Derina Holtzhausen

author of Public Relations as Activism: Postmodern Approaches to Theory and Practice

February 4, 2012

Dr. Derina Holtzhausen (Ph.D. University of Johannesburg) is professor and director of the School of Media and Strategic Communications at Oklahoma State University. Holtzhausen, a native South African and naturalized U.S. citizen, joined OSU in July 2008 after serving 11 years at the University of South Florida's School of Mass Communications as, among others, graduate studies director and program coordinator. She teaches courses in strategic communication management, media management, media entrepreneurship and research at undergraduate and graduate level. In South Africa Holtzhausen practiced for 25 years as a journalist, a partner in an advertising and public relations agency, and a communication executive in both the public and private sectors. She is a recipient of the Pathfinder Award from the U.S. Institute of Public Relations for her original research agenda on postmodern public relations. She is a fellow of the Journalism Leadership in Diversity (JLID) program, the Journalism and Mass Communication Leadership Institute, and of the first Scripps Howard Journalism Entrepreneurship Institute at Arizona State University. She also is a faculty fellow of the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship of the OSU Spears School of Business. Since moving to the United States 14 years ago she has published 24 articles and book chapters and presented more than 30 papers. For the past seven years she has been serving as the co-editor of the International Journal of Strategic Communication, which she co-founded. Her book titled Public Relations as Activism. Postmodern Approaches to Theory and Practice was released by Routledge in 2011.

The book applies postmodern theory to public relations, providing an alternative lens to public relations theory and practice and developing public relations theory within the context of postmodernism. It focuses on two key issues and their application to public relations theory and practice: the postmodernization of society, and the possibilities postmodern theories offer to explain and understand public relations practice in today's changing society. Holtzhausen's argument is that existing theory should be evaluated from a postmodern perspective to determine its applicability to postmodernity. Utilizing practitioner perspectives throughout the volume, she explores the practice of public relations as a form of activism. The text challenges existing historical interpretations of the development of public relations, views history as narrative, and critiques traditional representations that situated public relations practice in the context of capitalism and the military-industrial complex. The text also challenges modernist interpretations of the relationship between ethics and the law and argues that the many ethical standards set for public relations practitioners relieve them from their own moral responsibility. One of the major focus areas of the book is the role power plays in both theory development and practice and how it shapes the role of practitioners, particularly in institutional context.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2012-honorees/derina-holtzhausen

Last Updated: 12 January 2022