Ethnographic Communication Analysis: Researching Professional Culture, Power and Practice in Public Relations
Date
Authors
Rasquinha, Mark
Sissons, Helen
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Abstract
Public relations research continues to privilege survey-based, experimental, and textual methods that emphasize managerial frameworks, message effects, and attitudinal outcomes. These approaches provide limited access to how public relations work is accomplished in the lived flow of interaction, particularly in Global South contexts where professional practice is shaped by culturally specific communicative norms. This article introduces Ethnographic Communication Analysis (ECA) as a methodological framework that addresses this limitation by integrating video ethnography, Conversation Analysis, gesture analysis, and Critical Discourse Studies. ECA treats public relations as situated communicative action and examines how power, professionalism, and organizational culture are enacted through talk, gaze, posture, spatial arrangement, and tool use. Empirically, the article draws on fieldwork in two Indian public relations departments and illustrates the framework through a routine content-creation episode between a manager and practitioner. The analysis shows how the methodology can be used to make contributions towards public relations theory concerning organizational hierarchy, gender, and regulated workflows, performed in real time.Description
Keywords
15 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 19 Studies in Creative Arts and Writing, 20 Language, Communication and Culture, Communication & Media Studies, 47 Language, communication and culture, Ethnographic communication analysis, Professional practice, Multimodal, Power, Video Ethnography, Conversation analysis, Discourse analysis, Critical discourse studies
Source
Public Relations Review, ISSN: 0363-8111 (Print), Elsevier BV, 52(3), 102714-102714. doi: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2026.102714
Publisher's version
Rights statement
© 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article.