advertising studies, this book is a go-to source for those looking to understand the ways advertising has shaped consumer culture, in the past and present.
Find out more about the contents of these sections and take an advanced view inside at the website.
If you are interested in:
why not see our latest title and our key backlist. You can view both online catalogues here.
You can also pick up a print copy of the general Media and Communication catalogue at any conferences we are attending, or you can email media_studies@routledge.com
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Organization and Organizing addresses such questions as:
•To what extent should the materiality of texts and artifacts be accounted for in a process view of organization?
•What part does materiality play in the process by which organizations achieve continuity in time and space?
•In what sense do artifacts perform a role in human communication and interaction and in the constitution of organization?
•What are the voices and entities participating in the emergence and stabilization of organizational reality?
The work represents scholarship going on in various parts of the world, and features contributions that overcome traditional conceptions of the nature of organizing by addressing in specific ways the difficult issues of the performative character of agency; materiality as the basis of the iterability of communication and continuity of organizations; and discourse as both textuality and interaction. The contributions laid out in this book also pay tribute to the work of the organizational communication theorist James R. Taylor, who developed a view of organization as deeply rooted in communication and language. Contributors extend and challenge Taylor’s communicative view by tackling issues and assumptions left implicit in his work.
In this revised and updated edition of the CDS's popular guide to digital storytelling, co-founder Joe Lambert details the history and methods of digital storytelling practices. Using a "7 Steps" approach, Lambert helps storytellers identify the fundamentals of dynamic digital storytelling--from seeing the story, assembling it, and sharing it. As in the last edition, readers of the fourth edition will also find new explorations of the applications of digital storytelling and updated appendices that provide resources for budding digital storytellers, including information about past and present CDS-affiliated projects and place-based storytelling, a narrative-based approach to understanding experience and landscape.
A companion website further brings the entire storytelling process to life. On the site you will find some additional resources, including digital stories mentioned in the book, links to relevant resources and technologies, a storyboard template, and software tutorial guides. Find out more and view inside the book.
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This volume examines how social media is evolving as an industry—it is an extension of traditional media industries, yet it is distinctly different in its nature and ability to build relationships among users. Examining social media in both descriptive and analytical ways, the chapters included herein present an overview of the social media industries, considering the history, development, and theoretical orientations used to understand social media. Order a copy.
The Social Media Industries is part of our Media Management and Economics Series.
Global Television Formats revolutionizes television studies by de-provincializing its approach to media globalization. It re-examines dominant approaches and their legacies of global/local and center/periphery, and offers new directions for understanding television’s contemporary incarnations.
The chapters in this collection take up the format phenomena from around the globe. Contributors address both little known examples and massive global hits ranging from the Idol franchise, to telenovelas, dance competitions, sports programming, reality TV, quiz shows, sitcoms and more.
View inside the book to find out more or order a copy.
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Some of us may believe that interpersonal communication is a matter of common sense or that skillful communication is an innate ability that you either have or you don’t. In this text, Denise Solomon and Jennifer Theiss demonstrate that interpersonal communication skills are not just common sense; nor are they mysterious qualities that defy learning. Interpersonal Communication: Putting Theory into Practice draws on theory and research in the interpersonal communication discipline to help you identify strategies to improve your communication skills. Denise and Jen introduce interpersonal communication as a subject of scientific research that has enormous relevance to your daily lives. You will learn to use what researchers have discovered about interpersonal communication to improve your own ability to communicate well. You will also read about contemporary research in interpersonal communication, a foundation for establishing skill-building tips.
The book is supoprted by a companion website which includes resources for both instructor and students. Order a complimentary exam copy if you teach a related course.
Read more about this new title...
Series: Shaping Inquiry in Culture, Communication and Media Studies
This book re-visits how we think about communication and power in the global era. It takes stock of the last fifty years of scholarship, maps key patterns and concepts and sets an agenda for theory and research.
The book addresses such questions as:
• How are national and cultural identities re-fashioned and expressed in the global era?
• How can we best understand the emergence of multiple and sometimes antagonistic modernities worldwide?
• How are political struggles fought and communicated on the local-national-global nexus?
• How do we integrate emerging media environments in global communication studies?
Bringing together essays from a range of internationally renowned scholars, this book will be useful to undergraduate and postgraduate students on Media and Communication Studies courses, particularly those studying globalisation and global media.
Omar Swartz (2011): Activism and Rhetoric: Theories and Contexts for Political Engagement,
Seth Kahn and JongHwa Lee, eds., Rhetoric Review, 30:3, 324-326
This inspiring book on “activist rhetoric” was a long time in the making.
Originally conceptualized by the editors in 2003, it went though several iterations
before finding a publisher. The editors’ perseverance, however, has paid off and
readers now benefit from a range of voices of citizen/scholars of rhetoric who
share with readers exciting stories about their nontraditional roles.
Read the entire review here.
As featured in the following journal:
PsycCRITIQUES
20 July 2011, Vol. 56, # 29, Article 1
Reviewed by Karen Wilson
]]>Whereas the obvious focus of the chapters is on the dark side of relationships, many of the chapters also discuss lighter, positive aspects as well. For example, in their chapter on infidelity (Chapter 7), Tsapelas, Fisher, and Aron point out that evidence suggests that infidelity has been shown in some cases to improve one’s relationship and can result in greater efforts at communicating.
Another example is in Spitzberg’s chapter on one of the darkest sides of relationships, intimate partner violence. Spitzberg points out that there may be positive outcomes such as greater relationship satisfaction for some couples, and among victims of stalking many perceive positive outcomes. For example, having been the victim of stalking is related to an increase in resilience. In exploring both the positive and negative outcomes of dark topics, the chapters demonstrate the complex, multifaceted nature of close relationships and show that even the darkest of topics may have a bright side.
