Post ICA Conference

The impact of public relations and promotional communication on human rights, inequalities and social justice: Interdisciplinary reflections and future directions

WHEN

08:30 – 18:30 Tuesday 25 June 2024

WHERE

Queensland University of Technology – P Block Room 419, Gardens Point Campus

This 2024 ICA post-conference is affiliated with ICA Public Relations Division and Popular Media and Culture Division. It is co-organised by London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), The University of Texas at Austin, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and Monash University. 

In this post-conference, we aim to extend the potential of existing research by fostering productive, interdisciplinary conversations between scholars from across media and communications who have an interest in the influence of public relations and other promotional professions on struggles over rights, inequalities and social justice. 

Registration click here.

Programme now available here.

 See the full call-for-papers here. 

 

Keynote Speaker: Professor Ian Somerville 

Collective equality, public deliberation and the public interest? Re-imagining the role of promotion and public relations in deeply divided societies

Abstract: In a world where violent conflict seems to be growing and deeply divided places proliferating at an exponential rate it is important for communication scholars to reflect on the role of public relations, promotional culture and the media in deeply divided societies. Deeply divided societies can be defined as those in which ethnic ties have produced an antagonistic segmentation of society and this allied to deep disagreement over the legitimacy of the state has frequently generated violent division (Lustick 1979). In deeply divided societies, civic and social life tends to occur within, not across, ethnic cleavages and public communication, media and politics reflects this (Nagel and Clancy 2010). This keynote paper develops a discussion around how a concept of human rights based on ‘collective equality’ (Yehuda 2022), the ‘deliberative model of democracy’ (Habermas 1996) and the idea of the ‘public interest’ (Barry 1964) can help us engage with the question of what role promotional culture, public relations and the media can play in moving from deeply divided to shared societies.

Ian Somerville is Professor of Communication at the University of Leicester, UK, where he was Head of the School of Media, Communication and Sociology from 2019-2023. He has been researching the importance of communication in deeply divided societies for two decades, and hispublicly-funded research on deeply divided societies, sport and identity and minority ethnic health has been published in several books and a range of communication, PR, sociology, health and politics journals.

Journal special issue

We’re very happy to confirm that the post-conference will be the basis for a special issue of PR Inquiry, scheduled for publication in September 2025. Submitted papers will be peer-reviewed, and the deadline for submission will be October 2024.  

 

PhD bursaries 

 

We are offering fee waivers to PhD students presenting at the conference. If you would like to apply for these, please submit evidence of your PhD student status (e.g. a scan of your student card, letter from your supervisor) to the conference email promopostcon2024@gmail.com, by 14 June, and we will review and confirm for you. If you have already registered for the conference, please tell us in your email and we will arrange a refund.   

 

Travel and accommodation 

In case you haven’t booked anything yet, the following four hotels in Brisbane are close to the station and a short walk to the Queens Point Campus: The Westin Hotel Brisbane; Capri by Fraser; Adina Apartment hotel; Oaks Brisbane Festival suites. 

If you’re looking for other accommodation, be aware that the campus is in the city’s central business district (CBD), so anywhere near there, or close to the train station, should be within walking distance.  

Travel to and from Brisbane and Gold Coast, and from Brisbane to the airport, is easiest via Translink trains. You can find out details about the schedules and tickets here.  

You can find out more about Brisbane and Queensland, including information about tours, accommodation and travel, from Brisbane Visitor information Centre here.  

 

Organisers: 

Lee Edwards, London School of Economics and Political Science, l.edwards2@lse.ac.uk

E. Ciszek, UT Austin, eciszek@utexas.edu

Jenny Hou, Queensland University of Technology, jenny.hou@qut.edu.au

Kate Fitch, Monash University, kate.fitch@monash.edu

 

Full Program

 

