Public relations communicators can be found in all practice
settings: small and large businesses, multinational corporations, nonprofits, government
agencies, and freelancing from home, the coffee shop or many other places
around the world.
As they hone their craft, public relations communicators
become technology savvy creative writers, persuasive speakers, and influential
networkers capable of sharing messages with broad audiences. The potential to
sway audiences is always great. Employers and clients who want to sell their
messages or products know this and often put pressure on the public relations
professional to use their skills unilaterally, in a way that favors them.
Knowing that they have been hired to do a certain job, the
public relations communicator might bow to the pressure of their employer or client
and become promoters of their brand rather than advocates for allowing publics to
choose the product or action that is right for them.
However, by choosing to look at the practice of public
relations through a postmodern lens, public relations communicators can
effectively resist such temptation.
Derina R. Holtzhausen calls such agency the postmodern
condition and encourages those who practice public relations to do so with
concern for the “Other;” those who have been marginalized by the entity that
the practitioner represents or the community at large. She encourages activism, inside the workplace,
and in the community, as a way to serve humanity.
Postmodern thought encourages individuals to ask questions.
Ask a lot of questions; and in doing so, determine what is true and fair for
all in the situation. If one is free to question the narrative that has led up
to a situation, they should be able to free themselves from preexisting biases
that might shadow the decision-making process.
In order to ask the right questions of the right people, the
practitioner must be immersed in the culture, be it an organization or
community. They must be aware of their surroundings, available to communicate
and have the flexibility to interpret, and reinterpret information as it often
changes.
The practitioner must question power, even words that are
said in a way to imply power or invoke inferiority. We are equal beings, with
equal power within us. Releasing inner power will lead to equality.
Finally, but by no mean an ending to being in the postmodern
condition, the public relations communicator must question their own beliefs as
a way to stay true to the purpose of providing mutual benefit.
Throughout history, practice has come before theory.
Practitioners, professional and otherwise, have performed activities that help
their organization or client communicate with the publics, the communities
where they operate.
Establishing a system of values, or ethical standard to the
public relations practice was not considered until the mid-20th
century, as technology made the world smaller, connecting cultures, and opening
minds and hearts to the conditions outside of our personal space.
Theorists have researched, explained, analyzed and promoted
effective communication techniques in an effort to be truly inclusive of all
stakeholders and provide the greatest benefit for all. Theory and principles
are needed to help those who would seek to help others to establish their own
values.
However, every practitioner, despite their practice setting
and expertise, can choose to perform their role by being in the postmodern
condition: aware, curious, and ethically prepared to influence change within
their organization or their community to ensure no one is marginalized by the
decisions that are made on their behalf.
In order to keep from being used and their message from
being subverted, the public relations communicator must actively participate in
gathering the information that is to be shared. Only then can their values be
exercised to bring benefit to all.
It is widely accepted that a public relations professional
brings the social conscience to an organization or situation. One cannot impose
their values top-down. Values are seen
in one’s actions, working together, every day.
Values are shown through activism.
