Promoting Monopoly: AT&T and the Politics of Public Relations, 1876-1941: 5 (AEJMC - Peter Lang Scholarsourcing Series) - Softcover

Russell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1433147343 ISBN 13: 9781433147340

Publisher: Peter Lang, 2020

Synopsis

Since the invention of the telephone in 1876, publicity has been central to the growth of the industry. In its earliest years the Bell company enjoyed a patent monopoly, but after Alexander Graham Bell’s patents expired, it had to fight competitors, the public, and the U.S. government to maintain control of the telephone network. It used every means its executives could imagine, and that included constructing one of the earliest and most effective public relations programs of its time. This book analyzes the development of public relations at AT&T, starting with a previously forgotten publicist, William A. Hovey, and then including James D. Ellsworth and Arthur W. Page, who worked with other Bell executives to create a company where public relations permeated almost every aspect of work, leveraging employee programs, stock sales, and technological research for PR. Critics accused it of disseminating propaganda, but the desire to promote and protect the Bell monopoly propelled the creation of a corporate public relations program that also shaped the legal, political, media, and cultural landscape.

About this title

About the Author

Karen Miller Russell (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is Jim Kennedy Professor of New Media and Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Georgia. She is the author of The Voice of Business: Hill & Knowlton and Postwar Public Relations.

Edition details

• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1433147343
• ISBN 13: 9781433147340
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 254