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• Considers official attempts to manage the press in Britain in the Houses of Parliament in the 18th and 19th centuries. • Differs from previous work in that it focuses on parliament and not the civil service. • Argues for greater awareness of pre-history of PR in Britain, following similar work in Germany and the US. This paper considers a topic that has received scant attention in the historiography of public relations: official attempts to manage the press in Britain in the Houses of Parliament in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Existing accounts of the emergence of government public relations in the UK have tended to focus on the civil service in the first half of the twentieth century, but this article sheds light on a series of earlier developments, including the allocation of seats for reporters in the viewing gallery of the Commons in 1803, the construction of dedicated Reporters' Galleries in both parliamentary chambers in 1847–52 and the creation of a Westminster Lobby in 1884. Taken together, these reforms improved journalists' access to parliament in an era in which direct governmental control over newspapers lapsed. Yet, they also allowed politicians to influence media commentary by determining who was permitted access to parliament and what type of content made its way into print. A case can thus be made that Westminster, not Whitehall, played host to the earliest official attempts to manage the media in Britain, and this has important repercussions for current understandings of public relations history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present meta-analysis study systematically reviews articles on media relations published from 1945 to 2021. It aims to explore media relations research in terms of progression, journals, theories, methods and data analytical tools, media genres and platforms, geospatial distribution of discussed issues and first author affiliations, organization types, most frequently used words, and major themes covered through a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text mining approach. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 276 articles from 2006 to 2017 were collected as the final sample. Public Relations Review has published the most articles, while the most commonly used theories were agenda setting /building theory, rhetorical theory, and framing theory. Media relations articles utilize qualitative methodologies more than quantitative ones, while the commonly used data analytical tools were content analysis, interview, survey, and case study. Our analysis of the discussed regions and geospatial distribution of first-author show that the North American, European, and Asian continents and the US, the UK, China, and Australia have relatively more publications. The majority of media relations articles discussed governmental organizations. Five themes dominated media relations articles: public relations strategy, media relations practice, mass media and journalism, state–media relations, and organizational media relations. • The present meta-analysis study systematically reviews articles on media relations published from 1945 to 2021. • PPR has published the most articles of MR, while the most commonly used theories were agenda sitting/building theory, rhetorical theory, and framing theory. • MR articles utilize qualitative methodologies more than quantitative ones, while the commonly used data analytical tools were content analysis, interview, survey, and case study. • North American, European, and Asian continents and the US, the UK, China, and Australia have relatively more publications. • Five themes dominated MR articles: public relations strategy, media relations practice, mass media and journalism, state–media relations, and organizational media relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many research findings and some theoretical models regarding the interaction between journalism and public relations (PR). But only scarce research has been done so far on the historical perspective of this relationship, which is also called co-evolution of PR and journalism. The aim of this article is to make a first step into the analysis of this co-evolution with a focus on the emergence of PR in the German-language area and based mainly on German literature about the history of PR. The analysis shows that the rise of PR in the second half of the 19th century was, amongst others, a reaction to the development of journalism that had become increasingly biased. Thus, for many societal actors and organisations, the barriers to entering the public arena were increasing. At the same time the importance of the mass media, and pressures on social protagonists and organisations to legitimise their interests in a changing society, were growing. These results support a theoretical concept that describes the development of mass communication as a process of rationalisation of societal communication, which in addition can be linked with system theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper rests on an assumption that media is much more than a communication channel or type of organization and that we have to take media under consideration if we want to understand the conditions for public agencies and their public relations activities. This is very much due to the processes of mediatization ; that is to say, the double-sided process through which media (a) emerge as an autonomous institution with its own set of rationalities that other institutions adapt to; and (b) become an integrated part of other institutions’. A second assumption is that the extent to which public agencies adapt to media varies between different types of organizations, mostly as a consequence of an organization’s management structure. Public agencies governed by career managers are more eager to get media attention and control the media image of their organizations compared to agencies governed by field professionals. Circumstances that position public relations at the centre within agencies governed by career managers, but with limited freedom of action. This raises a number of questions concerning circumstances, motives and consequences for public relations and in this paper we suggest three propositions for how we can understand the interplay between media in its institutional form, public agencies and public relations (1) public relations professionals have limited control to what degree public agencies adapt to the media logic (2) public relations professionals have limited control over public agencies media activities due to their high level of formalization and standardization (3) public relations in public agencies is to an extensive degree limited to media activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing US, German and Chinese data from the 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer ® , the purposes of this study were: (1) to explore the impact of media preference on the perception of CSR, (2) to examine the role of CSR in building trust, and the effect of perceived trust in a business entity on public engagement with that entity, and (3) to test whether the above relationship between CSR and trust in business is moderated by media preference. The results show that China had the highest trust in business while Germany had the lowest. There were no consistent media usage patterns of the informed public that would link to positive CSR evaluation across the three countries. CSR dimensions (social, economic, and environmental) had various effects on predicting trust in business in these three markets, and there was a positive correlation between trust in business and behavioral engagement with trusted companies in informed publics in the US and Germany. Theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines from an information subsidies and framing theory perspective the media coverage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Through a content analysis of Malaysian government information subsidies ( N = 78), and Malaysian ( N = 155) and Chinese ( N = 93) newspaper articles, findings include differences of crisis frames and risk roles, the absence of crisis cause did not detract from attribution of responsibility in regard to risk arbiters’ potential solutions to managing the crisis, among other key findings. Implications include the need