I came across the following abstract for an upcoming session at the 2011 International History of Public Relations Conference. I underlined the parts that gave me goose bumps:
Title:
Augustus: Public Relations and the making of an imperial reputation
By:
Christian Schnee, Senior Lecturer in Public Relations, Worcester Business School, University of Worcester
Abstract:
After years of civil war and a political climate suspicious of one-man-rule Augustus established himself as Rome’s first emperor. This position of power was not secured through the force of oppression, but buttressed by the support and trust of society. This interpretation is grounded in an understanding of reputation as a strategic tool deployed by political leaders to secure access to power and to justify their position at the apex of the political system.
This paper analyses how Augustus strategically used language, literature, events, architecture and sculptures to create a narrative that helped him gain recognition among key publics in Roman society. This investigation conceptualises PR as a process of reputation building which in ancient Rome just as in 21st century determines the professional survival and success both of organisations as well individual leaders.
In past years public relations scholars’ relative lack of interest in the history of their discipline has been lamented. Conventional historical accounts in standard textbooks almost exclusively dealt with the professional, full time communications manager. Indeed, in most academic texts the roots of PR are conventionally traced back to mid 19th century America, whilst largely ignoring critical antecedents such as rhetoric or political reputation building in antiquity.
This paper aims to expand the historical limitations of the subject area and place the focus on a period in history that regularly gains perfunctory mentioning, but rarely in depth attention from a PR perspective. It is the purpose of this paper to detail how in antiquity tools of communication were developed and used in order to deal with a concept that is at the heart of modern PR: Reputation management. More specifically, I aim to conceptualise the application of reputation as a means to justify worldly power. While it is conceded that reputation does have a role to play as justification of unequal power distribution, academic literature is still predominantly conceptualising its function in a modern business context.
The rationale for this historical approach is in part provided by an acknowledgement that the current and future PR practice is indebted to the knowledge and expertise that have been accumulated by generations of communications managers in past eras. The reasons for drawing attention to the communications management of a leading politician in the period between the decline of the Roman Republic and the rise of the imperial power structure are twofold. First of all, throughout history times of crisis and insecurity such as the years subsequent to Caesar’s assassination tended to generate novel and efficient communication techniques. Similar circumstances usually lead to a professionalisation of communication management. Secondly, the Roman Empire is full of cues for modern politics. Notions of democracy, dictatorship, public opinion, persuasive communication in the form of rhetoric were either pioneered by the Romans or taken up from the Greeks and subsequently professionalised and codified as happened in the case of Cicero’s or Quintilian’s works on rhetoric which have their origins in Gorgias’ practice and Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric.
In his record of achievements (res gestae) the Roman emperor Augustus reminds us that his imperial power was grounded in two sources: The power the Senate had conferred upon him (podestas) and the respect of the Roman people (auctoritas). In the view of Augustus for a position of political authority to appear legitimate any power from above needs to be recognised from below.
Taking Augustus’ statement as a starting point I will be arguing that in the context of politics there are two paths to secure this recognition in society. Whilst one is by violence and repression the alternative route is by reputation management. I will be concluding that society may accept the uneven distribution of power and the position of an elite at the pinnacle of the power structure as long as the political leaders succeed in creating a narrative that helps construct a robust reputation which in turn generates a sense of legitimacy.
I live in Houston TX and work in corporate communications and public relations, currently working for Shell on energy and sustainability thought leadership communications and reputation management.
