Trust, Power and Public Relations in Financial Markets

Clea Bourne is a Lecturer in Public Relations, Advertising & Marketing, at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. Her research on communication in financial markets has appeared in Culture and Organisation, Public Relations Inquiry, Journal of Public Relations Research and New Media and Society, and in edited collections.

"From its dedication 'to those who know life on the financial periphery,' through its immense ambition to shine light into the myriad, often dark, intersections between finance and PR, to its conceptual clarity, Clea Bourne’s book is a game changer. Leapfrogging everything previously written in this field, she fuses an egalitarian agenda, insider insight, and an impressive cross-disciplinary range to do justice to the most important neglected area in PR today. Trust, Power and Public Relations in Financial Markets is the killer app and the field will never be the same again. Ignore it at your peril.", — David McKie, Professor in Strategic Communication and Leadership, Waikato Management School"Bourne’s study combines the inside knowledge of a professional with the outside objectivity of a critical social scholar. The outcome is a truly insightful and critical evaluation of financial PR in the post-crash era. Written clearly and authoritatively throughout, this work makes a vital contribution, not just to PR research but also to our wider understanding of the global financial system. This is how public relations scholarship should be.", — Professor Aeron Davis, author of Public Relations Democracy and Promotional Cultures"Finance is the business of trust. But how is financial trust produced, maintained, commodified in practice? Bourne unpacks the profitable Public Relations ‘trust industry’ in finance, and confronts it with some tough questions. In doing so, she pushes forward the literatures by understanding trust as a mechanism of power. Organising trust in finance, she shows, is as much about establishing procedures of transparency as it is about orchestrating silence and invisibility. Bourne’s perspective cuts across literatures on marketing, finance and politics; and is highly recommended to researchers from all these backgrounds.", — Prof. Marieke de Goede, University of Amsterdam, author of Virtue, Fortune and Faith

• 1. PR in Financial Markets: ‘Booms and Busts’ in Trust 2. Reframing Trust, Power & Public Relations 3. Promoting State Financial Power: Creditworthiness as Trustworthiness 4. Financial Trade Associations: Territorial Battles for Trust 5. Stock Market Storytelling and Dalliances with Trust 6. Changing Banking Models, Shifting Trust Relations 7. Insurance, Investment, Pensions: Rise of the Robo-Expert 8. Financial Exclusion: PR as Activism and Resistance 9. Organising Silence: Public Relations in Financial Silos 10. Conclusion: Revisiting the Trust Strategist’s Role