Vertrauen in Public Relations

When PR research addresses trust, the perspective that PR provides trust in organizations dominates in most cases. For PR to successfully providing trust, trust in PR seems to be a central condition. This applies to its relations to journalism as well as to its relations to other organisational environments. Since the motives behind PR as strategic communication usually arouse suspicion, trust in PR tends to be improbable. Trust in PR has been an unobserved subject in PR research so far. Thus, this paper will develop, on a systems-theoretic and non-dualistic approach, a theoretic understanding of trust in PR. After discussing the present state of research regarding the subject of trust and PR, the paper will briefly introduce the theoretic basis of PR and trust, in order to develop in the following a new theoretic perspective for trust in PR. In this context, internal and external trust in PR will have to be differentiated.