Secrecy in Public Relations, Mediation and News Cultures: The Shadow World of the Media Sphere

This book investigates the relationship of secrecy as a social practice to contemporary media, news cultures and public relations.

Drawing on Georg Simmel’s theorisation of how secrecy produces a ‘second world’ alongside the ‘obvious world’ and creates and reshapes social relations, Anne Cronin argues for close analysis of the PR industry as a powerful vector of secrecy and an examination of its relationship to news cultures. Using case studies and in-depth interviews, as well as recent rese...