摘要：In Australia, as in many nations, each of the major political parties fully understands the importance of effective public relations strategies in gaining public acceptance of their policies. Indeed, public relations specialists playing a key role in managing and shaping political debates. Yet, in 2011, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) Government were repeatedly positioned by the Liberal National Party (LNP or Coalition) Opposition as using ‘spin’ and ‘PR stunts’ to promote its policies in relation to a proposed price on carbon pollution. In this study the speeches of then ALP Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and then LNP Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, were examined over a three-month period using a new provisional conceptual intentional positioning framework for public relations. The study specifically tests the framework’s applicability as a method for conducting a positioning discourse analysis of public relations texts. Using the positioning framework to conduct a discourse analysis encouraged a systematic analysis of these texts, as well providing a firm theoretical basis from which to analyse the texts in terms of their discourses. Findings suggest that the positioning of public relations in this context was an intentional self-positioning strategy by the LNP, and that the goal was to position the LNP and Abbott as taking the moral higher ground (relative to Gillard and the ALP) by inferring that they (the LNP) were exemplary and ‘above’ using similar public relations strategies and tactics. This positioning strategy arguably feeds into popular (mis?) conceptions of public relations in Australia as lacking an ethical basis, and as being, at best, a semi-profession. It is anticipated that the results of the study will add to current knowledge about positioning strategies in political contexts, and will provide fresh insights into how public relations is represented in Australia.
其他摘要：In Australia, as in many nations, each of the major political parties fully understands the importance of effective public relations strategies in gaining public acceptance of their policies. Indeed, public relations specialists playing a key role in managing and shaping political debates. Yet, in 2011, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) Government were repeatedly positioned by the Liberal National Party (LNP or Coalition) Opposition as using ‘spin’ and ‘PR stunts’ to promote its policies in relation to a proposed price on carbon pollution. In this study the speeches of then ALP Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and then LNP Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, were examined over a three-month period using a new provisional conceptual intentional positioning framework for public relations. The study specifically tests the framework’s applicability as a method for conducting a positioning discourse analysis of public relations texts. Using the positioning framework to conduct a discourse analysis encouraged a systematic analysis of these texts, as well providing a firm theoretical basis from which to analyse the texts in terms of their discourses. Findings suggest that the positioning of public relations in this context was an intentional self-positioning strategy by the LNP, and that the goal was to position the LNP and Abbott as taking the moral higher ground (relative to Gillard and the ALP) by inferring that they (the LNP) were exemplary and ‘above’ using similar public relations strategies and tactics. This positioning strategy arguably feeds into popular (mis?) conceptions of public relations in Australia as lacking an ethical basis, and as being, at best, a semi-profession. It is anticipated that the results of the study will add to current knowledge about positioning strategies in political contexts, and will provide fresh insights into how public relations is represented in Australia.
关键词：public relations; positioning theory; discourse analysis; political speeches
