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"Public Relations and Social Theory: Key Figures, Concepts and Developments broadens the theoretical scope of public relations studies by applying the work of a group of prominent social theorists to make sense of the practice. The volume focuses on the work of key social theorists, including Max Weber, Karl Marx, John Dewey, Ju?rgen Habermas, Niklas Luhmann, Michel Foucault, Ulrich Beck, Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, Robert Putnam, Erving Goffman, Peter L. Berger, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Bruno Latour, Dorothy Smith, Zygmunt Bauman, Harrison White, John W. Meyer, Luc Boltanski and Chantal Mouffe. Each chapter is devoted to an individual theorist, providing an overview of that theorists key concepts and contributions, and exploring how these can be applied to public relations as a practice. Each chapter also includes a box giving a short and concise presentation of the theorist, along with recommendation of key works and secondary literature."--Provided by publisher

Recent analysis of interactions and relations between media, individuals and organizations is commonly based on the notion of mediatization. Research in journalism and media studies, political studies as well as business studies has explored mediatization as prevailing transformation influencing communication activities of individuals as well as organizations. In the field of organizational studies an increasing interest has been paid to the mediatized settings in which organizations conduct their activities. But despite the growing interest we still lack a sufficient understanding of the inner dynamics of these processes. Contemporary research often focuses on the effects of mediatization and, therefore, relatively little is known about how agents are involved in the creation, maintenance, reshaping and interruption of the institutional properties of mediatization. This article seeks to examine the dynamics of mediatization and how it is shaped, reproduced and reshaped through activities of individual corporations. The aim of the article is to show how mediatization evokes processes of skilful and purposeful activities of actors involved in the creation, maintenance and disturbance of the shared rules, norms and practices that guide organizations in their effort to deal with media-related issues. The article, therefore, goes beyond examining the media activities of individual organizations as a result of mediatization, and focuses on these activities as a constituent of the processes in which mediatization is reconstructed and enacted. The analysis is based on a study of 13 Swedish publicly listed corporations and their media activities. The material was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observations.

Recent analysis of interactions and relations between media, individuals and organisations is commonly based on the notion of mediatization. Research in journalism and media studies, political studies as well as business studies have explored mediatization as prevailing transformation influencing communication activities of individuals as well as organisations. In the field of organisational studies an increasing interest has been paid to the mediatised settings in which organisations conduct their activities. But despite the growing interest we still lack a sufficient understanding of the inner dynamics of these processes. Contemporary research often focuses on the effects of mediatization and, therefore, relatively little is known about how agents are involved in the creation, maintenance, re-shaping and interruption of the institutional properties of mediatization. In this article we seek to examine the dynamics of mediatization and how it is shaped, reproduced and reshaped through activities of individual corporations. Thus, Mediatization is not only "out there", it will be argued, coming to expression through actors' more or less passive and explicit adaptation to the dominant perceptions and understanding of the way the media operate. The aim of the article is to show how mediatization evokes processes of skilful and purposeful activities of actors involved in the creation, maintenance and disturbance of the shared rules, norms and practices that guide organisations in their effort to deal with media-related issues. The article, thereby, goes beyond examining the media activities of individual organisations as a result of mediatization, and focuses on these activities as a constituent of the processes in which mediatization is re-constructed and enacted (cf. Hartman 2009). The analysis rests on a study of thirteen Swedish publically listed corporations and their media activities. The material was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observations.

BackgroundTo stimulate quality through choice of provider, patients need to seek and base their decisions on both relevant and reliable information describing providers' clinical quality. The purpose of this study was first to investigate what types of information and information sources patients turned to in the active choice of primary care provider. Second, it investigated whether a sub-group of patients considered more likely to actively seek information, also sought more advanced information about the clinical quality of providers.MethodsData collection was performed through a web-based survey to the general adult (18+) Swedish population, for a net sample of 3150 respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to study what types of information and information sources respondents used prior to their choice. Multiple regression analysis was employed to examine predictors for seeking relevant and reliable information describing providers' clinical quality.ResultsPatients in active choice situations searched for a median of four information types and used a median of one information source. The information searched for was primarily basic information, for instance, how to switch providers and their geographical location. Information sources used were mainly partisan sources, such as providers themselves, and family and acquaintances. The sub-group of individuals more likely to seek information were not found to seek more advanced forms of information.ConclusionsNot even the patients considered most likely to seek information prior to their choice of primary care provider, searched for information deemed necessary to make well-informed choices. Thus, patients did not act according to the theoretical assumptions underlying the patient choice reforms, i.e., making informed choices based on clinical quality in order to promote the best providers over inferior ones. The results call for governments and health care authorities to actively assess and develop primary care providers' clinical quality by means other than patient choice.

BACKGROUND: To stimulate quality through choice of provider, patients need to seek and base their decisions on both relevant and reliable information describing providers' clinical quality. The purpose of this study was first to investigate what types of information and information sources patients turned to in the active choice of primary care provider. Second, it investigated whether a sub-group of patients considered more likely to actively seek information, also sought more advanced information about the clinical quality of providers. METHODS: Data collection was performed through a web-based survey to the general adult (18+) Swedish population, for a net sample of 3150 respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to study what types of information and information sources respondents used prior to their choice. Multiple regression analysis was employed to examine predictors for seeking relevant and reliable information describing providers' clinical quality. RESULTS: Patients in active choice situations searched for a median of four information types and used a median of one information source. The information searched for was primarily basic information, for instance, how to switch providers and their geographical location. Information sources used were mainly partisan sources, such as providers themselves, and family and acquaintances. The sub-group of individuals more likely to seek information were not found to seek more advanced forms of information. CONCLUSIONS: Not even the patients considered most likely to seek information prior to their choice of primary care provider, searched for information deemed necessary to make well-informed choices. Thus, patients did not act according to the theoretical assumptions underlying the patient choice reforms, i.e., making informed choices based on clinical quality in order to promote the best providers over inferior ones. The results call for governments and health care authorities to actively assess and develop primary care providers' clinical quality by means ...

