Public Relations 2015 Abstracts

Open Competition
Engaging the Public with CSR Activities Through Social Media • Alan Abitbol, Texas Tech University; Sun Young Lee, Texas Tech University • This study examines how communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives via Facebook impact public engagement. Using the stakeholder and dialogic theories as frameworks, a content analysis of 533 Fortune 500 companies’ CSR-specific posts was conducted. After testing the effects of issue topic and three dialogic strategies on public engagement, results indicated that the use of multimedia content and interactive language in messages affected public engagement most. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed further.

Making social media work: Modeling the antecedents and outcomes of perceived relationship investment of nonprofit organizations • Giselle Auger, Duquesne University; Moonhee Cho, University of Tennessee • A lack of empirical studies prompted the development and testing of a model investigating the antecedents and outcomes of perceived relationship investment (PRI) in nonprofits. All parts of the model were supported including antecedent tactics of tangible rewards, interactivity, and information sharing, their effect on relationship quality, and positive behavioral intentions such as keeping the organization foremost in consideration of volunteer time or large gift allocation when time or financial resources allow.

Campaign and Corporate Goals in Conflict: Exploring Corporate Social Initiative Types and Company Issue Congruence • Lucinda Austin, Elon University; Barbara Miller, Elon University • Corporate social responsibility is increasingly important in boosting public acceptance for companies, and emerging research suggests corporate social marketing could be the most effective type of CSR. However, scholars caution that corporate social marketing is not a one-size-fits-all. Through a content analysis of Coca-Cola’s social media posts on its controversial topics related to sustainability, this study explores how corporate social initiative type and company-issue congruence influence public response to an organization’s social media CSR posts.

Communicating Sustainability: An Examination of Corporate, Nonprofit, and UniversityWebsites • Holly Ott, The Pennsylvania State University; Ruoxu Wang, Penn State University; Denise Bortree, Penn State University • This study analyzed the websites of top corporations, nonprofits, and colleges/universities for the types of sustainability content presented. Comparisons are made between organization types. Few nonprofits in the sample provided sustainability content; however, nearly all universities and over half of the corporations had a designated sustainability section on their websites. Findings suggest that organizations are promoting certain content, and fewer than 40% quantify their sustainability claims on any topic. Implications are discussed.

More than just a lack of uniformity: Exploring the evolution of public relations master’s programs • Rowena Briones, Virginia Commonwealth University; Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University; Candace Parrish, Virginia Commonwealth University; Elizabeth Toth, University of Maryland; Maria Russell, Syracuse University • PR is well known for its adaptability through continual change, and as a result PR master’s programs have been re-conceptualized to remain rigorous and competitive. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with administrators of PR master’s programs. Findings demonstrated that although many programs have moved away from traditional curricula, programs exist that still model CPRE recommendations. These findings could be used to better ground the discipline by ensuring a stronger cohesiveness within PR master’s education.

If organizations are people, they need to have the same values: Personal values and organizational values in stakeholder evaluations of organizational legitimacy • John Brummette, Radford University; Lynn Zoch, Radford University • In today’s Linked-in, friend heavy, tweeted about world, in which many organizations have constituents who follow, share and like them, the general public often places anthropomorphic expectations on organizations. This study found a positive relationship between individuals’ personal values and the values they deem as desirable for organizations. Findings from this study also support the assumption that human and organizational values are directly related with the concept of organizational legitimacy.

The effect of CSR expectancy violations on public attitudinal and behavioral responses to corporations: An application of expectancy violation theory • Moonhee Cho, University of Tennessee; Sun-Young Park, Rowan University; Soojin Kim, University of Florida • By applying expectancy violation theory (EVT) to corporate public relations, the study explored how publics respond to an organization’s CSR activities. A 2 (publics’ pre-predictive CSR expectancy) X 2 (CSR practice information) experimental study examined how both negative and positive expectancy violation and conformity influenced publics’ attitude toward an organization and their supportive behavior intention. Also, the study explained the moderating role of corporate likability in influencing the effect of expectancy violation.

Crisis communication and corporate apology: The effects of causal attributions and apology types on publics’ cognitive and affective responses • Surin Chung, University of Missouri Columbia; Suman Lee, Iowa State University • This study examined how corporate apologies influence cognitive and affective public responses during a crisis. A total of 200 participants were exposed to one of the two types of causal attributions (internal vs. external) and one of the two types of apology messages (responsibility-oriented vs. sympathy-oriented). The study found the main effects of causal attributions on public responses. The study also revealed the interaction effects between causal attributions and apology messages on public responses.

Reassessment of audience in public relations industry: How social media reshape public relations measurements • Surin Chung, University of Missouri Columbia; Harsh Taneja, University of Missouri, School of Journalism • The growing adoption of social media in PR practice has provided opportunities for newer audience measurements and contributed to cultivating newer conceptions of their audience. This study conducts a historical textual analysis of articles in PR Week to establish the conception. The analysis maps the structural transformation of the field that has guided the PR industry’s reconceptualization of their audiences from the quantity of media placements to the quantity and the quality of behavioral outcomes.

The Effects of Framing in Mainstream and Alternative Media on Government Public Relationships • Ganga Dhanesh; Tracy Loh • This study aimed to examine the effects of differential framing in alternative media and mainstream media on publics’ perceptions of government-public relationships; an attempt to integrate the rich bodies of work in framing and relationship management theorizing in public relations, in the context of government public relations and the challenges thrown up by the emergence of alternative media. The study employed an experimental design and found that reading alternative media negatively affected publics’ perceptions of trust, commitment, control mutuality and satisfaction, but not communal and exchange relationships. Reading mainstream media on the other hand had no significant relationship with publics’ perceptions of government-public relationship. The difference in effect is attributed to the framing devices employed in alternative and mainstream media. Implications for public relations theory and practice are discussed.

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right: Journalist perceptions of reputation and errors in corporate communication • Melanie Formentin, Towson University; Kirstie Hettinga, California Lutheran University; Alyssa Appelman, Northern Kentucky University • Exploring reputation and organizational communication, this study tests how journalists perceive press releases containing errors, and examines the legitimacy of using fictional organizations when testing reputation via experiments. Journalists (N = 118) read releases from reputable or fictional companies, with or without typos. Releases without errors and from an existing company were ranked more favorably based on press release judgments and reputation. Analysis showed no interaction effects, suggesting reputation cannot overcome negative error effects.

Care in Crisis: Proposing the Applied Model of Care Considerations for Public Relations • Julia Daisy Fraustino, West Virginia University; Amanda Kennedy, University of Maryland • This work builds global bridges from ethics theory to practice in crisis public relations. It forms foundations for ethical organizational communication throughout the crisis lifecycle and across contexts. The Applied Model of Care Considerations is proposed using the illustration of Nestle’s global baby-formula-promotion crisis. Rooted in feminist normative philosophies, this research addresses public relations literature gaps from lack of: (1) general crisis ethics theory; (2) applied crisis communication ethics for practice; (3) feminist-theory-oriented crisis communication.

Mascot Nations: Examining university-driven college football fan communities • Matthew Haught, University of Memphis • In the sport of college football, engagement with fans drives revenue for the sports teams and the athletic department; the more fans buy, the more money the school gets. This study examines the ways college football teams use Facebook to engage their publics, and how that engagement builds a sense of community. Specifically, it explores six teams that represent new college foot-ball teams, mid-major teams, and state flagship institution teams. Ultimately, it seeks to explain how social media can be a force in establishing and maintaining an online community.

Informing crisis communication preparation and response through network analysis: An elaboration of the Social-Mediated Crisis Communication model • Itai Himelboim, University of Georgia; Yan Jin, University of Georgia; Bryan Reber, University of Georgia; Patrick Grant, University of Georgia • To test and elaborate as necessary the Social-Mediated Crisis Communication (SMCC) model’s key publics classifications (Liu et al., 2012) and to provide practical insight to public identification for crisis communication planning and response, this study uses network analysis to identify social mediators (Himelboim et al., 2014) and clustered publics in airline Twitter networks. In our analysis, social mediators and network clusters are classified according to the publics taxonomy of the SMCC model. The characteristics of the social mediators and the network structure of the clusters are also identified in airline Twitter networks. Our findings suggest further elaborations and more in-depth identification of key publics in social-mediated crisis communication.

Minding the representation gap: Some pitfalls of linear crisis-response theory • Yi-Hui Huang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Hiu Ying Choy, The School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Fang Wu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Qing Huang, The School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Qijun He, the Chinese University of Hong Kong; Deya Xu, Department of Communication, CUHK • Scholars assume the direct influence of crisis communication strategies (CCSs) upon representations of CCSs in the media and online public posts. This study 1) introduces the concept of representation gap to address how media and netizen’s gatekeeping practices represent organizational CCSs differently; and 2) highlights how social context leads to an evaluation gap of communication effectiveness. Analysis validates the robust predictive power of this representation gap with regard to interpreting the effectiveness of CCSs.

Too much of a good thing: When does two-way symmetric communication become unhelpful? • Yi Grace Ji, University of Miami; Cong Li, Univ. of Miami • The current study proposes a moderated mediation model by revisiting the effects of two-way symmetric communication on relational outcomes in a social-mediated relationship management context. Through a 2 (interactivity: one-way vs. two way) × 2 (message valence: positive vs. negative) between-subjects experiment, it was demonstrated that two-way symmetric communication led to more favorable relational outcomes only when the communication was centered on a negative subject, and such effects were mediated by perceived source credibility.

Making a good life in professional and personal arenas: A SEM analysis of fair decision making, leadership, organizational support, and quality of Employee-Organization Relationships (EORs) • Hua Jiang, Syracuse University • Scholars and practitioners have well acknowledged the importance of studying influential factors leading to quality employee-organization relationships (EORs). A growing body of literature exist in developing theoretical models to explain the underlying mechanisms between EORs and organizational contextual variables that are closely related to EOR outcomes (trust, commitment, satisfaction, and control mutuality). Based on a national sample of employees (n=795) working in diverse organizations in the US, the present study proposed and tested a model that examined how organizational procedural justice, transformational leadership behaviors of employees’ immediate supervisors, and supportive organizational environment, as three influential factors were associated with time-based and strain-based work-life conflict and employee-organization relationship outcomes. Results of the study supported the conceptual model, except for the direct effect of transformational leadership upon strain-based work-life conflict and that of strain-based work-life conflict upon quality of EORs. Theoretical contributions and managerial ramifications of the study were discussed.

Is there still a PR problem online? Exploring the effects of different sources and crisis response strategies in online crisis communication via social media • Young Kim, Louisiana State University; Hyojung Park, Louisiana State University • This study examined how organizational sources (vs. non-organizational sources) affect perceived source credibility in the context of social media and how the effect of source interplays with crisis response strategy in determining crisis communication outcomes, such as crisis responsibility, reputation, and supportive behavioral intentions. A 3 (source: organization, CEO, or customer) X 2 (crisis response strategy: accommodative or defensive) X 2 (crisis type: airline crash or bank hacking) mixed experimental design was used with 391 participants. The organizational sources, especially CEOs, were more likely to be perceived as more credible than the non-organizational source. The path analysis indicated that perceived source credibility mediated the effect of source on reputation and behavioral intentions; however, this mediation was moderated by the type of crisis response strategy being used. In addition, crisis response strategies had an indirect effect on crisis communication outcomes through perceived company credibility.

Understanding public and its communicative actions as antecedents of government-public relationships in crisis communication • Young Kim, Louisiana State University; Andrea Miller, Louisiana State University; Hyunji Lim, University of Miami • This study explored an effective government-public relationship by understanding its antecedents, public and its communicative actions, in crisis communication. The government-public relationship research has overlooked the importance of its antecedents and focused on the quality of relationship (outcome) in terms of long term relationship building. To fill the gap, the current study attempts to understand public and its communicative actions as antecedents of government-public relationships in a government crisis, problem-solving situation, by applying a Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS) to relationship research. Using an online nationwide survey with 545 participants, this study tested a proposed model employing structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings indicate that active public’s communication behaviors are more likely to positively associate with attribution of responsibility on the organization and, at the same time, negatively associate with relationship outcomes and subsequent consequences, negative reputation and less behavioral intention to support. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The value of public relations: Different impacts of communal and exchange relationships on communicative behavior • Jarim Kim, Kookmin University; Minjung Sung, Chung-Ang University • The purpose of this paper was to investigate the impacts of relationship on organization-public relationships using the situational theory of publics and its extended model, specifically in a tuition issue context, and to test the different effects of a communal and exchange relationship on a public’s perception regarding the issue. The study employed a survey with 508 university students. The results indicated that the perceived student-university relationship had a positive influence on students’ constraint recognition regarding a university-related issue, whereas the relationship had a negative influence on problem recognition. Problem recognition, involvement recognition and constraint recognition positively predicted students’ motivation to take an action, which further predicted communicative action. The current study also found a different influence of communal and exchange relationships on the public’s perception regarding an issue. Communal relationships had a negative association with problem recognition and a positive one with constraint recognition. Exchange relationships had positive relationships with problem recognition and involvement recognition. As one of the few studies that has examined a relationship’s influence on the public’s perceptions of an issue and that empirically tested the differential effects of different types of relationships, this study advances the field of public relations by theoretically extending the public relations model and by providing solid empirical data to support the current conceptual model.

Examining the Role of CSR in Corporate Crises: Integration of Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the Persuasion Knowledge Model • Jeesun Kim, California State University, Fullerton; Chang-Dae Ham • The impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on consumer perceptions has widely been discussed. However, knowledge about the role of CSR communication in the corporate crisis context is still limited. In this study we aim to help fill this gap by conducting 2 (crisis type: accidental vs. intentional) x 2 (CSR motives: values-driven vs. strategic-driven) x 2 (CSR history: long vs. short) between-subjects design experiment. In particular, we integrate Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) with the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM) to better understand how and why consumers, as an active public, cope with rather than simply accept or resist corporate crisis strategies based on their knowledge structure. We found an interaction effect between consumers’ persuasion knowledge (CSR motive perception) and topic knowledge (crisis type perception) on word-of-mouth intention and purchase intention. In addition, persuasion knowledge (CSR motive perception) interacted with agent knowledge (CSR history perception) on purchase intention. We discuss theoretical as well as practical implications.

Relational Immunity? Examining Relationship as Crisis Shield in the case of Purdue’s On-Campus Shooting • Arunima Krishna, Purdue University; Brian Smith, Purdue University; Staci Smith • This study examined the influence of a crisis on relational perceptions by investigating students’ perceptions of their relationship with Purdue University following the on-campus shooting. Findings show that despite the generally positive relationship Purdue maintains with its students, the crisis had a negative impact on the students’ perceptions of their relationship with Purdue. Furthermore, results show how publics’ emotions, especially empathy, about the organization regarding the crisis influence their evaluations of organization-public relationships

Understanding an Angry Hot-Issue Public’s response to The Interview Cancellation Saga • Arunima Krishna, Purdue University; Kelly Vibber, University of Dayton • This study examines comments on online news articles about The Interview’s cancellation and eventual release. We examine these comments from the context of communication behaviors of hot-issue angry publics, and present a longitudinal analysis of themes present over the duration of the issue. Anti-corporate sentiment, conspiracy, and questioning the film content/premise were consistent throughout the timeline. Discussion on how monitoring these types of communication might lead to better engagement with key publics is provided.

Never Easy to Say Sorry: Exploring the Interplay of Crisis Involvement, Brand Image and Message Framing in Developing Effective Crisis Responses • Soyoung Lee, The University of Texas at Austin; Lucy Atkinson, University of Texas at Austin • This study examines how the interplay between crisis involvement, brand image, and message framing has an impact on the effectiveness of brand’s apology message in a crisis context. To determine the effectiveness of an apology, based on SCCT guidance and ELM, a 2 (Crisis involvement: high vs low) × 2 (Brand image: symbolic vs. functional) × 2 (Message types: emotional vs. informational) factorial design are employed. Theoretical and empirical implications are discussed.

The Role of Company–Cause Congruence and the Moderating Effects of Organization–Public Relationships on the Negative Spillover Effects of Partnerships • Sun Young Lee, Texas Tech University; Hyejoon Rim, University of Minnesota • The purpose of this study was to explore whether negative spillover effects occur in the corporate–nonprofit partnership context when a crisis strikes a partner organization, and to investigate two factors—company–cause congruence and organization–public relationships (OPRs)—that might affect the degree of negative impact. The results of an experiment proved negative spillover effects; when respondents were exposed to negative information about a partner organization, their attitude toward the principal organization became less favorable. Contrary to our hypotheses, however, the perceived congruence between the company and the cause of the nonprofit organization yielded buffering effects that minimized the negative spillover effects, and OPRs moderated the impacts. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications.

