The emerging “field” of public relations in China: Multiple interplaying logics and evolving actors' inter-relations

While public relations (PR) scholars have increasingly criticized the privilege of organizational interest, limited research has problematized the dominant analytical locus of organizational site. As a consequence, our understanding of the complexity and fluidity of PR in wider socio-cultural contexts has been constrained. To combat this shortcoming, this paper invokes the notion of “field” from institutional theory to examine how the field of Chinese PR is socially constructed, negotiated and contested by a range of actors based on their shared or competing logics and contingent inter-relations. Data were mainly collected through 48 in-depth interviews with PR agency consultants, in-house PR practitioners, journalists and industrial regulators as well as through complementary documents. The results indicate that studying PR as a socially constructed field can refresh extant PR scholarship by providing a dynamic and relational account of PR practices, and by reflecting the multifaceted interaction among various institutional actors.