The Media School

Dr Carrie Hodges at the Public Relations Practitioner Association of Puerto Rico

14 October 2011

BU’s Dr Carrie Hodges gives keynote speech at international conference.

Storytelling is usually associated with constructing a journalistic narrative, but how important is the meaning and value of storytelling in PR?

BU’s Dr Carrie Hodges and Dr Lee Edwards from the University of Leeds were invited to be keynote speakers last week on the topic of The Meaning and Value of Storytelling in Public Relations at the annual conference of the Public Relations Practitioner Association of Puerto Rico.

More than 150 PR professionals and academics attended the conference in San Juan, Portugal.

Dr Hodges argued that PR has a fundamental role in story telling, stating in her presentation that Public Relations needs to; “Make use of symbolic representation, which needs to have meaning with the public we are communicating, stories need to be embedded historically or socially. I.e. a link to the social experience to a particular group, as your audience needs to emotionally connect with what you’re telling them, and all of these factors make for effective story telling.”

Watch the presentation made by Dr Carrie Hodges and Dr Lee Edwards at the conference below.