Radical activist tactics: Overturning public relations conceptualizations

Public relations scholars often misinterpret the rationale for radical activist tactics and overlook their advantages. Radical tactics can help activist organizations redefine and embolden members' identities, give members a sense of meaning, discourage opponents' supporters, provoke overreactions that generate support, create momentum for moderate activist organizations to ameliorate problems, and redefine the political spectrum so moderate activist organizations' requests appear more reasonable by comparison. This paper argues that an improved understanding of radical activist organizations' goals, tactics, and priorities should change the way public relations scholars theorize and evaluate them. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.