Corporate PR in a post-Citizens United world

Public Relations Review, 2013

Political public relations play an unique role in American democracy because it occupies a dual role of providing both political and commercial speech. However, using analysis of the First amendment, public relations have increasingly been identified as commercial speech which receives limited protection under the U.S. Constitution. This study traces the evolution of the legal framework in which political PR has become associated with commercial speech, and how this association has made Constitutional analysis of political PR more complex. Implications for public relations practitioners and PR's role in democracy are discussed.

Geo. Wash. L. Rev., 2010

2010

Page 1. Document1 12/22/2010 7:40 PM 622 Daniel winik Citizens Informed: Broader Disclosure and Disclaimer for Corporate Electoral Advocacy in the Wake of Citizens United abstract. This Note proposes a new direction ...

University of Florida Journal of Law and Public Policy, 2013

Journal of Political Marketing, 2010

Public Relations Review, 2014

Public affairs and lobbying is a high status and strategically vital public relations specialism. It is a field of PR practice that generates high levels of both scholarly and public concern in regard to its perceived role in supporting corporate power and the associated impact on the functional legitimacy of democratic institutions. For this paper a content analysis was conducted of academic journals (between 2000 and 2013) to provide insights into how public affairs and lobbying have been theorised and researched within public relations scholarship and to ascertain to what degree wider public concerns have been addressed. Findings include an empirical confirmation of the low level of research activity on public affairs; that stakeholder and rhetorical theories have been the most widely used theories, but are far from constituting dominant paradigms; that scholarship has privileged functional objectives over civic concerns; and that published work originates almost entirely from institutions in Europe and the US with the Global South invisible. The paper also discusses future directions for research in public affairs and advocates the placing of discourse into definitions of public affairs, and that academic public relations should assert responsibility for this field, but in a manner that more equitably balances organisational and societal concerns.

Public Relations Review, 1996

Many public relations profession& may be placing them&yes and client org~i2ations at risk of legal liability because they have little or no familiarity with imponanr legal issues that affect public relations activities, according to this study. A survey of Public Relations Society of America members showed that today's professionals consider themselves only somewhat f%rnifiar with the law in the areas of commercial speech, contracts, financial public relations, copyright, privacy, libel, access to information, SEC regulations and professionai malpractice. The study indicates that lawyers often play key roles in pubIic relations decisions, suggesting the potential for encroachment. Contrary to past commentary on the strained relationship between public relations and legal counsel, most public relations professionafs view their relationships with attorneys as either exceltent or good.