for the inclusion of an unknown crisis type to the crisis communication typologies and models and theories, as well as supporting the argument of previous studies in regard to media coverage partially determined by the country’s media system and Palmlund’s (1992, 2010) generic roles of societal evaluations of risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islamic State (IS) has been vilified for its brutality and admired for the sophistication of its media productions. This conceptual paper argues that IS media is not propaganda in the western sense but rather propagation of a minoritarian ‘take’ on Islam. IS media are not simply fora for the gratuitous display of violence but rather venues for rational, strategic communication designed mainly for regional consumption. Global audiences are targeted, too, but media produced for them is less voluminous than that presented to populations in IS-controlled areas and surrounding regions. While Islamic State’s diverse media output is not western-style public relations, the artifice and artefacts employed in the group’s “media war” are not only relevant but also noteworthy for public relations professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using global survey data based on the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer annual survey, this paper looks at predictors of business trust in the top five countries based on GDP ranking – the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and France. Demographics emerged as significant predictors of trust across countries, while political ideology was a key driver of trust in the U.S. Political ideology also interacted with preferred media choice in predicting trust. Theoretical and practical implications for effective public relations practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on explaining agenda building power of corporate press releases. The purpose of the study is to investigate to what extent news factor theory can be applied to predict whether a press release generates media attention or not. A content analysis of 823 press releases from 30 of the largest Dutch corporations reveals that the news factors surprise, controversy, impact-negative consequences and elite organization have increase a press release's chance for succession. Furthermore, press releases on the topics financial performance, employees & management and organizational issues have a similar effect. The study shows that news factor theory can be applied successfully in the field of public relations and media relations and suggests that the variety of effective news factors depends on the news genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influencing mass media discourse is considered an essential part of the work carried out by think tanks. This research focuses on the influence Spanish think tanks have exercised in shaping the ubiquitous and all-pervading concept of “economic crisis” in the press of reference during 2013 and 2014. The results show that very few such entities have had even a minimally significant impact in this area, while also demonstrating that very diverse communicative strategies exist that can result in maximizing the amount of media attention gained. Consequently, despite being regarded as intelligence actors, Spanish think tanks do not seem to be so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the knowledge-based economy, intellectual capital (IC) is of substantial importance. IC includes human capital, organizational capital and social capital. Applying IC is essential for an organization’s survival in a competitive industry such as news media. Reporters are vital human capital in news organizations. They are the knowledge workers who create and distribute news. They also represent social capital because they have to develop relationships with news sources from outside of the organization. However, it is difficult to tap and retain IC. A news organization loses both human and social capital whenever a reporter resigns or job-hops. This research examines the relationships between IC and reporters’ performance from a multi-level perspective. We argue that the performance of an individual reporter is influenced by IC; moreover, job autonomy and team interdependence mediate the influence of IC on reporter performance. We collected 492 valid TV reporter samples from 44 teams, and used the Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) to analyze the data. All hypotheses were supported, suggesting that the more the management pays attention to reporters’ IC and their working conditions (i.e., job autonomy and task interdependence), the higher the performance of reporters. The implications for team collaborative learning and interaction are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We examined five case studies of crisis with an inherent enduring image. [•] An enduring image is the shared image of first mention among its public. [•] Enduring image emerges from defining moments in crisis and is loaded with symbolic potential. [•] Enduring image exhibits a sense of permanence that endures beyond the crisis timeline. [•] An enduring image becomes a prime representation of the accused during a crisis and beyond. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study seeks to solicit Chinese PR practitioners’ views on the veracity of identified indigenous crisis response strategies (CRSs) and examine the underpinning socio-contextual factors that contribute to the employment of these strategies. Through 20 interviews, the authors found that political power, cultural backgrounds, media nature, public idiosyncrasies, and companies’ problematic status contributed to the use of indigenous strategies of “Barnacle”, “Third-party endorsement” and “Setting up new topics”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Explores original theorizing in social media and public relations. • Proposes axioms and theorems of human communication in digital times. • Bridges classic communication studies and latest social media research. • Extends social media theory and public relations theory. Although robust theories of radio, television, cinema, journalism, and other areas of mass media already exist, the social media sphere has received relatively little original theorizing. Modeled after Berger and Calabrese's (1975) seminal "axioms of human communication" article, this essay takes stock of the existing research on social media, and uses the same approach to theorizing about social media, advancing 7 axioms and 21 theorems, and exploring how the propositions chronicled can be used to build social media theory and improve public relations practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The study explored the effects of Russia's and Poland's agendas on the international coverage of the Smolensk disaster. • Results suggest that governments' ability to set domestic agenda can aid them in building international media agenda. • Politico-cultural similarity had no impact on agenda-sponsor's ability to influence media agenda in the target country. • Trade volume between the agenda-sponsor and the target country had positive effects on mediated public diplomacy outcomes. The study explores Polish and Russian governments' communication efforts to shape international news coverage of the 2010 airplane crash near Smolensk, Russia, which killed the Polish President Lech Kaczynski and most of his Cabinet. More specifically, the study attempts to assess the role of government communication in shaping the international agenda regarding the crash vis-à-vis the role of Polish and Russian media outlets which also served as information sources for international media. In addition, it examines politico-cultural proximity and economic relatedness as the factors influencing the outcomes of mediated public diplomacy efforts. The findings suggest that, in addition to the governments' public relations messages, Polish and Russian news outlets played a significant role as their countries' advocates in determining the international media agenda. Moreover, we found that it was economic relatedness rather than the similarity of culture or political systems that contributed to the success of governments in shaping the international agenda about the crash. Theoretical and practical implications for public relations and public diplomacy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]