Public Relations Inquiry

With Roland Barthes’ 1968 essay ‘Death of the Author’ as its touchstone, this article reflects critically on the hashtag #ripjkrowling that trended on Twitter in September 2020. Through a thematic content analysis of the top 100 tweets from this hashtag, it will examine celebrity author J.K. Rowling’s reputation amongst fans and wider audiences. Rowling’s history of disseminating transphobic rhetoric online as well as the news her 2020 book contains transphobic messaging will be considered. When Barthes called for the ‘death’ of the author, he highlighted the importance of understanding texts as independent from authorial intention and biography. As this case illuminates, when fans cannot reconcile Rowling’s values with those of her creation they pronounce her ‘dead’. Exemplified through this hashtag, in this post-Barthesian world of celebrity authorship, the author is being revived only to be killed off again. This paper seeks to examine why Potterheads, in response to Rowling’s controversies pertaining to LGBTQIA+ issues, are pronouncing her ‘dead’. From there, this article explores a broader public relations inquiry into what this means for public relations practice when media products and brands belong to the fans, especially politically and socially active ones like Potterheads. Mainstream participatory culture logics on Twitter such as hashtag and fan activism will be reflected on to understand their role in how modern fans separate art from their artists, and implications for Rowling’s authorship, Harry Potter readership and public relations.

Several scholars have addressed the convergence of public relations and public diplomacy theories, and many have argued that public diplomacy needs to move beyond normative theories of communication. Yet little scholarly work has been done to date. To fill this gap, this study explores how critical and postmodern theoretical approaches can inform public diplomacy practice by extending the cultural–economic model (CEM) of public relations through Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice. Based on interviews with organizational members of Sister Cities International (SCI), this study suggests that critical–cultural and postmodern perspectives can inform SCI’s public diplomacy efforts by considering larger structural factors in tension with agency. Thus, this study contributes to both the development of robust international public relations theory and theory building in the public diplomacy field. Findings indicate that drawing on Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice (1997), social capital contributes to the notion of institutionalized relationships, such as family or resources, that individuals acquire through group memberships as found in articulations within the CEM. Additionally, although the CEM explains the connection between culture and power in creating meaning, Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital makes explicit a focus on education, which is a significant focus of many public diplomacy efforts. Therefore, the term cultural capital provides additional insight into the model to inform public diplomacy efforts. Thus, this study extends the CEM through Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice by indicating the role of social capital and cultural capital in SCI’s public diplomacy efforts.

Despite being one of the fastest growing and highly influential segments of the U.S. population, Latino/a/xs have been largely underrepresented in the public relations field. In response to the scarcity of research examining the role and influence of Latinas in public relations, this study contributes a unique perspective by providing new insights into the challenges U.S. Latinas face in the public relations industry, their coping strategies, and how those may vary based on cultural identities (immigrant, first-generation, and non-immigrant Latinas). Through 24 in-depth interviews with Latinas working in mid-management and senior-executive level roles, this study reveals inclusion, intersectionality, isolation, language, pay equity, and pigeonholing as key challenges to career advancement; and identifies action, rational thinking, avoidance, emotional support, instrumental support, and personal advocacy as main coping strategies used to address these challenges. Findings also provide recommendations and a timely call for greater cultural sensitivities, accountability, and DEIB in public relations.

This article examines Facebook posts in Botswana to determine how government public relations (PR) practitioners used language to help protect the reputation of two state-owned agencies during times of crisis. For insufficiently prepared PR practitioners, crises can quickly become complex owing to the proliferation of social media which has dramatically reshaped crisis communication in non-Western, multicultural contexts. While crisis communication has drawn more scholarly interest, the way the Botswana Government use language to maintain power and legitimacy during emergencies represents a fresh case study. We use Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in our scrutiny of the Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) crisis of 2011, and the Botswana Railways (BR) crisis of 2019. The analysis reveals a corporate ideology of economic development used as an underlying manipulative and propagandistic form of organized persuasive communication (OPC) strategy aimed at establishing and maintaining power. The article also demonstrates how, via this strategy, the government uses state power to galvanize support and mobilize audiences to rally behind state-owned organizations.