A identidade e a imagem das relações públicas em Portugal

• Author(s): Gonçalves, Gisela
• Date: 2012
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10437/5373
• Origin: ReCiL - Repositório Científico Lusófona
• Subject(s): RELAÇÕES PÚBLICAS; PUBLIC RELATIONS; IDENTIDADE PROFISSIONAL; PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY; IMPRENSA PORTUGUESA; PORTUGUESE PRESS; ÉTICA; ETHICS
• Document Type: Article
• Language: Portuguese

Description

Public Relations industry in Portugal has been expanding in recent years. As public relations has matured as a profession questions related to the ethical and social impact of its activities must inevitably follow. This article examines the identity of public relations from the confrontation between two opposing theoretical perspectives on its role in society – the symmetrical view and the critical view. Through a qualitative study of public relations professional codes and media image of public relations activities in Portugal it is aimed to understand how these two theoretical perspectives show up in empirical reality. On the one hand, ethical codes appeals to “best practices” in the profession and emphasizes “truth, dialogue and the public interest” as core values of public relations. On the other hand, after a content analysis in 2004-2008 Portuguese newspapers it can be noticed that public relations has long been a popular target for criticism and widely connoted as soft propaganda and public opinion manipulation. Facing the paradox, the objective of this article is to argue that public relations professional legitimacy is closely linked to the defense and construction of an ethical identity in the public sphere.