RELATIONS EDUCATION: A CRITICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Public relations entered China in the 1980s. Formal education in public relations started in the 1980s. The field has experienced evolutionary changes over the past 2 decades. However, not much scholarly attention has been paid to this area of research. The most notable article that examines Chinese public relations education was published in 1994. After more than 10 years, it is disheartening to note that no published works have updated the status quo of Chinese public relations education. Within this context, the present study undertakes the initiative to offer a rich account of and a critical and cultural analysis of Chinese public relations education. Specially, the purpose of this dissertation was to understand how Chinese public relations educators, students, and practitioners make meaning of Chinese public relations education through the theoretical lens of the circuit of culture model and within the context of Confucianism. The present study adopts qualitative methodology as the means to explore the study’s research questions. It employs two concrete qualitative methods—in-depth interview and focus groups. Participants were selected from three major cities i