Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Ordinary People can Reason: A Rhetorical Case for Including Vernacular Voices in Ethical Public Relations Practice

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Modern public relations practices have been dominated by appeals to impulses, desires, and images that affect publics defined predominantly in demographic terms. This paper argues that abandoning basic rhetorical assumptions about the ability of ordinary people to engage in practical reason has serious ethical implications for the marketplace as well as for society in general. The study applies recent rhetorical scholarship on issues of public discourse and rhetorical culture to public relations practices, considering how rhetoric can contribute to more effective and ethical public discourse in our dominant modes of marketplace communication.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arendt, H. 1958. The Human Condition (University of Chicago Press, Chicago)

    Google Scholar 

  • Aristotle: 1984, Rhetoric and Poetics. W. Rhys Roberts and Ingram Bywater (trans.) (Random House, New York)

  • Bernays, E.L. 1923. Crystallizing Public Opinion (Boni and Liveright, New York)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernays, E.L. 1928. Propaganda (Liveright, New York)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernays, E.L. 1955. The Engineering of Consent (University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bok, S. 1978. Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life (Pantheon Books, New York)

    Google Scholar 

  • Boorstin, D.: 1961, From News Gathering to Newsmaking: A Flood of Psuedo-Events, The Image (Vintage, New York). http://www.cis.vt.edu/modernworld/d/boorstin.html

  • Boorstin, D. J.: 1995, ‹Two Kinds of Revolution’, in The Daniel J. Boorstin Reader (The Modern Library, New York), pp. 852–870

  • Bytwerk, R.L. 2004. Bending Spines: The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic (Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI)

    Google Scholar 

  • Cialdini, R.B. 2001. Influence: Science and Practice (Allyn & Bacon: Boston)

    Google Scholar 

  • Cicero: 2000, On Invention. H. M. Hubbell (trans.) (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA)

  • Crichton, M.: 1993, Mediasaurus: Decline of Conventional Media (Speech to the National Press Club, April 7, 1993). http://www.michaelcrichton.com/speech-mediasaurus.html

  • Dozier, D.M., Grunig, J.E., & Grunig, L.A.1995. Manager’s Guide to Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ.)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellul, J. 1984. The Humiliation of the Word (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ewen, S. 1996. PR! A Social History of Spin (Basic Books, New York)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gadamer, H. 1975. Truth and Method (Seabury Press, New York)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gorgias: 2001, ‹Encomium of Helen’, in P. Bizzell and B. Herzberg (eds.), The Rhetorical Tradition (Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston), pp. 44–46

  • Grunig, J. E. and L. A. Grunig: 1992, ‹The Organization of the Public Relations Function’, in J. E. Grunig (ed.), Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Hillsdale, NJ), pp. 395–417

    Google Scholar 

  • Grunig, J.E., & Repper, F.C. 1992. “Strategic Management, Publics, and Issues.” In J. E. Grunig (ed.) Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management. (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ), pp. 117–157

    Google Scholar 

  • Grunig, J.E., & White, J. 1992. “The Effect of Worldviews on Public Relations Theory and Practice.” In J. E. Grunig (ed.) Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management. (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ), pp. 31–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J.: 1989, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Thomas Burger (trans.) (MIT Press, Cambridge)

  • Hauser, G.A. 1999. Vernacular Voices: The Rhetoric of Publics and Public Spheres (University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC)

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnstone, H.W. (1981). Toward an Ethics for Rhetoric. Communication, 6(2), 305–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Kruckeberg, D. 2000. “Public Relations: Toward a Global Professionalism.” In J.A. Ledingham and S.D. Bruning (eds.) Public Relations as Relationship Management: A Relational Approach to the Study and Practice of Public Relations (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ) pp. 145–157

    Google Scholar 

  • Lippmann, W. 1993. The Phantom Public (Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ)

    Google Scholar 

  • Matera, F.R., & Artigue, R.J. 2000. Public Relations Campaigns and Techniques: Building Bridges to the 21st Century (Allyn & Bacon, Boston)

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayhew, L.H. 1997. The New Public: Professional Communication and the Means of Social Influence (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)

    Google Scholar 

  • Olasky, M.N. 1987. Corporate Public Relations: A New Historical Perspective (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ)

    Google Scholar 

  • Perelman, C. and L. Olbrechts-Tyteca: 1969, The New Rhetoric. J. Wilkinson and P. Weaver (trans) (Notre Dame University Press, Notre Dame, IN)

  • Plato: 1952, Gorgias. W. C. Helmbold (trans.) (Prentice Hall, New York)

  • Postman, N. 1992. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (Vintage Books-Random House, New York)

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R.D. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Simon & Schuster, New York)

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, E. 1997. Transcribed by Paul Rudoff. Men in Black [Screenplay], (Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Hollywood, CA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Spicer, C. 1997. Organizational Public Relations: A Political Perspective (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sproule, J.M. (1988). The New Managerial Rhetoric and the Old Criticism. The Quarterly Journal of Speech, 74, 468–486

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toulmin, S.E. 1958. The Uses of Argument (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Tye, L. 1998. The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays & the Birth of Public Relations, (Crown, New York)

    Google Scholar 

  • Vico, G. 2001. “On the Study Methods of Our Time.” In P. Bizzell and B. Herzberg (eds.) The Rhetorical Tradition. (Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston), pp. 865–878

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, K.R. (1955). An Ethical Basis of Communication. Speech Teacher, 4(1), 1–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Weaver, R.M. 1984. Ideas Have Consequences (University of Chicago Press, Chicago)

    Google Scholar 

  • Whately, R. 2001. “Elements of Rhetoric.” In P. Bizzell and B. Herzberg (eds.) The Rhetorical Tradition. (Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston), pp. 1003–1030

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A.

    Calvin L. Troup

Authors
  1. Calvin L. Troup
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Calvin L. Troup.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Troup, C.L. Ordinary People can Reason: A Rhetorical Case for Including Vernacular Voices in Ethical Public Relations Practice. J Bus Ethics 87, 441–453 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9930-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9930-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation