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COMMUNICATING IN PROFESSIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS Public Relations and the Digital Professional Discourse and Change Clea Bourne Communicating in Professions and Organizations Series Editor Jonathan Crichton, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia This ground-breaking series is edited by Jonathan Crichton, Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at the University of South Australia. It provides a venue for research on issues of language and communication that matter to professionals, their clients and stakeholders. Books in the series explore the relevance and real world impact of communication research in professional practice and forge reciprocal links between researchers in applied linguistics/discourse analysis and practitioners from numerous professions, including healthcare, education, business and trade, law, media, science and technology. Central to this agenda, the series responds to contemporary chal- lenges to professional practice that are bringing issues of language and communication to the fore. These include: • The growing importance of communication as a form of professional expertise that needs to be made visible and developed as a resource for professionals • Political, economic, technological and social changes that are trans- forming communicative practices in professions and organisations • Increasing mobility and diversity (geographical, technological, cultural, linguistic) of organisations, professionals and clients Books in the series combine up to date overviews of issues of language and communication relevant to the particular professional domain with original research that addresses these issues at relevant sites. The authors also explore the practical implications of this research for the professions/organisations in question. We are actively commissioning projects for this series and welcome proposals from authors whose experience combines linguistic and professional expertise, from those who have long-standing knowledge of the professional and organisational settings in which their books are located and joint editing/authorship by language researchers and professional practitioners. The series is designed for both academic and professional readers, for scholars and students in Applied Linguistics, Communication Studies and related fields, and for members of the professions and organisations whose practice is the focus of the series. Clea Bourne Public Relations and the Digital Professional Discourse and Change Clea Bourne Department of Media and Communications Goldsmiths College University of London London, UK ISSN 2947-812X ISSN 2947-8138 (electronic) Communicating in Professions and Organizations ISBN 978-3-031-13955-0 ISBN 978-3-031-13956-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13956-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: oxygen/Getty Images This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Acknowledgements This book has come together over several years, as books often do. My thanks go to Palgrave Series Editor, Jonathan Crichton, who encouraged me to write the book and whose guiding words helped shape the early stages. Many of the book’s arguments have evolved while leading the M.A. Promotional Media at Goldsmiths, University of London over the past decade. Thanks to my students, past and present. Developing a discourse analytic technique for teaching an international cohort has been a fulfilling process; together we’ve explored the fascinating things professions say about themselves in public texts. Thanks also to various industry guest speakers who have always been happy to centre their discussions on what ‘the digital’ means for students as they enter the promotional industries. Goldsmiths’ Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies is a truly special place to develop as a scholar. Long may it remain so. Thanks to all my colleagues: there are so many wonderful people but I’m particularly grateful for support in the last few years from Akanksha Mehta, Anamik Saha, Des Freedman, Gholam Khiabany, Hung Nguyen, v vi Acknowledgements Jacob Mukherjee, Liz Moor, Michael Klontzas, Mirca Madianou, Milly Williamson, Natalie Fenton and Vana Goblot. Some of my colleagues provided input or feedback on early ideas for the book’s interrogation of the digital including Matt Fuller, Emerita Professor Angela Phillips, and also Sarah Kember who now runs Gold- smiths Press. A special shout-out to former Goldsmiths professor Sara Ahmed and to Emerita Professor Angela McRobbie whose feminist work has always been an inspiration. Chapter titles in this book were inspired