As noted in the literature review, DiStaso, Stacks and Botan (2009) wrote that public relations education is being increasingly called upon to provide strategic, international, ethical and research methods in training and leadership. However, one of the concerns of results of studies to date (e.g. L’Etang & Pieczka 2006 and Tench et al 2013) is on the lack of interest in – or knowledge of theory – on the part of senior practitioners. It was therefore necessary to ascertain views from senior practitioners as to what their views were of theory in public relations.
It is interesting that senior practitioners more advanced in experience than entry-level
graduates draw less on theoretical influences than they do on ‘common sense’ as for example one practitioner who said:
I’m not sure about all this PR theory. There is no handbook that says, “This is how you deal with this scenario”….” It has to be based on common sense and experience, you know. (Kelly, NPRG).
Or another participant who said:
No, and I would say I’m not into theory. I mean, I think most of the solutions when people come to me, even still within a year, I’m actually looking at, they have a problem. What’s the practical way of solving it? (Roger, NPRG).
Sally (non PRG) was of the view that too much theory is being taught and not enough practice:
They can tell me all sorts of theoretical shit but they don’t have a clue about actually doing radio or television or any of that.
Aside from the profanity used by this practitioner, it was interesting that students coming from a media course (and not a dedicated PR course) did not have practical knowledge in addition to theory before they entered industry.
Another interesting finding here was that some PR practitioners who have been formally educated wish that they had covered theory in more detail in their courses – e.g. the participant who said:
152 The course I was teaching focused on reputation…. I went back into all of the academics, so I said, “I’m going to teach them a course that is a practical course.”….There was very little change..very little change. (Elaine, PRG).
I was surprised at Elaine’s quote above as theory has advanced in public relations
considerably over the last two decades. For example, Pasadeos, Berger and Renfro, (2010) noted that the rise in the number of citations in public relations research between the period 1990-1995 and 2000-2005, was 93%. In addition to the increase in citations, Pasadeos et al (ibid) noted that new research and topics have emerged, notably in international studies plus new technologies, crisis communication research and gender studies. Additionally, it was clear from the literature that PR theory is important in PR education. For example, Theaker and Yaxley (2013) argued that although experience and training is good, using theory helps us to understand what works at a deeper level and is vital in enabling us to apply the lessons of experience.
However there were some practitioners who emphasised the importance of theory in PR education. For example, Michael (NPRG) who said:
Professionalism consists essentially of knowing the theory, and the good professional extends the knowledge of the theory.
Another practitioner who was formally educated but not in HE and didn’t cover theory in any great detail, expressed a regret that theory wasn’t covered in order to develop a deeper level of understanding of PR in his formal education:
Yeah, like, we didn’t do anything that involved theory as far as I remember, but, I would have loved to have gotten a far more higher level kind of understanding around some of these things …..(Padraig, PRG).
The above quote resonated with me for some time and I have used it in many presentations at various conferences throughout my EdD journey. It seems to underline the value of higher education in giving students time to reflect and develop in a supportive environment. I believe that by giving students the guidance and time to be able to value their higher
153 educational journey and gain a ‘higher level of understanding’ is ultimately what the role of higher education should be about.
Padraig (PRG) was of the view that it is in a higher education setting that theory is best looked at because students have the time to spend reading and reflecting on same:
A university setting or a postgrad setting or whatever higher education setting that you are in, that’s the time to learn about it because you have the actual time to actually read, learn and digest it, so like, I can’t speak of any of the other courses because I have only just done the one, and that was ages ago, but I certainly would have enjoyed a lot more of that type of discussion. (Padraig, PRG).
However, the findings show a significant amount of practitioners are not enamoured by theory. In fact, most of the practitioners interviewed had never overtly heard of ‘Grunig’s ‘excellence theory’, one of the ‘largest category of most cited works in 2000-2005’, ((Pasadeos, Berger and Renfro, 2010 p 147). These theories (Grunig/Hunt four models of public relations and the Excellence Theory) are taught as ‘normative models and a
cornerstone of public relations courses throughout Europe and the US’ (Waddington, 2012 p 1).
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