Understanding Consumer Resentment Before It’s too Late: Empirical Testing of A Service Failure Response Model • Zongchao Li; Don Stacks, University of Miami • This paper investigated consumer response mechanism in a service failure context. A Service Failure Response Model was introduced that incorporated emotive and cognitive antecedents, a mediation process and four behavioral outcomes. Data were collected via an online survey (N=371) and further analyzed using the structural equation modeling approach. Results confirmed the Service Failure Response Model: anger, dissatisfaction and perceived betrayal were emotive/cognitive antecedents that lead to consumers’ exit, voice, and revenge responses. This process was mediated by desire for avoidance and desire for revenge.

Crowd Endorsement on Social Media: Persuasive Effects of Organizations’ Retweeting and Role of Social Presence • Young-shin Lim; Roselyn J. Lee-Won, The Ohio State University • Despite the technological affordances of social media platforms allowing organizations to engage in two-way, many-to-many communication with their stakeholders, organizations tend to simply posts unilateral messages. Drawing on the concept of social presence and the theory of reasoned action, this research investigated the persuasive effects of organizations’ retweeting practices. An online experiment was conducted, featuring a Twitter page of a fictitious organization. Results showed that retweeted user messages, when compared with organization’s original tweets, induced higher levels of social presence, which in turn led to higher levels of social norm perception, more positive attitude toward the behavior advocated by the organization, and stronger intention to perform the advocated behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Crucial Linkages in Successful Public Relations Practice: Organizational Culture, Leadership, Engagement, Trust and Job Satisfaction • Juan Meng, University of Georgia; Bruce Berger, University of Alabama • The study examines the effects of critical organizational factors (organizational culture and excellent leader performance) on public relations practitioners’ job engagement and trust in the organization that link to improved job satisfaction. A national online survey of 883 public relations professionals working in a variety of organizations was used as the empirical data to test the relationships in a proposed conceptual model. Results confirmed the strong impact organizational culture and leader performance can have on outcomes at the practitioner level (engagement, trust, and job satisfaction). In addition, results revealed the significant mediating effects of engagement and trust in the relationship between organizational factors and practitioners’ job satisfaction. The study concludes with research and practical implications.

Change Management Communication: Barriers, Strategies & Messaging • Marlene Neill, Baylor University • In a world characterized by constant change, there has been a neglect of scholarly research on change management communication in the context of public relations. Through 32 in-depth interviews with executives in marketing, public relations and human resources, this study provides new insights into the barriers, effective strategies and key messaging in change management communication. Change management was examined in 10 sectors representing 15 employers. Barriers for communicators included lack of a plan, changing plans, change fatigue and multiple cultures, missions and priorities. In addition, public relations tended to serve more of a tactical role rather than a strategic one being brought in after key decisions had already been made. Effective communication approaches internal communicators reported using included road trips by senior leaders to meet with employees, videos, testimonials, and recruiting employee ambassadors or influencers. Executives said messages should reinforce core values, communicate what the changes mean for employees, the benefits of the change and end goals.

Political Organization-Public Relations and Trust: Facebook vs. Campaign Websites • David Painter, Full Sail University • This experimental investigation (N = 649) parses the influence of online information source and interactivity on the effects of strategic campaign communications on gains in citizen-political organization-public relations and political trust. Although simple exposure exerted significant effects on all participants, the results indicate Facebook was differentially more effective than campaign websites at building overall citizen-political party relationships (POPRs) and trust in government. Specifically, Facebook was more effective at building relational trust, control mutuality, and political trust; while campaign websites were more effective at building satisfaction and commitment, particularly among those who engaged in dialogic, expressive behaviors on either platform. These findings verify the direction of the exposure effects in the political organization-public relations model and extend two-way communication theory by specifying the online platform on which expression exerts the greatest positive influence on citizen-political organization relationships and political trust.

Fashion Meets Twitter: Does the Source Matter? Perceived Message Credibility, Interactivity and Purchase Intention • Yijia Wang; Geah Pressgrove, West Virginia University • Through an online survey, this study explored the perceived source credibility of fashion industry Twitter messages with varying message sources (the brand itself, celebrity endorser, friend/acquaintance). Online interactivity and purchase intention of potential customers were also assessed to examine if a particular message source and its credibility increase the likelihood of online engagement with the message and customers’ intention to purchase.

How Negative Becomes Less Negative: The Interplay between Comment Variance and the Sidedness of Company Response • Hyejoon Rim, University of Minnesota; Doori Song, Youngstown State University • The study examined the influence of the public’s negative comments regarding the CSR campaign in the social media setting, and how best to respond to them. A 2 (variance of comments: positive vs. negative) x 2 (company’s responding strategy: 1-sided vs. 2-sided message) between-subjects experiments was employed. The results revealed that two-sided CSR messages, compared to one-sided responses, are more effective in enhancing altruistic motives of CSR, reducing perceived negativity in consumers’ comments, and eliciting favorable public’s attitudes, especially when the consumer’s comments were negative. The effects of message sidedness disappeared when the consumer’s comments were positive. The results also showed that perceived altruism and perceived negativity mediates the effects of message strategies on the public’s attitudes toward the company.

Taking the ice bucket plunge: Social and psychological motivations for participating in the ALS challenge • Soojin Roh, Syracuse University; Tamara Makana Chock • An online survey (N = 511) investigated the impact of narcissistic personality, selective self-presentation, and the need for interpersonal acceptance in people’s decision to take part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. We also examined how and to what extent these factors differed in terms of the type of contribution (e.g. dumping water over head, donation, and doing both). Implications for social media campaign strategies for long-term engagement and directions for future research were discussed.

Time-lagged Analysis of Third-level Agenda-building: Florida’s Debate on Medical Marijuana • Tiffany Schweickart; Jordan Neil; Ji Young Kim; Josephine Lukito, Syracuse University; Tianduo Zhang; Guy Golan; Spiro Kiousis • This study aims to advance theoretical and practical understanding of political public relations in the context of Florida’s Amendment 2 about the legalization of medical marijuana. This unique context was used to explore the salience of stakeholders, issues, and related attributes between public relations messages and media coverage at all three-levels of agenda-building’s theoretical framework using a time-lagged analysis. Our results present strong support for shared influence between campaign and media agenda-building at three levels.

Biological Sex vs. Gender Identity: Nature vs. Nurture in Explicating Practitioner Roles and Salaries in Public Relations • Bey-Ling Sha, San Diego State University; Courtney White; Elpin Keshishzadeh; David Dozier • Using an online survey of members of the Public Relations Society of America (response rate = 14%), this study found that enactment of the manager and technician roles in public relations was unrelated to practitioners’ biological sex, but was related instead to their avowed, predominant gender identity. Both biological sex and predominant gender identity were found to contribute to the persistent, gendered pay gap in public relations. (67 words)

An Analysis of Tweets by Universities and Colleges: Public Engagement and Interactivity • jason Beverly; Jae-Hwa Shin, University of Southern Mississippi • The analysis of 1,550 individual tweets by colleges and universities suggest that institutions of higher learning are not necessarily using Twitter in a dialogic manner that promotes two-way communication. This supports findings from previous studies that have suggested that colleges and universities fail to incorporate the dialogic features of Twitter as part of their online public relations efforts.

Public Relations as Development Communication? Conceptual Overlaps and Prospects for a Societal Paradigm of Public Relations • Katie Brown, University of Maryland; Sylvia Guo, University of Maryland; Brooke Fowler, University of Maryland; Claire Tills, University of Maryland; Sifan Xu, University of Maryland; Erich Sommerfeldt, University of Maryland • A thorough discussion of the overlaps between development communication and public relations is missing from the literature. This paper provides a first step towards an integration of public relations and development by reviewing theories and concepts within development communication literature and public relations scholarship examining areas relevant to international development practice. The paper highlights theoretical and conceptual overlaps between the disciplines as well as similar challenges in practice, and offers suggestions for developing a societal paradigm of public relations.

The Importance of Authenticity in Corporate Social Responsibility • Mary Ann Ferguson; Baobao Song • This experimental research with 395 consumers explored the effects of prior corporate reputation, stated CSR motive (self vs. social), and CSR brand-cause fit on consumers’ attitude towards the company and behavioral intention. In addition, the study incorporated a new variable in CSR communication model – perceived CSR authenticity. Having a poor corporate reputation requires specific attention be paid to the fit and stated motive of the CSR program particularly when the authenticity of the communication is under suspicion. Corporate messages that are perceived as highly authentic will provide equally positive results for companies with good and bad prior reputations. Overall, this study suggested a holistic view on effective CSR communication.

Towards effective CSR in controversial industry sectors: Effect of industry sector, corporate reputation, and company-cause fit • Baobao Song; Jing (Taylor) Wen, University of Florida; Mary Ann Ferguson • Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been well recognized as a critical component for any company to maintain organizational legitimacy and increase consumers’ positive company evaluation. However, only a few CSR studies have focused on controversial industries. In fact, controversial industry sectors tend to be more committed to CSR, in order to defy their negative images and reputations. Given the conflicted nature of companies in controversial industries, this study is aimed to further unveil the differences between controversial industries and non-controversial industries in terms of CSR outcomes. Particularly, this study tries to dissect the concept of corporate reputation from industry controversy, and examine whether corporate reputation and CSR company-cause fit will affect controversial industries vs. non-controversial industries differently.

Do you see what I see? Perceptions between advertising and public relations professionals • Dustin Supa, Boston University • This study represents an initial step in the empirical understanding of integration as it relates to the advertising and public relations fields. Using a survey of practitioners (n=1076) it finds that while many practitioners are aware of integration efforts within organizations, they may be less than enthusiastic about the concept. The results offer suggestions both for the practice and education of professional communication.

Understanding Shareholder Engagement: The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility • Nur Uysal, Marquette University • The rise of shareholder activism for corporate social responsibility (CSR) in recent years charters a new role for public relations professionals. This study analyzes social activism enacted by institutional shareholders through filing resolutions at publicly traded U.S. corporations between 1997 and 2011 (N = 14, 271). Building on the literature in public relations, management, and social movements, the study develops and tests a theory of shareholder engagement through a tripartite framework. The findings showed that corporate stakeholder commitment, issue type, and sponsor type affect the outcomes of shareholder activist-corporate engagement on CSR issues. We argue that CSR is both an antecedent to engagement and also an outcome and public relations professionals can facilitate the engagement process between corporations and shareholder activists groups on mutually acceptable social expectations.

PR Credibility as News Unfolds: How Perceptions Gauged in Real Time and Post Exposure Differ • Matthew S. VanDyke, Texas Tech University; Coy Callison, Texas Tech University • This study investigates how perceptions of news conference sources vary from measures taken in real-time to those taken retrospectively after exposure by having participants (N = 184) view four organizational spokespersons responding to environmental crises. Results suggest while PR practitioner credibility suffers in comparison to that of other sources when participants evaluate following exposure, practitioners see a real-time bump in trustworthiness following revelation of job title that is common across other source job affiliations.

Within-border foreign publics: Micro-diplomats and their impact on a nation’s soft power • Kelly Vibber, University of Dayton; Jeong-Nam Kim • This study tests the relationship between antecedents of the perceived relationship a within-border foreign public (e.g. international students) has with its host country (e.g. the United States) and how this relationship impacts their communicative action to their social networks living in their home country (e.g. positive or negative megaphoning). It also examines the role this megaphoning has on the communicative action of members of the home country, in order to understand the potential of micro-diplomacy.

Experimenting with dialogue on social media: An examination of the influence of the dialogic principles on engagement, interaction, and attitude • Brandi Watkins, Virginia Tech • Much of the public relations research on online relationship building has examined social media content for the use of the dialogic principles outlined by Kent and Taylor (1998). These studies, using content analysis as the primary methodology, have found that the dialogic capabilities of social media are under-utilized. However, there is limited research on the effectiveness of these methods. Therefore, the goal of this study is to examine the influence of social media content utilizing these principles on engagement, interactivity, and attitude. Results of this study indicate that usefulness of information can have a significant influence on engagement and attitude.

Examining the Importance and Perceptions of Organizational Autonomy among Dominant Coalition Members • Christopher Wilson, Brigham Young University • Scholars have defined the value of public relations in terms of organizational autonomy. Nevertheless, only a few public relations studies have attempted to measure it. In addition, there is no empirical research to document whether or not dominant coalition members actually consider organizational autonomy important. This study seeks to advance theory by examining whether this fundamental concept is as important to public relations as current theories assume it to be.

Public Relations Role in the Global Media Ecology: Connecting the World as Network Managers • Aimei Yang, University of Southern California; Maureen Taylor; Wenlin Liu, University of Southern California • Media studies in public relations have predominantly focused on the dyadic relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists. This focus reduces public relations practitioners to information providers and obscures the broader functions of public relations. We argue that this narrow view of media relations as public relations is increasingly outdated. This paper advocates for a network ecology approach to public relations-media relationships, and identifies four roles that public relations organizations perform in a media network ecology: relationship initiator, relationship facilitator, relationship broker and fully functioning society facilitator.

Estimating the Weights of Media Tonalities in the Measurement of Media Coverage of Corporations • XIAOQUN ZHANG, University of North Texas • This study estimated the weights of media tonalities in the measurement of media coverage of corporations by using linear regression analysis. Two new measures were developed based on these estimations. These two new measures were found to have higher predictive power than most other linear function measures in predicting corporate reputation. The estimations were based on a content analysis of 2817 news articles from both elite newspapers and local newspapers.

A Case Study of the Chinese Government’s Crisis Communication on the 2015 Shanghai Stampede Incident • Lijie Zhou, University of Southern Mississippi; Jae-Hwa Shin, University of Southern Mississippi • This study analyzed the Chinese government’s crisis communication efforts during 2015 Shanghai Stampede incident and offered insight into difference between traditional and social media in relation to media frame, response strategy, government stance and role of emotions. Findings indicated traditional and social media followed similar dynamic pattern across lifespan of the incident, yet revealed different features in message frames and presence of emotions. The government has demonstrated changing stances differently in social and traditional media.

Teaching
Hootsuite University: Equipping Academics and Future PR Professionals for Social Media Success • Emily S. Kinsky, West Texas A&M University; Karen Freberg, University of Louisville; Carolyn Kim, Biola University; Matthew Kushin, Shepherd University; William Ward • Through survey and in-depth interviews, this research examines the social media education program Hootsuite University. Researchers assessed perceptions of Hootsuite University among students who completed the certification program as part of communication courses at five U.S. universities between 2012 and 2014. Researchers also assessed perceptions of professors and employers regarding the value of the program. Implications for public relations education in an age of social media are discussed.

Teaching, tweeting, and telecommuting: Experiential and cross-institutional learning through social media • Stephanie Madden, University of Maryland; Rowena Briones, Virginia Commonwealth University; Julia Daisy Fraustino, West Virginia University; Melissa Janoske, University of Memphis • This study explores how to improve student preparedness for a technological working world. Instructors at four institutions created and implemented a cross-institutional group project that required students to create and share an instructional video on a social media topic. Students then discussed the videos and teleworking experience through three subsequent cross-institutional Twitter chats. Results include suggestions for helping students learn through teaching, and a discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of teleworking.

Exploring diversity and client work in public relations education • Katie Place, Quinnipiac University; Antoaneta Vanc • This exploratory study examined public relations students’ meaning making of diversity and the role of diverse client work within the public relations curriculum. Findings are based on in-depth interviews with 19 students at two private universities who completed a public relations campaign course. Findings illustrate the evolution of students’ interpretation of diversity from passive exposure to active awareness to a new mindset. In addition, it offers insights regarding public relations and diversity pedagogy.

The Best of Both Worlds: Student Perspectives on Student-Run Advertising and Public Relations Agencies • Joyce Haley, Abilene Christian University; Margaret Ritsch, Texas Christian University; Jessica Smith, Abilene Christian University • Student-led advertising and/or public relations agencies have increasingly become an educational component of university ad/PR programs. Previous research has established the value that advisers see in the agencies, and this study reports student perceptions of agency involvement. The survey (N=210) found that participants rated the ability to work with real clients, the importance of their universities having agencies, and the increase in their own job marketability as the most positive aspects of the agency experience. Participants said that the most highly rated skills that agency participation built were working with clients, working in a team structure, and interpersonal skills.

