Murdoch University academic Kate Fitch investigated the representation of public relations in the HBO television series and found a complex portrayal – and implicit critique – of the industry.

“The scholarship on public relations in popular culture generally rests on a narrow conceptualisation of the public relations profession, and ignores the irony in popular culture,” Fitch says.

“However, today’s audiences have a very sophisticated understanding of public relations.”

Fitch analysed a fictional public relations campaign run by the American Vampire League (AVL), which aims to provide vampires with equal rights and full citizenship.

“I focused on representations of public relations in the first four series, finishing with the bloody death of AVL spokesperson turned bad, Nan Flanagan,” Fitch says.

“Flanagan is initially represented as a rational and corporate-style spokesperson before the AVL is revealed as a front-organisation for the shadowy authority.

“Given the gendered representation of public relations in popular culture, where female practitioners often have trivial roles, it is interesting to consider this portrayal of a powerful female public relations practitioner.

“Flanagan highlights the contradictions and paradoxes in the representation of public relations and accurately depicts that there is no single reality of public relations.

“Rather, Flanagan’s practitioner plays with multiple identities of public relations and adopts multiple discourses from social justice to corporate greed.”

Fitch presented her findings at the Barcelona Meeting Com #3 International PR Conference last year. A special issue of Public Relations Review exploring representations of public relations has just been published with the full paper.