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Social software creates opportunities for internal communication. Public relations literature suggests it affords more two-way internal communication that can meet the ideal of symmetry as promoted in the excellence theory (Grunig, 1992). This study involved in-depth interviews with internal communication professionals at 54 companies. Our findings indicate that these professionals tend to view social software positively, often stimulating its use among employees. Additionally, we found that they appropriate social software in such ways as to maintain and even strengthen their gatekeeping role identity. More specifically, our data reveal that traditional gatekeeping, which characterizes mass media systems based on the centralized production and distribution of information, is complemented with networked forms of gatekeeping in decentralized digital media environments. Furthermore, our data suggest that an underlying management ideology hampers the symmetric potential of social software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite evidence that there are no significant differences in leadership ability among women and men in public relations, women are still largely absent from leadership and senior management positions. Furthermore, very few studies about leadership in public relations have considered the affect gender has on leadership enactment and success. Therefore, this secondary analysis examined the state of women and gender scholarship about leadership in public relations as part of a larger study about the state of women in the communication discipline. Specifically, our research found that the majority of the research about leadership and gender highlights women’s lackluster leadership presence, factors contributing to women’s lack of presence, leadership styles and preferences, and leadership and management roles of women. This manuscript provides recommendations for improving women’s presence in leadership roles, particularly in providing a roadmap for future research opportunities. These include considerations for methodological approaches, leadership approaches and roles research, types of leadership, cultural change, and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dialogue and persuasive strategic communication are often perceived by public relations scholars as two distinct approaches to the practice. After revisiting and reassessing debates surrounding the two approaches, this article introduces accounts of the use of dialogue and strategic communication in the political life of Martin Buber, whose philosophy has inspired PR scholarship on dialogue. It traces Buber’s writings and activities as communicator in the service of the early Zionist movement and, in his later life, as campaigner against the establishment of the State of Israel, and as promoter of dialogue between Zionists and Arab Palestinians. Based on archival research the article uncovers Buber’s political and PR work to provide insights into his philosophy in the context of his political and life experiences. Inspired by Buber’s work the article argues that dialogue and strategic communication both have the potential to be deployed ethically, and for prosocial causes, or to be deployed in a self-serving and unethical way. In this, it supports other scholars’ argument that public relations should reconcile with the fact that both are legitimate tools and it further argues that both might be used either ethically or unethically. It concludes that ethical PR practice depends less on the form of communication, and more on transparency, honesty, openness, and respect in the way dialogue or strategic communication are conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This content analysis is a part of wider research into the value of reflective practice in public relations education and practice. Examination of this topic is important given that reflective practice is widely recognised as an essential element for claims of professionalism (Dewey, 1933; Schön, 1983, 1987), and professionalism remains an elusive goal for PR practitioners ( L’Etang, 2009 ). This article examines the extent to which the terms and processes associated with reflective practice are formally included in the contents of a range of widely used and well regarded public relations textbooks. The aim is to provide insight into the significance (or lack of it) of reflective practice in contemporary public relations curricula. Given that textbooks are highly influential teaching media that both reflect and shape curricula, conclusions about the emphasis of reflective practice in public relations teaching can be drawn as a result of this analysis. The findings indicate that – based on the content of the textbooks analysed – reflective practice is not formally included in the public relations teaching curriculum. Further research is needed to determine whether this omission also reflects the situation in public relations practice. This research has relevance for public relations educators given that they play a significant role in influencing future generations of public relations professionals. It concludes with a call for a shift in public relations education that includes greater emphasis on reflective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public relations scholars have called for a shift from organization-centred approaches and practices to community, – or collective-based ones. With the Internet, the latter have become more frequent although under-researched or not well understood. This article addresses those gaps by researching a community-based campaign in New Zealand and by underpinning the research with collective action theory. Methodologically, it combines netnography, thematic analysis, and interviews with major players, to analyze a civic crowdfunding campaign. It provides an account of how two amateur activists not only initiated and managed this campaign, but also raised US$1.5 million (NZ$2.27) within three weeks to buy a private beach and gift it back to the New Zealand public. The article seeks to add to both PR scholarship and practice. It adds to the former by analysing the campaign and identifying success factors for civic crowdfunding campaigns more generally; and to the latter by accounting for a different kind of activist and community-based PR that goes beyond organization-centred approaches to offer gratifying community-centered work that improves the reputation of PR for contributing to the common good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public