Search

According to the situational theory of publics (J. E. Grunig, 1997), practitioners can identify their most strategic constituencies by identifying publics who are most likely to influence their organizations and publics who their organizations' actions will affect. Some publics are too constrained to participate in activism, however. In this paper, we examine the use of community-based interventions (CBIs) to build community infrastructure in regions where severely constrained publics reside. This strategy could result in reducing the number of severely constrained publics and increasing the amount of activism. In turn, increased activism drives organizations toward the Excellence model of public relations (L. A. Grunig, 1992). Planning CBIs therefore benefits severely constrained publics as well as the practice of public relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]