#3 Michaela O'Brien_Women in PR with Ana Adi

P.T. Barnum, Ivy Lee, Arthur Page, Eddie Bernays: the fathers of public relations. American, white, males. And then there’s the history of PR presented often as a linear, constant improvement, englighting…from manipulation and propaganda, to public information, to symmetrical communication, from corporations opposing activists and investigative journalists and calling them names like muckrakers to listening to them, collaborating with them and embedding their demands. What is this PR history teaching us? Are we missing anyone? Out guest today will help us find some answers. Dr Michaela O’Brien used to work in strategic communications and consultancy roles for nonprofits including Amnesty International, the British Library, Business in the Community, Carers UK and the Refugee Council before she joined academia. She is now heading the Westminster School of Media and Communication at the University of Westminster (that is overseeing about 21 undergraduate and post-graduate programmes to you and I), leading their master’s program in Media, Campaigning and Social Change at Westminster and hosting their Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI). One of her central research theme is activism and communication.