A RHETORICAL APPROACH TO ZONES OF MEANING AND ORGANIZATIONAL PREROGATIVES

Meaning is essential to the study and practice of public relations. Fo r that reason, a rhetorical perspective on public relations gives the opportunity to address the impact of words and other symbols, and ther efore constitutes a worthy candidate to be the dominant paradigm for t he study and practice of public relations. This paradigm presses us to realize that public relations entails not just communication, but com munication about something. Robert L. Heath is a professor in the Scho ol of Communication at the University of Houston.