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CHAPTER 5
Priorities old and new for UK
PR practice
Gerald Chan
In this chapter Gerald Chan has looked to update the 1994 Delphi study on research
priorities in the United Kingdom. PR theory and practice has changed since the 1990s,
mostly brought on by the phenomenal growth of the internet and new media technologies.
Looking at the impact of these changes, and based on a Y2K research report the
author asks how has the profession of public relations evolved in the years since the
Delphi report and what are deemed to be research priorities.
The current public relations research agenda
in the United Kingdom is based on a number
of research objectives which developed from
White and Blamphin’s 1994 study on research
priorities in the United Kingdom 1 and an
earlier draft report prepared in October 1990 2
including the need to:
• establish priorities for the limited funding
available for public relations research in
further education;
• tap into the growing interest in the use of
research in public relations, drawing from
the enlarged resources in the expanded
research community.
Public relations in both theory and practice,
has changed over the 1994–2000 period,
mostly brought about by the phenomenal
growth of the internet and new media technologies.
In light of this and the other changing
conditions PR practitioners have to
operate in, this update has to illustrate how
practice has shaped the course of research and
vice versa.
A few general questions have been asked to
better understand the task at hand. Since the
Delphi report, how has the profession of
public relations evolved What are the
amendments to the list of research priorities
Are these changes simply a matter of rearranging
the order in which they originally
appeared or have there been significant
changes in academia/industry that have warranted
a reassessment of the research agenda
in public relations
The new project recognizes how developments
in industry and the wider environment
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors