Symbolic Power:  Pierre Bourdieu’s Thoughts of Public Relations Studies in a Democratic System

Dr. Widodo Muktiyo

(Faculty Staff at the Department of Communication Studies,

Faculty of Social Science and Politics, Sebelas Maret University)

Abstract

One branch of communication studies which is currently developing very rapidly is public relations. Public relations presents in human’s organizational life and democratic system of which spectrum and perspective are getting more and more complex. However, there have not been many studies that relate public relations to the recent social theory review such as the Symbolic Power Theory from Pierre Bourdieu. The Symbolic Power Theory is closely related to the phenomenon of public relations in democratic system at individual, organizational, as well as general community level.

Symbolic power is related to language problems. According to Bourdieu, language is not merely a value-free means of communication between humans. Language is a device of authority, or in other words, language shows power. Some people even believe that language is the building blocks of reality. Language may play different roles in various interactions. In reality, Indonesian society seems to be having polarization in playing the role of communication, so that the disordered use of language can be clearly observed. Symbolic power is sustained by three types of capital: economic capital, cultural capital, and social capital. Each type has different dimension in the order of political and democratic system applied by the society.

As an illustration, professional public relations officers who play their role in various sectors are required to own symbolic power such as the mastery of acceptable symbolic language in forming an image of themselves as well as that of the institution they represent. Public relations officers who master all three capitals will build good reputation for his/her institution. The more capitals they master, the higher the reputation will be. Individuals and organizations which are present in society will play important role in forming reputation in line with the more egalitarian and more open democratic system.

The implementation of various regulations in organizations and political systems will create symbolic power of each member of society that has essential dimension, including in the legal order in the system of organizations and society.

1. A.      Introduction

For more than two decades, public relations studies have been developing very rapidly. Not only have the applied theories become more complex, but the practice of public relations in society has also developed and become more various. This is due to the developing socio-economic civilization level of the society and the increasingly sophisticated revolution of information technology that ultimately change people’s way of thinking and behavior. People’s tastes, expectations, desires, and even the position of good and bad, right and wrong, have been fallacious for the recent two decades and are no longer applicable. If they need to be applied in present life, we need to modify them at certain parts.

The changes in society, such as those in political, legal, and other social systems will ultimately change the style, modus operandi, dimension, and technology in the running organization. The so-called modern society is one consisting various types of organization, such as private, governmental, and semi-governmental organizations which  can be either profit or non-profit oriented, at local, national, or international level. These organizations perform different functions of public relations, but they all have the same objective which is to create understanding and satisfaction of their stakeholders and to maintain the harmony in society.

Even though public relations studies are becoming broader and more profound, if it is fully understood, it has not included a lot of the recent social science theories. Therefore, it can be clearly seen that public relations as a discipline is moving away from its main subject: social science. If this continues to happen, public relations studies will increasingly become too technical and monotonous that it can threaten the existence of public relations as a branch study of social science. This case happened to economics which had ever been considered extinct because it was becoming more technical and abstract, not in line with the essence of social science.

Ann Haugland (1996) also considers that there is a superficial tendency towards the study of public relations which is too oriented to the relationship between organizations and publics. Moreover, when it is compressed, the most commonly performed study is a study which is client-oriented. Furthermore, Haughland said:

“So far, the majority of current research in public relations theory is concerned with defining the field and setting forth various models of the relationship between the organisation and its publics. Perhaps because the study of public relations is closely linked to its public relationsactice – in which, of course, the strategic interests of the organisation are of public relationsimary importance – most public relations research also places the organisation in the centre and focuses on the ways that the organisation can better communicate with and respond to the individuals and groups who are defined as its publics”. (Haugland, 1996).

This symptom is quite reasonable. However, the public relations researchers should not be satisfied. They can explore this study with broader contexts, such as introducing a political theory, especially in a democratic society or a social theory in their study so it will become more significant. Then Haugland stated:

“Very little work has attempted to place either public relations public relationsactice or research in a broader context. Although the important role of public relations in a democratic society is ritualistically invoked by public relationsactitioners, textbook authors, and researchers, I have found little evidence that public relations theorists have explored what that role might be or how it might change in various situations”. (Haugland. 1996).

