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[ecrea] Call for ICA 2013 Panelist – Activist Public Relations

Mon Oct 22 23:01:52 GMT 2012



We are in search for a fourth panelist for submission to the ICA Public Relations Division for the 2013 conference on a panel about tensions between asymmetrical and symmetrical communication in activist public relations. The conference deadline is Nov. 1. Please send abstracts (200 words max) to (mathis.danelzik /at/ uni-tuebingen.de)

Short panel abstract (I’ll be glad to send the complete 500 word abstract by email):

As excellence theory views the ethical and the strategic premise of the symmetrical ideal of public relations as a quasi-unproblematic pair and privileges the perspective and priorities of corporations, critical scholars have raised fundamental issues and furthered public relations theory and practice beyond the corporate vantage point (see Coombs & Holladay, 2012; Dutta, Ban & Pal, 2012; L’Etang & Pieczka, 2006). In order to challenge established public relations orthodoxies, especially the study of activism has been identified as an emerging focal point for critical public relations scholarship (see Coombs & Holladay, in press).

This panel seeks to explore and further these developments by engaging different perspectives on activist public relations that complicate common assumptions about symmetry and asymmetry in public relations.

• Are symmetry and asymmetry appropriate and meaningful categories to theorize activist discourses as power, meaning, and issues are negotiated vis-à-vis powerful organizations and groups?

•             Is symmetrical communication desirable for activism?

• How may asymmetry and symmetry undermine and/or contribute to activists’ goals?

• What limitations of asymmetry and symmetry does activist public relations encounter?

• What tensions and questions evolve around the activists’ need for conflict and confrontation in order to gain the attention of powerful organizations (see Holtzhausen, 2007)?

The participants of this panel will discuss these questions through the lens of different cases of activist public relations that illustrate dilemmas between symmetry and asymmetry.

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Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
Philosophische Fakultät
Institut für Medienwissenschaft
Arbeitsbereich für Print- und Onlinemedien
Wilhelmstraße 50 · D-72074 Tübingen · Germany
R 262
Telefon +49 7071 29-72365 · Telefax: +49 7071 29-5367
(mathis.danelzik /at/ uni-tuebingen.de)


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