Protest Public Relations: Communicating dissent and activism

319 Pages·2018·6.482 MB·English

by  Ana Adi (editor)

Protest Public Relations
Global movements and protests from the Arab Spring to the Occupy
Movement have been attributed to growing access to social media, while
without it, local causes like #bringbackourgirls and the ice bucket chal-
lenge may have otherwise remained unheard and unseen.
Regardless of their nature – advocacy, activism, protest or dissent – and
beyond the technological ability of digital and social media to connect
support, these major events have all been the results of excellent communi-
cation and public relations. But PR remains seen only as the defender of
corporate and capitalist interests, and therefore resistant to outside voices
such as activists, NGOs, union members, protesters and whistle- blowers.
Drawing on contributions from around the world to examine the con-
cepts and practice of “activist,” “protest” and “dissent” public relations,
this book challenges this view. Using a range of international examples, it
explores the changing nature of protest and its relationship with PR and
provides a radical analysis of the communication strategies and tactics of
social movements and activist groups and their campaigns. This thought-
provoking collection will be of interest to researchers and advanced stu-
dents of public relations, strategic communication, political science,
politics, journalism, marketing, and advertising, and also to PR profes-
sionals in think tanks and NGOs.
Ana Adi is a Professor of Public Relations/Corporate Communications at
Quadriga University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. When not analysing
public relations from a critical perspective, Dr Adi’s research, teaching and
consultancy focuses on the strategic uses of digital and social media in a
variety of communication fields. You can find more about her work on
www.anaadi.net.
Routledge New Directions in Public Relations
and Communication Research
Edited by Kevin Moloney
Current academic thinking about public relations (PR) and related com-
munication is a lively, expanding marketplace of ideas and many scholars
believe that it’s time for its radical approach to be deepened. Routledge
New Directions in PR & Communication Research is the forum of choice
for this new thinking. Its key strength is its remit, publishing critical and
challenging responses to continuities and fractures in contemporary PR
thinking and practice, tracking its spread into new geographies and polit-
ical economies. It questions its contested role in market- orientated, capital-
ist, liberal democracies around the world, and examines its invasion of all
media spaces, old, new, and as yet unenvisaged. We actively invite new
contributions and offer academics a welcoming place for the publication of
their analyses of a universal, persuasive mind-s et that lives comfortably in
old and new media around the world.
Books in this series will be of interest to academics and researchers
involved in these expanding fields of study, as well as students undertaking
advanced studies in this area.
Corporate Social Responsibility, Public Relations & Community
Development
Emerging Perspectives from Southeast Asia
Marianne D. Sison and Zeny Sarabia-P anol
Social Media, Organizational Identity and Public Relations
The Challenge of Authenticity
Amy Thurlow
Protest Public Relations
Communicating Dissent and Activism
Edited by Ana Adi
For more information about the series, please visit www.routledge.com/
Routledge- New-Directions-i n-Public- Relations–Communication-R esearch/
book-s eries/RNDPRCR
Protest Public Relations
Communicating Dissent and Activism
Edited by Ana Adi
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 selection and editorial matter, Ana Adi; individual chapters,
the contributors
The right of Ana Adi to be identified as the author of the editorial
matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
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retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-8153-8699-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-17360-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables viii
Notes on contributors ix
Protest public relations: communicating dissent and
activism – an introduction 1
ANA ADI
1 The slow conflation of public relations and activism:
understanding trajectories in public relations theorising 12
C. KAY WEAvER
2 Activist nation: Australia and the 1916 conscription
referendum 29
EMILY ROBERTSON AND ROBERT CRAWFORD
3 Activists as pioneers in PR: historical frameworks and the
suffragette movement 44
MIChAELA O’BRIEN
4 Second- wave feminist movement in Turkey through an
activist PR perspective 65
A. BANU BIçAKçI AND PELIN hüRMERIç
5 Public relations for social change: shock tactics in feminist
activism in Eastern Europe 87
OLEKSANDRA GUDKOvA AND KAThARINE SARIKAKIS
vi Contents
6 Protesting the homeland: diaspora dissent public relations
efforts to oppose the Dominican Republic’s citizenship
policies 106
MARIA DE MOYA
7 Activists’ communication and mobilization tactics to find
Ayotzinapa’s 43 disappeared students 128
LUíS RUBéN DíAz-CEPEDA, ERNESTO CASTAñEDA,
AND KARA ANDRADE
8 Reading Gezi Park protests through the lens of protest PR 150
BARIKA GöNCü, ERKAN SAKA, AND ANIL SAYAN
