Archive for January 2023

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[Commlist] New book: Secrecy in Public Relations, Mediation and News Cultures: The Shadow World of the Media Sphere

Sat Jan 21 00:13:42 GMT 2023



New book

*Cronin, Anne M. (2023) /Secrecy in Public Relations, Mediation and News Cultures: /**/The Shadow World of the Media Sphere/**. Routledge.***

DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003369585 <https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003369585>

https://www.routledge.com/Secrecy-in-Public-Relations-Mediation-and-News-Cultures-The-Shadow-World/Cronin/p/book/9781032434100 <https://www.routledge.com/Secrecy-in-Public-Relations-Mediation-and-News-Cultures-The-Shadow-World/Cronin/p/book/9781032434100>

This book investigates the relationship of secrecy as a social practice to contemporary media, news cultures and public relations. Drawing on Georg Simmel’s theorisation of how secrecy produces a ‘second world’ alongside the ‘obvious world’ and creates and reshapes social relations, Anne Cronin argues for close analysis of the PR industry as a powerful vector of secrecy and an examination of its relationship to news cultures. Using case studies and in-depth interviews, as well as recent research in media and cultural studies, sociology, journalism studies and communication studies, the book analyses how PR practices generate a second, shadow world of the media sphere which has a profound impact on the ‘obvious world’. It interrogates both the PR industry’s and news culture’s role in shaping social relations for a digital media landscape, and those initiatives promoting transparency of data and decision-making processes.

Contents

*Chapter 1. Introduction. *

*Chapter 2. Framing Secrecy, Publicity and News Media Cultures.*

This chapter outlines the key debates about secrecy, public relations and journalism and news media cultures. It introduces Simmel’s theorisation of secrecy and its relationship to ‘publicity’, and discusses ‘transparency’ as one of publicity’s key manifestations today. The chapter shows how Simmel’s work will be adapted to conceive of today’s ‘shadow world of the media sphere’.

*Chapter 3. PR Techniques of Secrecy and Publicity. *

This chapter analyses empirical material relating to PR’s interface with both secrecy and ‘publicity’ (the making public of information or interests). It outlines a range of PR practices which aim to conceal, minimise, or divert attention from issues that may impact negatively on the PR industry’s clients. These practices are framed as ‘technologies of secrecy’ and ‘technologies of publicity’ in order to highlight their power as modes of governance. The chapter argues that the practices of media relations PR act to create a parallel, obscure world − a shadow world of the media sphere.

*Chapter 4. News Cultures, Journalism and the Secrecy-Publicity Dynamic.*

This chapter analyses how the relationship between journalism and PR is shaped by the secrecy–publicity dynamic and, in turn, how that relationship acts to shape the media sphere. The chapter draws on interview material, case studies and a range of data and academic sources to offer an outline of the field of UK journalism today, an examination of the relationship between news culture and PR and an analysis of key technologies of secrecy that shape PR and journalistic practice and influence generally circulating ideas about media secrecy.

*Chapter 5. Revelation and Secrecy in PR and News Media Cultures. *

This chapter examines revelation in the context of news media, focusing on key aspects of journalists’ investigative practices and on PR practitioners’ use of press releases. It explores how the processes, principles, practices and legislation associated with investigation and revelation interface with practices of secrecy and generally circulating discourses of secrecy. The chapter examines journalists’ use of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, the phenomena of leaks, whistleblowing and ‘flying kites’ and the role of narrative in giving shape and impact to revelation and information release, including in PR press releases. Using case study and interview material, the chapter analyses how practices of secrecy themselves draw on and fuel practices of investigation and revelation.

*Chapter 6. Theorising Secrecy and the Media Today.*

This chapter draws together the various analytic strands of the book’s argument and expands its scope to consider the broader significance of secrecy and publicity today. Using case studies and interview material, this chapter analyses what the relationship between secrecy and publicity generates and how that relationship and its impact shift in response to specific power relations and changing forms of social reciprocity. The chapter asks if the very meanings of secrecy and publicity are altering in response to social change and, in parallel, considers how the secrecy–publicity dynamic can effect social change and may be used to further goals of social justice.

*
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