The narrow scope of public relations study is also felt by Ihlen and his colleagues. They complained and questioned about the study of public relations lately:

“At that time, we felt rather unhappy with the development of theory within the field of public relations. Or to be more specific, we felt that the instrumental bias in public relations was too limiting. So long as public relations is a powerful source of infl uence in society, why are there so few attempts to study this social activity in its own right?” (Ihlen, et. al, 2009).

In addition to the field of the study, the rapid development of society gives an effect in the need of adjusting the application of public relations in conducting every day functions. This adjustment requires adequate guidance from the study of public relations theory to refer to the modern social theories. One of the popular contemporary social theories is the symbolic power theory which consists of three basic elements: cultural capital, social capital, and economic capital. Unfortunately, there have not been a lot of researches conducted to analyze what modern social theories are suitable to support public relations practice.

This paper discusses how much is public relations studies relevant with the modern social theory “symbolic power” developed by French scientist Pierre Bourdieu in the era of democratization in the order of life in the fast-moving society.

To discuss the issue, this article is divided into three sections. The first section discusses about the contribution of public relations as a profession in building a more civilized society. The second section discusses the figure of Pierre Bourdieu, and the last section is a review of Bourdieu’s thoughts on the phenomena of public relations in relation to the system of democracy.

1. B.       Public Relations as a Profession

Public relations is a relatively new study in social sciences. However, the activities which are currently known as public relations have actually been being performed since the Ancient Greek and Rome Periods, particularly in the activities related to propaganda. The practice of public relations began to develop in Britain during the World War I and II in association with propaganda activities to mobilize the mass to fight against Germany. Similarly, the countries involved in the wars were competing propaganda in addition to gunfire. At that time, the practice of public relations was dominated by the government. After World War II ended and the economic activities recovered, private companies started to perform public relations practice. In the past, public relations has not been used to provide space and right for every member of society to be able to participate in democratic system which is currently being built in the order of political system in Indonesia.

Public relations has various definitions so that even sometimes it creates vagueness and confusion. The development of the definition of public relations is also influenced by the development of public relations practice, mainly due to the development of information and transportation technology which enables the mobility of ideas and physical quickly and instantly.

British Institute of Public Relations (BIPR) stated that the main substance of public relations is to develop understanding between organization and general public. Furthermore, it is said that: “public relations as ‘the deliberate planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics.” (Olusegun, 2006). The understanding does not only include the organization’s understanding towards its public, but also include general public’s understanding towards the organization.

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) stated: “Public relations is concerned with or devoted to creating mutual understanding among groups and institutions.” (Olusegun, 2006). This definition emphasizes that groups and institutions have important role in public relations process. Similarly, the concept of “mutuality” of the definition above illustrates that people who work as public relations officer will become the link between organization and the public. Therefore, a public relation officer must be able to accommodate the two parties in order to create mutual benefit.

Another definition from Frank Jefkins is that: “Public relations consists of all forms of planned communication both inward and outward between an organisation and its publics for the purpose of achieving objectives concerning mutual understanding.” (Jefkins, 1992). Based on this expert’s definition, in addition to communication, mutual understanding is the most important point in public relations, especially two-way communication which occurs both inside the organization and between different organizations and various forms of public affairs.

Based on the definition above, public relations is the bridge between the organization and the public. Therefore, people involved in the practice of public relations are the representatives of the organizations in dealing with public affairs. Newsom and his colleagues clearly said:

The public relations practitioner serves as an intermediary between the organization that he or she represents and all of that organization’s publics. Consequently, the PR practitioner has responsibilities both to the institution and to its various publics. He or she distributes information that enables the institution’s publics to understand its policies. (Newsom, et. al, 2000).

Based on the explanation above, public relations officer has a complex domain. Therefore, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) limits 14 activities which are related to the public relations (Newsom, et. al, 2000). The activities are: publication, communication, public affairs, issues management, government relations, financial public relations, community relations, industry relations, minority relations, advertising, press agency, promotion, media relations, and propaganda.

