Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Cultural Economy on 10/05/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17530350.2016.1179663
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Reputational capital in 'the PR University'
T2 - public relations and market rationalities
AU - Cronin, Anne Margaret
PY - 2016/6/1
Y1 - 2016/6/1
N2 - Drawing on empirical data, this article identifies the emergence of the ‘PR University’ as an assemblage. Using a case study of university press officers’ work, I analyse how this form of media relations PR stages competition between UK universities through the media. A key form of this competition centres on the accumulation and circulation of what I term ‘reputational capital’. I focus on one core element of reputational capital - media stories about HE research and the circulation of research metrics. I argue that the assemblage of the PR University pulls the HE sector into dialogue with PR principles and practices in the context of recent shifts towards market rationalities. But this relationship is not a simple cause and effect model in which increasing HE ‘marketization’ creates a boom in universities’ PR practices, or intensifying investment in PR by universities merely amplifies or legitimises existing market tendencies in the sector. I argue that the PR University as assemblage starts generating its own logics around which actors in the field must orient themselves. More broadly, the PR University operates not only to promote an individual university’s market position, but acts upon public debates about the social role, legitimacy and financing of UK Higher Education.
AB - Drawing on empirical data, this article identifies the emergence of the ‘PR University’ as an assemblage. Using a case study of university press officers’ work, I analyse how this form of media relations PR stages competition between UK universities through the media. A key form of this competition centres on the accumulation and circulation of what I term ‘reputational capital’. I focus on one core element of reputational capital - media stories about HE research and the circulation of research metrics. I argue that the assemblage of the PR University pulls the HE sector into dialogue with PR principles and practices in the context of recent shifts towards market rationalities. But this relationship is not a simple cause and effect model in which increasing HE ‘marketization’ creates a boom in universities’ PR practices, or intensifying investment in PR by universities merely amplifies or legitimises existing market tendencies in the sector. I argue that the PR University as assemblage starts generating its own logics around which actors in the field must orient themselves. More broadly, the PR University operates not only to promote an individual university’s market position, but acts upon public debates about the social role, legitimacy and financing of UK Higher Education.
KW - Assemblage
KW - competition
KW - market rationalities
KW - neoliberalisation
KW - promotional culture
KW - public relations
KW - reputational capital
KW - universities
KW - values
U2 - 10.1080/17530350.2016.1179663
DO - 10.1080/17530350.2016.1179663
M3 - Journal article
VL - 9
SP - 396
EP - 409
JO - Journal of Cultural Economy
JF - Journal of Cultural Economy
SN - 1753-0350
IS - 4
ER -