The assistant professor of communications authored chapters exploring topics such as Sin City’s strategic communication efforts and the traditional public relations methods that helped legitimize its main industry: casino gaming.
Assistant Professor Jessalynn Strauss continues to explore the complicated landscape of the casino gaming industry, as well as the history and culture of Las Vegas, recently publishing four book chapters on topics relating to casinos and the city’s identity and development.
All four books were published during the current academic year, representing research conducted over the past two years.
Here is a listing of the books and a synopsis of Strauss’ book chapters:
- “Visual Public Relations: Strategic Communication Beyond Text” – S. Collister and S. Roberts-Bowman (Eds.)
Strauss’ chapter, “A Time and Place: The Las Vegas Mob Museum’s Experiential Public Relations,” explores the creation of the Mob Museum in Las Vegas and how the museum played a role in (re)constructing Las Vegas’s identity. It considers how a museum and its exhibits can play a communicative role and aid in a tourism destination’s strategic communication efforts.
- “All In: Gambling in the Twentieth Century United States“ – J. Cohen and D. Schwartz (Eds.)
For this chapter, titled “The Business of Gambling: How Press Releases Helped Legitimize the Gaming Industry in Las Vegas,” Strauss used the archives at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and examined old press releases (1960s-1990s) issued by Las Vegas casinos. The chapter describes how casinos used press releases not only for traditional public relations purposes (to drive newspaper coverage of the casinos), but also to establish these casinos’ legitimacy as business enterprises, something that was crucial to the development of Las Vegas at the end of the 20th century.
- “Handbook of Investor Relations and Financial Communications” – A. Laskin (Ed.)
The chapter, titled “Transparency Signaling in CSR Press Releases in a Vice Industry,” examines the press releases issued by MGM Resorts about the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts between 2013 and 2016. It discusses how the company used press releases to portray itself as a socially responsible corporation as well as the changing role of press releases in modern strategic communications.
- “Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Ethical Public Relations: Strengthening Synergies with Human Resources – D. Pompper (Ed.)
The book, aimed at human resources professionals, recommends ways that CSR can be used as a part of successful HR programs. Strauss’ chapter, “Inspiring Employees through CSR: Lessons from a Gambling Giant,” looks specifically at a program created by MGM Resorts, called “Inspiring Our World,” which engages employees in the corporation’s CSR efforts to the benefit of both the employees and the corporation itself.
Throughout her career, Strauss has researched corporate social responsibility and public relations in the gaming industry, particularly in Las Vegas. In her 2015 book, “Challenging Corporate Social Responsibility: Lessons for public relations from the casino industry,” Strauss discusses the paradoxes in contemporary corporate social responsibility through the example of the gaming industry.
In January 2017, she completed a two-week residency at the Special Collections Library at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, concluding her stay with a colloquium talk at UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research. During her talk, which was part of her William R. Eadington Fellowship in Gaming Research, she explored the unknown stories of Las Vegas’s history and how press releases contributed to the gaming industry’s growth.
Strauss discusses cruise industry in USA Today article
Strauss, who runs a travel blog titled “The Nerdy Traveler,” was featured in a March 30 USA Today article discussing the cruise industry and the numerous activities available on the new crop of mega-ships. A version of the article also appeared on the front page of USA Today’s March 30 – April 1 weekend edition.