PR girls and spin doctors: the public relations profession in popular culture

Kate Fitch, Ella Chorazy

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (Book)Researchpeer-review

Abstract

The chapter considers popular culture to be a critical and transgressive space that encourages the interrogation of dominant discourses, thereby enabling new ways of thinking about public relations and its impact on society. Drawing on popular films and television series that feature public relations practitioners, it investigates how fictional representations – from PR girls to spin doctors – challenge the professional identity of public relations. These representations foreground gendered and ethical tensions that underpin conceptualisations of professional public relations, and these conceptualisations are continuously challenged in popular culture as audiences construct their own meanings. The transformative potential of popular culture therefore highlights contradictions in the construction of public relations and enables more nuanced and complex understandings.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Routledge Companion to Public Relations
EditorsDonnalyn Pompper, Katie R. Place, C. Kay Weaver
Place of PublicationAbingdon UK
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter16
Pages213-224
Number of pages12
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9781003131700
ISBN (Print)9780367654641, 9780367675387
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Publication series

NameRoutledge Companions in Marketing, Advertising and Communication

Keywords

  • public relations
  • popular culture

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