by the title of Sara’s book On Being Included and Angela’s book, Be Creative. Thanks also to the network of colleagues and friends around the world with whom I’ve had great conversations about the stubborn problems of the PR profession and the changing nature of promotional work. They include Aaron Davis, Chris Galloway, Debashish Munshi, Jace Cabanes, Jo Fawkes, Kate Fitch, Luk Swiatek and Melissa Aronczyk amongst others. Even deeper thanks go to Liz Yeomans, Gisela Castro, Lee Edwards and Michaela Jackson with whom I’ve partnered on various projects while writing the book. You are immense. • An earlier version of Chapter 2 appeared in Bourne, C. (2019) The public relations profession as discursive boundary work, Public Rela- tions Review, 45 (5) 101789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2019. 05.010. • Ideas featured in Chapters 5 and 8 previously appeared in Bourne, C. (2022) Our Platformised Future, In Zylinska, J. (ed.) The Future of Media, Goldsmiths Press, pp. 99–109. Finally, much of this book was written during the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, family and friends became more important than ever. What, for example, would I have done without my Caribbean ‘Shut Up and Write’ group? Thank you to Nicola, Diane, Ruth, Kiki and Cathy for getting together via video conference nearly every week from Jamaica, Canada, Spain and the UK to write, as well as to celebrate and assess collective milestones. My husband Ron and my sisters Damaris and Marcia have listened patiently through many of the book’s themes. My son, Malcolm, has occasionally looked over my shoulder to decide whether GCSEs might be harder than writing a book… Contents 1 Introduction: Public Relations in the Digital Age 1 Platformising the Public Relations Profession 1 Disarticulating PR Skills 3 Stubbornness of Legacy Discourses 5 Public Relations as Professional Discourse 6 Different Cultures and Working Lives 7 Feminisation 9 PR in Societal Discourses 10 PR as Attractive, Creative Career 12 PR’s Critical Moment 13 “It Is the People Who Dance…” 17 PR’s Professional Discourses: Theory and Method 18 Author’s Warrant 19 How the Book Is Organised 21 References 22 2 Public Relations’ Professional Boundary-Work 27 Introduction 27 PR’s Discursive Boundaries 29 vii viii Contents PR Profession as Boundary-Work 32 Expansionary Discourses 33 Protectionist Discourses 34 Hybridising Discourses 37 Analysing PR’s Field-Level Discourses 38 Participants: Status, Authority, Asymmetries 39 Professional Genres: Conditions, Deployment, Intertextualities 40 Working with Field-Level Textual Data 41 Genres Generated by Professions 41 Genres Generated About Professions 42 Genres Generated Adjacent to Professions 43 Discourse Limitations 44 Conclusion 45 References 45 3 Be Digital 51 PR’s Digital ‘Technophobia’ 51 Hybridising Roles and Digital Capital 55 Recruitment Ads as Discursive Texts 58 Expansionary Language of Content Production 60 Hybridising: Data-Driven Roles 63 Protecting Traditional PR Skills 66 Content Production—Platforms’ Knowledge Apparatus 70 Conclusion: Small World Relationships vs Big Data Personas 71 References 74 4 Be Creative 81 Who Owns Creativity? 81 Client-Driven Creative Processes 85 Defining PR Creativity 85 Technocapitalism and Commodified Creativity 87 Platform Tools and Beta Creativity 89 Edelman Corporate Insights: Positioning ‘Earned Creative’ as PR Specialism 91 Protecting PR as a Stand-Alone Discipline 93 Contents ix Expanding into Advertising’s Creative Territory 96 Hybridising PR and Data 98 Conclusion: Blurring Creative Boundaries 100 References 102 5 Be Included 109 Introduction: Diversity Avalanche 109 Diversity and Racial Capitalism 113 Protecting Professional Habitus of Whiteness 115 Diversity: Driving Global Expansion 117 Creative Hybridisation Through Diversity 118 CIPR Webinar and Race in PR Report 119 Diversity Dividend: PR’s Unwanted Morality Tale 121 Black Bodies, White Spaces: When Black Professionals Are ‘Disappeared’ 124 White Ignorance: Communicators Refuse to ‘Boundary Span’ 126 Enforced Silences: Don’t Talk About Racism 127 Conclusion: Digital Platforms and Racial Capitalism 131 References 133 6 Be Social 137 PR in an Era of Hypervisibility 137 PR in Financial Markets 138 Monstrous Discourses: When PR Becomes the News 140 Monsters as Boundary Phenomena 141 Corporate Communicators and Journalists: Professional Imperatives 143 Monstrous Discourses: Goldman Sachs’ PR 145 Goldman Sachs in the N ews 147 Journalism vs PR Discourses 148 Financial Journalists Protect Their Expert ‘Borders’ from Alt Media 149 Communication Chiefs Defend PR’s Professional Borders 156 Goldman’s PR Chief Mounts Defence by Proxy 159