Abstract
Discovering Public Relations: An Introduction to Creative and Strategic Practices (Sage, 2021) written by Dr. Karen Freberg offers a refreshing, up-to-date, and engaging take on public relations in a text that is well-researched and broad-reaching, coving all the important topics one would expect to find in an undergraduate public relations foundations or strategy course, and more. The book advances the field of knowledge by building on core tried and trusted public relations principles while taking them into the 21st century with a strong focus on challenging traditional disciplinary boundaries and encouraging emerging practitioners and instructors alike to actively engage with new online technologies that are changing the scope of the field.
The book is divided into three parts: Foundations, Applications, and Summary. The “Foundations” chapters, starting with the Introduction to PR (Chapter 1), set the tone of the book, with a particular highlight being Freberg’s generous view of others and a focus on collaboration, integration, and connection, making every effort to stress areas of synergy rather than difference across sectors, and foregrounding a need to understand, connect, and work together with people in related fields such as marketing, advertising, journalism, HR, and sales. This collaborative approach is exemplified throughout the book through the inclusion of engaging interviews with current key figures, or “game changers,” in the industry at the end of each chapter.
Chapter 2, Overview of Historical Practices, offers a 21st-century critique of the four models of public relations and provides interesting less-known tidbits of information on key historical figures like Edward Bernays and Ivy Lee while also adding more recent figures to the list, including one woman, Betsy Plank.
The positioning of the chapter on ethics and the law early on in the book (Chapter 3) helps reinforce a strong call for the need to cover this area more deeply given the ongoing issues with practice in the sector and the rapidly changing legal environment accompanying the advances in technology. It provides a solid framework for students to establish their own ethical mind-set and ideas for how to keep growing in this area as they take on important roles as counsels, advisors, and ethical leaders.
A highlight for me as an instructor and researcher with a particular interest in cultural and linguistic diversity is the focus on “diversity and inclusion,” with a dedicated chapter on this topic (Chapter 4). I have struggled to find relevant PR textbook sources for students with this focus and I trust it will help to set a president and spearhead a deeper focus on this topic as a fundamental consideration in PR practice in our multicultural societies.
The importance of Research and Evidence-Based Practices was expertly stressed in Chapter 5 and emphasized further in Chapter 12 on Measurement and Evaluation, bringing the methods of research and evaluation up-to-date for PR practitioners in the 21st century, with a focus on social media analysis and analytics and emphasizing the need to tie data to core business objectives.
Chapter 6 on Branding was a welcome addition, with particularly great tips for building your own personal brand, relevant to students, practitioners, and instructors alike. There is also an excellent overview of key writing types and principles of PR writing in Chapter 7, where Freberg firmly claims such areas as social media, photo, video, and infographics as part of the required and highly desired skill set of PR work in the 21st century.
In the “Applications” section, Chapter 8 on Strategic Campaigns offers a robust overview of the process of developing a campaign, with particularly useful details on how to do an environmental scan and communications audit, while Chapter 9 offers expert guidance on niching down and identifying various types of audiences, including customers and influencers, and engaging with them.
In an industry that is constantly changing as a result of innovations in communications technology, I appreciated the large number of recommendations for ongoing professional industry training throughout the book through industry leaders like Adobe, Canva, Google, and Facebook. Chapter 10, which provides an understanding and framework for creating and managing different types of digital content, was particularly useful in this regard.
Across the book, there are many useful suggestions for how students can apply the principals and skills to build their own professional careers and portfolio while emphasizing transferrable skills, including business and entrepreneurial (Chapter 11), measurement and data analysis (Chapter 12), storytelling, social media, multimedia, diversity literacy, and other skills that can be applied across industries.
Chapter 13 on careers provides a solid idea of what students can expect if they enter the profession and rise up the ranks to the very top, whether that be at an agency or in-house, with sample job ads provided, and how to get a foot in the door with an internship. It also plants a seed for the possibility of starting one’s own consultancy or agency in the future. This is extended on in Chapter 14, which provides an overview of some of the areas of PR students may choose to specialize in, such as crisis communication, influencer marketing, global PR, entertainment and sports PR, political PR, and nonprofit PR, while the final chapter provides a summary of some of the key challenges moving forward and how to meet them with a positive mind-set.
One of my favorite aspects of the book is its engaging and motivating tone, sprinkled with positive, mind-set coaching from the former athlete turned PR educator and consultant. The book is underpinned by an excitement about embracing change, being a lifelong learner, pursuing leadership, making an impact, and turning challenges into opportunities, all of which resonate with the tone I wish to create in my own courses.
For myself as an instructor, the book also provided a solid checklist to ensure that the content I was teaching under each topic met the latest industry standards and that I am in position to be ready for the future. I found myself frequently following up on the recommended resources and “introductions” to key figures and organizations and I have used these to enhance my units. The book is also packed with useful summaries of best practices and excellent examples, and while the focus is on North America, the ideas and examples can generally be understood in a global context.
Dr. Freberg’s research, teaching, and industry experience that underpins this book, including her active leadership in bringing together public relations and social media instructors from around the world to support each other, sets her up as a thought leader in the field of public relations that I have been excited to follow and share with my own students. Overall, her latest book is an excellent, informative, enjoyable, well-structured, and easy-to-read book, tightly written and packed with ideas for further exploration which I highly recommend to other instructors and students of public relations.