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The Normative Nature of Public Affairs: A Rhetorical Analysis

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Abstract

American communication scholars began less than 15 years ago to consider public relations within a rhetorical framework. In 1979, W. Charles Redding, a founder of organizational communication research, asked scholars to confront their own underlying ideologies when considering the impact of humanistic thinking (including rhetorical perspectives) on organization theory. Redding’s colleagues (Putnam, 1983, Thompkins, 1987, Crable & Vibbert, 1987) posited a rhetorical view of organizations as symbolic contexts and organizational members and outsiders as active choice-makers who use different language strategies in various contexts (Trujillo & Toth, 1987).

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© 1994 Westdeutscher Verlag GmbH, Opladen

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Toth, E.L. (1994). The Normative Nature of Public Affairs: A Rhetorical Analysis. In: Armbrecht, W., Zabel, U. (eds) Normative Aspekte der Public Relations. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-97043-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-97043-5_3

  • Publisher Name: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-531-12552-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-322-97043-5

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