Student
An Examination of Social TV & OPR Building: A Content Analysis of Tweets Surrounding The Walking Dead • Lauren Auverset, University of Alabama • This study investigated a growing second-screen media phenomenon, Social TV, and examined how entertainment media organizations utilize Social TV to communicate with their publics. A content analysis was conducted using publicly available conversations (via Twitter) surrounding a popular television program, AMC’s The Walking Dead. Through the analysis of these Social TV dialogic exchanges, this study highlights how one entertainment media organization uses Social TV and Twitter to respond to and interact with their online publics.

Attribution Error of Internal Stakeholders in Assessments of Organizational Crisis Responsibility • Jonathan Borden, Syracuse University; Xiaochen Zhang, University of Florida • This paper sheds further light on the mechanics of responsibility attribution for organizations in crisis. Utilizing a two-group experimental design, relationships of organizational identification, evaluation, collective self-esteem, in-group preference, attribution bias, and attitudes regarding norm violation were examined among stakeholders in the post-crisis phase. Findings show that identification with and assessment of the organization are linked and significant predictors of attribution bias and violation minimization. Theoretical and professional implications are discussed.

SeaWorld vs Blackfish A Case Study in Crisis Communication • Ken Cardell • This case study examines SeaWorld’s strategic response following from the release of Blackfish. An analysis of SeaWorld’s communicative response to various reputational threats can be understood through the application of corporate apologia theory, by explicating the message strategies used within the discourse. Elements of Grunig’s conception of activist publics are also used to provide perspective as to the factors that contributed to the level of opposition that followed from Blackfish.

To whom do they listen? The effects of communication strategy and eWOM on consumer responses • Zifei Chen, University of Miami; Cheng Hong, University of Miami • This study examined the effects of corporate communication strategy and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) valence on responses from an important stakeholder group—consumers on social media. A 3 (communication strategy: corporate social responsibility/CSR, vs. corporate ability/CAb, vs. hybrid) x 2 (eWOM valence: positive vs. negative) between-subjects experiment was conducted. Results showed significant interaction effects on consumers’ CSR associations and significant main effects of both strategy and eWOM valence on CAb associations, perceived reputation, and purchase intention.

A New Look at Organization-Public Relationship: Testing Contingent Corporation-Activist Relationship (CCAR) in Conflicts • Yang Cheng, University of Missouri • Content analyses of 696 news information on the conflicts between corporations (Monsanto and McDonald’s) and their activists provide a natural history of the use of contingent organization-public relationship (COPR) in public relations. By tracking the changing stances of each corporation and its activists longitudinally, results generate the frequency and direction of six types of contingent corporation-activist relationship (CCAR) over time. Findings show that CCAR is dynamic and contingent upon stances of both parties on a specific issue. No matter the conflict is finally resolved or not, competing relationship occurs more frequently than cooperating relationship does in the conflict management process, which supports the argument that both parties in conflicts maintain a competitive relationship for self-interests, and when possible may adopt strategies to achieve mutual benefits. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.

Public Relations’ Role in Trust Building for Social Capital • Shugofa Dastgeer, University of Oklahoma • Social capital is a building block of social and political communities. At the same time, trust is the foundational prerequisite for the formation of social capital. Public relations plays a role in fostering social capital and trust in society. This paper proposes a model for public relations in building trust for social capital. The model illustrates that trust, communication, and engagement are vital for the development of social capital.

Stealing thunder and filling the silence: Twitter as a primary channel of police crisis communication • Brooke Fowler, University of Maryland • Twitter can be used successfully by police departments as a channel for stealing thunder and establishing the department as a credible news source. A case study on the Howard County Police Department’s use of Twitter during the Columbia Mall Shooting was conducted. Results reveal the potential benefits and limitations of using Twitter to steal thunder and a new technique, filling the silence, is proposed for maintaining an audience once an organization has stolen thunder.

Between Ignorance and Engagement: Exploring the Effects of Corporations’ Communicatory Engagement With Their Publics on Social Networking Sites • Eun Go • Two-way communication tools have expanded and magnified the range and scope of interactions between an organization and its publics. To understand the value of such communication tools, the present study identifies significant psychological factors as outcomes of using these tools. Employing a series of mediation analyses (N=148), this study particularly explores how the commenting function on social networking sites can be strategically used to promote online users’ favorable attitudes toward an organization. The findings show that active communication by an organization via the commenting function promotes favorable attitudes toward the organization by way of heightening the organization’s social presence and creating enhanced perceptions of the organization’s relational commitment. On the other hand, an organization’s dismissal of its users’ comments leaves a negative impression, suggesting to the public that the organization has exaggerated its social commitment. Further theoretical and practical implications of the study are also discussed.

Crisis Response Strategies of Sports Organizations and Its Fans: The Case of Ray Rice • Eunyoung Kim, University of Alabama • This study employs a content analysis to examine how a sports organization and its fans interactively used social media and how they utilized crisis response strategies in the Ray Rice case. The study compares crisis response strategies by the Baltimore Ravens team and its identified fans through social media. The results confirm (a) interactive use of Twitter with hyperlink, (b) utilization of separation strategy, and (c) sports fans’ communicating role with various strategies.

CSR without transparency is not good enough: Examining the effect of CSR fit and transparency efforts on skepticism and trust toward organizations • Hyosun Kim, Univeristy of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Tae Ho Lee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In order to tackle recent challenges surrounding CSR initiatives—stakeholder skepticism—this study aims to understand how CSR fit and transparency affect the enhancement of trust and encourage organization advocacy while lessening skepticism. In a 2 (CSR fit) X 2 (levels of transparency) between-subject experiment, this study discovered a significant main effect of transparency on skepticism, trust, and organization advocacy. A significant interaction on trust was also found, suggesting that low fit with high transparency increases trust.

Institutional Pressure and Transparency in CSR Disclosure: A Content Analysis of CSR Press Releases at CSRwire.com • Tae Ho Lee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This content analysis examines CSR press releases from 2007 to 2014, finding that coercive institutional pressures as manifested in CSR press releases are significantly related to a low level of accountability—one of the three transparency dimensions. This confirms previous suggestions that coercive isomorphism would generate nominal compliance without substantive efforts. Additionally, the integration of global perspectives from institutional theory and the general representation of transparency in CSR press releases are investigated and discussed.

Reputation from the inside out: Examining how nonprofit employees perceive the top leader influencing reputation • Laura Lemon, University of Tennessee • In-depth interviews with nonprofit employees were conducted to examine how nonprofit employees perceive the top leader and the top leader’s influence on the organization’s reputation. Participant perceptions primarily focused on positive and negative personality attributes that contributed to or detracted from perceptions of leadership style. One emergent finding was that most participants considered the top leader responsible for employee engagement. Additionally, some employees perceived the organization’s reputation as starting with the top leader. The top leader’s ability to create an internal participatory environment was the primary influence on the organization’s internal reputation. Participants perceived the top leader as the face of the organization and being recognized as an expert influencing the organization’s external reputation. One significant contribution from this study was the role of supporting manager that emerged in the interviews. In the case of perceived poor leadership, a supporting manager stepped in to compensate for the top leader’s management weaknesses.

Another crisis for government after crisis: A case study of South Korean government’s crisis communication on the Sewol Ferry disaster • Se Na Lim, university of alabama; Eunyoung Kim, University of Alabama • The current study investigates the crisis response strategies of South Korean government organizations on social media after the Sewol Ferry disaster. By conducting content analysis of 288 posts on Facebook of 13 South Korean government organizations, this study assesses their communication response strategies based on framing and situational crisis communication theory. The findings indicate that South Korea government organizations perceive the crisis with various perspectives and accordingly use various crisis response strategies.

Enhancing OPR Management through SNSs: The Role of Organizations’ SNS Message Strategies and Message Interactivity • Xinyu Lu, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Hao Xu, University of Minnesota • Heeding the limited research on the effects of corporate SNS communication strategies on relationship building, this experimental study examined the effects of two corporate SNS communication strategies—message strategies and message interactivity—on relationship building. The results suggest that both message strategies and message interactivity have strong effects on publics’ perception of organization-public relationship outcomes. Moreover, people’s identification with a company to some extent moderates the effects of these two strategies.

I am One of Them: A Social Identity Approach to Crisis Communication • Liang Ma • This study focused on how an individual’s ethnic and organizational memberships influence his/her emotional and cognitive experiences in a crisis. College students (N = 638) from a mid-Atlantic university participated in an online quasi-experiment. SEM was used to test the mediation model. Organizational membership protects organizational reputation and increases guilt. Shared ethnicity with victims has no effects on either organizational reputation or anger. Guilt threatens organizational reputation indirectly via anger. Reputation then predicts NWOM intentions.

Government Relationship-Building Practices Online: An Analysis of Capital City Websites • Lindsay McCluskey, Louisiana State University • Government public relations professionals have many opportunities to communicate directly with their publics; however, some practitioners have expressed concern about their website efforts. Websites are one popular and consequential medium for engagement and the government organization-public relationship. This study examines the website homepages of 50 capital cities through qualitative content analysis. The researcher assesses what website features and characteristics promote and advance Hon and Grunig’s relationship outcomes and Kent and Taylor’s dialogic public relations principles.

If Anything Can Go Wrong, It Will: Murphy’s Law, and the Unintended Consequences of Deliberate Communication • Timothy Penn, University of Maryland • Murphy’s Law popularly describes the unpredictable and often capricious relationship between humans and the modern technological world. The global media environment, changing cultural landscapes and changing social norms amplify this phenomenon. This case study explores this phenomenon by examining the JWT India, Ford Figo advertising campaign scandal. Poster cartoons, submitted for an advertising competition, that featured popular sport, celebrity and political figures kidnapping other celebrities, caused a worldwide media sensation, and led to the resignation of JWT executives. Borrowing from sociological theory, this exploratory study uses Merton’s (1936) typology of the unanticipated consequences of social action as a lens to analyze factors that led to JWT’s releasing the ads, and the worldwide reaction to them. The study used qualitative textual analysis of traditional and social media, on-line interviews and web logs. Analysis found five themes of Merton’s typology, lack of foreknowledge, habit, myopia, values, and self-defeating prediction, could partially explain or describe both the campaign’s release and the subsequent worldwide media reaction. Future research could lead to developing a typology of unintended consequences of deliberate communication for public relations.

Mobile Technology and Public Engagement: Exploring the Effects of College Students’ Mobile Phone Use on Their Public Engagement • Yuan Wang, University of Alabama • Mobile communication technology has been exerting a substantial impact on our society and daily lives. This study examined the effects of college students’ mobile phone use on their public engagement and the impacts of public engagement on behavioral intentions. More specifically, it conducted a survey of 409 college students in the United States to investigate college students’ use of mobile phone for information seeking and social media applications. The current study could advance the literature on public relations and mobile communication technology. Furthermore, this study could make some practical implications for university management to utilize mobile technology effectively to engage their students and establish relationships with them.

Ethical Approaches to Crisis Communication in Chemical Crises: A Content Analysis of Media Coverage of Chemical Crises from 2010 to 2014 • Xiaochen Zhang, University of Florida; Jonathan Borden, Syracuse University • Through a content analysis of media coverage of chemical crises in the U.S. from 2010 to 2014, this study examined chemical companies’ crisis communication strategies. Results revealed that, compared with large Fortune 500 corporations, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) were more likely to delay their response and to use more legal strategies and less public relations strategies. SMEs were also less likely to use base response strategies in their crisis response.

2015 Abstracts

Journalism Educators Call on 60 Minutes to Rethink Benghazi Report Correction

BY PAULA POINDEXTER, Texas-Austin • Nov. 25, 2013 | By now everyone knows CBS’s 60 Minutes has issued a correction and apology for its flawed Oct. 27, 2013 report on the Benghazi terrorist attack in which the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed.  How 60 Minutes handled the correction is a case study in how not to correct an inaccurate report in the digital age. Journalism is harmed when reporting turns out to be inaccurate, and it is harmed even more when corrections are ignored or minimized.

The majority of scrutiny on the 60 Minutes report on the Benghazi terrorist attack has focused on the quality of Lara Logan’s reporting. Logan attempted to bring a fresh perspective to the story with an exclusive interview with an eyewitness who turned out not to be an eyewitness after all. To complicate matters, this source had co-authored a book with his so-called eyewitness account that was being published by a sister-CBS property.

At first 60 Minutes stood by the story, but when it became evident that the eyewitness had lied, 60 Minutes issued a correction and an apology on Nov. 10, 2013. The correction, which aired two weeks after the original broadcast, was buried at the end of the hour-long 60 Minutes program even though Logan’s report had led the original broadcast.

The news media have a long history of ignoring or minimizing corrections, so 60 Minutes was following a dubious journalistic tradition. But 60 Minutes did not just try to minimize the correction; it also removed the flawed broadcast from its official archive on the CBS site and the 60 Minutes channel on YouTube as if to say the Benghazi report never existed. This handling of the report and its correction will likely further damage the public’s already low opinion of journalism. The Pew Research Center has found that only 18 percent of the public believes the press is “willing to admit mistakes” and almost three-quarters believe news organizations “try to cover up mistakes.” Recognizing how important correcting mistakes is to the public’s trust in journalism, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the largest association of journalism and communication educators in the world, calls upon 60 Minutes to return the original broadcast to its website and YouTube channel.

Correcting an inaccurate broadcast that has aired is challenging, but in today’s digital world, it can be done in a way that simultaneously preserves the original broadcast for the historical and journalistic record and tells the truth about the inaccurate content. Therefore, AEJMC recommends that 60 Minutes embed the original report together with Logan’s official correction and the link to her Nov. 8, 2013 CBS This Morning interview in which she answered tough questions about events that led to the defective report. Additionally, a correction should be superimposed across the video so there is no misunderstanding about the inaccurate content in the report.

If journalism is to regain the public’s trust, journalism cannot ignore, minimize or attempt to make mistakes disappear. Just as verification of information is a universal principle of journalism, there needs to be a universal principle for correcting mistakes in the digital age. Errors and their corrections must be transparent and accessible. News organizations must develop correction policies that are founded on ethical principles and are applicable regardless of medium or platform. Prominently posting these policies on the news site and adhering to them will be an important first step if the public’s trust in journalism is to be restored.

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<<PACS

Public Relations 2013 Abstracts

Open Competition

Examining Signs of Recovery: How Senior Crisis Communicators Define Organizational Crisis Recovery • Lucinda Austin, Elon University; Brooke Fisher Liu; Yan Jin • Through 20 in-depth interviews with senior crisis communicators, this study explores how crisis recovery is defined and what role organizational communication, organizational characteristics, and publics play. Findings reveal recovery is measured operationally and short-term. Effective communication principles include proactively addressing failures, being transparent/honest while mostly positive, focusing on future directions, and rebuilding/repairing symbolic damage. Organizational best practices include tested values and crisis leadership. Lastly, publics can facilitate healing, highlight victims’ voices, and provide recovery evidence.

Crisis Communication and Organizational-Centered Situational Considerations for Management • Elizabeth Avery, University of Tennessee; Melissa Graham, University of Tennessee • Survey data collected from local government officials (n=307) from municipalities across the United States identify how unique situational factors, particularly challenges and opportunities within organizations and their operating environments, affect crisis management. This study is a first step in establishing crisis models for various crisis types sensitive to unique organizationally-centered crisis management challenges. Results indicate that partnerships with outside agencies were extremely important in successfully managing a crisis. Implications and importance of findings are discussed.

The Role of Relationships in Public Broadcasting Fundraising • Joshua Bentley, University of Oklahoma; Namkee Park • This study tested the link between how audience members’ perceive their relationship with public broadcasting stations and their intention to donate to public broadcasting. A survey of 348 audience members was conducted. Structural equation modeling revealed a positive relationship between organization-public relationships (OPR; Hon & Grunig, 1999; Ledingham, 2006) and donation intention. The model also showed that parasocial interaction (Horton & Wohl, 1956; Rubin, 2009) directly affected OPR and indirectly affected donation intentions.

