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Exploring Public Relations
Exploring Public Relations is the definitive academic text on Public Relations. Now in its third edition, the book is essential reading on courses in PR at undergraduate and postgraduate level. It continues to provide a critical analysis of the subject and a sophisticated blend of theory with real life, and includes many case studies, activity exercises, discussion questions and full colour photographs to illustrate the discussions in the text. There is new coverage of the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on PR as well as updated case studies and examples throughout the book to engage students of this exciting subject.
- GenresCommunicationNonfiction
600 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2006
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77 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 30, 2015
Really boring book, hard to read and study, too much irrelevant information. If you have an opportunity to read something else about Public Relations, read something else!
October 11, 2021
Simply a book that will give you bad depression and make you want to pull your brain out of your skull.
Blunt words indeed, but truly reflective of how I felt as a student taking a course in P.R. principles with this book as a primary source of information.
First, the definitions given throughout the chapters are often nonsensical, incomplete, and acquired through vague examples that do not allow you to properly understand concepts that are the foundation for a good grasp of the P.R. industry, both in theory and practice. You will read a chapter and truly wonder what you have learned and memorized.
To only mention a few of the gut-wrenching definition perks, we have:
"Corporate branding is strategic management discipline with the scope to make the organization attractive to current and potential stakeholders in order to strengthen its image and reputation and to make its vision come through."
"Stigma is another concept that is related to but distinct from (bad) reputation. While reputation will always be multi-dimensional, stigma is one dimensional, as it reflects that an organization possesses a fundamental, deep-seated flaw"
"Status is a concept that is related to but distinct from reputation. While reputation is economically determined, status is socially and culturally determined"
As can be inferred from the above-quoted citations, the definitions from this book are the like the Peter Pan of pedagogy, but instead of never growing up, they never fully get to the bloody point.
In the broad marketing discipline, there is a term called "marketing myopia", that is the inability for a marketer to truly answer the needs of a market because of an adopted mindset during the marketing process that makes them blind to what is genuinely expected by customers. I think this book is a great example of "pedagogy myopia", that is the state of being so far up inside one's own expert mind that explaining a discipline in simple and understandable terms becomes impossible.
Second, this book feels like a smelly old gravy. The concepts that are important for beginners to shape a solid understanding of the discipline are scattered among a thick and distasteful mixture of contextual facts and thoughts that make it all the most difficult to really grasp the essentials around which further knowledge can subsequently be built.
Third, this book is a typical example of Kaplan's Oriental thought pattern. I was looking at the resume of the authors of this book, in an attempt to understand how they were led to produce such an insufferable piece of nightmarish informative content. I was surprised to read that they seemingly both came from an Anglo-Saxon culture, for there is nothing English in the thought pattern that led to the creation of this book. On the contrary, instead of going straight, this manual keeps on turning round, and round, and round the points its barely attempting to make while miserably failing to do so. Were we to live in a fantasy world and items could be turned into their anthropomorphic symbolic concepts, this manual would turn into a young child trying to bring you to Neverland so that you never have to understand anything it says.
Fourth, this book is only appropriate for intermediate to advanced students who are trying to refresh previously learned concepts with a lot of context. I could imagine myself pursuing a M.A. in P.R. and using this book as a means to refresh my memory in light of previously seen concepts, while getting to discover many different academic authors whose thoughts may complement my knowledge.
But as a full beginner - AND A STUDENT WHO HAS TO COORDINATE A SCHEDULE WITH A TOTAL OF 5 WEEKLY COURSES -, I only to pull my teethes out every time I attempt to comprehend what this fourth-dimension content attempts to transmit, as I simply don't have the time to care about all the extra hocus pocus that creates tremendous amount of physical noise through extraneous information(ref: Introduction to Intercommunication Principles). Simply put, the authors of this book should be banned from ever addressing a public of beginners. Are they supposed to be experts in the field of P.R.? Well, I would beg them to use the right communication style that is best suited for the public they are addressing. And by that I am not asking to be informed through child-like code switching, but for GOD's SAKE, drop your fancy language and get to the core of what truly matters.
