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The following is a reflection on Spanish undergraduate studies that combine the concepts of marketing and public relations. Sharing origins and often functions and specialists, both concepts have run parallel paths that have merged on multiple occasions. This evolution has been studied from different points of view. Initially, marketing experts included PR techniques as an additional tool to grant it a greater specific instrumental relevance over time. On the other hand, PR scholars have tried to dissociate themselves from marketing in order acquire an independent position within the field of communication. In Spain, these conceptual differences are currently blurred due to the creation of new university degrees and double degrees combining both disciplines. This trend is evidenced within the Spanish university market which, throughout this article, will be compared to other markets, namely the American and the British ones, as a scientific reference for both concepts, and to the Portuguese one, given its geographical proximity. We will reflect on the reasons that have led the Spanish university market to combine both concepts and to offer official studies that include them in their nomenclature, far from the historical tradition in this country, where studies in public relations have been related to the field of communication, while those in marketing have been related to the field of economics. The identification of this trend in the job market of organisational communication professionals poses new challenges to training institutions, especially to universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific journals are currently the main instrument of dissemination with which the scientific community transmits their researches, being the field of communication one of those that has experienced the greatest growth in this type of publications. Given the proliferation of researches in this field, bibliometric studies such us this one are necessary, which pursues as primary objectives: the currently knowledge of scientific activity in the field of communication and the analysis of the sources referenced in scientific articles; this will allow to discover the main theories and authors that support these articles in the main journals in the field of communication research. Content analysis has been used as a method, whose variables have allowed us to know the gender of the authors, their origin, the topic of the articles, the type of research, the methodologies of the texts and analyse the type of sources they use in their investigations. The 148 articles that make up the first issues published in 2016 and 2017, belonging to the first ten communication journals indexed in the Journal of Citation Reports (JCR), of Web of Science, have been analysed as representative. The results have shown us that the number of articles published in this type of journals is increasing, since they are higher in 2017 than in 2016. The number of signatories of each article is also increasing, being in 2016 the 2, 24 the average number and 3.31 in 2017. Analysing the gender variable, there is a notable difference between the two years; the number of men doubles the number of women in 2016, becoming stabilized in 2017. Regarding to the origin of the researchers, in both years studied, it is the USA the country with a higher percentage, followed by Netherlands and United Kingdom. Focusing the attention on Spanish researchers, they are only present in 2016 in the Communication Research magazine and in 2017 in the Journal of Communication. In both cases there is an article in each magazine where two Spanish people participate, doing it in collaboration with other researchers with different nationalities in 2017. In 2016, the most popular topic in scientific publications is health with 25.64%, secondly, it is advertising and communication campaigns with 12.81%, and the third one is social interaction with 11.50%. In 2017, the predominant theme is digital media (Internet, new technologies and social networks) with 30%, followed by social interaction with 21.44% and health communication with 12.58%. Regarding the references, it is concluded that citing themselves are quite frequent and they are increasing, since in 2016, 84.61% of authors cite themselves, increasing the figure in 2017 to 88.57%. It is found that this practice is increasing in order to give greater visibility to the work of the researchers themselves. Also, the tendency is the increase of references to articles of magazines to the detriment of the books, and also less time elapses since an article is published until it is cited, than in the case of books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life in society is a natural imperative as human beings are not supposed nor allowed to live in isolation from their pairs. Relations of power emerge once societies are constituted by constellations of interests. Public Relations arises, thus, in the necessity of conciliating and promoting different interests among publics. Specifically, by dealing with politics, the public relations provide the logics and tools needed for a complex and uncertain environment. It also helps to turn the public opinion favourable to the accomplishment of different agents' goals. Although public relations techniques and practices have existed for millennia, the theoretical field still needs debates to diagnose and comprehend its foundations. Scholars also urge for more researches in order to suggest directions to produce innovative knowledge that effectively contributes to the development of society. The authors believe that public relations is the field of knowledge that when better understood and operationalized can promote it for its ability to deal with distinct interests among publics. In this sense, not only the (in)congruencies between public relations and politics have impacted agents doing politics, but also required a better comprehension and understanding about the state of the knowledge. Given this, the paper aims to answer the following research question: how scientific production that deals with public relations and politics in conjunction is characterised? Methodologically, the article takes the premise that the publication of academic papers is the most used and valued instrument by researchers who want to publicize the results of their investigations. It is also understood that it is the way for a specific field to lay its foundations and become both recognised and established among a community of scholars. To assess the academic production that deals both with politics and public relations, a quantitative approach was carried out in 2,291 articles and reviews published between 1937 and 2019 in journals indexed in the Scopus database, extending the analysis made by previous scientific reviews. The bibliometrics analysis encompassed the evaluation of citations, co-authorship and co-occurrence of words. Four stages of research were identified in the paper (1937-1982; 1983-1996; 1997-2004; 2005-up-to-date) and the results indicate that the number of publications follows a growing trend presenting maturity in the study of both themes conjoint. Broadly, researches deal with multidisciplinary issues and are not limited to the field of Communication, encompassing streams of research in the following areas: Humans Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Health, Natural and Medical Sciences. The most referenced papers deal with confidence and risk in democracies, network analysis, public opinion and media, and relationship management. It was also found a humanistic approach to organisations' management and a more pragmatist approach regarding the profession. The results also bring differences in comparison to previous researches that had established two schools of thought; the American pragmatist and the French critical schools. This article points to two schools of thinking regarding public relations and politics, which may be established in the United States and the United Kingdom. However, the paper does not claim that the effort presented is closed to new insights but asks for qualitative researches to have a deeper understanding of the quantitative analysis employed here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bloggers are increasingly viewed by public relations practitioners as important influencers within the online media environment, yet research that explores relationships between bloggers and PR practitioners, particularly in the UK, is relatively limited. This paper reports on findings from a small-scale, in depth qualitative study of food blogger-practitioner relationships within the hospitality sector in the UK. The study explored why bloggers write about their restaurant experiences and how they view their relationships with PR professionals; while PR practitioners were questioned about their relationships with bloggers and the influence bloggers are having on PR clients' reputations. In keeping with previous research, this study found that the practitionerblogger relationship is complex. The PR practitioners interviewed within the hospitality sector viewed restaurant review bloggers as highly influential to their clients' reputations and view the relationship as one that is built on mutual interests and trust. However, bloggers do not perceive the relationship in this light and are sceptical of PR practitioners' motives. While bloggers had different motivations for blogging, they shared a common passion for blogging and a drive to provide reliable information and objective advice to their readers. Concerns within the blogging community were highlighted in regard to accepting incentives (free meals) from PR practitioners, and how this can be damaging to bloggers' reputations. While some bloggers claim to resist PR practitioners' attempts to influence their blog content, other bloggers take an active role in building relationships with PR practitioners. It is argued that both parties are engaged in 'identity work' in order to protect their respective identities and practices and that emotion management plays a part in the practitioner-blogger relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]