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

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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