Nowadays, public relations studies and practices have developed as the impact of the development of information and communication technology and the blowing-out of globalization phenomenon. This condition encourages the public relations profession to be highly considered in every field of works and even in management conflict in organizations and society.

The word “profession” itself can be defined as “a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science”. There are five indicators showing that an occupation can be categorized as a profession. Those indicators are: 1) specialized educational preparation for entry into the field, 2) a body of theory-based knowledge, 3) codes of ethics and standards of performance, 4) autonomy in practice and acceptance of personal responsibility by practitioners, and 5) community recognition that the field offered a unique and essential service. (Bey-Ling Sha, 2011).

Now, the question is “Can public relations be categorized as a profession?” However, this question is still disputable. Some experts state that a worker can be considered as a professional when he masters certain knowledge related to his profession. The knowledge possessed must be obtained from a standardized education curriculum which is strictly controlled to expel or accept someone in the profession.

Based on the definition above public relations cannot be categorized as a profession. It is also because public relations has very large spectrums in conducting the job descriptions, from one place to another from the lowest position to the Manager of public relations. Certainly, its large spectrums make it difficult to determine the standards to be done by public relations professional. Even in another discussion, this is always mentioned that the practice of public relations is actually attached to every member in a society, with or without their awareness an individual plays PR functions himself. The obvious example of practicing public relations rules can be seen in the competition of politicians to win public sympathy.

Though everyone works in public relations field will have specific duties and responsibilities, they will have a basic skill: communication skill both oral and written skill. Cutlip states:

“public relations assignments and responsibilities vary from one organization to another, but writing is considered as the common task that is seen as important all through one’s career. Besides writing, ‘being good with people’ or being a ‘friendly person’ has also been associated with public relations” (Cutlip, 2000).

Therefore, the role of public relations can be played by everyone to represent themselves or the organization they are in. By applying public relations rules, everyone is strategically able to develop the assessment to create a credible, civilized and dignified democratic order.

C. The Figure of Pierre Bourdieu

Pierre Bourdieu was born in 1930 within a lower middle class family. His father was a peasant which then became a postal officer in Lasseube, south west of France. Bourdieu spent his childhood in Bearn, a small village and he was able to speak with this local dialect. Because of his academic achievements, he got a scholarship to continue his high school study in Lycee de Pau from 1941 to 1947.

In 1948-1951, again, he got a scholarship to study in a well-known school Lycée Louis-Le-Grand in Paris. This school gathered talented students to study philosophy and to prepare themselves before studying in elite universities in Paris. Soon after, Bourdieu successfully entered the École Normale Supérieur (ENS) from 1951 to 1955. ENS was the most prestigious teacher school which had created famous thinkers such Durkheim, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Foucault, and Derrida. In this school Bourdieu studied philosophy under the supervision of Alexandre Koyré, Louis Althusser, Gaston Bachelard, Georges Canguilhem, and Henri Gouhier.  Jacques Derrida was his classmate and Louis Althusser was his teacher. Beside studying in ENS, Bourdieu was also studying in Literature Faculty in Paris at the same time.

After graduated from ENS, Bourdieu taught philosophy in a high school in Lycee Banville, Moulins (1954-1955). However his activities in teaching were stopped because he was sent to Algeria for civil military service where there were riots occurring. His experiences in Algeria were very important for his intellectual and career development. These experiences changed his direction from philosophy to social science, from anthropology to sociology. After 2 years serving in military, Bourdieu decided to stay and teach in Algeria University (1958-1960). At the same time, he conducted several field-researches. In this Algeria riots, Bourdieu trained himself as an anthropologist and sociologist while he was also learning Arabic and Berber language.  Some of his books were written based on his research in Algeria. Some of them are the researches on Kabila peasant community which were then collected in his first book, Sosiologie de l’Algerie in 1958.

As well as other French intellects, Bourdieu rejected French colonial wars. He left Algeria and obtained a scholarship as a fellow in Institute for Advanced Study and in Pennsylvania University in the United States. In this university he met Erfing Goffman, a symbolic interactionist who developed the dramaturgy approach. Because of the similarity point of view with Bourdieu, Goffman encouraged him to stay and teach in Pennsylvania University. However, Bourdieu rejected his offer because he felt he could not develop critical sociology as what he had planed if he stayed in Pennsylvania. His return to France, Bourdieu introduced Goffman’s thoughts and managed the translation of his works to French.