relations agencies are an important part of the public relations industry, but their relations with client organizations are rarely studied. There is more literature and studies in agency-client relations in advertising than in public relations. This paper reviews literature and reports results of an empirical study into perceptions of public relations agencies and their clients on the reasons for their cooperation and sources of conflict between them. Results show that agencies misperceive reasons for which they are hired and the sources of conflict in the relationship. The paper offers several suggestions about how to tackle the problem: notwithstanding rebranding into consultancies and firms, public relations agencies-client relations should be studied as a particular example of a broader family of agency-client relations. Also agencies should study and strategically manage relations with their clients, while being realistic about client organization’s needs – sometimes they just need additional arms and legs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While employee engagement has been primarily explored within the business, human resources and management disciplines, public relations research has more recently taken an interest in furthering its understanding and acknowledging how public relations can serve an organization’s internal communication as a foundational component of the field. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how public relations can serve an organization’s internal communication by better understanding how employees perceive and experience engagement. Following a phenomenological methodology (n = 32), this study utilized zones of meaning as a conceptual foundation (not a literal interpretation) to examine the process related to the complex, shifting and shared meaning of zones of engagement and how zones of meaning are products as well as drivers of engagement, which offer a new way to conceptualize employee engagement in public relations, shifting to a deeper comprehension and understanding. The findings show that employee experiences align more to Kahn’s (1990) initial personal engagement model than other public relations models. The psychological conditions of meaningfulness and safety from the original employee engagement model emerged as important factors in defining the employees’ shared-meaning lived experiences. In addition, this study offers a new definition of disengagement, which is similar but unique to the scholarship on negative engagement. The findings provide a framework for public relations scholars who work to further refine the understanding of employee engagement and for practitioners who develop public relations strategies for internal audiences, and advances the conceptual foundation of zones of meaning in public relations scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organization-Public Relationship (OPR), as a key concept addressed in the field of public relations has attracted wide attention in the past three decades. This study presents a comprehensive review of 156 relevant studies from 1998 to 2016 and categorizes them into five main clusters, which include the outcomes, antecedents, mediation, process, and structure of OPR. Findings also identify five gaps in current OPR research such as idealized propositions based on mutual benefits, a lack of research on multi-party relationships, problematic “trust” as the measurement, unilateral self-reported research data, and dominated cross-sectional methods By drawing contingency theory of accommodation and the relationship management theory, this study proposes the concept of contingent organization-public relationship (COPR) for future studies that seek to explore variations of OPR longitudinally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Half a million citizens participated in the Women’s March on Washington the day after President Trump’s inauguration, starting a political movement. The march communicated key messages to the public directly and via the media. This study explores how media coverage framed those key messages through content analysis. Media frames mentioned all key messages, emphasizing solidarity and activation at the grassroots, and in a way that both supported and challenged organizational messages. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the results of the national survey of 287 Public Relations Society of America members regarding current media transparency practices in the United States. The purpose of the study was to understand the forms of media non-transparency that exist in the United States, levels of non-transparency at the national and local/regional media, and perceptions of non-transparent practices by the public relations practitioners in the country. The project builds on previous research on global media transparency (Tsetsura & Kruckeberg, 2011) and uses Tsetsura’s (2005) framework to study media transparency. The survey results showed that direct media bribery is not a pressing issue in the United States; however, indirect media pressures that involve new forms of content creation, including native advertising and content marketing, are worrisome. Specifically, forms of indirect media bribery are common at the local and regional media levels in the USA. Research findings demonstrate that U.S. practitioners experience particular non-transparent challenges when working with the media and recognize financial pressures that U.S. media outlets face today. The results provide a basis for creating standards in U.S. practice to ensure that new forms of content creation, including native advertising and content marketing, are not acceptable at any level when sources of content are not disclosed. The study concludes with the discussion about the importance of understanding how new forms of sponsored content relate to media transparency in the USA and why U.S. practitioners should understand how media non-transparency relates to the issues of native advertising and brand journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Picasso created his most famous painting, Guernica , in just over three weeks in 1937 after the bombing of the little town of Guernica, located in the Basque region, during the Spanish Civil War. Thousands of innocent people were injured or killed. In its sharp lines, its confusion and its distorted shapes, Guernica shows the suffering and pain of war. Rather than using color, especially vivid reds, Picasso used only black and white paint as symbols of death, mourning and tragedy. He believed that