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The study employs a dialogic public relations framework to explore the utilization of the Internet for fundraising by nonprofit health care organizations-specifically, NCI-designated cancer centers. Cancer centers have been noted for effective websites and for being highly engaged in fundraising, which is characterized as relationship marketing. Results indicate all but one cancer center use websites and social media for fundraising but are limited in capacity for two-way symmetrical dialogue. Results are discussed and recommendations are made for future research.

With the booming of Chinese internet corporations, various wrongdoings have been frequently exposed to the public, which damages their corporate image. To face the challenge, these companies usually resort to apologies for image restoration. This study investigates how apology strategies are employed by Chinese internet corporations to restore image in the event of wrongdoings. Based on a self-built corpus and by means of textual analysis, we identified different apology strategies characterized by various linguistic features. The results show that "Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (IFIDs)" and "damage repair" are two of the most frequently used move types which are normally marked by such key linguistic features as personal pronouns, modal verbs, performative verbs and intensifiers. It is also found that IFIDs, "giving account" and "admitting mistakes", "offering repair" and "inviting further interaction" are often incorporated together to show the company's sincere apologetic stance which contributes to the ultimate goal -- rebuilding corporate image and regaining the public's trust. However, direct expressions of "asking for forgiveness" are seldom found in apologies crafted by Chinese internet corporations. This study on apologies in the domain of internet corporations is believed to shed light on research on corporate apology in particular and corporate image restoration in general.

With a vast amount of content ranging from legal and financial information to details of activities in your local area, the Alzheimer's Society website is a valuable resource for patients and carers.

The Internet is a powerful method of acquiring and sharing information. In marketing and business, online visibility is vital for publicity and the reputation of an organisation. To our knowledge, the importance of such visibility in medicine in general, and in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) services in the UK, has not previously been investigated. We aimed to provide a better understanding of the way that patients use the Internet by asking 450 patients to complete a questionnaire when they attended outpatient OMFS departments at 2 centres. We also assessed the online visibility of the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (BAOMS) and investigated the correlation between the strength of online visibility and professional reputation. Results from the self-administered, anonymous, validated questionnaires showed that 82% of patients agreed that the Internet was a powerful source of information, and two-thirds associated online visibility with a good reputation. However, the perceived online visibility of the BAOMS was poor (2%). This study mirrors findings in business publications, and confirms the link between online visibility and professional reputation. It also shows that there is a gap between patients' perceptions and the level of uptake of professional resources. We propose various strategies to bridge this gap and to promote the online visibility and professional reputation of the BAOMS and of OMFS services in the UK., (Copyright © 2014 The British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Digital communication offers advantages and challenges to dental practice. As dentistry becomes comfortable with this technology, it is essential that commercial and other values not be accepted on a par with professional ones and that the traditional dentist-patient relationship not be compromised by inserting third parties that introduce nonprofessional standards. The Officers and Regents of the American College of Dentist have prepared this background and position paper as a guide to the ethical use of digital communication in dental practice.

Companies need to maintain a good reputation to do business; however, companies in the infant formula, tobacco, and processed food industries have been identified as promoting disease. Such companies use their websites as a means of promulgating a positive public image, thereby potentially reducing the effectiveness of public health campaigns against the problems they perpetuate. The author examined documents from the websites of Philip Morris, Kraft, and Nestlé for issue framing and analyzed them using Benoit's typology of corporate image repair strategies. All three companies defined the problems they were addressing strategically, minimizing their own responsibility and the consequences of their actions. They proposed solutions that were actions to be taken by others. They also associated themselves with public health organizations. Health advocates should recognize industry attempts to use relationships with health organizations as strategic image repair and reject industry efforts to position themselves as stakeholders in public health problems. Denormalizing industries that are disease vectors, not just their products, may be critical in realizing positive change.

Background: Cosmetic surgery, historically the purview of plastic surgeons, has in recent years seen an influx of practitioners from other fields of training. Many of these new providers are savvy in marketing and public relations and are beginning to control a surprisingly large amount of cosmetic patient care., Objectives: The purpose of this study is to measure the amount of traffic being attracted to the Web sites of individual practitioners and organizations vying for cosmetic patients. This study investigates the trends of the past 12 months and identifies changes of special concern to plastic surgeons., Methods: The Web sites of 1307 cosmetic providers were monitored over a year's time. The Web activity of two million individuals whose computers were loaded with a self-reporting software package was recorded and analyzed. The Web sites were analyzed according to the specialty training of the site owner and total unique visits per month were tallied for the most prominent specialties. The dominant Web sites were closely scrutinized and the Web optimization strategies of each were also examined., Results: There is a tremendous amount of Web activity surrounding cosmetic procedures and the amount of traffic on the most popular sites is continuing to grow. Also, a large sum of money is being expended to channel Web traffic, with sums in the thousands of dollars being spent daily by top Web sites. Overall in the past year, the private Web sites of plastic surgeons have increased their reach by 10%, growing from 200,000 to approximately 220,000 unique visitors monthly. Plastic surgery remains the specialty with the largest number of Web visitors per month. However, when combined, the private Web sites of all other providers of aesthetic services have significantly outpaced plastic surgery's growth. The traffic going to non-plastic surgeons has grown by 50% (200,000 visitors per month in September 2008 to 300,000 visitors monthly in September 2009)., Conclusions: For providers of aesthetic services, communication with the public is of utmost importance. The Web has become the single most important information resource for consumers because of easy access. Plastic surgeons are facing significant competition for the attention of potential patients, with increasingly sophisticated Web sites and listing services being set up by independent parties. It is important for plastic surgeons to become familiar with the available Internet tools for communication with potential patients and to aggressively utilize these tools for effective practice building.

Objective: This study analyzes posts to online news message boards covering driving under the influence (DUI) enforcement efforts to determine their usefulness for informing traffic safety program planning and public relations efforts aimed at mainstream drinking drivers., Methods: A series of Google searches were conducted using keywords designed to capture news stories regarding impaired driving enforcement efforts. For each search, the first 100 Web pages returned were reviewed and articles were included in analysis if they were from an independent news source and contained user comments. Coders captured data on 28 fields for each post, including tone in relation to enforcement, tone of interpersonal communication with other posters, and expressed feelings regarding drinking and driving., Results: Fifty-six news articles covering DUI enforcement efforts met study criteria, with 615 posts. The majority of posts (57%) were neutral on DUI enforcement; 24 percent (148) took a negative tone and 19 percent (115) positive. Posts that discussed checkpoints were 2.6 times more likely to take a negative tone toward enforcement than those that did not. Twenty-one percent of anti-enforcement posts challenged the idea that driving after drinking was necessarily dangerous. Of the 321 posts involving direct communication between posters, 67 percent involved disagreement with another post. Profanity or belittling comments appeared in 10 percent of posts., Conclusion: Public responses to DUI enforcement news articles provide insight into the beliefs and thought processes of those who oppose enforcement efforts or view drinking and driving as no big deal. Primary objections to enforcement focused on civil and personal rights issues, skepticism regarding law enforcement's motives and objectivity, and the belief that drinking driving is not a "real" crime. Online news message boards could be useful in informing campaigns and helping program planners frame media events and press releases to best appeal to the most at-risk segments of the driving public.

Twitter is popping up in hospitals from the C-suite to the OR. Whether it's a savvy marketing tool or a fad that will soon fade is an open question.

Objectives: This paper analyses Philip Morris's evolving website and the legal strategies employed in its creation and dissemination., Methods: Internal tobacco documents were searched and examined and their substance verified and triangulated using media accounts, legal and public health research papers, and visits to Philip Morris's website. Various drafts of website language, as well as informal discussion of the website's creation, were located in internal Philip Morris documents. I compared website statements pertaining to Philip Morris's stance on cigarette smoking and disease with statements made in tobacco trials., Results: Philip Morris created and disseminated its website's message that it agreed that smoking causes disease and is addictive in an effort to sway public opinion, while maintaining in a litigation setting its former position that it cannot be proved that smoking causes disease or is addictive., Conclusions: Philip Morris has not changed its position on smoking and health or addiction in the one arena where it has the most to lose-in the courtroom, under oath.

LifeBridge Health developed and implemented an awareness campaign to generate buzz about the breast cancer services at the Alvin & Lois Lapidus Cancer Institute of LifeBridge Health and the Herman & Walter Samuelson Breast Cancer Care Center at Northwest Hospital Center. With the help of talented local breast cancer survivors, celebrities, fashion designers, and artists, LifeBridge Health created a campaign, including an interactive Web site, public relations outreach, and a unique event in October 2006 that featured a collection of hand-made decorated bras.

Over the past several years the discipline and practice of public relations has evolved. Historically, this field within health care organizations was a one-way management of communications and often was reactive in nature dealing with a crisis situation with an organization. Recent theoretical development within the discipline suggests that public relations involves more relationship building with key constituencies and on-going-dialogue. Concomitant with this evolution is the technological development of the internet. Most particularly is the use of podcasting and blogging as key tools which have been underutilized by health car providers but have significant potential in both communication and relationship opportunities as discussed in this article.

The shortage of registered nurses is an impetus to market nursing services effectively and efficiently. During focus group sessions, the perceptions of registered nurses were obtained. The result was the development of specific criteria used to assess hospital Web sites. Magnet and nonmagnet hospital Web sites were evaluated using the nursing Web image assessment criteria. The author discusses the findings and their implications.

Alegent Health, Omaha, Neb., revised its News Center page on alegent.com, last September, with the idea of making information easy to find, easy to use, and available 24-7. The hospital then promoted the news center by means of an attractive direct mail piece containing an introductory CD.

It was five minutes before show time, and only 15 people had wandered into the conference room to hear Lancaster-Webb CEO Will Somerset introduce the company's latest line of surgical gloves. More important, sales prospect Samuel Taylor, medical director of the Houston Clinic, had failed to show. Will walked out of the ballroom to steady his nerves and noticed a spillover crowd down the hall. He made a "What's up?" gesture to Judy Chen, Lancaster-Webb's communications chief. She came over to him. "It's Glove Girl. You know, the blogger," Judy said, as if this explained anything. "I think she may have stolen your crowd." "Who is she?" Will asked. Glove Girl was a factory worker at Lancaster-Webb whose always outspoken, often informative postings on her Web log had developed quite a following. Will was new to the world of blogging, but he quickly learned about its power in a briefing with his staff. After Glove Girl had raved about Lancaster-Webb's older SteriTouch disposable gloves, orders had surged. More recently, though, Glove Girl had questioned the Houston Clinic's business practices, posting damaging information at her site about its rate of cesarean deliveries--to Sam Taylor's consternation. This fictional case study considers the question of whether a highly credible, but sometimes inaccurate and often indiscreet, on-line diarist is more of a liability than an asset to her employer. What, if anything, should Will Somerset do about Glove Girl? Four commentators--David Wein-berger, author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined; Pamela Samuelson, a professor of law and information management at the University of California, Berkeley; Ray Ozzie, CEO and chairman of Groove Networks; and Erin Motameni, vice president of human resources at EMC-offer expert advice.

Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, Ariz., offers an easily-navigated web site with an extraordinary variety of hospital-specific information. The site was revised last year when the hospital moved into new facilities. A cross-functional team of Phoenix Children's employees worked with the design team. One improvement is an excellent new client management system. The price tag for the new site was a mere $40,000, thanks to the vendors' strong committment to the hospital.

East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie, La., launched a new Web site in October 2001. Its user-friendly home page offers links to hospital services, medical staff, and employer information. Its jobline is a powerful tool for recruitment. The site was awarded the 2002 Pelican Award for Best Consumer Web site by the Louisiana Society for Hospital Public Relations & Marketing.

Globalism does not usually work when it comes to spreading the word about water! There is no one formula for explaining water issues to the public or to public officials. Sometimes you should go to reporters. Sometimes you should focus on educating editors. Sometimes you concentrate on educating teachers, sometimes the business community, bureaucrats or elected officials. Sometimes your message concentrates on fisheries, sometimes health, sometimes tourism. Often, you will want to emphasize something else--even sales of genetic material that might be dependent on biodiversity. In short, your message must be adapted to the local circumstance. Your methodology will depend on whether you must stimulate immediate action, or whether you have the luxury of pushing a longer-term message. The Web opens many new possibilities. Cost of Web distribution is low. The Web offers a combination of many effective storytelling tools such as audio, video, and animation. Multi-lingual materials are easier to prepare than for film. But at this stage of Web development it may be more efficient to provide material to existing publications' Web sites and to NGOs and official sites, than to establish special stand-alone Web sites. I propose a "resource" Web site for those who have responsibility for water projects. The site would contain articles and explanatory material provided by media organizations, attracted by a modest contest-and-prize system.

The objectives of this research were to: 1) develop the online courseware on Thai Food Good Health to support the Thai Kitchen to the world project; and 2) evaluate the courseware by the learners toward the courseware integrated using in aboard. The research sample were sampling for chefs, Thai restaurant owners, and the students who were studying at the TAFE culinary school in Sydney. The research instruments were a questionnaire to find out the needs and readiness to attend the online learning, and a questionnaire for the learners. Courseware was designed and developed on website www.thaifoodtolearn.com by applying the 5 steps model. Firstly, the synthesis of the research results done by the researcher team. Secondly, organizing focus group of the experts in food and nutrition and public relation field discussion on the essential contents and courseware format which would be used to develop the lessons. Thirdly, the survey of needs and readiness of the respondents. Fourthly designing the media in the courseware. Fifth, testing the courseware at TAFE Northern Sydney College in Sydney, Australia. The participants registered and studied from online courseware on thaifoodtolearn.com website as well as the set of multimedia "Thai food good health" distributed to the participants with the learner's active participation in demonstration and practices. The research result found that the respondents were readiness to study online courseware. They needed to learn as 1-2 weeks short course in the morning and evening. The topics they needed to learn were Thai food ways, Thai food cooking techniques, Thai healthy food such as Thai herb, fruit and vegetable, the characteristics of Thai food, safety Thai food, and basics knowledge of Thai food respectively. After learning online courseware, the learners' opinion mostly showed that the lessons were totally good level. In case of the contents and presentation of video, image, graphics, hyper media links in each pages, the usefulness and benefit of the lessons mostly showed in very good level.

Since corporate websites have become indispensable tools of public relations in parallel with the increase in the number of Internet users, they offer remarkable opportunities for universities as well. University websites are operated in a more professional manner due to increasing number of visits by not only students and the academic staff, but also by various target groups such as families of students, potential students, persons and institutions who would like to take advantage of services offered, and media and public institutions. Official websites have a potential to create a better communication between universities and societies that they are part, as well as bringing academic knowledge to the public agenda more often. In this research, most-visited official websites of universities in Turkey are compared with most-visited official websites of universities in the world in order to better utilize this potential. A content analysis has been done in order to determine differences between most-visited official websites of universities in Turkey and in the world in terms of current news and announcements. (Contains 6 tables.)

Online programs and courses are established presences in higher education, and so are processes such as online registration. Prospective students routinely turn to the web for information to help them decide on the most appropriate programs for their situation. Digital public relations (digital PR) is rapidly becoming one of the cornerstones of an effective competitive strategy, and by efficiently combining marketing, search engine optimization, and digital PR to promote news about the professional and continuing education programs of the university, University Professional & Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) member institutions will reach millions of people searching for information online daily. In this article, the author, who is the director of marketing for Linfield College's Division of Continuing Education, relates how she employs digital PR to produce significant increases in visitors to the institution's website and to targeted webpages by prospective students conducting searches that are a close match with the university's professional and continuing education programs.