When and how do publics engage with nonprofit organizations through social media? A content analysis of organizational message strategies and public engagement with organizational Facebook pages • Moonhee Cho, University of South Florida; Tiffany Schweickart, University of South Florida; Abigail Haase, University of South Florida • The purpose of the study is 1) to investigate message strategies of nonprofits’ Facebook postings and 2) to examine the levels of public engagement based upon the message strategies. The study found that nonprofit organizations use Facebook to disseminate information rather than employ two-way interactions with their publics. The study also found that publics demonstrate high levels of engagement with organizational messages based on two-way symmetry, compared to public information or two-way asymmetrical messages.

Support for a Social Capital Theory of PR via Putnam’s Civic Engagement and PR Roles • Melissa Dodd, University of Central Florida; John Brummette, Radford University; Vincent Hazleton, Radford University • A social capital approach to public relations suggests public relations professionals serve as brokers of social resources on behalf of organizations. Putnam’s conceptualization suggests that civic engagement behaviors serve as surrogate measures of social capital. Results support a social capital approach such that data indicated public relations professionals are more likely to participate in civic engagement behaviors than the general U.S. population. Further, differences were found for manager/technician roles for subcategories of civic engagement behaviors.

Taking on the Bear: Public Relations Leaders Discuss Russian Challenges • Elina Erzikova, Central Michigan University • This study focuses on challenges that hamper the development of public relations in Russia, and possible approaches to mitigate the problems. Through a series of in-depth interviews, 13 leading public relations practitioners indicated that misinterpretation of the public relations function by a variety of publics and a low level of professionalism among practitioners are the most pressing issues the industry faces today. Societal factors such a public distrust in the government and a newly emerged culture of glamour intensify the problems. Participants viewed education in a broad sense (e.g., improving university public relations curricula and enlightening masses and the elites about normative public relations) as an opportunity to resist encroachment into public relations from top management, increase social legitimacy of the occupation and help various organizations meet challenges of globalization.

Replication in Public Relations Research: A 20-Year Review • Osenkor Gogo, University of Georgia; Zifei Chen, University of Georgia; Bryan Reber, University of Georgia • This study investigates replication trends in public relations research over the span of 20 years (1993 – 2012). Through content analysis, 2,038 research articles from three leading public relations and communication journals were examined: Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, and Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. With 14 replications found, our results indicate that replication studies were seldom published in the public relations literature over the examined timeframe. A majority of replications found were extensions, most replications supported the original findings, and research related to the practice of public relations was the most commonly found. Also, interest in replicating public relations research extended beyond the field. The implications of our findings, including possible explanations for the state of replication in public relations research, as well as potential solutions, are discussed.

Comparing the Two Sides of Perception of Crisis Management Strategies: Applying the Co-orientation Model to Crisis Management-Related Beliefs of Public Relations Agencies and Clients • Jin Hong Ha; Jun Heo, University of Southern Mississippi • This exploratory study found that public relations agencies and clients are in agreement on the perceptions of all crisis management strategies (understanding, manual, prevention, responding, communicating, and rebuilding). Second, agency practitioners are more likely to perceive agreement on two crisis management strategies (manual and responding) than do clients. Third, agency practitioners’ perceptions are inaccurate on 5 of the 6 factors (understanding, manual, prevention, responding, and rebuilding); clients are accurate on all factors.

Ideographs and the Strategic Communicator: The Case of U.S. Air Force Leadership Training Material • Phillip Hutchison, University of Kentucky • This case study employs rhetorical theory to highlight some of the easily overlooked ways in which organizational politics complicate the relationship between Public Relations and Strategic Communication. The study focuses on how ambiguous, value-laden language usage in organizational training programs can shape strategic meaning in ways that are not consciously intended and occasionally are dysfunctional. The author explains how such problems easily can spill over into Public Relations products and undermine internal and external communication.

Strategic Social Media Management and Public Relations Leadership: Insights from Industry Leaders • Yi Luo, Montclair State University; Hua Jiang, S. I. Newhouse of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Owen Kulemeka • Public relations leadership is an emerging field in the phase of defining its distinctive dimensions and analyzing the role it plays in organizations’ overall strategic planning and decision making. Based on 43 in-depth interviews with public relations leaders working in diverse for-profit companies and nonprofits, this study explored how the use of social media by those leaders helped them demonstrate expert power, gain decision-making power, and establish leadership among peer leaders/managers within the same organizations.

Conflict? What Work-Life Conflict? A National Study of Future Public Relations Practitioners • Hua Jiang, S. I. Newhouse of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University • Using a national random sample of PRSSA members (N = 464), this study explored public relations students’ perceptions of work-life conflict and tested a structural model with expected family-supportive organizational work environment and anticipated supervisory support as predictors, expected work-life conflict as a mediating variable, and projected salary as an outcome. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis, one-way ANOVAs, and descriptive analysis were conducted. Theoretical and practical implications of the study were discussed.

An assessment of progress in research on international public relations: from 2000 to 2011 • Eyun-Jung Ki, University of Alabama; Lan Ye, SUNY College at Cortland • This study investigates the trends, patterns and rigors of research studies on international public relations by conducting a content analysis of peer reviewed journals between 2000 and 2011. A total of 144 articles examined and information for each article was recorded, including journal name, publication year, country examined, authorship, theoretical application, method approach, and future research direction. While the number of articles addressing the topic has steadily increased, the field is still under-researched.

Decomposing Impression from Attitude in Relationship Management • Eyun-Jung Ki, University of Alabama; Elmie Nekmat • This study sets forth to expand relationship management research by testing the linkages among relationship quality perception, perceived organization impression, attitude, and behavioral intention across customers of five major banks. Perceived relational quality, individual attitude, and organizational impression significantly affected supportive behaviors. This study also found that perceived relational quality and organizational impression are also important predictors of attitude.

How Spokesperson Rank and Selected Media Channels Impact Perceptions in Crisis Communication • Jieun Lee, KPR & Associates, Inc.; Sora Kim, University of Florida; Emma Wertz, Kennesaw State University • This study examined the impact of spokesperson’s rank and selected media channels in crisis communication by employing different ranks (i.e., CEO and communication director spokespersons) and media channels (blogs, websites, and newspapers). Findings indicated that CEO spokespersons were more effective in terms of lowering publics’ crisis responsibility attributions than communication director spokespersons and that blogs were more effective in lowering crisis responsibility attributions than websites and newspapers.

How employees identify with their organizations in Korea: Effects of internal communication, organizational social capital, and employee-organization relationships • Daewook Kim, Texas Tech University; Soo-Yeon Kim, Sogang University • This study explores how employees identify with their organizations in the Korean context by examining the effects of internal communication, organizational social capital, and quality of employee-organization relationships. The results of this study showed that two-way and symmetrical internal communication were not significantly associated with organizational social capital and employee-organization identification. However, symmetrical internal communication and organizational social capital were positively associated with employee-organization relationships. Thus, employee-organization relationships mediated the relationships among symmetrical internal communication, organizational social capital, and employee-organization identification. The findings of this study suggest that symmetrical internal communication and organizational social capital play a critical role in building and maintaining healthy employee-organization relationships, and emphasize the role of managing employee-organization relationships in enhancing employee-organization identification in the Korean context.

Strategic Choice of CSR Initiatives: Impact of Reputation and CSR Fit on Stakeholder • Yeonsoo Kim, Weber State University • In order to provide insight on under which conditions CSR practices generate mutually beneficial outcomes for businesses and stakeholders, this study examined how corporate reputation interacts with CSR fit and influences attribution tendency, formation of attitudes and intent among stakeholders. The findings confirmed that corporate reputation is a top-level factor for organizations to achieve a sustained competitive advantage. For reputable companies, respondents perceived the motives more positively, showed better attitudes, and reported favorable supportive intent and purchase intent across different CSR fit situations. This study found that the effects of fit considerably differ by corporate reputation. Reputable companies’ high-fit programs lower stakeholders’ skeptical attribution toward the CSR. Attitudes toward the company were not influenced by different CSR fits. When bad reputation companies used high-fitting initiatives, respondents tended to show the weakest supportive intentions, meaning possible backlash effects. Reputable companies’ high-fitting programs engendered the most favorable purchase intentions. Such high-fitting programs produced backlash effects for companies with a poor reputation and with the weakest purchase intentions. A significant role of stakeholder skepticism on attitudes and behavioral intentions was found.

Compassion International & Pinterest: A Case Study • Carolyn Kim, Biola University; John Keeler, Regent University • This study examines Compassion International’s Pinterest account as a vanguard example of how organizations can utilize Pinterest to engage Brand Communities and as a result, steward relationships with existing and potential donors.

Public Fear Contagion: Testing Lay and Educated Publics’ Information Behaviors and Problem Chain Recognition Effect • Arunima Krishna; Jeong-Nam Kim, Purdue University • This study investigates publics’ communicative behaviors about emerging food technologies using the situational theory of problem solving, tests the Problem Chain Recognition Effect from a salient food risk to new food technologies, and show similarities/differences between expert/educated and lay publics’ behaviors and cognitions about food risks. The results help understand communication behaviors of publics regarding new food technologies, and delineate similarities/differences in predicted behaviors of expert/educated and lay publics. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Socially Mediated Democracy? Investigating Twitter as a digital pubic relations campaign tool • Heather LaMarre, University of Minnesota; Yoshi Suzuki • This study examines the effectiveness of Twitter as a public relations communications tool for congressional campaigns. As a means of examining Twitter’s effectiveness in mobilizing voters, congressional candidate and political party Twitter use for all 435 U.S. House of Representatives races (N = 1284) are compared with 2010 election outcomes. Results indicate that Twitter use is an effective means of developing relationships with publics and mobilizing voters in support of political candidates. Among the campaigns that used Twitter to develop effective relationships with their publics, increased levels of Twitter use significantly predicted increased odds of winning.

How public relations practitioners initiate relationships with journalists • Sun Young Lee, Texas Tech University • This study examines the media relations’ strategies of public relations practitioners: how PR practitioners initiate relationships with journalists, particularly surrounding the practice of “pitching,” and the sources from which they learned their strategies. We used a thematic analysis of 167 in-depth interviews students did with experienced PR practitioners. This study offers rich findings on the media relations strategies of practitioners and the sources thereof, topics overlooked in previous research, theory, and practice.

The Buffering Effect of Industry-Wide Crisis History During Crisis • Seul Lee, University of Florida; Sora Kim, University of Florida • Through an experiment, this study suggests that an industry-wide crisis history can mitigate negative damages created by crises, while an organization-specific crisis history intensifies the negative damages. This indicates the type of crisis history is an important factor to be considered when diagnosing proper crisis response strategies during crisis. In addition, this study identifies a stronger negative impact of an organization-specific crisis history among highly issue-involved publics than less involved ones.

An Ethnographic Examination of Public Sector Influences on the U.S. Coast Guard Social Media Program • Abbey Levenshus, University of Tennessee, Knoxville • An ethnographic case study of the U.S. Coast Guard social media program using interview, document, and participant observation data adds depth to the limited government public relations research and government social media management. USCG communicators reported influences categorized within five contexts: organization (USCG), military (DOD), parent agency (DHS), federal government, and the U.S. public sector. The study offers a behind-the-scenes view of public sector attributes and their influences on a government social media program.

Tweet or “Re-Tweet”? An Experiment of Message Type and Interactivity on Twitter • Zongchao Li, School of Communication, University of Miami; Cong Li, School of Communication, University of Miami • More corporations are recognizing the importance of social media for public relations. However, what communication strategy they should implement on social media remains somewhat unclear in the literature. This study examined the effects of message type and interactivity on a corporate Twitter account. Two types of messages, communal-relationship oriented tweets focusing on consumer relations, and exchange-relationship oriented tweets focusing on sales and product promotion, were tested with either a high or low level of interactivity in a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment (N = 84). Results indicate that communal messages generated more favorable relationship outcomes such as trust and control mutuality than exchange messages. It was also found that message interactivity positively influenced attitude toward the company, perceived company credibility, and commitment. Implications from both theoretical and practical standpoints are discussed.

Effects of transnational crises on corporate and country reputation and strategic responses • Hyun-Ji Lim, Jacksonville University • Through the employment of a 2x2x3 factorial experiment, this study attempts to examine how three factors – level of country reputation, salience of country of origin, types of image restoration strategy – can affect host customers’ attitudes and behavioral intentions. Findings of this study provide empirical evidence as to whether adopting an image repair strategy helps a country to recover its reputation during a crisis, and an opportunity to gain a better understanding of managing country reputation.

Public Engagement with Companies on Social Network Sites: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of China and the United States • Linjuan Rita Men, Southern Methodist University; Wanhsiu Sunny Tsai, University of Miami • This study evaluates how culture influences publics’ engagement activities on the corporate pages of social networking sites (SNSs). It further evaluates the underlying motivations and engagement mechanisms in two culturally distinct countries, China and the United States. Specifically, social media dependency, parasocial interaction, and community identification are examined as the key antecedents of public-organization engagement on SNSs. The results reveal both cultural differences and similarities between Chinese and American publics’ engagement with corporate SNS pages.

Developing and Validating Publics’ Information Transmitting Model as an Outcome of Relationship Management in Bitt Moon; Yunna Rhee • The purpose of this study was to develop a multi-dimensional model of publics’ information transmitting. Relevant literature in public relations, public communication, marketing communication, and interpersonal communication were reviewed. This paper then composed a six dimensional public’s information transmitting behavior (ITB) model according to the three criteria—activeness, valence, and expressivity. Six dimensions were as follows: ‘Praise-Leading’, ‘Praise-Following’, ‘Scolding-Leading’, ‘Scolding-Following’, ‘Avoiding’, and ‘No-commenting’ The result supported that the 18-item ITB model of six dimensions was significantly reliable and valid as we expected. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed.

Shifting, broadening, and diversifying: How gay pride organizations are shaping a uniquely 21st century mission • Dean Mundy, Appalachian State University • This study explores how gay pride organizations in ten major U.S. cities execute events that host collectively four million attendees annually. Gay pride’s mission has shifted in the last four-plus decades. Today’s pride organizations require yearlong strategic program planning and outreach. Moreover, they must establish relationships with—and facilitate an intricate community dialog among—a variety of new, diverse stakeholders. The findings reinforce how relationship management and stakeholder theory can inform best public relations practice.

The Misunderstood Nineteenth Century American Press Agent • Karen Russell, University of Georgia; Cayce Myers, University of Georgia • Analysis of press coverage of nineteenth century American press agents indicates that, although press agents worked in a variety of sectors, their primary motivation was profit, their main strategy was media relations, and their tactics often relied on hype or outright lying. A number of early practitioners of press agentry outside the entertainment sector are identified for further study to understand the relationship between press agentry and early corporate publicity.

Beyond the C-Suite: Public Relations’ Scope, Power & Influence at the Senior Executive Level • Marlene Neill, Ph.D., Baylor University • Traditionally public relations scholars have focused on gaining access to the C-suite, but this study demonstrates that there are actually multiple executive-level committees that need their counsel. The findings are based on in-depth interviews with 30 executives representing multiple departments in four U.S. companies, who discussed their involvement or exclusion in eight strategic issues. The factors that impacted public relations’ power and influence included the type of industry, preferences of the CEO, and organizational culture.

Attribution of Government Responsibility for Flu Pandemics: The Role of TV Health News Sources, Self-Efficacy Messages, and Crisis Severity • Sun-A Park, Robert Morris University; Hyunmin Lee, Saint Louis University; Maria Len-Rios, University of Missouri • This experimental study (N=146) investigated how sources in television news (government official vs. doctor), perceptions of crisis severity (high vs. low), and perceptions of self-efficacy messages (presence vs. absence) in TV news stories about the H1N1 flu affected the public’s perception of the government responsibility for the public health crisis and their personal control for preventing contraction of the H1N1 flu. Results revealed significant three-way interactions on perceptions of government crisis responsibility and personal control.

The Under-Representation of Hispanics in the Public Relations Profession: Perspectives of Hispanic Practitioners • David Radanovich, Quinnipiac University • This study explored the under-representation of Hispanics in the public relations profession by conducting in-depth interviews with Hispanic practitioners. The study found that public relations was not the Latinos’ initial career choice, identified three barriers to Hispanics entering the profession, and elicited three practical suggestions to attract more Hispanics to the public relations field. The study also revealed opportunities for future scholarly research to address the under-representation of Hispanics in the public relations profession.

