Running Against the Tide: Educating Future Public Relations and Communications Professionals In the Age of Neoliberalism

Abstract

This article examines public relations education in the context of neoliberalism and argues that, if we want public relations practitioners to have an important role in public discourse, we must first educate public relations students for public life. Neoliberalism, however, stands in the way because the growing emphasis in public relations education is on vocational skills and training, rather than on comprehensive liberal arts education. The authors discuss the tensions between theory and practice that is reflected in part in those who teach public relations courses, as well as in the current state of public relations education. The article concludes that public relations education must undergo a paradigmatic shift away from vocational training and toward a more comprehensive liberal arts education.

Keywords

• public relations education
• neoliberalism
• higher education
• public discourse