Drawing on research into recent Australian public relations history, this article reflects on the significance of memory for historical research. The personal testimony of senior practitioners is perceived to offer authentic insights into the development of public relations. Given the lack of alternate evidence, retrospective accounts such as those narrated in memoirs and interviews have become the de facto history of public relations. The findings indicate that these narratives can be meaningful but point to the need for public relations researchers to adopt a critical approach to historical research, recognising the subjectivity and retrospectivity of personal accounts and the ways in which widely accepted industry narratives and professional networks constrain and structure those accounts. The significance of this study is that it offers evidence of how certain discourses of Australian public relations continue to inform contemporary understandings of its development and limit alternative perspectives.
BerryJM (2002) Validity and reliability issues in elite interviewing. PS: Political Science and Politics35(4): 679–682.
4.
BrowneK (2005) Snowball sampling: Using social networks to research non-heterosexual women. International Journal of Social Research Methodology8(1): 47–60.
5.
ByrneK (2007) Asking the insiders: An investigation into areas of meaning and perception convergence and divergence on practitioner and academic definitions of public relations in Australia. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal7: 19–36.
6.
CookT (2001) Archival science and postmodernism: New formulations for old concepts. Archival Science1(1): 3–24.
7.
CrawfordRMacnamaraJ (2012) An ‘outside-in’ PR history: Identifying the role of PR in history, culture and sociology. Public Communication Review2(1): 45–59. Available at: http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/pcr (accessed 30 October 2012).
8.
CrawfordRMacnamaraJ (2014) Public relations in early twentieth-century Australia. In: St JohnBLammeMOL’EtangJ (eds) Pathways to public relations: Histories of practice and profession. Abingdon: Routledge, pp.1–8.
KingMT (2012) Working with/in the archives. In GunnSFaireL (eds) Research Methods for History. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp.13–29.
20.
LammeMORussellKM (2010) Removing the spin: Toward a new theory of public relations history. Journalism & Communication Monographs11(4): 280–362.
21.
LeechBL (2002) Interview methods in political science. PS: Political Science and Politics35(4): 663–664.
22.
L’EtangJ (2004) Public Relations in Britain: A History of Professional Practice in the 20th Century. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
23.
L’EtangJ (2008a) Public Relations: Concepts, Practice and Critique. London: Sage.
24.
L’EtangJ (2008b) Writing PR history: Issues, methods and politics. Journal of Communication Management12(4): 319–335.
25.
McKieDMunshiD (2007) Reconfiguring Public Relations: Ecology, Equity, and Enterprise. London: Routledge.
26.
MacnamaraJCrawfordR (2010) Reconceptualising public relations in Australia: A historical and social re-analysis. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal11(2): 17–33.
MorathKL (2008) Pride and Prejudice: Conversations with Australia’s Public Relations Legends. Elanora, QLD, Australia: Nuhouse Press.
29.
Oral Examination, 1990 Report of the PRIA (1990) Public Relations: Official Journal of the New South Wales and Victorian branches of the Public Relations Institute of Australia, North Sydney, NSW, Australia, November, p. 3.
30.
PottsJDS (1976) Public Relations Practice in Australia. Sydney, NSW, Australia: McGraw-Hill.
31.
PottsJDS (2008) Public relations as a profession: Education and the practice. Paper presented at ‘Evening with a Fellow’, Public Relations Institute of Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia, November. Available at: www.pria.com.au/resources//an-evening-with-a-fellow-david-potts-november-2008 (accessed 30 July 2010).
QuarlesJ (1993) Up from down under: Public relations education in Australia. International Public Relations Review16(4): 21–24.
35.
QuarlesJRowlingsB (1993) Practising Public Relations: A Case Study Approach. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Longman Cheshire.
36.
RedmanJCS (2010) How accurate are eyewitnesses? Bauckham and the eyewitnesses in the light of psychological research. Journal of Biblical Literature129(1): 177–197.
SheehanM (2007) Australian public relations campaigns: A select historical perspective 1899–1950. Paper presented at the Australian Media Traditions 2007 conference, distance and diversity: Reaching new audiences, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia. Available at: http://www.csu.edu.au/special/amt/publication/sheehan.pdf (accessed 4 January 2010).
SmithG (2011) Toward a public oral history. In: RitchieDA (ed) The Oxford Handbook of Oral History. New York: Oxford University Press, pp.429–448.
42.
StarckN (1999) Accredited or discredited? A qualitative study of public relations education at Australian universities. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, RMIT, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
43.
SteedmanC (2002) Dust: The Archive and Cultural History. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
44.
TanseyO (2007) Process tracing and elite interviewing: A case for non-probability sampling. PS: Political Science and Politics40(4): 765–772.
45.
ThomsonA (2007) Four paradigm transformations in oral history. Oral History Review34(1): 49–70.
46.
ThomsonA (2011) Memory and remembering in oral history. In: RitchieDA (ed) The Oxford Handbook of Oral History. New York: Oxford University Press, pp.77–95.
47.
ThomsonA (2012) Life stories and historical analysis. In: GunnSFaireL (eds) Research Methods for History. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp.101–117.
48.
TurnbullN (2010) How PR Works – But Often Doesn’t. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: NS & JS Turnbull.
49.
TymsonCLazarPLazarR (2008) The New Australian and New Zealand Public Relations Manual (5th edition). Manly, NSW, Australia: Tymson Communications.
50.
ZawawiC (2009) Public relations: Theory and practice. In: JohnstonJZawawiC (eds) Public Relations: Theory and Practice (3rd edition). Crows Nest, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, pp.26–46.
