Selling TTIP: The European Commission’s information policy and the spectre of public opinion

This article examines the European Commission’s information policy during the heavily politicised Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Through the methodologically innovative use of Freedom of Information requests, it moves beyond official discourse to reveal how internal deliberation among Commission officials is preoccupied with monitoring and containing civil society mobilisation against the deal. Underpinned by elitist conceptions of democracy, public opinion emerges as a problem to be solved through strategic public relations, despite the Commission’s discursive commitments to greater transparency and political dialogue with citizens. The findings challenge the widely-held notion that a ‘communication deficit’ between European Union institutions and their publics is at the root of the perennially elusive formation of a European public sphere. Instead, approaching TTIP as a key frontline in the struggle over post-democracy, I conclude that antipublic ideas encoded in the Commission’s information policy are reflective of historically engrained institutional ambivalence towards public-political participation.

An exploration of strategic public relations management in Ghana

The study examines the current state of public relations practice in Ghana. The study applied the four principle of generic public relations theory to determine whether PR practice in Ghana was strategic. A mixed mode of survey and in-depth interviews were used to gather data from 108 respondents and 15 interviewees respectively. Findings show PR in Ghana is seldom managed strategically, is practiced more at the technician level than managerial, and is bound to cultural norms of the country.

Remembering the King: Understanding strategic management of and participation in Elvis’ Death Week

This exploratory qualitative study looks at Death Week, the annual commemoration of Elvis Presley’s death at Graceland in Memphis, TN, as a uniquely important part of tourism-based strategic public relations with a specific focus on the distinctive needs and considerations for dark tourism. Graceland, the second-most visited private home in the United States, offers a unique perspective on relationship building and maintenance, where the focus is less on awareness of Graceland and Elvis, and more on the continuation and generation of relationships to maintain interest across generations. Interviews were conducted with three public relations practitioners connected to Memphis or Elvis Presley Enterprises and 17 Death Week Candlelight Vigil participants, to better understand the promotion, delivery, and evaluation of a dark tourism experience. The impact of neo-tribes, a specific type of fandom, is also discussed as an important factor in continual relationship building with Death Week participants. The article concludes with suggestions for deepening the theoretical connection between dark tourism and public relations, and offers best practices for practitioners engaged in dark tourism relationship building.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the essential value of public relations

In this editorial for issue one of volume six of the Journal of Professional Communication, the author discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting period of sheltering in place and economic lockdown has demonstrated the essential importance of effective and strategic public relations for government and all manner of organizations in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. The editorial also contains a summary of each article in this issue of JPC, as well as acknowledgement of peer reviewers and JPC staff. ©Journal of Professional Communication, all rights reserved.

10 Tips for strategic public relations during the COVID-19 pandemic

This practical paper enumerates 10 tips for strategic communciations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Driven by data, the tips focus on knowing your audience, having empathy for what they are going through and having an understanding of how people’s perception of the relative value of mainstream media and social media as information sources has changed during the pandemic crisis. The paper emerged from a podcast interview organized by Dave Scholz at Léger with Alex Sévigny which focused on the rise of social media that happened during the pandemic, caused by the widespread and sudden movement to working from home across the economy. ©Journal of Professional Communication, all rights reserved.

Special Events Fashion Show Collaboration in Socializing Spongebobgold to Support Brand Awareness

MNC Licensing International sees the opportunity of expanding the target market of their brand animation SpongeBob. In its current state, SpongeBob has reached the maturity stage. SpongeBob feels the importance to extend the target market to millennials. Regarding this, SpongeBob created a global campaign called SpongeBob Gold. SpongeBob Gold's global campaign is a marketing public relations activity created through nine steps of strategic public relations planning to support brand awareness. This campaign uses a fashion show collaboration strategy that collaborates with the local designers from every country. For Indonesia, SpongeBob Gold collaborate with Indonesian local designer Tities Sapoetra. This fashion show collaboration gives the experience to the fans and uses an influencer to deliver its message. This research uses communication theory, marketing public relations, special event and nine steps of strategic public relations planning in analyzing the implementation of SpongeBob Gold. The methodology that is being used in this research is called qualitative methods by conducting in-depth interviews. The results show that the implementation has had a good outcome. Using the nine steps of strategic public relations planning, the author can understand the implementation of a good strategy in establishing the increasing awareness of the SpongeBob Gold that has resulted in the increasing demand of the licensed of SpongeBob. Keywords: marketing public relations, brand repositioning, special event, brand awareness, fashion show collaboration

Public relations as a complex decision-based practice

This article considers public relations through the prism of decision-making. Decisions can be regarded as a way of dealing with complexity. In the following, two approaches to decisions and complexity are discussed. The first is an actor-based prescriptive approach, which focuses on decision-making as a means of managing environmental complexity. There are different tools and techniques that support public relations managers in finding adequate responses. The second is a descriptive approach, which is more interested in the ways in which such tools and techniques contribute to the complex decision process itself. In accordance with Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, public relations decisions are regarded as a specific form of communication that (a) emphasizes the selectivity of the process by specifying particular public relations options or choices, (b) attributes this selection to a ‘decision-maker’ (e.g. a public relations manager) while simultaneously presuming strategic intent with respect to public perception, and (c) engages the past and future in a specific way. A decision-based approach that builds on communication may thus contribute to a more detailed understanding of public relations practice. Such an approach raises, among others, questions concerning strategic public relations options or the participation of digital entities as ‘decision-makers’. With its focus on decisions as communications, it furthermore links the field of public relations research to schools of thought such as CCO (communicative constitution of organizations) and strategy as practice.