If you have ever wondered what the best, worst, funniest, happiest, most dramatic or insightful presentation of public relations is, PRDepiction can help answer your questions.
PRDepiction, a blog devoted to the depiction of public relations in film, TV, radio and books, across all media, has just been launched. In addition to recent productions and books, it lists many of the earliest films and novels that incorporate PR characters.
Although not the first movie about publicity, Bing Crosby’s starring role as the PR man for Hawaii in the 1937 Waikiki Wedding gave the business a glamorous, musical, fun perspective.
In fiction, J. Ward Moorehouse in the first volume of John Dos Passos’s USA Trilogy, published in 1930, is the earliest PR character identified so far. He is portrayed in the novel as an Ivy Lee-type of PR man before the First World War, but becomes less ethical and respectable as the trilogy reaches its final volume. The blog has also identified a novel from 1936 with the title of Public Relations, written by Lewis Lefko. Its secondary title is “a novel of the utilities field.”
The website is the collaborative effort of academics and practitioners in Australia, Ireland, UK and US such as Jane Johnston (Australia), Conor McGrath (Ireland), Philip Young, Scott Davidson and Tom Watson (all UK) and Cheryl Lambert, Karen Russell, Tom Hove (all US). They welcome suggestions of additions, especially from outside the English language. PRDepiction will also feature research and press articles/blogs on the subject.
The URL is http://prdepiction.wordpress.com.
Tom Watson PhD is Professor of Public Relations at Bournemouth University in England. He runs the annual International History of Public Relations Conference and is a member of the Commission on PR Measurement & Evaluation.
