Kate Fitch

can’t wait for this #FirstNations approaches to PR special issue of @prinquiry.bsky.social to be published - deadline for papers is Jan 2026

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new research from CK (Kay) Weaver & Franzisca Weder shows professional communicators are claiming narrative agency in sustainability & change contexts, focusing on ethics in the act of storytelling and dialogicality [open access] journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

🌐✨ Meet the winners of IAMCR’s 2025 Decolonising the Digital Awards!
From Indigenous language activism to feminist AI, these groundbreaking projects reimagine technology from the margins.
👉 Read more: iamcr.org/awards/decol...
#IAMCR2025 #DecoloniseTheDigital #DigitalJustice

vibrantly coloured heritage villa door

colourful heritage mural of Little India showing old shops and thali plate

thali plate - rice & 7 curries - plus mango lassi

colours of Little India #IAMCR2025 Singapore 🇸🇬

I’m also wearing my @prinquiry.bsky.social editor’s hat - happy to chat about research on critical PR and promotional culture #IAMCR2025

I’m presenting ‘Beauty queens, dancers and maidens: Gender and energy in Australia’, developed with Belinda Smaill, on Thursday afternoon #IAMCR2025

poster with head shot of Kate Fitch and text on IAMCR presentation on Thursday

heading to #IAMCR2025 and looking forward to catching up with colleagues 😊 ✈️

Contemporary dancers in tight blue costumes enact the flames of a giant gas stove.

This AGL 1979 TV ad featuring contemporary dance led Belinda Smaill and I to investigate the promotion of ‘natural gas’ and the ways media & promotional industries shape understandings of energy.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rb2...

#PR scholars heading to #IAMCR25 - our journal editor @katefitch.bsky.social will be in Singapore so reach out if you would like to chat. We welcome critical, interpretative & interdisciplinary contributions on PR & society.

The Living Flame: Energy, promotion and ‘natural’ gas in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s - Kate Fitch, Belinda Smaill, 2025 For most of the 20th century, energy transformations were promoted, and legitimated through diverse media and promotion. Much of this ‘energy media’ was generat...

‘The Living Flame’ 🔥 by @katefitch.bsky.social & Belinda Smaill investigates the impact of promotional industries on environmental justice by analysing the promotion of ‘natural’ gas
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Natural Gas (AGL) commercial [1983] YouTube video by GrubcoTV3

AGL produced some creative TV ads in the late 1970s/early 1980s - a time of energy transition with a global oil crisis & growing awareness of climate change (see this 1983 ad where Sydney is snowbound). Of course, ‘natural gas’ is always framed as the solution. www.youtube.com/watch?v=enAO...

The Living Flame: Energy, promotion and ‘natural’ gas in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s - Kate Fitch, Belinda Smaill, 2025 For most of the 20th century, energy transformations were promoted, and legitimated through diverse media and promotion. Much of this ‘energy media’ was generat...

you can read our research ‘The Living Flame’🔥 [free] on energy promotion & the entanglement of gender, media history & promotional industries in @prinquiry.bsky.social
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Contemporary dancers in tight blue costumes enact the flames of a giant gas stove.

This AGL 1979 TV ad featuring contemporary dance led Belinda Smaill and I to investigate the promotion of ‘natural gas’ and the ways media & promotional industries shape understandings of energy.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rb2...

AGN accused of running dodgy 'Love Gas' ads that deceived viewers Australian Gas Networks has been accused of misleading "millions" of Australians through their "Love Gas" ads.

"The gas industry knows fossil fuels are not renewable, but it continues to try and hoodwink Australians into thinking gas is good for us.” www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

Public relations and social justice - E Ciszek, Lee Edwards, Kate Fitch, Jenny Hou, 2025

Editorial: ‘ PR & Social Justice: Interdisciplinary Reflections & Future Directions on the Impact of PR & Promotional Communication on Human Rights & Social Inequalities’ by E.Ciszek, Lee Edwards @katefitch.bsky.social & Jenny Hou
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Delighted to have last ever academic essay published in @prinquiry.bsky.social. On PR, culture and climate collapse. Thanks to @katefitch.bsky.social and all who made it possible

#PR scholars heading to #ICA25 - our journal editor @kristindemetrious.bsky.social is attending the #criticalPR pre-conference as well as the big event if you’d like to chat

congrats @beznarjo.bsky.social - I’m proud to publish this provocative essay on PR, Deep Adaptation and the climate emergency

Wine, women and PR: Phyllis Parkinson and the wine recipe service in Australia, 1952–1979 This paper aims to investigate the Australian Wine Board’s promotion of wine consumption to women in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in order to understand the promotional work conducted by women for wo...

