The people's PR: public relations, occupy wall street, and the status quo

This dissertation presents a case study of the New York City based Press Relations Working Group (Press WG) of Occupy Wall Street (OWS), the 2011 social movement that advocated for economic justice in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The inquiry explores the group’s practices of public relations in order to understand how they and other stakeholders co-constructed meanings concerning social justice at the time. The semi-structured interviews with former group members, public relations practitioners in their own right, as well as select work product (e.g. press releases) and internal documents are analyzed through the circuit of culture (Du Gay, et al., 2013). A theory stemming from Cultural Studies, the circuit of culture framework affords sharper understandings of power relations and processes of making meaning—of which public relations is a part. The case study data reveal at least six findings related to four themes concerning governance, professional and amateur practices, social media usage, and diversity of representation. Through these lenses, the interpretive analysis advances three arguments: 1. Although social movement activists and scholars have claimed that OWS was horizontal or flat in its governance structure and decision making processes, in practice the picture was complicated by multiple, often hierarchical forms of decision making and governance; 2. Despite widespread evidence of social media use throughout the movement, the Press WG was largely dependent on traditional tactics of public relations; 3. Public relations as practiced in the group empowered some, but oppressed others. These arguments not only clarify the role(s) of public relations practice in the case study, but also advance critical-cultural understandings of public relations theory.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Camille Reye