Room P419
08:30	Coffee, pastries
09:00	Welcome and Opening Keynote Professor Ian Somerville University of Leicester Collective equality, public deliberation and the public interest? Re-imagining the role of promotion and public relations in deeply divided societies
10:00	Parallel sessions
	Room P419	Room P413
	Session 1: Environment and climate	Session 2: States, institutions and promotion
	Debashish Munshi and Priya Kurian University of Waikato Fostering an alternative promotional culture: Challenging capitalism and consumerism through climate fiction Belinda Smaill and Kate Fitch Monash University Promoting energy in twentieth century Australia Franzisca Weder Vienna University of Business and Economics Sustainability as guiding principle of communicative action: The transformative and transformational potential of strategic sustainability communication as niche construction	Aeron Davis Victoria University of Wellington Promotion, politics and discourses around the the housing crisis in Aotearoa-New Zealand Rachel Pietracatella, Catherine Archer, and Kay Hearn Edith Cowan University The legitimation of state elite power through promotion: How capital foots the public relations bill of elite ethos building and institutional legitimation through industry-funded, state-supported charities, Drinkaware and Gambleaware Anca Anton, Camelia Cmeciu and Eugen Glăvan University of Bucharest Shaping narratives: Governmental hashtag hijacking of online activism in the immunization debate
11:30	Coffee
11:45	Parallel sessions
	Room P419	Room P413
	Session 3: Activism and promotion	Session 4: Promotion, gender and diversity
	Alice Ekeroth1, Ellen Ahlqvist Larsson1 and Ilkin Mehrabov2 1Independent researchers, 2Lund University Using provocative PR and promotional communication to Leverage a vegan activist brand: An exploratory study of Mr. Charlie’s communicative strategies Katharina Wolf1 and Petra Theunissen2 1Curtin University, 2Auckland University of Technology ‘My body, My choice’: A critical examination of brandjacking by the Antivax movement Alison Stieven-Taylor Monash University SAVE OUR FORESTS: Visualising PR as activism on Instagram	E. Ciszek University of Texas at Austin Challenging the binary: Rethinking sex and gender in PR through of queer theory Purity Lisa Osiako Edith Cowan University #IAMBOLD: Social media as a tool for activism – A case study of an influential member of the LGBTQ+ community in Kenya Maryam Folarin University of New South Wales Listening in public relations for human rights: Considering cultural integration and safety for more effective healthcare
13:15	Lunch
14:00	Parallel sessions
	Room P419	Room P413
	Session 5: Digital promotion, rights and advocacy	Session 6: Responsible practice and pedagogy
	Laura Ripoll González1, Olga Kolotouchkina2, Warda Belabas1 1Erasmus University, Rotterdam, 2Complutense University of Madrid Towards inclusive Smart Cities: Examining the role of strategic communication in bridging divides Catherine Archer1 and Kate Delmo2 1Edith Cowan University, 2University of Technology, Sydney Kidfluencers, trust and PR: An exploration of the impact on the human rights of children as social media influencers within public relations and promotional practice  Yolandi Botha and Lauren O’Mahoney Murdoch University From hostility to co-creation: Exploring activists’ collaborative expertise in public relations	Gabriel Sadi1, Claudia Labarca2  and Alejandro Álvarez Nobell3 1University of Huddersfield, 2Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 3Universidad de Málaga Are we (even) there yet? The role of communication departments on DEI-related issues in Latin America and the Caribbean Jenny Zhengye Hou, Greg Hearn and Kim Johnston Queensland University of Technology From under-presentation to self-representation: Empowering multicultural participants in public relations research by using co-creative storytelling Anca Anton University of Bucharest Beyond Buzzwords: A Delphi Study on defining the social value, social impact, and legacy of the PR profession
15:30	Break
15:45	Parallel sessions
	Room P419	Room P413
	Session 7: Theorising promotion Lee Edwards London School of Economics and Political Science Explaining promotional culture: An institutional logics approach Chiara Valentini University of Jyväskylä Public Relations as an organizing function: An aspirational prospective Jane Johnston University of Queensland Developing a pedagogy of public interest communication and human rights for public relations education	Session 8: Human rights and promotion Øyvind Ihlen University of Oslo The human rights discourse of the world’s largest corporations Iago Santos Muraro and Katarina Stanoevska-Slabeva University of St. Gallen Beyond lip service: Building moral legitimacy via human rights communication on social media – An Instagram-based investigation Elaine Xu University of Newcastle The roles and implications of promotional communication in framing water as a global human right and global public good
	Room P419
17:15	Closing panel
18:30	Dinner off-site