The discourse of issues management: A genre of organizational communication

In this essay, I use the rhetorical approach of generic criticism to analyze issues management campaigns: instances of public relations discourse in which an organization makes explicit efforts to influence public policy. There are striking similarities among contemporary organizations’ issues management campaigns in terms of their organizing principle, situational requirements, and substantive and stylistic characteristics. Using a structurational perspective, I illustrate the genre rules (Yates & Orlikowski, 1992) that serve as the medium and outcome of this discourse. Throughout the essay, I employ the University of Minnesota's recent attempt to increase its public funding during a period of institutional transition to explicate the genre rules. This article outlines a framework for the analysis of issues management campaigns and provides a first step toward the development of a structuational theory of their genre rules. Moreover, it argues that a rhetorical approach to the study of such organizationa...

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