The chapters include discussions of newer theories as well as classic ones such as social exchange theory (Thibaut & Kelley, 1959) and the investment model (Rusbult, 1980). Some of the chapters demonstrate that while these classic theories still do well at predicting various aspects of relationship functioning, they don’t necessarily generalize to all populations. One example is the chapter by Miller and Felmlee (Chapter 11), which presents empirical data rather than being a traditional literature review. Miller and Felmlee tested aspects of social exchange theory and the investment model with women who had incarcerated male partners.
Their research demonstrates that social exchange theory variables, in large part, generalize to this population; however, variables that were measured as costs, such as the expense of visits and of children, did not predict satisfaction or commitment. One explanation that the authors offer is that these costs may also be seen as positive investments. Qualitative data collected by the authors suggest that this was the case with their sample.
Lehmiller and Agnew’s chapter on age-gap relationships (Chapter 2) also demonstrates the limits of the investment model. In the research they present, among women who had older partners, only relationship satisfaction predicted commitment, whereas the common finding with the investment model is that investments, satisfaction, and quality of alternatives predict commitment. Although the research presented by Lehmiller and Agnew is certainly interesting, very little of the chapter is actually devoted to discussing the dark side of age-gap relationships; the focus is primarily on theoretical models that may explain age-gap relationships.
Chapters by Koenig Kellas, Willer, and Kranstuber (Chapter 3) and Floyd and Pauley (Chapter 6) explore aspects of the dark side of communication in relationships. Koenig Kellas et al. discuss research on the dark side of how we tell stories to make sense of and manage our personal relationships. Floyd and Pauley review research on dark and light sides of expressing affection in relationships, examining the benefits of affectionate communication to relationships and the persons in the relationship as well as the risks to senders and receivers of such communication. Both chapters provide a good theoretical overview of the research, drawing from both psychological and communications research.
Scholars interested in family dynamics may find chapters by Morr Serewicz and Hosmer (Chapter 9) and Schrodt and Braithwaite (Chapter 10) particularly interesting. Morr Serewicz and Hosmer discuss issues with in-law relationships, an area that, according to the authors, is relatively understudied in relationship research. They discuss the various theoretical perspectives that have been used to study in-law interactions and summarize the current research in the field, highlighting both dark and light aspects of in-law relationships.
Schrodt and Braithwaite explore stepfamily relationships, an area of research that has grown substantially in the last 20 years (Coleman, Ganong, & Fine, 2000; Sweeney, 2010), presenting research on the functional and dysfunctional aspects of ambivalence inherent in stepfamily relationships, focusing specifically on role ambivalence, relational and emotional ambivalence, and communicative ambivalence. Both chapters would be useful for clinical psychologists dealing with family dynamics.
Chapters by DeAndrea, Tong, and Walther (Chapter 4) and Sprecher (Chapter 5) focus on the dark side of a relatively new phenomenon—the Internet. DeAndrea et al. discuss computer-mediated communication (CMC). The authors review research on topics such as Internet addiction and online social communities (virtual communities), particularly those that advocate dark topics such as eating disorders and racism. Despite the evidence for a dark side to CMC, a recent article by Baker and Oswald (2010) suggests that CMC can also help provide a safe form of communication for shy individuals.
Sprecher discusses the dark side of Internet matchmaking services, addressing topics such as sexual predatory behavior and misrepresenting oneself to potential partners. She also discusses research evidence that relationships formed online may be more shallow than those formed offline, as research suggests that spending an inordinate amount of time pursuing relationships online may cause one to miss opportunities for social interaction offline. Both chapters provide a good review of the literature on the Internet and relationships and would be particularly useful for scholars interested in relationship formation.
The book ends with a provocative chapter by DePaulo on living single (Chapter 15). She reviews the literature on singlehood and debunks the conventional wisdom that singles are less happy and healthy than are married individuals. In fact, those who have never married may in some cases be better off than people who marry, especially those individuals who eventually divorce. According to DePaulo, the dark side of being single, it seems, is more about discrimination, negative stereotypes, and social exclusion of those who are single by those who are coupled rather than about being more lonely, depressed, or prone to poorer physical health. She takes many researchers to task who assume that coupledom is best and let their personal biases about being single or coupled affect their interpretations of their data.
Overall, The Dark Side of Close Relationships II does a good job of presenting current research in the field of close relationships. An examination of topics in relationship journals over the past two years (i.e., Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and Personal Relationships) shows a number of articles on topics central to this text such as infidelity, stepfamily relationships, relational turbulence, intimate partner violence, and online dating.
The chapters provide useful reviews of the issues, along with suggestions for new directions that will help guide future research. The book is a good addition to any relationship scholar’s collection, especially for those scholars interested in the dark side of relationships. The book would be appropriate for graduate seminars in close relationships in a number of disciplines such as social psychology and communications.
References
• Baker, L. R., & Oswald, D. L. (2010). Shyness and online social networking services. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27, 873–889. doi:10.1177/0265407510375261
• Coleman, M., Ganong, L., & Fine, M. (2000). Reinvestigating remarriage: Another decade of progress. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62, 1288–1307. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.01288.x
• Rusbult, C. R. (1980). Commitment and satisfaction in romantic associations: A test of the investment model. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 16, 172–186. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(80)90007-4
• Sweeney, M. M. (2010). Remarriage and stepfamilies: Strategic sites for family scholarship in the 21st century. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 667–684. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00724.x
• Thibaut, J. W., & Kelley, H. H. (1959). The social psychology of groups. New York, NY: Wiley.