Popular Culture and Social Change: The Hidden Work of Public Relations

The book Popular Culture and Social Change: The Hidden Work of Public Relations explores the complex and contradictory relationship between public relations, popular culture, and social change, highlighting the ways in which public relations influences the production of popular culture and can be harnessed for social change. It offers an alternative conceptualization of public relations as a resource for progressive social change, drawing on critical and sociocultural perspectives to investigate the entanglement of public relations, popular culture, and social change in different social, cultural, and political contexts.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 158 pages
Publication date: 29 April 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Popular culture and social change are intertwined in complex and often contradictory ways, as explored in the book "Popular Culture and Social Change: The Hidden Work of Public Relations." This insightful work argues that the relationship between public relations, popular culture, and social change is a neglected theoretical project that deserves more attention. The book's diverse chapters shed light on various ways in which public relations influences the production of popular culture and offer alternative conceptualizations of public relations that can be harnessed for social change and the pursuit of social justice.

By moving beyond corporate understandings and perspectives, this book opens up critical scholarship on public relations. It explores alternative and eclectic communicative cultures, aiming to consider a more optimistic conceptualization of public relations as a resource for progressive social change. Fitch and Motion, the authors, began their research with the interest in identifying how public relations both draws on and influences the production of popular culture. They explore how public relations creates popular cultures that are often compromised and commercialized, but at the same time, can be leveraged to advocate for social change by supporting, reproducing, challenging, or resisting the status quo.

Drawing on critical and sociocultural perspectives, this book is a valuable resource for researchers, educators, and students interested in public relations theory, strategic communication, and promotional culture. It investigates the entanglement of public relations, popular culture, and social change in different social, cultural, and political contexts, ranging from fashion and fortune-telling to race activism and aesthetic labor. By examining these diverse examples, the book aims to better understand the often subterranean societal influence of public relations.

In conclusion, "Popular Culture and Social Change: The Hidden Work of Public Relations" provides a comprehensive and thought-provoking exploration of the complex relationship between public relations, popular culture, and social change. It offers valuable insights into the ways in which public relations shapes cultural narratives, promotes commercial interests, and influences social movements. By challenging traditional perspectives and promoting alternative conceptualizations, this book contributes to the growing body of critical scholarship on public relations and its role in shaping society.

Weight: 290g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367559403