Resourcing the next stages in PR history research: the case for historiography

Abstract

Since the start of the 21st century, significant work has been done in expanding not just the content, but the geographical, methodological, and social range of public relations scholarship. The expansion has parallels – a few of which we acknowledge below – in the body of historical work in the discipline. In this article, we contend that future research on PR pasts should seek to be relevant to three clusters of contemporary themes that feature strongly in mainstream history. Cluster one is the environmental context of globalization and associated geographical and social diversifications. Cluster two concerns the scale, methods, and ecological inclusiveness to engage with these changes; and, the third covers nation-centric mindsets, archival assumptions, and the impact of changing media. We also argue for PR historians resourcing the next stages of PR history from advances in historiography and history writing practices with particular attention to the point of view of the historian and awareness of the traditions and limitations, within which he, she, or they write. We suggest that this resourcing process will involve questioning assumptions of authority embedded in archive-centered PR research, decentering nation-bound narratives, re-evaluating notions of objectivity, and extending the field's temporal and spatial boundaries.