Researchers and practitioners are challenged to understand what can move our study, teaching, and practice (for postmodernism's contributions to these ends, see Toth, 2002). In this endeavor, our work can productively rest on systems theory, the rhetorical heritage (including a humanistic and social scientific interest in persuasion as a way of understanding how people make decisions and engage in social influence), and premises espoused by social exchange theory that guide our understanding of relationships. A rhetorical perspective is vital (or for some, a European sociological perspective) because we must have a theory-based systematic way to understand, research, and critique the role of public relations in forming and responding to ideas—competing and convergent shared social realities that can broadly be interpreted as zones of meaning. In public relations, communication is about something; ideas and meaning count.
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