The construction of intended meanings: furthering understanding of the purpose of public relations

This paper reports on the first step in addressing the research question: is the primary purpose of public relations to have target publics construct an intended meaning in order to attain strategic goals. This research question stems from the tensions around the purpose of public relations in terms of my knowledge acquired as a senior practitioner and that which is presented in much of the academic literature of the public relations field. This research reports on an initial examination of public relations practice as presented in award winning campaign entry texts to determine whether the construction of intended meanings were central to the campaign’s purpose. The research also examined whether the campaigns intended outcomes were primarily aiming to achieve the commissioning entity’s goals or some other goal. This was a way of examining whether my own experiences had been atypical and would inform my further research direction. This project, although exploratory in nature only, found that my own experiences of practice where public relations activity was undertaken with the express intention of achieving the strategic goals of the entity for whom I was working was not atypical. Further, all campaigns can be interpreted as having worked to have target publics construct the intended meaning of the commissioning entity rather than any other meaning.