brighter colors might distract the viewer from the agony of the scene. In Guernica , most of the figures have open mouths; hear them shouting, groaning or screaming. The aim of this paper and its relevance to public relations is to examine whether and how visual communication can publicize and frame a military event, the character of military leaders, and warfare as a generic aspect of democratic self-governance. This paper proposes that rhetorical, discursive art can contribute impact to public relations efforts, by focusing attention, making issues public, and making informative, framing, and democratizing statements. Even more important is the ability of art to express moral outrage, especially when giving voice to muted interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the legal implications of having an expansive definition of public relations practice. Specific attention is given to the 2016 New York lobbying regulations that mandated traditional public relations practitioners register as lobbyists. The examination of this law and the lawsuit that followed highlights how the public relations practitioners may inadvertently be subject to restrictive laws because of modern definitions of PR practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts from the premise that crisis is a perception and that one of the best ways to conquer a crisis is not to allow it to develop in the first place. By detecting or perceiving a crisis before other stakeholders do, an organisation can prevent or mitigate a crisis. Few studies have considered the question of whether organisations put the right people in the right places to be able to see a crisis coming. Within an organisation, managers are usually well placed to take decisions to initiate crisis communication, but they seem to be reluctant to do so or may not wish to see an impending crisis. Communication professionals should have a better perception of a crisis, but they rarely find themselves in a position to have a substantial impact on the management decision to communicate during a crisis. In this paper, we study crisis perception by individuals in a large governmental organisation during various stages of an unfolding crisis and compared perception scores to individual profiles based on study background, professional situation and crisis experience. This study involves a large-scale scenario-driven survey with ‘crisis perception’ as the main dependent variable. The results of this specific case indicate that an academic communication degree, a high hierarchical position in the organisation and crisis experience are positively related to an augmented perception of an impending organisational crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, there is a paucity of studies that looked into the way unions can use social media platforms to increase employee engagement in activism. Understanding the most effective ways in which unions can make use of online communication to increase membership and raise awareness becomes of paramount importance in light of the decline in union participation that occurred during the last decades and that deepened wage inequality. In addition, union efforts were shown in past studies to be hampered by upper management. Online platforms become an important means that unions can use to eschew managerial control and indirectly increase their membership.The current study used the predictors for online engagement to analyze the online interaction of IBM’s union and assessed the extent to which it was effective in engendering increased employee participation. IBM represents a unique case study as a result of the company’s current focus on offshoring and restructuring. The results of this study showed that the union engaged in an informative and one-way communication style which failed to increase employee activism. The results and their implications are discussed for theorists and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public relations is usually practiced within three clearly defined organizational settings: the public or governmental sector, the private or business sector and the social nonprofit sector. Over the past few decades, the boundaries between the three sectors have blurred, and new types of organizations and initiatives that combine environmental aims with business approaches have emerged. These new organizations and initiatives create a challenge for public relations practitioners: practitioners need to raise awareness among various publics to a new type of organization that combines both societal and business-like characteristics, and they need to promote dialogue and engagement with these publics. This study focuses on social businesses—that is, self-sustainable businesses that address social goals (Yunus, 2007). Based on a representative sample of 202 respondents, this study utilizes the Diffusion of Innovations theory (DOI) (Rogers, 1962) to argue for the importance of engagement to a successful process of diffusion and to demonstrate how DOI theory might enrich public relations theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engagement is becoming one of the more popular concepts in various social sciences including psychology, organizational behavior, human resource management, and of course public relations. Even though engagement is applied in several areas of public relations, it is most commonly explored in connection to internal communication. The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to the growing body of research exploring the relationship between internal communication satisfaction (as a part of internal communication) and employee engagement. Principally we wanted to test the relationship between the eight dimensions of internal communication satisfaction and three employee engagement dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engagement has become the new buzzword for public relations, in both research and practice. And yet, despite its centrality and import for public relations, the concept still remains severely under-developed. Discussions have centered on engagement’s connection to the organization-public relationship and its role in facilitating and mediating relationship outcomes. Yet, two considerations of engagement have gone practically unconsidered: the sense of power and sense of stake of a public or stakeholder group in social media activities regarding an organization. This study examines social media engagement among employees and argues for a need to consider stake and relational connection as critical