Summary
Contents
The SAGE Key Concepts series provides students with accessible and authoritative knowledge of the essential topics in a variety of disciplines. Cross-referenced throughout, the format encourages critical evaluation through understanding. Written by experienced and respected academics, the books are indispensable study aids and guides to comprehension.
Key Concepts in Public Relations:
- Provides a comprehensive, easy-to-use overview to the field
- Covers over 150 central concepts in PR
- Paves the way for students to tackle primary texts
- Grounds students in both practice and theory
- Takes it further with recommended reading
Publics
Publics
Publics are stakeholders who have taken an collective, aggressive standpoint against an organisation and its actions. Grunig and Pepper have argued that stakeholders are passive; they just happen to be there as workers or residents. Once they convert to being active they become publics. At this juncture, the publics question some aspect of the way an organisation is behaving and set about to promote change.
A classic case study here is Shell UK's decision in 1995 to sink the redundant oil storage platform Brent Spar in the North Sea. In the event this proved to be the correct engineering and environmental solution but Shell had failed to undertake proper stakeholder analysis and so was unable to engage with them at any meaningful level. In such circumstances ...