Soon, Bourdieu was elected to be an assistant lecturer for Raymond Aron in Sorbonne University (1961-1962) and then he moved to teach in Lille University until 1964. In 1964 he became a study director in Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris. Because of private reasons, he rejected to finish his doctoral government grant which was the main requirement to teach at university. Thus, Bourdieu was more comforted with his works as a researcher, trainers, journal writer than lecturing in class.

Firstly, Raymond Aron did help him in his research career. However, because of a massive student demonstration 1964, the relationship of them was loosened and even their point of views was going against each other. Together with Jean-Claude Passeron, Bourdieu wrote a book which criticized the class structure represented by the population of students in French university which was influencing the culture of students.

After Michael Foucault passed away in 1984, Bourdieu became the famous scholar who seemingly taken Foucault position. He spent the energy to develop study center, sociology journal and establish researcher networks. Later on, this research network institutionalized and legitimated Bourdie’s vision to develop sociological research. In 1993, because of his efforts in developing sociological research, he got a golden medal from Centre National de Recherche Scientifique/CNRS.

In 1970, Bourdieu changed his focus to cultural topics. In 1970s he conducted a sequence of researches on consumption, cultural tastes, life styles in French community. He also performed further study on his data obtained in Algeria and he tried to reformulate his theory and practice in Le Sens Pratique (1980).

At last, he achieved the French intellectual world’s peak even though he kept thinking that he was the outsider of French intellectual’s community. He felt like being grabbed from his root and thrown into an alien-but-admired world. Because of his local dialect, he felt isolated in front of his friends in ENS which were mostly coming from royal and bourgeoisie family. Smart-intellectual spoken was not his mother tongue. His footprints can be found in his full of paraphrase, diffident, and a desire not-to-be misunderstood. His experiences as a newcomer in French intellectual’s world encouraged him to conduct a sequence of critical research to higher school system in France.

Bourdie works were always critical and rebelling against social dominated mechanisms. He was always on the minorities and inferiors’ side. Only in his last time, Bourdie was involved in practical politics activities. Bourdie criticized the negative impact of socialist government in France and encouraged people to be back in leftish.

He boosted movements against neoliberalism intellectuals. He stated the reasons:

“Saya sendiri adalah korban moralisme bebas nilai, seakan yang ilmiah tidak boleh mempunyai implikasi politik. Lalu saya menahan diri untuk tidak terbawa kepada konsekuensi penelitian saya, dan ternyata keliru. Melalui pengalaman dank arena tekanan urgensi politik, saya didorong untuk campur tangan dalam ranah politik. Seakan-akan tanpa terlibat dalam politik orang bias berbicara tentang ranah social”. (Haryatmoko, 2003).

”I, myself, was the victim of free moralism, as if science is not allowed to have political implications. I hold myself not to be thrown to the consequence of my research. But I’m mistaken. Because of my experiences and the urgent of political pressure, I was pushed to get involved in political fields. As if without getting involved in politics, people can talk about social fields.” (Haryatmoko, 2003).

The context of intellectual debate in France at that time encouraged Bourdieu to process ”text” so that it becomes real actions. Bourdieu’s thoughts tried to connect to dichotomy of individual-society or doer-structure.

1. C.      Symbolic Power Overview towards Public Relations Phenomena

Power is a concept in social science study. This concept is usually associated with the material world and something concrete. For Bourdieu, symbolic power is “an unseen power that can only be done with the involvement of people who do not want to know that they are the target, or even that they run” (Aunulah, 2006, 19). Symbolic power smoothly works; even people who are involved do not realize that they are actually involved in this kind of power circle.

Symbolic power is related to language problems. In Bourdieu’s analysis, the language is not merely a means of communication among people which is free in value. Language is the tool of power, or in other words, language shows the power and there is even more extreme assumption that language is the reality former.

Symbolic power will be effectively done if it is supported by three kinds of capitals: economic capital, social capital, and cultural capital. Any parties/doers will continue to strive to accumulate capitals and to invest them to obtain maximum benefits. Thus, capitals are social energy for the doer; the more energy he gains, he will gain social legitimacy easier.

