Can theories of power help us understand public relations better? By

following. In the 1960s, PR was a growing fashion of mass persuasion and it was declared to be about ‘goodwill and mutual understanding’ between organisations and their publics. This was the official language of PR about itself, and I remember no queries from colleagues – or myself. It was the official line. There wasn’t much academic thinking or writing in the 60s, 70s and much of the 80s, for PR had no campus presence in the UK. That changed in the late 1980s for then there was a body of theory to give it conceptual shape and British HE institutions to teach it. It was the paradigm associated with the thinking of the American academic James Grunig, with its hierarchy of bad PR (the lies and gross exaggerations of press agentry) at the bottom and virtuous PR (respectful dialogue, seeking mutually agreed outcomes) at the top. I don’t know who first brought the Grunigian paradigm to these shores, so to speak, but I’m sure that Stirling University had a leading role in its import here. For me, one thing soon grated about its presence