We’re pleased to announce the publication of Volume 31, Issue 3 of Corporate Communications: An International Journal (CCIJ) – the “History of Public Relations” special issue, guest edited by Anastasios Theofilou, Tanya Le Roux, and Anastasia Veneti.

This issue features selected contributions from the International History of Public Relations Conference (IHPRC) 2024 conference, hosted in Bournemouth. The papers examine the history and development of public relations across a diverse range of national and cultural contexts, situating these inquiries within broader reflections on the discipline’s global trajectories and historiographical approaches. Topics in this special issue include but are not limited to: the history of internal communication, PR development in Yugoslavia, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand, wartime communication, NGO communication, labour movement PR strategies, and gender in the profession.

The issue includes the following articles:

  • Øystein Pedersen Dahlen – The development of internal communication in Norway, 1960–1990: from organised to extended liberal (late) modernity
  • Lucinda Bella-May Sutton & Tanya Le Roux – Developments and trends in internal communication research in Africa: a historical view from 1990 to 2024
  • Marko Selaković & Nikolina Ljepava – The third way: evolution of public relations in Yugoslavia (1945–1991)
  • Siraj Talal Degnah & Anastasios Theofilou – Early development of PR evolution in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia between 1933 and 1980 – the role of Saudi Aramco
  • Thomas E. Isaacson – A soldier’s guide to Rome – Second World War tourism promotion to Allied soldiers
  • Woralan Kongpolphrom & Napawan Tantivejakul – The representation of Thainess: a historical journey of the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s public relations (1979–2022)
  • Gareth Thompson – The British army bureau of current affairs in World War II
  • Emmanuel Skoulas – The role of communication in the establishment and growth of NGOs in Greece during the 1980s
  • B. Pınar Özdemir & Ismail Uğur Aksoy – Mobilising resistance: the public relations strategies of the general mine workers’ union in the 1990–1991 strike
  • Karen Miller Russell & Emily S. Kinsky – Caroline Hood, social and cultural capital, and women in US public relations, 1934–1973

Read the full issue here.