Framing the Massachusetts Cape Wind Debate Among Active E Online Publics • Ben Benson; Bryan Reber, University of Georgia • Activist groups have lobbied for and against the Cape Wind Energy Project since 2001. This is a content analysis of activist groups’ master frames and online comments on Cape Wind news articles retrieved from The Boston Globe website. The most salient advocacy master frames concerned environmental and political benefits. The most salient opposition master frames regarded economic risks. Advocacy comments were recommended more often than opposition comments. Opposition comments containing aesthetic risks were most recommended.

Dialogic communication on Web 2.0: An analysis of organizations using social media to build relationships • Amy Reitz, University of Northern Colorado • In order to determine how social media cultivate relationships with organizational publics, a pilot study was conducted to test how well Kent and Taylor’s (1998) dialogic principles of relationship building work when applied to social media. The findings indicate that the dialogic principles seem to be an appropriate method to use when determining the dialogic principles present in organization social media, albeit with some modifications. Several recommendations are provided to reflect specific social media features.

Smart Friendly Liars: Public Perception of Public Relations Practitioners Over Time • Coy Callison, Texas Tech University; Patrick Merle, Florida State University; Trent Seltzer • Two national surveys of the general public in 2003 (n = 486) and 2012 (n = 372) asked participants to list words describing public relations practitioners. Analyses reveal that the overwhelming majority of the words are positive and that the most commonly used terms outline practitioner intellectual, ethical, and personality traits. While the majority of the personality and intellectual traits are positive, the ethical terms used to describe practitioners are predominately negative.

Identifying Network “Communities” of Theory: The Structure of Public Relations Paradigms • Erich Sommerfeldt, University of Maryland; Michael Paquette, University of Maryland; Melissa Janoske, University of Maryland, College Park; Liang Ma, University of Maryland, College Park • The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how network “communities” of theory can be used to identify distinct research paradigms within public relations literature. Through an analysis of 10 years of articles published in the Journal of Public Relations Research and Public Relations Review (N = 674) the study aimed to identify the theoretical structure of public relations scholarship through network analyses of the connections among theories used by public relations scholars. Results of network analyses suggest that Relationship Management is currently the most influential of the theories identified, in that it holds two general clusters or paradigms of public relations research together. Situational Crisis Communication Theory was identified as the most important theory in a dense group of highly interrelated theories used in crisis research. The paper offers implications on the lack of multiple explanations used in public relations research and the future of theory building in the discipline.

Tracking Influence Through the Social Web: A Network Analysis of Information Flow in Interest-Based Publics • Kathleen Stansberry, University of Akron • This study examines information flow in online, interest-based networks to determine if existing models of information dissemination are adequate. This study finds that a small number of primary influencers from within online communities are central to information collection, collation, and distribution. This finding is inconsistent with one-step, two-step, and multi-step flow models. To more accurately depict online information flow in interest-based networks, I propose a radial model of information flow.

Bridging the journalist-public relations practitioner gap: Toward an “expectations management” theory of media relations • Dustin Supa, Boston University; Lynn Zoch, Radford University • This study addresses one of the challenges facing the study of public relations, the lack of field-specific theory, by introducing the constructs for a new theory of media relations, the expecations management theory (EMT). Based on empirical data, the theory is both descriptive and normative, and defines the nature of the media relations transaction as being one of product, process, role and relationship.

An exploratory study of the effect of Twitter on the public relations – journalist relationship • Drew Wilson; Dustin Supa, Boston University • Media relations is one of the most common functions of the modern public relations. This study examines the impact of emerging media technologies on that function, and seeks to understand how public relations practitioners and journalists are using Twitter in both their personal work and in the relationship with the other profession.

BP’s Reputation Repair Strategies during the Gulf Oil Spill • Lindsay Jordan, Profiles Inc.; Kristen Swain, University of Mississippi • On April 20, 2010, British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, creating the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Analysis of 1,161 BP tweets during the crisis response reflected unexpected reputation repair strategies and responsibility attribution. Situational Crisis Communication Theory suggests that after an accident, PR messages typically reflect low responsibility attribution. Although the official investigation initially did not suggest a preventable crisis, 90% of BP’s tweets reflected high responsibility.

Who’s Coming to the Party? Exploring the Political Organization-Public Relationship in Terms of Relationship, Personality, Loyalty, and Outcomes Among First-Time Voters • Kaye Sweetser, University of Georgia • Building on political organization-public relationship research, this survey (N = 610) of first-time voters investigates the role of relationship as an independent variable. Relationship contributes to predicting strength of political party affiliation, alongside personality. Weak relationships appear to be a significant indicator among those who are no longer loyal to their party and cross party lines. Future research should track the path of relationship from these first-time voters to more experienced voters and longer-standing constituents.

The overarching effects of ethical reputation regardless of CSR cause fit and information source • Weiting Tao, University of Florida; Mary Ann Ferguson • Our experiment examines how corporate prior ethical reputation, CSR cause fit, and information source interact with each other; and how this interaction influences consumers’ evaluations of the company. Meanwhile, our study tests the mediating effect of inferred CSR motives on consumer responses to CSR initiatives. Results show that corporate prior ethical reputation affects consumers’ company evaluations regardless of CSR cause fit and information source, and that this effect is partially mediated by inferred CSR motives.

Stewardship and Involvement: Comparing the Impact on Nonprofit Organizations’ Relationships with Donors and Volunteers • Richard D. Waters, University of San Francisco; Denise Sevick Bortree, Penn State University • Given their focus on program and service delivery, nonprofit organizations often face scarce resources to carry out their administrative functions, such as donor relations and volunteer management. Through intercept surveys of adults (n = 362), this study examines how donor and volunteer relationships evolve differently in the nonprofit sector. Findings indicate that stewardship can boost relationship outcomes for donors and volunteers, but its impact on involvement differs for the two groups.

How Do Different Image Restoration Strategies Influence Organization-Public Relationships in a Crisis? • Richard VanDeHey, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point; Chang Wan Woo, James Madison University • This research paper illustrates how certain combinations of image restoration strategies encourage a more positive response from publics than others. Rebuild strategies such as mortification, corrective action, compensation, and bolstering were thought to elicit a better reaction from publics than diminishing strategies such as denial, blame shifting, minimization and defeasibility. An experimental study was conducted with 148 college undergraduates. The subjects read one of three fictional news articles (no response, diminishing strategy, and rebuild strategy) about a product recall for an energy drink that was causing illness and answered questions measuring six OPR outcomes suggested by Hon and Grunig (1999): a) trust, b) control mutuality, c) commitment, d) satisfaction, e) communal relationships, and f) exchange relationships. The participants expressed better perceptions about their potential relationship with the company when the company responded with a rebuild strategy. Limitations include lack of generalizability and imbalanced sample sizes of the three groups.

The Impact of Expressing Sympathy through Twitter in Crisis Management: An Experimental Study • Jie Xu, Villanova University; Yiye Wu • This study uses 2 (medium: twitter vs. news release) × 2 (emotional support: yes vs. no) factorial experiment to extrapolate the effects of social media and emotional support on consumers’ crisis appraisal. Two hundred and forty-five twitter users recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk system participate in this study. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVA) with univariate follow-up tests, using medium and emotional support as fixed factors and product involvement as a control variable are conducted. The result demonstrates significant interaction between emotional support and media channel; emotional support messages delivered through Twitter lowers the perceived crisis responsibility and retain positive organizational reputation, compared to such messages conveyed on news releases. Using twitter significantly lessens people’s sadness and anger. Respondents reading twitter pages attribute less crisis responsibility to the company, and withhold higher perceptions on organizational reputation and purchase intention. Moreover, expressing sympathy and emotional support significantly alleviates people’s sadness and anger, respondents reading messages with emotional support report lower scores on crisis responsibility. Implications, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Student

A Preliminary Study on the Impact of Social Identity on Crisis Attribution • Jonathan Borden, University of Florida • This study seeks to address the current gap in international crisis communications literature by introducing principles of Social Identity Theory into the existing body of crisis communications theory. Hypotheses were tested via an experimental examination of attribution, feelings of empathy, and organization evaluation in several treatment conditions. Analysis revealed that organizational nationality can offer some level of reputational protection whereas crisis location cannot.

Crisis communication and the NBA lockout: Exploring reactions to response strategies in sports crisis • Melanie Formentin • A pre-test, post-test experiment used the 2011 National Basketball Association (NBA) lockout as an example for exploring Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). Participants (n = 339) evaluated NBA reputation before seeing SCCT strategies embedded in experimental material. Results suggest contexts involving active stakeholders may call for more nuanced approaches to crisis communication. Only “active stakeholder” participants were impacted by SCCT strategies and had more established opinions and knowledge of the league and its crisis history.

“Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse”: CDC’s Use of Social Media and Humor in a Risk Campaign • Julia Daisy Fraustino, University of Maryland; Liang Ma, University of Maryland, College Park • This is a case study of CDC’s “zombie apocalypse” all-disaster preparedness campaign. A 2 (information form: social vs. traditional media) x 2 (message strategy: humorous vs. non-humorous) between-subjects factorial experiment, an interview with a CDC campaign manager, and campaign document analysis uncover benefits and pitfalls of social media and humorous messaging in a risk campaign. Findings show social media can quickly, widely spread disaster information; however, humor may diminish publics’ intentions to take recommended actions.

Social Media’s Effect on Local Government Melissa Graham, University of Tennessee • Using data collected from interviews with public information officers (PIOs) in local governments, this study explores the perceptions of social media as a communication tool. It specifically addresses how social media are used as a public relations function to promote democratic, participatory and transparency models in government. Four primary themes emerged from the data analysis: dialogue promotion, engagement, unconstrained, and barriers.

What Makes You Take an Action in a Crisis? : Exploring Cognitive Processing of Crisis Management • Kyung Jung Han, University of Missouri • This study aims to help practitioners and scholars systematically understand publics in a crisis situation. Based on protection motivation, public segmentation, and crisis management theories, this study conducted a 2 (controllability: high versus low) x 2 (severity: high versus low) experiment. The results show 1) an influence of severity to conative coping behaviors; 2) an interaction effect between severity and controllability; and 3) a relationship between involvement and conative behaviors.

Alerting a Campus Community: Emergency Notification Systems From A Public’s Perspective • Stephanie Madden, University of Maryland • This study evaluated a campus emergency notification system from a public’s perspective to understand how alerts are utilized and perceived. Four focus groups were conducted with students at a large, mid-Atlantic university, and one interview was conducted a public safety official. Findings revealed that alerts served as an information source to students and instigated a social response among them. Implications include a better understanding of how to improve alert messaging strategies.

Defining Early Public Relations: An Examination of the term “Public Relations” in the Popular Press 1774-1899 • Cayce Myers, University of Georgia • This paper examines the use of the term “public relations” in the popular press from 1774-1900. Oftentimes public relations history places the beginnings of PR in the late nineteenth century with a genesis in entertainment and later business. This examination of the use of the term public relations shows that public relations in the eighteenth and nineteenth century was related to politics, specifically international affairs, domestic relations, and political popularity.

The Effects of Media Effects on the Corporate Image of Media Companies • Brett Sherrick, Pennsylvania State University • Prior research in the third-person effects domain has shown that people who believe in harmful media effects are more willing to engage in defiance strategies, such as censorship. Analysis of survey data show that a belief in harmful media effects is also connected to negative evaluations of the media companies potentially responsible for those effects. This research suggests that public relations practitioners for media companies should have become involved in the debate over media effects.

The Billion-Dollar Question: Examining the Extent of Fundraising Encroachment on Public Relations in Higher Education • Christopher Wilson, University of Florida; Sarabdeep Kochhar • U.S. colleges and universities raise billions of dollars a year through sophisticated fundraising efforts. This emphasis on fundraising can lead to encroachment on public relations. To understand the extent of fundraising encroachment in this important nonprofit sector, content analysis was used to examine the structural relationship of public relations and fundraising. The analysis found that 19% of colleges and universities on the 2012 Philanthropy 400 list had structural fundraising encroachment regardless of governance or mission.

Teaching

A Complexity Approach to Teaching Crisis Management: Crisis Event Simulation in the Public Relations Classroom • Julia Daisy Fraustino, University of Maryland; Stephanie Madden, University of Maryland; Brooke Fisher Liu • This research presents an exploratory pilot study that takes a complexity theory approach to teaching crisis management/communication through an in-class computerized crisis simulation. Qualitative methods of direct observation of a two-session classroom simulation, and textual analyses of simulation response output as well as student-written reflections provide insights into the suitability of simulation as a public relations crisis teaching tool while also examining complexity theory in practice.

The Infographics Assignment: A Qualitative Study of Students’ and Professionals’ Perspectives • Tiffany Gallicano; Gee Ekachai; Karen Freberg, University of Louisville • In the evolving digital landscape, educators can consider adopting emerging tactics to prepare students for the workplace. One of these tactics, the infographic, incorporates storytelling characteristics by presenting synthesized knowledge and data in a visual way (Fernando, 2012). Through five focus groups with 37 students at three universities and interviews with 10 public relations professionals from various workplace settings, we explore strategies for teaching the infographics assignment and identify potential learning outcomes of the assignment.

Public Relations Students’ Ethics: An Examination of Attitude and Intended Behaviors • Lori McKinnon, Oklahoma State University; Jami Fullerton • A major challenge facing modern public relations practitioners is the knowledge and ability to engage in ethical reasoning. Public relations practitioners are at a critical juncture as they balance client advocacy with the public’s right to know, profit motive with personal values, and corporate responsibility with societal good. Thus, it is important for both practitioners and future practitioners to have a strong moral foundation. This study examines public relations students’ understanding of ethics and their attitudes and intended behaviors toward ethical dilemmas. The authors conclude that moral responsibility and the importance of ethical reasoning are vital for public relations students. These students, who will be tomorrow’s practitioners, have the potential to shape the field and improve its image. With a strong moral compass, students will be equipped to apply values and codes to the analysis of ethical dilemmas in public relations practice.

Online undergraduate public relations courses: Effects of interaction and presence on satisfaction and success • Jensen Moore, Louisiana State University • This study examined student success, failure, withdrawal and satisfaction in online public relations courses based on student/instructor interaction, student-to-student involvement, and instructor presence. Student passing rates, D/F rates, withdrawal rates, and evaluations of instruction were compiled from 51 online public relations courses run over the course of two years. The results from the study suggest that student involvement and self-discipline are the strongest predictors of success and satisfaction with online courses.

Does A Professor’s Gender and Professional Background Influence Students’ Perceptions? • Richard D. Waters, University of San Francisco; Natalie Tindall • This study examines how students’ evaluate educators by gauging their perceptions of the instructors’ professional competency, warmth, course difficulty, and industry connectivity. Using a 2×2 experimental design, students (n = 303) reviewed a syllabus for the introductory public relations course to test whether an instructor’s gender or professional background (academic—industry) influenced students’ perceptions. Findings suggest that students evaluate professors on professional criteria and their ability to connect classroom experiences to actual practice.

<<2013 Abstracts

Study: Values, Ethics of Sports Reporters Vary by Beat

[May 19, 2010]

Sports reporters on the high school beat, often the youngest and most inexperienced in the newsroom, are also the most likely to believe they can operate by more relaxed ethical codes than their counterparts, according to a new survey.

The telephone survey, conducted by researchers in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State, asked 263 reporters who cover sports at the high school, college or professional level about their attitudes toward ethical codes and professional norms for reporters.

More than one-third of the reporters surveyed covered prep sports, and almost as many said they covered professional teams. Far fewer – 14 percent – said they covered college sports. Eighteen percent reported on several beats.

Researchers analyzed responses by beat and found that reporters covering high school sports were more likely than those on professional beats to advocate a more “relaxed” code of ethics for sports reporters than for other parts of the newsroom. Preps (high school) reporters also more often reported friendships with sources and endorsed home-team boosterism in stories than did those who covered pro teams.

At the same time, preps reporters were more likely to agree with the idea that sports journalism should work in a public-service, “watchdog” role.

Marie Hardin, associate director of research in the Curley Center, said the findings may reflect both the idealism and inexperience of reporters at the preps level. Reporters covering high school sports had less journalism experience than those on other beats, and 65 percent of reporters on this beat were under 40.

“These reporters – often the least experienced in a sports department – are also the closest to their communities and face different types of ethical issues than do other sportswriters,” Hardin said. “Their jobs are often just as much about public education as they are about sports.”