components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the evolution of professionalization of public relations in Latin America and the potential influence of three contextual variables – economic performance, political system, and press freedom- in this process. Over 1400 public relations professionals completed online surveys in 2009 and 2015 (674 and 803 respectively), creating two data data sets for analysis. The study used eight measurement items grouped in two dimensions: institutionalization and specialization. Statistically significant improvements were found for five indicators: formal study of public relations in higher-education institutions, ideological and ethical principles that emphasize societal well-being, associative organizations that unite professionals, availability of a formal scientific knowledge, and a system of employment access and promotion. Results show also the influence of economic performance on the levels of professionalization in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examined U.S and China’s participation in the global climate governance networks and the structure and evolution of these networks evolved around the two nations between 2008 and 2014. The study yielded a number of significant findings. First, the U.S-China climate governance network has a centralized structure. Second, the Chinese and U.S governments were able to build public diplomatic relationships with a diverse group of organizations. Tightly connected communities have emerged in this network. Third, the driving force behind the U.S-China climate governance network gradually shifted from a government-driven network to a business/NGO-driven network. Theoretical and practical implications for public diplomacy were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extremely rapid development of technology raises the importance of leaders of higher education institutions, as well as educators teaching public relations, to monitor scientific developments of the profession, market trends, and in particular, the needs of employers who will in the future employ recently educated personnel. This element is even more pronounced during times of global crisis in the communications industry where the number of jobs is decreasing, and the increase in criticism of educational institutions, which can be summarized in the claim that educational programs are not adapted to market needs. Guided by this situation, in this paper, the authors analyze the interrelationship between the academic community and employers in the communications industry, and compare their views on the issue of knowledge, skills and competencies which communication professionals must possess in order to be successful in this profession. The main research question is to what extent the views on the quality of education of future PR professionals differ from the perspective of employers and the academic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several practitioners and experts in the field of public relations have emphasized the importance of public engagement in the context of new technological and social developments and the impact this has on reshaping and reconceptualising public relations. While the practice is embracing new trends, the questions of understanding, explaining and managing engagement of different publics appear to be largely unexplored in public relations discipline. The purpose of this study is to examine the state of public engagement studies in public relations scholarship in terms of themes, contexts, theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. The study conducted content analysis of 59 journal articles on public engagement published in the last decade in Journal of Communication Management , Journal of Public Relations Research , Public Relations Inquiry and Public Relations Review . The results indicate that scarce studies on public engagement tend to be mostly concerned with social media and online engagement, studied from management/functional and relational perspectives, focussed on organizations, anchored in western traditions and dominated by quantitative methodology. This indicates that public engagement tends to be conceptualized as a phenomenon that organizations need to “manage” to advance their interests rather than to understand in terms of dynamics, connectedness, participation, dialogue, and interactions with publics. It is strongly influenced by post-positivism with some encouraging evidence of paradigmatic turn towards socio-cultural and critical approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although engagement has been a catchword in public relations practice and theory for over a decade, the term has been applied rather loosely to imply any form of communicative interaction between publics and organizations. Despite lack of clarity on the concept of engagement, research has been thriving, propelled by the increasing prevalence of social media and organizations’ consequent rush to digitally engage publics. This paper assesses the use of engagement in the field of public relations and critiques the equation of engagement with communicative interaction, with its foregrounding engagement as collaboration over that of engagement as control . It also builds upon theoretical conceptualizations of public/stakeholder engagement, employee engagement, and digital engagement to propose a practice-relevant and theoretically informed model and definition of engagement: Engagement is an affective, cognitive, and behavioral state wherein publics and organizations who share mutual interests in salient topics interact along continua that range from passive to active and from control to collaboration, and is aimed at goal attainment, adjustment, and adaptation for both publics and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we investigate the under researched interface between two sets of professional advocates. We focus on public relations practitioner collaboration and competition with lawyers and the issues these professionals confront in the process of reaching consensus about the client’s best interest. Our research covers PR professionals and lawyers in two countries – New Zealand and Israel – and uses interviews with 29 informants to identify the conditions for collaboration. We also record how both groups have significant concerns about the impact of the new communication environment on the future of their professions. Our findings highlight major issues that help explain the inter-professional relationships. They also suggest future directions for the practice of law and PR and for