A public world without public relations?

Nayden, Nikolay (author)

The term "public relations" (PR) has long gained currency as meaning the practice of producing a positive public image. This article argues that public relations should be released from the prison of "PR" and, instead, reconceptualised as relations which define the public realm much as economic relations define the economy. From this point of view, three main levels of public relations can be distinguished: (1) relations between public institutions, (2) relations between citizens and public institutions, and (3) relations between single citizens who communicate as strangers. Relations on the last level are qualified as "basic public relations" because they are the simplest, reproduce at all levels, do not need institutional mediation, and are the nucleus of all political roles and meanings. Freeing the term "public relations" from its restricted usage to mean "relations in public" makes it possible to discover the common roots of political institutions and the public sphere and to explore the innate kinship between politics and all other segments of public life. The overall effect is a re-conceptualising of politics as quintessentially stemming from public relations and of democracy as the very essence of politics.

• Language: English
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2009
• Number of pages: Str. 23-40
• Numbering: Vol. 16, no. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-76058
• UDC: 316.77:659
• ISSN on article: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 29081693
• Publication date in RUL: 21.12.2015

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Javnost
• Shortened title: Javnost
• Publisher: Taylor&Francis
• ISSN: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 40119808

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Javni svet brez odnosov v javnosti?

Abstract

Izraz "odnosi z javnostmi" (PR) se je že davno uveljavil v pomenu prakse, ki proizvaja pozitivno podobo v javnosti. Ta članek navaja, da je treba odnose z javnostmi osvoboditi iz zapora "PR" in jih rekonceptualizirati kot odnose, ki določajo javno sfero v enaki meri kot gospodarski odnosi določajo gospodarstvo. S tega vidika lahko razlikujemo tri osnovne ravni odnosov z javnostmi: (1) odnose med javnimi ustanovami, (2) odnose med državljani in javnimi institucijami, in (3) odnose med posameznimi državljani, ki komunicirajo kot tujci. Odnosi na zadnji ravni so opredeljeni kot "temeljni odnosi v javnosti", ker so najpreprostejši, reproducirani na vseh ravneh, ne potrebujejo institucionalne mediacije in so jedro vseh političnih vlog in pomenov. Osvoboditev izraza "odnosi z javnostmi" od njegove omejene rabe in uveljavitev pomena "odnosi v javnosti" omogočata odkriti skupne korenine političnih institucij in javne sfere ter raziskati naravno sorodnost med politiko in vsemi drugimi segmenti javnega življenja. Skupni učinek je ponovna konceptualizacija politike kot v bistvu izhajajoče iz odnosov v javnosti in demokracije kot bistva politike.