Results of the survey, “Sports Reporters’ Attitudes About Ethics Vary Based on Beat,” by Hardin and Bu Zhong, who both teach in Penn State’s College of Communications, is published in the Spring 2010 issue of Newspaper Research Journal.

Other questions on the survey—administered by students in COMM 412 Sports, Media and Society, one of the core class offerings of the Curley Center—asked reporters about job satisfaction. Reporters covering prep sports less often said they had considered quitting their jobs. They also more often said they saw their career futures as bright.

“This could be a reflection of their age,” Hardin said. “They’re younger and more likely in a career-building stage.”

Their optimism may also reflect the perception that their beats are more secure than those at the professional or even college level, added Hardin, where travel costs and competition from a variety of sources – including sports leagues – is cutting into sports-department budgets.

“Meanwhile, the high school beat is a staple in sports sections, and that’s not going to change anytime soon,” Hardin said. “These journalists may understand the key role they play for their papers and in their communities.”

Contacts: Marie Hardin e-mail: or Bu Zhong e-mail: .

<<RYCU

President had limited framing power in stem cell debate

[July 15, 2010]

Former President George W. Bush had little influence over the media and public opinion in regard to stem cell research, according to a recent study published in Newspaper Research Journal.

Researchers Shahira Fahmy, Wayne Wanta and Jeannine E. Relly found that despite repeated presidential criticism of stem cell research, most of the 200 newspaper articles they examined were positive. The study examines coverage from 2004 to 2006, before Bush’s veto of a bill that would have ended federal restrictions on stem cell research funding.

While Bush’s main argument against stem cell research was based on ethical issues, only 5.5 percent of articles focused on ethical concerns regarding stem cell research.

The authors concluded that the more Bush spoke out against stem cell research, the more sources were quoted in support of the issue in an attempt by news media to report both sides. Also, the more coverage of the issue, the more informed individuals became on the issue and more information resulted in more support for stem cell research.

Fahmy is an associate professor and Relly is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Arizona. Wanta is the Welch-Bridgewater Chair in sports journalism in the School of Journalism and Broadcasting at Oklahoma State University.

The study was published in the summer 2010 issue of Newspaper Research Journal.

Contacts: Sandra H. Utt Cell: (901) 628-2553 e-mail: or
Elinor Kelley Grusin e-mail: .

<<RYCU

Civic and Citizen Journalism Interest Group

The Civic and Citizen Journalism Interest Group (CCJIG) invites research paper submissions for the 2013 AEJMC Conference, August 8-11, in Washington D.C.

Papers must be submitted in accordance with all requirements of AEJMC and its uniform paper call and electronic submission process. Authors should ensure that their papers do not contain identifying references. For a detailed explanation, please see “submitting a clean paper” under the uniform paper call on the AEJMC website.

Papers submitted will be eligible for separate faculty and student top paper awards of $151. Because of the separate competition for students, graduate students should be careful to identify themselves as such in the submission process. Papers co-authored with faculty members do not qualify for the student competition.

CCJIG is interested in research that examines the emergence, practice, sustenance and/or teaching modes of participatory journalism such as in civic or citizen journalism. Authors are urged to submit papers that generally conform to this group’s interests. Papers should make sure to include discussions of news within the context of participatory/civic/citizen journalism. For example, papers that examine the use of blogs without touching upon news do not automatically meet the group’s interests.

Suggested paper topics include: Participatory/citizen/civic journalism in political campaigns, citizen media (including news consumers as news producers), civic mapping, community conversations, newsroom projects, legal and ethical issues in participatory/civic/citizen journalism, crowdsourcing versus traditional “gatekeeper” journalism, participatory/ civic/citizen journalism in a multicultural environment, participatory/civic/citizen journalism and new technologies, history/philosophy of participatory journalism and its civic or citizen components, the changing newspaper industry economy and its effect on the development of participatory/civic/citizen journalism movements, media convergence and participatory journalism, the missions and meanings of “participatory,” “civic” or “citizen” journalism, teaching journalism in those categories, and use of polls, focus groups and other methods in civic reporting.

Please direct questions to CCJIG Research Chair Liz Viall ().

<<Paper Call

Public Relations 2012 Abstracts

Open Papers

Trust me, trust me not: An experimental analysis of the effect of transparency on trust and behavioral intentions in organizations • Giselle A. Auger, Duquesne University • Since the early 1990s calls for increased transparency have risen in all sectors of society. Seen as a solution to lapses of organizational ethics and misdeeds, transparency can help to restore trust, curtail employee dissatisfaction, and diminish reputational risk or damage (Bandsuch et al., 2008; Rawlins, 2009).  Research has identified transparency as a two part construct highlighting either an organization’s reputation for transparency or its efforts to communicate transparently (Auger, 2010; Rawlins, 2009).

Political Public Relations and the Promotion of Participatory, Transparent Government through Social Media • Elizabeth Avery, & Melissa Graham, University of Tennessee • Using data collected from over 450 local government officials from municipalities across the United States, this study examines the impact that various community features have on local government social media use.  It specifically addresses citizen expectations and how social media are being used as a public relations function to promote participatory and transparent government.  Results indicated that citizen expectations and perceived social media effectiveness by government officials was a strong predictor of social media use.

Empowered & Engaged: A Phenomenological Study Exploring Social Media Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations • Tessa Breneman, Alexis Abel, & Frauke Hachtmann, University of Nebraska-Lincoln • Although nonprofits see value and potential in social media, many have not yet mastered social media and harnessed its full potential. This phenomenological study sought to discover what the best social media strategies and tactics are for effectively engaging existing and potential donors, volunteers, and stakeholders, according to social media nonprofit professionals. Six themes emerged, including the following: listen to know and understand your audience; and focus on engagement and not fundraising.

Defining And Measuring Organization-Public Dialogue • Heewon Cha, Ewah Womans University, Sung-Un Yang, Indiana University at Bloomington; Minjeong Kang, Ball State University • The purpose of this research was to define and measure the quality of dialogue between an organization and its publics. Reviewing the literature from multiple disciplines, the researchers identified mutuality and openness in explicating dialogue in the context of organization-public relationships. To develop the scale of organization-public dialogue, this study used multiple methods, including in-depth interviews with experts, professional audit, and a survey. This research found the proposed two-factor model had tenable measurement reliability.

Speaking Out:  An Exploratory Analysis of Public Relations Professionals  And their Willingness to Self-Censor • Vincent Filak, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh & Melissa Dodd, University of Miami • Research using the Willingness to Self-Censor (WTSC) scale has shown the desire to withhold one’s opinion is an internal, as opposed to situational trait. This exploratory examination of public relations practitioners and educators (n=121) revealed that participants who scored higher on the WTSC scale were less likely to express their opinions on managing a crisis in a direct environment. These findings held even when controlling for key demographic variables and varying the opinion climate from hostile to friendly.

Navigating Anger in Happy Valley: Using Facebook for crisis response and image repair in the wake of the Sandusky scandal • Melanie Formentin, Denise Bortree, Julia Daisy Fraustino, Pennsylvania State University • Social media are important channels of communication during a crisis. This study examined the use of Facebook as a crisis management tool for Penn State University during the first month of the Sandusky scandal. A content analysis of all 129 posts made by the university during that time period and 2060 comments to the posts suggested that audience reaction to crisis information varies based on crisis response strategy, sources cited, and topics shared.

What Do Blog Readers Think? A Survey to Assess Ghost Blogging and Commenting • Tiffany Gallicano, Yoon Cho, & Thomas Bivins, University of Oregon • In a survey of practitioners, most respondents expressed approval of ghost blogging, provided that the stated author provides the content ideas and gives content approval (Doe, 2012). To investigate the ethics of ghost blogging and ghost commenting and the permissibility of these practices from readers’ perspectives, we conducted surveys with three groups. The groups included 507 readers of corporate blogs, 510 readers of politicians’ blogs, and 501 readers of nonprofit blogs.

Exploring Complex Organizational Communities: Identity as Emergent Perceptions, Boundaries, and Relationships • Dawn Gilpin, & Nina Miller, Arizona State University • Increasing numbers of scholars have been approaching organizations as complex systems. The present study extends this framework to view some organizations as complex communities, or multilevel aggregations of members with a relatively stable core and fluid boundaries, emergent through interactions between individuals, groups, and organizations.

Whistleblowing in public relations: Ethical dilemma or role responsibility • Cary Greenwood, Middle Tennessee State University • This paper responds to the call for a research agenda to address whistleblowing in public relations. Using resource dependence perspective, public relations role theory, and relationship management theory, this study surveys public relations executives in the Fortune 1000 corporations to identify their knowledge of wrongdoing, their reporting of wrongdoing, and their relationships with their employers.

On Publicity: Ivy Lee’s 1924 Address to the American Association of Teachers of Journalism • Kirk Hallahan, and Stephen Cory Robinson, Colorado State University • The presentation at one of AEJMC’s earliest conventions was a historically important event where the pioneer public relations practitioner articulated most fully his views about publicity. Lee’s remarks and the lively Q&A that followed were AEJMC’s first major discussion of public relations. This review examines Lee’s views about the nature of publicity; objectivity, facticity and disclosure; publicity versus advertising; the market-driven nature of news; the deluge of publicity materials and editors’ responsibilities; and publicists’ professional ethics.

Company executive vs. customer testimonial:  Examining credibility of quoted spokespersons in business-to-business communication • Pauline Howes, Kennesaw State University, & Lynne Sallot, University of Georgia • Through the framework of source credibility, this study examines the impact of quoting a company executive versus a customer testimonial in a business communication context.  A 2 x 7 full factorial experiment (N= 514) showed partial support for enhanced perceived credibility of information conveyed by a customer testimonial compared to a company spokesperson in independent and controlled media formats online.

Analyzing the Relationships among Website Interactivity and Organization Impression, Trust and Purchase intention for a Product Recall Crisis • Jooyun Hwang & Spiro Kiousis, University of Florida • Though there has been an array of research on crisis communication, relatively little attention has been paid to the attitudinal and behavioral consequences of public perceptions of web site interactivity as a communication channel during a crisis. In order to fill the gap in scholarship, this study examined the effect of different levels of web site interactivity to address a crisis response on respondents’ organization impression, trust, and purchase intention.

Examining the Relationship between International Public Relations Efforts, Media Coverage, Country Reputation and Performance using Agenda Building & Agenda Setting • Rajul Jain & Lawrence Winner, University of Florida • Using first and second level agenda building and agenda setting as the theoretical framework, this study examines the bottom-line impact of public relations efforts by operationalizing and quantifying the relationship between international public relations efforts, U.S. news media coverage of countries, country reputation, and indicators of economic performance. The study analyzed public relations messages and media coverage of the top 30 countries ranked by Anholt’s Nations Brands Index in 2009.

Enacting Best Practices in Risk Communication: Analysis of an Expert Panel • Melissa Janoske, Brooke Liu, Stephanie Madden, University of Maryland • A two-day workshop and follow-up interviews with risk communication practitioners and researchers were conducted to expand understanding and enactment of risk communication best practices, the obstacles to enacting them, and the gaps in knowledge that could aid in improving upon these best practices. Key findings include the importance of avoiding the myth of preparedness messages instilling public fear, methods for identifying and building key community relationships and partnerships, and suggestions for translating academic research.

Social campaigns help our image, right?: Using the situational theory to explore  effects on attitudes toward a brand and its issues • Elizabeth Johnson-Young, North Carolina State University, & Robert Magee, Virginia Tech • Using the situational theory of publics as a guide, the effects of Dove’s online campaign videos on attitudes toward the campaign issues and Dove’s brand are examined. Participants viewed one of four campaign videos with a different regulatory frame and were asked to respond to several scales that measured their levels of involvement with the issues, collective efficacy, concern for the issues, and attitudes toward Dove as the brand.

Usage and Effectiveness of Facebook for Organizational Crisis Management • Eyun-Jung Ki & Elmie Nekmat, University of Alabama • Through the lens of situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) and interactivity, this study examined the Facebook usage of Fortune 500 companies and the effectiveness with which these companies employed this platform for crisis management. Findings indicated that ‘justification’ and ‘full apology’ were the most commonly used crisis response strategies. The results also show that companies inappropriately match their responses to crisis situations.

“Because the Subaltern Cannot Speak”: An Introduction to the Culture-Centered Approach to Public Relations • Induk Kim, Northern Illinois • This study begins with the contention that current public relations scholarship, including the literature on activist public relations, is not fully equipped with a theoretical foundation to study public relations efforts organized in subaltern spaces. The study introduces the culture-centered approach as a theoretical framework to address this gap in literature and presents a case study of South Korean peasants’ anti-FTA activism to illustrate how the culture-centered approach can be adopted in public relations research.

Relational expectancy, expectancy violations, and post-crisis communication: BP oil spill Crisis • Sora Kim, University of Florida • Adopting the 2010 BP oil spill crisis, this study empirically tests (a) expectancy violation theory’s applicability into the setting of organization-public relationships and explores (b) the effectiveness of post-crisis communication strategies in the post-crisis stage. The findings suggest consumers’ relational satisfaction and predictive and prescriptive expectancies are significant predictors determining their responses toward the organization in the post-crisis stage.

Predictors of organizations’ crisis communication approaches: Full versus limited disclosure • Sora Kim & Emma Wertz, University of Florida • This study investigates the public relations (full disclosure) versus legal (limited disclosure) approaches that may be used by organizations during a preventable crisis, including factors that may predict decisions related to information disclosure. Both tangible and intangible aspects of an organization were explored. The results revealed that degree of crisis preparation, public relations influences, and crisis perception as an opportunity were significant predictors that determine full versus limited disclosure.

Exploring the Role of Senate Majority Leader Political Public Relations Efforts: Comparing Agenda-Building Effectiveness across Information Subsidies • Spiro Kiousis, Ji Young Kim, Ashley Carnifax & Sarabdeep Kochhar, University of Florida • Grounded in first- and second-level agenda building, this study explored the role of the Senate Majority Leader in shaping the salience of issues and issue attributes in news media coverage and policymaking in 2011. A total of 358 public relations messages, 164 newspaper articles, and 83 policy making documents were analyzed. Significant correlations were found supporting agenda-building linkages at both levels among Senate Majority Leader communications, media coverage, and congressional policymaking activities.

Corporate social responsibility communication on the Internet: A content analysis of Fortune 100 companies • Seul Lee, Eunju Kang, Mary Ann Ferguson, University of Florida • The main goals of this quantitative content analysis were to better understand CSR message presentation on corporate websites and the current state of CSR subjects. This study investigated which CSR issues were prominently presented on The Fortune 100 companies’ websites according to ISO 26000 guidelines. The content of websites was also analyzed to see how it presented CSR information.

Uncertainty Reduction Strategies via Twitter: The 2011 Wildfire Threat to Los Alamos National Laboratory • Nicole Merrifield & Michael Palenchar, University of Tennessee • This study applies Berger and Calabrese’s (1975) uncertainty reduction theory as a theoretical framework to describe how participatory publics use Twitter to reduce uncertainty during a crisis. Using the 2011 Las Conchas Wildfire as the event of study, this study adapted Berger’s (1987) three information-seeking typologies—passive, active and interactive—and used a content analysis to examine messages posted to Twitter during the eight-day, mandatory evacuation of 12,000 Los Alamos residents in the summer of 2011.

Theorizing the Global-Local Paradox: Comparative Research on Information Subsidies’ Localization by U.S.-based Multinational Corporations • Juan-Carlos Molleda, Sarabdeep Kochhar & Christopher Wilson, University of Florida • Informed from a multidisciplinary perspective, this study theorizes localization by exploring the extent of local-focus of information subsidies by U.S.-based Multinational Corporations. A total of 150 MNC subsidiary online newsrooms in China, India, and United Kingdom were analyzed in the subsidiary location using quantitative content analysis. The sample was drawn from the 2011 Forbes 500 List.

A Study on Exploring Antecedents of Relationship Dissolution in Organization-Public Relationships • Bitt Moon, Syracuse University & Sung-Un Yang, Indiana University at Bloomington • The purpose of this study was to explore antecedents of relationship dissolution in the context of organization-public relationships. Particularly, the researchers focused on antecedents to lead the relationship termination. A survey with 1,111 respondents was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. The results suggested that distrust and dissatisfaction had significant effects on relationships either directly or indirectly. Furthermore, our findings indicated that there were differential impact of dissatisfaction and distrust on the relationship termination.

