Search

• Press agentry was a profit motivated media relations practice. • Press agents were not exclusively an unethical PR antecedent. • American press agents worked in a variety of sectors during the 19th century. • Press agentry was a sophisticated practice that utilized multiple strategies. • U.S. press was ambivalent toward 19th century press agents. Analysis of press coverage of nineteenth century American press agents indicates that, although press agents worked in a variety of sectors, their primary motivation was profit, their main strategy was media relations, and their tactics often relied on hype or outright lying. These characteristics would appear to support previous descriptions of press agentry, yet the research also shows that the press was more ambivalent toward press agents than previously assumed and that press agents' strategies and tactics may have been more sophisticated than previously understood. A number of early practitioners of press agentry are identified for further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of publicists in public relations history is largely overlooked. Although today publicists are commonly associated with the entertainment industry, late nineteenth and early twentieth century publicists were a professional group that played an important role in developing modern public relations practice, particularly the craft of research-based, ethical, and strategic communication. These early publicists' reputations and skills at managing public opinion were highly sought after by universities, businesses, and in political circles. Because their work often involved international issues, their impact was present both domestically and outside of the United States. Understanding the role the publicist played in public relations development presents a new narrative of public relations history that shows that early public relations practice contained professional, strategic, and international communication practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explores the influence and dominance of Alfred Chandler Jr.’s theory of corporate development within public relations [PR] history. Chandler's work on late 19th Century corporate development is influential in PR historiography. PR oftentimes places its genesis in the late 19th Century corporate sphere to distance itself from press agentry. Examining critiques of Chandler's work on corporate development, this study argues that rooting PR in a corporate context does not provide legitimacy to PR practice and skews PR history to favor a corporate narrative. Implications for both history and normative PR theory development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]