further scholarly investigation of the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzes the effectiveness of a CEO spokesperson’s affiliation to a social group during a crisis. Specifically, it addresses the question of whether a group affiliation with a large heterogeneous group, such as parents, can engender similarly positive effects in members of the same social category, compared with a smaller distinctive group, here an amateur sports community. An experimental study using a product harm crisis by a bicycle manufacturer as stimulus was conducted to answer the research question. The results reveal positive effects when the CEO signaled his/her affiliation with a social group that is distinctive and rather homogenous. In this case, corporate trustworthiness, purchase intentions, and abstaining from negative word-of-mouth are directly impacted by stakeholders’ identification with the CEO spokesperson, and indirectly through identification with the CEO and message credibility. However, when the CEO spokesperson communicated his/her affiliation with a large and heterogeneous group, in this case parents, the company did not benefit. The results yield implications for both crisis communication research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 analysis of how a police department used Twitter during a 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing an experiment study ( N = 256), this study examines how individuals ethical orientation (deontology vs. consequentialism) and CSR message frame (normative vs. strategic) influence corporate hypocrisy perception and negative communication intentions toward a given company. Findings demonstrate that deontological ethical orientation and strategic CSR frame induce stronger corporate hypocrisy perception and negative communication intention than do consequential ethical orientation and normative CSR frame. In addition, deontological ethical orientation moderated the effects of CSR frames on negative communication intention toward the company. Implications for both public relations scholarship and practices are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society’s attempt to understand and communicate about risk is perhaps the world’s oldest topic − the rationale for human existence and survival (Douglas, 1992). This paper takes critical stock of public relations scholarship and practices in the daunting complex that has become known as the infrastructural approach to risk communication. This approach blends critical judgment of the community structures where risk is discussed and the discourse in which it is analyzed as the foundation for risk governance needed for fully functioning societies. The critical lens of hegemony and postmodernism reveals how an increasing amount of risk communication scholarship and practice has evolved into a new professional, industrial, and societal hegemony that often marginalizes risk bearers and risk arbiters as a nuisance in an otherwise modern and elitist approach to risk control through which risk communication becomes a “priced commodity.” Such commodification can empower organizations to take further risks because of the perceived confidence that its robust risk management programs and risk communication teams, including public relations, can control the dialogue and thereby help protect it from business continuity failure. The great challenge is whether risk communication and management ultimately favors the interests of elites over, and even to the marginalization and subjugation of, the interests of risk bearers and arbiters, ignoring the experiences of inequalities over the life span. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates organizations’ crisis responses by adopting two extant, under-researched typologies—public relations vs. legal strategies and ethics of justice vs. care approaches. Through content-analyzing organizational responses to three well-known crises, the study observes that the public relations strategy is used more often than the legal strategy. It also finds that when the examined organizations respond to their crises, they tend not to emphasize ethical approaches, though when they do it is more often the ethics of justice approach than that of the ethics of care. Therefore, this study urges organizations to reflect on whether their crisis communication and management decisions lack sufficient emphasis on ethical approaches, especially on the interpersonal and situational aspects of involved publics in crises. If such deficiency exits, it would be problematic because these interpersonal and situational aspects, when addressed strategically, can help an organization to rebuild post-crisis reputation and maintain positive relationships with its publics in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This CSR study explores how company-cause relationships and acknowledgement of benefit impacts perceived motivations and skepticism. Low-fit CSR appeared to be more in the public’s interest and more values-driven than high-fit. Acknowledgement of benefit did not impact skepticism—for a socially-stigmatized company, CSR fit appears most fundamental to public response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by authenticity, organization-public relationship, and relationship management literature, this exploratory study uses content analysis to examine the impact of news coverage surrounding astroturfing as a means to understand whether astroturfing, or inauthentic communication, undermines the authenticity of and trust within online organization-public relationships. Findings suggested that positivity and networking strategies have significant associations with dimensions of trust. Strategic implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of people in the U.S. volunteer, and understanding how organizations can retain and deepen relationships with these individuals is critical to the sustainability of the nonprofit sector. The relationship maintenance strategies of stewardship may help nonprofit organizations strengthen relationships with their volunteers, particularly if organizations are able to influence volunteers’ feelings of involvement. An online survey of volunteers was conducted to see the relationships between stewardship, involvement, and organization-public relationship (OPR) outcomes. Our path analysis model indicates that stewardship strategies can positively contribute to volunteers’ involvement and their evaluations of OPR outcomes. One of the few to test this model, this study contributes new theory to public relations literature