Grounding Twenty-first-Century Public Relations Praxis in Aristotelian Ethos
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Date
2019-06-27
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC RELATIONS RESEARCH
Abstract
By grounding public relations praxis in Aristotelian ethos, practitioners can
function as liaison officers with balanced perspectives, capable of cocreating
meaning with both client organizations and their publics between
whom experts are hired to facilitate mutually beneficial relationships. This
approach locates persuasion at the nexus of speaker ethos in the public
relations process. It allows practitioners to balance their commitment to the
ethics of their profession with loyalty to clients, while empowering audiences
(organizations and their publics) to function as the final arbiters of
any courses of action proposed to them. Moreover, because the approach
enables practitioners, based on their credible ethos, to participate in organizational
decision-making, it has the potential to transfer their ethical
worldview to client organizations. Ultimately, the central theoretical contribution
of this essay is an alternative approach to public relations praxis
founded on an analysis of Aristotle’s notion of phronesis, arête, and eunoia
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Aristotle, ethos, phronesis, arête, eunoia, krisis/krites, eudaimonia, public relations, praxis, organization
Citation
Dominic Maximilian Ofori (2019) Grounding Twenty-first-Century Public Relations Praxis in Aristotelian Ethos, Journal of Public Relations Research, 31:1-2, 50-69, DOI: 10.1080/1062726X.2019.1634074