Editor’s essay: committing to community
Abstract
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC RELATIONS RESEARCH 2019, VOL. 31, NOS. 1–2, 1–4 https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726X.2019.1645910 EDITORIAL I have been thinking lately about community, what it is, and how it gets created, both in reality and in perception. Community and public relations research The idea that public relations and community are connected concepts can be traced to Kruckeberg and Starck’s(1988) book, which argued that “public relations is best defined and practiced as the active attempt to restore and maintain a sense of community” (Kruckeberg & Starck, 2004, p. 136). Furthermore, Hallahan (2004) believed that “community” was a promising conceptual foundation to further develop both public relations theory and public relations practice. He defined community as “any group that shares common interests developed through common experience” (p. 243). Hallahan (2004) not only offered a helpful overview of “community” as defined in various disciplines, but also noted wisely that those definitions could be placed on a “continuum from purely geographic communities to purely symbolic communities” (p. 235). Similarly, Underwood and Frey (2007) noted that “community” can be conceptualized using not only physical attributes, but also psychological ones, echoing the work of earlier scholars (e.g., Hillery, 1955; McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Today, contemporary technologies such as