Since I ‘retired’ last year I seem to have been rather busy. The good news is that, free from REF constraints, I can write what interests me not my employer! Here are links and references to recent publications (in reverse date order). Note: access to the P R Review article is free till August 13 through this link: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1ZHOB1Ik9WUCdg
Journal article:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2019.05.002
Abstract:
A Global Capability Framework: Reframing public relations for a changing world.This paper describes a two-year research project the purpose of which was to produce the first globally applicable Capability Framework for the practitioner, employer and academic communities in public relations and communicationmanagement. Working with partners across seven continents and supported by the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, a new approach to building capability was developed via to a four-stage research process, which resulted in nine country and one Global Capability Frameworks. The Global Capability Framework consists of 11 statements which taken as a whole, describe the scope and role of the profession.This paper explores the genesis of the project, a literature review, which also introduces the Capability Approach from the human development field, the research process which involved four different data collection methods, and the content of the resulting Global Capability Framework. The paper concludes with initial responses from the three communities for which the Framework is designed: practitioners, academics and employers. The paper combines theoretical innovation with a valuable practical contribution.
Book Chapter
Johanna Fawkes (2018). 15. Harm in Public Relations. In Patrick Lee Plaisance (Editor), Communication and Media Ethics (pp. 273–294). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110466034-015
Book DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110466034
Online ISBN: 9783110466034
Journal article
Fawkes, J. (2018 ). The evolution of public relations research – an overview.
Communication & Society, 31(4),159-171
doi: 10.15581/003.31.4.159
(PDF) The evolution of public relations research -an overview. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329908323_The_evolution_of_public_relations_research_-an_overview [accessed Jul 11 2019].
Abstract:
The field of public relations is often misunderstood, due to its hybridity, complexity and competing perspectives within the field of scholarship. This essay, which is based on extensive engagement with literature conducted over decades of teaching and researching the subject, outlines the main schools of thought within the field. These are summarised as a) Excellence; b) Advocacy; c) Dialogue; and d) Critical and Cultural approaches. Each perspective reflects variations in understanding of the role of public relations in theory and practice, ranging from an idealised conceptualisation of the practitioner to a demonised view of the practice. It refers throughout to different attitudes to ethics found within these schools, as approaches to ethics provide insight into understandings of the role of public relations within society. The piece concludes with reflections on the growing engagement with promotional culture and emerging research directions.
Also: forthcoming chapters (in print)
Public Relations and Professional Identity, in Valenti, C. Handbook of Public Relations, De Gruyter
Public relations and the performance of everything, in R. E. Brown, The Global Foundations of Public Relations: Humanism, China and the West. Routledge
The contribution of public relations to promotional culture – taking the long view, in Somerville, I., Ihlen, O. and Edwards, L. (eds) Public Relations, Society and the Generative Power of History, Routledge
Public Relations’ Professionalism and Ethics, Chapter 13, in Tench, R. and Waddington, S. (Eds) Exploring Public Relations (5th Ed), Pearson Education
Johanna Fawkes Research 