This book examines an important public relations case in great depth over the 6-year period in the 1990s when it was managed: General Motors 1973-1987 C/K pickup trucks, which were alleged to have a defective fuel-system design. Lessons learned from this detailed, deeper examination of public relations offer valuable insights from an active bridging of theory and practice. Such lessons-including managerial decision making, message formation, discourse choices, and strategic planning-should prove meaningful for practitioners and scholars alike because the analysis focuses on implications from...

This book focuses on the importance of public relations genres as categories of discourse: forms with functions that can be applied in ways that add knowledge based on their rhetorical and organizational significance. By primarily leaning on work in the fields of linguistics and rhetoric, the book is the first to formally present the textual features and the implicit exigencies of public relations discourse genres. It goes further by directly linking text types, message design, and strategy, thereby placing public relations as a more valued and valuable part of organizations' businesses and...