I had the best time researching this paper on wine, women and PR 🍷 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Wine, women and PR: Phyllis Parkinson and the wine recipe service in Australia, 1952–1979 This paper aims to investigate the Australian Wine Board’s promotion of wine consumption to women in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in order to understand the promotional work conducted by women for wo...

Phyllis Parkinson helped develop an Australian wine market through media relations & the distribution of wine recipes 🍷 making wine drinking acceptable for Anglo Australians & women (but her contributions are absent from both PR & wine history) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

illustrated cover of booklet statement ‘wine is so friendly to food’ and ‘life is more pleasant with wine’

I planned to cook all the recipes, but devilled jellied tongue in port, stewed kidneys with wine sauce and sherried grapefruit mould or jellied tomato bullion (both made with gelatine) aren’t really my thing (other recipes have better stood the test of time eg pot roasts, wine sauces)

Wine, women and PR: Phyllis Parkinson and the wine recipe service in Australia, 1952–1979 This paper aims to investigate the Australian Wine Board’s promotion of wine consumption to women in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in order to understand the promotional work conducted by women for wo...

Phyllis Parkinson helped develop an Australian wine market through media relations & the distribution of wine recipes 🍷 making wine drinking acceptable for Anglo Australians & women (but her contributions are absent from both PR & wine history) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Image of monumental National Library in a stormy dusk

Canberra sunset with pink sky

I was visiting Fellow at the very supportive @anuausi.bsky.social in a freezing but beautiful Canberra winter ❄️ and worked in the National Archives and National Library of Australia

Wine, women and PR: Phyllis Parkinson and the wine recipe service in Australia, 1952–1979 This paper aims to investigate the Australian Wine Board’s promotion of wine consumption to women in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in order to understand the promotional work conducted by women for wo...

I had the best time researching this paper on wine, women and PR 🍷 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Accomplices in the public relations classroom: An autoethnography of social-justice and anti-racism-informed teaching - Luke Capizzo, Adrienne Wallace, Nneka Logan, Katie Place, 2025 A holistic approach to anti-racism and social justice in the public relations classroom requires moving beyond mere allyship with underrepresented students and ...

new autoethnographic research with reflections on anti-racism and social justice in the PR classroom by Luke Capizzo, @adriwall.bsky.social Nneka Logan & @katieplace.bsky.social 👏 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

A glass ceiling smashed? Reflecting on gender equity in the discipline of history Women hold between 40 and 50 per cent of all academic appointments in the discipline of history in Australia. Even among the social science disciplines, which are seen as more welcoming to women th...

➡️ You can read work on the topic by Dr Downing, honorary lecturer at Australian National University in this 2023 article in History Australia, 'A glass ceiling smashed? Reflecting on gender equity in the discipline of history' (log in required): 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

the May 2025 editorial is online @alenkajelen.bsky.social @kristindemetrious.bsky.social & I call on PR scholars to be ‘troublemakers’

so pleased that we have published this important paper on PR education in @prinquiry.bsky.social

Accomplices in the public relations classroom: An autoethnography of social-justice and anti-racism-informed teaching - Luke Capizzo, Adrienne Wallace, Nneka Logan, Katie Place, 2025 A holistic approach to anti-racism and social justice in the public relations classroom requires moving beyond mere allyship with underrepresented students and ...

PR scholars should lead students through anti-racist, emancipatory, and critical advocacy work to prepare them to be ethical and social justice-minded PR professionals #justpublished journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

I’m absolutely honored to receive the inaugural L’Etang-Pieczka Award for outstanding research! Thank you to the editors and reviewers at @prinquiry.bsky.social for making this opportunity possible! I look forward to seeing this award evolve and grow critical PR scholarship for years to come.