Public relations in the interactive era

This editorial for the issue 1, volume 4 of the Journal of Professional Communication discusses how social media has ushered in a new era of interactivity which has created an entirely new arena for the practice of public relations and communications management. It traces the development of practice through the modernist era, which privileged structure, science and rationality to the postmodern era which the author argues was essentially a reaction to the rigidity of modernism. It is argued that postmodernism as an era is also complete, replaced by a new way of organizing thoughts and relationships brought on by the powerful and relatively easy interactivity offered by the internet and digital devices. The author concludes by arguing that Bernays’ conception of public relations was steeped in the ideas of the modernist era and that, ironically, it is McLuhan’s conception of the distinction between the artist and the scientist and the practice of pattern finding that will rule.  ©Journal of Professional Communication, all rights reserved.