Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Public Scepticism And The Social Conscience : New Implications For Public Relations, Rachel Yeates

Theses : Honours

This research thesis explores the question "how can public relations counteract growing public scepticism, maximising trust and goodwill between an organisation, its target publics and the wider community?" Public scepticism of large corporations is not a new phenomenon, but it is gaining great momentum. Subsequently, it has been suggested that the practice of corporate public relations must focus on fostering an organisational culture that adopts a 'social conscience', that is necessary to counteract consumer distrust. This includes organisations practicing attributes of 'excellence' such as open communication, corporate transparency and honesty. They must also be aware of, and sensitive to, the …