It is wonderful how much disagreement and mutual incomprehension a liberal society can contain in solution without falling to pieces, provided we are careful about what issues we insist on facing collectively.”(Thomas Nagel, 1998) It appears to be a common occurance in Public Relations manuals to state that influencing public opinion still is one of the central aspects of public relations work. In spite of having great doubts about the correctness of this claim, nevertheless it functions as a good starting point in assessing the role of Public Relations in our society.
PR and the public/private dilemma
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Mafalda Eiró-Gomes
Mafalda Eiró-Gomes is Full Professor of Public Relations and Pragmatics at Lisbon’s Superior School of Mass Communication and Media Arts. She is also Scientific Coordinator of the first PR undergraduate programme at the University of Cape Vert., Africa. She is also a voluntary PR Consultant for Portuguese Non-Governmental Organisations for development such as Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr and for the Millennium Development Goals’ Portuguese Committee.