Keynote Paper to the International History of Public Relations Conference 2013.

Abstract

The address surveys the “state of play” in the history of public relations field. It reflects on papers and keynote addresses delivered at the International History of Public Relations Conference, which was first held in 2010, and journal articles since 2008. Using these data, historiography and scholarship are reviewed The field is trending from an initial eclectic, often descriptive, approach towards the more analytical and sometimes critical. This is changing the nature of the conference and of subsequent outcomes of publications in academic article and book form. The address argues for greater international and cross-cultural cooperation between scholars. This will help the field move beyond description and into analytical approaches, and to reconsider the “Great Men” focus and Anglo-American leadership (e.g. Grunigian models) content of many texts and articles.