Alison Theaker has over 25 years experience in public relations and management as a practitioner and academic. She was the first Head of Education and Training at the then Institute of Public Relations, as well as Principal Lecturer and Course Leader in Public Relations at Leeds Business School and Scholar in Residence in the School of Marketing Communication at Emerson College, Boston, US. She was an elected Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and co-authored Effective Media Relations. She has delivered research papers at conferences in the UK, US and Australia on team-working in public relations, improving students' writing skills and the future of PR as a profession. She is now a PR coach for small businesses, runing her own consultancy, The Spark, in Devon, thesparkuk.com.

Part I The context of public relations 1. What is public relations? Johanna Fawkes 2. Public relations and communications Johanna Fawkes 3. Public relations and the political arena Ian Somerville and Phil Ramsey 4. Public relations and management Anne Gregory 5. Ethics, professionalism and regulation Alison Theaker Part II Strategic public relations 6. Public relations and corporate communication Emma Wood and Ian Somerville 7. Public relations and corporate identity Emma Wood 8. Risk, issues and crisis issues management Heather Yaxley 9. Corporate social responsibility - theory and practice Ian Somerville and Emma Wood 10. Evaluation Maioread McCoy and Owen Hargie 11. Global culture and international public relations Peter Walker Part III Stakeholder public relations 12. Media relations Philip Young 13. Internal communications Liam Fitzpatrick 14. Financial public relations Mark Philimore 15. Public sector public relations Simon Wakeman 16. Consumer public relations Susan Hutchinson 17. Business-to-business public relations Loretta Smith 18. Not-for-profit public relations Peter Brill and Cinzia Marrocco 19. Using new technology effectively in public relations Heather Yaxley Part IV Shaping the future 20. Future challenges for PR Alison Theaker

The Public Relations Handbook is a comprehensive and detailed introduction to the theories and practices of the public relations industry. It traces the history and development of public relations, explores ethical issues which affect the industry, examines its relationship with politics, lobbying organizations and journalism, assesses its professionalism and regulation and advises on training and entry into the profession.