Each doer, either individual or organization, will definitely try to continue seeking and gaining capitals. This happens due to the limited available resources and because they will never be able to satisfy the urge of all parties. For example, companies producing goods and services which are similar or the same have to compete to get the limited market segments if they want to exist.

In this world, resources are not evenly distributed. People have to compete to gain what they want. A politician will compete to other politicians to gain the votes from the people. A Non Governmental Organization (NGO) will compete to other NGOs to raise public and private funds. A singer will compete to other singers to get the sympathy from the audiences. In brief, competition is the requirement to gain something expected. Thus, organizations, especially companies, will develop the strategies to surpass their competitors in order to get their market segments.

In order to maintain its existence, each party must continue to develop the capitals which can be in the form of economic capital, social capital, or cultural capital. Economic capital is the most tangible or concrete capital which can be exchanged. This capital can be in the form of money or other valuable material stuffs which can be used to influence other people as the owner of capital expects.

Different to economic capital, cultural capital is inherent in a person. This capital will be lost if the person died. Sometimes people do not understand that they have talent and are able to perform in particular activities. As the impact of their ability, they will gain recognition and in turn, their ability will bring benefits both materially and symbolically.

Public relations officers have been trained in certain period and have passed through specific curriculum so they have knowledge and expertise in their field. Knowledge and skill are called as cultural capital used by public relations officers to deliver the message and to get public’s feedback about the goods and services produced by their organizations/companies. In other words, any organization will depend on the cultural capital possessed by its public relations officers. Conversely, not all Public relations officers have sufficient cultural capital so that many organizations/companies are not able to deliver the message to customers/public and of course they cannot get the feedback from public as they expect.

The next capital type is social capital which is the network or connection held by certain party, in this case is the public relations officers. Bourdieu defines social capital as “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition” (Wikipedia). The more connections they have, the more symbolic capitals they master so they will have reputation in their network. Reputation is an important step to create credibility both inside and outside their network. Furthermore, Bourdieu asserts that “the network of relationships is the product of investment strategies aimed at … Establishing that or reproducing social relationships are directly usable in the short or long term” (Dahlberg, 2010).

Building a social network requires time and effort. This is the task of public relations officers. They have to focus on creating the image and reputation, so the organization they represent can gain trust and thus it will be easier to build partnership with other organizations and communities.

The mechanism of social capital in public relation plays role in creating image and popularity. The more to be known by public, the more the social networks gained by the doers and the organization that they represent can be known more by public. Extensive social network will be more effective than advertisement.

Accumulation of social capital is a daily non-stop work for the public relations officers. Like the politicians, when they occupy political office, they immediately build strategies to expand their network to be re-elected in the next service period. Similarly, public relations officers are also demanded to expand network and connection to maintain the existence of organization/company that they represent. The image of organization is as if attached to Public relations officers. Currently, in the public’s perspective, the image of state institution cannot be raised by public relations officers, so there must be something wrong.

Cultural capital and social capital, as explained above, are closely associated with language. In other words, language can be used to obtain those two capitals and to gain power for the institution. In other words, power can be achieved by playing the symbol (language) without having to use violence or physical force. Furthermore, Bourdieu explains “symbols are the instruments par excellence of social integration: as instruments of knowledge and communication, they make it possible for there to be a consensus on the meaning of the social world, a consensus which contributes fundamentally to the reproduction of the social order” (Dahlberg, 2010).

Based on the quote above, language is a symbolic power which can construct the reality in accordance with the space and time specifically. Symbol is the knowledge instrument and communication which can be used to obtain consensus about the meaning of social world reality. This consensus can reproduce the expected social order.

The most obvious example on how symbol can be used to obtain consensus about expected social order is the event of the collapse of the twin tower, World Trade Center (WTC) in New York on September 11, 2011. WTC was the symbol of capitalist world located in the center of the USA. It was destructed by terrorists hijacking the planes. The twin towers were hit by planes. Thousands of people became the victims and Americans were in grief and rage. It never happened before in the history that USA was surprisingly attacked by enemies, except the event of Pearl Harbor in 1942 that dragged USA into Pacific War.