9 Archiving activism and/as activist PR: Occupy Wall Street
and the politics of influence 170
KYLIE MESSAGE
10 Romania’s protest: from stakeholders in waiting to
activists’ becoming PR practitioners 185
CAMELIA CRIşAN
11 Activist PR in Vietnam: public participation via Facebook
to save 6,700 trees 205
NGUYEN ThI ThANh hUYEN AND NGUYEN hOANG ANh
12 The beginning of the end: telling the story of Occupy Wall
Street’s eviction on Twitter 222
PhOTINI vRIKKI
13 Activist public relations: moving from frames as objects to
framing as a dynamic process 248
ADAM hOWE AND RIMA WILKES
14 Digital media, journalism, PR, and grassroots power:
theoretical perspectives 262
MARINA vUjNOvIC AND DEAN KRUCKEBERG
15 The activist reformation of PR in the attention economy 279
ThOMAS STOECKLE
Index 297
Figures
3.1 Badges such as this one from the Women’s Social and
Political Union were sold to raise funds, and also to help
ensure that supporters wore the suffragette colours 53
3.2 National events such as the Women’s Coronation
Procession of 1911 increased pressure on national figures
including, in this case, the new King 55
3.3 Suffragettes were keen to secure media coverage in the
growing national newspaper market 56
3.4 Medals awarded to suffragettes who had served prison
sentences honoured the physical suffering endured by
women like Florence haig, presented with this medal
after her third hunger strike, and helped create inspiring
role models for the movement 57
3.5 The Artists’ Suffrage League was an outlet for women to
participate in designing and creating the movement’s key
campaign materials such as banners and posters 58
4.1 The poster of Kariye Women’s Festival, adapted from the
Catlakzemin.com (2017) 75
5.1 Femen in Paris, March 31, 2012 93
5.2 Rehearsal of Pussy Riot, February 14, 2012 97
12.1 The analytical steps of Narrative Thematic Analysis 226
12.2 Twitter activity between October 6 and November 16,
2011 under the #OWS hashtag 233
12.3 The distribution of tweets during the eviction day on
November 15, 2011 234
12.4 The distribution of tweets, retweets, and links tweeted
referring to the live- streams 236
12.5 The distribution of tweets, retweets, and links mentioning
“The world is watching” during the eviction day 237
12.6 Tweets mentioning the injury of the New York
councilman Ydanis Rodriguez during the eviction day 240
12.7 The distribution of tweets mentioning the NYPD during
the eviction day 242
Tables
6.1 Competing frames in Dominican citizenship ruling media
coverage 117
8.1 Strategies and tactics of Gezi protesters 163
10.1 Types of motivations of the activists for organizing and
attending social protests 198
10.2 Differences between PR practitioners and activists from
the point of view of participating in social movements 199
11.1 Total entries, comments, and likes on three Facebook
page/groups, March 17 to May 2, 2015 210
11.2 The user comments’ tones, March 17 to May 2, 2015 214
11.3 Motivation and the effectiveness of the public
participation in the protest against cutting 6,700 trees via
Facebook 214
13.1 Definition of core framing process and application to
Clayoquot Sound protests 254
Contributors
Ana Adi (PhD, @ana_adi on Twitter; www.anaadi.net) is a Professor of
Public Relations and Corporate Communications at Quadriga Univer-
sity of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Chair of the Digital Communication
Awards, and part of the core research team of the Asia-P acific Commu-
nication Monitor. She is also part of the organizing committee of
MediAsia. Prior to editing Protest Public Relations: Communicating
dissent and activism (Taylor & Francis), Dr Adi co-e dited #rezist –
Romania’s 2017 anti-c orruption protests: causes, development and
implications (www.romanianprotests.info with Darren G. Lilleker) and
Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Age (2015, Emerald with
Georgiana G. Grigore and Alin Stancu). Originally from Romania, Dr
Adi obtained her PhD from the University of the West of Scotland. her
research, teaching and consultancy focus on issues related to digital
communication, CSR and PR, looking in particular at storytelling and
measurement.
Kara Andrade is a PhD candidate at American University’s School of Com-
munication. She is a researcher, journalist and entrepreneur who focuses
on Latin America, media, technology and society. She is also the Innova-
tion Specialist for Counterpart International’s Innovation for Change
Initiative, which supports and starts- up regional innovation hubs in six
regions: Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North
Africa, Africa, South Asia, Central Asia, and East Asia and Pacific.
During her work as an Ashoka fellow and co- founder of hablaCentro
Informatics NFP and LLC, she created a network of citizen journalism
and information sharing hubs in Latin America that shared reliable and
timely updates from the ground during crisis. Both her work through
her social venture and at Counterpart focuses on the adoption and
implementation of innovations to solve common democracy problems.
Nguyen Hoang Anh is currently in charge of communication and public
relations, and branding at the Center for Communication and Public
Relations at hanoi University of Science and Technology, one of the
leading technical universities in vietnam. She is also a PhD candidate,