Public Relations in Film and Fiction: 1930 to 1995

The Hero-Leader Matrix in Business and Cinema

“…Professional categories are studied through their cinematographic representation: business executives (Feldman 1992;Johnson 1995;Soter 1996), non-profit CEOs (Lee 2004), doctors (Paietta and Kauppila 1999), public relations practitioners and officers (Miller 1999;Lee 2001;Ames 2009), accountants (Beard 1994;Dimnik and Felton 2006;Felton et al 2008), construction engineers and lawyers (Langford and Robson 2003), workers (Ross 2001), and trade unions and management gurus (Hassard and Holliday 1998).…”

Cinema Spin: Exploring Film Depictions of Public Relations Practitioners

“…The media have a history of framing public relations in a negative way, whether in news stories (e.g., Keenan, 1996;Kinsky & Callison, 2009) or in movie images (Lee, 2009;Miller, 1999;Yoon & Black, 2007). This assignment may support or refute the historical framing.…”

“…This assignment may support or refute the historical framing. Several on-screen portrayals of public relations professionals have been one-dimensional (Lee, 2001;McFarlane, 2002;Miller, 1999;Tavcar, 1993). Whether movies continue to provide one-sided or stereotypical images of the industry will be an important lesson for students to learn.…”

The Cultural Tribes of Public Relations

“…It offers few visions about the future of practice. Popular culture portrayals of fatalistic public relations depict public relations practitioners as obsequious, cynical, isolated, and unfulfilled (Miller, 1999).…”

“…Its voice animates conversations about the nature of public relations. Unflattering egalitarian characterizations of public relations are a feature of popular culture's depictions of public relations (Miller, 1999). Its stark characterizations of public relations practice energize the cultural voices of the dominant coalition to declare, "Public relations isn't at all like that" (e.g., Seitel, 2000).…”