Public relations democracy

Written for social science students, this text is a study of the public relations industry in Britain, examining the rapid expansion of professional public relations and discussing its effects on the mass media and political process. Over the last two decades the PR industry has expanded more than eleven-fold. A diverse range of organisations, from political parties and pressure groups to churches and charities, have attempted to use it as a means of achieving specific ends. At the same time news journalists, under increasing pressure to raise output, have come to rely more and more on this public relations supply. In an era of media-conscious decision-making, public relations has further transformed the media's role in the democratic process.