To kick off, we're going to look at the state of the press, including the prevalence of PR, propaganda and churnalism.

Propaganda is now a dirty word; a by-word for systematic lying and the opposite of truth. But at least one advocate of propaganda in the early 20th Century regarded propaganda as a tool of social progress. Edward L Bernays, the father of public relations, (and, incidentally, a nephew of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud) argued that propaganda was a powerful tool for social improvement and was consistent with the truth. Modern public relations practitioners make similar claims. How valid are such claims? What are the consequences for the public sphere with the rise of PR? Is it wrong for organisations to use the services of PR professionals? Is the traditional disdain that journalists often have for PR justified?

Copyright 2012 Christopher Scanlon / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.