Locating image management in public relations research: A content analysis of image-related studies published in the last two decades, 1991-2011 • Elmie Nekmat, Karla Gower & Lan Ye, University of Alabama • This study reviews the status of image management research in public relations and extrapolates important trends for future research and theory-building. A content analysis of research published in public relations (n=90), organization and business studies (n=122), and communication (n=49) from 1991 to 2011 was conducted. Findings reveal an increasing trend of image-related research in public relations. However, no specific image management public relations theories or concepts were utilized in the studies.

“We’re Not the Only One with the Crisis”: Exploring Situational Variables in an Extension of Situational Crisis Communication Theory • Hyun Jee Oh, Nanyang Technological University & Hyojung Park, San Diego State University • This study examined how crisis consistency and consensus in product-harm crises affect post-crisis outcomes, such as crisis responsibility attribution, corporate reputation, and behavioral intentions. An experiment revealed that lower crisis consensus led to more responsibility attribution to the organization, while higher crisis consistency increased anger, trust, perceived reputation, purchase intention, and negative word-of-mouth intention toward the organization. In this attribution process, anger was an effective mediator between consistency and other post-crisis outcomes.

Keeping It Real: Exploring the Roles of Conversational Human Voice and Source Credibility in Crisis Communication via Social Media • Hyojung Park, San Diego State University & Glen Cameron, University of Missouri • This study examined the effects of conversational human voice and source on crisis communication outcomes, using a 2 (tone of voice: human/organizational) _ 2 (source: public relations executive/private citizen) _ 2 (crisis response: defensive/accommodative) mixed experimental design. Results of path analysis and ANOVA indicate that first-person voice and personal narratives increased perceptions of social presence and interactivity in online communication. These perceptions subsequently resulted in positive post-crisis outcomes, such as reputation and behavioral intentions.

Hegemony, self-disciplining, and stigma among public relations professionals: Exploring Foucault’s concept of bio-power • Katie Place, Saint Louis University & Jennifer Vardeman-Winter, University of Houston • This qualitative study of 20 public relations practitioners examines power in public relations through the lens of bio-power – the control and management of human life through regulatory and discursive forces (Foucault, 1978; Macey, 2009; Vogelaar, 2007). Results suggest that bio-power exists as a) hegemonic knowledges of “brokering information,” “shaping public opinion,” “adding value,” and “pleasing people;” b) disciplining forces of a workaholic culture and self-censorship, and c) stigmas illustrating public relations as “spin” or “fluff.”

Developers’ Views about Public Meetings in the Context Public Relations Theory • Geah Pressgrove & John Besley, University of South Carolina • This study uses qualitative interviews (n = 25) to explore the mental models that real estate developers hold for public meetings, including their goals for such engagement and their views about participants. Developers were the focus because past research has failed to address views about engagement from the private-sector perspective and developers are often involved in public meetings.

Explicating and Investigating Stewardship Strategies on Nonprofit Website • Geah Pressgrove, Brooke Weberling & Erik Collins, University of South Carolina • Stewardship has been called the critical fifth step in the public relations process nonprofit organizations employ to develop relationships with various publics (Kelly, 2001). The purposes of this study are to explicate the meanings of the four stewardship strategies (responsibility, reporting, reciprocity and relationship nurturing) and, employing a quantitative content analysis of nonprofit websites, to further understand how top nonprofits deploy these strategies online. Findings indicate differences based on organization type and web page.

Beyond Reactive Public Relations:  How a Delphi Study of New Technology Informs Professional Practice • Adam Saffer, Michael Kent, Pop Rebeca, University of Oklahoma • This Delphi study assembled a panel of communication scholars and experts to identify trends and issues of online communication technologies. Since the current research has narrowly focused on specific tools, the broader issues of social media and technology have been overlooked. The findings from the study support the power of social media and suggest a mobile future for public relations practice. The essay provides recommendations for practitioners.

What Contributes to Public Relations Professionals’ Own Conflict: Life Affecting Work • Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University & Hua Jiang, Towson University • Based a national random sample (N = 820) of PRSA members, we studied three types of family responsibilities and salaries of professionals as stressors of their life-work conflict experiences. Results found the three types of life-work conflict subject to varied impact of family responsibilities while levels of behavior-based life-work conflict dependent on practitioners’ salary level. The story of life-work conflict is not as simple as a choice between “career vs. life.”

Seeking an Updated Understanding of the Public Relations – Journalist Relationship in the Age of Social Media • Dustin Supa, Boston University & Lynn Zoch, Radford University • Understanding how to effectively practice media relations is of utmost importance to public relations practitioners.  Part of that practice is an understanding of the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners, and another part is deciding what to present to the media in terms of newsworthiness. Using survey research, this study found great agreement about newsworthiness, but a significant difference in how the two professions view each other.

Predicting Digital and Social Media Adoption Based on Organizational and Practitioner Characteristics • Kjerstin Thorson, Burghardt Tenderich, Jerry Swerling, Niku Ward & Brenna Clairr O’Tierney, University of Southern California • This paper draws on a survey of senior-level public relations and communications practitioners to provide a new empirical look at the adoption of digital and social practices across a diverse set of organizations and to model adoption as a function of practitioner attitudes and organizational variables. We also offer a test of the relationship between digital/social media use and perceived value of the PR function in the organization.

Motivations and Antecedents of Public Engagement on Corporate Social Networking Sites • Sunny Wan-Hsiu Tsai & Rita Linjuan Men, University of Miami • Corporate pages on social networking sites (SNSs) have become the key platform where online stakeholders interact with companies. This study explored the motivations and antecedents that drive publics’ engagement with corporate SNS pages. A conceptual model explicating the effects of social relationship factors on public-organization engagement on SNSs was tested through an on-line survey of 280 Facebook users across various age groups.

Public Relations and Public Diplomacy:  A Divided Past, a Shared Future • Antoaneta Vanc & Kathy Fitzpatrick, Quinnipiac University • This paper assesses the status and scope of public diplomacy research by public relations scholars, revealing substantial theoretical and practical links between the two fields. The results indicate growing interest among public relations scholars in public diplomacy and tremendous potential for public relations to contribute to the intellectual and practical development of public diplomacy as a critical resource for protecting and advancing national and global interests.

Considering familial, sociopolitical, technological, and other factors in a cultural approach to risk communication • Jennifer Vardeman-Winter, University of Houston • Culture is an essential but difficult context within which to situate risk campaigns. This study employed a cultural study with 39 teen girls to learn what personal, familial, education, sociopolitical, and technological/media factors influence their decision-making about the Gardasil vaccine. Findings suggest that girls largely make risk decisions based on their social identities as expressions of their culture. Propositions are made about how to re-consider risk communication using cultural studies.

From Awareness to Advocacy: Understanding Nonprofit Communication, Participation, and Support • Brooke Weberling, University of South Carolina • This paper explores public support for nonprofit organizations by studying a specific fundraising event, Relay For Life, benefiting the American Cancer Society. Using an online survey of undergraduates (N=514), this research employs the situational theory of publics and the theory of reasoned action to explore communication and participation behaviors related to the health issue and organization. Multiple analyses show how the variables combine to represent a continuum that might help explain nonprofit support.

The influence of Confucianism on the Legitimacy of Chinese Organizations • Shuo Yao & John Brummette, Radford University, & Luo Yi, Montclair State University • The literature on organizational legitimacy makes the argument that organizations must adhere to the value-driven standards inherent in the cultures in which they operate.  Using a quantitative content analysis of Chinese Fortune 500 companies’ websites, this study examines the strategic legitimation efforts of Chinese organizations.  Twenty-nine value clusters were identified in the analysis, some of which strongly demonstrate the influence of Confucianism on Chinese organizations (e.g., harmony, national-interests oriented, and self-regulation).

Student Papers

Crisis Attribution in News Articles: A Study of the Effect of Labeling on Corporate Reputation • Alyssa Appelman & Michelle Asmara, Pennsylvania State University • This experiment explores the relationship between labeling of a corporate crisis and corporate reputation. Participants read a news article about a corporate crisis and answered questions about perceived organizational responsibility, intent, locus, negative impression of the organization, degree of trust in the organization, and corporate reputation. The results do not show a relationship between labeling and corporate reputation. Explanations, directions for future research, and implications for public relations practitioners are explored.

Are Public Radio Stations Creating Opportunities for Dialogue on Their Web Sites? • Joshua Bentley, University of Oklahoma • Public radio stations serve their communities and rely on those communities for financial support. Both academic and practitioner literature has recognized the importance of relationship building in effective fundraising. One tool for building relationships is an organization’s Web site. This study applied Kent and Taylor’s (1998) five principles of dialogic Web design to the Web sites of 200 public radio stations. A content analysis revealed that public radio site score high on two of the five dialogic principles. However, there is room for radio stations to improve their sites. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Winning Hearts and Building Community:  An Analysis of Basic Rights Oregon’s “Love. Commitment. Marriage.” Campaign • Erica Ciszek, University of Oregon • This case study of Basic Rights Oregon, a state-based LGBT advocacy organization, considers the strategies and tactics employed by a local advocacy organization within the context of the national marriage debate. This research demonstrates how an advocacy organization, through political public relations, uses multiple media platforms to communicate particular emotionally and socially framed messages in hopes of gathering public support for political policies.

How to minimize corporate social responsibility (CSR) cynicism in younger generations: Exploring trickle effects of social partnerships • Daewook Kim, Texas Tech University • This study was primarily aimed at exploring trickle effects of social partnerships on CSR cynicism in younger generations. Overall, the results of this study indicated that CSR cynicism was differently associated with attitude toward CSR campaign and perceived CSR efficacy, according to types of social partnerships. In addition, attitude toward CSR campaign and perceived CSR efficacy was differently associated with either communal relationships or organizational identification, according to social partnership conditions.

Social Media as a Relationship Strategy: Twitter’s Impact on Enhancing Brand Loyalty • Zongchao Li, University of Miami • This study examined the relationship strategies on Twitter as represented by U.S. retail corporations. A content analysis was conducted comparing the tweets of two groups of retailers — a brand loyalty leader group and a Fortune 500 group. Findings indicate the brand loyalty retailers used Twitter more in a two-way communication manner, while the Fortune 500 group were more one-way oriented. Two relationship maintenance strategies, positivity and assurance, were found significantly different between the groups.

A Fight for Legitimacy:  A Case Study of the 2011 Education Union Crisis • Paquette, Michael, University of Maryland • This case study furthers the understanding of the post-crisis/learning phase of a crisis by examining the Wisconsin Education Association Council’s response to a legitimacy crisis in February 2011.  Using the theoretical frameworks of reflective management and the discourse of renewal, the study found that the education union demonstrated organizational learning through: increased engagement with stakeholders, an organic response to the crisis, and rearticulating its core values.

CSR-crisis relevance on the public’s blame attributions • Hanna Park • This study examined the main effects and interaction effects of type of crisis (victim or preventable crisis), severity of damage (minor or severe crisis), and CSR-crisis relevance (relevant CSR, irrelevant CSR, or no CSR) on the public’s blame attributions and its perceptions of attitude, trust, reputation, and supportive behavior intention toward a company. A total of 360 general consumers were recruited for an online experiment based on a fictitious company brand.

Strategic Partnership with Nonprofits in Practicing CSR: The Mediating Role of Perceived Altruism and Organizational Identification on Supportive CSR Outcomes • Hyejoon Rim & Jaejin Lee, University of Florida • To provide insight for a company determining ideal nonprofit partners, this study investigates how prior company reputation, nonprofit brand familiarity, and fit between the company and nonprofit influence supportive CSR outcomes. The study also examines the critical mediation role of perceived altruism and public-organizational identification in such associations. The results show the significant direct effects of company reputation, nonprofit familiarity, and cause-brand fit on supportive CSR outcomes.

The Role of the Organization in Networked Social Capital: A Political Public Relations Model of Social Capital Building • Adam Saffer, University of Oklahoma • Social capital is an emerging buzzword in many social science disciplines and the field of public relations (Ihlen, 2005) that explains the significance of social relations in our communication. The emerging literature of political public relations has yet to consider the concept of social capital. This essay introduces social capital to political public relations scholarship and builds a theoretical model that explains how organizations use their relationships with publics to achieve political objectives through mediated channels.

E-mobilization and empowered health activism: How social media changes the mutuality between Korean health activism and its external counterparts • KyuJin Shim, Syracuse University • This case study explores how the Korea Leukemia Patient Group (KLPG) uses social media in its internal communication strategy and how that empowers its relationship with external counterparts. The findings of this study indicate that the local health NGO’s communication strategy is changing in response to the increased effectiveness and impact of social media. With the use of social media like Twitter, the KLPG can construct an issue-based advocacy group quickly and effectively.

Identifying Social Media Influencers: Using Network Mapping to Track Information Flows in Online Interest-Based Publics • Kathleen Stansberry, University of Oregon • This research examines the use of online network analysis methods to identify and map the communication patterns of influencers in interest-based publics. Using the network analysis program IssueCrawler, this paper maps the link pattern among members of the online young adult cancer community. The results of this study show that online network analysis can be a highly effective tool to identify influencers and provide valuable information for public relations practitioners working with online publics.

Examining the Effect of Organizations’ Interpersonal Approach in Social Networking Sites • Kang Hoon Sung, University of Florida • People use social networking sites mainly for interpersonal communication. Thus, corporate communication focusing on promotional activities might create negative sentiments toward the company on those platforms. This experimental study examined the effect of organizations’ interpersonal approaches (e.g., non-promotional messages, interaction) in social networking sites using real and fictitious companies. The results revealed that people evaluated a company more positively when the company was highly interactive with customers.

A Comparative Content Analysis of Fortune 1000 Corporate Communication Strategy on Facebook and Twitter • Weiting Tao & Christopher Wilson, University of Florida • This quantitative content analysis of corporate Facebook and Twitter sites examined: 1) the extent to which Fortune 1000 corporations used Facebook and Twitter to communicate with stakeholders; 2) the communication strategies these corporations adopted for Facebook and Twitter; and 3) the consistency of communication strategies used on both social media sites. The results have practical application for leveraging multiple social media platforms and theoretical implications for the use of social media for public relations.

Corporate Web Site Communication with Investors: The Relationship among Employee Size, Profitability, and Web Site Communication • Nur Uysal, University of Oklahoma • This study examined S&P 500 petro-chemical corporations’ use of Web sites to communicate with investors—shareholders, potential investors, and analysts. The findings of a Web site content analysis suggested that Web site public relations efforts facilitate dialogic communication with investors. Using data from Compustat and CRSP datasets, a pair-wise correlation analysis and a multiple regression analysis revealed that companies with more employees and larger profits tended to provide more dialogic features on their Web sites.

Measuring BP Media Relations Outcomes Post Spill: An Illustration of How Public Relations’ Effects May Be Overestimated • Brendan Watson, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • A survey examined whether journalists’ (N=126) assessments of BP media relations predict public relations outcomes following the BP oil spill. The study found that the BP-journalist relationship predicted journalists’ attitudes toward the industry’s degree of corporate responsibility. Current research methods advanced in the professional and scholarly public relations literature, however, overestimated this relationship. The importance in public relations research of using multivariate models to control for variables outside of the organization-public relationship is discussed.

<< 2012 Abstracts

Book Reviews Index M, N, 71-80

J&MC Quarterly Index Vol. 71-80 • 1994 to 2003

M

MACDONALD, J. FRED, Blacks and White TV: African Americans in Television Since 1948, 2d ed., (Stuart H. Surlin) 71:1, 259.

MALLIN, JAY, SR., Covering Castro: Rise and Decline of Cuba’s Communist Dictator (Michael B. Salwen) 72:1, 236.

MALONE, MICHAEL S., The Microprocessor: A Biography (Paula M. Poindexter) 73:2, 494.

MANHEIM, JAROL B., The Death of a Thousand Cuts: Corporate Campaigns and the Attack on the Corporation (Rebekah V. Bromley) 79:2, 478.

MANN, PATRICIA S., Micro-Politics: Agency in a Postfeminist Era (Lianne Fridriksson) 71:4, 1006.

MANNING, PAUL, News and News Sources: A Critical Introduction (Kim Landon) 79:2, 502.

MANOVICH, LEV, The Language of New Media (Kathleen K. Olson) 79:2, 494.

MAREK, JAYNE E., Women Editing Modernism: “Little” Magazines & Literary History (Carolyn Kitch) 73:3, 773.

