Through the Postmodern Perspective in Public Relations: The Agenda-Setting Theory on the Formation of Social Issues and Public Opinion

Abstract

Social issues and public opinion formation are important mechanisms for determining human society movement. Public relations, a communication field that aims to establish a mutually beneficial relationship between organizations and their stakeholders, has been working hard to influence agenda-setting in ways that benefit both. However, from a postmodern standpoint, this constructed agenda is simply a hyperreality that completely manipulates them in the end to drive social issues and public opinion. The public reality is a set of truths composed of organized symbols and a discourse embedded in the language system, resulting in complete hegemony by ignoring other aspects of information or the voices of marginalized minorities, but benefiting some shadow elite groups behind the agenda. This necessitates a discussion of both modern and postmodern public relations perspectives in order to achieve a truly mutually beneficial relationship between corporates and societies. Fortunately, the disruption of information and communication technology signals an opportunity to balance these two diametrically opposed approaches by distributing power behind agenda setting to the general public rather than a small group of media organizations.