The Social Role of Public Relations

The following are the worldviews on public relations' social role:

1. The Pragmatic Social Role
Presuppositions:
i. that PR is a useful and "value-added" practice to achieve the client's marketing objectives and commercial interests;
ii. thus, this presupposition will argue against the development of codes of conduct or ethical standards in PR practice;
iii. this view paves the way to practices that brings PR into disrepute or allows client to dictate PR practice;
iv. this worldview perceives society as comprised of "a marketplace of ideas, services and products" and publics as customers to be neutralized in the pursuit of profits;
v. since this social view serves the client's interests, it will not lead to excellent PR practice and make the organization more effective.

2. The Conservative Social Role
Presuppositions:
i. that PR justifies, defends and maintains the status-quo, the privileges of the powers-that-be, heirarchy, inequality and capitalist ideology;
ii. that PR is a "defensive political device" to overcome threats to the status-quo, including opposition to capitalism

3. The Radical Social Role
Presuppositions:
i. that PR contributes to change, within organizations and in society, via public opinion to the management about the organization and internal operations;
ii. that PR contributes to social change by giving information for public debate, by building linkages between social groups, and by pooling resources to solve social problems;
iii. that PR practitioners have the power and influence within organizations to inform decision makers about their social environment

Both the conservative and radical presuppositions are predicated on the premise that org comm can have powerful effects on society. They view PR as an "arsenal" for conflicting social groups in an ideological warfare.

4. The Idealistic Social Role
Presuppositions:
i. this worldview is expressed in codes of conduct, definitions of the practice, keynote addresses and academic writing about the practice;
ii. the underlying premise is that of compromise and dialogue that leads to amicable resolution between opposing social groups;
iii. that there is a diversity of viewpoints that can be reconciled to promote a progressive society;
iv. that PR serves the public interest, forges mutual understanding between organizations and their publics, contributes to informed debate about issues in society, and promotes a dialogue between organizations and their publics;
v. that the society is ruled by a norm of reciprocity that enables PR practice to be symmetrical and idealistic

5. The Neutral Social Role
i. that PR is a neutral or objective field of study and that the emphasis is on motivations, goals and effects of PR activities;
ii. that PR has a social function

The notion that observation and interpretation can be neutral has since been debunked, both are affected by our beliefs and values, which in turn gave rise to criticisms of the observed behaviors and recommendations for more effective behaviors

6. The Critical Social Role
i. that the reality, which includes organizations and society, are socially constructed that can be deconstructed and reconstructed;
ii. that documented research points towards unethical practices, unfavorable consequences, or ineffective styles of PR that diverge from the normative worldview of PR excellence;
iii. that PR is used to collude with big government to limit competition (Olasky, 1987, 1989);
iv. that PR assists in the maintainance of the dominant power structure (Gandy, 1982);
v. that the two-way SPR cannot be applied to the US context unless its culture and political structure is radically transformed (Rakow, 1989)

Thus, the Idealistic standpoint underpins ideas about what constitutes Excellent PR, although it may be rejected by public relations practitioners.