MARLANE, JUDITH, Women in Television News Revisited (Angela Powers) 76:4, 792.

MARTIN, ROBERT W. T., The Free and Open Press: The Founding of American Democratic Press Liberty, 1640-1800 (David A. Copeland) 79:3, 766.

MARTIN, SHANNON A. and KATHLEEN A. HANSEN, Newspapers of Record in a Digital Age: From Hot Type to Hot Link (Hugh S. Fullerton) 75:4, 850.

MARTIN, SHANNON E., Bits, Bytes, and Big Brother: Federal Information Control in the Technological Age (William J. Leonhirth) 73:1, 245.

MATSUDA, MARI J., CHARLES R. LAWRENCE III, RICHARD DELGADO, and KIMBERLE WILLIAMS CRENSHAW, Words That Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment (Jeremy Cohen) 71:2, 483.

MATTELART, ARMAND, Mapping World Communication: War, Progress, Culture (David B. Sachsman) 72:2, 474.

MAXWELL, BILL, Maximum Insight (Jean Chance) 79:1, 244.

MAXWELL, BRUCE, Washington Online: How to Access the Government’s Electronic Bulletin Boards (Steven J. Dick) 72:2, 485.

MAYNARD, ROBERT C. with DORI J. MAYNARD, Letters to My Children (George Estrada) 73:2, 489.

MCALLISTER, MATTHEW P., EDWARD H. SEWELL, JR., and IAN GORDON, eds., Comics & Ideology (Lucy Shelton Caswell) 79:1, 218.

MCCARTHY, ANNA, Ambient Television: Visual Culture and Public Space (W. Richard Whitaker) 79:2, 468.

MCCAULEY, MICHAEL P., ERIC E. PETERSON, B. LEE ARTZ, and DEEDEE HALLECK, eds., Public Broadcasting and the Public Interest (Louise Benjamin) 80:4, 995.

MCCHESNEY, ROBERT W., Telecommunications, Mass Media, & Democracy (Beth Haller) 73:1, 272.

MCCHESNEY, ROBERT W., Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times (Joseph P. Bernt) 77:1, 205.

MCCOMBS, MAXWELL, DONALD L. SHAW, and DAVID WEAVER, eds., Communication and Democracy: Exploring the Intellectual Frontiers in Agenda-Setting Theory (Everett M. Rogers) 74:4, 892.

MCCOMBS, MAXWELL and AMY REYNOLDS, eds., The Poll With a Human Face: The National Issues Convention Experiment in Political Communication (Robert O. Wyatt) 77:2, 435.

MCCORD, RICHARD, The Chain Gang, One Newspaper versus the Gannett Empire (Benjamin Burns) 79:3, 754.

MCDANIEL, DREW, Electronic Tigers of Southeast Asia: The Politics of Media, Technology, and National Development (Robyn S. Goodman) 79:2, 481.

MCDONOUGH, JOHN and KAREN EGOLF, eds., The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising (Tom Bowers) 80:2, 449.

MCDOUGAL, DENNIS, Privileged Son: Otis Chandler and the Rise and Fall of the L.A. Times Dynasty (Bryce Nelson) 79:1, 250.

MCELREATH, MARK P., Managing Systematic and Ethical Public Relations (R. Brooks Garner) 71:2, 468.

MCGOWAN, WILLIAM, Coloring the News, How Crusading for Diversity Has Corrupted American Journalism (Benjamin J. Burns) 79:1, 216.

MCGUIRE, MARY, LINDA STILBORNE, MELINDA MCADAMS, and LAUREL HYATT, The Internet Handbook for Writers, Researchers, and Journalists (Robert Huesca) 75:4, 846.

MCINTYRE, BRYCE T., ed., Mass Media in the Asian Pacific (Tsan-Kuo Chang) 75:3, 668.

MCKERCHER, CATHERINE, Newsworkers United: Labor, Convergence, and North American Newspapers (Bonnie Brennen) 80:1, 218.

MCLAUGHLIN, GREG, The War Correspondent (Patrick S. Washburn) 80:1, 231.

MCLUHAN-ORTVED, STEPHANIE (producer) and TOM WOLFE (writer/narrator), The Video McLuhan (Vols. 1-6) (James Carey) 74:2, 449.

MCMANUS, JOHN H., Market-Driven Journalism: Let the Citizen Beware? (George Sylvie) 71:4, 1004.

MCPHAIL, THOMAS L., Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends (Kevin L. Keenan) 79:2, 488.

MCQUAIL, DENIS, Audience Analysis (Gerald M. Kosicki) 75:3, 659.

MEADOWS, MICHAEL, Voices in the Wilderness: Images of Aboriginal People in the Australian Media (Félix Gutiérrez) 78:4, 879.

MELKOTE, SRINIVAS R. and SANDHYA RAO, eds., Critical Issues in Communication: Looking Inward for Answers. Essays in Honor of K.E. Eapen (Nilanjana Bardhan) 79:3, 760.

MELLO, MICHAEL, The Wrong Man – A True Story of Innocence on Death Row (Linn Washington Jr.) 79:2, 521.

MERMIN, JONATHAN, Debating War and Peace: Media Coverage of U.S. Intervention in the Post-Vietnam (W. Richard Whitaker) 76:4, 779.

MERRILL, JOHN C., Journalism Ethics: Philosophical Foundations for News Media (Hendrik Overduin) 75:2, 432.

MERRILL, JOHN C., PETER J. GADE, and FREDERICK R. BLEVENS, Twilight of Press Freedom: The Rise of People’s Journalism (Robert E. Drechsel) 78:3, 620.

MERRITT, DAVIS “BUZZ,” Public Journalism & Public Life: Why Telling the News Is Not Enough (Barbara Zang) 72:4, 976.

MERZER, MARTIN, and the staff of The Miami Herald, The Miami Herald Report: Democracy Held Hostage (Michael B. Salwen) 78:3, 613.

MESSARIS, PAUL, “Visual Literacy”: Image, Mind, and Reality (Kevin G. Barnhurst) 71:3, 756.

METALLINOS, NIKOS, Television Aesthetics: Perceptual, Cognitive, and Compositional Bases (Thimios Zaharopoulos) 74:2, 448.

MEYERS, JEFFREY, Edmund Wilson: A Biography (James Aucoin) 72:4, 968.

MEYERS, MARIAN, News Coverage of Violence Against Women: Engendering Blame (Julie Henderson) 74:3, 652.

MICKELSON, SIG, The Decade That Shaped Television News: CBS in the 1950s (Chris W. Allen) 76:1, 170.

MICKIEWICZ, ELLEN, Changing Channels: Television and the Struggle for Power in Russia (Douglas A. Boyd) 74:3, 645.

MILLER, BARBARA, and others, Education for Freedom (Louis E. Inglehart) 71:4, 1024.

MILLER, JON D. and LINDA G. KIMMEL, Biomedical Communications: Purposes, Audiences, and Strategies (Janet Kaye) 79:3, 747.

MILLER, KAREN S., The Voice of Business: Hill & Knowlton and Postwar Public Relations (Frank D. Durham) 76:4, 789.

MILLER, TOBY, NITIN GOVIL, JOHN MCMURRIA, and RICHARD MAXWELL, Global Hollywood (Anne Cooper-Chen) 79:3, 768.

MIN, EUNGJUN, ed., Reading the Homeless: The Media’s Image of Homeless Culture (Barbara Zang) 77:2, 437.

MINDICH, DAVID T. Z., Just the Facts: How “Objectivity” Came to Define American Journalism (Robert M. Ogles) 76:2, 398.

MIRALDI, ROBERT, ed., The Muckrakers: Evangelical Crusaders (Susan Willey) 78:2, 397.

MITCHELL, CAROLINE, ed., Women and Radio: Airing Differences (Christopher H. Sterling) 79:1, 2, 79:1, 233.

MITCHELL, CATHERINE C., Margaret Fuller’s New York Journalism: A Biographical Essay and Key Writings (Karen F. Brown) 72:4, 969.

MONDAK, JEFFERY J., Nothing to Read: Newspapers and Elections in a Social Experiment (David H. Morrissey) 73:2, 497.

MONTGOMERY, GAYLE B. and JAMES W. JOHNSON with PAUL G. MANOLIS, One Step From the White House: The Rise and Fall of Senator William F. Knowland (George Estrada Jr.) 75:4, 851.

MOORE, MOLLY, A Woman at War: Storming Kuwait with the U.S. Marines (Meta G. Carstarphen) 71:2, 481.

MOORE, ROY L., Mass Communication Law and Ethics (Craig Sanders) 72:1, 245.

MORFFITT, MARY ANNE, Campaign Strategies and Message Design: A Practitioner’s Guide from Start to Finish (Edd Applegate) 76:3, 606.

MORLEY, PATRICK, This Is the American Forces Network: The Anglo-American Battle of the Air Waves in World War II (Wallace B. Eberhard) 79:1, 257.

MORRIS, JAMES MCGRATH, Jailhouse Journalism: The Fourth Estate Behind Bars (George M. Abney) 76:1, 176.

MOY, PATRICIA and MICHAEL PFAU, With Malice Toward All? The Media and Public Confidence in Democratic Institutions (Edmund B. Lambeth) 77:4, 933.

MUELLER, MILTON L., Telephone Companies in Paradise: A Case Study in Telecommunications Deregulation (Hoyt Purvis) 71:3, 754.

MULLEN, MEGAN, The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States: Revolution or Evolution? (W. Richard Whitaker) 80:4, 997.

MUNSON, EVE STRYKER and CATHERINE A. WARREN, eds., James W. Carey: A Critical Reader (Theodore L. Glasser) 75:1, 212.

MUNSON, WAYNE, All Talk: The Talk Show in Media Culture (Judith Sheppard) 71:4, 999.

MURPHY, JOHN H. and ISABELLA C.M. CUNNINGHAM, Advertising and Marketing Communication Management (E. Lincoln James) 72:1, 232.

MURPHY, TIMOTHY and SUZANNE POIRIER, eds., Writing AIDS: Gay Literature, Language and Analysis (John E. Bowes) 71:1, 231.

MURRAY, DAVID, JOEL SCHWARTZ, and S. ROBERT LICHTER, It Ain’t Necessarily So: How the Media Make and Unmake the Scientific Picture of Reality (Edward Caudill) 79:1, 236.

MURRAY, MICHAEL D., The Political Performers: CBS Broadcasts in the Public Interest (Joan Bieder) 72:3, 744.

MURRAY, MICHAEL D. and DONALD G. GODFREY, eds.,Television in America: Local Station History from Across the Nation (Jim Upshaw) 74:4, 907.

MURRAY, MICHAEL D., ed., Encyclopedia of Television News (Kris M. Wilson) 76:2, 392.

MYTTON, GRAHAM, ed., Global Audiences: Research for World Broadcasting 1993 (Tuen-Yu Lau) 71:1, 224.

N

NACOS, BRIGITTE L., Terrorism and the Media: From the Iran Hostage Crisis to the World Trade Center Bombing (Caroline Dow) 72:4, 979.

NACOS, BRIGETTE L., Terrorism and the Media: From the Iran Hostage Crisis to the Oklahoma City Bombing (Richard Shafer) 73:3, 770.

NACOS, BRIGETTE L., Mass Mediated Terrorism (Christopher Hanson) 80:3, 731.

NAPOLI, PHILIP M., Foundations of Communications Policy: Principles and Process in the Regulation of Electronic Media (Louise Benjamin) 78:4, 854.

NASAW, DAVID, The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst (Michael S. Sweeney) 78:1, 196.

NEGROPONTE, NICHOLAS, Being Digital (Suzanne Huffman) 72:4, 965.

NELSON, JILL, Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience (Diana Fallis) 71:2, 479.

NELSON, RICHARD ALAN, A Chronology and Glossary of Propaganda in the United States (Manny Paraschos) 74:3, 645.

NELSON, STANLEY, producer, The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords (video) (Harry Amana) 75:2, 435.

NERONE, JOHN, Violence Against the Press: Policing the Public Sphere in U.S. History (Norma Fay Green) 72:2, 484.

NEUZIL, MARK and WILLIAM KOVARIK, Mass Media & Environmental Conflict: America’s Green Crusades (John A. Palen) 74:1, 214.

NEVILLE, JOHN F., The Press, the Rosenbergs and the Cold War (J. Michael Robertson) 73:2, 499.

NEWKIRK, PAMELA, Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media (Harry Amana) 77:4, 934.

NEWMAN, BRUCE I., The Mass Marketing of Politics: Democracy in an Age of Manufactured Images (Patricia Moy) 76:4, 781.

NEWTON, JULIANNE H., The Burden of Visual Truth: The Role of Photojournalism in Mediating Reality (Paul E. Kostyu) 78:1, 195.

NIVAT, ANNE, Chienne De Guerre: A Woman Reporter Behind the Lines of the War in Chechnya (Linda J. Lumsden) 79:3, 756.

NOCK, STEVEN L., The Costs of Privacy: Surveillance And Reputation in America (Tim Gleason) 71:2, 464.

NORD, DAVID PAUL, Communities of Journalism: A History of American Newspapers and Their Readers (Hazel Dicken-Garcia) 79:2, 475.

NORDENSTRENG, KAARLE and HERBERT I. SCHILLER, eds., Beyond National Sovereignty: International Communication in the 1990s (Paul Ashdown) 71:3, 734.

NORDENSTRENG, KAARLE, ELENA VARTANOVA, and YASSEN ZAS-SOURSKY, eds., Russian Media Challenge (Owen V. Johnson) 79:3, 788.

NORRIS, PIPPA, A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies (Mira Sotirovic) 78:3, 623.

NORRIS, PIPPA, Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide (Sheila L. Tefft) 79:2, 479.

NORTON, BARBARA T. and JEHANNE M GHEITH, eds., An Improper Profession: Women, Gender and Journalism in Late Imperial Russia (Robin Bisha) 80:1, 211.

<< Back

J&MC Quarterly Index – Press Performance

Volumes 71 to 80
1994 to 2003
Subject Index: Press Performance

Content Differences between Daily Newspapers with Strong and Weak Market Orientations (Randal A. Beam) 80:2, 368-390.

Does Making Journalism More Public Make a Difference? A Critical Review of Evaluative Research on Public Journalism (Brian L. Massey and Tanni Haas) 79:3, 559-586.

Embargoes and Science News (Vincent Kiernan) 80:4, 903-920.

An Experimental Examination of Readers’ Perceptions of Media Bias (Dave D’alessio) 80:2, 282-294.

Experts in the Mass Media: Researchers as Sources in Danish Daily Newspapers, 1961-2001 (Erik Albæk, Peter Munk Christiansen, and Lise Togeby) 80:4, 937-948.

Framing Gender on the Campaign Trail: Female Gubernatorial Candidates and the Press (James Devitt) 79:2, 445-463.

Gender Politics: News Coverage of the Candidates’ Wives in Campaign 2000 (Betty Houchin Winfield and Barbara Friedman) 80:3, 548-566.

Holding the News Media Accountable: A Study of Media Reporters and Media Critics in the United States (Susanne Fengler) 80:4, 818-832.

The Making and Unmaking of Civic Journalists: Influences of Professional Socialization (Michael McDevitt, Bob M. Gassaway, and Frank G. Pérez) 79:1, 87-100.

The Myth of “The Local” in American Journalism (John J. Pauly and Melissa Eckert) 79:2, 310-326.

Objective Evidence of Media Bias: Newspaper Coverage of Congressional Party Switchers (David Niven) 80:2, 311-326.

Partisan and Structural Balance in Local Television Election Coverage (Sue Carter, Frederick Fico, and Jocelyn A. McCabe) 79:1, 41-53.

The Princess and the Paparazzi: Blame, Responsibility, and the Media’s Role in the Death of Diana (Elizabeth Blanks Hindman) 80:3, 666-688.

The Promise and Peril of Anecdotes in News Coverage: An Ethical Analysis (David A. Craig) 80:4, 802-817.

Source Use in a “News Disaster” Account: A Content Analysis of Voter News Service Stories (Randall S. Sumpter and Melissa A. Braddock) 79:3, 539-558.

Sources and Civic Journalism: Changing Patterns of Reporting? (David D. Kurpius) 79:4, 853-866.

This Just In … How National TV News Handled the Breaking “Live” Coverage of September 11 (Amy Reynolds and Brooke Barnett) 80:3, 689-703.

<< JMCQ 71-80 Subject Index