This article seeks to explain why the media affect some governmental agencies more than others. We develop a measuring instrument for the mediatization of agencies; gauging how they adapt to the media. We analyse the effects of six potential explanations of mediatization: media pressure, organizational size and task, salience, geographic location, and management structure. The analysis is based on a comprehensive quantitative contents analysis of policy documents from all governmental agencies in Sweden. The results show that agencies' propensity to adapt to the media is mainly determined by their management structure rather than, as could have been expected, by media pressure. Organizations managed by career managers invest more in media management than those led by field‐professionals. Our results suggest that agencies have substantial agency in terms of how they cope with the media and that mediatization refers to much more than passive adaptation by organizations.

This special section seeks to enrich research on the field by using neo-institutional theory to describe, explain and understand the activities, processes and dynamics of public relations. By this we open up for a wider understanding of public relations, its preconditions, its performances and its consequences for shaping the social. We argue that public relations could be analyzed as an institutionalized practice with certain set of governing mechanisms including taken-for-granted activities, rules, norms and ideas. Here neo-institutional theory is well situated as it is a tradition where communication is put at fore in the understanding of organizations, institutions and society. Another argument for this is recent developments where public relations and other forms of organizational communication have been examined as a major dimension of organizing in some of the more profound works among neo-institutional theorists. The article starts with a discussion of earlier work in the tradition of neo-institutional theory were a lot of attention was paid to the governing mechanisms of institutions and how they control the behaviour of actors. A perspective leading to some fundamental challenges where the primary objections were raised against the over-determinism neo-institutional researchers ascribed institutions. Taking these objectives seriously has served as a source of extensive theoretical and empirical puzzles characterizing many of the contemporary efforts – most of them explicitly emphasizing the role of communication and symbolical/rethorical means as essential in all institutional processes. Among these we find three streams we find relevant and fruitful for analyses of public relations: institutional logics, translation and institutional work. These themes are further developed in text and discussed in releationship to what implications they have on public relations research. How an employment of the logic can help us gain a more profound understanding of public relations and communication as an institutional practice. How public relations function as a carrier and translator of institutions. How public relations is used to challenge and re-shape the foundations on which social actors interact with each other.

AbstractA key underpinning of choice of health care provider is that patients make active and informed decisions which stimulate quality competition. By imitating the principles of a market in the steering of health care, patients thus assume the role of consumers. Few patients however neither consider alternative providers nor seek information about quality. The aim of this study was to investigate if and how patients engage in the role of being active and informed consumers in the setting of primary care, and how they argue for their choice. The study was based on semi‐structured interviews with 18 respondents in a municipality in mid‐Sweden. Respondents were purposefully sampled and interviews were analysed using an inductive thematic approach. Findings demonstrated that patients disengaged from choice by arguing, for instance, that they were satisfied with their current provider or because they perceived no differences in quality. Overall, results were in line with previous studies performed in US and European hospital settings, indicating that patients present some similar arguments regarding disengagement from choice irrespective of level of care or geographical setting. Arguments specifically related to the primary care level were that patients found it more important to achieve continuity in the patient‐doctor relationship than 'shopping around' for the best provider, or that they desired more profiled services to actively make a choice. In contrast to previous literature, patients refuted the 'patient‐consumer' role by referring to, for instance, the belief that care should be of equal quality independent of what choice they made.

Public bureaucracies have mostly been invisible in research on political communication, but more recently, there has been an increasing interest in their communicative efforts. In this chapter, we review the literature and synthesise the scholarship on Nordic public bureaucracies in relation to political communication. Three research areas are put to the fore: 1) Mediatisation: how and to what extent bureaucracies prioritise the media and what consequences it has for activities, routines, and resource allocations across organisational contexts; 2) Reputation management: why and how bureaucracies make use of communication to build, maintain, and protect their reputation; and 3) Crisis communication: public actors' abilities to provide information and support to citizens and communities before, during, and after crises. Although highly interconnected in practice, these strands of literature have largely been three separate academic discussions. We therefore suggest that a first step to consolidate research on communication and public bureaucracies would be to combine the knowledge research has gained in terms of media management, reputation management, and crisis communication. Such an effort would provide a much broader, but also detailed, knowledge on the motives, organising, content, and consequences of public bureaucracies and their communicative efforts. ; publishedVersion

Public bureaucracies have mostly been invisible in research on political communication, but more recently, there has been an increasing interest in their communicative efforts. In this chapter, we review the literature and synthesise the scholarship on Nordic public bureaucracies in relation to political communication. Three research areas are put to the fore: 1) Mediatisation: how and to what extent bureaucracies prioritise the media and what consequences it has for activities, routines, and resource allocations across organisational contexts; 2) Reputation management: why and how bureaucracies make use of communication to build, maintain, and protect their reputation; and 3) Crisis communication: public actors' abilities to provide information and support to citizens and communities before, during, and after crises. Although highly interconnected in practice, these strands of literature have largely been three separate academic discussions. We therefore suggest that a first step to consolidate research on communication and public bureaucracies would be to combine the knowledge research has gained in terms of media management, reputation management, and crisis communication. Such an effort would provide a much broader, but also detailed, knowledge on the motives, organising, content, and consequences of public bureaucracies and their communicative efforts.