Autoethnography

Public Relations Review 38 (2012) 555–564

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Public Relations Review

Autoethnography: The story of applying a conceptual framework for

intentional positioning to public relations practice

Melanie James ∗

School of Design Communication and IT, Faculty of Science and IT, University of Newcastle, Room ICT 3.61, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:

Received 30 April 2012

Accepted 15 May 2012

Keywords:

Public relations

Positioning

Autoethnography

Emergent strategy

a b s t r a c t

This autoethnography is an exercise in reporting, recording and reflecting on the process

of attempting to apply a public relations theoretical construct to a practice environment.

I take a social constructionist approach where the practice of autoethnography presumes

that reality is socially constructed and where I, as the autoethnographer, can contribute to

the social construction of what is known as public relations practice. I applied an analytical

autoethnographic approach and used my own experiences, reflections and memories to

construct myself in my writing as an academic and practitioner working within the context

of a pro bono public relations consultancy project. The aim of this research was to ascertain

whether the Framework for Intentional Positioning in Public Relations could assist prac￾titioners to develop positioning strategies for future programs and campaigns. I applied

the positioning framework to the design of a positioning strategy for a small university￾affiliated environmental organization. My work indicated that the framework could aid in

designing a positioning strategy, however, applying the framework to organizational cir￾cumstances could be challenging. The framework was found to have two distinct sections

to it when applied to practice and this was not evident in previous analytical work. The

project also indicated that further research is needed on how to adapt the framework to

the concept of emergent strategy. My hope is that this autoethnography shows that even

seasoned practitioners/academics can be challenged in practice situations.

Crown Copyright © 2012 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

This exercise commenced as a way to ascertain whether my recent research work on intentional positioning could

be helpful to practitioners in public relations planning and management. I was specifically exploring the positioning of an

organization and whether my positioning framework could assistin achieving public relations goals. I kept a research journal

throughout the exercise – documenting discussions, meetings, my strategy design process and my reflections. On reading

through my journal, I realized thatit was unusualto read accounts of practice where difficulties were experienced. More often

than not, accounts of practice describe successful campaigns or are about “producing an account of the practice that suits the

group’s professional ambitions” (Pieczka, 2007, p. 353). In response to such accounts, I present this autoethnography as an

account of how I negotiated, not always successfully, the challenges of applying theory to practice and of moving between

the academic and practitioner roles.

An autoethnography can be described as being a “highly personalized” account that draws on “the experience of the

author/researcher for the purposes of extending sociological understanding” (Sparkes, 2000, p. 21). It should be noted that

∗ Tel.: +61 2 49854520/0434572482; fax: +61 2 49215150.

E-mail address: [email protected]

0363-8111/$ – see front matter Crown Copyright © 2012 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.05.004