A message to all the Introduction to P.R. Principles professors out there: PLEASE, do not torment your students with such a poorly constructed material. You will only partake in them either despising the discipline as a whole, and or becoming subject to severe cognitive asthma.
Blunt words indeed, but truly reflective of how I felt as a student taking a course in P.R. principles with this book as a primary source of information.
First, the definitions given throughout the chapters are often nonsensical, incomplete, and acquired through vague examples that do not allow you to properly understand concepts that are the foundation for a good grasp of the P.R. industry, both in theory and practice. You will read a chapter and truly wonder what you have learned and memorized.
To only mention a few of the gut-wrenching definition perks, we have:
"Corporate branding is strategic management discipline with the scope to make the organization attractive to current and potential stakeholders in order to strengthen its image and reputation and to make its vision come through."
"Stigma is another concept that is related to but distinct from (bad) reputation. While reputation will always be multi-dimensional, stigma is one dimensional, as it reflects that an organization possesses a fundamental, deep-seated flaw"
"Status is a concept that is related to but distinct from reputation. While reputation is economically determined, status is socially and culturally determined"
As can be inferred from the above-quoted citations, the definitions from this book are the like the Peter Pan of pedagogy, but instead of never growing up, they never fully get to the bloody point.
In the broad marketing discipline, there is a term called "marketing myopia", that is the inability for a marketer to truly answer the needs of a market because of an adopted mindset during the marketing process that makes them blind to what is genuinely expected by customers. I think this book is a great example of "pedagogy myopia", that is the state of being so far up inside one's own expert mind that explaining a discipline in simple and understandable terms becomes impossible.
Second, this book feels like a smelly old gravy. The concepts that are important for beginners to shape a solid understanding of the discipline are scattered among a thick and distasteful mixture of contextual facts and thoughts that make it all the most difficult to really grasp the essentials around which further knowledge can subsequently be built.
Third, this book is a typical example of Kaplan's Oriental thought pattern. I was looking at the resume of the authors of this book, in an attempt to understand how they were led to produce such an insufferable piece of nightmarish informative content. I was surprised to read that they seemingly both came from an Anglo-Saxon culture, for there is nothing English in the thought pattern that led to the creation of this book. On the contrary, instead of going straight, this manual keeps on turning round, and round, and round the points its barely attempting to make while miserably failing to do so. Were we to live in a fantasy world and items could be turned into their anthropomorphic symbolic concepts, this manual would turn into a young child trying to bring you to Neverland so that you never have to understand anything it says.
Fourth, this book is only appropriate for intermediate to advanced students who are trying to refresh previously learned concepts with a lot of context. I could imagine myself pursuing a M.A. in P.R. and using this book as a means to refresh my memory in light of previously seen concepts, while getting to discover many different academic authors whose thoughts may complement my knowledge.
But as a full beginner - AND A STUDENT WHO HAS TO COORDINATE A SCHEDULE WITH A TOTAL OF 5 WEEKLY COURSES -, I only to pull my teethes out every time I attempt to comprehend what this fourth-dimension content attempts to transmit, as I simply don't have the time to care about all the extra hocus pocus that creates tremendous amount of physical noise through extraneous information(ref: Introduction to Intercommunication Principles). Simply put, the authors of this book should be banned from ever addressing a public of beginners. Are they supposed to be experts in the field of P.R.? Well, I would beg them to use the right communication style that is best suited for the public they are addressing. And by that I am not asking to be informed through child-like code switching, but for GOD's SAKE, drop your fancy language and get to the core of what truly matters.
A message to all the Introduction to P.R. Principles professors out there: PLEASE, do not torment your students with such a poorly constructed material. You will only partake in them either despising the discipline as a whole, and or becoming subject to severe cognitive asthma.
August 12, 2020
- GREAT reading about Public Relations
December 21, 2013
This book is a comprehensive resource in the field of public relations. The latest edition was released in November 2013. I like the size and texture more than the one before. Tench deserves being read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews