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Despite its prominence in public relations literature, little research has examined the effects of dialogic communication. This project tested the effects of dialogue within a science context through two experiments. The impact of both observed and active online dialogue was tested in relation to organization-public relationship (OPR) qualities, trust in science, perceived issue importance, and supportive behavioral intentions. In order to examine the influence of political polarization, the effects of dialogue were tested for the polarized issue of climate change and the non-polarized issue of space exploration. Study 1 revealed dialogue significantly and positively affected OPR qualities and supportive behavioral intentions for space exploration, but not climate change. Study 2 found little difference between observing dialogue and actively engaging in it. These findings suggest that engaging in dialogue about non-polarized topics can help organizations build relationships with publics, which in turn help organizations accomplish other strategic goals. Results fill a void within the public relations literature, serve to integrate public relations theory and science communication scholarship, and inform public relations best practices. Specifically, this project has implications for how organizations utilize online platforms to engage with publics and when engagement is most likely to be effective.

Despite a long line of research postulating that for a company to achieve positive outcomes from its CSR efforts, it must build relationships with stakeholders to understand what they value, there is limited guidance on how to develop these relationships. Utilizing the stakeholder theory and relationship management theory as framework, this study examined the mediating effects of reputation and perceived relationship quality and type on the impact of CSR communication (what a company communicates and how it communicates the message) on stakeholder attitude, and the moderating effect of what stakeholders value in a company’s CSR efforts on the relationship between CSR communication and stakeholder attitude, reputation, and perceived relationship quality, and type. Through an online survey of consumers of four different companies (N = 847), the results showed that reputation, perceived relationship quality, and perceived communal relationships fully mediated the relationship between CSR messages stakeholders’ observe and stakeholder attitude. Stakeholders’ use of company communication channels directly impacted stakeholder attitude. Additionally, although the value stakeholders place on CSR did not moderate the CSR communication-attitude relationship, it did indirectly impact the relationship through perceived OPR quality, perceived communal relationships, and perceived reputation. The findings suggested that the impact of a company’s CSR communication can be more effective on positive outcomes if they prioritize company-stakeholder relationships and reputation, and that what stakeholders value should be considered when creating effective CSR messages.

Public relations is a crucial aspect to the survival of an organization. Organizations who cater to a highly specific audience need public relations to help them financially, to help them reach their members, and to help them grow. The purpose of this study was to determine the public relations practices utilized by four ranching horse industry associations and examine these practices in relation to traditional and modern public relations practices. Four in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals in the top leadership position in each of the four ranching horse industry organizations to answer the two research objectives sought by the study. Results showed that while most are practicing some sort of public relations effort, these efforts are primarily centered around the events the organizations hold with little effort or related activities when the organization is not holding an event. With potential social media technologies to assist in public relation activities, the four organizations only used Facebook. Overall, the study provides a picture of what is currently being practiced by the ranching horse organizations and offers recommendations for bettering their practices, as related to traditional and modern literature for effective public relations practices.

Agricultural communications has developed as a discipline at a rapid pace, and has experienced tremendous growth in a short period of time. As the discipline grows and develops, the academic programs and the relatively small group of faculty who teach and conduct research in these programs are challenged to keep up with increasing responsibilities including teaching, advising, recruitment, mentoring, club sponsorship, and placement of graduates (Weckman, Withham, & Telg, 2000). In order for a discipline to maintain relevancy, curriculum evaluation and development is necessary to keep up with industry’s demands and trends. However, the industry’s needs are only one of three measurements that should be analyzed when developing content. To be considered effective, any curriculum must balance student interest with faculty vision and industry need (Coffey, 1987). The purpose of this research was to determine if students were satisfied with their agricultural communications undergraduate degree program at Texas Tech University. The research also sought to explore if students are confident in their communication skills and prepared for employment. A survey instrument was utilized in this study. Results showed that overall, agricultural communications students at Texas Tech are satisfied with their undergraduate experiences and feel fairly well prepared for post-graduation employment. Students desire more one-on-one conversations with their advisers, particularly regarding career advice. Results also showed that students are most confident in their English and written communication skills. Recommendations include integrating more public speaking opportunities in the classroom, as well as increasing internship participation and personal adviser interaction.

The purpose of this study was to examine how internal public relations practices encourage internal publics to participate in organizational citizenship behaviors within their organizations. To do so, this study proposed a conceptual model regarding linkages among dialogic internal communication, organizational social capital, communal relationships, and organizational citizenship behaviors. The results suggest that dialogic internal communication can be a basis for enhancing organizational social capital and encouraging internal public to participate in organizational citizenship behaviors. Within this context, organizational social capital should be a necessary element to boost effects of dialogic internal communication on communal relationships and organizational citizenship behaviors. Those results can help build a bridge between public relations and organizational identity perspectives based on social identity perspective.

Levels of incivility in 1,200 messages posted on the blogs of 30 religious and/or political websites during the 2012 presidential election year were compared, as were comments made about those messages. To capture this latent construct in a systematic reliable manner, this comparison was accomplished by creating a scale for incivility within the software program Diction 7.0, which has been used in a variety of research settings to quantitatively measure dozens of factors in the tone of messages. Validity of the formula used to gauge civility was demonstrated via a pretest using 10 blog posts, which showed that results of this Diction 7.0 construct are strongly correlated to results of a survey of university students instructed to use a four-part rubric based on a centrist definition of incivility. Official blogs of leading U.S. Christian denominations were shown to have significantly less incivility (or were more civil) than leading U.S. political websites. However, no difference in incivility was found between leading Christian websites not officially attached to a denomination and leading political sites. Conversely, comments appended to the unofficial Christian posts were shown to have no significant difference in incivility when compared to comments appended to the official Christian denomination posts. Results are explained using a social identity perspective.

