PR from risks

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 22:10:23 -0800
From: Phil Agre <pagre@weber.ucsd.edu>
Subject: Public relations


A new article by Oscar Gandy sketches the role of computers in the shifting
place of public relations in policy formation in the US, together with some
instances of PR affecting policies about information technology.  His very
useful central concept is the "information subsidy".  He points out that many
organizations, from the press to the Congress, run on vast amounts of
information, but their ability to generate their own information is limited by
their budgets.  PR people and lobbyists, funded by whoever has enough money
and a perceived stake in the outcome, fill the vacuum by supplying information
that is customized to fill the organization's needs while simultaneously
serving the interests of their patrons.  The result is a growing
commercialization of the public discourse and the political process, a
development with worrisome implications for the cause of democracy.  The full
reference is:


Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., Public relations and public policy: The structuration of
dominance in the information age, in Elizabeth L. Toth and Robert L. Heath,
eds, Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public Relations, Hillsdale, NJ:
Erlbaum, 1992.


Phil Agre, UCSD