President George W. Bush with his administrative staffs immediately conducted public relations activities by intensively doing campaign against terrorism and war against Iraq. Bush decided to increase the defense budget for military operation; to persuade and to ask the support from American citizens to execute his goal. He used the language to ensure that US was under the threat of terrorism; Osama bin Laden was the culprit and Saddam Hussein was the devil behind that event. Solution offered by US was to fight against Iraq and to topple down the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Public relations done by Bush successfully created the consensus among American citizens, made public opinion, and constructed social reality that what US did was precise. As known, US sent thousands of troops and war machines into Iraq and successfully topple down the regime of Saddam Hussein. Whether the reality created by Bush was right or wrong, that was different matter. And in fact, after it turned over time, the reality was actually wrong.

The problem that arose was why American people trusted very much of what Bush proposed. There were several factors that shaped reality created by Bush. Firstly, it was social context. American people were being overwhelmed by emotion, sadness, and anger over the event of the collapse of the WTC. Secondly, the most prominent, was symbolic power possessed by Bush in which he mastered the economic capital, cultural capital and social capital.

If the content symbol presented Bush as ordinary citizens, it definitely would not succeed in forming consensus and social reality. Because the person who said was Bush as president of superpower nation, the impact would be different. Related to personal figure of Bush who was highly educated, son of a former president, and president; there was no reason not to believe him. This example illustrates that if public relations activities are not supported by the symbolic power, those activities will not be able to achieve the expected goals. Symbolic power of organization (in this case is the USA) was manifested in Bush as a public relations officers. In other words, personification becomes important in public relation activities. The image of organization will appear first on public relations officers.

Public relation officers become the main link between the organization and the public. Because of this important role, a public relation officer is required master symbolic language to obtain the symbolic power whic consists of three capitals: economic, cultural, and social. Without those capitals, it is impossible for public relation officers to do their job profesionally.

Nowadays, symbolic language has been growing very rapidly along with the development of sophisticated techonology. Therefore, public relations officers are required to master both literal and non-verbal language as well as information technology. The mastery of language and information technology will certainly have to be trained at university or public relations training. This mastery will enable someone to gain good reputation and social capital easily and quickly. This will appear when a person is using blog, Twitter, Facebook, or other media as means of delivering messages to audiences. In short time, he/she will be well known and will gain good reputation from the public. Moreover, he/she can create consesus and lead public’s opinion to execute an act. An example is the coins campaign for Prita Mulyasari published in media such as Facebook that can liberate Prita from criminal court.

1. D.      Conclusion

Nowadays, study and practice of public relations have been developing very rapidly. There are several factors that influence the development. The first factor is economic growth. Even though some countries are undergoing economic crisis, the economic situation generally increased compared to the condition 25 years ago. Economic development encourages organizational activities both profit and nonprofit, governmental and non-governmental. The second factor is the development of communication and information technology that brings new changes in the practice of public relations.

The development of public relations practice encourages other studies which are deeper and more technical, but rarely related to the basic of social theory in which public relations is a social phenomenon. One of the recently growing social theories that rarely become the concern of public relations reviewers is the theory developed by Pierre Bourdieu.

Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power is closely related to public relations study and practice. Symbolic  power is related to language problems. In Bourdieu’s analysis, the language is not merely a value-free means of communication between humans. Language is a device of authority, or in other words, language shows power. Some people even believe that language is the building blocks of reality.

Symbolic power is sustained by the mastery of the three capitals: economic, cultural, and social capital. Economic capital is the most concrete capitals and it can be interchanged. Mastering capital economi can create power in general sense, but it may not necessarily have symbolic power. Cultural capital contains knowledge, the experience of one’s social structure in reality through a dialectic process of habits with the surrounding environment. Whereas, social capital is a networking/social connections owned by a principal.

Professional public relations officers or anyone who play role of public relations in the community is required to have a symbolic power that is the mastery of language symbols in forming their image and reputation as well as those of the organization they represent. The more capitals they master, the higher the reputation will be.

1. E.       Daftar Pustaka

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