Volunteers play a vital role in helping nonprofit organizations operate and achieve success. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate factors that might contribute to developing strong organization–volunteer relationships and how those impact the outcomes job satisfaction, staying intention, productivity, and the organization-public relationship outcomes of trust, relationship satisfaction, control mutuality, and commitment. Based in relationship management theory and using the three-stage organization-public relationship model for structure, this study sought to examine the role of volunteers' functional motivations and motivation–experience congruence in shaping positive relationship outcomes. A survey was conducted with 371 volunteers from 26 nonprofit organizations to identify volunteer motivations as antecedents to the relationship, volunteer experiences corresponding to their motivations, and volunteer perceptions of their relationship with the organization, among other measures. The results of regression and hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed that where volunteers' experiences were congruent with their motivations for volunteering, relationship quality was higher, as was intent to stay and productivity; there was no significant relationship, with job satisfaction. Volunteer tenure was shown to have a negative relationship with the control mutuality. This supports relationship management theory by demonstrating that organizations that help to facilitate volunteer goal achievement also have stronger relationships with volunteers helping to facilitate organizational success.

While prior studies have addressed factors influencing people’s level of political tolerance, few have investigated the potential impact of diversity of media use. Political tolerance plays an important role in the lives of people in diaspora as it can help them form a cohesive community. Like other minority groups in the culturally diverse United States, people of Iranian origin require a cohesive and organized community as well as political representation to make their voices heard. A cohesive community could also play an important role in thawing the relations between the U.S. and Iranian government. Examining the current media use and level of tolerance among Iranians living in the U.S., the current study employed a survey research method to study a sample of Iranians living in Southern California (N = 256). The results showed that diversity of media use contributes to level of political tolerance. But the strongest predictor of level of political tolerance is perception of ethnic identity compared to strength of community ties, diversity of media use, and political ideology. Individuals who have a high understanding of their Iranian ethnic identity but do not have strong community ties have the highest levels of political tolerance. The study contributed to the literature by investigating media use by Iranians living in the diaspora, specifically in California. In addition, government officials can use results of studies similar to this dissertation in developing effective policies for resuming relations with the government of Iran.

The persuasiveness and influence of exemplars over base-rate information has been well researched throughout exemplification studies. Few would argue the narratives, vivid language, and sometimes colorful statements of exemplars have an overwhelming effect, suppressing the less than vibrant base-rate. Current studies though have begun to illustrate individual characteristics that have the ability to shortcircuit the effects of exemplars. For instance, recent research has shown an individual’s arithmetic aptitude plays a dominant role in how they process numerical base-rate data versus exemplars. This study continues that line of research, focusing on how subject matter knowledge, in this case economics, can also reduce and diminish the influence of exemplars. Through the implementation of a 2 (high economic & low economic aptitude) x 2 (base-rate positive & base-rate negative) x 3 (representative, non-representative, & mixed exemplars) experiment the results showed individuals with higher economic literacy were less influenced by exemplars and held relatively consistent attitudes toward the overall strength of the economy across all conditions. Individuals possessing lower economic literacy were found to be significantly more affected by exemplars as their attitudes and opinions varied across the different manipulations, indicating their lack of knowledge regarding the subject left them susceptible to exemplars.

The agenda-setting effect of the media is one of the most established and widely studied theories of mass communication. Since first outlined in 1972, the theory has been the topic of numerous studies and articles. Mostly the theory has been tested in developed countries. Scholars had previously urged for testing of mass communication theories in developing countries for more universal understanding of the mass media. This thesis studied the agenda-setting theory in Bangladesh as an effort of studying media effects in developing countries. The thesis applied survey and content analysis to collect data. The survey was done in Bangladesh and data was gathered from 418 respondents, while the content analysis gathered data from a sample of the country’s newspapers. In analyzing the results, this study determined the Spearman Rho correlation coefficient and found no evidence of the basic agenda-setting effect of the media. There was no evidence of the agenda-setting effect on audience groups based on different demographics and levels of media usage, interpersonal communication and media credibility either. The thesis concluded that scholars need to study the theory more in developing countries using a variety of research methods and exploring different kinds of conceptual definitions. Theorists also need to take complex social and political scenario of the developing countries needs to into account.

African American women in Susan G. Komen Foundations’ Lubbock affiliate area have significantly higher breast cancer mortality rates than all other ethnicities. An in-depth investigation of this specific population in rural West Texas revealed challenges that should be addressed in order to achieve more culturally competent breast health campaigning that increases awareness and lowers perceived barriers among this population. The author conducted four focus groups to ask questions regarding women’s current levels of awareness, perceived barriers, media preferences and cultural ideals pertaining to general health and breast health. Findings both congruent and contrary to the existing literature suggest a population that welcomes improved breast health information and resources. Health communicators should work to increase levels of breast cancer salience in order to decrease mortality rates among rural African American women.

To better understand perception of crisis readiness, 731 hospital employees were surveyed online. Employees who participated in crisis training, attended a meeting, etc., perceived themselves and their hospital to be more crisis ready. Results showed awareness of the crisis communication plan leads to higher levels of perceived crisis readiness. This research showed training, two-way communication, and face-to-face communication all lead to greater perceived crisis readiness. Unlike previous research indicated, occupation (medical personal v. administration) and time employed did not lead to differences in perceptions of crisis readiness. Participants also reported that hospitals presented crisis plans through oral presentation more frequently than any other method. This type of face-to-face meeting is also the most preferred method of communication selected by participants. The top crisis concern of hospital employees is the threat of a nurse shortage followed by a natural disaster. Finally, previous crises experience leads to higher level of perceived awareness. Findings of this study can assist hospitals and other organizations when training and preparing employees to deal with crises.