Dr. Chuqing Dong, AD+PR Assistant Professor, Advocates for Ethics of Care in Government
Dong is changing the world of government relations through publication
By: Kennedy Giles
In Sept. 2022, the Journal for Public Relations Research published MSU Advertising + Public Relations assistant professor, Dr. Chuqing Dong’s, article entitled, “Toward a caring government: Advancing ethical government public relations with a care-based relationship cultivation model.” Created in conjunction with Dr. Jordan Morehouse at Clemson University, the article intends to help people understand “the critical role that PR plays in transforming government entities into caretakers and contributing to a functioning society.”
Dong has a master’s degree in public policy and a master’s degree in professional strategic communication from the University of Minnesota, as well as a Ph.D. in mass communication and media studies from the University of Minnesota. Dong’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Public Relations Review, the International Journal of Business Communication, and Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. Her article and research regarding ethical government was funded with a grant from The Arthur W. Page Center, which focuses on integrity in public communication, and resulted in her being recognized as a Page Legacy Scholar for winning this grant.
“The ethics of care represents a feminist perspective of ethics that focuses on mutuality, connection, situational considerations and the protection of vulnerability, which has great potential to foster government-public relationship building,” said Dong.
Dong, who teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level public relations strategy courses for the department, says she hopes the article helps people to understand the role public relations plays in government spaces. She says that how our governments are represented and who is communicating for them is of utmost importance to all members of society. As a professor and scholar, Dong says she feels it is her job to leverage strategic communications. Dong teaches topics like ethics of care in her course, PR 300: Public Relations Theory and Ethics.
“I hope this article helps local government communicators to recognize the diverse manifestations of care in public relations practices and apply the care-based model to their daily communication activities to build relationships with citizens,” said Dong.
MSU students can take PR 300 in their undergraduate studies or Advertising 800: Advertising and Public Relations Theory in their graduate studies. Learn more about Dong and her work online at https://comartsci.msu.edu/our-people/chuqing-dong.