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Highlights • A cultural discourse perspective is proposed to study political public relations. • Cultural discourse analysis provides clues to unexpected success in an election. • Discursive hubs of dwelling and relation organize networked public to canvass. • This study grounds the socio-cultural theorizing of political PR in practice. • The evaluation of discourse approaches moves the field forward methodologically. Abstract This study introduces the theoretical and methodological approach of Carbaugh's (2007) cultural discourse analysis (CuDA) to advance the research agenda on political public relations. I discuss how CuDA, as an extension of the ethnography of communication (EoC), provides clues to unexpected success in an election campaigning. Using the 2016 Hong Kong lawmakers' election as an empirical example, the most discussed Facebook posts of an election candidate, and 6800 online comments from the public are studied. I identify the socio-cultural meanings that are used and can be used to engage public-to-public election canvassing. This study shows that the prominent discursive hubs of dwelling and relation organize networked publics to canvass. Responding to the socio-cultural turn of the literature, this study grounds the theorization of political public relations in practice. The evaluation of different approaches to discourse also moves the field forward methodologically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This study aims to examine the theoretical links among three important variables by empirically testing the cases of two international brands.Design/methodology/approach By using a comparative case study design, this study conducts a content analysis of a total of 490 Facebook comments regarding online confrontational crises: Dolce & Gabbana’s photo fiasco and Laneige’s discriminative sales incident.Findings The findings suggest that when evaluating whether or not a company has shouldered responsibility in online confrontational crises, social media users tend to be more influenced by how timely, active and consistent the organization’s reaction is than by the organization’s mere use of concession crisis communication strategies (CCSs). The individual-level perception (perceived degree of organizational crisis responsibility-taking) is a stronger predictor of social media users’ reaction than organization strategies. The earlier that social media user has a perceived improvement in the organization, the more effective is the organization’s strategy to minimize the effects of social media as crisis mobilizer.Originality/value This study confirms theories formulated in a Western context with actual cases from Eastern cultures. Theoretically, this study sheds light on the importance of the individual-level perception for effective use of organization strategy in crisis. This study also suggests the relative significance of positive forms of crisis response, concessions CCSs and their relationship with the perceived degree of crisis responsibility-taking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]