Public Interest Communication: Critical Debates and Global Contexts

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Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of tables List of contributors Acknowledgements Public Interest Communication: Critical Debates and Global Contexts: An introduction Chapter run down In conclusion References PART I: Critical debates 1. Public interest communication: A framework for systematic inquiry Introduction Public interest – a political idea Public interest and communication: foundations ‘The phantom public’, ‘The Public’ and ‘many publics’ Deliberative praxis and the public interest Public interest and public relations Power, communication and the public interest Defining and analysing public interest communication Emerging themes Note References 2. Terministic dialectics of individual and community agency: Co-creating and co-enacting public interest Introduction Public interest as dialectical tensions Public interest’s critical legitimacy debates Hydrocarbons as public interest political discourse Environmental discourse: public interest communication Discourse arenas: public interest battlegrounds Resisting resistance: dialectics of individual/public interest Scientific interpretation God’s will Watchdogs of the discourse arena Conclusions References 3. Communicating public engagement, public interest and participation: Culturally centring community voices Introduction Critically interrogating engagement Power, control, and communicative inversion Consolidating organisational reach Erasures in listening to the margins Culture-centred approach to listening Listening and new ways of organising Listening and the role of the communicator Conclusion Note References 4. Climate change and the public interest: Science, legitimacy and diversity Introduction The depoliticisation of climate change The hidden politics of climate change Ecological modernisation: scientific construction of the public interest Renewable energy Climate justice The importance of dissensus Conclusions References 5. Commercial media platforms and the challenges to public expression and scrutiny Introduction Public culture as an engineering problem Media platforms and digital democracy Public communication is participation in training machines Public communication is participation in experiments Media engineering and the public interest References PART II: Global contexts 6. Articulating national identity in postcolonial democracies: Defining relations and interests through competing publics Introduction Africa and the aftermath of colonialism Postcolonial Ghana Postcolonial Mozambique Articulation theory Identity crisis: public relations and the public interest Articulating a national identity: public relations and public interest References 7. In whose interests?: Media, political communication and First Nations Australians Introduction Media and managing perceptions Whiteness and critical theory Mediatisation, public perceptions and Indigenous Australians Accountability and resourcing First Nations peoples and the public interest Conclusion Notes References 8. Understanding the public interest puzzle in China’s public relations: The role of balance and counterbalance based on Confucian Great Harmony Introduction The public-private binary: foundation of public interest in the West Confucian Great Harmony: the system of interests in Chinese culture An open-ended process approach to public interest in Chinese public relations Primary data sources Harmony as a means of balance: creative strategies of negotiating public interest Harmony as a means of counterbalance: tacit rules and taboos Harmony as an end of dynamic equilibrium: incremental changes and the public interest Concluding remarks: harmony, the state and the public interest References 9. Security, democratic legitimacy and the public interest: Policing and the communicative ritual in deeply divided societies Introduction The public interest and political theory The public interest and deliberative turns Social interaction and the communication ritual: ‘It’s good to talk’ Policing and the public interest: communication and legitimisation Policing, communication and engagement in Northern Ireland Partners and Communities Together (PACT) Citizen-police interaction in Ferguson, St Louis Representation and legitimacy De-politicisation Conclusions References 10. Lobbying for life: Violence against the press and the public interest Introduction Social movements and human rights campaigning Background: Mexican political context Violence against journalists Mexico’s epidemic of anti-press violence When civic coalitions meet public interest Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Freedom of Expression Special task force to protect journalists Conclusion Notes References Index