This book examines the state of strategic communication as a discipline and how it has emerged as a unique area of scholarship in the beginning of the 21st century. Strategic communication encompasses all communication that is substantial for the survival and sustained success of entities like corporations, governments, non-profits, social movements, and celebrities. A major aspect of the field is the purposeful use of communication by an organization to engage in conversations of strategic significance to its goals. The contributions in this book provide unique insights, make compelling arguments, and highlight promising areas of scholarship in strategic communication. Presented in four parts, the chapters explore the emergence of strategic communication, its conceptual foundations, its expanding body of knowledge, and the foundation for further development and new directions in the field. Of interest to those studying communication from the perspectives of communication science, management theory, organizational studies, or business administration, this volume will also be useful for readers who are new to strategic communication, and who are interested in the field for its new avenues of research. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Strategic Communication.

This book brings together a broad and diverse range of new and radical approaches to public relations focussing on the increasingly vital role that visual, sensory and physical elements factors play in shaping communication. Engaging with recent developments in critical and cultural theories, it outlines how non-textual and non-representational forces play a central role in the efficacy and reception of public relations. Challenging the dominant accounts of public relations which center on the purely representational uses of text and imagery, the book critiques the suitability of accepted definitions of the field and highlights future directions for conceptualizing strategic communication within a multi-sensory environment. Drawing on the work of global researchers in public relations, visual culture and communication, design and cultural theory, it brings a welcome inter-disciplinary approach which pushes the boundaries of public relations scholarship in a global cultural context. This exciting analysis will be of great interest to public relations scholars, advanced students of strategic communication, as well as communication researchers from cultural, media and critical studies exploring PR as a socio-cultural phenomenon.

The roots of strategic communication lie in public relations, which has been a well-established concept in countries around the globe for more than 100 years. In the United States, for instance, this concept has been associated with publicity, promotion, and public policy battles. At times, especially in the early years of the 20th Century, it was seen as inseparable from propaganda and a means for promoting and protecting democracy. The field has developed immeasurably in the past few decades, but strategic communication is still a topic with strong, influential links to a variety of different disciplines, and increasingly relevant in both a professional and academic capacity. This Major Work captures the definitions, key developments and future of the field through a carefully-selected collection of seminal papers on the topic. Volume One: Defining Strategic Communication: Groundings, Forewarnings, and Calls to Action Volume Two: Public Arena: Input, Power, Converging/Diverging Voices, and Tensions Volume Three: Discursive and Dialogic Organizations and the Stakeholder View: Social Constructions and Functionalist Perspectives Volume Four: The Future of Strategic Communication: Organizational and Societal Well-being, Influences, Measures, and New Directions

Aldoory and Toth present a socio-ecological model for understanding and building a feminist future public relations. This approach acknowledges previous gaps in scholarship and practice caused by ideological, societal, mediated, and organizational factors constructing norms and expectations for gender and race.

Strategic communication comprises different forms of goal-oriented communication inside and between organizations, their stakeholders and the society. Strategic communication is an emerging practice and research field integrating established disciplines such as public relations, organizational communication and marketing communication into a holistic framework. The field is based on an awareness of the fundamental importance of communication for the existence and performance of all organizations. This textbook offers a broad insight into the field of strategic communication. The main aim of the book is to give a general overview of theories, concepts and methods in strategic communication. The book also aims to develop an understanding of different perspectives and the consequences each one has for practice. After reading the book the student or reader will be able to define and reflect upon strategic communication as an academic field and professional practice, describe relevant theories and apply these to communication problems. The authors apply a reflective and practice-oriented approach meaning earlier research or theories are not only described, but also discussed from different critical perspectives. A practice-oriented approach means, in this book, that the authors strongly emphasize the role of contexts and situations—where strategic communication actually happens. This book will help business and communications students to not only define and understand a variety of strategic communications theories, but to use those theories to generate communication strategy and solutions.

In public relations, people talk about positioning an idea, a persona, a political ideal, an ideology – but what are they talking about? Why do some positions taken by organizations crystallize in the minds of audiences, while others fail? Whilst positioning is not something new in public relations, this book is the first to explicate what it involves, how it works and how to do it. This is the first in-depth exploration of the possibilities of Positioning Theory for the public relations field and it adds a new perspective to the growing body of multidisciplinary work in this rich theoretical area, moving the discussion away from the traditional communication plans of previous decades, which fail to accommodate the changing media and opinion landscapes. The author pulls together various strands of socio-cultural theory into an analytical framework, providing readers with a tool to analyse the organizational implications of public relations decisions, guiding strategic decision making through realistic scenario planning. This thought-provoking book provides an alternative path to studying communication in increasingly complex environments and as such, will be vital reading for researchers and educators, advanced communication and public relations students, and for senior public relations practitioners.