PR professionals in France: an overview of the sector

Purpose - This paper aims to present different types of data derived from recent surveys of the academic and professional literature. It intends to provide an overall account of the situation of PR professionals in France with insight into their views and their work.Design methodology approach - The...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of communication management (London, England) England), 2010-05, Vol.14 (2), p.167-177
Main Author: Carayol, Valérie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advertising
Business communications
Business conditions
Communication
Employees
Employment
Expenses
France
Humanities and Social Sciences
Industry profiles
Journalism
Labor unions
Legitimacy
Library and information sciences
Professionals
Professions
Public relations
Public relations agencies
Qualitative research
Skills
Statistical analysis
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Purpose - This paper aims to present different types of data derived from recent surveys of the academic and professional literature. It intends to provide an overall account of the situation of PR professionals in France with insight into their views and their work.Design methodology approach - The research question posed is: "What kinds of PR topics are being investigated and how is the professional sphere of PR regarded?"Findings - PR studies are mostly the work of professional organizations. Although numerous studies were conducted by the university sector during the early 1990s in conjunction with the strong development of the communications professional field, there has been a decrease in university studies on PR professionals since early 2000. Generally speaking, studies conducted by professionals are more often focused on skills and activities, whereas those conducted by academics are more often focused on communications professions, people, reasoning behind actions in practice, and skills turned into action.Originality value - The various issues underlying the studies examined confirm a growing interest in the working environment, including socio-political expectations of PR professionals. Through these studies a new perspective of PR professionals as social engineers - versus technicians - seems to appear. In addition, the consideration of societal and social issues by professionals, may suggest that the profession is working to improve its legitimacy.
ISSN:1363-254X
1478-0852
DOI:10.1108/13632541011034619