Online political public relations as a place-based relational practice: A cultural discourse perspective

• Published in: Public relations review Vol. 44; no. 5; pp. 752 - 761
• Main Author: Choy, Christine Hiu Ying
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Silver Spring Elsevier Inc 01.12.2018; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Canvassing; Cultural discourse; Discourse analysis; Elections; Ethnography; Ethnography of communication; Internet; Methodological approaches; Online political talk; Political campaigns; Political communication; Political public relations; Political representation; Public relations; Public relations agencies; Qualitative research method; Socio-cultural turn; Studies; Hong Kong China; China; Cultural discourse; Political public relations; Socio-cultural turn; Ethnography of communication; Qualitative research method; Online political talk
• ISSN: 0363-8111; 1873-4537
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2018.05.006

•A cultural discourse perspective is proposed to study political public relations.•Cultural discourse analysis provides clues to unexpected success in an election.•Discursive hubs of dwelling and relation organize networked public to canvass.•This study grounds the socio-cultural theorizing of political PR in practice.•The evaluation of discourse approaches moves the field forward methodologically. This study introduces the theoretical and methodological approach of Carbaugh’s (2007) cultural discourse analysis (CuDA) to advance the research agenda on political public relations. I discuss how CuDA, as an extension of the ethnography of communication (EoC), provides clues to unexpected success in an election campaigning. Using the 2016 Hong Kong lawmakers’ election as an empirical example, the most discussed Facebook posts of an election candidate, and 6800 online comments from the public are studied. I identify the socio-cultural meanings that are used and can be used to engage public-to-public election canvassing. This study shows that the prominent discursive hubs of dwelling and relation organize networked publics to canvass. Responding to the socio-cultural turn of the literature, this study grounds the theorization of political public relations in practice. The evaluation of different approaches to discourse also moves the field forward methodologically.