Agenda Building Through Community Building: Theorizing Place and Digital Space in Grassroots Activist Public Relations

To date, there has been little theorizing in public relations surrounding the intersection between local community activism and digital activism. Specifically, this chapter identifies three gaps in public relations theory on digital activism—agenda-building, connections to the local community, and community care—that should be considered for a better understanding of the complex relationship between activist movements and physical places. Through a case study of the 3/20 Coalition (a local activist organization in State College, Pennsylvania), the authors exhibit how activism efforts can manifest in smaller-scale local contexts through the usage of digital tools like social media. This chapter presents evidence that local activism efforts should be studied through a more complex lens that considers the local community of an activist movement, not just focus on the widespread, national reaction as most current public relations theory tends to do.