and better informs the practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the massive incorporation of social media into communication strategies, there is still much that we do not know about the type of content that stakeholders expect to receive and what conversations they wish to have with organizations. Numerous studies have demonstrated that an adequate use of digital media is essential to understanding and responding to the expectations of different audiences and to be able to improve the effectiveness of communication departments (Kent & Saffer, 2014; Linke & Zerfass, 2013; Moreno et al., 2015). Nonetheless, there are still relevant issues that have yet to be addressed in depth, such as the process of converting online audiences into active communicators, or what their expectations are with respect to digital interactions. This article compares the perspectives of public relations professionals against those of the general public in Spain with respect to the content that organizations should offer and what activities they should carry out in the context of social media. Our results show a gap in the perceptions and expectations of these two groups in both Spain and across Europe in order to open a discussion about whether communication professionals are effectively managing the tools at hand to create bonds and foster engagement with stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scandal follows the fast-paced fictional world of Olivia Pope, an attorney, crisis management expert, and former White House communications director who owns and manages her own public relations agency. As the first U.S. network television drama with an African American woman in the lead role since 1965, Scandal represents a step forward for televisual portrayals of African-American women. Nevertheless, this program recirculates common constructions of race and gender. I use a cultural studies framework to interrogate representations in the post-racial world Olivia Pope navigates, through the lens of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989). Findings reveal that the representational reality of Scandal is decidedly different from the lived reality of public relations professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public relations (PR) practitioners strongly believe that social media are changing the way PR is practiced. While it is premature to confirm the change, previous research has found that PR practitioners remain trialing with social media for purposes related to organizational communication. By conducting in-depth interviews with 19 practitioners from corporate, governmental and non-profit organizations in Kuwait, this qualitative study aims to understand how Kuwaiti organizations use social media to achieve PR objectives, the advantages and barriers PR practitioners face when using them as well as the extent whether or not social media have changed PR. Kuwaiti organizations were found to use Twitter and Instagram the most for promotion and information dissemination, but the use is generally occasional and reactive. Extending the organizations’ reach and popularity of social media among Kuwaitis were the main advantages for using this type of media, while lack of social media strategy, lack of technical skills, and confusion of the two-way communication approach were the main barriers. A new finding can be added to the literature where insufficient educational background was found to contribute to the practitioners’ reluctance to adopt and adapt to using social media. As to any causing change to PR, the respondents believe that social media have broadened the field and have made organizations look less official and more mainstream in the popular culture. The implications of the findings suggest the need for a strategic approach in terms of purpose, roles, responsibilities, policies and guidelines toward the management of social media between higher management and PR practitioners. Improvements to PR curriculum and practicum are also needed to integrate communication technologies into PR practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the relationship between the big five personality traits – agreeableness, intellect, conscientiousness, emotion, and extroversion – and the involvement, engagement, and perceived relationship investment (PRI) of participants with nonprofit organizations. The role of personality is important because it reflects fundamental qualities that may influence an individual’s behavior. Results demonstrated significant correlation between each trait and involvement, passive engagement, and PRI. Four were also positively correlated to active engagement of participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this current study, we compared two contemporary CSR communication strategies (engagement vs. responsiveness), along with communication channels, in achieving CSR goals. We conducted an online survey with public relations, corporate communication, corporate social responsibility, investor relations and sustainability executives within the companies listed on the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index of publicly traded U.S. companies. Results showed that CSR engagement strategy had a positive effect on achieving all three CSR goals we identified through factor analysis: business, community, and employees. The responsiveness strategy was positively associated with only business and community goal achievement. These findings lend support for the testimonials from industry CSR reports regarding the benefits of the engagement approach in achieving intended organizational goals, including attracting and retaining talented employees. In analyzing the impact of communication channels on goal achievement, we found that print ads played a significant role in achieving business goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a contemporary articulation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activism, LGBT youth outreach, as a historically contextual moment. By way of a cultural-economic examination, this study explores the identities constructed by both producers and consumers of an LGBT activist campaign. The cultural-economic model (CEM; Curtin & Gaither, 2005) provides a critical theoretical framework to examine public relations, activism, and social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crisis communication research has mainly focused on verbal response strategies, such as apologies and denial. However, organizations and individuals in crisis often respond in an audiovisual manner (e.g., press conferences, corporate videos). Audiovisual messages convey not only verbal but also nonverbal cues (e.g., gaze aversion, speech errors). These nonverbal cues can affect the public’s perception of deception, and thus, the perception of the speaker’s credibility. Through a content analysis of 160 audiovisual crisis responses, this study examines which nonverbal cues of deception are communicated by organizations and individuals in crisis and how situational factors (e.g., crisis type) affect the occurrence of these nonverbal cues. The findings show that several nonverbal cues of deception occur in audiovisual crisis communication and that their occurrence depends on the crisis type, the source, and the crisis communication format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information subsidies from military and civilian public relations practitioners receive varying degrees of acceptance by media gatekeepers. Using an experimental design, this study examined organizational affiliation within media gatekeeping. Television news decision-makers were randomly assigned one of five mock live news reports with only the reporter’s clothing and on-air title manipulated. Results indicated affiliation did not affect gatekeeper use. Higher credibility was attributed to spokespersons with no organizational affiliation, and to military practitioners over civilians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Advance care planning (ACP) is an important process that involves discussing and documenting one's values and preferences for medical care, particularly end-of-life treatments.Objectives: This convergent, mixed-methods study assessed whether an end-of-life conversation card game is an acceptable and effective means for performing ACP for patients with chronic illness and/or their caregivers when deployed in a community setting.Methods: Twenty-two games (n = 93 participants) were held in community settings surrounding Hershey, PA in 2016. Participants were recruited using random sampling from patient databases and also convenience sampling (i.e., flyers). Quantitative questionnaires and qualitative focus group interviews were administered to assess the game experience and subsequent performance of ACP behaviors.Results: Both quantitative and qualitative data found that Community Game Day was a well-received, positive experience for participants and 75% of participants performed ACP within three months post-intervention.Conclusions: These findings suggest that using a conversation game during community outreach is a useful approach for engaging patients and caregivers in ACP. The convergence of quantitative and qualitative data strongly supports the continued investigation of the game in randomized controlled trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research examining whether visuals improve publics’ crisis and disaster information comprehension is scarce despite the increasing popularity of infographics and visual-based social media in public relations practice. One disaster communication platform that is ideal for testing the potential effects of visuals on helping publics protect themselves during disasters is Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs). WEAs are 90-character warnings issued by governments and sent by wireless carriers to individuals (for free) facing an imminent threat such as a tornado or flood. The U.S. government is considering adding maps to future WEAs. Maps are one of the most relied-on tools for people to quickly gain knowledge about spatial tasks such as evacuating during disasters. Consequently, this paper empirically tests how at-risk publics respond to warning messages with and without maps. We do so through two experiments ( N 1 = 767, N 2 = 550) of U.S. adults testing three disasters: a tsunami, an active shooter incident, and a radiological disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although social media have been used by public relations practitioners as a key vehicle for crisis communication, little is known about how these platforms were utilized by public health organizations in infectious disease outbreak situations and how this may have shaped the publics’ responses to the outbreak on and off social media. Taking the approach of strategic health risk communication, this study examined Ebola-related social media posts by three major health organizations, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, also known as Doctors without Borders), on Twitter and Instagram, focusing on the types of communication that were used during the outbreak, the content and context of these communications, and the responses they elicited from the publics. While both platforms were utilized by all three health organizations, the results suggest that Instagram may be a particularly useful platform for establishing meaningful, interactive communication with the publics in times of global health crises, as evidenced by significantly greater levels of engagement on the part of health organizations and the publics. Furthermore, our findings indicate that social media messaging may be most effective when it is used by health organizations that are familiar with and to the publics, and when it is based on the strategic use of risk communication principles such as solution-based messaging, incorporation of visual imagery, and acknowledgement of public fears and concerns. We discuss the results in the context of strategic health risk communication guidelines and implications for public relations practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the relationships between two public relations strategies, bridging and buffering, and their impact on ethical organizational conduct and relational outcomes. Bridging is a relationship-centric, action-based strategy for problem-solving while buffering is an organization-centric, messaging-based strategy for impression management. In explaining the impact of these two strategies on organizational outcomes, this study examined the role of ethical organizational conduct as a mediator between bridging, buffering, and two relational outcomes. Based on a survey of 105 organizations in Korea, a positive association between bridging strategy and ethical organizational conduct was found, along with paths to relational improvement and conflict avoidance with strategic constituencies. No association was found between buffering strategy and ethical organizational conduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Toledano and Avidar (2016) method and questionnaire statements, and inspired by its