Literature review
The campaign for the Tour de Yorkshire and the public relations work included in it is situated within the broader topic of promotional culture. Promotional culture, according to Davis (2013) is a culture that is intertwined with the medium of promotion and its communication processes. He defines promotion as the combination of influences from the promotional industries that include public relations work as well as advertising, marketing and branding. All of these influences can be found in the Tour de Yorkshire campaign, which closes the circle of it being part of the promotional culture. However Davis (2013:3) also takes a critical approach by saying that “promotion frequently fails” or develops in a way that was not the …show more content…
Even though most of the former descriptions apply to that category as well L’Etang (2013) adds some further criteria. According to her sport has become a major factor in society and as such is in need of professional communication and handling especially when it comes to financial aspects such as the relationship with stakeholders. In that regard she points towards the boundary spanning role of PR in which practitioner are the link between an organisation and its environment which in the case of sporting events might for example be sponsors. L’Etang (2013:1) further clarifies that “PR and sport are both facilitators of communication and …show more content…
Weaver, Motion and Roper (2006) agree by explaining that people in today’s society often don’t even know what their own interest is. That in turn would mean that PR only supports the public in their efforts to make a decision. Similar ideas can also be found in Heath’s (1992) rhetorical perspective of PR where he explains that individual voices get lost in mass societies and that PR helps by encouraging consumer behaviour and certain lifestyles. However critical theories argue that the opinions offered by the promotional industry are in fact all the same and that individual choices are not really individual any more (Davis 2013). In addition to that PR campaign decisions are often based on the expectations of media coverage rather than on what actually might be best for the event (Davis 2013). That idea will be further examined in the interview with the Tour de Yorkshire team. The general definition of public relations applied to this dissertation will be that it is an organisations function that involves communicative processes. They are aimed at relationship and reputation management as well as shaping publicity, image and the public opinion in a way that favours the client or organisation that public relations practitioners are working
The campaign for the Tour de Yorkshire and the public relations work included in it is situated within the broader topic of promotional culture. Promotional culture, according to Davis (2013) is a culture that is intertwined with the medium of promotion and its communication processes. He defines promotion as the combination of influences from the promotional industries that include public relations work as well as advertising, marketing and branding. All of these influences can be found in the Tour de Yorkshire campaign, which closes the circle of it being part of the promotional culture. However Davis (2013:3) also takes a critical approach by saying that “promotion frequently fails” or develops in a way that was not the …show more content…
Even though most of the former descriptions apply to that category as well L’Etang (2013) adds some further criteria. According to her sport has become a major factor in society and as such is in need of professional communication and handling especially when it comes to financial aspects such as the relationship with stakeholders. In that regard she points towards the boundary spanning role of PR in which practitioner are the link between an organisation and its environment which in the case of sporting events might for example be sponsors. L’Etang (2013:1) further clarifies that “PR and sport are both facilitators of communication and …show more content…
Weaver, Motion and Roper (2006) agree by explaining that people in today’s society often don’t even know what their own interest is. That in turn would mean that PR only supports the public in their efforts to make a decision. Similar ideas can also be found in Heath’s (1992) rhetorical perspective of PR where he explains that individual voices get lost in mass societies and that PR helps by encouraging consumer behaviour and certain lifestyles. However critical theories argue that the opinions offered by the promotional industry are in fact all the same and that individual choices are not really individual any more (Davis 2013). In addition to that PR campaign decisions are often based on the expectations of media coverage rather than on what actually might be best for the event (Davis 2013). That idea will be further examined in the interview with the Tour de Yorkshire team. The general definition of public relations applied to this dissertation will be that it is an organisations function that involves communicative processes. They are aimed at relationship and reputation management as well as shaping publicity, image and the public opinion in a way that favours the client or organisation that public relations practitioners are working