theory, this paper focuses on studies about internet-related public relations from an ethical standpoint. As such, this study’s objective is to assess the attitudes of public relations practitioners (PRs) while using social media professionally, identifying some ethical issues and the implications of their perceptions, by means of a quantitative study supported by an online survey. A questionnaire, which included thirteen attitude statements related to transparency, authenticity, truthfulness and respect for competition, plus five demographic questions, has been applied to PRs from Portugal and Brazil. Research questions include concerns about PRs’ attitudes towards ethically acceptable or non-acceptable online public relations practices and the influence of socio-cultural environments, namely, of countries’ human freedoms respect and levels of transparency in PRs’ ethical attitudes. Results show no significant differences between practitioners from Portugal and Brazil. Portuguese and Brazilian PRs share common cultural attributes that might explain similar perceptions around professional ethics. As for ethical dimensions, authenticity and transparency are not vehemently defended in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 2 × 2 experimental study (N = 168) examined the effects of the message source (CEO vs. individual real estate agent) and response strategies (deny vs. diminish strategies) on public perceptions of controversial online comments and emotional and behavioral responses. This study extends situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) by applying it to paracrisis situations as well as by testing a cognitive model in which breach of expectation by different actors leads to different degrees of judgment of responsibility and counterfactual thinking processes (i.e., the person could/would/should have done something else). A deny crisis response (e.g., scapegoating) was effective in reducing blame and negative affective responses and yielded less negative reputation assessment of the message source. The expectation breach led participants to engage in a counterfactual thinking process, which in turn evoked greater indignation and more negative reputation assessment. Indignation and negative reputation were both significant predictors of online word-of-mouth intention. Social vigilantism, individuals’ tendency to propagate their opinions onto others, mediated the relationship between indignation and online discussion intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intellectual history of public relations has not paid attention to British political philosopher Thomas Hobbes. This article aims to close this gap. Following the so-called philosophy of prestige (Carnevali, 2012), the article applies Hobbes’ doctrine of natural law and human passions to public relations historiography. Indeed, considering recognition and reputation to be critical elements for human beings in a conflictual society in which gaining power was the main goal, Hobbes anticipated critical public relations thinking. In the Hobbesian system, because recognition is a social capital, reputation management becomes the most appropriate relational strategy to negotiate and gain power. Accordingly, uncertainty characterizes reputation and dealing with it fits into risk management. Although Hobbes never used the concepts of public relations or reputational risk, he was the first thinker to approach social relations from a conflictual perspective and view reputation as a risk deriving from it. Thus, through his approach, Hobbes opened up a new perspective, differing from those of other renowned Renaissance thinkers like Machiavelli or even some of his contemporaries, like Gracián, who also dealt with the idea of reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Zika virus emerged as a global health concern in 2016, it was surrounded in public uncertainty regarding its transmission and health consequences. Health communicators were tasked with managing their own uncertainties and with incomplete information on the virus. Given the misinformation, rumors, and even conspiracy theories surrounding Zika virus, monitoring public awareness and understanding of the mysterious illness on social media could offer critical insight to crisis management. A survey ( n = 226) was conducted with public information officers (PIOs) at local public health departments across the United States to reveal how they utilize and listen to social media during public health crises. In addition to an overall low rate of social media monitoring reported by PIOs, troublesome disparities exist based on community size served. However, there were positive relationships between social media monitoring and satisfaction with overall departmental crisis management as well as preparedness for Zika. These and many other monitoring trends are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine whether university qualifications are prevalent among Spanish communications professionals and whether they is to a degree level, certificate of advanced study (“ diplomatura ”) level, or even to the third level (PhD and/or the Diploma of Advanced Studies-DEA). Additionally, this study seeks to ascertain if the different types of college studies taken are linked to communication and, specifically, to public relations. Members of the Association of Communication Directors-Dircom were chosen as the sample, whose curricula appeared in its 2015 directory. Results indicate that the subjects of the sample were mostly academic, and that previous communication training they received was prevalent in the four training variables analyzed. Consistent with the international literature reviewed in this study, it is however noted that most subjects held degrees in Journalism (21.56%), ranking well above those who studied Public Relations (6.67%), which could be the reason that knowledge and skills acquired by Spanish professionals are still insufficient for the proper practice of the position, thus perpetuating the press-agent model, without allowing an evolution to more mature levels of praxis, with more managerial and strategic orientations. The quality of previous university training received by Spanish practitioners is particularly relevant at the moment, since higher education within the EHEA, conceived as a satisfier of labor-market needs, has not yet materialized, and because the Dircom association has recently joined the project of international professional accreditation promoted by the GA-Global Alliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]